We KNOW. ..the World SEEKS...

Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29:18 

The world operates on vision. God's people live by revelation. The world seeks grand and noble purposes and goals to achieve. People dream up the greatest and most satisfying things in which they can invest their lives. Institutions establish goals and objectives and then organize themselves to achieve them. God's people function in a radically different way. Christians arrange their lives based on the revelation of God, regardless of whether it makes sense to them. God does not ask for our opinion about what is best for our future, our family, our church, or our country. He already knows! What God wants is to get the attention of His people and reveal to us what is on His heart and what is His will, for God's ways are not our ways! (Isa. 55:8–9). Whenever people do not base their lives on God's revelation, they “cast off restraint.” That is, they do what is right in their own eyes. They set their goals, arrange their agendas, and then pray for God's blessings. Some Christians are living far outside the will of God, yet they have the audacity to pray and ask God to bless their efforts! The only way for you to know God's will is for Him to reveal it to you. You will never discover it on your own. When you hear from the Father, you have an immediate agenda for your life: obedience. As the writer of Proverbs observed: “Happy is he who keeps the law.” - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

This contrast was a wow moment this morning.  Probably in light of this past Sunday's sermon.  I have been to many churches and have listened to many go on about their vision for the new year. 

I heartily agree with the last sermon that I heard on the subject this last Sunday.  God already revealed in His Word what we are to be doing. We don't need a new vision for the year.  We need to just understand what God has already said to do then do it.

We don't need to spend extravagant amounts of money and time on buildings when there are those who are the poor and the widows He has mentioned that need cared for.  There are families that need mending more than they need other things.  God don't need production numbers for worship services, He needs workers in the harvest. 

     It's really one of the best comparisons that I have ever heard.  That the world looks to have visions but the Church looks at God's revelations.  Visions are those whereby we create a future to put God's name on.  A revelation, God's name is already on and we just need to share and do.

One, we can take credit for it happening, the other only God can take the credit for. 

Think about this on a more intimate level.  Your idea for your life and God's Plan for you.  

I have read stories of people who have it 100 percent accurate.  I know because I did it too.  I came to Christ, was all excited.  Had an inventory of my strengths and weaknesses.  Knew what talents I had.  Could see where this could go!  It was fantastic!  Oh how wonderful to see where God was going to take it!

Then 2 days later I was shown how wrong I was.  I struggled for several decades trying to prove that point with God.  I knew that with my talents and His power, things could happen!  Again, disaster struck.  It took several more decades to work past the failures of it, to realize the truth.  In am HIS workmanship.  I am not my own. 

It's HIS vision for me.  I am placed in His body where HE sees fit to place me.  Not where I saw myself as being.  Many people are failing miserably at the Christian life because it's their vision for themselves and them not living what Jesus wants of them. 

His revelations in the Bible are already set.  The Great Commission statement is for everyone.  Read all the New Testament letters.  They all point to the building up of the body of Christ for one thing.  To be the Bride of Christ.  But a body has to have each part do its part.  A leg is to be a leg. An ear is to be an ear. A white blood cell is to be a white blood cell.  When cells do not do what God intended, they call them defective or cancerous.  When cells aren't going to do as they should, Doctors remove them for the health of the body. 

Those cells are violating the set revelation that God planned out for them to do before they came along. 

So I am not saying that I have arrived at a full understanding.  I am sharing that I have found what the wrong ways to do this life are.  Like the story of Thomas Edison and the light bulb.  Someone commented on his several thousand failures at making one.  He said no, he found several thousand ways not to make a light bulb and one way that worked.  

There is a plan and purpose to our lives.  But we need to just do what God puts in front of us to do.  It's not about being fancy or glamorous or being looked up to in this world.  It's to hear "Well done" in Heaven by Jesus.  A well done for doing what He put in front of you to do.  No need for visions.  No need to remind the one who created you just what all you are capable of. He already knows.  I am reminded of Mordecai and his words to Esther.  Perhaps you were indeed placed where you are for such a time as this. 

Had God used my talents, abilities in this life for His purposes?  Have I been living out His plan for me?  My dear reader, God has done immeasurably more with me when I stopped trying to do it my way. 

We may see the apples on a tree, He sees the trees AND the apples in the seeds not yet in this world. He knows how each life is going to interact and intersect with every other life.  He knows that your life is going to be THAT life that is needed by someone else to hear about Christ.  

