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Friday, February 17, 2012

True friend / true brother

Some things are just hard to do! When we are doing a physical task, it is easier when you have help. When I was in college, we would sometimes form study groups, each of us helping one another to learn...I had a group of friends that we encouraged each other in doing our studies...We kind of help each other along.
Sometimes we need to have friends to help us along. To encourage us to be better, to help us in our time of need...It seems that in our society today most of us men are non dependent or independent. That most men do not have close friends or a friend that they can go to with, let's say, "disappointing news". News that will make one wonder why am I your friend, if you did or do that, or what kind of a man are you?... As men, that thought or feeling is a real stumbling block. Yes it is true, no one wants to be looked down upon...the feeling of shame. Seriously, when one is looking for help...a friend needs to help! When a brother is looking for help, a brother needs to help. We forget what our Lord has said, "He who is without sin cast the first stone." We forget that we to are sinners saved by grace. We forget that there is a battle going on and that the battle is at your friends/brothers front door and he's not doing good, he's getting beat up...He needs help. We forget that just maybe the battle will be at our front door and we will be the one calling for help.
What do we do as friends, prayer, prayer. That would be the first! You notice prayer twice; that is to represent continued prayer... Helping him with the issue, be it taking him to work...to avoid. Helping him to understand the better way...showing him the better way, example. Bible study... It can get pretty deep. But what if it is beyond you? Well there are groups that help with special issues. For example the For men's only group. Dealing with sexual sins...but here is the deal brothers are you willing to take a brother there, to go with him...People may see! People may hear! That you are there. You see that is the biggest problem, that others see...and other_______________. They do not see the good picture.; that a brother or even sister is going to be healed! It's a good thing.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Trusting to pray

Now sin has a desire for us, it is powerful and it is used powerfully by the evil one. You may ask, is he still talking about how to deal with sin? Yes we are. Let us never forget that this battle will last a life time. Now we have been talking about the tough sins, hard sins, the sins that plague us. You know the sin that we just have a hard time to let go of. You tried all the ways...mentioned...and it still is plaguing you. Sometimes you lose hope, what can I do now...
Well there is still another principle for us to grasp to help us deal with sin. James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins one to another and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." Now let me go back a few verses and say this, "there are here in James 5 two more principles/ways to help us to deal with sins." The first is to go to the Elders for prayer, which we see in verses 14-15. I know it is dealing with sickness, but if you read on it deals with sin. Believe it or not sin can also cause sickness. Now in verse 16 it tells us to confess to one another. Yes that does mean to tell on yourself. Tell someone that you are dealing with a sin...Now here is the important part, so that person will pray for you. Just like going to the Elders, it is so that they will pray for you. It is that we need help! The help of a godly man who will pray for us. For our church leaders who will pray for us. For us who have this problem that we cannot handle on our own, that we are willing to reach out for help. That help being prayer, intercession. Let me say this, it is hard to confess a sin to another, a sin that plagues you, admitting a weakness; admitting a strong hold, admitting something bad is wreaking havoc in you.
With that, for the ones who are being asked to help, it is a great responsibility. Another brother is coming to you for prayer, for continued prayer if you will. He is trusting you to pray for him. He is trusting you not to be judging. He is trusting you to help him be healed. He is trusting you because he sees you as a "spiritual" person. Or better yet the word, righteous, is used in our verse. Oh that we will be willing to ask and that we will be willing to pray for each other.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Clean clothes

