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Touching lives with the truth of God's Word.

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Saturday, March 25, 2006

The Potter's Wheel

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? (Romans 9:21)
You turn things upside down, as if the potter were though to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, He did not make me? Can the pot say of the potter, He knows nothing? (Isaiah 29:16)
Do you ever feel you're not going anywhere, that you're going around in one big circle, doing the same things over and over again? You don't seem to be going anywhere but you still feel pressure! Consider this; The above Scripture says that God is the potter and we are the clay. Question: How does a potter mold clay? He puts it on a wheel and then spins it around applying pressure with his hands. Through the pressure, the lump of clay is transformed into a beautiful vessel.
So when you feel like you're going around in a circle, remember the potter's wheel. When you go through trials and suffering, and you feel the pressure, don't get discouraged. It's there to change you. Let the circumstance and pressure mold you into His image. Child of God, the purpose of your life is not good times or bad times-- but to be molded into His image. It's the difference between being beautiful and just being a lump of clay. You think about that.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace,....(Ephesians 2:13-14a)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

BE FILLED

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:17-21)
Paul tells us in this passage that true communion with God comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit. Note! Paul is not speaking about the Holy Spirit's indwelling or the baptism by Christ with the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9; 1Cor. 12:13), because every believer is indwelt and baptized by the Spirit at the time of salvation. Paul is saying that believers should live continually under the influence of the Spirit; by obeying the Word of God, pursuing pure lives, confessing all known sin, dying to self, surrendering to God's will, and depending on His power in all things. May I say being filled with the Spirit is living in conscious presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, letting His mind, through the Word, dominate everything that is thought of and done. Being filled with the Spirit is the same as walking in the Spirit. The principle! "complete surrender of self to the Spirit's control." The results! "joy unspeakable". You think about that.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Self-righteousness; it's everywhere

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise.. (Psalm 51:17).
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: God I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:10-14).
Self-righteousness is the conviction that one is better than others--morally, spiritually, and theologically. It is the spurious view that one is not like other people. Self-righteous people always think they speak as outsiders of the human race.
Five facts you need to know about self-righteousness: (1) It's subtle; you don't know it when you've got it. (2) It's incremental; It never starts out as self-righteousness but as something positive and good. (3) It's addictive; people love to point a critical finger at the mistakes of others, and brag about themselves. (4) It's indiscriminate; once you see it, it's everywhere and not just in religious folks. And (5) It's terribly destructive.
Note! The tax collector did not think of himself as one sinner among many, but as the sinner who was unworthy of anything from God. Jesus said the tax collector went home justified. That means he received forgiveness, and redemption. May I say, the Lord Jesus reminds us in this parable, that it is a spirit of repentance, and self-humiliation, not a critical or judgmental spirit that is acceptable to God.
Have you ever wondered child of God, why most of our evangelistic efforts are ineffective? Could it be that un-believers see us as angry, condemning, uptight, judgmental, self-righteous twits. I believe that the reasons we can't forgive and why they are divisions among us, is because of the sin of self-righteousness. And this after God tells us in His Word; there is none righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10) and that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
Self-righteousness destroys relationships, and makes genuine love impossible. It makes it impossible to love those who aren't Christians and impossible to love those who are. God will forgive and restore the believer who has been over taken by a judgmental spirit. If that believer will acknowledge his sin and ask the Lord for the grace to repent. O thank God for His all sufficient grace.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you. Amen.