Phil2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind cregard one another as more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Can you imagine how the Church would look if we followed this simple command? Stop and think about the people you know in Church and how they act towards each other? How many gossip?? How many do things for others simply to make themselves feel good? How many truly selfish people are there in God’s church today?
I know I was one of them for a very long time. I was very deceived into thinking I was doing thing’s for others when in reality I wanted the praise and adoration and when I did not
get it I would get upset and usually leave or cause some sort of turmoil.
Look at your own heart and see what God would show you about yourself. Do you do things from a selfish self center motivation or do you do things simply cause God said to do it this way and you are trying to please Him? This is not a question that should be responded to quickly as it takes time to examine your heart and come up with the truth of your motivations. As you search allow God to open your eyes to the truth of your heart. Yes, it’s going to hurt cause we do not like to see where we fall short, but it’s worth it.
The result of your allowing God to do these things is true peace and joy and true love instead of the façade we have used to deceive ourselves up to this point. I promise that you will not be sorry if you will do these things.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Hurting People
Why do we walk around putting on a façade? People are always acting like they have it all together when in reality none of us do. Those who are hurt lash out at those they love and in some cases those they don’t even know. All that happens is hurt leads to more hurt. The few minutes of pleasure from whatever your action leads to years of guilt and heartache for you and the one you hurt. Is it not time we all stop being fake and start being real? Are people capable of being real with one another instead of the façade that is their life? What makes us think we are so special that we can harm anyone we chose just because we hurt? Christ went through far more than any of us will ever endure and He did it so we could be real with Him and with each other.
Christians are the world’s worst about beating up those who fall into sin and in doing so they cause more pain than is already there and in most cases cause the person to sin even more. Will “Father” hold us accountable for that person’s sin because of our words or actions?
James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious qand does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s rreligion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: sto visit torphans and widows in their affliction, and uto keep oneself vunstained from the world.
This pretty clearly tells me that He will hold it against us! Can you stand up to those things you use to Judge others? I can’t! I can only pray that God allows me the grace to see my pride and arrogance so that I may repent and know that He is God.
Paul tells us all:
Phillipians 2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from flove, any gparticipation in the Spirit, any haffection and sympathy, 2 icomplete my joy by being jof the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from krivalry or lconceit, but in mhumility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you nlook not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others
Please, take time to stop and see what you are doing to those you speak to. See if you are lifting them up with you speech.
Christians are the world’s worst about beating up those who fall into sin and in doing so they cause more pain than is already there and in most cases cause the person to sin even more. Will “Father” hold us accountable for that person’s sin because of our words or actions?
James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious qand does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s rreligion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: sto visit torphans and widows in their affliction, and uto keep oneself vunstained from the world.
This pretty clearly tells me that He will hold it against us! Can you stand up to those things you use to Judge others? I can’t! I can only pray that God allows me the grace to see my pride and arrogance so that I may repent and know that He is God.
Paul tells us all:
Phillipians 2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from flove, any gparticipation in the Spirit, any haffection and sympathy, 2 icomplete my joy by being jof the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from krivalry or lconceit, but in mhumility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you nlook not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others
Please, take time to stop and see what you are doing to those you speak to. See if you are lifting them up with you speech.
New Wine
Mark 2:18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
All wine connoisseurs know that the longer you let wine age the better it gets. And as it ferments, if it’s in an old wine skin, it will burst the skin from the gasses it produces. Where as a new wine skin is flexible and capable of expanding to contain the gasses. When you make new wine there is uncertainty as to how it will come out. Some times its bitter, sometimes its sweet, sometimes it does not ferment right. So it can be a strange experiment in making new wine.
This is symbolic of us as we get stuck in our comfort zones and refuse to let go of the old to follow God into the new things He wants to do with our lives and our churches. If God poured the new into your comfort zones then it would literally destroy you on the inside because your comfort zones cannot contain what is produced by what God pours into you. So God has to make us new as a new wine skin so we can expand to contain the blessings He is going to pour into us.
Eph 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom wevery family3 in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to xthe riches of his glory yhe may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit zin your inner being, 17 aso that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being brooted and cgrounded in love, 18 may have strength to dcomprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and eheight and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ fthat surpasses knowledge, that gyou may be filled with all hthe fullness of God.