Are you ready to do something, something different? When we talk about sin's that seem to plague us, we need to ask that question. Isn't it true that if we do not replace the wrong action, we tend to go back. Or as we mentioned if you have too much time, spare time, it needs to be focused. Is sin that hard to master? Yes, it is! If I was to ask all of us, is there a sin or sins that just keep on popping up in your life or a sin that is just so deep inside you just kind of gave up. That is you tried... you decided to just live with it.
Before you were saved the clothes that you were wearing were filthy rags, dirty and stained. You washed them but the stains still showed and even sometimes the dirt just did not clean up. When you became saved, through Jesus Christ, you were given a new set of clothes(new creation). So you are walking around on the earth and guess what you trip and fall. Now there is a brownish green mark on your knee. Some of us will continue that way for different lengths of time. But let's say you are on top of your game; you go to God. "God look what I have done, I have stained my new clothes." God replies give them to me I'll have them washed. In the back of your mind your have done this before, washed your clothes...but the stain never came out. And then God says, here you go, good as new. You look at your clothes put them on, you feel good again...You ask what kind of soap...He replies, My son uses miracle soap to wash clothes, it's powerful, no stain will be left behind. You have your clothes on and you feel good again, all cleaned up, ready to go. Now some of us we tend to play near the mire(mud), it seems to pull us. We get dirty all over...what do we do? We do the same as the example above; we ask God to clean up our mess. He does! And guess what? It feels good to be in clean clothes...
You see guys, we need to remember what it feels like to be in clean clothes. The more readily we confess that sin that plagues us and we get clean...Hopefully,we will start staying cleaner longer and longer...it feels good. We start to like that more than playing in the mire...You see sin can be fun for a season. Let's be real here some sin(s) seem to fun...if you will; but sin will get you dirty and can even kill you. Being all cleaned up in clean clothes...eventually, hopefully that will be more fun! Psalm 51:7 "Purge me with hyssops, and I shall become clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." and if you continue reading to verse 10 it says " create in me a clean heart...and renew...That is what our God is about, cleaning us up and restore, renewing...go to the Savior.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Turn around, and do something else

Last week we said that God wants to forgive; that we need to ask for forgiveness and admit the sin/wrong. And with that that we turn from that actions; repent. There are things that we do that are let's say one time or few and far between things that we confess and we feel the power of forgiveness...we have a handle on that type of action. On the other hand there are those things that we do that seem to plague us; for some reason we just have a hard time to stop. Now there are a lot of these things, some will plague one but another will have no problem with that, but with another thing it is hard...There are all types of things...and we are all different and different things effect us differently.
Seriously is there that one or more thing, issue, sin that seem just to stay on. You go before God and ask...your mournful...over what you done...then bang your doing it again. It's like you cannot stop. Or that you can only stop for a short period of time. You may even question what type of a person you are...and may even question if you are a Christian. Some may even after a while question if there is a God...Let's face the facts here sin is powerful...
Let me say one thing, I am not an expert in dealing with sin, I am not an authority, and I do not have all the answers. Now when one deals with sin before God we often refer to the word repent. Repent means to turn around, change direction. Most of us have heard this before, right! Now here is where we get caught, we turn from the thing but that is all we do. Then before you know it you are turning your head looking back...then the pull comes. Sin has a strong desire for you and some sin seems to satisfy. You see when we turn from our sin we need to do some other action that is not sin. It is more than just stopping! It is redirecting our actions, thinking...even sometimes doing something different to replace the wrong action...
In Eph. 4:17-5:21 There are a lot of good principles for us; this includes the section of put-off the old and put-on the new...and near the end it says this "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil." Are you still going back to your old self? Instead of going forward in your new self; doing righteous deeds... Do you have too much time on your hands...and not focusing on the Lord. Here is a start to help us dealing with the sins that can plague us. First replacing wrongful actions...with right(Godly)actions deeds. The other is to make the most of your time. Thinking about our Lord and Savior...

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Confess, when?

We have been talking about listening to the Holy Spirit and reading the word of God... We have been doing this as part of our study of verse Gen. 4:7. Which ends saying, "but you must master it." That is we must master sin. Let's use a scenario to help us understand what happens when we sin. One is walking down the road, the easy road, and He stumbles. All of a sudden he is over there doing something he should not be doing. Now the Holy Spirit is doing what He is to do, convicting of that something...Now let's say that this person is a Christian, he may hear the Holy Spirit or he may not. So here is when reading the bible...comes into play. The word of God also does its work with the Holy Spirit...But one can still not listen...But for our story let's say that the person listens.
The Holy Spirit is convicting you of that thing. You agree with the conviction, and want to stop that thing...So what does one do? Seriously what are we to do? There is a process if you will. The first is to confess that sin to God. Now that is to do it the right way. Remember Adam and Eve when God convicted them? They played the blame game. Don't try to blame you actions on someone else...If you did the thing, take the blame. I know that there are so called bad sins and the so called little sins and the so call little white lie and the sin of neglect...guess what all sin carries the same price and all sin separates us from God. Now there are different consenquences for different types of sin... But we need to confess our sin to God. He is the only one that can forgive us our sin and that is done through His son Jesus Christ. You see He even does all the work of forgiving us, all we have to do is ask. Let me say to ask truthfully. We don't have to bring money or do some extra good works, or say some special type of prayer...We just ask for forgiveness on the merit of what God has promise, knowing that the price of our sin has been paid by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Now the question is when? Is there a special time, a day, like Sunday? The time is right when God convicts you. That means don't wait. So many times don't we wait, put it off for the right time...Seriously we tend to wait...This will be the first part of being healed, forgiven; to ask right away. A brother told me that we have to keep short accounts with God. That we need to confess our sin daily! Short accounts with God; you see He already knows what you did, He's waiting for us to bring it up, to ask for forgiveness, He wants to forgive, He wants to restore. "The steadfast-love of the Lord never ceases; His mercy never comes to an end, they are new every morning..."Lam.3:22.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Take the time

