Reserving Our Hearts For The Lord
“Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.” Micah 7:5
This carries several admonitions, among which are:
–Fleshly ties have a way of influencing us to the extent of not even thinking objectively, but rather just getting on board with the thinking of those we care about. Thus the constraints of relationships may very well draw one into the erroneous opinions of those they have strong feelings for.
–Putting too much confidence in the will and way of others, will have the same results as putting too much confidence in one’s own will and way: “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10:23
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord.” (Isaiah 6:1) Sometimes it involves the complete removal of someone or something else from the picture, before one’s mind becomes centered wholly on the Lord’s will and way.
“Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow.” (Hebrews 13:7) A God called and Spirit led minister has as his goal, to have no other agenda than proclaiming God’s Word for the people’s understanding. Those who hear, accept and believe God’s Word, are able to discern his faith in following God’s Word, to not just be his personal opinion. It is a serious spiritual error to dismiss the preaching of God’s Word as being nothing more than the preacher’s personal opinion.
We have to have a place in our heart where we meet with God alone, independent of all other influences and persuasions, where we can examine ourselves, our issues of life, our thinking process, our judgments, in light of the wisdom and understanding of God’s Word only, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, in order to prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
“Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee, Likewise also said all the disciples.” (Matthew 26:35) As the disciples followed Peter’s lead, they dulled their ears to hear Christ’s admonition: “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) Thus they were no more prepared for what they would face than Peter was: “Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.” (Matthew 26:56) Only by wholly following the Lord, will we have the needed deliverance.
SHARING
False Notions As To The Work Of The Church
By Roy Mason
(Originally published in 1965.)
Many people look upon a church as just another welfare agency. A man who didn’t attend church, and had paid no attention to churches through the years, stopped by the home of the caretaker of our church. He was looking for financial aid, and in course of conversation he said to the caretaker, “You know it’s the business of a church to look out for people in my shape.” He was a child of the Devil, and it was his opinion that the children of God were obligated to take care of the needs of the children of the Devil. The truth is, it is not the obligation of a church to help the children of the Devil. Speaking to Christians, Paul says (Galatians 6:10): “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” He means that as opportunity presents itself, do good to all we come in contact with, but he says that we have a special duty toward Christians–“the household of faith.” Our church has many times helped unsaved people, but that is not our particular duty. That duty is to render aid to those who are God’s people.
What Does The Church Owe The World?
It owes it the gospel (see Romans 1:14). Each church owes it to the world to give it the gospel–which is the good news of salvation and eternal life. Other things that a church can engage in are trivial in comparison with the giving of the gospel. The good news of eternal life is the most revolutionary news that people can ever hear. It turns life from failure to success. It turns death into victory. It has the power to change lives in a way that nothing else can or does. So often churches try to take over functions that can better be performed by other agencies, while neglecting to magnify the one great mission given of God. We Christians have the Word of eternal life. We can tell people how to live forever. No agency of this world has anything like that. Every church ought to lay itself out full length in spreading the news of eternal life just as far out into the darkness of the world as possible.
SHARINGStruggles In Our Lives
A man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. On the day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the moth for several hours as the moth struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. It just seemed to be stuck. Then the man, in his kindness, decided to help the moth, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the moth because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be ale to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening, were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom and flight would only come after struggle. By depriving the moth of a struggle, he deprived the moth of health.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, He would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. How true is this! How many times have we wanted to take the quick way out of struggles and difficulties, to take scissors and snip off the remaining bits in an attempt to be free? We need to remember that our loving Father will never give us more than we can bear, and through our trials and struggles, we are strengthened as gold is refined in the fire.
“May we never let the things we can’t have, or don’t have, or shouldn’t have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have.” Don’t focus on the things you DON’T have, enjoy each moment of every day God has given you. “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24 So let’s take today, even with its struggles, and make it a good day…our loving Father has given this day to me to use as best I can. The struggles of life won’t go away, but remember that God is allowing us to go through it for a reason.
SHARINGThe Greatest Joy
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” 3 John 4
There are many things that cause fathers to take fleshly pride in their children: personal excellence, achievements, etc. Every father is gratified in seeing his children develop into responsible adults.
But for a Christian father, there is no greater joy than to witness his children walking in truth. The truth is what makes one free by its knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and light. The truth establishes one on sure footing. God’s truth endures forever with promise for the life that now is and that which is to come.
Walking in the truth is where and how one can find the leadership of the Holy Spirit, who knoweth all things–“He shall guide you into all truth” John 16:13. The Holy Spirit has and will continue to be, the power for right discernment and decision making.
The truth affords sound reasoning for the mind to reject the deceitfulness of sin and follow righteousness, thus to sanctify us = to set us apart from sin unto God (John 17:17). “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word.” Psalm 119:9. Parents can have great hope and confidence when they see their children taking root in the truth.
Walking in the truth supplies sound reasoning for and unto being established in a New Testament Church, because of it being God’s ordained “pillar and ground of the truth” 1 Timothy 3:15.
When friends fail, when enemies strike, when circumstances disappoint, when life seems so hard and hope so far away, the truth will continue to work effectively for and in those that believe, 1 Thessalonians 2:13.
So fathers, when it comes to nurturing your children, and conveying unto them that which is fool proof for now and all eternity, “Buy the truth and sell it not” Proverbs 23:23. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Psalm 1:2-3
Walking in the truth is not only the cause for great joy, it is also our deliverance from fear and worry, being assured of the harvest of truth in the lives of those walking in the truth.
SHARINGThe Will Of Man
THE WILL OF MAN IS CONSIDERED THE ARM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FALSE RELIGION. Man’s will to reform, be and do good, is considered the supreme act of righteousness for acceptance with God. How false! Man must rather be convicted of the sinfulness of his own will and way, unto repentance and faith in Christ, as the One whom God made to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Masses are being blinded by false religion unto not really trusting Christ to save them, by exalting the ability of their own works as the power to do right and be right for their acceptance with God.
THE WILL OF MAN IS BEING SERVED BY THE SPIRITUALLY DEAD. There are some professed Christians, that if every member of the church was just like they are, the church would be dead. WHY? Because they are spiritually dead to the will of God and they do not contribute any spiritual life to the work of the Lord. One of the greatest evidences of one having not repented of their own sinful self, but is rather depending on their own will and way to save them, is that they rise not above the human will to do God’s will. Thus there are no fruits of the Spirit.
The human will professes faith to further one’s own honor, but it stops short of being faithful to the will of God. Instead of taking root in the truth, there is a continual stopping short of God’s plan and purpose. While always alert and striving to meet all the requirements of material and human interests, there remains a disconnection to Spiritual obligations involved in serving the will of God. Thus the religious involvement is no more than what serves the will of the individual and lacks faith unto proving what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
THE WILL OF MAN IS THE PREFERENTIAL CHOICE OF THE UNBELIEVER. The unbeliever’s will wants no reproofs from the truth of God’s Word. The human will seeks to avoid the light of God’s truth, and strives to darken all such counsel, so as to be able to have one’s own way.
Man will ignore obvious discrepancies that evidence his error, while hiding behind professed intentions, all for the sake of having his own way. He will stonewall every attempt to reach him and is antagonized by the efforts attempting to do so.
All have a choice to remain a slave to their own sinful will, or repent unto being set free from sinful self by faith in Jesus Christ, to gain perfect liberty to serve God through His working in them, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
WHOSE WILL ARE YOU SERVING? Everyone has a master, and there are only TWO: Jesus Christ or the Devil—WHICH?
SHARING
