Sin doesn't only affect me.

Just reading in Joshua 7 the story of Israel going to defeat Ai.   After Jericho they were feeling pretty strong and confident but they lost.   Chapter 7 explains why.  Achan, a soldier, took a cloak, some silver coins and a bar of gold for himself when God said all these things were devoted to God.  This was in Jericho 

As a result when they went to Ai they were defeated.  Moreover, 36  innocent Israelite men died in that battle.  We also have the idea that they were not innocent but deserved, somehow to die.  Not true.   Our choices affect others,  and they sometimes others suffer needless pain because we wanted what we wanted and grabbed it.

Achan didn't  come forward and confess but had to be discovered by revelation of God to Joshua  But, when it was revealed to be him,  he, his sons and daughters, even his livestock and all his possession were taken and they were stoned and possessions burned.    This was a HARD lesson for the whole congregation but it was a demonstration to the Israelite nation that SIN had to be dealt with.

In today's culture it is easy to be shocked and horrified and a bit on the edge of thinking God was not really fair.   We tend to think it  was not that big a deal but it was in fact.   It was a direct disobedience to God's command.  A command given for the spiritual protect on the people of Israel.   

We tend to even see sin as  not too bad a sin, a middle to needs to be punished bad and so bad we even think of it as evil.  We tend judge our own sins according to how bad we think they are.  I mean, a lie doesn't really hurt anyone. 

This story really hit me.   I can remember in my early 20's when I was knowingly sinning.  I justified myself with  "I'm not hurting anyone but me and I am willing to pay the price."

I am terrified today when I think of that time.  Number 1, the LORD mercifully did not kill me on the spot for my rebellion,  and number 2, though those actions have had some hard repercussions on my life God has amazingly forgiven me and loves me. In fact part of His love is discipline to lead me to understand the power and strength of sin over my life and my need to repent and humbly seeks to walk in the ways of God.  Also, the part I never considered was that my sin did affect others who were innocent.

I will maybe never know in this life who I hurt and damaged but it is a part of my life story and though forgiven I suspect that one day, before the judgement seat of God, I will be shown so I will fully understand it was not considered unimportant to God, and how it hurt others.  I know I have been forgiven, and I don't know how it will play out in eternity but another thing that I see is that my sin was part of dung heap of sin  poured out on our Sinless LORD Jesus Christ  on the cross.  He suffered for my sin.

Also, I believe that though God forgives us he allows things in our life to bring correction and discipline to draw us into a clearer knowledge of his righteousness.  That correction is discipline and it hurts but if we will pay attention and humble ourselves and seek God's ways in our lives it will assuredly be to our good.  

Some of the roads in our lives

Deuteronomy 8

Deuteronomy is a book, it seems to me, of Remembrance for the children of Israel - to remember God, and His hand in their lives.  Not just as a general whole, but specifically in every life of those preparing to enter the land.  Chapter 8 clearly marks this.

God has had a clear and definite hand in our lives.   Not just now, today but in our past - in the hard times we sometimes forget He is in those also. And, even in them, there are underlying blessings we often think of in terms of "well, it wasn't all bad" but we don't REMEMBER God is in it all.

It says in chapter 8 of Deuteronomy

God made them hungry and when they admitted they were hungry with no resources of their own, He gave them Manna.  Not exotic foods but a food to sustain them.

This was for several reasons, but it is stated it was for discipline and for teaching

To teach them: 

1  Man does not live by bread alone but also the importance of remembering and obeying every word      of  God's instructions to them.

2  In this desert did they notice that their clothes didn't wear out, or their feet swell?  So under the  discipline there was positive care given.   Did they give thanks for God's protection.  Do we, or do    we only grumble for the areas we are upset by.

