Getting Off the Fence

 

There is a popular saying that runs the gamut of Christian circles every dozen or so years. It claims that we do not want to be “so spiritually minded that we are no earthly good”.

That is a lie from the pit of hell. Look at Noah...He preached for 120 years, and he and his sons spent much of that time building an ark big enough to protect anyone who wanted to be saved.

However, since it had never rained before this time, people scoffed at them as if they were so spiritually minded they were no earthly good.

Many wanted to get aboard the ark after it started raining, but it was too late. God already closed the door (Genesis 7:16). A shallow consent to accept Christ in times of trouble brings no real change to a life and requires no total surrender for the glory of God.

Many who claim the name of Christ are oblivious to the destruction they inflict upon the Kingdom of God by sitting on the fence and exhibiting carnal words and actions (Matthew 7:16-23).

Contrarily, authentic Christians can never be content with participating in ritualistic, religious motions. We seek relevance in every aspect of our life. Even our hobbies are Christ-honoring.

Our spirit and soul are grieved by anything that grieves Christ, because He dwells within us in all of His fullness. We refrain from participating in anything that is remotely sinful.

We exhibit the fruit of God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), which is the result of the refining fire of His sanctifying process in our life. We belong to Christ and we no longer live in the fleshly, carnal, worldly realm of life (1 John 3:9).

Prayer:

Father God, draw us by Your Spirit until we get off the fence and make a sincere and complete commitment to You and Your Kingdom on this earth. We grow in Christ and we are no longer in love with our self or addicted to sin. We lay down our idols – anything, which we want more than You. We submit to the total control of Your Spirit.

We remove our self from the throne of our life and put You in Your rightful place. We get off the fence and wholly commit our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We make a difference in Your Kingdom by following the leading of Your Spirit moment by moment. We fall more in love with Jesus with each passing day.

Thought for the Day:

As we serve our Lord, we show greater and greater enthusiasm as we allow His Spirit to lead us in service and obedience to Him.

God is Not Mocked

 

We often take our success for granted. We feel entitled to receive the rewards of all we accomplish, because we forget where our blessings actually come from or to show gratitude to God for His provision in our life.

We expect to live a pleasant life and to reap the rewards of our hard work and planning, regardless of our behavior. We even grow lax spiritually and compromise our holiness by dabbling in the devil's den of iniquity.

We can be sure, however, that our sin will find us out (Galatians 6:7; Numbers 32:23). We will eventually reap the destruction that we are sowing. Our quality of life may suddenly be jerked right out from under us as this devastation catches up with us.

We start to reap the rotten fruit, which is the result of the tainted seeds we planted in our garden of life for so long. We saw nothing wrong with our little indiscretions with Satan's suggestions, because we worked hard, provided for our family and lived for righteousness more than giving in to sin.

Yet, God will not be mocked, and evil corrupts our good morals and grieves the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:33; Ephesians 4:30). God will not endure our disobedience forever. There comes a time when we have to pay the dues of our corrupt flirting with sin.

We may experience God's discipline in small, compassionate ways, which brings our repentance; or we may harden our heart and continue in immorality until we eventually lose the blessings of God on our life, which we are used to experiencing.

We tend to get angry with God at times like these, railing against Him for expecting us to walk uprightly before Him all the time, comparing our self to the lives of other people rather to understand God's requirements that we live a holy life before Him (Luke 12:48).

If we stand firm in our pride and resist the Spirit's drawing, we will sink lower and lower into the mire of destruction and wickedness, continuing to blame others for our behavior and making excuses for our thoughts, words and deeds.

However, if we surrender to God's discipline, humble our pride and accept our fault in the circumstances, repenting with our entire soul and spirit for our duplicity, then God can favor us with His blessings once more.

Prayer:

Father God, human pride and self-assurance are snares of the enemy. You show us in Your Word how You want us to live our life. Unless we walk justly and love mercy and walk humbly before You, we will reap the corruption of our sin regardless of how inconsequential that we consider it to be (Micah 6:8).

Draw us close to You, never let us go, restore to us the joy of our salvation and help us to lay down our sins so we can hear You rejoicing over us with singing (James 4:8; Psalm 51:12; Zephaniah 3:17). Never allow us to grow so lax in our spiritual walk that we compromise Your values.

Thought for the Day:

When we choose to enjoy the momentary pleasures of sin, we set our self up for the loss of God's blessings in our life; sin is ultimately destructive and always leads to disparaging times of injury for us. - Hebrews 11:25

Union with Christ – The Testimony of Enoch

 

Enoch is my favorite character in the Bible. He walked with God; and "he was not, for God took him." I would love to have this intimacy with Christ (Genesis 5:22-24).

Enoch was the father of Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived; and the great grandfather of Noah. He prophesied the flood and helped his great grandson to prepare for this terrible day of judgement.

Scholars tell us that many of Enoch’s writings had the poetry of the Psalms and the wisdom of Proverbs. Enoch was honorable, he loved mercy and He walked humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).

His claim to Biblical fame is that after his son was born, he “walked with God” for about three hundred years. His life with God paints us a panorama of two intimate friends unhindered by the lusts of the flesh and the world around them; and totally immersed in one another’s fellowship (Amos 3:3).

Police statistics estimate that one person disappears per minute around the world. How many of those who disappear, like Enoch, walked with God and God translated them home?

Enoch foresaw the destruction of the wicked and the peaceful dwelling place of the righteous. With his will totally submitted to his Lord, Enoch learned from God.

As a man of faith, Enoch knew it was impossible to please God without trusting Him. So, he pleased God in his thoughts, words and deeds (Hebrews 11:5).

In His foreknowledge, God prepared both a destiny and a destination for the soul of every person before He ever brought us to the earth (Ephesians 2:10). His call for us is to walk in it with Him.

Prayer:

Father God, like Enoch, Adam and Eve enjoyed the cool of the day in the garden walking with You (Genesis 3:8). You also revealed yourself to Moses; and the face of this hesitant deliverer of Your people shone with Your glory after His mountain top experience with You (Exodus 34:35).

Abraham also walked with You (Genesis 24:40). Jesus walked with You and embodied You in person (John 14:7-9). Remind us that You love to walk with all of Your Saints. We are Your Temple and You commune with us every moment of the day by Your indwelling Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Thought for the Day:

Enoch saw Christ as the light of the nations, the hope of troubled hearts, the name by which we are saved, and the one that the righteous lean upon without falling; we too can enjoy this intimacy with Jesus through His Holy Spirit abiding in us.