The lists continue.. ‘from within, out of your hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile you.’ The words of Jesus Christ as recorded by Mark in 7:22. Think you’re not on that list? If so, the arrogance got you. Let’s consider the list.
Consider that first thing…’evil thoughts’. ‘kakos’= evil. It includes hurtful, bad, harmful, malicious, injurious, ill, worthless… dialogiamos=thoughts. It means internal consideration, imagination, reasoning, to reckon thoroughly, to deliberate by reflection or discussion, cast in mind, consider, think. So….when someone cuts you off and grabs that parking space you were headed for, and you think how they deserve a flat tire when they get out of the store with $100 worth of groceries, including ice cream and milk, and it’s hot July weather…THAT is a ‘kakos dialogiamos’, and you made the list.
Friday, August 13, 2010
list...
The lists continue..Paul has a great list. “..whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…if anything is excellent or praiseworthy..think about such things.’(Phil. 4:8) This list really helps to re-program wrong thinking. When I have those ‘kakos dialogiamos’/evil thoughts…the Holy Spirit will often remind me of this list, and if I do not quench His whisper, He helps me to re-direct my thinking to whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admireable, excellent, or praiseworthy. In the case of the parking spot..and my wishing for a flat tire….that’s not a noble thought is it?!!
Hoarding...
Hoarding…have you ever seen a place that’s stacked and piled up with all kinds of ‘stuff’? There is a TV show about it now. ‘Hoarders’ it’s called. I’ve seen this up close and personal….
I remember the rooms being pretty normal, chairs to sit in, tables to eat off of, floor space for children to play games on. Then over a period of time, all of it becomes consumed and overtaken with ‘stuff’. Then the stuff begins to collect layers and layers of dust. ( you just can’t clean piles of ‘stuff’) Some of the family may try to approach the problem, but after their attempts are rejected with reprimands about interfering in personal choice….the hoarding person is allowed to live as they please. Personal choice, free will….God allows us that as well.
I wonder too how people’s lives get so consumed and overtaken with what the Bible calls ‘sin’. Where does it begin? How does someone ever become a murderer? a drug addict? . Wrong choices. Sin. God doesn’t like our choices, but they are ours. He will not over-rule them. Human-kind chose knowledge in the Garden. Knowledge of both good and evil. (‘of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, do not eat…or you will die.’ Gen.2:17 )
“Since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities have been clearly seen…men are without excuse…they neither glorified Him as God or gave thanks to Him, their thinking became futile and their hearts darkened…therefore God gave them over to the desire of their hearts…to sexual impurity…worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator…He gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones…men also abandoned natural relations with women ..committing indecent acts with other men…they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of god, so He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done…they know god’s righteous decree that those who do these things deserve death, they continue to do them and even approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:20-32
Sexual sin is just one of a number of areas I could list that begins with one wrong choice. Then, we begin to know the evil of it…and it brings death into our lives. One wrong choice begins the process…unless we allow God to intervene and rescue us from wrong paths. (‘Guard my life and rescue me, let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in You.’ Ps.25:20)
Hoarding and turning your home into a trash pile is a process. A life consumed and completely surrendered to sin began somewhere…it was a process. Hoarding can be undone…family can come in and carry all that stuff away and clean house. (‘Rescue me from the mire..do not let me sink..’ Ps. 69:14)
God will allow you to hoard sin in your life. The longer you hoard it, the worse it will get. Call on Him today to come carry all that stuff away and clean house. Like the hoarders…it will be painful to let go of some of that nasty stuff you’ve become involved in. But it’s never too late for Him. He is God.
I remember the rooms being pretty normal, chairs to sit in, tables to eat off of, floor space for children to play games on. Then over a period of time, all of it becomes consumed and overtaken with ‘stuff’. Then the stuff begins to collect layers and layers of dust. ( you just can’t clean piles of ‘stuff’) Some of the family may try to approach the problem, but after their attempts are rejected with reprimands about interfering in personal choice….the hoarding person is allowed to live as they please. Personal choice, free will….God allows us that as well.
