August Meditation

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=126 style=" border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;" BGCOLOR="#FFFFCC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="705" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 118 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="age"><B><IMG SRC="06cb16b0.jpg" border=0 width="177" height="107" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><bR> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="489" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#333300" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFCCB2 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#FFCCB2 HEIGHT= 52 WIDTH="49"><div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="age"><B><IMG SRC="03f0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="age"><B>Home Page</B></A></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ministries"><B><IMG SRC="03a0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ministries"><B>Ministries</B></A></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="94"><div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="beliefs"><B><IMG SRC="03b0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="beliefs"><B>Statement of Beliefs</B></A></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="88"><div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="_"><B><IMG SRC="03c0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="_"><B>Daily</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="_"><B>Devotional</B></A></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="contact"><B><IMG SRC="03c0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="contact"><B>Contact</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="contact"><B>Pastor Cain</B></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="61"><div> <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="map"><B><IMG SRC="03c0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="map"><B>Map</B></A></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>August  Meditation</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Albums"><B><U>Photo Album</U></B></A><B><U> </U></B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#CC9900" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Albums"><B><U><IMG SRC="03a0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></B></A></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=354 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div>  <A NAME="aug_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="386" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 127 ><NOBR><div> <B>Jeremiah 7:24</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> But they did not listen nor bow their ear. </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >But </FONT><I>they</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >walked in </FONT><I>their own</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >plans, </FONT></div> <div> in the stubbornness of their evil heart, </div> <div> and went backward and not forward. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Here the people of Israel are described as walking backward in reference to God.  This is explained in an earlier part of Jeremiah:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Jeremiah 2:27</B></FONT>  ... For they have <U>turned </U><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I><U>their</U></I><U> </U></FONT><U>back to Me</U>, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us! </div> <bR> <div>     When one turns his back to God, he will walk in a direction <I>away </I>from God, will he not?</div> <div>     Well, then- How long do you have to walk away from God before it seems like the right direction?</div> <div>     Apparently, a professing Christian is no better able to erase the awareness of God than an atheist (Rom. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1:21</FONT>).  Note that Jeremiah <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2:27</FONT> says that after years of walking backwards- that is, not walking backwards like a car backing up, but walking opposite of forward towards God- the Israelites would still know to call on Him when their ultimate trouble came.  Their idols would serve satisfactorily with no great calamity at hand, but when real saving needed to be done, they would instinctively know that their idols were insufficient.</div> <div>     By the way, what would God's answer be when this belated call was made to Him?  He would leave the people to their idols* (Jer. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2:28</FONT>; see also Prov. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1:26</FONT>).</div> <div>     But we can see that they were unable to remain consistent with a confession of non-Gods as deliverers.  Nevertheless, as long as their walk was taking them away from God, they did practically forget Him:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Jeremiah 2:32</B></FONT>  Can a virgin forget her finery, a bride her attire? Yet My people <U>have forgotten Me</U> days without number. </div> <bR> <div>     So, once again, how long until the wrong direction seems right?  </div> <div>     Our 'old man's' consciences are geared to make adjustments immediately and continuously in justifying our decisions.  So we might say that we only have to go one step in the wrong direction for that direction to seem right.  As long as the true knowledge of God does not reclaim us, we are validating wrong bearings every step of our way.  </div> <div>     Obviously, the longer a person or a people walk in the wrong direction, the more ingrained their false impression of 'true north' becomes.</div> <bR> <div>     How long has the Church in America, or the western world in general, been walking backwards?</div> <div>     Despite the many surveys which show us the prevalence of doctrinal and lifestyle errors permeating the Church, it is hard for us to maintain a sense of our waywardness.  So we could say that we have been going full-steam in a non-forward direction long enough for it to seem completely normal.</div> <div>     By faith, we can call on God to reclaim His people:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Isaiah 62:6, 7</B></FONT>  I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: you who call on Yahweh, take no rest, and <U>give Him no rest</U>, until He establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. </div> <bR> <div>     But, again, <I>does </I>our faith inform us that the Church is actually going backwards?</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" > *  </FONT>Much idolatry is only a falsifying of the true doctrine of God<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" >.</FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_2"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="386" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 148 ><NOBR><div> <B>Habakkuk 3:2</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> O LORD, I have heard thy speech, </div> <div> <I>and</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >was afraid: O LORD, </FONT></div> <div> revive thy work in the midst of the years, </div> <div> in the midst of the years make known; </div> <div> in wrath remember mercy. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Where does the concept of <B>revival </B>come from?</div> <div>     In terms of Scriptures, Habakkuk <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >3:2</FONT> has probably been most widely associated with Church revival in recent Church history (the past couple of centuries or so).</div> <div>     Above, the King James Version of the Habakkuk verse is quoted.</div> <div>     The Hebrew word for "revive" simply means to live or make alive.</div> <div>     Another favorite verse in connection with revival is Psalm <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >65:6</FONT>,</div> <div>  </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Psalm 85:6</B></FONT>  Wilt thou not <U>revive us again</U>: that thy people may rejoice in thee? </div> <bR> <div>     Some modern translations go with variations of the wording "make us live" in place of "revive".</div> <bR> <div>     Here we have two verses in which revival is requested of God.  So what is revival?</div> <div>     Habakkuk asks God to revive His own work.  The psalmist asks God to revive His people.  Both were asking God to give life to things which apparently had life before.  Were God's work and people <I>dead </I>now?  Not necessarily, but they were at least lacking enough life that they needed a whole new infusion of it to return to their former blessed state.</div> <div>     So what is revival?</div> <div>     Can excitement or sorrow at a meeting be taken for revival?  -if the emotions linger for a week?  -for a year?</div> <div>     Can nationwide or worldwide interest in a new Biblical topic or practice be taken for revival?</div> <bR> <div>     Properly, any time we have let something grow lifeless in our spiritual lives or else inherited something inert from past generations, it has been revived when God <I>restores </I>its proper life.</div> <div>     Both Habakkuk and the psalmist seem to be looking for something widespread and general when they ask for revival.  They see God's work <I>generally </I>declined.  They see God's people feeble <I>as a whole</I>.  Revival in these cases would be God taking widespread action that would invigorate that which had largely expired.</div> <div>     Obviously, <I>some </I>spiritual life exists for a Habakkuk or a psalmist to be able to know that life is missing.</div> <div>     So what is the revival they seek?  How would we know it when it came?  What is it replacing?</div> <bR> <div>     Revival would be when Christians' main mode of thought, speech, and practice was <I>spiritual</I>.  We would not have to <I>enter </I>spiritual thinking, it would <I>be </I>on our minds, as though it were a fresh interest we had just discovered.</div> <div>     As it is, our <I>earthly </I>concerns tend to dominate our thinking.  However often or easily we enter into spiritual thoughts, we are not borne along by them as if in a wind or on a wave.  Revival is when God picks up His work and His people's spirits and carries them thus along.  </div> <div>     A revived people feel fully active; in fact, they will never have felt so personally involved.  Yet they are aware of God's special favor and credit Him with the influx of power.  And, even with the increased level of holiness, there is never as humbling a sense of personal sin as when revival occurs.</div> <bR> <div>     Why do revivals eventually die out?  What makes God give His work over largely to its own pitiful devices?  And why has He thus abandoned us for what has turned out to be <I>most </I>of Church history?</div> <div>     Need there be any reason besides the eventual <I>presumption </I>God's people assume towards renewed spiritual life?  After all is done, we once again become bored with God.  The newness wears off, and, without a new angle to exhilarate us, we simply succumb to a rather cold spiritual state.  </div> <div>     Such despite of God's mercies calls for outright reprobation (God casting us off).  At the least, though, the lifelessness we now prefer becomes our deserved prison.  If we ever see it for the prison it is, we may begin to probe the skies for a prognosis of our dilemma- at first, not very knowledgeably or ardently.</div> <div>     Perhaps we are beginning to sense our prison just now?</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_3"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="487" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 84 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 119:7</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> I will praise You with uprightness of heart </div> <div> when I shall have learned Your righteous judgments. