Mercy is a purple dress

I had one of those days! You know, those days where so many little things go wrong that you think staying in bed all day might not have been a bad idea at all. And then someone broke the milkshake mug. The one that has a special design so that only that one can fit into the milkshake machine. It sort of just added insult to injury! So I went home to look for the epoxy glue. The kind that comes in two tubes that you have to mix. I have one of those drawers where all the odds and ends land up. I’m sure most people have one of those. I found one. And two empty ones. I was slightly upset but I remembered I had a small box of more odds and ends that I had put on a bookshelf when we moved to this house. And, there it was, the first thing I saw when I opened up the box. My whole day has been restored. It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy, and this was one of those small mercies.

Luke 5:9, “For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which he had taken.” That’s how I felt. I was so happy that God hadn’t actually forgotten about me. I know in my heart that He never forgets about me, but my flesh is very much inclined to forget!

Deuteronomy 6:12, “then, beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” As I said, my flesh is inclined to forget that God will never forget me, but also very much inclined to forget about God! How many times do I try to do things on my own, in my own strength. Today went badly because I was mostly doing it in my own strength. Reacting too quickly, not consulting God when I made a decision. If the bad parts were because I didn’t consult God, then what was the glue that I found? I didn’t consult God about it either. It was mercy, pure, undeserved mercy.

Titus 3:4-8, “But when the kindness and the love of God our savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

Now, if God can do that for us, such a big thing, what are the little things to Him? We like to do our own thing and just muddle through, when everything could be so much better if we involve God in our daily routine. We could just become quiet and ask Him something simple like, should I do this or shouldn’t I? And He answers. God isn’t too busy to care about the little things in our lives. I remember in 2015, I was going to a ladies camp. About a week before the camp I dreamed that I was wearing a purple dress. It seems irrelevant, but I never wore purple, ever. When I woke up I remembered it so clearly and thought, “I didn’t look too bad in that purple dress, maybe I can wear purple,” Later that morning I checked my emails and there was an email about the things we had to take along to the camp. Right at the end of the list was written: Bring an item of purple clothing for Sunday. I was completely blown away. God cared enough about me to let me know that I could wear purple. He didn’t want me to feel terrible when I realized I was expected to wear purple. Nothing is too big for Him to handle, and nothing is too small for Him to care about. Hallelujah!

Choose to praise

Sometimes life becomes totally overwhelming. It feels like we’re living inside a bubble and the bubble is becoming smaller and smaller and the oxygen inside the bubble is being used up as we struggle to be normal.

Lamentations 3:7 – 9, “He has hedged me in so that I cannot get our; he has made my chain heavy. Even as I cry and shout. He shuts out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.”

I think that’s quite an accurate description of the way we sometimes feel. It feels like there’s no way out of this and things will never change and we will never break out of the chains. But we aren’t really supposed to feel that way. Or if we do, it should only be for a very short time. Later in the same chapter (verse 22 -26) it says, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in Him! The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seek Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

Jeremiah, to whom Lamentations is ascribed, changed his attitude towards God.

Just like Jeremiah, we have to be willing to change our attitude.

Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Isaiah 61:3. “To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

When things are really hard, we must praise God.

Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”

I know it’s hard to rejoice when you feel down and desperate, and when everything seems to be going wrong. I know it. And it’s not going to get easier. But at least if you’ve tried it a few times you are going to know that it works. Put on praise music. Grab a flag, or a dishcloth or whatever is at hand. Wave it around, jump up and down, dance, sing, whatever works for you. God loves you and He needs you to praise Him. Not for His sake but for yours.

Psalm 30:11, “Then he broke through and transformed my wailing into a whirling dance of ecstatic praise! He has torn the veil and lifted from me the sad heaviness of mourning. He wrapped me in the glory garments of gladness.” (TPT)

Psalm 34:1 -3, “Lord! I’m bursting with joy over what you’ve done for me! My lips are full of perpetual praise. I’m boasting of you and all your works, so let all who are discouraged take heart. Join me, everyone! Let’s praise the Lord together. Let’s make him famous! Let’s make his name glorious to all.” (TLB) (Living Bible)

These verses are so encouraging I feel like dancing now. Both these psalms were written by David and he went through some extremely bad times and difficult, life and death situations. He also had to force himself to praise on the dark days. He had to pick himself up out of despair and failure and start all over again. David was a man after God’s own heart and I think that a lot of it had to do with the fact that he chose to praise God even in the most difficult situations. We can do that too. We can reach out and burst that bubble of oppression that is threatening to strangle us and choose to praise God.