What's God's will?  I am pretty sure it's just to live out the Great Commission.  Wherever you are, in whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.  No need for a vision. If it was necessary then I am sure Jesus would have said more in the Bible about it.

This world isn't going through global warming.  The Bible says it's birth pangs.  Preparing for the Day of the Lord.  He is coming back.  The Earth knows it.  

Will you be found doing what you are to be doing?  I am striving to be.

We are but Clay...

“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!” Jeremiah 18:6

God knows how to bring salvation to your family, your friends, your community, and your world. Accordingly, He looks for those who will allow Him to shape them into the instruments He requires to do His divine work. Clay has no plans of its own, no aspirations for service, nor reluctance to perform its given task. It is just clay. Moldable, pliable, totally submissive to the will of its master. At times we excitedly announce to God: “I’ve discovered my strengths and gifts, and now I know how I can best serve You!” At other times we inform Him, “I am aware of what my weaknesses are, so I know which tasks I’m not capable of doing for You.” Yet this is not characteristic of clay. God is not limited to working with our strengths (2 Cor. 12:9–10). He can mold us into whatever kind of instrument He requires. When God's assignment demands humility, he finds a servant willing to be humbled. When His work requires zeal, He looks for someone He can fill with His Spirit. God uses holy vessels, so He finds those who will allow Him to remove their impurities. It is not a noble task, being clay. There is no glamour to it, nothing boast-worthy, except that it is exactly what Almighty God is looking for. Compliant, moldable, yielded clay. If your tendency is to tell the Father what you can and cannot do for Him, submit to His agenda and allow Him to shape you into the person He wants you to be. Like clay. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

Reading this, this morning, as well as a reminder of a chorus we used to sing are indeed what is needed to begin this day. 

A reminder of who and what we are and are to be.  The Master teaches, the Disciple does. That's the interaction. The potter moves the clay, the clay silently obeys and moves at the will of the Master. 

Does the Master potter require insight, or information from the clay as He works out His plan for the clay?  Does He first need to hear all about his or her strengths and weaknesses?  Does the clay know more about the end result than the Master?

Does the Master need to hear all about what He doesn't understand?

Yet we try to do that with God. 

Look at the greatest Teachers and Prophets of the Bible and you will see one characteristic: obedience.  If you continue to look you might see submission.  

Characteristics of clay in the potter's hands. 

I need no special insight into my own life to see almost all the times where I, the clay, kept speaking up and kept trying to change, what Jesus was doing in my life.  Satan gladly reminds me. 

But that chorus adds to this message of obedience. 

"Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary, 

Pure and holy, tried and true.

With thanksgiving, I'll be a living

Sanctuary, for you."

The Sanctuary is a place of holiness. It echoes and rings out the truths spoken in it, not from it.

We tend to worry, whether or not we admit that is something different.  We are like Indiana Jones in one of the movies where his next step was a step of faith.  How do we when all we can see is not pleasant?

Jesus, the Potter, says gently, "Trust me".

Oh I can speak of painful times that I have been brought through.  I understand the concept of surgery in stages in that respect.  There's just times when my Holy Potter does only so much until I am strong enough to handle more.  

The same goes with you.  We don't understand and we get upset at God.  Nobody wants to admit that so we redirect that anger at others or other things.  I  can't say that I am mad at God!  Look. You probably aren't right in being angry with God, and yes, Jesus will forgive you, but you need to remember to be honest. 

You can't foster anger WITH love. It would be like making the north and south poles of a magnet live in harmony in the same body.  

But what about....

Jesus already is in your today, if you were granted a today.  He already knows everything about it.  If you weren't granted a today then either you are in Heaven or Hell. Both cases of which you wouldn't be reading this.  What will really blow your mind us He knew you would find this and be reading this long before you were born.  Just like every question you have ever thought about asking He knows every answer to. 

Peace as He gives is so much different than the world gives.  Jesus said that it would be that way with Him.  

I CAN stress out about how He is making me but it wouldn't gain me anything.  

Ahh but here comes the real truth...if I trust Him, His will, His choices for me, His direction....then...say it...spit it out...then I am not in control. 

No, you're not.  The crux of the original sin of Adam and Eve was who would be in control.  Before the fall, before that sin, in everything God was.  Then Satan tells them THEY will be like God.  They will be able to do as they please.  They will be in control. Look how that worked out. God is still in control.  He is still on the Throne. 

Not Satan, not you, not me, not anyone else.  Nor will there ever be anyone else. 