The Discipline of the Desert place was to bring them to the promised land.   That discipline was not all they saw.  They were protected from the heat by the cloud by day, and from the chill by pillar of fire by night.   They were protected from snakes and scorpions and other things not specifically mentioned.    And when it was clear there was no water and they were thirsty they were given  water from "THE ROCK".   I heard Bible School teachers tell me it was porous rock that was infused with water and when struck it broke through and released the water.   This passage says from HARD rock.  And of course,  Moses was instructed to speak to the rock.  The Rock was Jesus Christ and for striking it, in fact twice, Moses lost the privilege of going into the Promised land.

And lastly, in this passage, God spoke very specifically  about not forgetting the LORD your God and deliberately creating 'gods' to your own taste.   With worshiping other gods, the LORD warned that His protection would be removed.  And part of that forgetting was beginning to see your success in overcoming the enemy and gaining a good life not as given by God, but your good planning or choices.  Creating yourself as your god, and turning away from gratitude and praise to the God who gave it to you.

 Not in Deuteronomy but like the picture

                                 

Mind your own business

                    

                                  Mind your own business                10.15.17

All references used here are KJV 

I Thessalonians 4:11-12 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. 12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 And now Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD the God, to walk in all his ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 13 To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good.

Micah 6:6-8 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offering with calves of a year old?

7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth LORD require

of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.

I Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,and to hearken than the fat of rams

God is more interested in our hearts toward him, than our “impressive” deeds and sacrifices

Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Genesis 5:22-24 And Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah, and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years; And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.

How did Enoch walk.  I believe it must have been to walk humbly, seek justice and to love mercy.

Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world.

God's Grace that gives salvation enables us to walk in His way. It isn't our good works but our love for the LORD and desire to walk in His way and in His grace.  By our seeking to know him and walk in obedience to him.

God meets us when we call upon Him.

Python my dad shot on the hill by our house

I have had something on my heart and mind.  When I was going on 5 years old my parents went to the country then known as Tanganyika.    As a child I became very early on fearful of several things.  Snakes,  Fire,  and being alone,

There were some other things also but those became very big to me.  Then one night I dreamt that I had 'found' a tunnel with rooms that I could hide in away from all those fearful things and I was able to be there alone.   No one else knew how to get in.

green mamba I stepped on.  My brother killed it.

So started a life of creating a place in my imagination of refuge.  Yes, I learned Bible verses and was taught about the Christ who died for me to save me but somehow it never occurred to anyone to ever mention that I remember, that Christ was a place of refuge.   And by the time I learned it I had a habit of living much of my life in my imagination - peopling my dreams with friends who cherished me, and wealth and a perfect life.

In my mid-teens I made a commitment to the LORD Jesus Christ as my Savior and by then understood what it meant.   But though I loved the LORD Jesus Christ, and believed in Him I could not give up the pleasure of my daydreams.  I even sought to quit my day-dreaming, by the power of my will but  was so immersed in it I could not.  

The morning after our kitchen burned down.

I began to have a growing knowledge how detrimental it was in my life.  There came a day in sheer anguish I asked the LORD to deliver me, and set me free.  Not my work but His work.

And He did.   It has changed my own inner life and I believe has done a work in my outer life. 

Thank you Father.  

Day dreaming is not a positive thing in our lives.   It prevents us from living in life and in the present and seeking God's ways.  At least that was how it was in my life.   

G

 I Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) Do you not know that you are God's

temple and the God's Spirit dwells in you?

II Corinthians 6:16 (ESV) What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Psalm 139:13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I have been created a dwelling place. God created us to be his dwelling place.

Later you bought me back from the enemy at a price I could never pay. Your life and blood paid the price of my sin.

Who it is that dwells in us depends on to whom we open the door.

To often our dwelling place is opened to the world, the flesh and the devil. Those are the ones we often invite in, believing the lies told us to how they would fulfill our deepest desires.

But there is another one who knocks on the door – it is the only begotten son of GOD, born unto woman. He was crucified to pay for the sins of all mankind.

However once paid, death could not hold him. He arose.

He seeks to make us His dwelling place but awaits our opening of the door and invite in. This is our only act in making us the dwelling place of the LORD God and Almighty Creator of the universe.