Heart of stone

A friend was sharing with me about a friend of hers who is extremely sick, and she said that she senses God is dealing with a whole family in this situation. God does that. He doesn’t cause sickness and tragedy but He uses it for our good. Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” So God takes the bad things that happen and uses them to work in our hearts. It doesn’t matter if those bad things happened accidentally or if they were self inflicted. Sometimes tragedy strikes and our hearts are broken, but not only because of what happened now, often old hurts are exposed and then everything just seems so much worse than they should have been. God can then start to heal those old wounds that have been exposed.
Psalm 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”
These verses are so true. We just need to allow God into our hearts and into our pain. When we are hurting and suffering He is doing His best work. When we get hurt and don’t allow God in, we build walls around our hearts, and then no-one can get in. We do it as protection but we are not protecting ourselves, we are harming ourselves. We are stopping the healing oil that God wants to pour onto our wounds from healing that hurting heart. We are also blocking blessings that we could have been receiving because we just aren’t open to receiving them. Our attitude of rejecting help from God also rejects people and we become bitter and nasty. You know the saying, ‘hurt people hurt people.’? That’s exactly what happens. Because we have shut down the loving, soft, humble and gentle parts of our hearts (those parts that get hurt so easily) we push away people who try to get close to us. It’s really sad but it happens all the time.
Ezekiel 26:36 says, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.”
I think that God doesn’t just heal our hearts, He gives us a brand-new heart. When we are so hurt that our hearts have turned to stone, He can take out that stone and replace it with a new heart.
Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am He who blots our your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
Matthew 6:14 – 15, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will you Father forgive your trespasses.”
So God forgives us and doesn’t remember our sins, and He expects the same from us. I have often heard that people say they can forgive but they cannot forget. I often have to forgive people, and I make a point of not doing it in my own strength. If I allow God to work in that situation He not only helps me to forgive, but also to forget. I know that the incident isn’t easily forgotten, but it’s the hurt that must be forgotten. There are in fact incidents that I have forgotten. How does God do this? He gives us new hearts when the old ones are hurting too much. We just have to ask Him and invite Him and allow Him to do his healing and renewing work in us. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to do what He is so good at doing.
Isaiah 11:2, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”
The same Holy Spirit that was with Jesus and that is prophesied in Isaiah is the Holy Spirit that lives in every believer. He has been sent to be our helper, comforter, guide and advocate. How can we refuse the help that is available? All we have to do is allow Him to work. There’s no special ritual we have to go through, there aren’t special prayers. We just have to surrender our hearts to Him and let Him do the rest.

Conscience

Today I was reading a book about spiritual warfare and I came across a very interesting paragraph. It reads: “The conscience is one of our God-given internal faculties, a critical witness within us that tells us we ought to do what we believe to be right and not to do what we believe to be wrong. The conscience, however, does not instruct us as to what is right or wrong; it prods us to do what we have been taught is right. It is therefore possible to be led astray by our conscience if we are deceived about what is right and what is wrong. It is important to understand that our conscience must be informed by the Word of God, by what it says is right and what it says is wrong. Without being shaped by the absolute standard of God’s Word, our conscience is an unreliable guide for life because it is easily deceived and subject to emotions and moods.”

I don’t entirely agree with this statement.

The dictionary defines the word ‘Conscience’ as, “a person’s moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one’s behavior.”

John 8:9, “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last, And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” This is the woman who was caught in adultery and who was going to be stoned to death, when Jesus saved her.

Acts 24:16, “This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.

Romans 2:13-15,”for the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law unto themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.”

