GOD'S VISION

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 (Read Genesis 13-14)

You have seen today in this passage of Scripture that Abram, after defecting from the path I had for him by going to Egypt during the famine, did not trust in My provision for him.  He attempted to "take care of himself" and he failed miserably.  He could have lost his life by such self-dependence.

Having seen the error of his way, Abram returned to the last place he had been found walking in My path.  He returned to the "tent of his beginning and the altar of his first worship."  The time he wasted had to be put behind him, in order for him to move forward, and this new beginning had to begin at the same point where he left the correct course.  Abram went back to his tent near Bethel and he called out to Me in surrender.

Having heard his prayer, I was now ready to move him forward in My plan.  I showed him the land that I was promising to give him.  Not only was I willing to show it to him, I had him walk about the entire land of promise.  I left it to him where he would now live.  Having considered it, he chose to move his tent forward in My plan by pitching it near the oaks of Mamre in Hebron.  There he began to dwell in the land, and he built an altar where he could worship Me.

You see, by the definition of the names of the places Abram dwelt in, his surrender and obedience could clearly be seen.  By saying their names Abram would constantly be reminded of the state of his journey.  He dwelt by the oaks of VISION (Mamre) and in COMMUNION (Hebron) with Me.

My precious one, I desire this same thing from you.  My desire is that you dwell, live, abide in My vision, My plan, My purposes for you which can be found and lived out when you are in close communion with Me.  This will require that you return from your journey to Egypt, where you have walked in your own self-reliance, self-provision, self-sufficiency.  It will require that you come back to the place where I first called you to, the vision of what I can do through you if you would surrender to Me.  It will require your surrender (again) and your full obedience to the journey of MY choosing. 

I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans for a future and a hope.  This is My VISION; live in it.  And come now and COMMUNE with Me at the altar of surrender and obedience.  This is the worship I desire of you.

Are You "Baking" every day?

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Do you bake every day?  I know I don't, even though I much prefer baking to cooking!  Today's blog has everything to do with baking, but not the kind that you and I are thinking about right now.  

While reading in Ezekiel 46 I came across a "family recipe,"  one that is as old as eternity past.  It is not your ordinary kind of recipe, but one that will produce the sweetest aroma you can imagine, and it reaches to the highest heavens!

As God is concluding His instructions for His chosen people through the prophet Ezekiel regarding the Millennial Temple and the ministry to be carried out in it, He speaks to Ezekiel about the daily sacrifices that will take place in the future.  Ezekiel 46: 13-15 describes the sacrifices as daily . . . morning by morning . . . a continual burnt offering.  On the surface it sounds like the offerings God spoke to Moses about when the very first temple (the Wilderness Tabernacle) was being initiated.  How strange to think about that offering as one that will also be taking place in the Millennial Reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, after tribulation!

As I pondered this sacrifice, my thoughts turned to the here and now.  Was there a way for me to offer this kind of sacrifice to God . . . now?  I went back and read the verses again and the Spirit began to open my eyes to this passage's relevance to me today.  This is what He showed me.

The first and most important sacrifice is the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb, without which I have no reason to offer a sacrifice to God.  Jesus is the focal point of my worship, worship which should be happening every single morning, on a daily basis.  With my eyes firmly fixed on the altar of His sacrifice, the old rugged cross, I can see Christ the Lamb as who He truly is, and I also can see myself in light of the that, humbled in my sin and need of Him daily. 

Now I will be able to bring God my proper and true worship, the grain and the oil.   When you "moisten the fine flour" of the Word of God, which is the truth God has given us,  with the "oil" of the Holy Spirit, you only have a sticky, gooey dough.  But when you bake it in an oven (Ezek. 46: 20), you create bread,  baked daily, as you bring the right ingredients together!

Our daily life is the oven in which the bread bakes.  Even as the priests took the flour and the oil, mixed them together, and baked them outside of the temple, so we, the chosen, royal priesthood, are to take the flour (the Word) and the oil (the Holy Spirit) and mix them together. . . daily, morning by morning, for a continual offering!  As we take that "dough" out into our earthly walk, it bakes in the heat of this world and becomes bread.  This bread is the fruit of our walk, which others can then partake of!  This is true worship!

