THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 2

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Day 2:  Abraham's Part of the Covenant (Genesis 17)

At the age of 99, God Almighty, El Shaddai, speaks again to his servant Abram, calling him to “walk before Me, and be blameless.”  God reminded him again of the blessings that would come and even changed his name to Abraham (from “exalted father” to “the father of a multitude.”)  All the blessings that would come from God’s covenant with Abraham were God’s part of the covenant.  But Abraham wasn’t off the hook.  God clearly told him his part in the covenant, “This is My covenant, which YOU SHALL KEEP, between Me and you and your descendants after you:  every male among you shall be circumcised.”

I can’t even begin to imagine Abraham’s initial response to such a command!  Can you?  Yet, he immediately went out from God’s presence and obeyed what the Lord had commanded.  Maybe it was the terms of the consequences of disobedience that catapulted Abraham to such obedient action.  God had precisely told him that any who refused to comply with the covenant agreement would be cut off from his people.  Disobedience would be evidence of a broken covenant, and God takes covenant very seriously!

Abraham understood his relationship with God. He knew his responsibility was to keep his end of the covenant in order to stay in covenant relationship.  It is clear that God has a part for us to do as well.  While Abraham’s part was to circumcise the flesh of the foreskin of every male, our part is to allow God to circumcise the foreskin of our hearts.  God wants to weed out every sin that still lies in our hearts, every wrong motive, every wicked word of our tongue, with the goal being Christ-likeness.  Our circumcised hearts are a sign to God that we are living obedient, surrendered lives.  This is our part of the covenant.

Another way to look at the circumcision of our hearts is to return to God’s words to Abraham:  “Walk before Me, and be blameless.”  These words He still loudly speaks to us today.  God is calling us to personal holiness (“Be holy, for I am holy”), to sanctification.  This includes walking in the Spirit, growing into mature Christians, dying to our fleshly disobedience, and living a life of integrity.  Are you as willing to obey God’s command as Abraham was?  Are you today?  Consider your answer, and talk to God about it.  Remember, God takes covenant seriously.  So should we!

God's Warnings--Ex. 11

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My Precious One, how easy it is to ignore My warnings, when the one I am warning is you.  How equally easy it is to know of My warnings to another and judge their lack of response.  This morning as you read the passage concerning Pharaoh's final warning, it was easy for you to read it with the mind set that it was foolish for Pharaoh to ignore My 7 warnings and My 9 plagues.  Yet, that is exactly what you do when you know the behavior I desire from you, and you choose instead to ignore what you know that I have clearly asked of you.

Pharaoh could easily ignore My warnings and plagues because, with each time that he followed his own heart, his heart became hardened a bit more.  As he scoffed at the warning, not believing Me at all, it got easier to repeat the wrong response.  By the time I reached the tenth and final plague, his heart was so hard and unbelieving that he thought nothing of what Moses had said to him by prophecy.  He did not count the cost at all for his willful, stubborn disobedience.  His hard heart had already cost him much, but he was willing to overlook it, believing that, in the end, he would prevail over Me.  When Moses told him of the death that would be coming to all the firstborn of the Egypt, Pharaoh never considered that if Moses was speaking the truth (as he had 9 previous times), that he himself would lose his own firstborn.  Because his unbelief prevailed, all of Egypt went into deep sorrow and mourning when they witnessed the devastation that the Angel of Death delivered.

My Precious One, how many warnings from Me will you continue to ignore, believing that no real harm will come to you. Ignoring My warnings, those things that I have clearly laid out for you in My Word, leads to sinful disobedience.   And do you not know that your lack of concern for your disobedience reveals your true heart?  Your disobedience, at its core, is unbelief in Me, the One you say is your Lord.

Disobedience is its own form of unbelief.  When you disobey Me you are telling Me that you believe in your own, sinful heart's desires more than you believe in My ability to provide a way of escape for you.  Did you notice that every one of  My 7 warnings to Pharaoh included a way a repentance for him, a way for him to turn around and heed My warning?  You see, I desire to bring you to repentance, too.  Pharaoh never took Me up on it.  Will you?

The Burning Fire of Lust

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Cravings . . . we all have them, don't we?  I was not one of those pregnant women that had the strange food cravings common in pregnancy.  But I certainly know what it feels like to crave something.  You know what I am talking about!  The inner urgency to have what you want, and right now!  Here is the simplified pattern of a craving.  You look at something or just think about it, then you desire it so strongly that you just have to have it.  It can take several days, weeks, months, or even longer, for the process to be completed, or it may take a mere matter of seconds.  Either way, one way or another, you will satisfy the craving, not matter what.  If you can relate to that because you have experienced it (and we all have!), then you know what it is to lust after something.

