Friday slowdown

That the Word of God would speak to us each and every day is my prayer . . . .

Slippery slope - compromise

Yesterday, we said that to detect spiritual compromise, we must be immersed in the Word of God, and that we will then be able to see the problems as they arise.  We noted that the leaders in Jerusalem while Nehemiah had returned to Persia might not have realized when they were too permissive. They were right there face to face with the issues, but they might not have been as deeply in study as Nehemiah was. And they may not have been prayer warriors like him.
I keep thinking that if they were, perhaps they might have realized what was happening!
I feel that way because over and over, in what we now call the Old Testament, there were calls to God's people to be holy. God's standards of holiness for his people were repeated and explained and repeated again. (Grin)
Before the moral slide had begun, the people had listened to the reading of Scriptures, which made them aware of these standards.
In the first three verses of Nehemiah 13, we are reminded that they would have heard in what we call Deuteronomy, that God declared no Ammonite or Moabite should enter the assembly of Israel.

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation. 4 For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you. 5 However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. (Deuteronomy 23:3-5)

Wow.
We've talked about this before.
Nowadays, that seems a bit harsh. Verse three, I mean.
But then you read verse four, and you see why..... God chose to pour out His love on a distinct people; He poured out His grace on a people that He chose from all others on this earth:

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.  (Deuteronomy 7:6-9)

The reason He didn't want Israel to accept foreigners into their midst was this: they would corrupt Israel from following only YAHWEH.
Verse four mentions the sly counsel of Balaam. Remember him? (Aside from being the guy that the donkey spoke to, I mean!) The passage in Numbers that tells his story does not reveal all that he told the king of Moab, Balak.  Balak had sent for him because he wanted Balaam to curse the Israelites, so that the Moabites would be able to prevail against them. Long story short, Balaam did NOT curse them (it's quite a story; you might want to go back and re-read it!). In Numbers, we see a clue of what was said, and in other passages, we find out what Balaam DID tell Balak.

From the rocky peaks I see them,    from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart    and do not consider themselves one of the nations. (Numbers 23:9)

Now, let's look in the New Testament.
Got your Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass? We are going sleuthing!

But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. (Revelation 2:14)

They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. (II Peter 2:15)

The scholars tell us that Flavius Josephus, the historian in the time of the apostles, recorded their oral tradition of Balaam telling the king of Moab to "put a stumbling block before" the men of Israel. Josephus makes Balaam sound like quite a conniver!  He knew he could not curse the Israelites, but he told Balak just how to corrupt them; if they were to intermarry with the women of Moab, pretty soon Israel would be just like the Moabites and follow their gods -- losing the uniqueness and the strength of their relationship with Jehovah God.
Balaam knew that Israel was blessed if they continued to serve God. He also knew that if they were to sin, by worshiping the gods of Moab, they would be under a curse of sin. So he told the king of Moab how to get them to bring curses upon themselves by sinning! In the text by Josephus, Balaam pretty much tells Balak, "Get your prettiest girls and have them go over to where the men of Israel will see them. Let them flirt with them, and get the men to fall in love with them. Hormones will kick in, and they will give way to their sinful desires -- then they will take the girls home and marry them. Soon they will welcome the Moabite gods and even eat food that's been sacrificed to them. You'll win, for sure, ole buddy Balak!"
Yes, I have not only paraphrased; I have put things into colloquial terms. But you get my drift?

The verse in Revelation is illustrative of the specific sins -- eating foods sacrificed to idols and also sexual sins. The verse in II Peter notes that Balaam loved the wages of unrighteousness; he loved what he received for breaking the commandments of God. The pleasures of sin "for a season," the rich foods and adult beverages, and the physical pleasure of immorality.  He knew that this tool: permissiveness, would bring the desired results. We have yet another example of permissiveness, of compromise, in the life of King Solomon, whose many foreign wives led him into idolatry. Nehemiah rebuked the Israelites with this history:

Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. (v. 26)

Now, let me make it clear as we study, that the instruction we first read in Deuteronomy had a few exceptions . . . repentant Moabites, like Ruth, were not only accepted into Israel, but she was even included in the genealogy of Jesus.  But Nehemiah knew that those who would not give up their gods would only cause Israel to compromise. They had to be excluded.