Now let us continue in our study. The end of the verse says 2 things, one that sin has a desire for us and two that we must master it(sin). Gen4:7. Last week we talked about memorizing God's word...This will help us to see that certain actions/behavior is not right...and when we do them they are sin. Now there are those times when we read God's word that it just goes in and right out. We see it, hear it and just as fast we forget it. But when we read it over and over...it starts to sink in. We also give the Holy Spirit a chance to work. Let me explain it is that we are more apt to listen to the Spirit of God. There is something that happens when we take the time to learn God's word and we ponder it in our mind, then in our heart. That the Holy Spirit seems to work...that His wisdom seems to come to us...Let me take the time to say it is not that He is not working...or that there is a formula that He works by or that there is a time constraint that needs to be met. But it is when we take the time to hear and when we are willing to wait to hear. Let's face it we want to hear now, we are too busy to take the time...
You see we all need to read God's word; taking the time to let it soak over us. To let it to seep inside of us and to reach in to the depth of our being...To let it reach deep, deep down where it can replace the hardness of our thinking. To reach the harden walls deep inside, washing over them and filling us with the truth of His word and the presence of His Spirit. That we change our old ways into the new ways of our Lord Jesus Christ. So reading God's word, memorizing it, pondering it, let the Spirit help you understand the word, and letting the word of God work deep down inside to replace what was not true...
With that being said above, what is an important part of reading God's word? Yes, prayer. Prayer is more than asking God for things. It is also important for us to hear God when He does answer. You ask for wisdom in an area; so God answers yes go do or don't go do...but if you are not listening. What happens? We go back to our own knowledge or our old way of working out problems. We so easily rely on ourselves and not God. So as we read our bible we also need to ask God to help us understand His word. That we take the time in prayer to be listening to the meaning of the word and How God wants us to apply it to our self. Prayer, reading the bible, memorizing, and listening to God; all that takes time. So let's take the time. reread Psalm 119:9

Monday, January 9, 2012

The right helper

O.K. we mentioned the Helper, the Spirit of Truth. How He helps us on our Christian walk. That is He wants to help us on our Christian walk. The problem is that we get in the way... which is true but also there is another one trying to act like the Holy Spirit. That is the devil. Not only that, the ways of our world fight against the Spirit of Truth. Not only that people get in the way of the Spirit of Truth.
So what do we do? How do we know if it is "Truth" or not? There are 2 points that I will be sharing, one about how the Spirit of Truth works and the other how to test if it is from the Spirit. Now the Spirit of Truth(Holy Spirit) works in two ways 1. John 16:8 "And He(Holy Spirit), when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment." He does this to all the world...His work on us as "pre-believers" this is the first thing the Spirit does. If we read on in John 16:13-14 "But, when He(Holy Spirit) comes, the Spirit of Truth, comes. He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you." The second is to guide us into all truth. That is God's truth. So how do we know if the spirit we are listening to is of God? If it is of God it will not contradict His word the bible. You see the bible is the word of God. The Holy Spirit cannot give us guidance that is contrary to His written word. God will not tell us to sin...or to allow us to live differently than His word says. So we need to be reading our bibles daily to make sure we are listening to the right spirit and also we need to be reading our bibles to discern what is of God and what is not of God. Psalm 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." It is very important to understand that the Holy Spirit will always be in line with the word of God. Let me say that one more time, the Holy Spirit will always line up with the word of God. If it doesn't put on the breaks...it is someone else, not some one good. Refute them with God's word. Just like Jesus did when Satan tempted Him.

