The Devotional - 134 - More on Faith/Rest

Thought for the Day – 134 – Faith/Rest

Proverbs 17:12 – The wounds of a bear protecting her cubs are physical and life threatening, but the wounds of folly by the fool have eternal damnation. Protect yourself and your home from the fool, he or she purposes in their heart eternal harm for you. Proverbs 9:13-18

  

Comments and challenges

We ended yesterday with deception as being the sin that causes believers in Jesus Christ to fail in faith and fail in resting in God. Also remember that I started out by referencing the statement recorded by Mark in Mark 2:27-28. Worthy of repeating again but if you have the note from yesterday, it should not be hard to bring it up.

Jesus is LORD of the Sabbath, He is also LORD of the Faith/Rest Life and today we will focus on the sin of deception which simply is any sin that rejects the known will of God for the believer. I believe in the literal interpretation of the Holy Bible. The following is what the Bible says about Jesus Christ; it is what I believe and readily share.

“In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” John 1:1-4.

This statement by the apostle John is the primary reason I use terms like: “the Holy Bible or the Living Word of God or even that I love the Word of God.” The Holy Bible in association with the Holy Spirit of God breaths the Life of the Living God into genuine focus this life is none other than the Risen Jesus Christ. Thus when the writer of Hebrews says… Hebrews 4:11-13.

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest (faith/rest), lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience (the failure of the wilderness generation; Hebrews 3:16-19). For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account”.

… I then say that we have a very serious responsibility to be keenly aware of our daily sanctification. In Hebrews; not only in Hebrews 4:11-13 but in the entire 13 chapters we are faced with the superiority of Christ, over the angels, patriarchs and high priests of past generations. Therefore God expects better things concerning us, things that accompany salvation; like obedience or labors of love toward His Name, Hebrews 6:9-12.

“Today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart as in the day of rebellion” Hebrews 3:15, taken from Psalm 95:1-11 by the writer of Hebrews who is today speaking to you and me about loving God with all of our heart, mind and soul (the first section of the Law or the first commandment of Matthew 22:37-40. If we do not get this right, then we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us, 1 John 1:5-10.

The test of the faith/rest life is 1 John 2:3-11, note verse 9 “He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.” The second half of the Ten Commandments or the second commandment of Matthew 22:37-40.

So we live in very serious times where God is openly attacked by deception. Over the last sixty years secular humanism has methodically torn down His Law and sought to establish human rule. In the process the “believer in Christ” has fallen into this deception. Personal faith/rest is not seen in believers these days because our churches are failing to uphold the standard of: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 22:37-40.

Again, the sin of deception is knowing what the will of God is and refusing to do it.