Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
John {16:33} These
things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have
peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world.
******* In Christ alone there is peace- no where else. As soon as we begin to believe that we have peace in any other way we'll be proven wrong. Maybe we won't be proven wrong in that first moment or even that first day or month, or even year but any peace built outside of Christ is temporary. When we are caught up in that peace we've manufactured outside of Christ it's deceptive and powerful in that deception because when it slips away whether gradually or in the space of mere moments, we are left despairing, our hearts aching and desolate and we turn around and blame the very one whose peace we are to cling to and not any of our own. Christ didn't lie, He couldn't lie. He told us we would have tribulation in the world.
Dict. tribulation (trîb´ye-lâ´shen) noun
1. Great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering: the tribulations of the persecuted. See synonyms at trial.
2. An experience that tests one's endurance, patience, or faith.
Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary
He told us we'd have tribulation in the world- we'd have great afflictions, great trials, great distress, great suffering. That doesn't sound very pleasant does it? It sounds rather uninviting if you want to be truthful. Christ isn't trying to deceive us, He couldn't there is no deception in Him. It's Satan who likes us to blame God for life and it's many horrific hardships. Christ tells us that we will have these horrific hardships but we are to be of good cheer? Why? Because He overcame the world. Christ overcame Satan and the hardships and because He overcame we too will overcome through Him and Him alone. So while we may be buffetted about by all the heartache and pain the world has to offer, our only hope is found in Christ's overcoming- not ours but His and us through Him.
John {14:27} Peace I leave with
you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid.
Christ's peace is left with us, not the peace of the world, but Christ's peace is given to us- it's only in Christ's peace that we can let our heart release the trouble in it, only in Christ's peace that we can let the fear in our hearts go.
6/20/10
Seriously, do you know your Bible? If any situation in life arises can you bring a scripture to mind to guide you? One Scripture?
Sometimes all people have is a single verse they cling to as a talisman of hope through life and that single verse taken to heart is more powerful than a person can imagine.
Instinctively we should call on God when we are in need or joyful, God should be first in our thoughts. God Doesn't answer, people reply, so why call on Him or speak to Him at all? God does answer. God's ways are beyond our imagination.
If we look at the Bible as a normal book and it will fail us. The Bible is the Word of God and ALL the word of God is powerful.
Hebrews 4:12- For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Powerful!
Christ is the living Word of God. Christ used the scriptures to combat Satan! God's word is not stagnant, it's alive!
When we read the Bible we are reading the living testimony of our Lord and Savior.
The Bible is a weapon--
The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Eph. 6:17
So I ask again, do you know your Bible? Do you use your Bible? The Bible is meant to be used, not simply read but used as a real entity, the treasure of the Bible is immeasurable! The riches in the word of God uncountable.
If we used our Bibles as being a real, living, breathing message of God our lives would be so much different. If we search our Bible as we would search for hidden treasure we would be rich in the way of eternity.
Ps. 119:11-18
Psa 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Psa 119:12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.
Psa 119:13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
Psa 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
Psa 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
Psa 119:16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
Psa 119:17 GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
Psa 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy la
Pro. 2:1-5
Pro 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
Pro 2:2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
Pro 2:3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
Pro 2:4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Pro 2:5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
The word of God is powerful and for us to use.
God speaks to us through His word. Life is filled with many obstacles and if we search God's word to guide us through life we'd be doing His will. When we have problems do we go to God's Word? We might pray to God but do we seek His guidance in His word?
Do we really believe God's word holds answers? Do we really believe God's word has power? If someone handed you a book and said all the answers you'll ever need in life are in there would you take the book? Suppose they said that you ask the book a question and open it and the answer would be you'd want that book wouldn't you? At least until it started giving you answers you didn't like.