Romans 1:18-22, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew Go, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

I could be mistaken, but these verses tell me that there is a built-in knowledge of right and wrong in every person. If that person does not want to acknowledge God and glorify Him, their thoughts become contaminated and their consciences become seared. To me these verses say that people should not be excused from knowing what is right and what is wrong, irrespective of whether they know the bible and biblical values or not. It also follows that when people don’t follow what is right, in other words they open doors to the devil, then the devil will enter those doors. The person then will become subject to what those demons are telling him and thus not do what is right. That is the reason they do not seem to have a conscience, a reason, but not an excuse. God did not make people bad. Genesis 1:26 – 27, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

If God made people in His own image, He would hardly make them bad, and although we are born into a fallen world, and have a sinful nature, I believe we still retain that part that recognises God and that can see the difference between right and wrong. Unless, of course, we reject it.

The goal of every believer should be to carry out the Gospel to as many people as possible by whatever means are available to them and then nobody can use any excuses

Coffee and Unity

I got to church on Sunday just as the service began. My spirit was too low to praise and sadness surrounded me. I was there for about two minutes when I realized I couldn’t stay. My state of mind was clear to see and people with the very best intentions would either ignore e, or surround me with love and compassion, and I wasn’t open to accepting either in a group situation. When I got to the front door, a friend walked in who was even later than me. She hugged me and asked if  I was all right. My tears started to flow and she suggested that we go and sit in her car. We spoke for a while and I felt better. I told her that I would not be going back to church and she suggested that we go for coffee. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. God’s timing in impeccable. We spoke about spiritual matters and our children and work and the weather. It was glorious. It was exactly what I needed.

Ephesians 4:1 – 6, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

How are we ever going to live in unity if we don’t get to communicate on a personal level if we don’t interact on a personal level. We will never get to know anyone’s heart if we don’t connect with them in a way that we can actually hear what the desires of their hearts are. That is not something that’s going to happen in a church service. A small group or cell group is going to take us closer, but there’s nothing like one on one conversation over a cup of coffee.

Jesus didn’t just walk around preaching and multiplying loaves and fish, He shared many meals with people. I’m sure if coffee was around at that time, Jesus would have told parables over bottomless cappuccino.

Luke 19:1 – 10 tell of how Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’s house for a meal. The result was miraculous. Zaccaeus repented of his devious dealings and gave half his good to the poor.

In Luke 10:38 – 42 Jesus has a meal at the house of Mary and Martha and Martha complains bitterly that she has to slave away in the kitchen while her sister sits at the feet of Jesus.

When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law in Matthew 8:14-15, she got up and started serving them.

Matthew chapter 22 tell of the preparations for the Passover meal which became the basis of Communion as we know it today. A group of friends having a meal and discussing the imminent fate of their Master became known as the Last Supper. A simple meal shared between them was set down as one of the auspicious occasions in history. The meal where Jesus announced that He knew who would betray Him; a meal where the disciples argued about who was the greatest; a meal where Jesus predicted Peter’s denial and His own death. This happened around a table, over a meal, not in a synagogue or a church with dramatic organ music or drums rolls stirring up the atmosphere.

I am not saying you shouldn’t go to church. Not at all. Church has a place in our lives, a very important place. It is the place where we worship and celebrate Christ’s love with other believers and should not be neglected. But coffee is what fellowship is all about. This is where we get down to grassroots.

So have coffee or have tea or juice or cheesecake with a friend and fellowship and get to know each other’s hearts as well as God’s heart.

Filled up and overflowing

It rained all night and all day. It poured. Our water storage tanks are full and running over. We are fortunate to have tanks to catch up water during this time that water has become a precious commodity.

Psalm 63:1, “O God, You are my God; Early I will seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.”

Isaiah 12:3, “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

Revelation 21:6, “And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.”

Revelation 22:1, “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Clearly in these verses water is used as a symbol for salvation. Water is used every day for washing and cleansing. When we are saved by turning to Jesus our old lives are washed away and we are new creatures. Also when we are baptized, it is in water, symbolizing that we have a new life. Water isn’t only used to symbolize salvation in the Bible, but that’s the only use I’m going to use today.

Isaiah 55:1, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

If I want to use my water storage tanks for rain water it will follow that I won’t be pumping water into them from any other source. Not from the municipal mains and not from a borehole or a dam. If I want the water to by uncontaminated I have to have a filter on the tank and also make sure that the gutters from which the water flows are clean of leaves and any other foreign matter. The water definitely won’t be pure if there are rotting leaves and dead rodents polluting it. Just the same I cannot be putting foreign matter into my head and my heart if I have received the water of Salvation. I cannot do things that are going to jeopardize the integrity of what Jesus has placed in my spirit by contaminating my mind and my body.

