A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.
Luke 6:45 NLT
http://bible.com/116/luk.6.45.NLT
Do you have a heart touched by Christ and made new?
Do you have His love alive in your heart?
Are you bearing fruit?
Matthew 16:18
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
In Matthew 16, we see the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, demanding signs even though the could not see and interpret the clearly visible evidence of Christ, the Messiah, standing before them in the flesh of Jesus. These men were deep in religion but blind to the truth. Their faith was tied up in what they could see and measure in this world by the law, not by any understanding of the “heart”, the “why”, the “being”, the spiritual goings on behind the things clearly visible to them. Then after they have departed from the Pharisees, Jesus warns his disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees when their concerns fall back onto food and the concerns of this physical world. He makes the point that it is about faith. If we have faith in God, He will provide.
Acts 20:20
I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes.
Even though we are to do the Lord’s work humbly, we are the stand upon the truth of the Word of God boldly.
We are not to shrink away from sharing the truth, whether in public or in private. As in Phillipians 1:14, we should gain confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear. And 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear an timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
There are hurting people and lost souls in need of this gospel message – in need of healing and deliverance in their lives. The harvest is great, but the workers are few. Shrinking back from sharing the very thing that can change their lives is not only foolish, but it is not loving them. We are to love our brother and keep watch and warn him of danger. If he refuses to listen, at least a seed of love and truth should be planted. It is our job to sow the seeds.
Are you sowing seeds?
Both publicly in the midst of a lost world –
And privately within a close group of believers seeking to encourage each other and hold each other accountable?
Don’t shrink back. There is much work yet to be done.
Hebrews 10:39
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
1 Corinthians 16:19
The churches here in the province of Asia send greetings in the Lord, as do Aquila and Priscilla and all the others who gather in their home for church meetings.
Paul is extending Christian Love between the churches where he is (modern day Turkey) and the church at Corinth. Even though this letter to the Corinthian church is primarily identifying and addressing problems within the body of believers at Corinth and offering corrections, he is doing it in a gentle manner with the intent of teaching them and bringing them to repentance. By reminding them of the faithful example of Aquilla and Priscilla who he had first met in Corinth and who had even risk their lives for him, he was drawing to their rememberance this couple that they knew personally, which would have underscored their unity as a body of Christ working together even though they were separated by distance.
Additionally, reminding the believers at Corinth of the close intimacy of home church meetings and the unity and accountability that it fosters is exactly the type of correction that the church at Corinth needed to see since it had grown and been infiltrated by the world.
Paul’s example also reminds me personally that when offering correction, the example set forth by God towards His children (see the 7 churches in Revelation) is an acknowledgement of what is glorifying God, and a reproof or rebuke of what needs to be corrected. Encouragement and accountability working hand in hand towards the edification of the church.
Paul does not call those at Corinth false teachers and begin casting stones at them even though their error in several areas is clearly apparent. Instead, he offers them instruction, he holds them accountable, and he encourages them to repent from their ways. We are not peddlers of religious practice or legalism, we are bearers of the Holy Spirit of God, who bears the fruit of godly love – which is manifest in our handling life’s challenges with joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. And especially in times of church discipline as Paul’s letter to the believers at Corinth displays, we must be careful to handle disease and disruption within the body with care so that we do not fall into sin ourselves.
Proverbs 18:1
Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that men’s hearts are deceitful, and Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us not to lean upon our own understanding. Proverbs 15:22 tells us the importance of wise counsel. In the book of Job, they each felt themselves wise until the Lord asks what do they know of the ways of God.
Yes, seeking God involves our studying and rightly dividing the Word of God, but we are not to be monks hidden away, we are to be shining lights on a hill, we are supposed to be loving and serving others. If we isolate ourselves, it may be because we are more interested in believing that we have it all figured out instead of seeking to learn and share and sharpen with others.
Ours is not a calling to knowledge alone, which puffs up, but it is a calling to unity with the body of Christ. Dissention and division are the enemies of unity and love. So we should seek wise counsel, and weigh one another’s words alongside our own opinions on scales that are not biased, but that are seeking truth. Anything less is vanity.
If we find ourselves isolated from others in the body of Christ, we must ask ourselves, are we seeking God’s will, or are we focused on self. We must ask ourselves, are we intent on discovering and applying the Word of God in our lives, or are we focused on defending what we think is right. Are we serving and loving our brothers, or acting as an accuser of the brethren who is intent upon His own foolish purposes? Are we seeking unity or are we intent upon quarrelling?
