A Thought for the Day – 011 – Turkey Day – careful with that
expression!
Life
in the Spirit of God is – Love; then Joy: promoting Peace, followed by Patience,
resulting in Kindness, expressing Goodness, revealing Faithfulness, providing Gentleness
and characterizing Self-control. One problem I see with most of us believers is
that we know the effects of the Holy Spirit on the lives of others, but we fail
to allow the Holy Spirit to be effective in our own life… we fail: Ephesians 5:25-26.
Comments and challenges
Ouch? Why I wonder
has God allowed thorns to grow on rose bushes? Our grumbling nature is always
at work to take the beauty of Creation and turn it into something evil,
sinister even. Would we not rather understand that behind all of the thorns of
life is a rose, either beginning to bloom or is in full bloom! The original
thought behind my though is the words of the French novelist
Alphonse Karr who wrote, "Some people are always grumbling because roses
have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses."
You
might be like me and sense a growing concern in our churches to put the brakes
on grumbling. I believe that “grumblers” occupy most of the seats in churches
today. Those who understand
that living apart from the grace of God will cause reversion to the hypocrite
of yonder years are “slim pickens” in churches today. Now again don’t take me
wrong in this, I can be guilty and often are of showing a lack of the Love of
God for others; thus I am dead in the Spirit and alive in flesh at these times!
Yes these are strong words, but listen to the Psalmist in Psalm 1:1-3. So are
you being blessed in these positions or cursed? God has already provided you with
the answer.
Blessed is the man who walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in
the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the
law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season.
Whose leaf also shall not
wither: And whatever he does shall proper.
I
believe that the Holy Bible is very clear; Spiritual Prosperity is available to
any saint of God who gives chase for the Word of the Living God. However and
just as important is that the pursuit of biblical wisdom without the guidance
of the indwelling Spirit and the Righteous clothing of the LORD Jesus Christ is
useless so let us look for a bit at the scriptures. In scripture we see the attributes
of men and women who practiced godliness, sin accountability and esteeming
others better than themselves and we should learn.
John
1:47 – Early in the ministry of Jesus Christ, He was choosing His disciples and
when He saw Nathanael He said these words that John records for us. Jesus saw
Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him. “Behold an Israelite indeed, in
whom is no guile” (cunning) now on your own please read the context verses 43
through 51 and note that God (Jesus) knows us individually, He knows us while
we meditate on Him. He see us daily coming to Him in prayer, saints who are
full of guile are not out of His sight either, but they at that moment in time
will not be selected as His disciple. O woe is me if I am not in the Spirit
when Christ needs me!
In
the Old Testament we hear of the man Daniel and his three companions, King
Nebuchadnezzar took the nation Israel into captivity and resolved to train up
some of the young men to become fluent in the language of the Babylonians and
to eat the food of the Babylonians. He even had their names changed to
Babylonian names. These young men were to be “brainwashed” of any and all
things Jewish. Daniel and the three with him refused or resolved to go against
the king’s decree and not defile themselves with the idolatries of Babylon.
Go
ahead and think that this event in the history of Israel has nothing to do with
the counsel of the ungodly, the path of sinners or the seat of the scorners.
Bah Humbug; do not think that way! Because they refused the kings counsel,
because they refused the Babylonian path of life and because they chose not to
sit in the seat that would eventually scorn the God of the Israelites. Their action
and witness changed the path of King Nebuchadnezzar’s self-admiration. God
interrupted his walk, his counsel and his kingdom seat by a seven year trial,
placing him in a field with bulls and cows to graze like an animal. And for
seven years he did live like a bull. After seven years he was a changed man and
understood that God is to be feared and worshipped; not scorned. Had
Nebuchadnezzar chose to remain ungodly, surely he would have ended up like the
remainder of Psalm 1:3-6; a sourpuss!
The ungodly are not so, but
are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall
not stand in the Judgment, nor sinners in the congregations of the righteous.
For the LORD know the way of
the righteous. But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
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