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| Be cautious what you chase after.....you might get into dire straits! |
You may have heard of them of your youth if you find yourself as old as me! And yes, that would certainly take you back decades if your parents related those teachings to you. Some might say they never heard it. But my question would be: "did your parents not speak to you about Jesus?"
For by tradition, many books were handed down with nursery rhymes and poems to be spoken to children. Many story books held that of that "cow that jumped over the moon"! My question was "who let that cow out of the barn?"
Of course, we know there is no power in those words that are written as fantasy and fairy tales. You might have faith in them, but that is a belief from tradition and is fractured indeed! And many people have faith in their traditions! But after many decades of doing those traditional things, they find they do them without even thinking why they continue to do them when they bring no life to the observance of them!
One such lady I thought of in this writing, was a woman that never knew why her mother cut their super-size turkey in half for roasting at Thanksgiving. She saw her mother do it and so she did it as well!
In her later years, and children grown, they joined her mother again for a Thanksgiving meal and the mother told her she only did that when the woman now grown was a child of about six years old. She said, "if you remember we lived in a two bedroom apartment and there were five us living there. And the oven only held half-of-the-bird. So I had to cut it in pieces to fit it in that small apartment type oven.
But today, you have no issues. All the appliances should hold that 20 pound turkey with no problems! So all those years, the grown woman had continued to cut her turkey in half to prepare it like she had observed as a six year old girl!
In thinking about this and praying the last two days on this, I was reminded of Luke 24:5.
Why do you seek the living among the dead? This was angels speaking to those women who came to the tomb of Jesus. Verse 4 of Luke 24 reads : And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold two men stood by them in shining garments. And the angels continued to speak in verse 6: "He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee. Verse 7: "saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.'"
Jesus certainly was put in a tomb, but He left it like He said He would do! What Jesus spoke had power in those words!
Matthew 15:1-20 NKJV Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 2 "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." 3 He answered and said to them, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 " For God commanded, saying, 'Honor your father and your mother' and 'He who curses father or mother; let him be put to death.' 5 "But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother,' "Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God."-----6 'then he need not honor his father or mother.'Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"10 When He had called the multitude to Himself. He said to them, "Hear and understand: 11 "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth , this defiles a man."
Matthew 15: 12 Then His disciples came and said to him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?" 13 But He answered and said, "Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch." 15 Then Peter answered and said to him, "Explain this parable to us." 16 So Jesus said, "Are you also still without understanding? 17 'Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication's, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
We should be beware of those who teach religious traditions over the word of God. And those who so seriously teach things whether from Atzec Indians from how many hundreds of years ago to prove it is not common to one country but to another and still leave God Almighty out of it! Seriously speaking, God sent His Son, that Son of His great love to die on the Cross for each of us. It does not matter what country, what skin color or what language, Jesus died for mankind. Yet many still want to prove their right and the other person is wrong, and all are on their way to hell. YIKES!
And today we see people setting these things up in schools and elsewhere, yet it has nothing to do with reading, writing, or learning mathematics. And it certainly has nothing to do with the history of this nation.
For certainly worship of the heart has to be from a heart that loves God, whose Son is Jesus, whose Holy Spirit is with us to guide us in our daily walk with Him. This is not about some spiritual guide who lived thousands of years ago to lead you down that path that has the aroma of death, stinks like sulfur and appears as a fire on a horizon not too far from your pathway.
In Jesus is light and life. Without Him, you and I can do nothing! And be cautious of building altars to worship the dead. We are to build an altar within our heart, within our homes and that is found in a heart that loves Him, reveres Him and seeks to have that constant connection with Him.
Forsake any display of religion that is done primarily for man's approval. Pray and ask the Lord for His guidance that you not be succored into mindless things the enemy tries to use to gain people's time just for wasting it.
If your are spending time with people who dearly love to build altars to the dead, find new friends. We love our family members while they exist. We do not talk with them after they pass on. YOU do that and you will find yourself talking with demons. We are to seek life among the living. We are to know God as our highest priority. If we are looking at death all the time, then what is the condition of our heart? For prayer should be for the living not the those who already passed onto to life or death!
I certainly remember my paternal grandmother on her birthday. I remember how we loved to sew and create with fabrics and crochet thread. I remember she quilted for many years but I do not pray for her today. I loved that she loved eating hamburgers like I did, but I do not pray for her today. That time passed when she passed. What she gave to the Lord in her time on this earth is set. There is no changing it now!
My husband and I always drive by a cemetery on our way to the visit our children in the next county over from us. I do not pray for those who lie there in those coffins, but I do pray for those who do the upkeep of the grounds. And I do pray for those who may remain alive today who might have laid a loved one in a box in that cemetery. I also pray their lives would prove to be fruitful for the kingdom of God and not for the sake of tradition created by man himself.
James 3:16
tell us this: For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil
thing are there. We should never desire to want to hand our purity to a
physical or spiritual seducer. Our salvation depended on Jesus and His trip to
the Cross when He would die for man-kind. He did not shrink from death but He
shrank from the thought of sin. He knew what it did to man-kind!
Proverbs
4:1 Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to know
understanding; 2 for I give you good doctrine;
Proverbs
5:7 Therefore hear me now my children, & do not depart from the words of my
mouth.;
Proverbs 7:24-26 NKJV Now therefore listen to me, my children pay attention to
the words of my mouth 25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, do not
stray into her paths; 26 For she has cast down many wounded, and all who were
slain by her were strong men.
Every
living person who knows God should be willing to take another look at
“therefore”…for here it means because immorality leads people of any age to be
mounted like a head on wall, to be trapped in a cage, to be stuffed, or snared.....that is dangerous indeed!. Romans 8:12-13 NKJV 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors----not to the
flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the
flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live.
Godly
purity stands in stark contrast to the social standards that a culture
sets for a couple, for a family or for the individual! Are we chasing the next big thing that amounts to wasted time? We could look like the squirrel on the teacup trying to reach for something that is wrong and unsafe for us!
The covenant with God is loyalty as it
is with the couple. We have the Holy Spirit of promise and His guidance is to be
living for God with embattlements of silver to fortify that wall for we will
speak words of Wisdom, have on the breastplate of righteousness having shod our
feet with the gospel of peace wherewith we use the shield of our faith to stand
offensively in prayer to engage in the battle of those strongholds that a
culture can present.
Sustained
by the Holy Spirit you and I can glorify God according to His will to see His
kingdom come. Being jealous for the Lord, is revering Him and staying in that
intimacy that marks that we are sealed by His Spirit rising in power for purpose
that glorifies God in all our relationships, both young and old!
It is time to put away childish things and live for God in the power of His might! Amen!
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Birds of the Air
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AND When You Stand Praying
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