I wonder too how people’s lives get so consumed and overtaken with what the Bible calls ‘sin’. Where does it begin? How does someone ever become a murderer? a drug addict? . Wrong choices. Sin. God doesn’t like our choices, but they are ours. He will not over-rule them. Human-kind chose knowledge in the Garden. Knowledge of both good and evil. (‘of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, do not eat…or you will die.’ Gen.2:17 )
“Since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities have been clearly seen…men are without excuse…they neither glorified Him as God or gave thanks to Him, their thinking became futile and their hearts darkened…therefore God gave them over to the desire of their hearts…to sexual impurity…worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator…He gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones…men also abandoned natural relations with women ..committing indecent acts with other men…they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of god, so He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done…they know god’s righteous decree that those who do these things deserve death, they continue to do them and even approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:20-32
Sexual sin is just one of a number of areas I could list that begins with one wrong choice. Then, we begin to know the evil of it…and it brings death into our lives. One wrong choice begins the process…unless we allow God to intervene and rescue us from wrong paths. (‘Guard my life and rescue me, let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in You.’ Ps.25:20)
Hoarding and turning your home into a trash pile is a process. A life consumed and completely surrendered to sin began somewhere…it was a process. Hoarding can be undone…family can come in and carry all that stuff away and clean house. (‘Rescue me from the mire..do not let me sink..’ Ps. 69:14)
God will allow you to hoard sin in your life. The longer you hoard it, the worse it will get. Call on Him today to come carry all that stuff away and clean house. Like the hoarders…it will be painful to let go of some of that nasty stuff you’ve become involved in. But it’s never too late for Him. He is God.
Rocks...
Rocks…my friend Barbara caught a couple on her windshield yesterday. It has happened to me. You too probably. A little tiny pebble, powered by some unseen force, flying thru the air, striking a heavy shatterproof glass windshield…and there’s a break. Unless the repair guy can stop it, it will run little fingers across the entire windshield.
The information and instructions we find in scripture are like that. A verse can fly off the pages, hit us right in the face, and crack the wall of defenses we’ve built around us. That wall…(and yes, you’ve got at least one)…is called a stronghold in scripture. (“For the weapons of our warfare are not weapons of the world…. they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 2Cor. 10:4)
You see, you and I put up windshields. The natural, fleshly, carnal way of human beings since the incident in The Garden is to keep the Wind of God away from us. Just like Adam and Eve, we think we can hide. Then one of those verses is quoted… in print, or spoken aloud by someone…and POW!! Cracks in the windshield.
The thing is…we’d be so much better off to stay away from that guy that wants to stop the effects of it. He is not repairing…and he is not our friend. He is the enemy. (“…your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 )
His purpose is to “steal, kill, and destroy..” John 10:10
He is a liar. Invented it, in fact. (“…the devil…is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44 )
Satan’s mission is to separate us from God. He accomplished that by influencing the wrong decisions made in The Garden. Ever since that happened, God has been at work to restore us. And those nuggets of scripture that fly into your face…well, those are the Words of our God!! He wants to crack thru the strongholds of sin. Don’t repair those!!…don’t stop His Word from spreading across your heart and changing your entire being. You do not need protection from His Spirit. Let His Word take out that entire shield, open yourself up to Him completely. You will love the wind of His Love blowing on your face.
He speaks. But the choice is your. He won’t over-ride your decision about your windshield. Listen? ….or keep the shield up, stop all His attempts to break thru…and miss out on experiencing the Wind of His Spirit?
“ He sends His Word and melts them…He stirs up His breezes, and the waters flow. He has revealed His Word….Praise the Lord.” Psalm 147:18,20
Father, today…throw some good rocks. Make some good clean breaks in the barriers that have been erected in our lives. Help us to trust You enough to allow, even ask You, to remove the shields that keep You distanced from us. And blow into us, Your breath of life.
Wind...
Wind…it is a force you can not see. We only see the evidence of it. Last night there was a lot of evidence!! I wonder if there is anyone that does not believe in wind. Absurd you say?…
well, people claim to not believe in God, yet they believe they stand on a planet, they believe we have seasons because this globe tilts and moves in space around a sun. They believe all the evidence. Hundreds of things people accept as absolute truth, yet they doubt the Master Design Creator? God IS infinite, and there are a lot of things that will always be mysterious, things that are out of the realm of our reality…other-worldly things…things we can’t see. But look at the evidence !! Like wind.
“Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name? and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!” (Prov. 30:4) ….I know. His Name is “I AM”. (Ex.3:14) His Son is called Jesus. (Mt.1:21)
“..we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”(2Cor. 4:18) I haven’t seen God…nor have I put my eyes on the Face of Jesus. But the wind of His Spirit has blown into my life….it has blown away a lot of debris…knocked out a few dead branches, blown away a lot of ‘stuff’, only to rebuild what is new and eternal.
Jesus said, “Wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going…”(John 3:8) “..so it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Desires...