LUST . . . it is a topic most Christians want to avoid talking about, yet every one of us struggles with it. We usually attach a sexual connotation to the subject, yet most of our lust issues have nothing to do with sex.  They have to do with trying to remove God's rightful place on the throne of our lives with things that we consider far more self-satisfying and flesh-feeding.  Since we dethrone God in order to place a higher priority on our lusts and to enthrone them, we can also call our lusts both 'gods' and 'idols.'  Lusting after anything but God and the things of God, and chasing after them until we get what we want, is ultimately about placing ourselves on the throne of our own lives.

Your lust may not seem like an earth-shattering sin.  It might not even be sinful.  But in the beginning, lust spreads through our hearts like a wildfire.  It starts with just a little spark of fire, but has the potential to destroy thousands of acres of fertile ground, charring and blackening everything in its path.  And its path is not a simple line; it is far-reaching and in every direction.  

Lust is a fire in the soul that seeks to burn up every good thing found there.  One lust that begins as the spark of one simple action, if continually practiced over and over will, given enough time and attention, begin to destroy in your heart the good workings of God.  Your walk with Him, that once seemed so intimate and precious, soon will take on the stench of smoke.  If you take a closer look , you will likely see where the fire has already been.  You once green vine is now charred  and your fruit has burned up.

The fire of lust can be kept outside of the Christian heart, but it only takes one tiny opening for a spark to enter and set ablaze the house of the Holy Spirit.  Our hearts are to be set on fire, but by the Holy Spirit, who calls us to walk in holiness and righteousness, crucifying our fleshly desires, and establishing Christ as our only ruler on the throne.

What does your heart look like?  Are you faithfully keeping the world's flames at bay?  Do you smell smoke?  Where there is smoke, there is fire!  Surrender your lusts.  Lay them down at the foot of the cross.  Now, let the fire of the Holy Spirit ignite your heart!

 

Remedy For a Sin-broken Heart

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Solomon had just finished his beautiful, powerful prayer to God as he dedicated the newly built temple.  He concluded with a call to all of Israel to devote themselves, their hearts, to the Lord by walking faithfully in all of His commandments.  By setting the Ark of the Covenant in the new Holy of Holies, God would then be able to say, "My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually."  

Solomon's connection between the Ark of the Covenant where God dwelt then, and our hearts where God dwells now is critically important to us today.  It is in our heart, the core of our being, that the Holy Spirit perpetually dwells.  He is the eyes who watch everything we think, do, and say.  He is the very heart  of God in us.  And what is the "heart of God?"  It is the very life of Christ.  That is what the Holy Spirit represents in the life of the believer.

Though we have the life of Christ living in us, we so often try to do every spiritual thing in our own power.  We use our strengths and our sheer will-power to try and overcome sin.  We want desperately to walk faithfully in the commands God gives us to live by, and fail miserably with each attempt.  We so often life in a sin-confess-try again cycle, and usually never realize that this is simply a dog chasing its tail.  We go round and round and round, but we never really get anywhere.

So what is the secret, then, to having an unbroken heart, a heart healed of its sinful ways that obeys the Lord's commands?  Zechariah the prophet speaks loudly the key to having an unbroken heart.  "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the Lord. (4:6).

The healing of the continual sin in your heart will not come by might ("I am trying hard to handle this.  I failed yesterday, but I will try harder today."), nor will it come from your strength and power  ("I am strong; I can get through this; I did yesterday, so I will today as well.").  The spiritual healing of your heart, the very removal of fleshly gods, idols, and sins,  will happen because of your working at it.  God requires one thing from you to become an obedient child who walks in His pure and righteous ways.  He requires your surrender to the Spirit.  Your transformed heart, changing from broken to unbroken, from sin-stained to holy, is the work of the Spirit.  This work happens from the inside out by the Spirit, not from the outside in by your striving flesh!

In every 12 step program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the transforming work begins with these 3 principles:  I can't; You can; go ahead!  Do you hear the surrender of such a prayer?  This should be our constant prayer!  Why not begin right now to apply the truth of Zechariah 4:6.  It will sound a something like this:

"Holy Spirit, you have a job to do in my heart, but You require me to seek Your work in me from a place of humility and surrender.  I am struggling with committing the sin of _______.  I have tried to stop and have failed miserably.  I know that my flesh cannot transform my heart.  Only You can.  So I come to You today, with my flesh crucified and my spirit crying out to You.  'I can't get this done in me!  But I know that You can!  So please go ahead!'  I surrender to Your work in me."