So, sometime during Nehemiah's absence, Satan had wormed his way in. He had introduced spiritual compromise in several different areas. It was only Nehemiah's knowledge of scripture that enabled him to see these areas where the people had strayed from God's standards of holiness.
I know this has been a lengthy post, but there's so much to see here in Nehemiah! Come back tomorrow, OK? (Grin)

Slippery slope - permissiveness

You've heard the expression, right? "That's a slippery slope!"  Usually someone is talking about a situation that may not look all that bad, but can get worse as time goes on. Or an action that might not seem bad, but leads to other actions that are stupendously bad. (Grin)
Believers usually hear this in regards to a thought, an attitude, or an action that can lead to immorality or sin of any sort. Even when we are trying to fight against it, we tend to become more and more like the world around us. We live in a spiritually and morally permissive society -- anyone watched any fifties' television shows lately on re-runs? Notice that back then, even married couples slept in separate beds on the shows? (Grin) Cultural morals have changed so much that statistics show eight of ten shows today have explicit language about sex and seven of ten will show sexual content.

If we add these changes in our culture to the recent emphasis on "tolerance" (which is just leading more and more to the attitude that "anything goes") and throw in our sinful human nature, then we really have a fight on our hands!
Is it any wonder that even in the body of Christ, we have many who are experiencing marital struggles, divorce, sexual sin, spiritual burnout, and depression?
But I digress . . . we are studying the slide into immorality that Nehemiah found when he returned to Jerusalem.
And that brings up a point -- why hadn't others in Israel dealt with these problems while Nehemiah was gone? Did they not think these issues were important? Did they not notice at all?
I'm glad you asked that. Because in order to deal with spiritual compromise, we must be aware; we must know that the compromise is there! We can't solve problems if we are not aware of them.

The scholars tell us that Ezra may have died by this point, since in verse thirteen, another scribe is mentioned:

I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites. (v. 13)

They say this may indicate that Ezra no longer held that position. Perhaps the priest and the Levites mentioned here just didn't "see" the problems because they were looking at them so closely. Every.  Single. Day. What do I mean?
Well, have you ever heard the old saying of the frog in the kettle? The old adage says that if a frog is placed into a kettle of boiling water, it will jump out right away in order to escape the danger. The adage goes on to say that if that same frog is placed into a kettle of pleasantly warm water, and then gradually the heat is increased, the frog will not be aware of the danger until it's too late.
Don't care for that analogy? Well, how about this anecdote: often when people return to a church that they've attended in the past, they are shocked at changes that have taken place in the years that have passed. The church members that have been there all along can't see the problem because it has happened so gradually. . . .

Some Christians are very strong in their faith but still remain immersed in churches that are not true to Biblical doctrines and eventually slide into false kinds of faith. Many would never, ever agree with someone who said, "The Bible is not the Word of God! Get with the times! How can you still think it's inspired and inerrant and infallible?"  BUT let someone come along with new "insights" as to how the books and letters came to be written, translated, and gathered into one book, and these same "careful" believers will be amazed. And start to wonder, "DID they copy it each time correctly?" or, "DID they translate it correctly?" or even, "DID all the books that should have been included get in?"  And they accept some small change in their way of thinking. And start down that slippery slope.

Another teaching that has deceived many millions of believers all around the world is one that we have touched on in the past: the good health and great wealth "gospel" that is popular on television and podcasts. Many believers are horrified when they first hear these, shall we call them "teachers," because they have studied the Word and know better than to believe this heresy. But there is a human desire for an easier way, and sometimes they slide into this "claim what's yours" concept. Others who start out concerned for their churches, stay put as the churches slip down, whether for convenience, friendship, or money -- or maybe they keep telling themselves that soon the church will realize what is wrong and repent . . . .
Do we believe and take to heart the first three verses of the Psalms?

