Thanksgiving is almost here!
Yes, those plans to make, a list to write out, making sure every desire for great food is listed and not left out. Even that big pan for the "bird" is important. Yes, that carving time will come for the turkey. It most likely will bring a smile to some, but not all at our table will be pleased. Hopefully our youngest member will have a desire for turkey this year, and if not maybe a burger will do!
Being intent on serving healthy food, meeting most appetites with a choice of good things, and pondering on all the cook times and when to serve can mount quickly. And if you have more than one meat to prepare for the oven, not mention the other items requiring some oven time, one finds "the oven shuffle" a practice year after year will come close to a possible perfection.
But life is more than food and drink. And being disciplined is vital and is to be treasured when keeping a close walk with God.
Technology today has given most things to keep God's Word close at hand. They carry it with them either in the cell phone, the tablet, or some other device that they prefer. But keeping it close to hand does not mean that it is in our heart.
Carving out that time, just like carving that turkey starts with a grocery list. And in that list for life, it takes some discipline, certainly some time and much effort to do.
Meditating God's Word requires us to keep it active in our hearts and our minds. It must be a commitment. Connecting with God is meeting Him face to face. It is seeking Him and He is found.
My husband has been reading some commentaries on the Gnosticism that was considered the earliest enemy of Christianity. Gnosticism was that which held a certain belief that of the physical world, salvation was the release from the physical body. But physical to us is to mean face to face.
"Gnosticism" does not ask how one is saved from sin, but asks the one question of what the possible origin of sin (or evil) might be. Those who considered themselves gnostic would anxiously guard their secret sect. They regarded knowledge more important than faith. They carried within them the denial of the humanity of Jesus Christ.
What they believed and what they spoke was contrary to God the Creator!
Spending time in the Word gives us a clear picture of the Creator. Speaking out His Word, giving voice to His commands, we begin to think like our Father thinks. Mediating truth will bring multiplication to truth in other areas of our lives.
One specific I think of is that of "only surface" relationships. God presented Himself in His entirety. He gave us that which declares Who and What He has done. But when we first meet someone or see them maybe only a few times throughout the year, we will not actually "know " them, or will they just be a fantasy. A true relationship in fellowship- requires us to actually engage another.
To me it would be the same as driving a standard shift vehicle. You must engage that stick shift to move.
Ezekiel 36:26-28
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. NIV
Our salvation came through Jesus and we do have the Spirit of God living on the inside of us. And the more we apply ourselves to seek Him, spend time with Him, we move in greater power of His Spirit.
I do not know your encounters with a stick shift but I had many encounters. The teaching my mother had for me, proved to me to be loud, instructional and many tears. Along came my friend Loretta, and her desire to teach others to drive a standard shift car. That one was fun indeed. All I had to do was put about fifty cents worth of gas in her car, and we were off on a driving lesson.
I had to listen, but I also had to engage.
Encountering God, His deep love and His presence was electric to me. The more I looked for fellowship with other like-minded individuals, I too experience even more electrifying times with Him. He is more real to me than anything or anyone.
Each time we choose to declare Him, His Word and His love, we see manifested Jesus the Christ. And the Comforter, the Holy Spirit fills our tanks to the full line. His Presence in our lives transforms us and will cause us to take note that we too have been with the Spirit . of Prophecy. Jesus! 1 John 4:7-11 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. NKJV
Yes, we should love God more than we love turkey.
As we come to the end of another year, may I as a spiritual mother speak words of wisdom. As I speak this out and type the words of God's wisdom, may you see revealed to your heart God and what He has planned for you. May you believe for the "new in God". God our Father always desire us as His children to keep believing, trusting and expect what He has planned.
Ps 24:7-10
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
He is the King of glory.
NKJV
I speak the opening of heavenly gates and ancient doors that
will bring us into deeper relationship with God. May you know Jesus in greater ways. In that may you always be renewed in strength to soar with God. (Isiah 40:3) God rewards those who will come to practice justice in all their dealings with others. In the written words of the prophet Amos 5:24, it says this: "let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream." Speaking this all injustices must end.
Come to the spiritual refreshing. Come out of the wilderness and drink from the river of His delights. John 4:10....10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
NKJV
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19)
In this way you (they) will lay up treasure for yourselves (themselves) as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that you (they) may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:19) (italics mine)
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7) Engage Jesus, engage the life we have through Him, and expect much life to be lived through Him, now and in this hour!
Amen.
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Notice:
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Speaking As To A Clear Conscience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUEiCK2djgY
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