The question is do we remain in our comfort zones because it’s easy or do we step out through the fear of the unknown and follow God? Do we remain inside our comfort zones and stay in the same old humdrumness that we been in for no telling how long or do we open our hearts up to God to be made new and receive the blessings God has ordained for our lives?
I petition all of you to open up and allow God to pour in the new wine and to bring you out of the comfort zones that is your life and let it become His life so that His true will may be done through you and those around you.
May God richly bless you and fill you with all His goodness and new things.
All wine connoisseurs know that the longer you let wine age the better it gets. And as it ferments, if it’s in an old wine skin, it will burst the skin from the gasses it produces. Where as a new wine skin is flexible and capable of expanding to contain the gasses. When you make new wine there is uncertainty as to how it will come out. Some times its bitter, sometimes its sweet, sometimes it does not ferment right. So it can be a strange experiment in making new wine.
This is symbolic of us as we get stuck in our comfort zones and refuse to let go of the old to follow God into the new things He wants to do with our lives and our churches. If God poured the new into your comfort zones then it would literally destroy you on the inside because your comfort zones cannot contain what is produced by what God pours into you. So God has to make us new as a new wine skin so we can expand to contain the blessings He is going to pour into us.
Eph 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom wevery family3 in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to xthe riches of his glory yhe may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit zin your inner being, 17 aso that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being brooted and cgrounded in love, 18 may have strength to dcomprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and eheight and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ fthat surpasses knowledge, that gyou may be filled with all hthe fullness of God.
The question is do we remain in our comfort zones because it’s easy or do we step out through the fear of the unknown and follow God? Do we remain inside our comfort zones and stay in the same old humdrumness that we been in for no telling how long or do we open our hearts up to God to be made new and receive the blessings God has ordained for our lives?
I petition all of you to open up and allow God to pour in the new wine and to bring you out of the comfort zones that is your life and let it become His life so that His true will may be done through you and those around you.
May God richly bless you and fill you with all His goodness and new things.
Forgetting the Past
Phil 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: nforgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for othe prize of the upward pcall of God in Christ Jesus.
One of the things that has held me back from accomplishing all the things God wanted for me was me beating myself up over the things I had done in the last hour or the last week or however long it happened to be. I was pouring guilt onto myself because I did not toe the line. This is legalism at its worse. So many of us hold ourselves to legalistic laws that we set based off something someone said or a scripture we took out of context. We need to remember Paul’s words in these verses and forget what’s behind because it’s forgiven and move on towards the goal that is the call of God in Christ Jesus. This has been the single hardest thing for me to grasp in the 15 years I have been a Christian and it was not until just recently that I finally realized what I was doing.
Does this describe you too? If so remember, Christ forgives as soon as you repent, no exceptions. If you continue in the legalism of beating yourself up for not getting it right then you are holding yourself accountable to the law and putting Christ’s death into a done for nothing category. It’s time to let it all go and to understand your forgiven and that God knows all about YOU and all you have done which is why He sent HIS Son to die on a cross for you. Again, forget the past and get back to running the race.
One of the things that has held me back from accomplishing all the things God wanted for me was me beating myself up over the things I had done in the last hour or the last week or however long it happened to be. I was pouring guilt onto myself because I did not toe the line. This is legalism at its worse. So many of us hold ourselves to legalistic laws that we set based off something someone said or a scripture we took out of context. We need to remember Paul’s words in these verses and forget what’s behind because it’s forgiven and move on towards the goal that is the call of God in Christ Jesus. This has been the single hardest thing for me to grasp in the 15 years I have been a Christian and it was not until just recently that I finally realized what I was doing.
Does this describe you too? If so remember, Christ forgives as soon as you repent, no exceptions. If you continue in the legalism of beating yourself up for not getting it right then you are holding yourself accountable to the law and putting Christ’s death into a done for nothing category. It’s time to let it all go and to understand your forgiven and that God knows all about YOU and all you have done which is why He sent HIS Son to die on a cross for you. Again, forget the past and get back to running the race.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)