Do we expect to come away from the church service and return home to resume the "business as usual" or actually follow God?
Do we hear the Word, but shun the obedient part of doing it? It is when we submit to God as we read in James 4:7-17......
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (NKJV)
YIKES! IF WE KNOW TO DO GOOD....and do not......follow the Word to do it........it is sin.
Another question: Do we change by being a part of a wonderful worship service or do we change when we witness miracles? The worship services are wonderful. It is such joy to worship our God in song and in the lifting of our hands, but that does not bring the needed Word for change. For me, I certainly have seen miracles and know them to occur frequently, but that does not bring the needed change I need on a daily basis.
No, it it the "secret place" encounter with God that brings the needed change. It is the time of study and knowing what He has spoken and done!From my own experiences with the Lord, the more I study and confess scripture, the more I see HIM and the more I enjoy knowing He is with me! A relationship is the give and take, but do we find ourselves more of the taking side of things than of the giving to someone else?
I have to ask myself that question a lot and remind myself, that all this is not about me. It is important for us to know the Lord and understand His purpose for our lives.
No, it should not be the "business as usual" for the Lord has the plan that brings us into knowing Him more fully and will propel us into what He planned for us to do here on earth.
Our going to a church service does not make us any more a Christian than us going to the hamburger place makes us a hamburger.
What makes you and me a "Christian" is that we know the Lord intimately, and that WE follow closely to what He has said and done. We are to set our course, much as Jesus did, and that was to follow and have THE intimate time with the Father.
I like the recent teachings on " hearing God speak" and yet in all of these I hear nothing on PEOPLE being obedient to the Word taught. Are we discarding the truth, to walk in the worldliness and gratify our senses with the foolish things of the world?
Are we resounding brass and just making noise, or are we making a difference for the kingdom of God? Are we really practicing what we "preach and teach" others?
Time is over for "religion and THE religious thing" and now is time for those who consistently seek God and His ways. It is not how cute and sweet, but how powerful is the Word of God that sets the captive free. Even Timothy was warned to "hold fast to the pattern of sound words which you have learned .........in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Have we set up the "secret place" to have time with God or we just building an altar that collects dust, no worship, no Word from scripture and with NO POWER!
WE are reminded in 1 Timothy 4:6-7.....If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. 7 But reject profane and old wive's fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.
So, if the one teaching us is nourished in the words of faith and they follow it faithfully, should we be those who are nourished in the same words of faith to follow too?
If we ask God what He desires for us, I am certain that He would state for us to know His Son, the Son of His Love, whom He sent for our benefit.
If I spend time with my husband, I learn all his likes and dislikes. I can learn what brings him heartache and laughter. If I spend quality time with him, I can learn what he likes to do and does not like to do whether when he is puttering around the house, on a long trip, or when we just go for a long walk together. My husband is not to be a distraction to me, but my companion in this life! If I value him, then I will want to find more quality time to spend with him and know him even better than I do today.
If I run today to catch up with the Lord, it is well worth it to me that He will know that I have come to fellowship and to ask Him some questions. Not all my questions are for something, but to know something about Him. "Lord, how can I deliver the word of truth in all godliness so others will know You as I do?" "How can I touch someone's heart today with YOUR love and let them know YOU sent me to speak with them?" "Lord, how may we bear witness for You when we have no zeal in our hearts?" "Lord, how may we apply Your word to our lives today, so that we submit ourselves, to be humble before You, and how to show others that being submitted to Your plan prospers us?"
I have learned my husband loves to prepare breakfast, and he desires to have dessert more often than I do. I know he likes to mow the grass and cook steaks on the grill. But I also know, that the best part of his day of work is coming home! He has this excitement of just being at home and to relax with the wife and the little dog.
I believe the best part of our Father God's day is when we run to catch up HIM while He walks in the cool of the day. I believe He likes the smell of roses in bloom and see dew in the early morning while the birds gather to sing their festive songs. I believe He delights to see us notice the moon He put in the sky or to see His word fulfilled in our lives when it speaks, "that himself bear our sins in His body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, might live unto righteous and by His stripes we are healed."