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     The psalmist implies that he will <I>not  </I>be able to praise God, or at least not with uprightness of heart, until he learns God's righteous judgments.  There would be something missing from His worship of God as long as he was minus an understanding of <I>God's decision-making rationales, especially with regard to rewards and punishments- </I>for that is what God's judgments are.</div> <div>    <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" > </FONT>There is a scales, as it were, in which God weighs all His activities.  God's righteousness guides Him to look discerningly at His relationship to His creation.  He must deal with each man in each situation correctly.  So He must do with angels.  This is not because He is meticulous or nosy, but, again, because He is righteous.</div> <div>     This obligation on God's part apparently has an answering obligation on our parts.  We should feel drawn to know the basis for God's apportioning of rewards- good or evil.</div> <div>     Of course, God's rewards are not simple to discern.  His apportioning of pleasant surroundings to a man does not mean that he approves of that man.  His assigning of horrors (as with Job) does not denote disapproval.  The very complexity of God's ways, then, invites deep scrutiny.</div> <div>     But the psalmist is sure that he will praise God with a purified heart when he comprehends why God doles out providences as He does.</div> <div>     This does not mean he expects to catch, for instance, first time around, what's going on with a Job.  It merely means that he will understand God's general principles so that he will be able to say, "The possible reasons laid out in Scriptures for this kind of affliction being assigned to a man are a), b), or c)."</div> <div>     Especially observe that this understanding will drive a man to praise God.</div> <bR> <div>     Large segments of the Church in our day do not even attribute affliction to God.  Yet they claim to have cornered the market on praising God.</div> <div>     Our verse today assures us that there is no true praise of God where there is misunderstanding of His judgments.  We can praise the god of our own imagination if we have our own standards for his behavior, but the Christian praises the God who reveals Himself as He is.  The true Christian comes to realize that <I>there could be no other God</I> who would be truly God.  Any God who catered to our sentimental appetites would be on a level with the creature.  A God who is truly creator and ruler of what He made must be higher than that.  He must deal in true righteousness, but not according to our immediate frame of reference.  It <I>has </I>to take a deeper look for us to grasp if it is indeed a work of God.</div> <bR> <div>     Let us ask it accusingly.  In what way has my ignorance of God's judgments made my praise of Him insufficient?</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_4"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="487" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 105 ><NOBR><div> <B>John 14:6</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Jesus said to him, </div> <div> I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. </div> <div> No one comes to the Father except through Me.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     How could Jesus say He was the Truth?</div> <div>     It would be one thing to say that His life was the highest embodiment of truth, or that of all men He knew truth the best; but He said He Himself <I>was </I>the Truth.  Does this even make sense?</div> <div>     How can an abstract quality- like beauty, purpose, or morality- find its complete definition in a person?</div> <div>     We might hear a man say that the woman he loves <I>is  </I>beauty itself; but we don't take him to mean that she is the source of all other beauty in the Universe.  He is using hyperbole- exaggeration to make a point.</div> <div>     Is Jesus using hyperbole?</div> <div>     Considering the remainder of His sentence, the answer to this question must be No.  To say that no one can come to the Father except through Him certainly places the highest possible meaning on His claim.  He is saying that He <I><U>is</U></I><I> </I>THE Truth.</div> <bR> <div>     So how can a person <I>be </I>the truth?</div> <div>     The heart of the answer lies in this question:  Which came first- the quality Truth, or the person God?</div> <div>     The way many people- even Christians- think of God, Truth must be the prior element.  Perhaps it did not exist before God, but its existence was always required.  God <I>had  </I>to adopt Truth as a standard or His works would have no yardstick for measurement.  </div> <div>     Or some think of God as the grand Neutrality.  Right and wrong, truth and falsehood- these distinctions are beneath the great God.  But His creature man couldn't get along very well without some guidelines, so Truth was invented along with other steering regulations for our sakes.</div> <div>  </div> <div>     The fact that Jesus claimed to be the embodiment of Truth is proof enough that Truth did not come before God.  But Truth did not come separately, as it were, from God.  God is who He is.  He did not 'choose' Truth- so to speak- as an attribute.  But neither did His attributes 'force' themselves on Him.  God is who He is, who He was before, and who He always will be.  Truth has always been a natural part of God.</div> <div>     But Truth receives its definition FROM its residence in God.</div> <div>     Also, God does not say. "This is the definition of Truth for Me, but this <I>other  </I>is the definition of Truth for you."</div> <bR> <div>     Truth is Truth BECAUSE God is God- not the other way around.</div> <div>     Jesus was therefore definitely claiming to be God (a major theme of John's gospel) by saying He was the Truth.</div> <div>     This, by the way, places Truth alongside of Love as an abstract quality which finds its definition in God ("God is love").  We can certainly say, based on Jesus' claim, "God is Truth."</div> <bR> <div>     So a person can be Truth <I>if  </I>that person is God.</div> <div>     Truth, therefore, is personal.  Nothing in the Universe can escape being a personal matter, because it all relates to God, and God is personal.</div> <bR> <div>     Do you relate to Truth personally?</div> <div>     Do you relate to God personally?</div> <div>     If not, you are creating a false footing to relate to either one.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_5"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="382" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 84 WIDTH="370"><div> <B>Philippians 4:4</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >Rejoice in </FONT><I>the</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >Lord always. </FONT></div> <div> Again I say, Rejoice! </div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Here we have a Biblical command to by joyful.</div> <div>     Joy is a positive state of mind.  If we are defeated or depressed, we cannot be joyful.  Worry, fear, bitterness, envy, lust, greed- these all defuse joy.</div> <div>     Joy is a fruit of the Spirit:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Gal 5:22</B></FONT> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT>  But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, <U>joy</U>, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith,  meekness, self-control.</div> <bR> <div>     The 'opposite' of the Spirit's produce is the works of the flesh:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Gal 5:19 - 21</B></FONT>  Now the<U> works of the flesh</U> are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity,  idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions,  envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that</div> <bR> <div>     The works of the flesh squash Love as easily as they squash Joy.</div> <div>     Joy being a fruit of the Spirit means that the Holy Spirit, God, must produce it.  The lack of this production is Him leaving us to ourselves, leaving us in our sin.  We cannot afford to look at joy or other aspects of the Spirit's produce as optional matters.  If we are Christians, we must have joy.</div> <bR> <div>     So what stands in the way of my joy?</div> <div>     We have seen a general answer above in the works of the flesh, any aspect of which will ruin joy.</div> <div>     But just as easily, our lack of joy can be a simple lack of obedience.  Notice again that we are <I>commanded  </I>to be joyful.  That means that I am <I>to see to it </I> that I am joyful.  If I do not see to it, I am being disobedient.</div> <div>     One might say, quite legitimately, "I can't 'pump up' my own joy any more than I can generate my own love.  Either you love or you don't.  Either you have joy or you don't.  You can't just will it."</div> <div>     No, but you can think on things which will bring it about:</div> <bR> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>1 John 4:19</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  We love Him because He first loved us. </FONT></div> <bR> <div>     If I want to 'prime the pump' of my love for God, what should I think of?  I should think of His love for me.  The demonstration of His love at the cross would be most appropriate.</div> <div>     If I want to 'prime the pump' of my joy, what should I do?  Joy flows naturally from our love of God.  For other inducements of joy, we could think of one or more of God's many benefits towards us, physical or spiritual.  (See Psalm <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >31:7</FONT>, for instance)</div> <div>     Is it even legitimate to prime my pump thus?  Isn't that artificial, fake?  Consider David's example:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>1 Samuel 30:6</B></FONT>  And David was greatly distressed, for the people said to stone him. For the soul of the people was bitter, each for his sons and for his daughters. And <U>David made himself strong in Jehovah his God</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     David didn't 'go with the flow' of his distress.  He fought it.</div> <div>     For some of us, it is a daily struggle- maybe a tooth and nail struggle- to gain joy.</div> <div>     Suffice it to say, the prize is worth the combat- not only the possession of joy itself (prize of prizes!), but the prize of a good conscience for obeying God.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_6"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="439" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 154 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 90:5, 6</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> You carry them away as with a flood; </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >they are </FONT><I>as</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >a sleep; in the morning </FONT></div> <div> <I>they are</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >like grass which grows up. </FONT></div> <div> In the morning it sprouts and shoots up; </div> <div> in the evening it is cut down, and dries up. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Grass gets cut because it is 'stuck up'.</div> <div>     Above is a verse which says God cuts down the wicked like grass.  It is correct to say that the wicked are 'stuck up' in the sense of being conceited.  It is that same conceit which attracts God's unfavorable attention:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Psalm 31:23</B></FONT>   Love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful but <U>abundantly repays</U> the one who acts in <U>pride</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     The truth that God reacts negatively towards pride remains so when He is dealing with His own children:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>1 Peter 5:5</B></FONT>  ... Clothe yourselves, <U>all of you</U>, with humility toward one another, <U>for</U> "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." </div> <bR> <div>     Peter makes it plain that if we as Christians forsake humility and let our natural arrogance reign, God will oppose us.  