There are many movies and TV programs that are not good to watch. They do not have content that are suitable for children of God. When I say this I don’t mean that we are going to be seeing things that we’ve never seen before, or that will shock us. The problem is that the things we allow into our minds have the potential to stay in our minds. Those are going to be things which will pop up in our thoughts every so often. Do we really want unwholesome and unhealthy images in our minds? Do we want to listen to people using profanities and using the name of God when they aren’t actually addressing Him? Of course television isn’t the only media which influences us. There are magazines and newspapers. Social media and YouTube videos and also literature. People who use foul language and speak about negative and unsavory things are also best avoided.

Then there are also very innocent things that we can fill our minds with that can distract us from God. What about something like Pinterest? It’s the best place to get creative ideas and recipes etc. but it’s also really addictive. It can easily steal many hours of our time that could have been used for Bible study or prayer. I’m not saying that we can’t spend time on hobbies and creative outlets. Not at all. I love doing all kinds of crafts and I absolutely love the ideas I get from Pinterest. I’m just putting a word of caution out there. Don’t let things steal your time.

Just like a rainwater tank needs to get water directly from the rain while it is raining, we need to get input and revelations directly from God when the time is right. We can’t expect to watch television all day and then spend a quick 15 minutes in prayer and think God is going to speak to us.

Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.”

1 Thessalonians 5:17, ‘Pray without ceasing.”

Psalm 119:15, “I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways,” and verse 97, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”

So we need to be like water tanks that are filled up to the top and overflowing with springs of living water.

 

Wait on the Lord

We’re celebrating Easter and as we all know it’s all about Jesus being crucified. And the value of Easter being in the fact that Jesus rose again on the third day. Which is really amazing. If I try to think about the resurrection in human terms, there’s no way that is could have happened.
Matthew 28:1 – 10,”Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of Him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. He is not here, for He is risen like He said. Come see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee: there you will see him. See, I have told you.’ So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.’”
If this was a fairy tale or a work of fiction, it might be hard to think of as being plausible. It outrates the most dramatic soap opera. Superman, Batman and Spiderman don’t have a chance of coming anywhere near this story. Jesus is the ultimate super hero. There is not one single logical thing about the resurrection. When the soldiers went to tell the story, the elders bribed them to say that the disciples had stolen Jesus’s body. The whole thing didn’t make the least sense to Thomas either.
John 20:24 – 29 , “Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.’ Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” So here Jesus not only knows what Thomas said, he also walked through the wall!
If we confess to being Christians, believers, followers of Jesus, then we have to totally believe what’s written in the Bible. If the Bible says Jesus appeared, and if He walked through the wall or just appeared out of nowhere, it doesn’t matter, we have to believe it. It’s as simple as that. But is it as simple as that when our faith is tested. Is it simple when we’ve been praying and trusting God for a miracle and it hasn’t happened?
Isaiah 40:28 – 31, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
And what shall we do while we are waiting on the Lord?
Colossians 4:2, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it, with thanksgiving.”
That’s the answer, keep on praying and praise God. Even though nothing makes sense, God hears your prayers and He loves you so much He sent His only Son to die so that you can be saved.

Logic

My husband and I took a quick walk on the beach this morning. The weather was lovely. A warm day slipped in between two cold days. Because it was a public holiday and a long weekend, there were lots of people on the beach. Families with children, young people in bathing suits, a mother playing cricket with her young son, and older people watching grandchildren. A lovely scene. I wonder if God purposely makes days like this for us to enjoy? There’s a question that if tree falls in the forest, and there’s no one to hear it fall, does it make a sound? There are so many mysteries with God. There are so many mysteries about life.

One of the questions most often asked is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” and I think there are as many theories about that as there are people asking the question. Whenever we do something, anything, there is a consequence. So a lot of the time, when bad things happen, they are as a consequence of a bad choice we made even though we don’t always like to admit it. Other times there are things like people getting sick and dying. There are natural disasters which claims hundreds of lives and there aren’t any logical explanations to them. They happen. I haven’t found the words, ‘logic’ or ‘logical’ in the Bible. My husband always tells me to think logically and I normally just give up at that point, because it obviously isn’t my strong point.