The thing about Salvation is in all that Jesus did to provide it, He didn't force it on mankind.   He still gives mankind a choice.  Nobody who's ever lived has liked being forced to do anything.  Just being real there.  People come to Christ because they chose to.  They opened their hearts to the truth.  They let their Savior in. They became the clay that didn't fuss and fight with the Master. 

Oh but I will have to stop...

Oh but I won't be able to...

Oh but...

Oh but...

Look...as I have described in other posts. 

People being rescued and cared for from their experience don't ask for three quotes, letters of recommendation and references before getting rescued!  You just trust your rescuer and you DO what they tell you is necessary to be saved!  Does ANYTHING in this world mean more to you than your life?  Jesus went through what He did to save that which is most important to you and Him.  You!

Trust and Obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. 

The REAL of the Church

And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:4 NLT 

Light might well be good since it sprang from that good decree, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). We who enjoy it should be more grateful for it than we are, and see more of God in it and by it. Physical light is said by Solomon to be sweet (Ecclesiastes 11:7), but gospel light is infinitely more precious, for it reveals eternal things and ministers to our immortal nature. When the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual light and opens our eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we behold sin in its true colors and ourselves in our real position. We see the Most Holy God as He reveals himself, the plan of mercy as He defines it, and the world to come as the Word describes it. Spiritual light has many beams and prismatic colors, but whether they are knowledge, joy, holiness, or life, all are divinely good. If the light we receive is good, what must the light source be? How glorious must be the place where He reveals himself! Oh, Lord, since light is so good, give us more of it—and more of yourself, the true light. But no sooner is there a good thing in the world than a division is necessary. Light and darkness have no communion; God has divided them, let us not confuse them. Sons of light must not have fellowship with deeds, doctrines, or deceits of darkness. The children of the day must be sober, honest, and bold in their Lord’s work, leaving the works of darkness to those who shall dwell in it forever. Our churches should by discipline divide the light from the darkness, and we individually, by our distinct separation from the world, should do the same. In judgment, in action, in hearing, in teaching, and in association, we must discern between the precious and the vile, and maintain the great distinction which the Lord made upon the world’s first day. Oh, Lord Jesus, be our light throughout the whole of this day, for your light is the light of men. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening 

Neither did they say, “Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness?” Jeremiah 2:6

Christianity is an intimate, growing relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. It is not a set of doctrines to believe, habits to practice, or sins to avoid. Every activity God commands is intended to enhance His love relationship with His people. God designed worship for us to see Him in His glory and to respond appropriately; for many it has degenerated into “religion,” one more meeting to attend out of habit. God established the sacrificial system so that we, His people, could express our love to Him; but we often diminish our gifts to our Lord into futile attempts to appease Him and to pacify our guilty conscience. God gave us prayer so we could have conversation with Him, but we often distort this by “saying prayers” and hurrying off without ever listening to what is on our Father's heart. God instituted His commandments as a protection for those He loves, but the commandments can become a pathway to legalism rather than an avenue for a relationship with our Father in which He protects us from harm. The people of Jeremiah's day were satisfied to have the ritual without the manifest presence of God. They became so comfortable with their “religion” that they didn’t even notice God's absence. Is it possible to pray, to attend a worship service, or to give an offering, yet not to experience the presence of God? It certainly is possible! And that has been the sad commentary on many a Christian experience. Don’t settle for a religious life that lacks a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. When God is present, the difference will be obvious.

- Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

It's been heavily in the news and heavily on the hearts of Godly people, this infusion of incorrect information and doctrines in the Church today.  This misinformation and false teachings are the very same that Paul warned the early Church about. 

1 Corinthians 6:11-20 "Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body."

Read that in context. Such WERE some of you.   It's a very popular thing these days for people to yell back across the aisle at immigrants to stop trying to make America into the very mess they fled from. 

It happens within the Church as well. Today there is at least one denomination heading for a split because they cannot agree to hold fast to what the Bible says. 

In the past centuries since Christianity began that is the crux of every split.  Who will follow what God says and who will try to be friends with the world instead and compromise. 

So what else does the Bible say?

"This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5 NASB

God does not compromise on sin or on His definition of it.  He does not permit His Church to do things or represent Himself in a way that is against His nature. 

People seek Him to allow compromises because of the way sinful people are.  God says no.  The wages of sin is death.  There are no extenuating circumstances to permit it in the Church. 

If the nature of people were an excuse then dying on a cross wasn't entirely necessary!