John 4:23-24 says this:

"But an hour is coming, and NOW IS, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in SPIRIT and in TRUTH; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him MUST worship in SPIRIT and in TRUTH."

Isn't it time for the body of Christ to begin to take BAKING a little more seriously?  Make a plan for yourself.  Determine that you are going to mix up a batch of dough every morning as an offering to the Lord.  Then take that dough out into your daily life, and watch how it bakes!  It is time to feed the hungry, but we cannot feed them if we are not, in our own lives, mixing up the batter of the Word and the Spirit and sticking the batter into our lives.  We cannot feed Christ to the world if we are not baking bread!

  

The Distant Sound of the Trumpet Call

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Do you hear it?  It is not the blare of a trumpet, but it is a trumpet call nonetheless.  God is calling this Christian generation to a lifestyle of holiness.  For too long we have been "winking" at our sin or simply turning a blind eye to it.  But God neither winks at our sin, nor does He close His eyes to it.  

One of the biggest problems I see in Christianity today is that we are living lives that are sinful and impure, but we are not attacking our sin and impurity.  We seem to be quite content to peacefully co-exist with unholiness, with a great sense of "entitlement."  We know that we are believers and that our eternity will be spent in heaven, so we tend to let sin off of hook instead of daily dealing with it by surrendering to the Spirit and with the repentance that should follow our surrender.  We are very good at telling God we are sorry for the sins we commit, but are we good in the area of turning around from our sin so that we can walk back to God?  Do we really desire to walk on His highway to holiness?

While reading in Ezekiel the past several days, some truths jumped off the page for me to consider.  Ezekiel's message was to Israel because they, as God's elect and chosen ones, had fallen far away from His commandments, and were guilty of assumption that God would do them no harm.  They even had "prophets and priests" claiming that God didn't really see what they were doing!  My heart has taken notice that it would be easy to think, that because I am now in the family of God, my sin really is irrelevant now because I am covered by the covenant.  It is easy to think that now, and it was easy to think that just prior to God exiling His own people to Assyria and Babylon.  

Ezekiel 16: 1-14 outlines God's merciful grace to Israel when they were nothing but a sinful group, just like the rest of the world.  He declared to them, "Live!"  Then He entered into a covenant with them. Ezekiel reminds them that God then bathed them, washed off the blood on them, anointed them with oil, and clothed and adorned them.  Having done all of that, He made them beautiful, famous, and full of splendor.

Now I have to ask.  Isn't that exactly what He did for you and me?  He offered us eternal life through His Son, and when we accepted it, He entered into covenant with us, and us with Him.  He baptized us into His family, washing away our sin-stained hearts and continues to wash us with the water of the Word of God.  He anointed us with oil by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, and we wear robes of righteousness when we walk in the Spirit, obey the righteous commands of God.  God has made the Gentile believers, who were once no part of God's chosen,  to be beautiful and full of splendor now.

Ezekiel 16: 15-29 tells the sorrowful story of Israel's ultimate trust in themselves and their "beauty."  The result of that was their idol worship that took their trusting eyes off of God, focusing instead on the gods of their own making.  They exchanged the "jewels" of  God, His bountiful blessings, for those activities, thoughts, and beliefs that fed their own flesh.  Having forgotten the place out of which God had saved them, Israel now turned to their selfish ways and began to live again like the world around them, trusting more in the world than in their God.  Chasing every other god and idol around them, and doing whatever they wanted to do, they still seemed to think that their one true God didn't mind.  Yet He said to them just prior to taking them into exile, "Were your harlotries so small a matter?"  Israel never seemed to catch on that they never were satisfied living in the ways of the world.

Have we not, in this 21st century, created the exact same scenario for ourselves?  We trust more in our ticket to heaven than in the God who stamped the ticket with His own blood.  We have exchanged the many blessings He bestows on the repentant and obedient for what the world and our flesh can give us.  We, too, have forgotten the wretched state that our Savior pulled us up and out of, desiring more to jump back into that "miry clay," thinking that our lifestyle of "some" sin is okay with God, because He has saved us from sin and death.  And He is saying to you and me today, "Are your sins and the things you put before Me a small matter to Me?"  The answer seems obvious.