There's our problem in a nutshell. The Bible has a lot of answers to our problems- yes- even our modern problems but we don't like the answers. We don't like the idea of being given answers that might mean we need to pray for changes in our lives. Perhaps the Bible's answer is that we are too selfish and need to be more giving, more loving. We might be inclined to say, no, I'm not that selfish I give all the time. The answers aren't what we want so we'd rather not go to the source of the help only to be shown we are the problem and need to pray for changes.
We want answers that please us, not answer that require us to do things we aren't inclined to do.
The Bible tells us men love darkness more than light because darkness hides their evil ways. If we close ourselves off from God's work from the answer He provides us because we'd rather keep on in our evil ways then we can pray all we want but rejecting the light keeps our heart in darkness and we cannot expect God to guide us, answer us, be with us if we reject His light.
People are starved for the word of God. People know their lives are missing something but they turn to man-made cures rather than Godly. People feel lost, bored, anxious and they want something to take that away but what they want is anything other than the word of God.
God doesn't offer worldly pleasure & past times and that's what most seek- happiness in the worldly way. They want the emptiness in their lives to be filled with worldly things.
We are blessed to be able to feel the emptiness because that is a cry for our spirit wanting to be filled with God.
Self will always fall short of satisfying. Temporary fixes. Some people live their entire lives on temporary fixes not seeking to find a permanent source of solace in Christ and His ways.
6/20/11
Today as I was scrubbing the floor something I rarely do… hey before you think I don't mop the floor I do, but to get down on my hands and knees and scrub it hard getting all the little hard caked on dirt that has accumulated in the linoleum design over the *coff* years, well, let's just say it doesn't happen often. Then again it takes awhile for all that to accumulate, right? Sounds bad, but truthfully, I wash the floor quite a bit but unfortunately the mops (and I've had several) don't seem to keep it from happening. Maybe if I hands and kneed it once a month or so then it wouldn't happen, but I'm just a lazy person. My house is LIVED in, but not disgusting or anything if you know what I mean. I have a collection of dust bunnies that like to be moved around once in a while and sucked up into the vacuum cleaner on occasion but for the most part they enjoy their accommodations under various beds, dressers, couches and such and I don't like to disturb them.
So why am I talking about all this? Well, while I was scrubbing my son comes in and says why are you doing all that, it's just going to get that way again. I chuckled to myself and said because it needs to be done. Then I got to thinking how blessed we are that God doesn't feel that way about us sinners. I can picture the Devil saying, 'Why bother God, they're just going to get dirty again.'
They are just going to get dirty again, so why bother.
We can say this about any number of things in life can't we? Yet, we need to be clean, we need things to be cleaned. We can't live our lives surrounded by dirt, can we? Some people do, and we label them in a lot of bad ways.
We weren't meant to be stained with sin. When we were created we were created sinless and we weren't meant to have to live with sin in our lives. We were created perfect, we were created good. No... we were created VERY good.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Very good. We were not created for sin. We were NOT created with the intent that we would be born, grow to adult hood, and then slowly deteriorate over time until our bodies could no longer survive. We were created very good. Death was NOT supposed to be a part of our lives, not in any way. The stain of sin was not supposed to cover us but that is as they say… water under the bridge. It happened and now we live this way and some might be inclined to say that we're sinners so that's that, why bother cleaning the sin from our lives if we just remain sinners.
We sin and we ask for forgiveness, then we sin again and we ask forgiveness again- this is how it must be because to just allow ourselves to sin unchecked without feeling any need for forgiveness is to allow that sin to accumulate. The accumulation of sin weighs heavy on our lives, on our spirit. We can't pretend that sin isn't there, or rather we can pretend but that won't make it true. Sins don't just magically slip away, sins don't just disappear, they don't vaporize, they don't have no effect on us. Sin has a lot of effect on our lives but quite often people don't even notice that it does. People don't want to think about the effects of sin in their lives.
Sin is real, but people will encourage others not to believe that sin is real. Whether you believe sin is real or not, it is. Whether you believe you're a sinner or not, you are. We are stained by sin and only the cleansing blood of our Savior can clean that stain.