The helper

Last week we ended with "the first good deed" if you will. We asked the question, "What did you do with the good news of Christmas? Have you put your trust...and accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior? For this is the beginning and without this, no one can please God. Now what we need to notice is that this first deed, does not involve work on our part; God does all the work. Eph. 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." You see the beginning of our Christian walk is based on the works of God through Jesus Christ.
A lot of things happen when we make that decision to accept the Gift of God. Better yet God does a lot of things (works) when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord. You are redeemed, you are forgiven, you are not judged, you become a child of God, ...and the Spirit of truth comes to you. John 14: 16-17 Jesus speaking, "I will ask the father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." God does a lot of things for us after we receive the Gift of God; He gives us more and more. But what we all need to notice is that He gives us the Spirit of Truth to help us here on our Christian walk.
The thing is that we need to let go, let go of ourselves, our ways, thinking, directing, planning...and to listen to the Spirit of God. To help us in our ways, thinking, directing, planning... You see God knows that we in of ourselves cannot please Him, that is that we miss the mark...we fall short. So He sends to us a Savior, Jesus Christ; who paid the price of our sins, to restore us. Also a helper to help us because we still need Gods help in doing what is right...You see we still live in a fallen world...there all sorts of things that draw us a stray. We need Gods help all the time. We need to learn to listen to the Spirit of God as He helps us. Now that is not an easy thing to do. What I want us all to recognize is that we have a Helper. That we must learn to listen to Him...For most of us it may mean to slow down, quiet our hearts and minds; to pray. To pray and ask for wisdom, direction....guidance. It is not easy to pray; but is easy when we take the time. We all need to choose to take the time to pray, to be with God talking. Not only asking for forgiveness, I need this thing...but to say God what does this mean, How about that? Is it alright to do_______. So let's make time to pray.

Friday, December 30, 2011

The first good deed

As we start off this new year, what do we expect of ourselves? Are you one to set goals...new year's resolutions? We will all agree that we want this year to be better than last... But what are the things that make it better than last. More money, better housing, children doing better, easier job...These are all good! But what do we expect from deep within ourselves? Do we want to be of better character...closer to God? Seriously do you want to be closer to God? For most of us that means change; a lot of change and even hard change. Sometimes it even brings about fear; can I start to get closer to God? Look at me, my life...I'm a wreck deep down.
Our last devotional ended with this verse Gen. 4:7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." This is a very important verse for us to consider, and it is a principle that we all must put into practice. So what we are going to do is to use this verse as the "cornerstone"...for our devotionals over the next few weeks...we will talk about touchy, hard...topics.
So here we go, "If you do well,". What does this phrase mean? Does it only apply to offerings? No. Remember Adam and Eve, what happened when they did not do well. What we need to do, is to do well according to God's standard. Not of what man may think but what God wants. So many times man's approval...get's in the way of us doing well. The next thing I want us all to recognize is that we need to think about doing well. That in our daily living we need to be thinking about doing well. That every day we have choices...and in these choices we need to be thinking about of doing well. If you are like me sometimes I just do without thinking about doing well according to God; I just do. We all need to keep our Lord God at the fore front of all that we do. Is what I am doing pleasing to God. Is my work pleasing to Him? Is my play time pleasing to Him? Am I more interested in pleasing myself versus pleasing God? You see you can be doing the littlest of things that is pleasing to God and guess what He lifts you up. Or better said is that He accepts you and what you have done. Or you can be doing something big and guess what He lifts you up, accepts what you have done. Be it little or big God accepts those "good deeds" and to have God's acceptance is what it is about. Now with that there is a beginning or a starting point. No one can by pass this, let's call it the first good deed. Last week was Christmas week...on Dec. 25, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God. The Savior of all mankind. Now here is the question what have you done with the good news, the good news of Christmas? Have you put your trust in that child, who was born that day in Bethlehem? The child who grow up into a man, doing miracles...then dying on a cross as it was written; then three days later coming back to life. Proving to the world that He is the son of God, that He is the savior of the world, that He has the ability to do what He said He could and would do. I know we have heard these words before, but they are so important John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him." Have you believed? Have you put your trust in Jesus? For this is the beginning of being accepted of God. It starts with God giving us the Gift of His Son. All we have to do is believe, trust...and accept this most important gift of God. This is the most important thing for being accepted...of God. You cannot by pass this first step.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Christmas is here