In Ezekiel 16: 30-43 God called His people harlots several times, and also referred to their lovers whom they had chosen far above Him.  Are we not His people, too, who have chosen so many lovers (mostly ourselves) over Him?

Finally, in Ezekiel 16: 44 an old proverb is quoted, "Like mother, like daughter."  For Ezekiel's day Israel was the mother, and Judah was the daughter.  But if we Gentile believers were grafted into the branch of Israel, adopted into the original family, then Israel is the mother, and we are the daughter.  God is saying we are just like them, doing exactly what they did.  He didn't like it then; He doesn't like it now.  If you look at verse 47, He also declares that what the daughter is doing is more corrupt than the mother.  That would seem to be true, given that Israel had no fulfilling Sacrifice, no Holy Spirit and no written Word of God.  We have the privilege to partake of all three, yet we are unwilling to surrender ourselves and turn from the wicked idol worship present in us all.

I cannot speak for you, but I know that this message has convicted my heart and causes me to desire to walk according to the calling on my life, to be holy because God is holy, using the "everything" that has been given to me for life and godliness.

These are the ideas that God spoke to me about in His word this morning.  They are a trumpet call to me.  Maybe they will be to you, as well.  The trumpet is calling me to put away my sin for good.  Is it calling you to do the same?

Are You A Busybody?

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When I was 6 years old, my family got its first pet.  Tippy was her name (because of the white tip on her tail), and she looked very much like this sad-eyed beagle.  I wasn't much of a "dog person," having really preferred to have a cute, adorable, fluffy kitten, but my brothers and dad outnumbered my mom and me.

Every third day it was my job to take Tippy her food and water (a child must learn responsibility at a young age!).  But there was just one problem:  every time I entered the pen, Tippy would jump up on me, eager to have her one meal of the day.  I disliked very much that she did this, and in a quite normal reflex, I would lift the food bowl above my head out of fear.  You can imagine what happened then!  You see, I just didn't know the natural tendencies of a dog.  I had to learn them, and Dad was my teacher.  He also taught me one other thing about dogs--never, EVER, pull their ears.  They really don't like that!  I had completely forgotten about this tidbit of information that I was given as a child, until I read today's passages in my read-through-the Bible plan.  Proverbs 26:17 jumped off the page and took me back to my childhood and this one particular thing I learned from Dad.  Read it and smile with me!

"Like one who takes a dog by the ears is he who passes by and meddles with strife not belonging to him."

What an incredible and powerful image that came to mind as I read that this morning!  

I had to really think about what this verse was saying.  The one who meddles in the business of another is like the one who would cruelly yank on a dog's ears.  This kind would be considered lacking in compassion, mean at heart, and inhumane.

So what is really meant by the term "meddles".  If we are to understand the gist of this verse, we must understand first what meddling is.  In translating the Hebrew, it was found to mean this--"to alienate and provoke to anger, to run over the top of," and its primitive root is "to cross over."  In other words, to meddle it jump into someone else's strife, in such a way that you "take charge" of their situation by speaking out your opinions on the matter.  And in so doing, you alienate them, and possibly make them quite angry with you.  

As you can see, this is quite different than being asked your opinion and expertise in a mentoring sort of fashion.  On the contrary, to meddle in someone's strife is to speak out from some place of assumed "authority," and to lord over them, not only your superiority, but all of your thoughts on the matter that you assume are correct.  (Certainly more correct than the one with an issue; otherwise, they wouldn't be experiencing strife in their situation, right?)

I think we can cross the bridge and say that if we are meddling in the affairs of others, we are busybodies who will likely offend and make angry those who are suffering in their strife.  They will likely hear our meddlings in a way that will likely cause them to rise up in anger, maybe even viciously.  There response will be akin to how a dog would respond if you pull its ears.

We would be wise to remember this analogy given to the wisest man on the earth.  Solomon was given great wisdom and understanding to both the good and bad nature of man.  Consider carefully each time you come in contact with someone who is having difficulty in their personal lives.  Is God calling you to speak a word of encouragement or exhortation?  If you choose to run ahead of Him, and blurt out all that you are thinking on the matter, you might be received as an "ear-puller" and end up with an "angry dog" lurching at you, ready to attack you for being a busybody meddler.  And who could blame them?  We might just react the same way if we are treated that way.