It is not my good deeds, or kindness to others, or great personality that makes me acceptable as His dwelling place but my opening the door to him, to give Him room to rule and reign in me.

That invite has implicit within it, my acceptance and desire for Him to come in and rule and reign. To change the decor and furnishings of his dwelling place. To clean out the junk and scrub the filth away. Even to rid his dwelling place of my most treasured attitudes and desires where they clash with His Holiness.

What a mighty God we are indwelled by when we open the door and invite Him in.

Am I failing to see the Miraculous gifts of God in my own life?

In reading throughout the Bible we find many references to divine miracles.   Yet again and again we find that these miracles didn't seem to have impact enough to cause many of those who experienced them to  believe more strongly in the LORD.   Especially right now as I read Exodus I see how again and again God acted for the people and in the next hard place their constant refrain is "why didn't you leave us to die in Egypt where we had all the comforts of life.   They wanted to go back to slavery .

I found myself  thinking "why are they so stupid not to see what God has done miraculously for them"  Then it occurred to me to consider my own life. How often do I overlook the divine interactions and gifts in my own life.   I tend to think "oh, that is  nice how it all worked out."  Or  even  "Nothing ever goes the way I want it to for me".   Not looking beyond my greed and selfishness to see that this was s splendid answer from the LORD or revealed something of His great love and care for my good, because I WANTED MY WAY.    I am still working through this but that is what I am pondering today.

4 Descriptions Of Jesus:

4 Descriptions Of Jesus:

Hebrews 6: 17-22.   8:6.    I Timothy 2:5-6

1 Forerunner (6:17)

        a My anchor (6:19)

2 Our Guarantor / bondsman

        a Our salvation is Jesus, staking His name on Us

        b Jesus acts on my behalf / our surety

3 Our Mediator ( I Timothy 2:5-6)

        a Better priesthood

        b Better Ministry

        c Better Covenant

4 Author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2)

        a Founder and Perfecter

        b Integrity and obedience.

Because of His obedience he is our absolute surety

Our Originator and Completer

John Weldon 7.23.17

The Preeminence of Christ

The Preeminence of Christ

Colossians 1:12-23 (ESV)

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Why Jesus Christ is preeminent is based on the fact that in Him we find:

                                the meaning of all scripture.

                                the focus of all scripture.

Jesus Christ is:

1 First born of all creation.

         a Slain before the foundation of the earth (creation)

2 Before all things.

3 First born from the dead

4 Image of the invisible God.

5 By Him everything/ all things are made, in heaven and on earth

         a Invisible thing are made visible. Hebrews.

6 All things came into existence by His Word John 1

7 Redemption in Christ was by the blood of His cross. I Peter 1

Message by:  John Weldon  7.16.17

The Lie defeated by Christ on the Cross and Then Resurrected

The Lie

The lie of Satan to Eve, and to us today is two-fold:

An attack on God's word –

Did God really say you cannot eat of any

tree in the garden.?

An attack on God's character –

You will NOT surely die. God knows that

when you eat of it you will be like God.

On the 50^th day after the resurrection of Christ the promised Holy Spirit was poured out.

By the great price paid by Christ for us.

Gift of Holy Spirit is a present and ongoing reality.

With the purpose to birth the Church and glorify Christ.

It was given to deliver us from the lie of Satan which was and is essentially: “We don't need God. We are Gods.

Forgiveness

Matthew 6:9-15
                               I'm singing this as I type:
Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread
And forgive us our debts, (sins) as we forgive our debtors
(those who have sinned against us)
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
forever, Amen  

v. 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,  (again, sin) neither will your Father forgive your transpasses. (sins)

Forgiveness is an interesting thing.   It is a gift from God to free us from our own personal damaging emotions.

Unforgiveness ties us to the sin of the one who hurt us.  I know there is no actual scripture that says that but I personally feel it is implied.

We  feel that forgiveness is saying to the person who hurt us, I accept what you have done to me was not really bad.  Or,   or even, it's ok, no big deal. Or even, you didn't sin against me.  I just judged you wrong.