Oh we don't have enough men to be Elders or Pastors or Teachers to do this according to the Bible or enough women to serve as Deaconess's...then pray for them to come and wait upon the Lord. 

We in the Church need to stop making excuses for sin and stop permitting those who live in sin to be in influential positions in the Church.  Paul refers to these people as those who practice sin. They see no problem with living with the sins they enjoy and really want accepted as they are.  As Paul said shall we continue in sin that Grace might increase? May it never be!  For how can one who died to sin continue in it?

Divisions will happen.  Until the Bride is made ready for her Husband, whom is Christ.  There are many references by Jesus of removing stains and sins from Spiritual garments.  Look at what He says of His Bride, the Church.  It's pure and spotless. 

Look at those who are weeping and gnashing their teeth at God.  Many will be doing both because they were allowed by men to stay in their sin and been made to believe they were saved when they were not.  

Make sure of yourself today.  Are you truly a part of the Bride? The Church? Or are you content to live with the things you know are sin in your life, honestly demanding God change to accommodate your desires?  Remember that the Bible calls that mockery.  

It says that God will not be mocked, what a man sows he will reap.  Some to eternal life and the rest to condemnation.  

Scripture says exactly who will never see Heaven. 

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God."

Paul says this about those IN THE CHURCH.  

Make sure of your standing before Jesus today my friend.  Oh dear reader the cries to Heaven on the day of the Rapture will be great!  Those who THOUGHT they were saved who find themselves still here will be crying out to God to take them too!

They believed the lies of deceitful men and will miss the Rapture.  Paul warned of wolves in sheep's clothing.  People secretly infiltrated the Church to deceive. 

Make SURE, oh dear reader make sure!

If you are not more concerned about your walk with God than your life's circumstances then you have a problem. 

Your relationship with Jesus should be your everything. Everything you do should be towards a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ your Savior. 

Don't hang onto a so-called Church because of friendships there.  Watered down teaching isn't teaching either.  

Your relationship with Jesus should be paramount. 

Know today, be sure, today.  You may never get a tomorrow. 

When was the last time you were AMAZED?

When was the last time you were AMAZED?

But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word. Isaiah 66:2

Do you tremble when God speaks? When was the last time you were physically affected by the reality that Almighty God just spoke directly to you? John lost all physical strength when God spoke to him (Rev. 1:17); Paul fell to the ground when Christ met him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4); Moses trembled when God spoke to him (Acts 7:32); and Peter, when he realized who Jesus was, “fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’” (Luke 5:8). Have you lost your sense of awe that the Creator still chooses to speak to you, His creation? Do you approach the reading of your Bible with a holy expectation, listening for the life-changing words that God has for you that day? Scripture says that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). There are things you will see and hear out of your fear and reverence for God that you will not experience in any other way. As you study your Bible, you may sense that God has something to say directly to you through the verses you are reading. Take a moment to consider the awesome reality that the God who spoke and created a universe is now speaking to you. If Jesus could speak and raise the dead, calm a storm, cast out demons, and heal the incurable, then what effect might a word from Him have upon your life? The possibilities should cause you to tremble! The next time you open God's Word, do so with a sense of holy expectation. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

I almost laughed at where it seemed God was going with the post for today.  It's easily no secret, for those who really really know me, that I am not a writer.  I have had the ambition, the dream, but never could 'seal the deal'.  Yet, as Blackaby is saying here, oh yes, I am amazed. There's a passage that comes to mind.  Ephesians 3:20-21 "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

At the beginning of this year I began reading through my Bible Plan.  It's through the Biblegateway App.  In Genesis is where I am.  In this part that I was reading today, it hits on the very same theme as Blackaby.  Every single time the Lord Jesus spoke to him, at that place he built an altar.  Something to remember the moment in the future.  Both for himself and passers by.  

I began using a 3rd journaling app last year that is helping me to capture my God moments that He shows me as I read. 

So many people miss it that God CAN be that close to them.  Look early in Genesis. Enoch walked with God and then he was not for God took him.  Abraham was known as the friend of God. David was known as a man after God's own heart. 

Paul was known as one who would completely give up his wants and desires in favor of walking with Jesus.  The Lord Jesus came to him on at least a few separate occasions to strengthen him.  His mission was that great.  

There's absolutely nothing in my ability to write that isn't of God. The Holy Spirit within me connects the dots of what to say and how to say it.  If there's any good if there is anything worthy of praise for you after reading any of these posts...give that to God.  He made it possible.  

You wonder at times, I know that you do because I did and do, if God hears you. 