Blessed is the one    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take    or sit in the company of mockers,  but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,    and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,    which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—    whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)

Notice the progression on the slope?
We begin with walking with wicked people. We are "tolerant" and permissive at first. We want to include everyone and not have any conflict, right? Later, we stand on the road, waiting and looking around for sinners so that we can participate in their sin. Then, when we've slid down the slope, we sit down with the scoffers, and we mock the righteous people, and we may even plot evil against those who would follow God. 

To deal with spiritual permissiveness, we must be aware of the problems when they pop up. To be able to detect compromise, we must be immersed in God's Word. See up there in verse two? When our delight is in the Word of God, and when we meditate in it day and night, we will be well-prepared to discern that slippery slope - instead of sliding down it!

We'll talk some more about the folks in Jerusalem and about our world today, as well, when we study tomorrow.

Prayer requests

What a whirlwind year this has been . . .
And we are only in the month of May!
I was reading again in I Peter, and I wanted to post this passage:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (I Peter 1:3-9)

The invisible enemy, the coronavirus, has rocked our world, no? And it has changed it in ways that we may not even imagine now. It remains to be seen how many different changes it will have effected, from our social behaviors, to the worlds of business and medicine, to the ways we perceive and value our freedoms to speak, gather, and worship.

Today is our usual day of prayer. Let's remember to ask our heavenly Father to help our world recover from the pandemic. Our leaders need wisdom to find safe and healthy (and constitutional) ways to reopen our lands and help us resume a more normal life. The citizens need to be able reconnect with friends and family, to go back to our jobs, to preserve the things we cherish most about our communities. We believers need to speak out to others with words of comfort and the message of the gospel, as people deal with a world turned upside down, and as they feel the weight of grief and deal with the loss of loved ones. Our churches need to be in the business of reaching out, of showing compassion, of finding innovative ways to meet peoples' needs.
Everyone will need to be patient, and to be flexible, because our world is going to feel different, look different, and stay different for a while. Let's be gracious and extend the grace of God to a hurting world.

Father, give us strength in the coming days to be the people you would have us to be. Let us be your feet, your hands, your voice to those around us. Amen.

That slippery slope

We are beginning to study the thirteenth chapter of Nehemiah today. I hope you will find some time to sit down and read it, or if you have an audio program that you will listen to the chapter.

I expect that whether they have been our own kiddos or someone else's, we have all had the experience of reading stories to children. Often they end with the words "they lived happily ever after." Wouldn't it be nice if that is how Nehemiah ended? After all, look at all of the wonderful things that have been accomplished . . .
We started this study with Nehemiah, who heard sad news of the city of Jerusalem from his brother, and took a leave of absence from his position of cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. When he'd arrived in the old city, he led the people to rebuild the walls in record time.  When the walls were up, the people, led by Nehemiah and Ezra, experienced a spiritual renewal. They even took personal responsibility and signed a spiritual covenant. They agreed to obey God's law as it applied to them personally, and also as it applied to corporate worship. The (noisy!) climax to this is the dedication in chapter twelve, since it says:

And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. (Nehemiah 12:43)

Wouldn't it have been nice to end the story there? And to be able to say, "they lived happily ever after"?
Yep.
That would have been nice.
But as they say, "let's get serious."
After his twelve years as governor, Nehemiah had returned to Persia. We don't really know how long he stayed there, but it was long enough for permissiveness and spiritual compromise to set in. Apparently, the reforms were short-lived. Hedonism, casual attitudes toward sin, and permissiveness had accelerated the slide down "the slippery slope" into immorality.
When Nehemiah got back to Jerusalem, he found that permissiveness was rampant in the very same areas that the people had signed on to stand against! The very sins that they covenanted to stay away from were the areas where they fell. It's interesting to note that the sin sneaked in through the spiritual leaders that were supposed to be in charge of the people and leading them to obey their covenant.

