Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Matthew 22:37 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/mat.22.37.KJV
Author: Tracy Eldridge
This my witness for my Lord and Savior on the web. I pray that you find these posts useful in your search for Jesus.
http://thelivingmessage.com
Knowledge of the Lord
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.1.7.KJV
Wounds which don’t heal…
The little saying which many of us used to say when we were children is not exactly true. Consider it today: Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.
In today’s social media and in the news, as well as in everyday life, words CAN cause much pain and hurt. Many times cutting so deep until healing may never completely happen. Not because we don’t forgive but maybe because our mind won’t let go of the hurtful tones, whether it was in a comment on FB or over the phone or even by text.
Healing from a misspoken word or phrase is difficult, especially when the tone of it was harsh even if it wasn’t intended to be harsh. Your tongue is described in the Bible as a fire which cannot be tamed and many times in life that is exactly what it feels like. The damage which a word or the tone of a phrase spoken can cause irreparable pain whether it was intentional or not.
Between spouses, words can cut deeply when anger is involved and at times this can separate a couple and even be the cause of a divorce. The same can happen between friends or even in a congregation in church when there are opposing opinions and an argument over something happens. Words spoken cannot be taken back just as a bullet fired from a gun cannot be halted before injury or death occurs.
The only difference is that the injury caused by a comment or a word, whether spoken or written, can cut so deeply until the injury may never heal unless the Spirit of God gets involved in the healing process. God is a great Healer and He can bring healing to a painful wound from a friend or even an aquaintence.
I pray that I have not written anything which has hurt anyone’s feelings, but if I have caused any hurt feelings in any way, please forgive me. I have been told that I do “open mouth and insert foot” before and many of us do just that and sometimes we do cause pain by our words or the tone of those words. Maybe unintentionally but the hurt and the pain are real and the pain sometimes takes a while to heal, if it ever does. Unintentional pain caused by a word or a tone cuts deeper at times whether it is from a comment on FB or a spoken comment to someone which is overheard or spoken directly to them.
Faith is doing!
That is why it says in James chapter 2, “18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works”. The Hebrew word for faith is Emunah, which is less about knowing and more about doing. The literal meaning of Emunah is “to take firm action”. To look at faith in the light of the Hebrew word is like a staircase, in your mind you know the stairs lead to another level but until you climb the stairs you won’t get there.
That is the type of faith which the church NEEDS today! Faith in Jesus which moves us toward doing His Work in our daily lives! Not the intellectual knowing of or about Jesus but the kind of faith which carries us from the sermon out into the real world so that others might see Jesus working in us and through us in our lives!
What kind of change needs to happen in your life today so that your faith is defined by what you do instead of what you know?
Humble yourself before God
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
1 Peter 5:6 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/1pe.5.6.KJV
Is God your pursuit?
Do you run after God? Do you seek Him daily? If you don’t know Him, you should.
Many of us who are Christians get to a point where we feel comfortable in our spot. We feel like we have our salvation and we’ve learned and studied a good bit of the Bible and after X-number of years, we feel we should just cruise until we are called home to Heaven. Are you so knowledgeable about the Bible and its wisdom that you don’t need to read it or study it anymore?
I don’t think any pastor, evangelist, or layman should ever feel that they know the Bible so intimately that they can lay it down and never study it again. I have only read the Bible through about seven or eight times since I became a pastor seven years ago and I learn something new and fresh every time I read it. If I try to take a break from my Bible studies for a few days or even a week…I feel out of touch with God and I feel as if I have lost something precious.
If I do take those “days off”, I actually have lost something precious. My lifeline to our Creator and the wisdom which I can glean from His Word and from fellowship with Him on a daily basis. Can you take a break from learning from God? Yes, you can and the longer the break or the pause is, the more you are missing. Life is not the same when you have put your Guidebook down and that is exactly what the Bible, God’s Word, is for us!
Living with His Word on a daily basis, studying it and prayerfully asking Him to reveal Himself to you in His Word is the Christian Life and once you get used to having His Presence in your life daily you will truly miss Him and His Word when you don’t read it. Some people would say that it has become a habit, but it is a relationship. Consider this: you wouldn’t marry your spouse and then only visit them once or twice a week would you?