He always hears.  But there's a far more significant thing.  It's our LISTENING to God.   Jesus said My sheep hear My voice.   Are you one of His sheep?

Oh, if only God knew how messed up my life is!  He wouldn't want me!  That, my friend is a lie.  There was a murderer on a cross with Him.  Pardoned. In Heaven with Him now.  There's betrayer's. Pardoned.  In Heaven with Him. Perhaps you remember his name?  Peter?  Oh I have such anger issues!  Take a good look at John's brother James.  He had a very short fuse.  Wanted to bring down fire from Heaven because of disrespecting people. Was still made into an Apostle.  There are drunks, egotistical, arrogant, reviler's, etc.  Read about it in the New Testament.  Such WERE some of you.  But you were washed you were sanctified.  God's soap does miracles!

How much is God speaking to you worth?  

There's a popular sort of survey question going around on the internet.  If you could have an hour to speak with anyone in history who would it be?  

Honestly, truthfully, a decade ago it would have been some people I looked up to.  Hero's if you will.  But after the work that God's been doing in my life, there's only 1.  I want to spend an hour talking with Jesus in some secluded beautiful place.  I have questions and I know He has answers. 

Look at your reactions to people. Sports figures, teams, celebrities.   If ANYONE gets you more excited than your personal time with Jesus you have to really rethink your desires. 

I know people who will put on a heavy defense of 'their team'.  Yet dismiss or ignore slights and slams on the Word of God or of the Lord Jesus Christ.  They say it's all in fun.  Is that what it really is?  What does the Bible say?  It says that our God is a jealous God.  He wants our heart, mind, soul and Spirit.  Hmm.  Don't see any room in there for other people, places or things.  What does the Bible call it? Idolatry.  Read the first two Commandments.  Why are they first?

We water down our passion and desire for God when we split it and give it to others. 

Paul indeed was arguably the most influential of all Apostles.  Look at what he wrote down for Timothy.  Look at his letters to the Church.  Denial of self. 

Sounds a bit familiar.  Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. 

But I won't have any fun in life!  If you can say that statement then your relationship with God needs reexamined.  Because you have allowed yourself to be far too entangled in this world and don't realize God's idea of what fun is.  Just as tge Disciples didn't understand what Jesus meant at the well about having food they didn't have.  His was to do the will of His Father.   Same is with our obedience.  We will find more fulfillment in obedience than we will ever realize until we do it.

Write down when you have an encounter with Jesus.  When He speaks, listen. 

If you haven't received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, there's only one message:  Come home.  I paid the price for your sin.  I can save you.  I love you!

For those who have received Salvation, that message is the same as the summation of Paul's life.  Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ. 

For All...

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age," Titus 2:11-12 NASB

There's so much that could have been different in my life had I just been more trusting of what God's been wanting to do in my life.  Most of the tough spots that I have found myself in probably could have been avoided.  

I was reading my devotionals this morning after reading my Bible and it was the verse of the day in my reading app that stuck out to me more than what all I had read.  

In Our Daily Bread there's a huge huge statement of God waiting on people in the Bible. Rather than forcing His position Jesus waited.  Taking also from the other devotionals, with all the attributes of God...He waits on man.  Many count it as silence on God's behalf.  Many use it as an excuse to deny His existence.  Many say because of the state of the world He caused that which is evil to flourish. 

The arrogance of such thoughts. 

But what of the events of the book of Revelation?  That's not showing patience, that's not showing love, you may say.  

Yes, it is.  There comes a time with everything when enough is enough. 

What slows down the return of Christ or speeds it up is the obedience of His people in prayer.  Waiting patiently on the ones that are left to be saved before that patience comes to a halt.  Not to an end, to a halt.  There's a difference.  To say that God's patience has an end would mean something significantly worse than the Great Flood of the book of Genesis.  Nothing anywhere would survive.  Remember God deals in perfection.  A perfect end to disobedience would have meant nobody living after Adam and Eve sinned.  So patience can be used to the full or suspended.  

The time is coming soon when the last person to be saved before the Rapture of the Church will take place.  It's going to happen. 

Soon afterwards the Church here will leave and meet up with those believers who have already died in Christ to go and be with Jesus forever.  Then the world that is left behind will live through the fulfillment of every single remaining Prophecy of Scripture. 

Until those days we who are alive today have an obligation and an opportunity to live for Jesus in the way God intended. 