For us as believer this is a special time of year. It is the time of year in our country and many others call, Christmas. There is a little more excitement in the air. More decorating of homes, businesses, towns...Planning of big meals, families trying to get together... Yes there is a lot of shopping...But the season of Christmas is here! Even the real spirit of Christmas is here too. That is there are more things about our Lord Jesus being said, being displayed...that are acceptable in the public eyes. It's Christmas, the celebration of the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Luke 2:10-14 "But the angel said to them. "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
This is the season of great joy! Great joy that the Lord Jesus was give to us, all men as our savior. What good news this is; it was good news back in the day of the Lords birth and it is still good news today! It was such good news that a heavenly host (many angels) appeared praising God. At the end of this praise it says this "And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." God is pleased with us His creation, and He sent His son to save us from our short comings, imperfections...(sin) to bring us to back to Himself... and this is done through the Lord Jesus Christ, the son God. So let us all get with the rejoicing of the season. Praising our Lord for the great things He has done and is doing. So put on the Christmas cheer this week. And merry Christmas to you all and to all your families.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Anger...countenance fallen?

As we go through life we experience many things. We even have questions about God, about Jesus...religion...Then for some reason we have questions about this word, sin. A word that just popped up. Now when we talk about sin we think of bad deeds...or even thinking of the meaning of the word sin- missing the mark. In our story of Cain and Abel we are at Gen.4:7 God talking to Cain, "If you do well will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." Cain had just missed the mark. The mark of bringing first "fruits" if you will. Cain became angry and his countenance fell. Was it while he brought the offering or was it after when God had no regards? The reason I ask, is that for us we sometimes know we are missing the mark but we still continue. But there are those times when we are trying...we think we are doing it right...then we find out we were doing it wrong.
What I want us to see here is that Abel hit the mark, when he gave an offering. God accepted it...regarded it, and Abel felt that acceptance of God. Let me use the word, fellowship, Abel still had fellowship with God a good fellowship. Now Cain on the other hand missed the mark, sinned. Sin is at the door, it is here for Cain, it has entered in. When we do those deeds, things, actions, or thinking...that misses the mark, sin has enters in. It is there in our house...we might not think so...but it is there. God is telling Cain a basic truth if you do well...if you do not do well sin enters in. Look at yourself Cain, anger...your countenance, fallen. These are signs of sin. You must deal with them, do what is right...Go back and correct the matter. Humble yourself admit the wrong and do what is right. You see God even way back here and before (Adam and Eve) is making a way for us to be in the right with Him. Now sin has a desire, a desire to consume us. Let's face it, sin is wanting for us to commit more and more. Sometimes it seems like it grows. But us the redeemed must acknowledge when we miss the mark to God, through His son Jesus Christ. Last week we mentioned not giving of the "first". But sin can involves a whole lot. Let us humble ourselves before our God in these areas...

Monday, December 5, 2011

Are you doing well?