He will send factors into our lives to obstruct us until we regain wisdom and its humility.</div> <bR> <div>     Are you stuck up?  Do you think too highly of yourself?</div> <div>     Perhaps you are merely neglecting to think less of yourself in relation to others.  This is neglecting humility.  According to Peter, that's all it takes to be proud.</div> <bR> <div>     If you are stuck up, there's only one thing that can happen.  You gotta be mowed down!</div> <div>     If you are experiencing trials that seem like a lawn mower blade buzzing around your head, you may be receiving reminders to duck- bow before God and, while you are there, <I>stay </I>bowed to serve your brothers.  Then you will be humble.  Then you will not be grass that is 'stuck up', needing to be cut down.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_7"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="398" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 84 ><NOBR><div> <B>Romans 3:23</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> for all have sinned, </div> <div> and come short of the glory of God</div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     The above verse is often used in witnessing situations.  It is used to bring the listener into agreement with the fact that he is a sinner- thus someone needing salvation.</div> <div>     When the question is asked, "Do you realize you're a sinner?", the respondent is likely to answer, "Yes."  The witnesser therefore assumes that it is appropriate to go ahead with the offer of the gospel, of Christ's sacrifice taking care of the man's sin problem before God.</div> <bR> <div>     Now the respondent may well have understood the definition of "sinner" as sin <I>i</I><I>n relation to God- </I>that his sin is against God.  In that case, even a very immature concept of his sin may accompany a path to true salvation.</div> <div>     But there are other definitions of "sin" and "sinner" which, because they are<I> not in reference to God</I>, could place the respondent's subsequent reception of Christ in a different category than a saving one.</div> <bR> <div>     One incorrect understanding of sin in men's minds is simply this:  Sin = a mistake that has brought them regret.  They assume that it is sin <I>as they have perceived it</I>  which makes them sinners.  Sin to them is, practically, where they have let <I><B>themselves  </B></I>down.  They may therefore regard Christ's salvation as a way of erasing the consequences of their own flaws.</div> <div>     Similar to the foregoing, and in some men's minds added to it, is the definition of sin where they have <I>harmed or offended </I><I><B>others</B></I>.  Now this definition is partially in agreement with Scriptures.  In terms of the Ten Commandments, this would be a recognition of the last five commandments.  However, even then, this recognition ignores the fact that a sin against my neighbor is only a sin <I>because </I><I><U>God</U></I><I> said not to do it</I>.  It is dangerously easy for man to make MAN his real reference point, even when he is partially in agreement with God thereby.</div> <div>     Similar to sin being a transgression against men would be the concept that sin is a transgression of <I>social mores</I>.  A man might have only as broad a standard as the society in which he lives.  He accepts that he should honor the prohibitions of that standard.  He unwittingly assumes that God has allowed us to make our own rules, or that our rules are a close enough approximation of His rules.</div> <div>     The most dangerous deception is one in which sin is a sin against God- but not against the God of Scriptures.  In terms of the previous mistaken concepts - men may hold them and simply attribute them to God.  In terms of misunderstood Scriptures, if men incorrectly define sin, what are they thinking Christ died for?  </div> <div>     Even the most accurate concepts of sin will be incomplete in some ways, but some will actually <I>oppose </I>Scriptural concepts.  Just as First John warns of damnation for a wrong doctrine of Christ and Galatians warns of damnation for a wrong implementation of a covenant sign, so a faulty notion of sin can easily send men looking to a false savior for salvation.</div> <bR> <div>     My concept of "sin" and "sinner" must convince me that I have offended THE one and only God- the God of Scriptures- by</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011800000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Neglecting His presence</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011800000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Breaking His laws</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011800000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Offending His person, and </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011800000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Justifying myself in the process,</div> <div>     and that I am therefore worthy of death, that I <I>am </I>dead spiritually, and that I am headed for eternal death apart from God.</div> <bR> <div>     The point here is not to create a detailed checklist to mark off in our witnessing.  It is to make a general point:  that we must not assume that when we have brought someone into agreement with the fact that he is a sinner that we have therefore properly prepared him for reception of Christ and His salvation.  Gospel 'salesmanship' generally hurries the process too much, assumes too much, and leaves many comforted reprobates in its wake.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_8"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="398" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 113 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 119:73</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> Your hands made me and established me; </div> <div> give me discernment </div> <div> that I may learn Your Commands. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Commandments are not popular among Christians today.  Commandments apparently reveal a rigid side of God we're not exactly comfortable with; especially so when we think of Him primarily as a loving God.  A loving God would supposedly not fixate on minute details.</div> <div>     The psalmist apparently has quite a different view of God and His commandments:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> Psalm 119:47</B></FONT>  And I will delight myself in <U>Your Commandments</U>, which <U>I have loved</U>. </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Psalm 119:48</B></FONT>  And I <U>will lift up my hands to</U> Your Commandments which I have loved; and I will think on Your Precepts. </div> <bR> <div>     God's commandments, correctly understood, reveal His wondrous being as well as His love does.  (Someday, will we delight just as much in God's righteous wrath against sin as we do in His love and His commands?)</div> <bR> <div>     God, give me a command!  Give me Your commands!</div> <div>     Commands:</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1</FONT>)  tell me that there is a God;</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2</FONT>)  tell me the character of God;</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >3</FONT>)  give me purpose, direction, and stability in my life;</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >4</FONT>)  give me deep, sincerely felt humility for my utter sinfulness;</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >5</FONT>)  give me a firm basis for confidence in prayer.*</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" >*  </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>1 John 3:22</B></FONT>  And whatever we ask, <U>we receive</U> from Him, <U>because</U> we <U>keep His commandments</U>, and we do the things pleasing before Him. </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_9"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="423" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 80 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 101:2</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> I will behave myself wisely in a complete way. </div> <div> O when will You come to me? </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Notice the connection between the psalmist's declaration and his question.  He declares that he will act wisely in walking the path of Christian maturity; then he asks when God will come to him.  What is the connection between this declaration and this question?</div> <div>     It is this:  When we determine to do right, THEN we feel the greatest need for God's presence and assistance.</div> <div>     Have you ever made this declaration before God in prayer?  "O God, I pledge myself to do right!"  If you have made this promise sincerely, a childlike attitude should have accompanied it.  This childlike spirit will feel- and following the psalmist's pattern will put into words- the actual need for God.</div> <div>     If our sense of need for God is lacking- generally, but in prayer especially- perhaps we are not 'priming the pump' properly.  We put ourselves in a 'catch-<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >22</FONT>' situation (a goal that cannot be reached because a condition for its fulfillment defeats the goal itself) by feeling that declaring our intention to do good is not child-<I>like</I>, but child<I>ish</I>. Or, worse, we feel it is self-righteous.</div> <div>     What needs adjusting- our attitude about such a declaration, or the psalmist's words we are considering today?</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_10"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="354" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 87 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 101:2</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> I will walk within my house </div> <div> with a matured heart. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Where will I walk?  Within my house.  How?  With a complete heart.  This declaration the psalmist makes before God.</div> <bR> <div>     He shows determination:  "I <I>will </I>walk."  But he is also showing humility, because he acknowledges that he lacks the desire to naturally choose right without this added determination.</div> <div>     He shows focus:  "within my house."  How many moral resolutions go awry because we don't know <B>where </B>to put them?  It is all very well to resolve that we shall be kinder to our neighbors, but when someone actually irritates us, our resolution doesn't come to mind.  We didn't envision this type of situation because our resolution was too broad.</div> <div>     I believe it is impossible to overemphasize the fact that HOME is where our holiness is chiefly tested.  If Jesus wasn't holy at home, He was not a sinless savior.</div> <div>     We must know our boundaries.  We are not called to <I>regard </I>the world in a holy fashion; we are called to <I>walk </I>in our homes in a holy fashion.  Christians are some of the ugliest people in the world because we conveniently apply God's principles to <I>everywhere </I>abroad, and <I>nowhere </I>near at hand- especially nowhere in our house.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Proverbs 27:8</B></FONT>  As a bird that wanders from her nest, so <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>is</I> </FONT>a man who <U>wanders from his place</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     Sense of place is very important for holy life on earth.  If we don't know where 'headquarters' is, we're basically lost.  And- get a clue- headquarters isn't 'out there'.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Proverbs 17:24</B></FONT>  Wisdom <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>is</I> </FONT>before him who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>are</I> </FONT>in the <U>ends of the earth</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     Again, it's much easier to focus our grand ideals on faraway places and people.  