Well, the relationship that you are supposed to have with God and His Son is supposed to be at least as important to your life as a Christian as your relationship with your spouse! That is the very reason why Jesus said for each of us to “take up his cross and follow Him” daily. Your cross can be your burden of studying His Word or it can be taking Him into your business or your workplace, but reading the Bible and prayer should be a part of your life every day regardless of your circumstances in life.
Being a daily Christian is very different from being a person who attends church occasionally such as weddings or funerals or just for specific holidays. God loves each one of us so much that He sent His Son to give His life for our sins so that we can have a real relationship with Him. A relationship which doesn’t end when your life does but continues into eternity and it becomes a deeper relationship in eternity because you are in His Presence.
I pray that you will give a relationship with Him some serious consideration because none of us know when our life will end and it is only during this life where we get the chance to change our life by asking Him to come into our hearts and change us. This decision will change you into the person, the son or daughter, that God knows you can be so don’t put this decision off, make sure to take care of your eternity today.
God is in control (part 2)
If you have ever thought about God being in control or even whether He is or not, the earlier post should give you some insight into His presence and persistent control.
Satan has to ask permission to touch or otherwise trouble Christians, but the rest of the world he can get into their lives as easy as walking in the door. The entirety of Creation is God’s possession and His responsibility but He loves mankind above all. It is a mystery to most regarding His love for us, especially the angels because no other created-being gets His attention like mankind has had in all of Creation.
God has always protected and watched over those who He calls to do His work on Earth. Some of them have had a “pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night“, others have had “ravens to feed thee” in Elijah’s time of persecution, but all of this is because of God’s love for us and His people Israel.
Don’t think that because these two instances were in the Old Testament that God won’t do things similar today. He does and He will do this and more, but we won’t hear about it because the media ignores most “good news” today. Especially if it seems that it may have a miraculous component to it and one which can’t be explained away. God provides us with air and water and many other things which are needed for living and yet we take all of them for granted.
Why do we do this? Because much of the world’s population doesn’t really believe in God or in His power to keep us safe and protect us. Most of the world thinks that our protection is due to natural forces which can be scientifically explained. How did the physical laws in the universe come into being? They didn’t just magically appear as evolutionists say! That kind of thinking requires more faith in an accidental process than I can muster.
God is in control and He isn’t made up of “dark matter” or quarks or any of those particles which show up when atomic nuclei are smashed into each other at near the speed of light. He created all of them and they do as they are told to do in this universe because He is in control.
Seek out His Word and His wisdom which is contained within its pages because it is only there where the Truth of everything which is needed for each of us is found. Jesus gave His life for your soul, surely you can give your heart and your life to Him for your own salvation and that of your family as well!
God is in control
31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. 34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. Luke 22:31-34
8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? 9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? 10 Hast, not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. 12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath [is] in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Job 2:1-6
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. 2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. 3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. 4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. 5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. 6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life.
I have placed these scriptures here because many people, it seems, do not believe that God is in control of our world today. It seems that there are quite a number of people who believe that if God created the Earth, He has left us alone in it and He has nothing to do with our lives today. The passages above prove that is NOT true. Satan wants to hurt and even destroy anyone who is a follower of God or a servant of Him, but God is in control of him even though Satan rebelled against God.
In these instances in the above paragraphs, Satan had to ask permission to afflict any sort of hurt or trouble on Peter and on Job. Jesus prayed for Peter to be able to withstand the temptation but He added; “when you are converted (restored, changed) strengthen thy brethren”. Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him and that it would break his heart. But, He also knew that after His resurrection Peter would be stronger in his faith than ever before!
Christians are watched over by God and Jesus even closer than any other people on Earth because of the temptations which Satan and his demons and principalities can inflict on us, especially young (new) Christians. Their faith in their conversion and in their Lord is not very strong because they haven’t studied His Word enough and learned how to stand in their faith on a daily basis!
Why do I mention that we have to stand in our faith on a daily basis? Because your faith grows and you become stronger in it as you learn more about God and His love for you. I will continue this post in a separate entry under the same name but continued.
We cannot be separated