We have temptations beyond measure all around us.  Of every type and size and shape.  We are a deceived people.  The whole human race by way of Satan.  Only in living for Jesus, in the way He instructs through the Holy Spirit can we see through the schemes of the Devil.  

Look at what John the Baptist was preaching and warning about. Look at it closely.  Because he will be preaching on it again before Christ returns.  Jesus said so.

We who are in Christ have a life to live, a mission to complete for Christ, not for ourselves.  We are described by Paul as soldiers. Soldiers that do not entangle ourselves.  Think about that. What do we get entangled in? Temptation.  In sin. Disguised as worldly pleasures and in idolatry.  If it weren't so then there wouldn't be so much said of it in Scripture. 

So today, today, look at your life.  Are you living for yourself or God?  It's not easy to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.  But obviously it can be done. 

I am entangled in many ways myself.  I have not yet arrived by any means.  But as it has been said there's a difference between knowing the path and walking it.  Way too many Christians and even non-Christians know.  They just do everything to avoid it both willingly and intentionally. 

Learning to let go isn't easy but it is indeed rewarding.  As Titus says we know...we KNOW.   So we have to CHOOSE.  God indeed is showing patience with each of us. But as anyone who had read the Bible knows...there's times when action is necessary to bring about obedience.  

Think about what Titus says:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,

It is for Everyone...

Continue earnestly in prayer. Colossians 4:2 NKJV 

It is interesting to remark how large a portion of Scripture is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, “At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD” (Genesis 4:26 ESV), and just as we are about to close the volume, the “Amen” of an earnest supplication meets our ear. Specific examples are plentiful. Here we find a wrestling Jacob, there a Daniel who prayed three times a day, and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see Elijah; in the dungeon Paul and Silas. We have multitudes of commands and myriads of promises. What does this teach us but the sacred importance and necessity of prayer? We may be certain that whatever God made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. So deep are our needs that, until we are in heaven, we must not cease to pray. Do you think you have no needs? Then I fear you don’t know your poverty. Do you feel as though you don’t need mercy from God? Then may the Lord’s mercy show you your misery! A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honor of a Christian. If you are a child of God, you will seek your Father’s face and live in your Father’s love. Pray that this year you might be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ; and enter more often into the banquet-house of His love. Pray that you might be an example and a blessing to others, and live more to the glory of your Master. The motto for this year must be, Continue earnestly in prayer. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening 

If there's anything at all that I can and will point to in what's changed my life in recent years is this:  real prayer. 

The thing about real prayer is the more you do it the more relaxed you get in the conversation.  

The worst part of conversations with people are when you have gotten far enough to see through their cracks to who they really are.  This isn't necessarily a good or bad thing.  But it's what happens. 

Sometimes 10 minutes into talking with someone you really want to be rescued. Sometimes it's the opposite, you really want it to last.

Isaiah fell to the ground in woe because in his encounter with Jesus he saw clearly his own sinful condition.  

I imagine my own reaction would be the same. I am no where near as sensitive to my sinfulness as he was that day.  Isaiah found forgiveness soon afterwards and then sought to serve.  Really think about that.

Isaiah lost all the sin baggage off his back up to that point in his life.  Poof, gone.

He never thought more clearly.  Never knew such joy.  Never had so much lifted from his heart and mind than at that moment. 

What's changed me, year upon year, has been praying.  I have opened up more and more with Jesus and He always listens.   Yes, there's been times He has spoken back to me.  Verbally.  Oh no, now he is hearing things.  Is is really so crazy to believe?  What does Scripture say? "My Sheep hear My voice..."

I thoroughly enjoy peace and quiet for medical reasons as much as for the Spiritual reasons that Jesus gave examples of in the Gospels.  Look for them.  How it speaks of Him often getting away to be with His Father.  For me, my hearing is also sort of hyper hearing.  I hear frequencies that most people don't.  Long ago especially, but big tube type televisions, I could tell you how many and where in your home they were at and if they were on. So peace and quiet sometimes help me to think more clearly.  I used to visit my grandparents in a very off the beaten path small village in my youth.  After 1 day I would begin getting a headache.  It wouldn't go away till day 3. 

But that's not to put any focus on me.  It's an example of my realizing that I needed to find my time with Jesus.  It's hyper easy in this world to be sucked into this or that. To be truthful it's insanely easy to find idols to worship.  You can fill your time in a heartbeat with anything.  For most it's as close as where your phone is. 

But look at what Spurgeon is saying.  Prayer IS the heartbeat of the Bible.  If the Bible is the story of God then prayer is the heartbeat.  