They don't pose any challenge to our daily ability to withstand strain.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Job 1:7</B></FONT>  And Jehovah said to Satan, From where do you come? Then Satan answered Jehovah and said, From going <U>to and fro in the earth</U>, and from walking up and down in it. </div> <bR> <div>     Satan lost his place.  Now he makes<I> everybody else</I> his business.  Hmmm, sounds like some of the 'model Christians' around:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Psalm 73:9</B></FONT>  They set their mouth against the heavens, and their <U>tongue walks through the earth</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     Busybodies are simply the ultimate extension of refusing to take responsibility for what is right before us, what is right in our homes.</div> <bR> <div>     So how far astray from home are you?</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_11"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="424" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 127 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 101:5</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> <I>Whoever</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >secretly slanders his neighbor, </FONT></div> <div> I will remove him; </div> <div> I will not endure him who has </div> <div> a high look and a proud heart. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     King David wrote these words as a testimony to God's standards which he as king intended to uphold in his kingdom.</div> <div>     Jesus read these words and understood them of Himself as the fulfillment of the promises made to David's heir, Messiah.  Jesus would eventually be empowered by His Father to cast out of His kingdom all things which offend.</div> <div>     Observe the criteria Jesus uses to determine whom He will remove and whom He will not tolerate.  One of them is an activity carried out in secret.  David would have had to wait until the poisonous bite of gossip had already wounded someone before he could trace down the offender and enforce justice.  Jesus knows our secret intentions even before we whisper someone else's name destructively.</div> <div>     The other criterion has to do with a high look and a proud heart- still a very subtle indicator.  The superior gaze with the eyes would have been all David had to discover a secretly proud heart.  Jesus, again, reads our hearts fully every moment.</div> <div>     The criteria are very subtle, but the consequences for them are not.  When David removed someone from Israel, that person was banished.  He could also remove someone altogether by execution.  When Jesus removes someone, that person will be separated from God and His people eternally.  </div> <div>     HOWEVER, Christ's winnowing work goes on <B>even now</B> <U>undetected</U>.</div> <div>     What is winnowing?  It is a means of separating chaff from grain.  On a breezy hillside, you can throw the crushed grain into the air, and the lighter chaff will blow to the side to become the garbage pile; the heavier grain will fall back down to be kept.  In the absence of a breeze, a winnowing fan can be used.  Concerning Jesus' use of winnowing, John the baptist said:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Luke 3:17</B></FONT>   whose sifting <U>fan</U> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>is</I> </FONT>in His hand; and He will fully purge His threshing-floor, and will gather the <U>wheat</U> into His storehouse, but the <U>chaff</U> He will burn up with fire that cannot be put out. </div> <bR> <div>     Jesus' winnowing fan was <I>in His hand</I>  while He was on earth!  No one saw Him fanning it; in fact, no one saw a fan, for it was not a literal fan; but everything Jesus did and said as Messiah tested men's hearts.  Every way men responded then <I>and are responding now</I> tells whether men are chaff or wheat.</div> <div>     Some will think it a monstrous injustice that they were being evaluated secretly but will be judged for it openly.  They are the same people who will think that <I>the rest of  </I>Jesus criteria for judgment is unfair too.  They'll think He shouldn't have said, "No adultery", as long as the couple truly loved one another.  That's why they don't want their subtle secrets judged- because they are in <B>basic disagreement</B> with the criteria.</div> <bR> <div>     How about you?  Does Jesus have your 'permission' to zero in on the secrets you tell?  To observe your heart attitude?</div> <div>     Wont' <I>you </I>wisely deal with your own deficient subtle areas to 'head Him off at the pass' (judging yourself so He won't have to)?</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_12"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="357" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 105 WIDTH="345"><div> <B>Psalm 101:3</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> ... I have hated the deeds </div> <div> of those who turn aside; </div> <div> it shall not fasten upon me. </div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     A Christian must become an anthropologist (<I>anthros </I>= "man" in Greek).  We must study men.</div> <div>     We study men to the end that we will perceive something of why the godless have turned aside from God.</div> <div>     The psalmist says that whatever it is that makes the ungodly stray will not be able to fix its claws in him.  The reason is that he <I>hates  </I>those workings.  But to hate them, he needed to know them; so he was one who studied men.</div> <bR> <div>     There is no human who can escape hating.  Some have wrongly surmised that Christians are forbidden to hate.  Quite to the contrary!  We are <I>commanded  </I>to hate:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" >Psalm 97:10</FONT>  You who love Jehovah, <U>hate</U> evil. He keeps the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. </div> <bR> <div>     The ability to hate evil does not come naturally to us.  We naturally <I>love  </I>evil and <I>hate </I>good:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B>John 3:19, 20</FONT>  And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men <U>loved darkness</U> rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil <U>hates the Light</U> </div> <bR> <div>     So it is a sure sign that we are <I>born anew </I>if we hate evil and darkness.  </div> <div>     The natural man's big problem is identifying evil.  The nature of sin is <B>not </B>that it claims to be the <I>opposite </I>of good (though it sometimes does that also), but that it defines good based on <I>personal </I>standards rather than God's standards.  </div> <div>     Most men 'agree' with God's basic definition of right and wrong; its just that we see almost everything in terms of <I>ourselves  </I>being right.  Here we have to lie.  A Christian, then, has been re-wired <I>not  </I>to lie about his own deeds and motivations.  He no longer automatically calls them good.  In fact, he automatically <I>suspects </I>them.  AND he changes his reference point for defining good.  It is now whether something offends <B>God</B>.</div> <div>  </div> <div>     So the Christian sees mankind altogether differently.  Now he hates the deeds of those who reflect self-righteousness.  But he does so in a self-incriminating way.  It is the Pharisee who says, "Hmph!  Glad I'm not like <I>them </I>!"  The Christian hates deeds of darkness because he also sees them in <I>himself, </I>as Isaiah did:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Isa 6:5</B></FONT>   Then I said, Woe <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>is</I> </FONT>me! For I am undone; for <B><U>I</U></B><B> </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>am</I> </FONT>a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a <U>people</U> of unclean lips </div> <bR> <div>     Strange paradox.  I hate the deeds of the unclean around me; thus those deeds do not become my habit.  I see that in myself I have no different inclinations than they do.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_13"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="357" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 84 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 101:4</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> A deceptive heart shall depart from me; </div> <div> I will not know evil. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     There is a cause and effect implied in this verse.  The psalmist implies that a deceptive heart will depart from him <I>because </I>he refuses to be intimately acquainted with evil.</div> <div>     When the psalmist says he will not "know" evil, does he mean that he will not know <I>about  </I>it?  No.  That is a very common misunderstanding, both inside the Church and out.  The most common understanding of Adam and Eve's transgression is that they <I>became aware</I> of the nature of good and evil.  Supposedly, up to that point they were 'innocent'- unaware of anything being good or bad.  So the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had fruit that would awaken man from his innocence.</div> <div>     In terms of our historical knowledge, this is the first place chronologically where God really makes no sense to us.  After that, we more or less expect that He's just a mysterious guy whose methodology is beyond our fathoming; so we garner <I>many </I>hazy ideas about God's words and doings.  In Eden, we see a God who tells man not to gain knowledge, but then expects man to actually comprehend the nature of a temptation that's telling him to <I>do  </I>evil!  Unfair to the max!  If man is to stay innocent, how can he decipher Satan's trick?!</div> <div>     This is also the earliest place in the Bible where our ignorance hurts us.  We effectively block ourselves from really expecting God to make sense, when, actually, He wasn't asking man to keep from an <I>awareness </I>of good and bad at all.  He was asking man to keep from the <I>determination </I>of good and bad for himself.</div> <div>     How do we know this is true?  The first time the Hebrew word for "know" and "knowledge" is used after the Creation and Fall is this:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Genesis 4:1</B></FONT>  And Adam <U>knew</U> Eve his wife. And <U>she conceived</U> and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from Jehovah. </div> <bR> <div>     This is not the way we use the word "know".  Knowing cannot lead to reproduction for us.  Hebrew had, as part of its definition of knowledge, a deep, intimate binding with the thing known.</div> <div>     So when God said Adam couldn't "know" good and evil, He meant that Adam couldn't have the same kind of intimate acquaintance with it which God had.  That is, knowledge of morality could not <I>originate </I>from man.  Hence, man had to take his understanding of right and wrong <I>from  </I>God.*</div> <div>     Think about it.  Eve obviously "knew" (= "could distinguish") right from wrong; otherwise she would not have been able to explain the Tree's prohibition to the serpent:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" >Genesis 3:2, 3</FONT>  And the woman said to the serpent, <U>We may</U> eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>is</I> </FONT>in the middle of the garden, God has said, <U>You shall not</U> eat of it, neither shall you touch it, <U>lest</U> you die. </div> <bR> <div>     She already <I>possessed </I>a basic understanding of morality, so it was the <I>deeper </I>kind of intimate knowledge which was forbidden to man.</div> <bR> <div>     So when the psalmist says, in the verse in the box at top, that he would not know evil, he is saying that he would not become intimate with it, that it would not be his love and practice.</div> <div>     Now one last connection.  It is WHEN we become intimate with evil (become doers of evil) that we manifest and develop a "<B>deceptive heart</B>".  