But, in fact all our forgiveness  is doing is undoing the hold of our anger and hatred and bitterness over our life.  We are leaving their actions in the hands of God, to judge or bring correction.  And we are opening the doors in our own lives for God  to forgive us our own sins and establish correction.

In an ongoing relationship  that forgiveness can lead to reconciliation and cleansing between the two involved.

But, in any event,  forgiveness for the believer, is breaking the hold another has over your life.  God will deal with wrong in all our lives and we need to trust Him to do this, and that effectively, as we could never do.

Yes, we have to live with the hurt and work through that with the LORD.  Part of that work is reminding ourselves of what God says we have in Him.  His love, his grace, his healing and his freedom from victim-hood.

Also, there are facts in our own life we may need to deal with.  Our hard heart, our selfishness, our demand that what I want I get and what you want is BAD.  Or there could be a lack of attention to the needs of our partner.  I have found this bottom line to be true, to often in my own life 'fights'.

Yes, it can very much be the partner's unfaithfulness is just selfishness or sin.  It could be the one involved doesn't have any sin but the bottom line is still - only in forgiveness are you set free to fully live a life of freedom and worship in the LORD.

I don't think that forgiveness means  you have  to then enter into a renewed intimate  relationship.  That clearly is not for the best in some cases.  But it means you can free them into God's hand to complete His work in their life.

A tunnel, but it can end in the light

Attitude and gratitue

I was in a state of grumbling cuz' there are some few things in my life not going "MY WAY"

Then  a writing called  Worst Day Ever
by Chanie Gorken, aged 14, came to my attention.  

Look it up on the Internet as I don't
have permission to share it privately.
It got me to thinking how easy it is
to take the negative view of life when
just a slight change in viewpoint or
attitude can change whole picture.

So, I began to list my blessing:

A home                                                 Heat,
Running hot and cold water
Flush toilet,
A bed, a stove, a fridge, a washer
and dryer, a dishwasher, a
microwave oven, a coffee
maker, and oh so much,
much more.

All these things I have been taking as my right – but are they. I know that where I've have lived in Africa, the citizens of many places in Africa have none of these things.    Many live in a small mud hut with a fire in the middle of the one room and maybe a blanket to wrap in as they sleep of the ground around the fire. Yes, I am privileged and blessed.

Also, I can:                                          

Hear

See,
Smell,
Touch/ feel,
Taste
Walk
Talk
I have hands that work
I have a mind in good working order   And much much more.
Not everyone has this privilege.  I am VERY blessed



Further blessings:

Wonderful, caring parents, who lived their faith with integrity
Three beloved brothers.   And the added blessing of their children and wives who have all blessed my life.

A wonderful, smart, intelligent husband with integrity who has so many attributes, but the greatest to me, is that he loves the LORD Jesus and preaches His word with Power.
Been gifted with 3 wonderful, brilliant children and 3 incredible grandchildren - what a joy.
Wonderful friends who have given me many joyous memories

Arrival at Mission station

And permeating my whole life, I have been all over the world, first with parents who were missionaries, and later on my own.  I lived in Tanganyika (it's name then) as a young girl,

     

Tambo boarding school, Bolivia

Going to Bolivia as a teenager.   I went to a boarding school, called Tambo, in Bolivia.    That brief, 4 year period has affected my whole life.  There were some hard parts but even those were a gift in my life.

Matopas, Zimbabwe

Then after a move to South Africa I met and married a man from there. We lived in Zimbabwe 20 years.  My husband is a pastor.





We have now come back to the USA.   There have been hard times throughout my life yes, but don't we all have those times.  And,  once past the immediate hard time, one sees valuable lessons learned that probably would never have been learned any other way.

So, today, my advice to me is Praise the LORD who holds all things in His hands, and especially as His Child (He adopted me -  Eph 1:5) He hold my days, and upholds me in my ways.   Thank you Father.