Grace - From the Beginning to End

GOD’S

RICHES

AT

CHRIST’S

EXPENSE

Ephesians 2:8-10 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.     

As we ponder the word, "grace" may we always keep "God" in the beginning and "expense" at the end because grace starts with God in the beginning and it does in fact end with the sacrificial blood of Christ.

If we keep God first in our thinking, first in our praying and first in our doing, it may help us have the right kind of godly fear. My pastor said something about the fear of God that greatly helped my understanding of it.  He said, "Part of fearing God is being unwilling to offend Him." I never want to offend Him because I love Him and He loves me. 

To be honest with you I came to Christ because I was afraid of going to hell. It is a valid reason. Jesus spoke often about hell being a place of torment. I stayed in that kind of fear for a long time and now realize that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. 

God loves us so very much! He doesn't love us because of anything that we could ever do to earn it. His word starts with these words. "In the beginning God " May we remember God at the beginning of each day, so that we can walk in His riches throughout the day and keep in mind the great price of that grace so that we don't cheapen it in our thoughts or deeds.

May we all be saturated with the awareness of His presence today.

The Most Precious Commodity

 

Our most precious commodity is our heart. We can't live without that special muscle that beats in our chest its true but that isn't what I am talking about right now.  We are complex beings. We are spirit, we live in a body and we have a soul.

Psalms 119:9-11 

9.How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.10. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11. Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.

This is important because the word of God is living and powerful and it is that part of us that connects us to Him. (See Hebrews 4:12 Proverbs 16:2-3)

Our spirit, that eternal part of us was always designed to connect with the Lord. Jesus is always looking for us, longing for us. (See  Proverbs 20:27 and John 4:23)

Our soul is that part of us that makes up our will. It is the realm of the flesh and it is that part of us that has to be redeemed. It is that part of us that is most often governed  our appetites and all that goes with it.  Think of that old Frank Sinatra song, "I did it my way," and you can catch the drift. Think about Eve in the garden of Eden. We can clearly see Satan's strategy. He first cast doubt, then he lied, than appealed to her sight and senses.

Our heart is the inner man. It is the place where emotions and feelings reside and decisions are made. It is the place where ideas are and why we must renew every day so that we are not conformed to the world's way of thinking. We are the called out ones. Because we think differently, we walk differently and even talk differently. We aren't perfect we are works in progress. 

Hebrews 4:12

12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Proverbs 16:2-3  2. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits, 3.Commit your works to the LORD and your thoughts will be established. 

Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of his heart.

Proverbs 4:23

Guard your heart diligently for out of it spring the issues of life

John 4:23 But the hour is coming and now is , when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

27 

When Life Doesn't Make Sense

 

When life doesn't make sense there is a Person we can go to. Our heavenly Father is totally honest, trust-worthy and He wants to be known. 

I have gotten a lot of really bad advice from well meaning people saying things like, "Just trust your heart," or "Follow your heart" or things like that. The problem is that feelings change and Satan will use anything he can to cause you to be unstable. But God never changes. Satan says, " I will, I will I will." (see Isaiah 14:13)

Jesus says, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done."(Matthew 6:10)

It only stands to reason if Jesus being God had to go off my himself to pray and He was sinless that we as sinners must also spend time alone with God and we too must ask for guidance and strength. Prayer is a two way street. We pray and then we listen as He speaks His Word.

The first time I remember hearing from the Lord as during a time of prayer and meditation. I had been memorizing Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths.

I had been studying the meaning of words just to make sure I understood the meaning and then I prayed. This is that prayer:  "Lord I do not feel spiritual right know, but I acknowledge that you are with me right now."

I was standing at my kitchen window and in my mind's eye the window changed into a road map. The Lord spoke to my mind, "Do you see the thick roads? Those are your major decisions and you are faithful to inquire about those. Do you see the thin roads? Those are your little decisions. If you will acknowledge me in them I will direct those also." 

Call me crazy if you like.  I know Jesus is real and that He wants to have fellowship with us. There is a phrase my sister used to sing and it resonates with me. "You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart."

Christianity is not about doing religious things it is about having a relationship with Jesus!

Messy Sheep with Dirty Feet -Intimacy With Christ

 

In John 13 we read about Jesus washing the disciple's feet. Can you just imagine the scene. The disciples had been talking about who was the greatest in the kingdom of God.(See Luke 22:14-30) Jesus takes off His outer garment and girds Himself with a towel. He pours water into a basin and begins to wash their dirty feet. 