Man must always justify his sin.  Our new sense of personal justice- that we ARE the ones who determine right and wrong- <I>demands  </I>that we justify our own deeds!</div> <div>     <I>So  </I>the only way to keep from having a deceptive heart is to NOT PRACTICE EVIL.</div> <div>     End.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" > *  </FONT>How could a <B>finite </B>being see enough ramifications of his actions to truly determine for himself if they were right or wrong anyway?  Obviously, men (and angels) would <I>always  </I>be dependent on an <B>infinite </B>being to fully and correctly explain right and wrong.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_14"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="466" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 194 ><NOBR><div> <B>Isaiah 14:13, 14</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> You said in your heart, </div> <div> 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God </div> <div> I will set my throne on high; </div> <div> I will sit on the mount of assembly</div> <div>     in the far reaches of the north; </div> <div> I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; </div> <div> I will make myself like the Most High.' </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     The quote above is attributed to one who is said to have "fallen from the heavens" (Isa. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >14:12</FONT>).  Earlier in the passage, the king of Babylon is the specific subject mentioned.  Can the passage be about both a human king and Satan?</div> <div>     There is a similar case in Hosea:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Hosea 11:1</B></FONT>  When Israel <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>was</I> </FONT>a child, then I loved him, and I <U>called my son</U> out of Egypt. </div> <bR> <div>     Unquestionably, Israel was the "son" originally referred to by Hosea.  Yet we read in the New Testament concerning Joseph living in Egypt with baby Jesus:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Matthew 2:15</B></FONT>  and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I <U>called my son</U>." </div> <bR> <div>     Therefore, prophetic references can go beyond their original subjects.  So it is in Isaiah.  In both passages, by the way, there is a logical and intended connection between the original subject and the prophetic one.</div> <bR> <div>     When Satan, then, declared that he would "ascend to Heaven", was he planning to kick God out?  Was he, more particularly, seeking to replace God's rule of righteousness with a regime of unrighteousness?  Refining the question a bit further, was Satan hoping to establish as the new rule of his kingdom "You <I>shall  </I>kill", for instance?  Would his rules all be the <I>opposite </I>of God's?</div> <div>     The reason we are seeking to answer this question is that a widespread misconception about Satan casts him as <B>unreservedly evil</B>.  That is, he is simply full of malice, hate, murder, and thievery throttled to the max with no tolerance for any sort of kindness, goodness, or justice.</div> <div>     We can answer this misconception in a general way by reference to earthly 'satans' (enemies of God):</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Luke 6:32</B></FONT>  And if you love those who love you, what thanks is there to you? For even <U>sinners</U> <U>love</U> those who love them. </div> <bR> <div>     Now it might be difficult to conceive of or prove that Satan actually loves anyone besides himself, but we certainly can answer the question of whether he is filled with unmitigated hate and murderous intent toward all.  Does he kill the demons who serve him?  If not, then he is not simply filled with blind malice.</div> <div>     What then, is the nature of Satan's unrighteousness?  How much 'goodness' is mingled with it?  Actually, Satan's unrighteousness- which is truly a complete unrighteousness- is only a perversion of true righteousness.* </div> <div>     One indicator of this occurred at Satan's temptation of Christ.  When Satan offered Christ the kingdoms of the world, Christ did not contest the fact that Satan in some sense owned those kingdoms.  Well, then, how had Satan run 'his' kingdoms to that point?  Did even one of them institute the law, "Thou <I>shalt  </I>kill"?  If they did and the citizens were obedient, then they would have all killed one another, and the last one would have killed himself had he not already contracted a mortal wound.</div> <div>     So Satan, though opposing God vehemently, is not the <I>opposite </I>of God.  His sin, like the sin of men, is in TURNING the laws of righteousness to his OWN SERVICE.</div> <div>     What drives this perversion?  Selfishness, pride.  Once Satan felt cheated of his proper portion of honor, all that was left was how he would RATIONALIZE his coup- his claiming of his supposed right.</div> <div>     Man, then, has followed this exact course (at the subtle suggestion of Satan).  Eve felt cheated and Adam concurred.</div> <div>     So Satan is not a being filled with unremitting malice.  It's just that his application of kindness is based on <I>himself  </I>as the ultimate consideration.</div> <div>     Man, too, has his own brand of righteousness which is amazingly similar to God's in most respects.  It becomes opposite of God in this sense- that it ultimately fails to glorify Him.  It glorifies the creature (especially man himself, especially each man himself), not the Creator.</div> <bR> <div>     Any caricatures of Satan which misrepresent him only serve to confuse our notion of sin in general and our own sin in particular.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" > *  </FONT>It is fairly impossible to think any opposition to God being the exact reverse of His standards.  God is the source of being.  If enmity with Him meant exactly opposing him, God's enemy would have to seek <I>non-being</I>.  If he sought non-being, he would seek his own extinction<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" >.</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_15"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="407" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 84 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 101:6</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div>   ... he who walks in a complete way,</div> <div> he shall serve Me. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     The "complete" way or path is the matured path.  Even a baby Christian can walk "completely" with whatever components are present in his faith.  However, as time passes, the demands for completeness are more extensive.  Eventually, a thorough knowledge of the will of God accompanied by a blameless following of that will are necessary.  This is Christian maturity.</div> <div>     The implication in Christ's promise above is that if we walk in a <I>less </I>than complete way, we shall <I>not </I>serve Him.  Ouch.  We Americans thought all God was looking for was our <I>availability</I>, not our <I>ability</I>.  Of course, it doesn't help that we translated that to mean that our best effort was unnecessary.  In fact, we thought we could give God our <I>spare </I>time, effort, and money and do just fine.  It's all about democracy, isn't it?  God accepts the "average" man's effort.  So if I give <I>more </I>than average, I'm just being a self-righteous show-off, right?</div> <div>     </div> <div>     In the first half of the verse above, Jesus said:</div> <bR> <div> <B>Psalm 101:6</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with Me.</FONT></div> <bR> <div>     Jesus said His "eyes" would be on the faithful.  He gives orders, then He watches.  Those who believe Him and love Him simply DO what He said.  Jesus' words become His servants' whole rationale for life.  They become complete when they obey.</div> <div>     Those who merely <I>profess </I>themselves to be faithful expect Jesus' <I>hands </I>to be on them.  His eyes aren't enough.  "When Jesus wants to energize me for some great work, He'll zap me with some power!"  This person's way will never be complete.</div> <div>     </div> <div>     So, in terms of the second part of the verse, we are exhorted to finish our <I>internship </I>and press on to <I><B>serve </B></I>Christ.  Let us move on to maturity.</div> <bR> <div>     Are you one of the "faithful of the land"?  Are you distinguished from those who merely <I>say </I>they are ready to serve Christ?</div> <div>     Christ beholds the faithful 'that they may dwell with Him'.  That means later.  Right now He's just watching.  He's watching to see if we'll do our job.  He doesn't approve of an average effort.  He wants our full ability poured into our full availability.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_16"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="407" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 130 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 101:7</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> <I>He</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >who works deceit </FONT></div> <div> shall not live inside My house;</div> <div> he who speaks lies </div> <div> shall not be established before My eyes. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Once again (see previous meditation), Christ talks about what He <I>sees </I>("before My eyes").  His gaze is an evaluation.  What He sees are masses of people clambering to get into His house.  The ones who will be excluded from His house are the schemers and liars.  The verse above which says so is the contrast to the previous verse:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Psalm 101:6, 7</B></FONT>  My eyes <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>shall be</I></FONT> on <U>the faithful</U> of the land, so that they may <U>dwell with</U> me; he who walks in a perfect way shall serve me.  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I><U>He</U></I><U> </U></FONT><U>who works deceit</U> shall <U>not live inside</U> my house; he who speaks lies shall not be established before my eyes.</div> <bR> <div>     At certain times in redemptive history, the <I>majority </I>of those pressing on Jesus' doors were false.  Isaiah's time was such a time.  Jeremiah's time was such a time.  Paul prophesies such times:</div> <bR> <div> <B> 2 Timothy 4:3</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  For a time will be when they will not endure sound doctrine</FONT></div> <bR> <div>     Has <I>most </I>of the Church age (with a few high points between) been a fulfillment of this warning?</div> <bR> <div>     "He who works deceit" may <I>think </I>he is blessed and prospering.  The Jews often thought so about themselves.  A deceiver, in fact, may <I>be </I>blessed.  God sends the sun on the righteous and the wicked together.  But the deceiver is not being blessed <I>spiritually</I>.  That is why he redefines spiritual blessings- so he can fit the definition.  Yes, in his own mind, he wants the comfort of belonging to God and of  being in His favor.</div> <bR> <div>     How many lies does someone have to confidently tell about God before he is, in the words of the verse, one "who speaks lies"?</div> <div>     There is a difference between coming short of pure accuracy of doctrine on the one hand and blatantly misrepresenting doctrine on the other.</div> <div>     How really different was the Pharisees' God than Jesus' God?</div> <div>     Most of us react to the Pharisees on a personal level.  We imagine them as stuffy, superior know-it-alls.  We figure that such hypocrites are easy to spot.</div> <div>     Nicodemus was a Pharisee.  He's the one who came to Jesus in John <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >3</FONT>.  He was asking sincere questions.  He wasn't stuffy at all.  He sounded like he was on Jesus' side.  Would we have recognized his hypocrisy?  Jesus did.  He held to wrong doctrine; he was therefore a liar.  