With All Your Heart

Ps 119:34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Deut. 11:13 to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

To serve and love God with your whole heart. What does it mean to give someone your whole heart. The heart is known to harbor the seeds of affections. Our passions, our desires that will fulfill and satisfy needs and wants. When we speak from the heart, we speak what we really feel without deception. From the heart come the issues of life, the essences of who you really are. All means that there is no place for any other affection to give yourself to. It does not mean that you are not tempted to give in to other desires that may try to infiltrate. That is why we must guard our heart. Living for Christ is not something we do, but something we are. Serving God without loving His precepts is to live in bondage. To serve and love Him with ALL your heart is to know what real freedom is. The truth shall set you free.

Witness of God

Roman 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

What is this Spirit? He is the Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Spirit of life, Spirit of Adoption, the Spirits that dwells in each believer that has allowed the flesh to be mortified and put away. He who has yielded their members to the things of God and allowed the Spirit to led them. The condition “if” is given 8 times in the contexts of this verse. If we let God, then God will do. If we trust and obey, He will see us through. His Spirit will witness to our spirit that we our His child when the conditions have been made. His Spirit will not dwell in a heart that is full of sin and hatred. His Spirit will not abide if the members of the flesh live after the flesh. What a comfort to know that we can be a children of God and that His Spirit can live and direct our lives.

Pleasing God and Others

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

We all seek to please those we love. We desire to bring pleasure and happiness to those that are close to us. We don’t speak unkindly about people we desire to please. To truly please someone requires some action on the pleaser. Being a people pleaser to get what you want is surface pleasing and fake. Pleasing God should be the centrality of those who have come to Christ. Coming to Christ in faith is the first step to pleasing the Father. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that He came to earth to die for our sins pleases Him. He rewards them that seek His face and have faith to trust Him. Such is the life of a true believer in Christ.  

Pay It Forward

Matt. 25:40 Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

In American, there are many people who are willing to give their resources when tragedy hits. Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and a number of unfortunate events. In general, people don’t like to see people suffer, knowing that life’s circumstances could turn on them. I believe God is pleased when people are willing to reach out and help when these things happen. The teaching of Jesus, take this a step further. Willingness to give one self is more that just dropping money in the plate for the starving children in the world. The concept of “paying it forward” is based in part from the words of Christ. It is not just a one time act of giving, but a life style of sacrifice. Looking for opportunities to lift the burden, reaching out to those less fortunate. Showing acts of kindness done in the name of Jesus. We live in a selfish world, where taking care of self is promoted. Living a life pleasing to God and having JOY in life means to put Jesus first, Others second, and You last. In everything you do, do to the glory of God. 

No Respecter of Person

Act 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.

All are predestine by the love of God to be children of God. All are given a choice to accept the gift of God through Christ or reject this gift. God does not show favoritism to any race or person of certain social economic  status. man is born with a free will to make choices, he/she may not always be in control of his or her circumstances, but we can choose to decide how we will act or respond to those circumstances. Life is not fair, whether we be Jew or Gentile, we are all equally loved by our Creator. He desires that all will come to the knowledge of Christ and partake of life everlasting. Society man treat people different base on the color of their skin, or their material worth, but in the eyes of God all stand naked before God stripped of their color and wealth. All will stand before God and give an account for the life they have lived. May we all stand before Him, covered in the blood of Jesus, loved and forgiven by the one who is no respecter of persons.

Don't Worry- Trust God

Matt. 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Paul says this in another way, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything give thanks” Don’t think about what will happen tomorrow, God has it covered. There are enough problem that we face today to worry about what might happen tomorrow. Worry is triggered by the unknown. The unseen possibilities that can cause us to have sleepless nights. The haunting question, “What if”? The reality is such circumstances and situations may come to us, but even so, Jesus says, to trust Him to take care of such things. Seek Him, and in Him there is security in knowing that nothing will happen that His grace will be sufficient to help us through. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things…” It is human nature to worry, but He is able to give us a peace that passes human nature to rest in Him. 

The Blood of Jesus

Heb 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Abel, the son of Adam sacrifices the blood of animals to make atonement for his sins. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. The sprinkling of the blood on the altar of God was made for propitiation of man’s sin. But Jesus who became the mediator in our behalf died on the cross, shed His blood that we may no longer need to shed the blood of animal. And “he became the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world”. (1 John 2:2) We who have lived in darkness, can now live in the light of God. The the law that condemn us to everlasting death struck fear in our hearts is no longer our taskmaster. Our sins have been forgiven and light now dwells in us, and we fear not the darkness. 

The Father of Lies

Gen. 3:4, John 8:44 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die…the devil..for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The devil is a liar and deceiver. His lies are shrouded with enough truth to convince people that they are right. The heart of man has been corrupted and is easily deceived. Before the fall of man, the devil tempted man to give in to their human natural desires. There was nothing wrong with eating fruit in the garden of eden, they were just not to eat this one fruit. Why God put this one fruit in the garden is speculation. Like Job, God knew and allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve. Why did they not just flee, and resist temptation. We are left with many questions unanswered, but this we know, sin entered into the world by one man’s sin, and failed to believe God and obey His commandments. We may not always understand the reasons God say “no”, but blessed is the man who will put their trust in the lord, and lean not to their own understanding. The devil will come and do all he can to deceive you and me into doing what is wrong, but if God said it, we must believe it! Don’t believe the devil, He is a lair and the father of lies.  

Teachable Spirit

Psalm 143:10

Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

As a teacher, I enjoy working with students that have a teachable spirit. A willingness to learn without resisting instruction or complaining about the lessons needed to achieve the learning goal. Submitting ourselves to the Master (teacher) is how we become strong in faith, and able to do the will of God. learning to do the will of God comes with learning more about Him and what His desires are. Being instructed in God’s will is to ask God to show us who He is and open to what He wants to show us. Learning is to know the will of God and to follow is the path He directs us. “Lord, help me to have a teachable spirit that I may be led into a life that is upright and pleasing to you”