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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

This verse is often misunderstood and people even stumble in their faith over a myopic understanding of this verse.

"God if You said in Your word, that You will grant me the desires of my heart, then I want..."
and God suddenly becomes Santa Claus.

But lets zero in on the context and entirety of this verse.

Delight yourself in the Lord!
That is the key that people so often overlook when they are reading this scripture.

It can be better understood with the help of another scripture.

John 15:7
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

To abide is state of being, whereby something remains somewhere.
In the context of this verse, you remain IN God, and you allow His word to remain IN you.

That means that your thoughts, and your desires are therefore in line with God's thoughts and desires.

This is because His word is inseparable from His will; they have to go together.

Abide in Him and let His word abide in you. =)

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@ 11:13 AM

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Psalm 4:4
In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Selah

Notice, the bible does not say 'Do not be angry'.
but it says, in your anger do not sin.

Looking at the life of Jesus, there was only one instance where expressed His anger.
This happened at the temple (John 2) when people turned the temple into a market.

Applying what was mentioned in the previous post, the same question will be asked here; Why did Jesus do what He did?

the motivation of His anger was because people did not respect the temple of God.

however, very often our human anger is motivated by reasons centered around ourselves; the need to justify yourself, to show others that they have let you down, or even to prove something.

in essence, our anger is often motivated by pride.

Why do you do what you do? What is the motivation behind your emotions?

In your anger do not sin. Open yourself to giving in to things of God, and stepping away from things that are not of Him.

A whole new level of surrender.

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@ 8:57 PM

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

".. God is concerned with our actions, but He's more concerned in our motivations."

- Joshua Harris

Why do you do what you do?
Have you ever taken step back after doing or saying something, and questioned if it was done out of love?

Luke 6:45
"The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart."

Keeping your focus and mind on God causes an overflow of good things. That is exactly what this passage is trying to teach us.

Let us be witnesses of God, wherever we are, that we may be ambassadors of His love, to a hurting world.

Go forth, and be good. =)

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@ 4:53 PM

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Matthew 6:19 to 24
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. '
22 "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
23 "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth.

observe verse 22,
The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

in the two "Appetite" posts, focus, was the main issue being addressed.

but verse 22 gives a very clear picture of putting focus to action.

This does not mean that you have to stare at your bible.
the word eye here refers to both literal and figurative sight.

through the course of your day, is God absent from your sight?
or do you merely, "set aside time to focus on God?"

Let me challenge each of you to fix your mind on God from the start of the day.
not just on His word, but to listen to His leading and purpose that He has for you for the day.

that in every situation that you see, you see it through the lens of God.

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@ 4:52 PM

Monday, June 1, 2009

Before I get started on Matthew 6.. here is a follow up from the previous entry.

1 Cor 9:27
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection , lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

There are only two things that you can yield to; God or ungodliness.

Anything that is not of God is ungodly, no matter the extent of it. The devil tries to decieve us into believing that things like white lies are okay.
Lies are lies. Period. We do not allow the devil to tell us otherwise.

Do not live your life according to how you feel, but according to the word of God.

Often we give ourselves the excuse that we do not "feel the conviction" before or after doing something that is biblically wrong, so we feel that its alright.

No, do not ever buy into that. We live our lives on truth. That means if our actions contradicts what God says about us, and what we should do, we 'discipline our bodies and bring them into subjection'.

Lets yield to God and renew our minds as acts of spiritual worship.

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@ 6:55 PM