For Adam and Eve, there was a little push to commit that first sin. That is the serpent talked them into it...Last week we talked about the consequences of sin. Well with this eating of the "apple" there was also one big thing that happened; the knowledge of good and evil. Well the knowledge of good we can handle, but the knowledge of evil, that is totally different for us. Here is where we all get into trouble. It's true! How many times do we find ourselves thinking bad things? Then we do those bad things or some of that bad things or wish that some of the bad things will happen. Have you ever had your mind wander...and then you are thinking how did I start thinking those evil things. Well it is also tied into the first sin.
Adam and Eve are now out of the garden of Eden and are now on the "Earth". It is different not the same as being in the garden. There is work, sweat, pain...but the biggest thing is that there is no longer walks with God in the evening. Sin does that, it puts a barrier between God and us. Does that mean that God does not want to talk to us? No, it means that He talks to us differently. In our story we have Adam and Eve out of the garden and having 2 sons, Cain and Able. Gen. 4. Now our story goes like this; the 2 brothers bring an offering to God and God has regards for one of the offerings (Abel's) but the other He had no regards (Cain's). Two offerings; we could look at this as strictly teaching...going into what the meanings are... But that will take a long time...And to tell the truth I am not that good of a bible teacher. So with that we will have a narrow focus if you will.
Gen. 4:3-5 "So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell."
What I want us to notice here is that Cain bought an offering of fruit and that Abel bought firstling. Or the first. You see God want from us the first fruits if you will. He wants the first. Not the leftovers...Now that has a lot of meaning. Alright, now this may hurt a little but this is what God expects. He is to be first. He is first...So for us that means we must put Him in first place. That is in our personal world, our ways, our thinking...that God is of the utmost. When He said He wants of our first fruits...we give them to Him. When it comes to our ways...we follow His ways...When it comes to service we put our first strengths...When it comes to time, our time, we honor Him first. When it comes to following Gods rules...we follow. Now this is an important concept; that God comes first in everything. That when we do anything for God it has to be of the "first". God is not impressed with the leftovers...He is not impressed with us doing things different from what He has set; even if in our modern times, when it seems better. When it comes to worship, we worship Him. When it comes to thanks for things being done... we thank Him, for He is the one Who does and provides... So guys this is hard! So God first, Including His son and the Holy Spirit. Family next, with our wives taking the lead. Others are next...So many times we get in "trouble" because our priorities are mixed up. Sometimes, We get in trouble because we think that our priorities are right but we are not giving the right amount(money, time, service...) in the right proportion. We cut back in areas...Less time with God. Doing less for our wives and family. Let's face it, it is not easy to be last! We all want to be first or we even might settle for second place. But the truth of the matter is that we are not even third... God had no regard for Cain's offering and we focused on the word, first, that it was not his first fruits. So Cain had a reaction to the way God disregarded his offering. Two things: the first was anger and the second his countenance fallen. When we fall short of something I guess this is what happens. If we are real with our selves we can say, yes this is what happens. Now God sees this in Cain; Gen. 4:6-7a "Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?" God does ask us the same questions today when He sees us angry...So what do we do, we have a choice or choices to make. We can correct the matter and give of the first. Lifting up God, so He can lift us up. So when need be let us all go back and make it right.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Far reaching affects

In Gen. 3:14-24 is recorded the curse and punishment of Adam and Eve sins. Now there is a lot of material here! We will not look at it all, nor will try to go over the prophetic meanings. We will start with a question from verse 13, God speaking, "What is this you have done?". Yes, I know this was said to Eve. Guys when we do something...is this not a valid question for God to ask us also. Remember I said I had to wait till my dad came home? You know we did not have cell phone back then, nor were you able to call work for personal reasons...Dad would see me there in the corner...and I still can hear him say, "What did you do this time." Now if I was smart I would tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Not always the case, excuses...You see after he talked to me my dad would go and talk to mom. Then he would get the rest of the story. Well if the 2 stories we in line with each other, it was better for me(hind sight), if not we had more to deal with. Let's think about that for a minute; how many times when we confess our sins do we not tell the "whole story"... we make light of something...excuses... Can you picture God shaking his heads, you see He knows the rest of the story. Don't try to make light of your wrongs to God.
Now as we move down our text we see God pronouncing "Judgement" on the three. You see the disobedience of eating the "apple" came with a cost, telling or convincing someone to do something wrong...comes with a cost. So God tell them the first part of the cost. One for the serpent, one for Eve (women) and one for Adam (Man). Let's just deal with the man and the women. For women verse 16, "I will greatly multiply your pain in child birth. In pain you will bring forth children yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you." For the man verse 17-18, "Cursed is the ground because of you, in toil you will eat of it all of your life. "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; for you are dust, And to dust you shall return." Now these things are still in place today. There are pain, toil, sweat, issues of authority and physical death (Gen.2:17). But also look what else happens. We have God providing skins for clothes, a few devotional in it's self, and God sent them out of the garden of Eden. Not only did He send them out, He also made provisions that man would not be able come back by himself.
What we must recognize is that there is always a price to sin. That sin affects more than you and God. In our verses above we can see that Adams and Eves sin even affect us today. Our sins affect our spouse, our children, our friends, our co-workers, our community...and our sins have far reaching affects into the future. This is a hard concept to grasp, how can it be? Think about it, if you are older and have children, do they not do the same or similar wrongful deeds. As a dad I can see the struggles my boys have, for the most part they are the same ones I struggled with. ( Look at the verse at the end).
One commits murder it affects God, the one murdered, his family, his children, his friends, the community... A married man commits adultery with his eyes, looking, it affects his relationship with his wife...even his relationship with his children... A young man does the same thing it reaches into the future to affect his marriage. Think about it, sin has far reaching affects. Hopefully seeing this reality of sin will give us all a push to bring them(sins) to God. Not only for forgiveness, but repentance; the turning away from sin. You see we need God's forgiveness, through Jesus Christ, but we also need His strength to help us not to sin. To break the bonds of sin that presses on us, that one sin or sins that just keeps popping up. The one's that are hard to stop, even when we are trying hard not to do them. We need the help of our Lord.
Exodus 20:5 "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generation of those who hate me."