Odd isn't it, to think about how our human blood stains and isn't always easy to get out. Blood gets into things and often it takes a strong chemical like bleach to destroy all traces of it. From the various crime shows I've seen on tv bleach is one of the only means of getting blood out and off of things and it isn't easy. Blood stains, yet it's the Blood of Christ that frees us from the stain of sin. It's Christ's blood that makes us white as snow.
Isa 1:18 ... though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
1Jn 1:7 ... the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Our sins are as scarlet, our sins are red like crimson- when we ask for forgiveness with genuine repentance then it's Christ's blood that washes over us- cleansing the blood of our sin. Christ's blood washes away the blood of our sins, but if we do not ask for forgiveness then Christ's blood cannot wash away our sins. We remain filthy, we remain covered in sin.
Christ forgives us over and over again, praise God! Yes, we might sin over and over again, just as so much in our lives gets dirty over and over- very little ever stays clean and that's a fact. We spend a lot of time cleaning things in our lives, daily we clean things- ourselves and all that is around us. If we don't clean things, or have others clean them for us we would live in filth and be filthy. We cannot clean sin from ourselves but we can set the cleaning in motion by asking for forgiveness and the mercy of our Savior will clean us by His grace, His love, His righteousness.
So yes, we will get dirty again, just as kitchen floors get dirty over and over, just as so much in life gets dirty and it takes someone's effort or something's effort to clean(look at all the effort we are saved from expending by our washing machines, our dryers, our dishwashers, our self-cleaning ovens, etc). The only one who can clean us spiritually is Christ, there is no other and there will never be another. We must seek cleansing from Christ often, whenever we knowingly get dirty by sin we have to purposely- knowingly ask for forgiveness, this is real, this is a fact, this is necessary and we cannot forget it, we just can't.
Tomorrow we'll pick up more on prophecy, but today this needed to be said.
By the grace of our Lord we may be saved, only by His grace!
In His love always!!! Forgive us Lord, forgive us! Cleanse us!
Amen.
John {16:33} These
things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have
peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world.
******* In Christ alone there is peace- no where else. As soon as we begin to believe that we have peace in any other way we'll be proven wrong. Maybe we won't be proven wrong in that first moment or even that first day or month, or even year but any peace built outside of Christ is temporary. When we are caught up in that peace we've manufactured outside of Christ it's deceptive and powerful in that deception because when it slips away whether gradually or in the space of mere moments, we are left despairing, our hearts aching and desolate and we turn around and blame the very one whose peace we are to cling to and not any of our own. Christ didn't lie, He couldn't lie. He told us we would have tribulation in the world.
Dict. tribulation (trîb´ye-lâ´shen) noun
1. Great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering: the tribulations of the persecuted. See synonyms at trial.
2. An experience that tests one's endurance, patience, or faith.
Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary
He told us we'd have tribulation in the world- we'd have great afflictions, great trials, great distress, great suffering. That doesn't sound very pleasant does it? It sounds rather uninviting if you want to be truthful. Christ isn't trying to deceive us, He couldn't there is no deception in Him. It's Satan who likes us to blame God for life and it's many horrific hardships. Christ tells us that we will have these horrific hardships but we are to be of good cheer? Why? Because He overcame the world. Christ overcame Satan and the hardships and because He overcame we too will overcome through Him and Him alone. So while we may be buffetted about by all the heartache and pain the world has to offer, our only hope is found in Christ's overcoming- not ours but His and us through Him.
John {14:27} Peace I leave with
you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid.
Christ's peace is left with us, not the peace of the world, but Christ's peace is given to us- it's only in Christ's peace that we can let our heart release the trouble in it, only in Christ's peace that we can let the fear in our hearts go.
6/20/10
Seriously, do you know your Bible? If any situation in life arises can you bring a scripture to mind to guide you? One Scripture?
Sometimes all people have is a single verse they cling to as a talisman of hope through life and that single verse taken to heart is more powerful than a person can imagine.