Until that got fixed, he wasn't on Jesus' side.</div> <bR> <div>     Some liars err more in the area of personal faithfulness.  "I'll do such and so."  But then they don't do it.  Anyone who tolerates lies is <I>not </I>counted among "the faithful of the land" who will consequently dwell with Christ.</div> <bR> <div>     Of course, the first person a liar has to lie to is himself.  That's why he's the last person to find out he's a liar- usually discovering it only on Judgment Day.  It's not that he wasn't alerted.  He just always had an excuse.</div> <div>     The faithful of the land therefore, of all men, would be the <B>most </B>aware of their own deceitful tendencies.  What lies, then, will <I>you </I>set out to discover in <I><B>you  </B></I>today?</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_17"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="407" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 127 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 101:8</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> In the mornings I will cut off </div> <div> all the wicked of the land, </div> <div> so that I may cut off </div> <div> all the evil workers from the city of Jehovah. </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     This is the last verse of Psalm <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >101</FONT>.  Christ declares that He will be about the business of winnowing the wicked out of His dwelling place.</div> <div>     Part of the punishment of the wicked in the end, besides where he <I>is</I>- in the Lake of Fire- is where he<I> could have been</I>- in the City of Jehovah.  He will finally realize how beautiful Zion was, how freely open its gates stood, and how only his distaste for Zion kept him from it.</div> <bR> <div>     God's ultimate purpose is to have a pure city.  To purify it, evil must be cut off from it.</div> <div>     The psalmist has now finished answering his earlier question to God:  "O when will You come to me?"  The middle part of the psalm answered by saying, in effect, "NOW God comes to me, in my keeping of His moral precepts."  The two verses before this last one say, in effect, "SOON God will come to me, when He rewards my faithfulness."</div> <bR> <div>     Now, in this last verse, I see with the psalmist that my <I>personal </I>purifying at Christ's hands is merely part of Christ's purification of His whole<I>Church</I>.  He is constantly cutting off the wicked from within His borders.  He is consigning transgressors <I>within </I>His gates a place with the trespassers <I>outside </I>His gates.  His coming to <I>me </I>is His same purifying activity to prove whether <I>I  </I>belong in His city.</div> <div>     The scary part is- most church people never realize they are cut off until they're in Hell.  Churches march right along in their scheming and lying (see previous meditation) and fail to respond to Christ's warnings.</div> <div>     Christ gave the Ephesian church a final warning:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Revelation 2:5</B></FONT>  Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and <U>will remove your lampstand</U> out of its place unless you repent. </div> <bR> <div>     Were the Ephesians going to disband if Christ removed their lampstand as threatened?  No, they would have gone about their merry business, heedless.  That's why they were in danger in the first place.  They had stopped listening.  (And they, by the way, had only stopped listening in one area.  Christ had actually commended them for faithful listening in another area.)</div> <bR> <div>     So if life seems like one big wash board (= old-timey shutter-looking boards against which women would scrub clothes to wash them), and I'm being 'cleaned to death'- I can comfort myself that, as long as I'm repenting, wickedness is being cleaned out of me rather than me being cleaned out of God's city:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" >1 Corinthians 11:31, 32</FONT>  For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are <U>chastened</U> by <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>the</I> </FONT>Lord, <U>that</U> we should <U>not be condemned</U> with the world. </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_18"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="453" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 323 ><NOBR><div> <B>Isaiah 45:20</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Gather yourselves and come; </div> <div> draw near together, escaped ones of the nations; </div> <div> those who set up the wood of their graven image, </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >and those that pray to a god </FONT><I>that</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >cannot save. </FONT></div> <div> They know nothing.  </div> <div> Declare and bring near; </div> <div> yea, let them take counsel together. </div> <div> Who has declared this of old? </div> <div> <I>Who</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >has told it from then? </FONT></div> <div> Is it not I, Jehovah? </div> <div> And <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>there is</I></FONT> no other God besides Me;</div> <div>  a just God and a Savior; </div> <div> there is none besides Me. </div> <div>   </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div>     God tells the idolaters to gather together; He has something to tell them.  Hint, hint:  He is God, not the idols they serve.</div> <bR> <div>     Is America a land of idols?</div> <div>     Before you answer "No" too quickly just because we don't bow to statues, listen to these two definitions of idolaters and idolatry:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" >Ephesians 5:5</FONT>  For you know this, that no fornicator, or unclean person, or <U>covetous </U><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I><U>one</U></I> </FONT>(who <U>is an idolater</U>), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" >Colossians 3:5</FONT>  Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and <U>covetousness</U> (which <U>is idolatry</U>)</div> <bR> <div>     So-  is America a land of covetousness?  Are people consumed with the pursuit of money and possessions?  Definitely, yes!  Well, then, America is a land of idolatry.</div> <bR> <div>     Here, then, is the point.  Where idols are being served, <B>God cannot be defined without reference to the idols</B>.</div> <div>     In the Isaiah verse, God told the idolaters to gather together so He could correct their idolatry.  If Americans are idolaters, God is not going to introduce Himself to us and be silent about the gods we are serving.</div> <div>     Herein, we see, lies a problem.  Most Americans don't define their lifestyles as idolatry; so when they gain an interest in Christ and Scriptures, they may see themselves filling an empty place in their lives, but they usually don't see themselves replacing idolatry with the true God.</div> <div>     From this vantage point we can better understand why most American churches generally fail to address covetousness as a great sin.  They were never introduced to the fact that the American lifestyle is steeped in idolatry.</div> <div>     Remember the story of the rich, young ruler?  Perhaps if every American Christian were given Christ's simple test, our churches would be much <I>less </I>full, but the spirits of those within would be much <I>more </I>full.  All the unrepentant idolaters would be 'sad and go away grieved', like the rich, young ruler.  But those left would at least be worshippers of the true God rather than their possessions.</div> <bR> <div>     Again, the point is that we don't really even know God if we meet Him in a fictitious 'idol-free' environment.  If we are not laying down idols when we take up true religion, we are, in effect, just making God the next in a line of new idols we are trying.  If God takes up residence in our lives <I>alongside </I>existing idols, we will continue to serve both God <I>and </I>the old idols, leaving us under the category of idolater.</div> <bR> <div>     So where are you in our IDOL CONTEXT?  Have you ever recognized your American idolatry?  Did you repent of it when you came to God?  </div> <div>     Have you stayed clear of covetousness in your service to God?  Or is your Christianity just a thin veneer laid over top of service to the gods of the land?</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_19"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="407" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 216 ><NOBR><div> <B>Matthew 6:5</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div>  And when you pray,</div> <div> you shall not be like the hypocrites. </div> <div> For they love to pray </div> <div> standing in the synagogues </div> <div> and in the corners of the streets, </div> <div> so that they may be seen by men. </div> <div> Truly I say to you, </div> <div> They have their reward. </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     It is a fatal error to read about the 'bad guys' in the Bible and not see ourselves in them.</div> <div>     The hypocrites who prayed out in the open so people could see them certainly included the Pharisees.  Jesus had mentioned them by name at the beginning of this discourse.  The Pharisees are one group of Bible bad guys whom we have more or less trained our minds to put in an 'untouchable' category.  We could <I>never </I>be like them! </div> <div>     Here's the point we should be paying attention to concerning the Pharisees, though.  They operated according to a <B>public image of themselves</B>.  A Pharisee allowed himself to think that the image he presented to men was his true self.</div> <div>     Now ask yourself:  is that so different than how <I>you </I>operate?  Who among us spends enough time in quiet reflection to even know who he really is?  IS THERE even a 'me' apart from other peoples' perception of me?</div> <div>     Now we certainly would not suggest that other peoples' views of us and interaction with us plays no part in who we are.  They do play a <I>large </I>part.  But for most people, that's about all they are:  a response to how others view them.</div> <div>     The Pharisees were only making specific and obvious use of this for their advantage.</div> <div>     So you might not be imitating the exact behavior of the Pharisees, but you may well be living by exactly the same flawed motivation which drove them.</div> <div>     </div> <div>     <I>Is  </I>there a real you, unaffected by what others think?  For a Christian, it <I>must  </I>be so.  God's view of us must be the opinion that drives us, <I>not </I>the opinion of other people.</div> <div>     The Pharisees were able to convince themselves of God's favor upon them because of the accomplishments they could display before men.  Again, the fatal error Christians make is saying, "Yes, I'm nothing like the Pharisees.  My relation with God is purely private and personal."  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Centaur" ><I><B>What they really mean</B></I></FONT>, unfortunately, is, "You can't check on my private life, so I can pretend that I have a rich and full devotional life with God."  </div> <div>     The Christian community conspires together to be repulsed by the Pharisees.  <I>Their  </I>error was public prayer, so our prayers will be so secret that even <I>we </I>don't know about them!  We therefore bolster one another with a <B>public image of </B><I><B>our</B></I><B>selves</B>.  I won't ask about your non-existent prayer life if you won't ask about mine; and we can both be happy that we're not like the Pharisees ...  except that we're essentially <I>exactly </I>like the Pharisees.  Public image is everything.</div> <bR> <div>     Again, if we fail to <I>see ourselves </I> <B>in </B>the Bible bad guys, we will only shield ourselves from correction which we desperately need.