Monday, November 21, 2011

Blame- excuses

Now when I was young and did something bad...my mother would put me in the corner and say these famous words, "Wait till your father gets home." I tell you, time seems to stand still while you are waiting for your father to come home to deal with the situation. You think about a lot of things while you are waiting like that, fear is a big thing, shame is a big thing. The disappointment of dad and what will he do? Why did I do that? What was I thinking, was I thinking? What am I going to say ...or tell dad?
In our text we have the account of Adam and Eve coming before God. Gen.3 :11-13 "And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The women You gave to with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." Then the Lord said to the women, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "the serpent deceived me, and I ate."
When you are waiting for dad you think about a lot of things or even in situations alike. We think of things to explain how there was a reason why I, we did what I, we did. For the most part it was that something or someone...made me or pushed me, caused me...into doing that bad act or even deceived me. Isn't that true? We even do that as adults. We try to blame someone else or something else. That it was _____or ______that caused the problem...and guess what, as a result I, we are not the problem... Did you notice that Adam tried it and then Eve tried it too. It is not easy to say that we are wrong...really think about it. It is hard to totally admit our faults, short comings...never mind admitting wrongful actions... Let's face it we are good at the blame game. Think about it, were did we learn how to do it so well! We even do the excuse thing too! It seems so natural, isn't it?
I remember when I was a young man working, a situation that happened to my boss. Well his boss was upset about what another worker done...Well my boss replied to his boss, "Sir, it is my fault I told him to do it that way." You see I'm not sure if he was a Christian or not, but he did know how to take responsibility for his actions and decisions...the right way. He admitted. I know same old thing, go to the Father admit those things to be cleansed...in the name of His son Jesus. Admit them the right way! Don't do the blame thing or the excuse thing...Take 100% of the blame for all your actions.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Are you looking small?

Last week we used the word shame to talk about the first reaction to eating of the "apple". But there is another word that fits here as well, guilt. You see eating of the "apple" gave us as mankind knowledge...of good and evil, but it also was the first act of disobedience against God. Which brings about guilt. Now let's talk about what guilt is for a bit. Guilt is the fact of one committing an offense or a breach of conduct. For example violating a law. But an important part of guilt is that the conduct...that one has done also involves a penalty. Now, when we sin against God this penalty will be enforced and/or has to be paid.
Let's give example of guilt that will help us understand the feeling of guilt. Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer? Or seen some one pulled over? Most times the person is trying to look "small" when cars drive by; it is something that we don't want others to see...we have done something wrong and don't want others to know or see. Let's face it sin is not something we want others to know about...it also brings about guilt; you get the ticket to pay. Really deep down all of us would rather be in right standings, happy...versus being guilty for doing wrong actions; paying...
Now for Adam and Eve sin brings about guilt, which brings about the reaction of hiding, because of fear. Let's look at Gen.3: 10 "He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." Guilt brings about fear. So for us adults we have to really think about this, for the most part we have our lives so ordered that when we do something...we somewhat know the penalty, consequences...(we think). Then sometimes we take the risk based on our willingness to take the penalty...or even hope or think that there is no penalty...remember because no one sees. When we were young, real young and we did something wrong, can you remember, there was the guilt and then the fear. What is dad and mom going to think or do? Do you remember those days? Well, guess what, just because we are older does not mean that the emotions/ reaction...that we display because of guilt goes away. We may be able to mask them...but deep down they are still there. Again have you gone to Jesus to take care of business?