He is delighted when we speak what He speaks and declares what He declares about us.
Do we value the Lord and show Him how much we want to be with Him? Do we declare how important He is in our lives and that we earnestly love Him for all that He did for us even before we knew HIM?
So if I go to church, say, Saturday evening and truly go expecting to receive the Word that is taught at that time, then on Sunday morning will I understand and know that I am being sanctified in the Word of God? Our walk of faith walk is in acknowledging God's nature and His heart. When receiving those teachings on Saturday evening, we should know that we are being nourished and strengthened to having a reverence and fear of God.! When the word is spoken, we are to be obedient about following that Word. Just like seeing speed limit signs on the roadway will do us no good if we fail to acknowledge that they are there are our benefit. Taking a curve with a posted sign of 25 miles an hour and taking it at 90 miles an hour will certainly bring destruction and death to the one driving the extreme speed above and beyond the speed of 25 mile an hour on that particular curve.
Today, I remember when I was a child, and when visiting the elder members of our family and seeing the "old" family Bible on the coffee table or on some shelf in their homes, the BIG BIBLE WHICH TOOK BOTH OF MY HANDS TO HOLD IT, seemed to hold all the written information for weddings, births and deaths in that particular family we were visiting. Yet much of the time that I saw these big Bibles, they appeared more as a "show piece" and looked like they had not been opened for anyone's benefit. It just seemed to be a book to add the dates of the weddings,of the births and of the deaths of those who owned the Bible!
Does my life or your life resemble just a "showpiece" or when we open our mouths, is the Word of God coming out of it? When we speak, are we bringing a refreshing to others, giving them God's Word that will bring support and strengthen those we will speak to when they need it most? Or is it about how good we look, and is it more about that new outfit we just got to wear to the church, BUT does nothing to help the body of Christ? If we should need encouragement ourselves, would it not make a difference to encourage someone else? Would it not be important to encourage someone and plant those seeds into other people's lives? Are we put off because someone did not give us a hug or speak to us today? The possibility is great then that we lose out on the all important word given that evening that is to nourish us and strengthen us! Because of our taking on the defense of "poor me" then we are not receptive to receiving the Word of God that will bring change to our lives!
Today, we can choose what our character and conduct will be. It will either be that of the world or that which follows closely after righteousness and godliness. Our adhering to the Word of God reconciles us to His way of doing and thinking. We can clothe ourselves in His Word, and we can saturate our hearts with that same word day in and day out!
Each week, we have the choice to choose the Word or the world.
Will we choose.........
- to "be trained for godliness...1 Timothy 4:7.....7 but reject profane and old wive's fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.
- act "according to the new nature...2 Corinthians 5:17,21......17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
- become imitators of God.....Ephesians 5:1-2........therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
- ambassadors for Christ....2 Corinthians 5:20.....20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
Father, in Jesus' name, we make a commitment to YOU. We sing praise to You and give thanks at the remembrance of Your holy name. We worship today in the beauty of holiness. We desire to be trained in godliness. We want to walk the faith walk and acknowledge YOUR nature and heart. Today we desire our character to be like your character.
Lord, we believe and expect our bodies to be whole and healed for Jesus took and bore Himself on the tree, that we being dead unto sin might live for righteousness and by whose stripes we were healed.
Lord, we believe and expect our bodies to be whole and healed for Jesus took and bore Himself on the tree, that we being dead unto sin might live for righteousness and by whose stripes we were healed.
Today we hold the word of truth and know our lives are sanctified by the Word of truth. We expect to have the reverence and fear of God as we adhere to the Word that sets us free. Today we choose to have YOUR character and conduct.
Father, how may we please you today in our lives? How may we bring joy and laughter to YOU? We thank You for hearing us as we pray. We also expect to have the new and adventurous life that is new everyday and not "the business as usual thing". We release You Holy Spirit into our lives this day. Expand and increase our knowledge of YOU. We want to ENCOUNTER GOD IN ALL HIS FULLNESS FIRST HAND. WE WILL BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD. AMENYou can also visit my Youtube channel The Voice of Prayer for more teaching at (http://bit.ly/1tNyBhV)
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