By using the "Post Comment" button below, why not report back what the Spirit is doing in you as an encouragement to the other readers of this blog!  And while you are at it, click on the "follow" button to the right!

Saying Is Not Doing

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Great acts of courage can elevate a man. Gideon humbly assumed the role of "judge" and fought for Israel's freedom. Israel wanted him to rule over them, and with great sincerity he refused, saying no man would be their ruler, only the Lord. But immediately he began acting like a king. Out of his spoils of war (that he required from each man), Gideon made an ephod for Israel to worship, and it became a snare to them.

There are many quotable quotes from Gone With the Wind, but there is one that applies here.  While this may be a more "formal" use of the language, the quote is perfect for today's blog.  Saying simply is NOT doing.

Gideon had chased an army, far larger than his own, 150 miles and defeated them, killed their kings, and secured peace, both militarily and domestically, for his nation.  When he returned to his people, they cried out for him to be their ruler.  With what appeared to be a sincerely humble heart, Gideon declared that neither he or his bloodline would be their ruler because the Lord was the only ruler that they needed.

When you read that passage in the Bible your first though, like mine, was that this is a man of great integrity.  It would be pretty difficult to turn down such a request, with all of its power, prestige, and financial blessing! My own heart was challenged as I question what my true response would have been. Yet Gideon declines.  I trusted in the true and humble integrity of a man who had been born into a family considered to be the "least in Manasseh."   And in his own family Gideon was also the "youngest in his father's house."  He seemed to know his place while at the same time knowing God's.

But something wasn't right in Gideon's heart.  His actions did not match his words!  While he refused to be become Israel's ruler, he had no problem asking each of his soldiers to give him part of their spoils.  Though they might have offered it to him because he had led them well, to ask for what was theirs revealed a heart that elevated itself above others.  What he received from them was more than 50 pounds of gold, making his "take" far greater than theirs. 

Not only did he require what was not his, adding it to his own portion, Gideon also took the exquisite ornaments and purple robes of the two Midianite kings and the neck bands of the camels of the Midianite army.  Then Gideon made an ephod out of the metals and set it up in his city.  The people were so enamored with it that they came and worshiped before it.  Gideon, the great judge of Israel, introduced another form of idolatry to God's people.  Gideon had led the army well in defeat of their physical enemies, but he led his people astray to worship the enemy of their heart!

Gideon's success as a leader brought out the "god" of his heart.  Success corrupted him to the level that he was able to convince Israel by his words of his sincerity of heart, when all along his heart was stained with pride, self-interest, self-elevation, and idolatry.

Integrity is heart- defining.  It can't be faked for very long.  What you say must be followed up with actions that are in line with your words.  Saying is not doing.  Integrity is the character trait of aligning your words with your actions. Do your actions match the words that you speak?  Can you be described by your actions as "full of integrity?"  Are you winning the spiritual battle in your heart?  Or are you just saying that you are?  Remember. . . saying is not doing!

No Other "gods"

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When Israel demanded a golden calf when they thought Moses would not return, he came down the mountain and burned and crushed their man-made idol. He put the dust of it in their water and made them drink it. When we create "gods" in our lives, THE God will not only crush it to pieces, but we often have to drink of its bitter consequences. "You shall have NO other gods before Me. I am your all in all!"

I was surprised to learn as I studied this review of the 10 Commandments that "before Me" literally means "in God's sight" or "to His face."  It does not mean that you as long as you have God in 1st place in your life you can have your little gods, too.  

When we create a god in our lives, whether it is a particular sin that we default to or a pervasive sinful attitude, we have actually put our god right in God's face!  This is not permissible.  We cannot claim that God is our 1st love while having other "loves" on the side!  If God is truly our first love and priority, the One we default to, then there is no room for other gods.  With God as our only God, and if we truly love Him, then we are living our lives "to keep the commandments of God".  If gods are present in your heart, you cannot fully follow Him.

What is inside your heart?  What is it that you constantly try to keep hidden from others? What is it that you have written off to "your personality" or "inherited behaviors?"  God wants your heart to be circumcised, with the flesh cut away from it, leaving only the Spirit who dwells there within you.  What does this then require of you?  Check out Deuteronomy 10: 12, 13, and 16.  God clearly states what He expects of us:

Fear Him (reverence and honor Him as the only God.)

Walk in His ways (as Christ walked, where He tells you to walk)


Love Him by intentionally setting your affections on Him

Serve Him with every bit of your heart and soul (no room for other gods)

Keep (DO!) God's commandments, all that His word tells us.




This is how you circumcise your heart; this is how you stop "stiffening your neck".  God wants your whole heart, all of you, not just the parts you choose to give Him.