Instinctively we should call on God when we are in need or joyful, God should be first in our thoughts. God Doesn't answer, people reply, so why call on Him or speak to Him at all? God does answer. God's ways are beyond our imagination.
If we look at the Bible as a normal book and it will fail us. The Bible is the Word of God and ALL the word of God is powerful.
Hebrews 4:12- For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Powerful!
Christ is the living Word of God. Christ used the scriptures to combat Satan! God's word is not stagnant, it's alive!
When we read the Bible we are reading the living testimony of our Lord and Savior.
The Bible is a weapon--
The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Eph. 6:17
So I ask again, do you know your Bible? Do you use your Bible? The Bible is meant to be used, not simply read but used as a real entity, the treasure of the Bible is immeasurable! The riches in the word of God uncountable.
If we used our Bibles as being a real, living, breathing message of God our lives would be so much different. If we search our Bible as we would search for hidden treasure we would be rich in the way of eternity.
Ps. 119:11-18
Psa 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Psa 119:12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.
Psa 119:13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
Psa 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
Psa 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
Psa 119:16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
Psa 119:17 GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
Psa 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy la
Pro. 2:1-5
Pro 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
Pro 2:2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
Pro 2:3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
Pro 2:4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Pro 2:5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
The word of God is powerful and for us to use.
God speaks to us through His word. Life is filled with many obstacles and if we search God's word to guide us through life we'd be doing His will. When we have problems do we go to God's Word? We might pray to God but do we seek His guidance in His word?
Do we really believe God's word holds answers? Do we really believe God's word has power? If someone handed you a book and said all the answers you'll ever need in life are in there would you take the book? Suppose they said that you ask the book a question and open it and the answer would be you'd want that book wouldn't you? At least until it started giving you answers you didn't like.
There's our problem in a nutshell. The Bible has a lot of answers to our problems- yes- even our modern problems but we don't like the answers. We don't like the idea of being given answers that might mean we need to pray for changes in our lives. Perhaps the Bible's answer is that we are too selfish and need to be more giving, more loving. We might be inclined to say, no, I'm not that selfish I give all the time. The answers aren't what we want so we'd rather not go to the source of the help only to be shown we are the problem and need to pray for changes.
We want answers that please us, not answer that require us to do things we aren't inclined to do.
The Bible tells us men love darkness more than light because darkness hides their evil ways. If we close ourselves off from God's work from the answer He provides us because we'd rather keep on in our evil ways then we can pray all we want but rejecting the light keeps our heart in darkness and we cannot expect God to guide us, answer us, be with us if we reject His light.
People are starved for the word of God. People know their lives are missing something but they turn to man-made cures rather than Godly. People feel lost, bored, anxious and they want something to take that away but what they want is anything other than the word of God.
God doesn't offer worldly pleasure & past times and that's what most seek- happiness in the worldly way. They want the emptiness in their lives to be filled with worldly things.
We are blessed to be able to feel the emptiness because that is a cry for our spirit wanting to be filled with God.
Self will always fall short of satisfying. Temporary fixes. Some people live their entire lives on temporary fixes not seeking to find a permanent source of solace in Christ and His ways.
6/20/11
Today as I was scrubbing the floor something I rarely do… hey before you think I don't mop the floor I do, but to get down on my hands and knees and scrub it hard getting all the little hard caked on dirt that has accumulated in the linoleum design over the *coff* years, well, let's just say it doesn't happen often. Then again it takes awhile for all that to accumulate, right? Sounds bad, but truthfully, I wash the floor quite a bit but unfortunately the mops (and I've had several) don't seem to keep it from happening. Maybe if I hands and kneed it once a month or so then it wouldn't happen, but I'm just a lazy person. My house is LIVED in, but not disgusting or anything if you know what I mean. I have a collection of dust bunnies that like to be moved around once in a while and sucked up into the vacuum cleaner on occasion but for the most part they enjoy their accommodations under various beds, dressers, couches and such and I don't like to disturb them.