Peter doesn't want to let Jesus wash his feet. It's a pretty humbling thing if you think about it. We really don't know what Peter was thinking or feeling but we do know this:  Peter had preached the good news and cast out demons and still needed to have Jesus wash his feet. Peter had walked on water and still needed Jesus to wash  his feet. Peter had healed the sick and he still needed Jesus to wash his feet. 

That's intimacy with Jesus. Every day we mess up. Believers are not perfect, we aren't sinless we just sin less. And when we do we hate it.  We use the Christian's bar of soap: 1 John 1:9  

John 13:8-10

8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”

Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

10 Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”  

1 John 1:9

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

Praying Through Proverbs

 

Lately this thought of praying through proverbs has come to my mind. Each day I read a chapter that corresponds to the day of the month. That works really well because even if I miss a day I can pick up the next. Because God's word is alive and powerful and sharper than any double edged sword and His mercies are new every morning. I do this in concert with reading through the Bible chronologically. Its so much fun to see How the Bible fits together. The other thing is that our church is praying through some verses this year in anticipation of seeing God move. One of those passages is Jeremiah 9:23-24 which I am trying to memorize.

 It's interesting because in the practice of memorizing it kind of causes you to think about the word and that is where the fun begins.

So keeping this thought in mind I read Proverbs 17:3 which reads The refining post for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests the hearts.

**That made me think about silver because silver in the Bible represents redemption and that means Jesus! Judas was given 30 pieces of silver. It was the price of a slave. Jesus paid for me so that I am no longer a slave to sin. Also when silver is refined it is heated up until the refiner can see his own reflection.  We want Jesus to be seen in us don't we? 

**Gold is associated with kings. One of the gifts the wise man gave to baby Jesus was gold. Gold is pliable. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo were in the firey furnace because they would not compromise and worship the way Nebuchadnezzer  demanded. Jesus was that fouth man in the fire! Gold also made me think of old movies where I have seen men bite into a gold coin. They did this to test the metal because pure gold is soft.

**Testing the heart. God is not a big bully doing mean things. He isn't up in heaven giving us a whole bunch of rules to follow. He wants us to have peace. He knows whether or not we will pass the test. He tests us to show us where our loyalties really are. Sometimes we fail. It's part of the process. Just like when we are in school we have tests. It is a way to measure what we know and don't know. Did you think that God didn't know that Adam and Eve would fail? He did know! Jesus was always plan a. God wants children not robots. 

Proverbs 17:24  Wisdom is in the sight of him who has understanding but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth. 

** This made me think of Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

**That brought  this thought: Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord searching all the inner depths of his heart.

**That made me think of John 14:23 Where Jesus says, " If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him and We will make our home with him."

Proverbs 17:27 He who has knowledge spares his words and a man of understanding has a calm spirit.

**So this makes me see that I need help in this area. The Lord knows I am a wordy person. I have always been a chatter box and love to share information. So please pray for me as I seek to follow Him.

I am just a little nobody with average intellect, who loves Jesus and wants to follow Him with every fiber of my being and I want you to walk with me as I walk with Him.

Fruit from the Root

 These days that we are living in are crazy for sure but what is more sure is that God is still on the throne. Jesus warned us that coming deception would be a really big deal before He returns. 

Maybe this will help someone today. That is my prayer!

Proverbs 12:12 The wicked covet the catch of evil men,
But the root of the righteous yields fruit.

It takes a long time for  an apple tree to grow and bear fruit. It has to grow a really good root system. That's kind of like spiritual life. Some people have big instant transformation. Everyone has joy even if it takes a while for that to become consistent. But the other things like peace and faithfulness and goodness, sometimes those take longer. It did for me. Think of being born again as the seed of the Word.  If you claim the name of Christ but you don't have any spiritual appetite, you may not be saved.  You could be in deception. As with natural life, so with spiritual. I am beating this drum because somebody reading this needs to consider very carefully why there is no hunger. 

Jeremiah 9:23-24

23 Thus says the Lord:

“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
24 But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the Lord.

15 Proverbs 12:15-16

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But he who heeds counsel is wise.
16 A fool’s wrath is known at once,
But a prudent man covers shame.

Strong Delusion

 

2 Thessalonians 2:10-13

and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. ...

When we have to ask if biological men can get pregnant it's delusional.

When a woman cannot define what it means to be a biological woman it is delusional.

When we are unwilling to allow the word of God to correct us it has no power to protect us from deception. We are essentially telling God get out and so He does because He is a gentleman. He will never demand audience with us.