A lesser man, a man that was not as well grounded and as principled as Nehemiah, might have thrown up his hands and said, "I give up!" But Nehemiah, the man that we've seen is a tremendous warrior in prayer, strongly confronted the problem of permissiveness.
I'd like to ask that we all read the thirteenth chapter of Nehemiah and then join together across the miles to study this chapter this week.
Join me, won't you?

Our best example

What a week of study!
I've had more than my usual share of tromped-on toes, I can tell ya! The Spirit got hold of me and said I needed to work on some things!
We have studied this week on ways that we can have a ministry.
Ways that we can serve. And how to have a heart that is willing -- no, let's say that a different way -- a heart that is eager to serve others.
I heard it said a long time ago, that an easy way to tell if we have a servant heart is how we act when we are treated like a servant.
Makes sense, no?
A servant is one who meets the needs of others. Voluntarily. With no judgy attitude. As believers, we are called first to submit to and serve God, and then each other.
It's easier to serve others selflessly when our hearts are so focused on loving God that they overflow with love for others. We can give of ourselves without expecting anything in return.
You can see where I'm going with this, right? Who is our best example of these attitudes and actions?
Our Redeemer and King -- Jesus Christ.
He came to earth as a servant and always put others' needs first.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

Paul told the Philippians that Jesus "made himself nothing" and took the nature of a servant. He provided us a walking, breathing example of us to follow. We know by studying Him and trying to be more like Him, how to treat others and how to handle our relationships.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:12-17)

To have a servant's heart, we should make Jesus our role model. We also must fight our "human side," that part of us that wants recognition and power. Why? Because we must be willing to put ourselves last, as we saw earlier this week. We must be willing to serve without those pats on the back that we love to get. (Grin)  The kingdom of God is different from earthly situations. Greatness in His kingdom doesn't come from holding positions of power. It doesn't result from the praise of mortals. God is more interested in whether or not we have compassion for others; He said that the greatest would be the least, remember?

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, (Matthew 20:26)

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)

Just as that last verse says, we show our love for Him by loving others. Paul admonished the Corinthians to not be concerned with their own good, but to be attentive to the needs of others (I Corinthians 10:24). To use a very old analogy, we will stand out like a sore thumb in our world -- today there is a whole industry of self-help and self-interest. The believer's focus should be on knowing and loving our Lord, and compassion for others will naturally flow from that.

God has given each of us gifts and talents; He has instructed us to use them for serving others. Our serving others may be what God uses to touch their hearts and draw them to Him. Let's share His love by using our gifts, our talents, and our time to serve others.

A servant's heart, a heart to minister

The last thing about a servant's heart that we need to study is that it's a giving heart. Let's look back at our passage in Nehemiah:

At that time men were appointed to be in charge of the storerooms for the contributions, firstfruits and tithes. From the fields around the towns they were to bring into the storerooms the portions required by the Law for the priests and the Levites, for Judah was pleased with the ministering priests and Levites. 47 So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the musicians and the gatekeepers. They also set aside the portion for the other Levites, and the Levites set aside the portion for the descendants of Aaron. (Nehemiah 12:44, 47)

Just recently, we posted about the stewardship of the financial blessings that God has showered upon us. Here in these verses, we see that the people worshiped, they sang, they were so joyful that people knew it for miles, and they gave. They gave happily. They wanted the work of God, of the temple to go forward. They knew the worship at the temple was important, and they were cheerfully giving the offerings that were necessary to support all of the temple workers who lived there. There were priests, Levites, gatekeepers, and singers in the temple. They all needed to be taken care of.
They did this because (as it is translated in another version) they "rejoiced over" the people who served.
They sound like cheerful givers, no? (Grin)
Not like the stingy, spiteful Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life -- he is plotting to destroy the Bailey business of generous and compassionate lending, on his way to controlling the town of Bedford Falls. Not like Ebeneezer Scrooge in the Dickens classic -- he is clawing his way to the top of the financial heap, not caring who he steps on as he ascends.
The people in Nehemiah are walking the walk described in Proverbs:

One person gives freely, yet gains even more;    another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper;    whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:24-25)

These are people who are warm and generous, with giving hearts. A giving heart is prerequisite for a life of ministry. At the same time that it's important for us to be wise stewards of what God gives us, it's also important for us to be generous. When we see those who are called to serve God on the mission field, we can give to support their work. When we know the local church needs financial support to pursue worthy efforts in the community, we can bless them with what we are able to give. 