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="407" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 173 ><NOBR><div> <B>Matthew 6:2</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >Therefore when you do </FONT><I>your</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >merciful deeds, </FONT></div> <div> do not sound a trumpet before you, </div> <div> as the hypocrites do </div> <div> in the synagogues and in the streets, </div> <div> so that they may have glory from men. </div> <div> Truly I say to you, They have their reward. </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     The hypocrites in Jesus' day, no doubt including the Pharisees (whom He had singled out earlier in the discourse), drew attention to themselves when they performed service to God.</div> <div>     In our day, we assume that avoiding the Pharisees' error means counting our deeds of service to God as nothing special; that we should see any good works carried out or external manifestations of worship as secondary:  real religion is in the heart.</div> <div>     Is this what Jesus was trying to teach?</div> <div>     No, far from it.  Only a little earlier in the same discourse He said:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > Matthew 5:16</FONT>  <U>Let</U> your light so shine before <U>men</U> that they may <U>see your good works</U> and glorify your Father who is in Heaven. </div> <bR> <div>     So what's the difference between me and a Pharisee if I let people see my good works?  The difference is that I don't do it TO BE SEEN.  Actually, good works cannot be invisible.  Prayer and fasting can be 'invisible' to others, but good works cannot.  The good works in the box at the top are, literally, "compassions".  Compassion is something bestowed on someone who can't do for himself.  I'm meeting his need.  There's almost no way to avoid that person seeing me and no reason to avoid it.</div> <div>     Of course, you could try to do your good works anonymously, like leaving a bag of groceries on a needy person's doorstep.  But Jesus indicates that as long as you don't advertise your mission, it is perfectly fine for the needy person to know what you're doing.  In fact, we <I>want  </I>the needy person to connect us- as God's children- with the good workm according to Matthew <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >5:16</FONT> above.  Did Jesus perform His healings anonymously?</div> <bR> <div>     The Pharisees did merciful deeds.  They gave to the poor, but they did it publicly <I>to be noticed</I> doing it.</div> <div>     The Pharisees knew they were supposed to be doing good.  They correctly surmised the three main Christian duties:  merciful deeds, prayer, and fasting.  Jesus reinforced the necessity of these duties.  But the Pharisees performed the deeds <B>from a barrenness of spirit</B>.  They did not understand the true nature of merciful deeds, prayer, or fasting.  They twisted the correct <I>exercise </I>of them because they could not comprehend the correct <I>motivation </I>for them.  They could not comprehend the correct motivation for them because <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Centaur" ><I><B>they had no real goodness within them</B></I></FONT>.  As Jesus later told them:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Matthew 23:27</B></FONT>  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outside, but <U>inside</U> they are full of <U>dead</U> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>men's</I></FONT> bones, and of all uncleanness. </div> <bR> <div>     In conversion, God gives a new heart.  With the new heart comes real human goodness.  From this heart, good deeds and acceptable worship can flow.</div> <div>     Therefore we understand that human goodness is a quality that cannot be substituted or duplicated.  It can be improved, but only by those who have it in the first place.  The rest prefer their own goodness.</div> <div>     Those who possess true goodness recognize it as an attribute of God they wish to emulate.  It is part of the fruit which the Spirit produces in them (#<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >6 </FONT>in a nine-item list, Gal. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >5:22</FONT>).  Good people are good to others, especially those in need.</div> <bR> <div>     Do you possess goodness?</div> <div>     Do you exemplify it?</div> <div>     Or do you excuse your lack of goodness as part of your 'private religion' which is no one's business to see (since it is not there)?</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_21"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="407" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 194 ><NOBR><div> <B>1 Peter 2:6</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Because of this, </div> <div> it is also contained in the Scripture: </div> <div> "Behold," I lay in Zion" </div> <div> an elect, "precious Stone," </div> <div> "a Corner-foundation;" </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >"and the </FONT><I>one</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >believing in Him </FONT></div> <div> shall not be ashamed, never!" </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>      The one believing and hoping in Jehovah shall never be ashamed.</div> <div>     Sin is the cause for shame; hence, hoping in Christ = reserving enough of your mind and heart at all times to 'float' above the circumstances which draw our unbelieving inclinations into sin.  </div> <div>     There is a specific place designated for our minds and hearts to dwell during all earthly circumstances, especially difficult ones:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Colossians 3:1</B></FONT>  If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>the</I> </FONT>right hand of God.   <U>Be mindful</U> of <U>things above</U>, not on things on the earth. </div> <bR> <div>     The place our minds are to 'float'- actually, rise by choice- is Heaven, but not only Heaven- the person of Jesus Christ <I>in </I>Heaven.</div> <div>     The verse that Peter is quoting from in the box above is from Isaiah:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Isaiah 28:16</B></FONT>  therefore so says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I place in Zion a Stone for a foundation, a tried Stone, a precious Cornerstone, a sure Foundation; he who believes <U>shall not hurry</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     The sin within us is always seeking to respond to people and circumstances around us in unbelief.  When we do <I>not believe</I> in God, we hurry.  When we <I>believe </I>in God, we do not get ahead of ourselves, our circumstances, or Him.</div> <div>     As long as our minds are in Heaven, we can never be pulled into a hasty response.  Dwelling with Christ in Heaven, our minds will await His command.</div> <bR> <div>     What are the two main categories of HURRYING?  </div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1</FONT>)  The <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Curlz MT" ><B>a</B></FONT>nger category; and</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2</FONT>)  the <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Curlz MT" ><B>w</B></FONT>orry category.</div> <bR> <div>     Our hurrying always pulls us into one or both of these sinful responses.  Our sinful self always says either to strike out or else withdraw- either one taking us out of the shadow of the Almighty.</div> <bR> <div>     Hoping in the Lord means always knowing <I>He </I>is in control- <I>not </I>the circumstances/people sniping at our heals.</div> <bR> <div>     A major goal of morning prayer is to calm our spirits in God's presence and set our pace to stay <I>with </I>Him the rest of the day.  </div> <div>     We must recognize our <I>tendency </I>to haste in order to <I>curb </I>it.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <div>     </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <A NAME="aug_22"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="407" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 216 ><NOBR><div> <B>Colossians 2:8</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Be watching out </div> <div> lest anyone will be carrying you away </div> <div> as spoils of war </div> <div> through philosophy and empty deception,</div> <div> according to the traditions of people, </div> <div> according to the rudimentary elements </div> <div> of the world </div> <div> and not according to Christ. </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Above is a verse from the Analytical-Literal Translation.</div> <div>     "Carrying you away as spoils of war" is from a compound Greek word <I>sunlagogeo</I>, meaning "to lead away as plunder."</div> <div>     Historically, Paul knew that God's people had been led away as plunder on two major occasions, as well as having lived under enemy occupation in their own land several times.  Paul was not suggesting that the Colossians would be militarily/politically oppressed that way again.  He was talking about spiritual captivity.  But by using war and captivity terminology, he definitely draws our thinking to the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations in the Old Testament.</div> <div>     Obviously, the Church <I>can </I>be led away captive.  Being exhorted to avoid it means that it <I>is </I>possible.  What's more, the Colossian church was already <I>headed </I>for captivity.  If they didn't change, that's where they would end up.  That's why Paul wrote the letter to them.</div> <bR> <div>     So now we'd like to know:  how imminent might a captivity be for today's Church or some segment thereof?</div> <bR> <div>     Consider this.  Captivity itself is raw oppression.  You do the bidding of your captor.</div> <div>     For the Israelites, the period leading up to captivity was a period of yearning after foreign gods and serving them within Israel.  Then came the captivity where they got to visit and serve the idols in their native lands!</div> <bR> <div>     Interestingly, we might be experiencing a two-part captivity much like Israel did.  The northern ten tribes went into Assyrian captivity <I>first</I>.  That may be like the liberals who sold out nearly a century ago.  They now merely echo the status quo from the world using Church terminology.  They are completely in bondage and do only the world's bidding.</div> <div>     Those who didn't go liberal previously may be lining up for the <I>second stage</I> of captivity- like the one Jerusalem experienced at Nebuchadnezzar's hand.  The Church today may be developing such a detailed counterfeit of true Christianity that it will be as impossible for us to repent of it as it was for the Jews to do in Jeremiah's day.</div> <bR> <div>     The Church may still have some of her true identity left in our day.  The further we transform into the counterfeit (= doesn't match the Biblical model), the harder it is to recognize the counterfeit in ourselves.</div> <div>     Denominations are constantly fizzling out and being assimilated back into the world, keeping their Christianity in name only.  God raises up new works to replace defunct ones.  God sometimes does what seems even harder:  revitalizing a dormant church and bringing it back from captivity.  For Israel, what came back from captivity was pretty much new blood.  The old had died off (after <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >70 </FONT>years in Babylon).  </div> <div>     The Reformers tried to retain as much as possible of what was good in the decayed Catholic church, for instance.  NOt much was reclaimed.</div> <bR> <div>     What's for saving today?</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_23"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="389" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 173 ><NOBR><div> <B>Romans 10:1, 2</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Brethren, my heart's desire </div> <div> and prayer to God for Israel is, </div> <div> that they may be saved. </div> <div> For I bear them testimony</div> <div> that they have a zeal for God, </div> <div> but not according to knowledge. </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Zeal for God is the highest human endeavor.