James 1:19
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Pain.
Whether physical pain or emotional pain, it is real and it can weild a heavy hammer upon our lives. It can distract us from the mindset that we want to have or the things that we want to do – and it can lead us down dark paths.
Sometimes we know clearly what caused our pain. While other times, we might cry out to God, thinking, “Why me, Lord?”
We are CALLED to do it,
We don’t HAVE to do it,
We GET to do it.
But if we don’t WANT to do it,
We might not be CHOSEN to do it,
Because the DESIRE of our heart,
Testifies to who we truly SERVE.
It shouts like JOY found in each breath of life,
It shines like PEACE even in the midst of dissappointment,
It perseveres like PATIENCE in the depths of the trials,
It touches hearts as KINDNESS even towards strangers and opposition,
It heals transgressions in the GENTLENESS of accountability and forgiveness,
It strengthens us in FAITHFULNESS against the tricks and traps of those unseen enemies,
It stands as SELF-CONTROL firmly upon the Word of God.
It is Love,
True Godly Love,
Sacrificial Love.
Love demonstrated in blood,
Love demonstrated in service to others,
Love demonstrated to us by Him,
Love demonstrated to the world by us.
Choose Love.
Choose Christ.
PRO 9:10 ESV
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Reverence, awe, and yes, fear.
In the 45 places this Hebrew word yir’ah is used in the old testament, it is always speaking of the fear of God, which is not just reverence, not just awe, but respectful fear of our creator God. It is always mentioned as a fear that should lead to a changed attitude. I think of Godly fear as “conviction under the realization that He is Almighty God, Creator of the Universe”. Yes, all power streams from our God.
But this Godly fear is not the type that paralyzes us or cripples us. That type of fear is typified in the Hebrew word yare’ which is used 314 times in the Old Testament, mainly in places where God is encouraging us to not be afraid.
In fact, Exodus 20:20 uses both of these words in the same verse – demonstrating to us the difference in these two very different concepts that have two Hebrew words, but that we in English have bound together in a single word “fear”.
Exodus 20:20
And Moses said unto the people, Fear [yare’] not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear [yir’ah] may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
And doesn’t this verse unlock the mysteries? Doesn’t it underscore the purpose of Christ?
Didn’t Christ come to tell us that we don’t have to remain where we are? Didn’t He come to call us out of our exile, call us out of our slavery to sin?
Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own _________________.
God is so good.
The words aren’t even big enough.
I don’t lean on myself, because all that I have to lean on of my own is weakness that has been packaged up and mislabeled by “wise” men of the world as understanding, knowledge, strength, logic. But when it is mine alone it is weakness, it is powerless.
But in His infinite mercy, He reveals His grace, His power, His honor. And He let’s me come into the presence, and my weakness is redeemed, restored, rebuilt, into a measure of His strength through faith.
And this is why I trust in the Lord with all my heart, because who can I trust if not the Lord? I surely can’t trust myself, this deceitful heart of mine that will use foolish pride to elevate self and seek my own desires, or that will stir up its humanitarian sensibilities and emotions and overlook righteousness and repentance for the sake of cheap grace.
This Grace is costly and paid at a high price. Just because the bill is already paid in full doesn’t make its value any less.
It’s tough to not want to drag people along with you when you think that your headed in the right direction.
But then I need to be reminded that:
1) I encounter unexpected turns in the road constantly, I can’t see past just a few steps ahead. Yes, I know my destination, but other than staying humble, seeking God’s will, and living a repentant life loving and fearing God, what specific direction can I give other than the Word of God? If I step outside of that, I could find myself as the blind leading the blind, instead of the healed going and sinning no more and being a servant.
2) My path is mine. If I try to walk yours and you try to walk mine, we will both end up in the wrong place.
3) I don’t have to gather people. I am not alone even if no person of flesh and blood is walking beside me, because I have the Lord with me. Even in the valley, especially in the valley, He is my comforter, my shield, my rock, my firm foundation, my portion.
4) I walked that far from God path myself for so very long, and I was so hard headed that nothing that another person could say was going to change my heart. But they each planted seeds, that lay there until it was time for the Lord to say, “Let there be light” over my life – until it was time for Him to send the waters and to spring up the new growth in my life that only His healing touch can accomplish.
Harold J. Ballinger 