This challenges me.  Does it you?

Do You Follow Your Heart?

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Should We??

The image is deceptive.  We have heard it forever, haven't we?  As teenagers approaching our college days, not knowing which career path we should choose, our parents likely said to us, "Just follow your heart."  In the dating realm when we are making choices about life partners, we hear the same message, "Just follow your heart."  I have even personally heard attached to that phrase, "It can never disappoint you."  

In the end, following your heart is more about going after, and getting, exactly what you want.  Following your heart is often devoid of wise counsel, let alone the wisdom of God.

We have been told by God in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."  Twice in one verse God mentions His plans.  I can only speak for myself when I say that all too often, when there is a choice out there for me to make, I am prone to follow my heart.  Yet, nearly every time I do that, I have not given any consideration to what God want, His will for me. 

Following your heart is easy.  It simply requires that you are able to discern what you want for yourself, then go with the "good feeling."  We know how to do that!  But to follow God's heart you must be able to set yourself aside and be willing to go in the direction that God is leading you in.  God's way and our way are often in opposition.  And since our flesh has strong desires, we often mistake that as the very will of God.

Our hearts were not designed to lead us, therefore they are not trustworthy to follow.  Proverbs 23:19 speaks loudly to this.  

"Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way."

Do you see the difference?  God does not say that your heart is to direct you to the right things.  On the contrary, He says that you are to direct your heart!  Why is the heart unreliable to lead us?  Genesis 8:21 gives us insight into that.  "For the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth."  Now, if you are thinking, "Yes, but that is from the Old Testament, before the Spirit was given and my heart could be cleansed by Christ's sacrifice," then consider this New Testament verse spoken to converted Christian Jews.  Hebrews 4:12 powerfully aligns itself with the eternal truth of Genesis 8:21 when it declares, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of the soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart . . ."

You see, even though you are a believer and are saved and your heart houses the Holy Spirit this very moment, God is looking into your heart and is quite able to discern which parts of your heart are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and which parts are not.  Though you have been cleansed, you still sin, you still have wrong motives, you still have uncrucified flesh.  And all of that sin resides first and foremost inside your heart, long before it comes out in your actions, words and attitudes.

Do you understand now why it is so dangerous to "follow your heart"?  Your heart cannot be trusted; therefore, it is wise to make decisions based on the counsel of others, the counsel of the Word, and only after much prayer that seeks to know what God desires for you. 

Proverbs 20: 24-25 makes a strong case for not following your heart, but instead, following the steps that God has laid out for you.

"Man's steps are ordained by the Lord; how then can he understand his [own] way [needs, pathways, etc.]?  It is a trap for a man to say rashly, 'It is holy!' [this is what God wants, because it is what I want] and after the vows [making the decision or choice] to make inquiry [ask Him what He thinks or desires]."

How often I have made a decision, determining that what I want is certainly what God wants, only to realize the trap of a poor decision afterwards, when I finally ask God if it is what He wanted for me!  So often I have not been bailed out, but have been disciplined by having to bear the consequences of following my own heart, instead of leading it in the path that God had already ordained for me.  Can you relate? 

Let all believers learn the powerful lesson that following our own hearts is dangerous and most often will lead us on paths that take us away from the safety of God path for us.  And that is not the testimony God desires the lost world to see.

Something More

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(Today's blog is written by Andrea Kukura, and deals with the "meaninglessness of life" and the desire for something more.  Other followers of this blog can submit a blog entry to be published here by sending it to cherylgnagey@gmail.com)

I have read through the Bible many times. I have always thought that the book of Ecclesiastes was kind of depressing. Everything is described as either “meaningless” or “a chasing after the wind”. But this time as I was reading, I was determined to get something more out of it.

It was written by David’s son, Solomon. When he was young and had just become king of Israel, he asked God to give him a wise and discerning heart so that he could govern Israel properly. God was so pleased with his request that he was given those plus riches, honor, and a long life. Other kings came to him seeking knowledge. He had EVERYTHING and yet he said that it was all meaningless.

