If you think you know everything about a certain topic, it is a sure sign that you don’t.1Co 8:2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Eph 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; length, breadth, depth, hightpasses knowledgeknow nothing yet as they ought to know1Ti 6:4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
the more you learn about the Lord, the more you understand that there is yet more that have yet to learn.you can learn tremedous amounts and
Eph 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph 3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
Eph 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.It’s not just about knowing facts in your head, it is an experiencial, intimate knowledge, understanding, experience and familiarity. It is “knowing” in the spirit.
Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, And now that you have some revelation, glory not in the revelation knowledge, but be sure that all glory goes to Jesus.Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. 1Co 8:1 Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
Phi 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Category: Uncategorized
Thoughts on Feelings
– It’s not our problems that make use feel a certain way, it is what we think of them that makes us feel that way.
– All too often we look for something that gives us a “tingle in the flesh” to distract us from what is really bothering us.
– We look out to someone else expecting them to fill the void but then we are disappointed when they don’t.
– It really isn’t the other person that makes us feel a certain way, it is what we think about them that makes us fell one way or another.
Foolish Things
I Corinthians 1:26
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called
Why is this? Why ‘not many’?
I Corinthians 1:27-29
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence
That no flesh should glory. Basically, God does things in such a way that there is no possibility to mistake anyone or anything but Him as the source.
I’ve often heard it said that ‘God wants to use your talents’.
Scripture on the other hand reveals that God is more likely to use you to do things that you have little or no natural talent or ability to do. That way it is all the harder for you to take credit yourself.
I’ve also heard ‘God helps those who help themselves’. Search it out, it is nowhere in the Bible.
Actually, you find the contrary: God helps those who call on His name.
So many folks go off half-cocked with their own plans and designs, then expect God to come in and bless them.
What we really need to do is to first seek God and ask Him to write out His plans for us in our hearts. Then we know that God will be there to complete the work that He starts. We can go and act in confidence knowing that God is there backing us up, and He cannot fail.
Where faith comes in is when God is telling us to do something we know that we cannot do by ourselves, things that we have no talent, ability, or experience doing. It does not require any faith in Him to go and do something you have 10 years experience doing.
Getting What You Deserve?
Recently I ran across a conversation concerning judges taking pity on sex offenders and acting with leniency in sentencing. The question was asked “Is he [the sex offender] any less deserving of prayer and forgiveness than any of us?”
Deserving? We ALL *deserve* to be cast into hell. We need to be grateful for God’s mercy in not getting what we deserve because of God’s grace in Christ.
Mercy: not getting the punishment you deserve
Grace: being given blessings that you do not deserve
Offenders do not *deserve* pity, love, forgiveness. We do not love others because they are deserving of it or have a “right” to it. We choose to love because we are loved by God even when we were unlovable. Out of the abundance of God’s love poured out on us, we turn and love others.
If the offender repents and receives God’s mercy and grace, then the ETERNAL consequences of his actions are forgiven.
As individuals, we are to love everyone, even the worst of offenders. You can love a person, and at the same time, hate their behavior. Part of love is to hold others accountable for their behavior (Prov 13:24).
True, it is in the best interest of the family and victims to forgive and move on — keeping in mind that forgiveness does not mean immediate restoration of position and trust, and does not mean that the offender escapes accountability for his behavior. As individuals, we are to forgive after the same manner that we are forgiven.
Governments, however, are bestowed with a different set of responsibilities.
Law was instituted because of the hardness of people’s hearts.
Mercy bestowed on a loving person is appreciated and promotes better behavior.
Mercy bestowed on a cold-hearted person is interpreted by that person as a reward for their behavior, and encourages more of whatever behavior is rewarded.
Governments and judges are charged with the responsibility to hold offenders accountable for the temporal consequences of their behavior. When they fail to do this, it comes across to society as permissiveness, advocating, and promotion of that behavior.
What this judge is saying is that it is OK, excusable, and justifiable to molest a child.
Instead of pitying the offender, what about the victims? When is it OK for someone to act out their own selfish desires on an innocent child? What about the children whose lives have been ripped apart at the seams?
Seems to me if anyone was to deserve pity, it would be the victim.
Train Up a Child Part II
Pro 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
There is a difference between TRAINING and EDUCATION.
Education is all about knowledge. Education typically involves someone dumping a bunch of information on a student and then seeing what percentage of it sticks.
Training on the other hand is different. Training is all about behavior. Training is about changing existing behavior or creating a new behavior.
With training, the trainee performs a task over and over again until they get it right.
That’s why the military, police, firefighters, etc all use training techniques to ingrain new behaviors into the trainees.
As parents, we are instructed to use training when it comes to our children.
In their youth, children are not mature enough to get anything out of having a bunch of information dumped on them and then use reasoning to discipline themselves into new behaviors.
We as parents are to train up our children. Children must perform an activity over and over again until they get it right. Behaviors trained into a child during their youth do not easily disappear later in life.
Notes on Guidance
Proverbs 16:3 (Amplified Bible)
Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
Psalm 37:23 (New King James Version)
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way.
John 10:4-5 (King James Version)
And when he [The Good Shepherd] putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
Keep in mind that you come to “know” a voice by hearing it repeatedly over and over again. What “voice” you expose yourself to most, you will recognize and be sensitive to. Voices you ignore and/or do not expose yourself to, will become strange to you.
You get to know Jesus’ voice by reading, hearing, and speaking His Word.
Focus
God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed in the Garden.
Gen 2:8-9
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Notice that even the Tree of Life was available for them among the variety of other trees that were good to eat from.
Gen 2:15-17
And the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”
Next, notice that all satan had to do was to get their attention off of everything else that God had provided them and on to the one thing they didn’t have.
Gen 3:1-7
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, “Yea, hath God said, `Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, `Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,lest ye die.'” And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and ate, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he ate. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together, and made themselves things to gird about.
Adam and Eve had a perfect environment, a perfect relationship, and all of their physical, soulish, and spiritual needs met. I believe that since He is the same yesterday, today, and forever that they could even ask any questions of Him that they wanted during their cool of the evening walks and He would gladly share His wisdom.
James 1:5
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.
Yet instead of focusing on and being grateful for everything they had that God had freely and liberally given them, they got focused on the one thing they didn’t have, and ended up loosing everthing.
Compromise
Folks today are so quick to compromise. We practice compromise daily on little things, and get far too comfortable just going along with the crowd. Is it really difficult to imagine that many who consider themselves christian will give little thought to compromising even in the last days even when the warning is clear and the
ramifications undeniable?
Rev 13:16-18
And he [the beast] causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
How will we provide for our families if we can’t buy or sell? If we do not believe that God is our source and provider now, then how will we believe that God will provide for us if we choose not to take the mark?
Rev 13:9-11
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 16:1-2
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
Rev 19:20
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
Foolish Comparisons
Probably the most damaging, stress and contention causing behavior we can engage in is comparing ourselves to other people…
2 Corinthians 10:12 (KJV)
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
2 Corinthians 10:12 (AMP)
Not that we [have the audacity to] venture to class or [even to] compare ourselves with some who exalt and furnish testimonials for themselves! However, when they measure themselves with themselves and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding and behave unwisely.
Instead we need to examine ourselves and the only comparison we should make is ourselves to Jesus…
2 Corinthians 13:5 (AMP)
Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you–unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected?
Treasure
Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Luke 6:45 (Whole Chapter)
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil; for of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaketh.
Matthew 12:35
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
What you dwell on and focus on becomes your treasure.
Romans 12:2
And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.