Giving also means something as simple as being hospitable.

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  (I Peter 4:9)

Giving also means using our spiritual gifts:

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (I Peter 4:10)

God is a God of abundance. He has blessed us in the way that we read of in Luke:

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:38)

It should be the mindset of every believer to be a servant; it should be our desire to minister to others. 
But how?
In this strange time of "social distancing," it may indeed be more difficult. But there are ways -- be creative! 
Can you think of someone who has helped you in the past? Send them a thank you note. Do you have an acquaintance who is depressed because of the stay at home restrictions? Give them a call on the phone or better yet, use technology and share with them via a video call. Ask someone how they are, and truly listen to their answer! And then pray for them and tell them you will continue to pray.
Do you have time on your hands and fabrics in your stash? Make protective gear for healthcare workers and first responders. Are there community efforts nearby that we can assist with, with little risk to our health? Volunteer!

A servant's heart is far more concerned with meeting the needs of others than having one's own needs met. Look for opportunities to minister to unbelievers and believers alike.

We'll finish our study tomorrow . . . right now, I'm off to make a list of folks I'm going to send cards to! See ya!

A servant's heart

We may not be certain what our ministry is. Perhaps the Spirit has not yet shown us what our gift is, or if He has shown us, we may not have determined how to use it.  But we can prepare for our particular ministry by having a heart to minister. A servant's heart.
Last time we studied, we talked about a servant's heart being pure. Purity of heart as we serve a holy God, and as we serve others.

Today we will look again at chapter twelve of Nehemiah, and we will see that a servant needs a reverent heart. A heart ready to worship.

At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres. (v. 27)

The choirs sang under the direction of Jezrahiah. 43 And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. (v. 42b-43a) 

Have you ever wished that you could go back in time? I sure have. If I had a personal friend like Dr. Who, I would like to go back to some interesting Bible events. And this is sure one of them! Wouldn't it be cool to step out of the Tardis and see and hear the people worship? (Sorry, I'm getting geeky, here, with Who-vian references, but it would be great to participate in this huge worship service!)

I love the description here -- this was a time to praise the Lord. Nehemiah organized the singers into two choirs who walked in opposite directions on top of the wall until they met at the temple. (Ahh, there's another reason for making the wall wide enough at the top for people to walk on it!) The singers were accompanied by people making music with cymbals, harps, and lyres.

Several times in this passage about the worship service, Nehemiah refers to David: each time it is to point to a different aspect of the worship. Nehemiah mentions the interactive reading of the scripture; one group would say a section and then another would answer. He also mentions that the instruments were played in the way prescribed by David, and he says the purification, the music, and even the gatekeepers' conduct was done according to the commands of David and his son, Solomon.  One reason that David was a man "after God's own heart" must have been that he had a reverent heart. A heart ready to worship God. He had set up the whole system of worship that the people had learned about when the book of the Lord was read -- and they were attempting to emulate David's way of worship.
We may worship Him in different ways today, but to worship God is still to rejoice in Him and to extol His attributes and His actions -- His traits and His work in our lives. Having a reverent heart means that we treasure Him above all else. True worship is not just standing up when we're supposed to, and sitting down at the correct time, too. It's not just opening the hymnbook or the order of worship and singing a song. Worship engages the mind, the emotions, and the soul. It's a state of being. And God loves it!

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4;23-24)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)

No matter what we do as a servant, as a minister, it should flow out like a stream of worship for our God.

To go along with this (and maybe because of this reverent heart) a servant should have a joyful heart.