So why am I talking about all this? Well, while I was scrubbing my son comes in and says why are you doing all that, it's just going to get that way again. I chuckled to myself and said because it needs to be done. Then I got to thinking how blessed we are that God doesn't feel that way about us sinners. I can picture the Devil saying, 'Why bother God, they're just going to get dirty again.'
They are just going to get dirty again, so why bother.
We can say this about any number of things in life can't we? Yet, we need to be clean, we need things to be cleaned. We can't live our lives surrounded by dirt, can we? Some people do, and we label them in a lot of bad ways.
We weren't meant to be stained with sin. When we were created we were created sinless and we weren't meant to have to live with sin in our lives. We were created perfect, we were created good. No... we were created VERY good.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Very good. We were not created for sin. We were NOT created with the intent that we would be born, grow to adult hood, and then slowly deteriorate over time until our bodies could no longer survive. We were created very good. Death was NOT supposed to be a part of our lives, not in any way. The stain of sin was not supposed to cover us but that is as they say… water under the bridge. It happened and now we live this way and some might be inclined to say that we're sinners so that's that, why bother cleaning the sin from our lives if we just remain sinners.
We sin and we ask for forgiveness, then we sin again and we ask forgiveness again- this is how it must be because to just allow ourselves to sin unchecked without feeling any need for forgiveness is to allow that sin to accumulate. The accumulation of sin weighs heavy on our lives, on our spirit. We can't pretend that sin isn't there, or rather we can pretend but that won't make it true. Sins don't just magically slip away, sins don't just disappear, they don't vaporize, they don't have no effect on us. Sin has a lot of effect on our lives but quite often people don't even notice that it does. People don't want to think about the effects of sin in their lives.
Sin is real, but people will encourage others not to believe that sin is real. Whether you believe sin is real or not, it is. Whether you believe you're a sinner or not, you are. We are stained by sin and only the cleansing blood of our Savior can clean that stain.
Odd isn't it, to think about how our human blood stains and isn't always easy to get out. Blood gets into things and often it takes a strong chemical like bleach to destroy all traces of it. From the various crime shows I've seen on tv bleach is one of the only means of getting blood out and off of things and it isn't easy. Blood stains, yet it's the Blood of Christ that frees us from the stain of sin. It's Christ's blood that makes us white as snow.
Isa 1:18 ... though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
1Jn 1:7 ... the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Our sins are as scarlet, our sins are red like crimson- when we ask for forgiveness with genuine repentance then it's Christ's blood that washes over us- cleansing the blood of our sin. Christ's blood washes away the blood of our sins, but if we do not ask for forgiveness then Christ's blood cannot wash away our sins. We remain filthy, we remain covered in sin.
Christ forgives us over and over again, praise God! Yes, we might sin over and over again, just as so much in our lives gets dirty over and over- very little ever stays clean and that's a fact. We spend a lot of time cleaning things in our lives, daily we clean things- ourselves and all that is around us. If we don't clean things, or have others clean them for us we would live in filth and be filthy. We cannot clean sin from ourselves but we can set the cleaning in motion by asking for forgiveness and the mercy of our Savior will clean us by His grace, His love, His righteousness.
So yes, we will get dirty again, just as kitchen floors get dirty over and over, just as so much in life gets dirty and it takes someone's effort or something's effort to clean(look at all the effort we are saved from expending by our washing machines, our dryers, our dishwashers, our self-cleaning ovens, etc). The only one who can clean us spiritually is Christ, there is no other and there will never be another. We must seek cleansing from Christ often, whenever we knowingly get dirty by sin we have to purposely- knowingly ask for forgiveness, this is real, this is a fact, this is necessary and we cannot forget it, we just can't.
Tomorrow we'll pick up more on prophecy, but today this needed to be said.
By the grace of our Lord we may be saved, only by His grace!
In His love always!!! Forgive us Lord, forgive us! Cleanse us!
Amen.