Wednesday, May 27, 2020

A Need, THE Need to be Genuine

He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. Psalm 103:7 

Are you satisfied with merely knowing the acts of God, or do you also want to know His ways? There is a difference. This difference is illustrated in the lives of the children of Israel as compared to Moses. The Israelites witnessed the miracles God performed; they walked across the dry Red Sea just as Moses did. They ate the manna and quail from heaven even as Moses did. They were content to receive God's provision without ever knowing God Himself. Yet Moses saw beyond the provision of God to the person of God. Others, such as the Egyptian magicians, might perform miraculous acts, but no one else did things the way God did (Exod. 7:11–12). The way God acted provided a window into His nature. If Moses had been content with only God's power, he could have accepted the presence of an angel and been victorious in his efforts (Exod. 33:15). But Moses wanted to experience more. He wanted to experience God Himself, not just God's activity. Some today, like the Israelites, are content to experience God's activity without ever coming to know God. They are the recipients of answered prayer, yet they never come to know the Provider. They are blessed by God's providential care over their families, their homes, and their jobs, yet they are satisfied not knowing the One from whom the blessings come. They benefit from God's protection, yet they never become acquainted with the Protector. Have you come to know God more personally as a result of your experiences with Him? As you observe the acts of God, look beyond them to the revelation of His character (Gen. 22:14; John 6:35). - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

Be real!  Be all you can be!  There are many ways the world wants people to be.  They want you to spend your money with them on you, because they say you deserve it.  They want you to have a procedure done because you're worth it.  Vanity has almost as much money spent on it as dollars going to political parties. 

Yet every single person who ever was known to have it all in this world experienced emptiness, loneliness and a wasted life. Interesting that for every one read about in the news of having won big and destroyed their lives, there's a hundred waiting to prove the world wrong that you can be successfully rich and well to do. 

In the Old Testament there is one who experienced it all and came away with the truth.  Vanity of vanities all is vanity. It's a striving after the wind. It's pointless to pour everything into a life for selfish reasons because you cannot get the time nor anything else back again.  Billions are spent each year on Ebay by people trying to relive their past.

Jesus tells one and tells all to store up treasure in Heaven.  With Him.  Treasure isn't about things or money.  It's people.  To get to that honest realization you need to understand what God considers valuable. Which is you. 

The world wants compliant people who obey the power hungry.  They don't care who they have to lie, cheat or steal from to make their desires your reality.  Jesus says that His sheep hear His voice.  He says that anyone trying to get to His sheep by any other means than through Him are liars cheats and robbers.  Who seek to destroy the sheep.  

He says His sheep know His voice.  They follow Him.  So whose voice are you listening to?  Him or the world?

Satan wants the Godly silenced.  He wants to rule the Universe from God's Throne.  He absolutely doesn't care who he destroys along the way.  He's slaughtered billions without a care.  He will slaughter billions more at any God permitting opportunity.  God permitting?  Yes. Reality is: Satan is a created being, whom still has to obey every rule that God commands. He doesn't have free reign to do as he pleases.  God has a Plan for mankind and nobody, not even Satan is going to change it. 

Who do you listen to? Who are you getting to know? The Shepherd or someone else? Are you only listening to yourself? Are you at all interested in what interests God?  Are you living for your own desires and wants only?

This is your reality check being cashed.

Look at yourself in a mirror of you may.

Who are you living for? Is the most important thing in your life anything or anyone but Jesus?  Does family or friends or work or pleasure come before your life with Christ?  What did Jesus tell us? What did He tell His potential Disciples? If you love anything more than Me...

Getting to know Jesus should be our Highest priority.  It's a struggle in a world where everything is designed with a set lifespan to break especially when it's the most inopportune time.  The world does its level best to consume our time to keep us from investing in our relationship with Jesus.  We can be like the children of Israel who loved the blessings but didn't want to know the one giving them.

We can forget to be grateful to our Savior when things are going well.  I know that I have.  Reality is hard it's often harsh. Because we try to write our own reality. We want our perceptions to be what is real. 

Truth is Jesus is coming soon.
Truth is He will render unto every man what they have done in the body.  Every thought, every intention, every action and every inaction.  Every choice ever made. 

I am certainly ashamed of many if not most of the life that I have lived.  I see what waste I have made of much of it. I can't take any of it back. There are people that I have wronged that I can't make right. That's reality.  What I can do is try from this moment forward to do more with my relationship with Jesus.  What I can do is give Christ more rule in my heart and mind.  What I can do is more than what the world wants me to do. 

Look at what is the most important to you. 

Is it your spouse? Children? Grandchildren? Work? Your body? Your status? Money? Looks? Go deeper.  Your rights? Your________. Fill in the blank.  If anything is more important than your walk with Jesus, it's got the wrong priority. 

Yes we need 'down time' but we shouldn't give the devil any opportunity to take us where we dare not go. 

I found this verse of the day kind of convicting Acts 20:24 "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God."

Am I looking for a better relationship with Jesus or am I looking at what's better for me?  Sometimes it's not the same. 

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