by David Brenneman
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:12-13.
“My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity and every good course. For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you, To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things; From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness; Who delight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil; Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways; To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words; That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead; None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life. So you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land And the blameless will remain in it; But the wicked will be cut off from the land And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.” Proverbs 2:1-22.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes And clever in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine And valiant men in mixing strong drink, Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!” Isaiah 5:20-23.
“So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”
Romans 14:12-14.
Would this ever be you? "Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!””Isaiah 6:8.
Has there been a time, a moment, in your life where you found your calling in Christ and would let nothing and no one get in your way?
If not, what all have you done to seek out what it is that you're called to be doing? For every single part of the body of Christ has their own divine purpose in Christ.
Don't let worldly desires, pursuits, successes and failures, get you off of or away from the righteousness life that God desires for you.
There's a lot in the opening passages but all is beneficial for you and I in Christ. As are all the Scriptures.
We should never allow personal ambitions to be more important than whatever it is that we've been called to be doing in Christ.
We should learn, through prayer and Godly counseling, what it is that the Spirit has placed you in the body of Christ to be doing and then to have the zeal of Isaiah to run with it, allowing nothing and no one, to keep you from your appointed task.
Satan's schemes include influences to get Believer's to devalue their calling in Christ.
His schemes include whatever manipulation he's permitted to use to get us to slow down or stop whatever we're doing in Christ.
To get us to justify why we aren't running the race set before us so that when it's convinced us so that we won't look to blame him.
Truthfully the worldly influences concerning employment have done great damage to the thoughts and intentions of Believer's in that it gets Believer's to truly think that there's an earthly end to ministry because of time spent doing it.
The Scriptures do not support a Believer in Jesus Christ setting a end date of service out of anything other than an inability to continue.
Running the race set before us means that race is on and continues until we either are called to come home or the Rapture of the Church.
We have to give our all for that which we are here to be doing. Give of our best to our Master, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
We give the enemy an opportunity, a foothold if you will, in our lives when we entertain stopping the race He set before us, especially in light of worldly desires.
My Dear Reader, you, yes you, have a very pertinent, extremely valuable, position in the body of Christ to be fulfilled by you through His strength and His wisdom.
We're going to be tempted to lay it down.
We're going to be enticed to move on to less important things.
Lest anyone consider the idea...the race set before us was established by God, the Spirit of God.
No one, not even ourselves, especially ourselves, has the authority to put a stop to whatever the Spirit has called us to be doing in Christ. No one.
We should always have that zeal as Isaiah showed to pursue whatever Jesus wants of us. Knowing that we will give an account of our lives before Him. Knowing just what all He did on calvary to save us.
We should indeed be looking for and removing every single encumbrance that is slowing us down in this race.
We should be checking our hearts to be sure we are still fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
We should be checking to be sure our all is on the altar.
We should be checking to be sure that any forms of idolatry are not found within us.
We should be giving our best in this race He set before us.
Yes it's going to mean saying no to lots of things.
Relate today's post to this passage: "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:7-11.
The days in which you live are the race set before you. The days that are coming are yet still going to be that race and the thoughts and intentions of your heart regarding what you are called to be doing are going to be fully known when you stand before Jesus.
Run the race set before you.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
(C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.
A corporation not for profit.
La Habra, CA All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment