2018-02-16
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As promised last week, I will respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting me to write about the warnings we get as members of His church. We are to avoid the slippery slope of increasing poor ethical decisions and behavior. COL 3: 9-10, “Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being, which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, to bring you full knowledge of Himself.” Many times, I have cited this passage, and that’s how many times I learn something new from it. The truth is that we can not only lie to others, but also to ourselves. It’s painful emotionally to hear criticism of oneself, to discover we have been deluding ourselves concerning something that we just didn’t want to accept. As believers in Jesus Christ, there are those times when we must face our weaknesses. It’s the Holy Spirit that signals us that we must confess, and yes, it can be done privately or corporately in our services when we express our imperfections as a congregation. The process of discovering truths about ourselves can come from prayer, asking for God’s help or just listening for the Holy Spirit. It can also come at times from our interactions with others. What I’m saying is that we must look for ways God provides us to come closer to Him and discover truths we need to know.
I once took a course that was all about the lies other people tell, which are hurtful and how to update messages given to us by our parents or others in the light of adult maturity and Biblical truth. An example comes from children in the schoolyard refusing to let another child join their games. “You’re a fatso,” a mean-spirited child calls out to an overweight child. Or a well-meaning parent who is worried about your gait and tells you, “Walk with your toes pointed forward, not out.” Your childish mind says, “You walk like a duck.” The reality is that God loves every one of His human creation. That’s why He acts as a loving parent and wants us to be truthful to ourselves and others. God’s love is unconditional. If we take the time to know God well and to give Him leadership over our lives, we will make the work He does in constantly renewing us in His image worth the effort He puts into it. The way we can do this is to keep up our end of the Covenant of Grace. This means that we must face our weaknesses and work to bring ourselves closer to God’s will for how we think and live. God also gives us great advice in Scriptures like PR 23: 21, “Truth, wisdom, learning, and good sense—these are worth paying for, but are too valuable for you to sell.” I’ve generalized here, because each of us has his own set of weaknesses. However, we learn in 1 PET 5: 9, “…Other believers all over the world are going through the same kind of sufferings.” Only Jesus Christ is perfect, thus making it necessary for us to make regular assessments of our sinfulness and confess to God. He doesn’t want us mired in guilt or fright, but instead, wants to hear our confession and forgive us. 2 CH 7: 14, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” It’s been my experience that if we read God’s loving advice in the Scriptures and heed it, we will avoid many pitfalls that lead to that slippery slope of poor decisions and behavior. My heart breaks that we must go through the necessity of bringing those men in power who harass and rape women to justice, as they could have read the Bible, heeded it, and avoided this horrific behavior leading to the loss of their reputations. How very sad it is that how much money one has, how many degrees after his name, what clothing he wears, how much power over others he wields, or any other human criteria of value has nothing to do with what God values. God loves an obedient, self-disciplined and loving believer in Christ! It’s this latter person who has inner peace.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your mighty throne to accept Your wise advice and to stop behaviors that don’t honor You. It isn’t easy for us to confess the sins we commit, but it is Your will that matters. We seek You and express our faith that You have only our best eternal interests in mind. JER 29: 11-13, “I [God] alone know the plans I have for you, to bring you prosperity and not disaster, to bring about the future for which you hope. Then, you will call to Me. You will pray to Me, and I will answer you. You will find Me, because you will seek Me with all your heart.” These words are from You and offer us comfort, but we must first obey Your will. The only ways we can know Your will is through reading and obeying what You have given us in the Bible and listening to the Holy Spirit. Your word is Your Love Letter to us. As we uncover our sins and confess them, You have the power to forgive us. We must stop the sinning and comply with Your will. When we do this, You give us tranquility, inner peace, and greater faith than before. You are generous with Your blessings and Your help, when we ask for it. We thank and praise You for Who You are and what You do. In Christ’s holy/mighty name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit directs me to write about hypocrisy and other issues that demonstrate that we need all the warnings that God gives us in the Bible. He has told us not to be judgmental in MT 7: 1-2. And yet, there are times when we must use wise judgment in working out challenges and other issues. Leaning heavily on advice that the Lord has given us will help in those situations. It may seem odd for me to ask for prayer for our society, but I am doing this. People who lie, cheat, are gluttons, engage in idol worship, are drunkards, and commit a host of other sins need our prayers, as does our society in general. Pray that they will discover the joy and peace that believing in God and obeying Him brings. And yes, pray that our society learns from history that it needs to change the direction in which it is going. Each season of my own life, I have seen more and more gratuitous violence, sexual immorality, foul language, and mean-spirited attitudes creep into our reading and exposure to the media. Now, some of this is happening in real life, as well. Some food for thought is found in GA 5: 16-17. We are encouraged to let the Spirit lead in our lives, because what it wants is opposite to what human nature wants. If human nature leads, then sure disaster will eventually follow. Our God gives us only the best advice. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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