And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. (v. 43)

These worship participants seem to be having a wonderful, memorable time! They even appear to be enjoying the worship time!  How many times have we seen people who are supposed to have the "joy of the Lord" within them looking glum walking into church? Even worse, looking mean or grumpy or sad or like their faces might break if they smiled, or, or ...... well, you get my drift.
Even the strange time we are living in, the time of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, should not stomp on our joy! Scripture encourages us to rejoice in our blessings (you do remember to count them, right?) and to give glory to God.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (I Peter 1:8-9)

Our gratitude to God should be easily seen -- gratitude for His love, mercy, and grace!  If it's our desire to minister to others, we need to have a pure heart . . . a reverent heart . . . and a heart full of joy.
We'll talk a bit more about the heart of a servant minister tomorrow.

Verses that inspire

One of the verses that I posted yesterday really stuck with me; it was so familiar, but it got me to thinking fresh thoughts about it.

Keep thy heart with all diligence;for out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23, AKJV)

Watch over your heart with all diligence,For from it flow the springs of life. (same, NASB)

See that word "diligence"?
That means trying hard. Working at it. Hard work!
To guard our hearts takes effort!
There are some really important strategies to avoid sinful thoughts and habits. Some of them we have talked about before.The strategy we'll talk about today has some personal memories for me.
Just being honest here.
Truly transparent.
Let me rephrase that.
Embarrassingly transparent.
Here's what I'm talking about . . . I try to remember to use verses throughout my day. There are some that I use over and over and over.

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. (II Corinthians 4:5)

Why does that particular verse come to mind? Well, I have always had a pride problem. When I was younger, I had an ego the size of the state I live in, and I found it difficult to EVER admit that I could be wrong about ANYTHING. As I have grown older, I have received the help of the Holy Spirit to enable me to see myself as I am -- sinful, lacking in wisdom, and terribly needful of the grace of our Lord. The Spirit has shown me that I have a horrible tendency to overlook my own flaws and promote the "good" -- that tendency is so ingrained that it makes it seem like Kardashian must be my middle name.
We've studied before and listed ways that we can work to keep our hearts pure . . . filling our minds with God's Word is an important one. Keeping our minds clean and not packing them full of sinful images is another important strategy.
The strategy that has been most needful for me is to avoid temptation. There's a verse in Romans that hit me like a space capsule smacking down in the ocean one day (Yep, there I go again, showing just how old I am....):

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (Romans 13:14, NSAB)

We all know that wrong thoughts lead to wrong actions. Paul is saying here that we should not make it an easy avenue, a quick path for the flesh to win. Is there a pattern to temptations in our lives? Do we typically fall into sin at the same places, or with the same people, or in the same situations? I realized that in my life, that was true. I learned, too, that I could choose to avoid those places or situations that could cause me to sin.
We humans often make temptation easy for ourselves. Instead of trying to avoid it, we want to nudge up as close to it as we can -- and then we wonder why we fall into sin. If we want to avoid the sin, we need to avoid the situations that give us an opportunity to sin. We cannot play with temptation and then use the old line from Flip Wilson, the comedian in the 1970's, and say "the devil made me do it."

How do we bring temptation and sin upon ourselves? Are we beset with the sin of addiction? We must scrupulously avoid going to places that offer alcoholic beverages. Do we struggle with the sin of gluttony? We cannot bring "extra" food into the house -- the pantry will be calling our name and we will fall.  Do we have trouble with thoughts about sexual sin? We must not immerse ourselves in images that keep our thoughts in those channels. Are we struggling to maintain a Christian testimony? It's mandatory to choose friends wisely and avoid those who would convince us to  compromise.
The same God Who wrote Romans 13:14 into His Word will help us as we diligently "keep our hearts." As we watch over our hearts as in Proverbs 4:23, He will watch over us. He will help us, strengthen us, and comfort us.  There's no need to "stare down" the devil; it's OK to walk away (or even run from sin!).

But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.  (II Thessalonians 3:3)

Let's allow these verses to inspire us to keep our hearts with all diligence; let's watch over our hearts and avoid the sins that are our personal stumbling blocks. We can do this -- WITH HIS HELP!!