Now here was the wisest man who had ever walked the earth saying that everything is meaningless. So I thought, if it is all meaningless, why do we stress so much? We measure our worth by how successful we are at work and how many friends we have. We worry about paying our bills, advancement on the job, money in our bank accounts, and what we do or do not own, especially in comparison to others. We strive daily for material possessions, riches, and honor. We never have enough … and it’s all meaningless.

It’s depressing to think that everything that we work so hard for in this life is called meaningless by the wisest man in history. Then I realized that they are all temporal things. The “more” that I was looking for is found in chapter 5 which says “to stand in awe of God” (vs. 7). If he gives you wealth, possessions, and happiness in your work, it is a gift of God (vs19). In 2:26, he says that God also gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to those who please him. So how do we please him? Ch12:13 says “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Everything else is considered “a chasing after the wind”.

To fear God means to have a profound reverence and awe toward God. When you have reverence or revere something, it means to adore, highly respect; to worship. To “keep his commandments” means simply to do what he has told us to do. That includes Matt 6:33 which says, “But seek first his kingdom and righteousness …”There’s the key!

I think that we get it all backwards. We put all of our effort into our physical lives: our careers, our plans, our desires and then give God our leftover time, money, and effort. If we put him first, then he will be faithful to take care of us. So what are we waiting for? What am I waiting for?

What’s really important in this life? Well, nothing that is tangible, that’s for certain! Our relationship with Jesus is first, then our relationships with others. We need to aim our sights higher. Our focus needs to not be on this world but beyond. If all of our efforts are on this life here, how will we ever be prepared for eternity with God? Solomon called our life on earth “a few days” and “a shadow”. I’ve placed a lot of effort into my “few days” when I should be investing in my eternal life with Him. I’m ready to make that investment my main focus. Are you?

Finding Spiritual Healing

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Today I want to introduce to you my book, Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory.  The message of this book is the inspiration of this blog.  If you haven't listened to the video, please do.  It will give you an overview of the precepts found in Spiritual Healing.

You might find yourself wondering why you, as a believer in Jesus Christ, have need for further spiritual healing.  The answer lies in understanding that when you first believed in Christ, the penalty of your sin was removed.  You no longer would be held accountable for the wickedness of your heart and flesh.  But I am convinced that it didn't take you much longer than it did me to realize that the practice of sin was still very much a part of your life.  You were still quite capable of sinning.  This is why you and I need a spiritual healing of our sin-filled hearts.  We need to learn how to overcome our sinful tendencies.  We all need to discover the way to gain victory over our flesh and sin life.

As believers you and I now have the opportunity to choose how we will live.  And there are only two real choices.  Either we will live in the comfort of the status quo, ignoring the sins we commit on a regular basis, thus, becoming complacent in the sin lifestyle.  We will profess Christ as our Savior, living solely in the expectation of salvation in Christ (our "ticket to Heaven").  The only other choice would be to press into our relationship with Christ and press through the temptation to sin, on to the abundant life in Christ where we will walk in obedience to the Spirit's whispers, overcoming what used to be the constant sinful tendency of our flesh.

After walking in my belief for the last 37 year, I am convicted of the sin that remains in my life.  Are you?  Is it possible that God is preparing this generation to rise up against our own fleshly wills and surrender to Him, so that we might be a light to this lost world?  Our hearts are where this battle rages--in the very home of the the Holy Spirit.  He has a job to do in our hearts.  It is to transform our hearts and lives into the very image of Christ.  But we constantly prevent Him from building a pure home for Himself in us because we refuse to surrender to the work He is designed to do in us.  

Are you passionately seeking a transformation of your heart?  Do you want to experience Spiritual Healing?  It is available to you, but only through the Spirit.  If you sense that the Spirit is speaking to you right now, and your heart is racing in anticipation of the life that lies just beyond the veil of your flesh, you might well be on a pathway to the holy and pure life that is yours in Christ.

Would you like further instruction on this topic?  Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory is available on this blog.  Look for the "Buy Now" button and purchase a copy today!  Say good-by to your complacent walk and fix your eyes on the journey to victory!