When was the last time you got honest with Jesus?  Not as honest as you think is safe, but honest as an exposure like Isaiah had?

I am still on the path towards that kind of experience.  He had all his baggage dropped in an instant.  Jesus is still helping me to disentangle myself from mine.  

We don't give prayer enough of our time. 

I often am busy at work and find myself praying at the same time.  I do it because the need is that great.  The more you pray the more sensitive your heart is to the things of God.  You begin to hear from Him. Look at King David.  A man after God's own heart.  It was from his times of being open and honest with God.  Look at all the hundreds of prayers in the book of Psalms alone!

The situation with Bathsheba came at a time when David's prayer life had fallen off due to age and success.  He got too comfortable in life to stay in close communion with his God. 

I pray because if all in this Universe who knows me best it's my Savior.  He knows me at my worst, He knows me at my best. 

He had freed so much of my mind from my own misconceptions of Himself and His Word.  He's more than kind to me. He's caring, He's a fantastic listener.  He isn't judgemental when I fall and ask for His help getting back on the path again.  He is not my butler.  Only coming around when there's a need.  He's my friend.  He's certainly no figment of my imagination.  He's alive and real.  He's shown me how to really look at people in light of the hope He has given me.  As long as the breath of life is in someone there's hope for change.  He forgave a murderer on the cross and told him he would be with Him in paradise.  He forgave the likes of Saul and renamed him Paul to become one of the greatest contributors to the Bible.  Paul who spoke out so horribly against the Church.  People today have spoken like Nebuchadnezzar, whom God forgave and whose life was changed, yet in today's world, the Church often will forgive but won't forget their past. Jesus did. Jesus forgives and forgets. 

Prayer works, prayer should be like breathing. If you think you don't know how to pray, oh dear reader yes you do.  If you can think then you can pray.  Most first conversations we have with people we stumble through.  God doesn't want big words or flowery speeches.  He wants your heart.  The Pharisees and Sadducees used a lot of big words and meaningless repetition.  There was no heart in their prayers.  Jesus also wants honesty.  Don't for a second think you can get away with telling Him what He wants to hear. He sees right through everyone. 

So start off this year with honesty. 

Start today with a real prayer. 

Clean the house of your heart of all your idols.  That's part of being honest with yourself.  And don't lie to yourself and say you don't have any.  We all do.  Else it wouldn't be something we are all warned about in the Bible. 

Talk to Jesus, He's the friend you have been looking for all your life. 

No Resolution for Me

So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”John 21:15 

Jesus has a wonderful way of restoring us when we fail Him! He does not humiliate us. He does not criticize us. He does not ask us to make a resolution to try harder. Rather, He takes us aside and asks us to reaffirm our love for Him. Peter miserably failed his Lord when he fled with the other disciples from the Garden of Gethsemane. Later, he publicly denied that he even knew Jesus. Peter must have wondered if he had been capable of being Jesus’disciple when he was unfaithful to Jesus in His most crucial hour. As you begin a new year, you may be painfully aware that you have failed your Lord in many ways. Perhaps you were not faithful. Perhaps you disobeyed His word to you. Perhaps you denied Him by the way you lived. Jesus will take you aside, as He did Peter. He will not berate you. He will not humiliate you. He will ask you to examine your love for Him. He asked Peter, “Do you love Me?”If your answer, like Peter's, is “Yes, Lord,”He will reaffirm His will for you. If you truly love Him, you will obey Him (John 14:15). Jesus does not need your resolutions, your recommitments, or your promises to try harder this year. If your resolve to obey God last year did not help you to be faithful, it will not make you successful this year. Jesus asks for your love. If you truly love Him, your service for Him in the new year will be of the quality that He desires. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

Resolutions, in reality, are where we make oaths to ourselves then shortly thereafter find that we have lied to ourselves. 

Our emotions always get the best of us.  They always do.  We have an inherent knowledge of right and wrong.  Of percieved justice.  This one deserves this, they don't deserve that.  Where does that come from?  Well we are born with that, right along with our sin nature, which twists and perverts it.

We are so much like Peter, James and John.  Everyone who will jump into the Judge's seat to bring down a gavel on someone else's life.  Peter was very impetuous.  James and John wanted to bring down fire from Heaven on people. 

What does all that have to do with resolutions?  They are places in life where we fail God and ourselves.  

