God

Because He said so

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Genesis 3:3 “but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ “

For the first time, I read this and realized that Eve may not have known what death was. This was before the fall. There was no death. Animals didn’t kill each other. People didn’t eat them. The warning she was given lost its effectiveness because she didn’t understand its consequences.

This is often the case-we disobey God having very little understanding what the consequences of that disobedience might be. Nobody disobeys God thinking they will be the one to die from that sin, or get pregnant from that sin, or catch a disease from that sin. When our mind is contemplating sin, the flesh’s desire for satisfaction will drown out all thought of consequences.

When our obedience to God depends upon the severity of the consequences of disobedience, we live in a dangerous place. Like Eve, we don’t always have the complete picture of what the consequences might be. When we learn to obey God just because we love Him, the consequences of sin will be irrelevant in our consideration of how to act. “Because I said so” was extremely annoying and insufficient from a parent. It is more than enough when it comes from the mouth of God.

Hide and seek

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Genesis 3:9-10 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Never before had Adam been afraid. Or ashamed. Or hiding from God. All of these were consequences of his sin. None of them existed in his original unfallen state. And God intends that none of them exist in the new creation. Here’s a bit of proof:

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

We were not made to live apart from Him. He designed us to crave and delight in nearness to Him.

If you have drifted away, maybe even ventured into disobedience, can you hear Him calling, “where are you”? If you are hiding, He Is seeking. Don’t run from Him. Don’t hide. There is perfect blood to wash away every stain and every fear so that you can once again delight in Him.

Morning bread

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Proverbs 20:13 Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with bread.

When I first got saved 24 years ago, nobody had to tell me to get up early to pray and seek the Lord. The Spirit of God had taken up residence in me and I was excited to wake up early to spend time with Jesus.

Over the last few years as situations and schedules have changed, I had fallen into the habit of moving my quiet time to the evening and began sleeping in a bit more, even to the point of jumping out of bed with barely enough time to get ready for work. I thank God that He won’t leave us in these spiritually unhealthy habits that lead to poverty of soul without prompting us to move in the right direction. I’ve been disciplining myself back into the habit of waking up early and I have honestly found it to be sooooo beneficial. I can’t believe that I had ever stopped doing this. Mornings with Jesus make the rest of the day so much sweeter. He satisfies me with the bread of life.

What about you? Do you have a consistent morning time with the Lord or do you struggle in this area?

Pour your rain

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Ecclesiastes 11:3a If the clouds are full of rain, They empty themselves upon the earth

So many things in creation demonstrate the wisdom of God. The clouds, heavy with rain, release their wet contents on the earth below, providing what is needed for man, animals and plants. The clouds play an important part in the well being of creation. Their emptying is the blessing of us all. When they refuse to release their rain, the earth suffers. Plants die. Crops fail. Wild animals suffer thirst.

Believer, you are a spiritual cloud. Droplets of revelation and blessing are accumulating in your life as you walk with God, making you heavy with the glory of God. If you refuse to release your holy contents, the world suffers.

If you are full, it’s time to empty out. Pour your rain everywhere you go and let God use it for the refreshing of those around you.

Fill ‘er up

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A few days ago I stopped at a gas station to fill up my gas tank. As I was standing there I realized that underneath the ground that I was standing on were underground storage tanks filled with a highly flammable and explosive substance. There may have been tens of thousands of gallons of gasoline right underneath my feet. I can honestly say that in all the years I have been putting gas in my car I’ve never really thought about that.

The gasoline is there but unseen; underneath the surface and only accessible by means of a delivery system – the gas pump. The benefits of the gasoline are merely potential until I pull it up into my car by means of the pump.

Faith is the delivery system of God. All His promises, His provision, His Presence are accessed by faith. All these things (and more) are right at our fingertips in the unseen world, but if we do not access them by mean of the delivery system of faith, we will sputter through life on fumes.

Don’t live on empty for another moment. Take hold of what God has provided and by faith let it become your reality.

It’s all fun and games until God shows up

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Daniel 5:3-6 Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.

Belshazzar the king was having a great feast with 1,000 in attendance. The wine was flowing freely and everyone was feeling merry. But wine has the habit of moving you from merry to foolish in a nanosecond and that’s what happened to Belshazzar. He called for the golden vessels from the temple to be brought and they continued their party, drinking their wine from God’s holy vessels. They were laughing and talking, having a good ole time…and then God showed up.

God showed up and the arrogance of the king vanished like a morning mist. All the lightness and frivolity disappeared in a moment, replaced with the sobering reality that something unexpectedly fearful was happening. That very night Babylon was overtaken by the Medes and Persians, and King Belshazzar was put to death.

King Belshazzar had no idea when he woke up that morning that it would be his last day. He continued in his blasphemous wickedness without a care, believing that he had many more days before him. But there were no more. He lived the last moments of his life mocking the God that he would soon stand before in judgment.

It’s a sobering story. It’s the same story that countless numbers of people are currently living this very day – careless of their spiritual state, not knowing that they have an unavoidable appointment with God.

If that describes you, then please stop everything you’re doing and get right with God. If you don’t know how to get right with God, leave me a comment with your email address and I’ll contact you.

The greatest tragedy of all time is that anyone would die in their sin and go to hell, when no one has to.

The two kings

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Proverbs 20:8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes.

Evil scatters before this king because it is afraid of him. He has the power to punish and destroy. His gaze is fierce and frightening. You dare not approach or speak to him. He has no mercy for you. His name is religion.

But there is a King who sits upon a throne of grace. The fiery love in His eyes compels me to flee from the evil in my heart and to draw near to Him. I have a King that I can approach and speak to. He loves me with an unfailing love. His name is Jesus.

Who can resist such a King as this?

Plow without ceasing

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Proverbs 20:4 The lazy man will not plow because of winter; He will beg during harvest and have nothing.

Just a few weeks ago we experienced a winter storm that brought our temperature to unseasonable lows. Here in the Deep South we aren’t accustomed to or prepared for that type of weather with its ice, sleet and snow. Basically my whole state shut down for a few days and everybody stayed inside trying to keep warm.

So I have a fresh understand of why someone wouldn’t want to plow in winter. It’s a very uncomfortable time to be outside. But there are benefits to winter plowing. It’s very helpful for the elimination of weeds, disease organisms and insects. So if the farmer will push through the discomfort of the weather, he will see the removal of the things that are impairing the fruitfulness and health of his crop.

What an important lesson for us to learn.

Don’t you find that you go through seasons when you would rather be comfortable than laboring in kingdom things? Maybe your prayer life gets neglected at times. We have to admit that there are seasons of life when these things are more difficult, but that could be the exact time that the soil of our heart is being turned over and made ready for exceptional fruitfulness.

We will harvest tomorrow what we planted yesterday. A season of spiritual complacency affects future seasons. A bountiful spring isn’t likely if there has been no plowing in the winter.

Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back.

Weighed in the scales of popular opinion

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Luke 20:4-7 “The baptism of John–was it from heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ “But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it was from.

Jesus asked this question of the Pharisees. It seemed simple enough – what did they believe about the ministry of John the baptism. Was it’s origin heavenly or human? But rather than answer, they reasoned. Either way they answered had consequences that they considered unacceptable. So they answered by not answering…”we don’t know”.

Their mission was accomplished. Conflict was avoided and they didn’t get on “the wrong side of history” by saying something deemed unacceptable by some group or other.

When I read this I was reminded of the Christian minister who apologized recently for a sermon he preached 17 years ago defending Biblical truths concerning marriage and homosexuality. Somebody found that sermon somewhere on the internet and challenged him over its content. I would imagine he had a few moments of weighing the possible responses and considering the issues that would be created with the various groups affected. Instead of standing firmly for the truth of God, he apologized.

For now these things are happening mostly to those who are well known public figures. But don’t think it won’t eventually trickle down to us little people. Should that day come, we must have our face set like flint to stand for Jesus, with reasonings and consideration of popular opinion not even on the table as options.

God doesn’t need us to apologize for His Word or make it more palatable for people. He meant what He said and He wants us to declare it. Some people aren’t going to like it, and that’s okay. And if they don’t like you for declaring it, that also is okay.

Denying the truth is not okay.

Circumcised by the Spirit

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Colossians 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ

When Abraham entered into covenant with God, circumcision was given as the sign of the covenant. The shedding of blood, the cutting away of the flesh. For thousands of years the Jews have continued this tradition of marking themselves in their flesh as sons of the covenant.

But when Christ came, I (though a female) was circumcised with Christ. I was marked as a son of the new covenant by the tearing of the flesh and the shedding of the blood of Jesus.

My own flesh is circumcised by the work of the Holy Spirit, who takes the sword of God’s Word, and as a skillful surgeon, cuts away the flesh and all of its dead works.

At times I have though it good to provide some help to this process. It never ends well, as I find myself amputating indiscriminately, and bleeding out in horrible pain. I’m am not skilled in such a holy work. My job is to stay still and let Him operate.