Do you remember what it is to drink a nice, cool, fresh drink of water and how it just satisfies your thirst for that sparse moment? Its SO REFRESHING. You just have to physically say, "Ahhh...". It's even sometimes breathtaking at the prospect of how thirsty we get though we have those moments where our lips purse the ice in the cool glass as that water drips down our throat. That sensation occurs often it would seem, in the heart. For a moment, we got it, just that taste...but then I'm asking the waiter for a refill or revisiting the ice machine, again. OR further, asking that sin to fill the time or give me a feeling of lacking sufficiency. Look at the reality of how thirsty we are my loved ones and let God minister to your heart so you may not drink of the sparse things...but the Lasting things of His desirous heart for you. Spend Time thinking upon how satisfying He is in this area. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,”declares the Lord. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me,the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,”declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty. Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me,”declares the Sovereign Lord. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, ‘It’s no use!I love foreign gods,and I must go after them.’ - Jeremiah 2:12-13,19,22,25 This is the desperation in our flesh and the resulted emptiness we leave ourselves to. Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4:13-14 Through His love for YOU, He has given this constant welling up of eternal life in you. He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. - Revelation 21:6 Now read this slowly, take it in... Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. - Revelation 22:1-5 Is not your soul saying "ahh...THAT IS SO REFRESHING!" This is forever yours by the majesty of His love. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4: all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. Prayer: Ephesians 3:14-19 14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,[a]15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.[b] 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Wow, here we are, the month of May. God is good, no? I've been doing lots of talking with people as of late as God takes me through this course of life. Some subjects are touchy and difficult to perceive in my mind's eye or too often I look to deeply at things with a skepticism that can over ride the love I should have for an individual. It is scary the things God has been revealing to me about my own heart through the thoughts that enter my mind, especially in root of motive and in the ease with which I subject myself and others too when I approach them with such attitudes. This danger is one rooted in what all sin is rooted in, Pride. I titled this Knowledge because I am internally anguished at the prospect of that which can come from our own brains. What we don't see or often recollect is that what our mind portrays, in reality, unlocks the heart's desire in the corruptibility of our sin nature. Not to just exhort or forewarn, but to truly look at the attitude with which we attain knowledge and use it is absolutely VITAL. At least for me anyways, my thoughts are so self inclined and easily ensnare me with lies and false dichotomies that do not exist in the reality of who Christ has made me to be or what He intended in giving us the capacity to perceive in our study of things; knowledge. Due to this, I want to look at what God, through the Holy Spirit, wrote to us in His Love Letter of Life and Godliness to enhance our capacity to learn, yet to further delve into the prospects of knowledge that so easily ensnare us and address this in root, heart issue. So knowledge. What was it intended for? Like any gift from God, if it is not rooted in the Love Jesus desired to portray and emulate to humanity, then it is purely of nothing. "2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."- 1 Cor. 13:2 One of the many things that entrap us when we think, is that we do what is natural; think from our perspectives and perception. Many a time this is in the engagement of arguing with your Parents or God all the way to the simplistic contribution of opinion in an argument. While natural it is absolutely necessary to learn to bring glory to and assess the characteristics of God's heart as we consider anything. Granted, I struggle momentarily in this area, but the meticulous desire of love is emulated as Paul addresses the way in which we war against an unloving approach to knowledgeable ideology: "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."- 2 Cor. 10:3-5 The way we engage our thoughts and the things that enter the mind will be treated with the severity of love within the warrior. Many of us don't know what we are fighting for when we take these "extremes" or even consider the fact that we are engaged in daily warfare. If you are not engaged with what knowledge was intended for, how can you truly fight as a warrior with a cause? You swing aimlessly often allowing others to receive the brunt of your prideful indignation and input by interruption or in just not caring enough to listen to them. It's always the small things that get us right? But in what ways does knowledge damage further than just within ourselves? In 1 Cor. 8, Paul is touching upon the knowledge of a mature Christian actually causing his brother to stumble. Read the whole chapter and you'll understand the anxiety with which Paul is addressing the situation at hand. But in this light, what Paul says in this text further epitomizes the danger that we face in the knowledge we have attained: "We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.[a] 9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ."- 1 Cor. 8:1b-3,9-12 So what we have hear is Paul saying, "I know that you know, but why are you letting others suffer from what you dictate to allow in passivity of your kinsmen, God's beloved, your brethren because you know what you know." I just have to exhort and admonish us that if our knowledge is puffing us up rather than edifying and building up our family in the love of God, then we not only sin against them, but Jesus Himself. You not only degrade the beauty of what knowledge should do in enhancing one's relationship with Christ, but we alleviate the beauty of the "knitting together of love" (Col. 2:2) that is to culminate itself in the CHURCH; Jesus' Bride. Because if you love God, despite your knowledge, such knowledge of Him to you becomes what establishes you to think like Jesus and to be made new in the way you view things. 12 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. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.- Romans 12:1-5 In essence, it's not about you or what knowledge you posses, but rather, it was given to help show you the way God's divine nature, by the Holy Spirit is renewing you to not only think of others, but to advance the Kingdom in light of how you think, ultimately leading to your actions and fruit wrought forth to God, you, and humanity. All for your sanctification as you become more like Jesus, for God's kingdom and will to be accomplished, and for the distribution among God's people the gifts that He has given to you in grace. "2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, "- 2 Pet. 1:2-13 Application Take time to asses your heart, but even more, ask God to search you out. How much do you think you know? Who is God that He is mindful of us? Is your knowledge diminishing the edification of the Body? What does God's word display about knowledge to you? How does that personalize this aspect of not only seeing God's heart but push you to pardon that love and motive of affection to others? Pray Don't ask for much, be quick to listen and repent, all the while do know and recognize the irrevocable grace and love promoted by God's heart for you. A truly incomprehensible thing that leaves humanity in awe. Not something you can fully understand without Him, by the Holy Spirit, revealing it to you. Think upon Jesus and His heart and what Humility was set in His mind for others. |
GARY RICHARDSONSAVED BY GRACE, IN SEARCH OF THINGS WHICH LAST FOR ETERNITY, I DESIRE TO DELVE INTO DAILY LIFE AS WE LIVE TO EMULATE THE LOVE CHRIST PARDONED TO US AS HUMANITY AND GOD'S CHURCH. Archives
October 2016
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