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Monday, June 28, 2010

Struggle

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30

There is a shock for some people once they make a choice to accept Jesus as their savior. The shock comes in realizing there is still struggle in their lives. This may come in the form of an illness, death, financial hit, an "unanswered prayer" or a myriad of other ways. The truth is, there will always be struggle. It's where we are right now.

Originally, God's plan involved us and no struggle. That was the Garden of Eden. We were given a beautiful planet, abundant food and rich adventure. God told us to go and tame the earth. He wanted us to walk with Him, share our stories, and give our hearts to Him. Unfortunately, satan tempted Adam and Eve and they walked away from God's gift. As a result of following satan, we are under his rule, but only for a time.

A day is coming when Jesus will return and reclaim the earth. It will be remade into a place without struggle. All of us who have placed our lives under His authority will be resurrected with new bodies free of hurt and disease. Perfect again. Remember, that is the future.

For now, we walk with Him. When Jesus spoke the words in the Gospel of Matthew, He was telling people of a new way to follow God. They no longer needed all the 600+ rules and regulations they were being subjected to by their leaders. Instead, He boiled it down to only two broad categories.

1) Love God with all your heart
2) Love neighbors as yourself

That's it. These two commandments are summaries for the 10 Commandments God gave Moses on Mount Sinai. That's all we need to see God's standard. We have a rod we will be measured with. As we try to live for God, by His standard, there is struggle. As Christians, we fix our eyes on Jesus and ask Him to help us through. We submit our lives to Him. We live for His glory, and not our own.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Discernment

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1

Discernment is a big word. A quick definition is the act of grasping the obscure. Looking deeper into a thing for the truth. Do you do this in daily life? Of course you do. It's the thing that keeps you from falling for the scam on the internet. That "uneasy feeling" you get when you take a wrong turn. We use it in our daily life, but what about in our spiritual life?

When we follow Jesus we are called to test the spirits that come to us. The spirits we are talking about are coming to us all the time. It may be a book we read, a TV show we watch, a teaching we hear, or even a thought we have. In all these things we are to look at them in context of Jesus. Is He being honored and glorified, or ignored? Is He being proclaimed, or disdained? Is He being spoken of as The Way, or one of many choices?

The truth is there are many false teachers. Many. More and more people are coming out against Christianity as the only way to eternal life. That is a lie. Even more disturbing are teachers that put on a "mask" of Christianity and then speak lies. These teachers are able to make it past some of the initial defense we have against outright blasphemy and instead come with more subtle lies. They are straight from the devil. If you need proof, look at Genesis 3:1-5.

More to come....

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Who's Doing The Talking?

For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. Malachi 2:7

I hear a lot of people talking about God. What He is doing. What He is not doing. What He is saying. What He feels. My question is, do you believe them?

As followers of Jesus we are called priests. We are to seek the Lord so that when we speak, we are saying truth. I wish every time I hear a "person of God" speak, I could know it was true. Unfortunately, I hear people today speaking falsely of God. This wouldn't be such a problem if some of them were not getting the spotlight of the media and attracting such large followings.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not painting a blanket statement. Instead, I want to give a test. If as priest's we are to keep the knowledge of the Lord and His law at our lips, can you listen to someone that teaches contrary to God's law? Unfortunately it is sometimes easier to listen to this false teaching. Our flesh wants a Gospel that says we will have eternal life when we die, but until then we are free to live carnally because we've said our sinner's prayer. That's not how it works.

We are given a new heart when we place our lives under Christ. A new heart! One that begins to change us and mold us into a person of freedom. Yet, we are willing to trade it away for a snazzy produced show and a promise of pleasure right now.

Where is that Gospel? Is it in God's truth, His knowledge? Then who's Gospel is it?

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Idols

Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 26:1

An idol in life is not always a statue of wood or metal. It can be anything we worship or bow down to. It could be our reputation, money, a car, a house, even a relationship with another human.

God is calling us to have a heart that reaches toward Him. A heart that puts nothing else to His level in our lives. He is our father. Our creator. Our teacher. Our Lord. Do we treat Him as such? I know many times in my life I have fallen short.

I am trying to clean out my spiritual temple of idols and other junk. It's an ongoing process. I think I am making progress and suddenly I find a whole new pile of junk to deal with. I think that God works like that on purpose. Showing us enough to know we have work to do, and making the piles more manageable. The hardest part for me is keeping focused on the cleanup and not giving over to the urge to put it off, or be complacent with where I am.

How about you? Idols? Working to clean them out or happy with the junk?