Desires…talking with my cousin last night, he was trying to fulfill his mother’s desires for her funeral. Years ago, she gave me a list of songs. I know…strange, you’d have to know her. It seemed so important to her that she made her desires known about her funeral. The songs, the order, who spoke and who didn’t. Like she was planning a party……. (continued in comment)
The funeral services don’t matter to her now, in my opinion. But they matter to her family. It bring a certain amount of comfort to do as she wished. There will be sadness. It is ok to be sad. Jesus Himself wept out of the emotions of His humanity. (I‘m remembering my aunt drilling us on Bible trivia…what‘s the shortest verse in the Bible? “Jesus wept.” John 11:35 )
Jesus’ tears were shed at a time when a friend lay dead, the family mourning. They questioned why Jesus hadn’t come and made Lazarus to recover from his illness. “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32) Jesus asked where they had put Lazarus’ body. “Come and see..” they replied. (v.34)…and they led Jesus to the place of their grief. They believed that he would ‘rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’(v.24) They were not hopeless in their grief. But hopeful grief is still grief, still bitterly painful.
So where is the place that holds your pain and grief? Where is it that you need to say to Jesus ‘Come and see..’? He has said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”(v.40)
You can’t call yourself out from behind that stone, but He can. And He IS calling you. But you have the option of staying behind the stone. Listen for Him…”Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened.”( Matt. 11:28)
The funeral services don’t matter to her now, in my opinion. But they matter to her family. It bring a certain amount of comfort to do as she wished. There will be sadness. It is ok to be sad. Jesus Himself wept out of the emotions of His humanity. (I‘m remembering my aunt drilling us on Bible trivia…what‘s the shortest verse in the Bible? “Jesus wept.” John 11:35 )
Jesus’ tears were shed at a time when a friend lay dead, the family mourning. They questioned why Jesus hadn’t come and made Lazarus to recover from his illness. “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32) Jesus asked where they had put Lazarus’ body. “Come and see..” they replied. (v.34)…and they led Jesus to the place of their grief. They believed that he would ‘rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’(v.24) They were not hopeless in their grief. But hopeful grief is still grief, still bitterly painful.
So where is the place that holds your pain and grief? Where is it that you need to say to Jesus ‘Come and see..’? He has said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”(v.40)
You can’t call yourself out from behind that stone, but He can. And He IS calling you. But you have the option of staying behind the stone. Listen for Him…”Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened.”( Matt. 11:28)
Clothes...
clothes...they really do tell a lot sometimes. In my study last night, I read again the story of Lazarus. His were graveclothes. I remembered the times I've chosen the clothes for a burial garment. I remember going to purchase a new one for my father-in-law. And I remember the years I walked around with my graveclothes on.…(continued in comment)
Yikes !! Yes, I wore them for years, dressed up in the finery of my good behavior. Graveclothes are what dead people wear, and I was dead… a breathing, heart-beating, walking, talking, dead person. They are everywhere. People who just think they are alive.
Jesus provided a new garment, a garment more fine than any of mine, perfect in fact. Perfect. …. I never accomplished that myself. He did. He offered it to me time and time again. I said I accepted it, but I never put it on….I couldn’t figure out how it fit.
Then, in frustration and utter defeat, I quit trying and accepted the clothes I had on. I continued to wear them, tried to make them look as good as possible…(even washed them in the baptistry a couple times)….and went on with my existence. I even tried to put my clothes on other people. Mine looked a little bit better than theirs, I thought. But they usually rejected them, choosing to wear their own grave clothes.
Then one day, in the middle of a stormy time of my existence, when all I could say was ‘Help me.”…He called me out. Oh relax…I didn’t hear a Charlton Heston voice say my name…..but since that day everything changed. Just as Jesus said ‘Loose him and let him go’ after He had called Lazarus out of the grave, He has loosed me. I’m not wearing the grave clothes anymore.
“…she will be dressed in white and I will never blot out her name from the book of life, but will acknowledge her name before My Father and His angels.” Rev. 3:5
Yikes !! Yes, I wore them for years, dressed up in the finery of my good behavior. Graveclothes are what dead people wear, and I was dead… a breathing, heart-beating, walking, talking, dead person. They are everywhere. People who just think they are alive.
Jesus provided a new garment, a garment more fine than any of mine, perfect in fact. Perfect. …. I never accomplished that myself. He did. He offered it to me time and time again. I said I accepted it, but I never put it on….I couldn’t figure out how it fit.
Then, in frustration and utter defeat, I quit trying and accepted the clothes I had on. I continued to wear them, tried to make them look as good as possible…(even washed them in the baptistry a couple times)….and went on with my existence. I even tried to put my clothes on other people. Mine looked a little bit better than theirs, I thought. But they usually rejected them, choosing to wear their own grave clothes.
Then one day, in the middle of a stormy time of my existence, when all I could say was ‘Help me.”…He called me out. Oh relax…I didn’t hear a Charlton Heston voice say my name…..but since that day everything changed. Just as Jesus said ‘Loose him and let him go’ after He had called Lazarus out of the grave, He has loosed me. I’m not wearing the grave clothes anymore.
“…she will be dressed in white and I will never blot out her name from the book of life, but will acknowledge her name before My Father and His angels.” Rev. 3:5
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