 

Look at something like the time when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush? That didn’t exactly make sense and there wasn’t a logical explanation. Apparently you do get bushes in the dessert that catch alight, but they don’t continue burning, they quickly burn out. And they don’t talk. Then there was the Red Sea that parted. The water that came out of the rock. The Jordan River that was in flood and also parted for the Israelites to walk through. What about the wall of Jericho that fell down? Any logic in that? In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat and his army watched as the enemy forces annihilated each other and all they had to do was gather the spoils. What about Noah who built an enormous boat, nowhere near the ocean? Why? Because God said so. Jonah was swallowed by a fish.

King Hezekiah asked God to let the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz go back 10 degrees and it happened. In other words the earth rotated back on its axis. Logical? David did all kinds of bad things. He even committed adultery and had a man killed. Yet God called him a man after his own heart? I understand why? David loved God but he was a human being like you and me and he did all kinds of things he shouldn’t have, just like you and me. Each time he did something bad, he repented and sought forgiveness from God. Also, as far as I can see he didn’t do the same sin twice. To me it makes sense, but I’m no really known for logical thinking. Would it make sense to someone who doesn’t know God that well? God make Hosea marry a prostitute and have children with her, and go and bring her back home every time she wandered off, in order to illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness. Logical? Would we be willing to do something like that?

Daniel was carried away in captivity and quite possibly castrated. Yet he remained ever faithful to God. In Habakkuk 3:17 – 18, “Though the fig tree may not blossom, Not fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls – Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

These are things that don’t  make any sense, and aren’t at all logical. But then, faith doesn’t make sense and isn’t at all logical. Believing in things that you can’t see, speaking things that are not as if they are, and having someone die for you are not things that our small minds can fathom. But then, if faith was logical and easy what would the point be?

 

 

Forgive her Father…

I wove the crown of thorns
That our precious Savior wore
FORGIVE HER FATHER
SHE KNOWS NOT WHAT SHE DOES!

I wielded the whip
That tore into His flesh
FORGIVE HER FATHER
SHE KNOWS NOT WHAT SHE DOES!

I drove the nails
That held Him to the cross
FORGIVE HER FATHER
SHE KNOWS NOT WHAT SHE DOES!

I lifted the spear
That pierced his side.
FORGIVE HER FATHER
SHE KNOWS NOT WHAT SHE DOES!

She is Your precious daughter
Who will take up Your sword
And fight the enemy

She is Your precious daughter
Who will go into the world
And open the eyes of the blind

She is Your precious daughter
Who will overcome evil
And receive the victor’s crown

She is Your precious daughter
And it is for her
That all this pain I bear.

FORGIVE HER FATHER
SHE KNOWS NOT WHAT SHE DOES!

 

Temptations

A young man was in a dilemma and he thought he had a solution. I put it to him that he was standing before temptation and that the devil was tempting him to make the wrong choice. I praise the Lord that he made the right choice. It wasn’t an easy choice for him because being in trouble isn’t nice or easy. Each one of us stands before temptation every day and have choices to make. There are more temptations and choices than we can even imagine.

Of course Jesus was tempted even before He began his ministry on earth. After He was baptized the spirit led Him into the wilderness where He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. The Bible says hes as hungry. I can’t even start to imagine how hungry He was.

Matthew 4:3 – 11, “now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written , ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’  Again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Here Jesus gives us the perfect example of what we are supposed to do when we are tempted. We have to remember the promises in the Word, and ideally we should know them off by heart and have them at hand and in the front of our memories when the time comes. But do we? Do we even realize before it’s too late that what came before us was temptation. Do we just see is as a situation that we had to handle and get out of the way? Do we debate whether Jesus had it easier than we do because after all He was God?

Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Jesus went through everything He endured as 100% human. While He was on earth He did not receive any favoritism from God. He didn’t feel or experience things differently than we do.

James 1:12 – , “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, not does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

We must never get into the position where, when we make one mistake, we have to do something to cover it up. If we fall to temptation, we have to own up and fix the situation in the correct way, even if it is difficult. We have to overcome out fear of man, and remember that is it way more important to please God than to please man. Always. Don’t let one small mistake grow into a huge catastrophe. Do the right thing by doing what Jesus did.