Paul was tempted to lash out at others in every city he was at.  He was at each long enough to build relationships.  He admonished millions through his letters of the right behavior in Christ.  He himself was caught in incorrectly judging Mark.

Our attitude towards others always colors our thinking, and often not in a good way. 

I make one resolution every year.  Never to make any resolutions beyond that one. 

Nothing will weigh upon my conscience for doing something or not doing something.   

I create good habits and remove bad ones as I am enabled by God.  I look back on 2019 and see much that has been removed and much that has now come into play.   Like what?  It's not earthly stuff that I refer to.  It's my attitude adjustments.  My confidence levels.  It's what attitudes God has been adjusting in me. 

I was really hit between the eyes by one of those God411 video stories.  One where a woman who had been a prostitute, who was living a very sinful life, was saved.  Jesus came into her life and the change was profound.  She was growing in Christ.  Teaching etc.  In time she caught the eye of the Pastor's son.  They dated and later it was announced they were engaged.  The Church was in an uproar.  How could the son of the Pastor be engaged to such a woman!  There was a Church meeting over it.  Surprisingly it wasn't the Pastor who spoke up, but the Son. He saw the toll it was taking on his fiancee.  He stood up among them and got their attention.  His fiancee wasn't what was on trial here. But the blood of Jesus.  Whether or not it truly washed away sin or it didn't.  If Christ forgives and cleanses or it doesn't.  The Church wept and was ashamed. 

I looked at my own attitudes towards others after reading that.  There's those who love to misquote Scripture about judging others.  We are not to enter in condemnation on others.  We are indeed to make judgment calls on those we meet.  Jesus Himself said He didn't entrust Himself to man because He knew what was in the heart of man.  But He did make attempts to build relationships.  We are fruit inspectors.  Scripture says we will know others by their fruits, essentially their actions. 

This year I hope to continue what God's began in me from past years.  To grow to be more like Christ.  Letting go of my attitudes and feelings that are wrong at worst and misplaced at best. 

Paul angrily opposed taking Mark along on a missionary journey.  He later had huge regrets because he realized he was oh so wrong.  He obviously didn't see what God was doing in Mark.  I can be the same. 

The focus is on loving others where they are.   If they have changed so be it.  If they haven't, again, so be it.  Jesus still loved people who were in the wrong.  He admonished right behavior and moved on. 

I have been rightly accused of getting wrapped around the axle on problems and situations.  My anger at people has greatly waned.  After a semi truck ran a red light and hit my truck, my anger issues had a focus point.  For many months afterward I was not the best of drivers around other semi truck drivers.  My anger got the best of me.  My God took exception to this and there came a day when He said enough is enough.  My attitude adjustment came.  He died for them too.

So this year make no resolution other than to grow in Christ.  Ask Him more questions.  Stay in His Word.  Pray more often.  Remove idols from my heart and home.  Yes, that was a huge one from last year.   Removing idols.   Hey call a spade a spade.  If your passion and enthusiasm and energy are on anything other than a right relationship with Jesus then it's an idol.  For me it meant sports it meant movies it meant television.  Jesus is jealous for my heart.  My heart cannot be divided between Him and the Michigan Wolverines or the Pittsburgh Steelers or NASCAR or any television show or movie series.  And truth being what it is, Jesus showed me quite clearly those are idols.  

So I was made to choose.  He doesn't consider the negative bantering as 'just for fun'.  It goes against Scripture that says if what wr say and do doesn't build up and edify we shouldn't be focusing on it.  He that knows the good He ought to do and does not do it, sins.

As Blackaby points out in his January 1st entry, the love of God is to be paramount.  Next to nothing.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and Spirit. 

All. 

Does Jesus have your whole heart in 2020?  As Tobymac has in a song, "I just need you".  In Heaven all we have is Jesus.  There's a chorus we used to sing called "All in All". 

You are my strength when I am weak
You are the treasure that I seek
You are my all in all

Seeking You as a precious jewel
Lord to give up I'd be a fool
You are my all in all

Jesus Lamb of God worthy is Your name
Jesus Lamb of God worthy is Your name

Taking my sin my cross my shame
Rising again I bless your name
You are my all in all
When I fall down you pick me up
When I am dry You fill my cup
You are my all in all

Jesus Lamb of God worthy is Your name
Jesus Lamb of God worthy is Your name

Jesus Lamb of God worthy is Your name
Jesus Lamb of God worthy is Your name

Jesus Lamb of God worthy is Your name
Jesus Lamb of God worthy is Your name
Worthy is Your name
Worthy is Your name