</div> <div>     Yet, according to Paul in the verse above, zeal for God is worth nothing at all if it is ill-informed.</div> <div>     The Jews had an ardent desire to serve God, but they did not know who God was.  Particularly, they did not know the <B>righteousness of God</B>.</div> <div>     Now what's so hard about knowing the righteousness of God?  The problem comes in claiming our OWN righteousness as a righteousness which pleases God:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Romans 10:3, 4</B></FONT>  For, being ignorant of the <U>righteousness that comes from God</U>, and seeking to establish <U>their own</U>, they did not submit to God's righteousness.  For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes. </div> <div>  </div> <div>     The very Old Covenant Law the Jews were trying to keep testified clearly that they <I>could not </I>keep it and that they needed an appointed sacrifice for their Law-breaking:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Isaiah 59:15, 16</B></FONT>  Yea, truth fails; and he <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>who</I> </FONT>departs from evil makes himself a prey. And <U>Jehovah saw</U>, and it displeased Him that <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>there was</I></FONT> <U>no justice</U>.  And He saw that <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>there was</I></FONT> <U>no man</U>, and wondered that there was <U>no intercessor</U>. Therefore <U>His own arm</U> <U>brought salvation</U> to Him; and His righteousness sustained Him. </div> <bR> <div>     It is just as easy today for Christians to bypass God's righteousness.  The moment we fall in love with our own righteousness,* we possess almost infinite craft to mold a counterfeit Christianity which caters to our self-righteousness.  There are plenty of existing groups of apostate churches who facilitate this appetite.</div> <div>     Most of the New Testament epistles were written to churches who were adding various elements to Christ and His death, thus nullifying them.  They were already falling prey to various forms of self-righteousness.</div> <bR> <div>     There is no easy, one-step process for detecting this kind of self-righteousness.  Again, behold Paul's complex arguments in all the corrective epistles.</div> <div>     More importantly, one factor which indicates that we have come to an <I>end </I>of our own righteousness is when our own goodness before God sickens us.  The only way that this disgust remains sincere is by our <I>continued </I>suspicion of our own spirits.  "Ah, look how easily I take credit for good!  Look how satisfied I am by my own efforts!  Look how slow I am to give God the glory!"  </div> <div>     We are properly suspicious of outward forms of religion because of how easily they can be corrupted, but we should distrust our own hearts in the worship of God far more.  </div> <bR> <div>     A final and necessary indicator of possessing God's righteousness is humility towards others.  Once we see "worm" when we see self, we can no longer step on others, but only behold others as better than ourselves.</div> <bR> <div>  *<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial Narrow" >This actually happens at conception, being part of our sin nature, though we only experience specific religious manifestations of it much later.</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_24"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="356" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 109 ><NOBR><div> <B>Psalm 49:18</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> For in his life he blessed his soul; </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >yea, </FONT><I>men</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >praise you </FONT></div> <div> when you do well for yourself. </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     The psalmist is talking about the rich.  The two verses preceding the one quoted above inform us of this:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Psalm 49:16, 17</B></FONT>  Do not be afraid when one becomes <U>rich</U>, when the glory of his house increases;  for when he dies he shall take nothing; his glory shall not go down after him. </div> <bR> <div>     We're focusing today on the fact that the rich man <B>blesses his own soul</B>.</div> <div>     This word for blessing is the same word used for our blessing of God in praise of Him:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Psalm 16:7</B></FONT>  I will <U>bless Jehovah</U>, who counseled me. My reins also teach me <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>in</I> </FONT>the nights. </div> <bR> <div>     So a contrast is immediately apparent.  We will either bless the Lord in this life, or else we will bless our own souls.  Then, what we bless in this life will reap its proper harvest in the next life, as the psalmist continues of the rich man in Psalm <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >49</FONT>:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Psalm 49:19</B></FONT>  He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall <U>not see light forever</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     There are two basic objects of blessing in the world.  To bless one is idolatry, to bless the other is true worship.  All men bless one or the other:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Georgia" >Romans 1:25</FONT>   who changed the truth of God into the lie, and <U>worshiped</U> and <U>served</U> the <U>created thing</U> <U>more than</U> the <U>Creator</U>, who is blessed forever. Amen. </div> <bR> <div>     Notice that Paul only accuses us of worshiping the created thing <I>more </I>than the Creator.  We may say, "God has been good to me" and thank Him, yet we may still use what He has given us in an idolatrous way.  </div> <div>     Notice also that in Romans <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1:25</FONT> the phrase is "worshiped and served."  Most men can deceive themselves into thinking that they honor the true God in their own way, but very few can deny what they actually serve with their lives.  True <I>worship </I>of God only exists when we <I>serve </I>Him alone.  </div> <div>     Lip service to God, complete with songs and prayers, means nothing if we are not serving Him with our lives.  Spirit led songs and prayers are merely the dedication of the whole life to God; otherwise, our songs and prayers are only hypocrisy, no matter how deeply we feel about God when we sing, pray, or worship.</div> <bR> <div>     It is all too easy to bless God in the religion segment of our lives but bless ourselves in the rest of our lives.  In that case, we are only <I>using God</I> as a means to bless ourselves.  Those who use other people for their own advantage are certainly cads.  Those who use God are both cads and fools, for God is not taken in by our flattery.  We may believe the blessings of this life are signs of His favor, but earthly blessings do not necessarily connote our acceptance by God:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Matthew 5:45</B></FONT>  ... Because He causes the sun to rise on <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>the</I> </FONT><U>evil</U> <U>and</U> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>the</I> </FONT><U>good</U>, and sends rain on the just and unjust. </div> <bR> <div>     You will either bless Jehovah and His Christ <I>with </I>your soul, or you will bless your own soul.  There are many <I>ways </I>we may bless our own souls, but it is the blessing <I>of </I>ourselves which clearly marks us as idolaters; idolaters whom God will not bless with the blessings of Christ.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_25"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="431" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 152 WIDTH="419"><div> <B>1 Peter 1:7, 8</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div>  ...Jesus Christ. </div> <div> Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, </div> <div> you believe in Him and rejoice with joy </div> <div> that is inexpressible and filled with glory </div> <div>  </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Christian humility in the Savior's presence is always struck with love.</div> <div>     Peter says that not only do we love Jesus, but we have a 'glorified joy beyond words' in Him.</div> <bR> <div>     Have you ever heard that there's really no way to tell if one person over another is a Christian?  Perhaps you have thought this yourself.  We have tangled ourselves up with foolish definitions which avoid Biblical content, so we make the reality of a person's regeneration a mystery.  </div> <div>     The Bible approaches the matter nearly the opposite.  John in First John leaves little room for subjective error in defining absolutely who is and who isn't a Christian.  He gives three tests, in this order, beginning in chapter two:</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1</FONT>)  The obedience test:  do we keep Christ's commandments?</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2</FONT>)  The love test:  do we love other Christians? and</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >3</FONT>)  The doctrine test:  do we hold the essential teachings of Scriptures?</div> <div>       The doctrinal test John uses is Christology- the correct teaching concerning Christ (His human nature and His Divine nature serving as the foundation for His work of redemption). </div> <div>     John gives these three tests in chapter two, then repeats them in a different way in chapters three and four.  In the latter part of chapter four, he gives the love test again.  Then in chapter five, he begins mingling the three tests and equating them to one another.  Throughout, he assures us that anyone <B>failing </B>to keep Christ's commands, love his brother, or believe correctly <I><B>is not born of God</B></I>.  Any person can be tested.  John leaves the matter as no mystery at all.  He even speaks of a group of people who had been part of their assembly who had left, saying their failure of the doctrinal test had proved their absence of spiritual renewal. </div> <bR> <div>     Peter, in effect, gives us one test similar to John's three.  He simply informs us that a Christian loves Jesus and glories in Him exceedingly.</div> <bR> <div>     Think about it.  Who would object to the legitimacy of such a test?</div> <div>     "Are you a Christian?"</div> <div>     "Yes."</div> <div>     "So then you love Jesus?"</div> <bR> <div>     Many professing Christians would be stopped in their tracks by this simple test.  Of course a Christian must love Christ.  It almost surpasses the obvious.  Yet very many professing Christians could not say that they loved Jesus.*</div> <div>     Why would many professing Christians fail this test in our day?  Because we have come to define conversion in terms of a set of beliefs, or even just a single confession- that Jesus Christ is Savior.</div> <div>     What has this approach to conversion done?  It has effectively bypassed a personal approach to Christ.  As much as we hear about "a personal relationship with Christ", in fact, nothing is done to actually establish such a relationship.  We are left to assume that confessing Him as Savior establishes a personal relationship with Him.  If this personal relationship can be judged by time in prayer and zeal in prayer, Christ is known and loved personally by very few. </div> <bR> <div>     Do you love Jesus?</div> <div>     Of course, even a true Christian will be convicted by the question; but many false professors of faith will be immediately exposed by it. </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" > * </FONT>This does not assume that someone who says he loves Jesus is automatically born again.  Some <I>are </I>in love with "another Jesus" (2 Cor. 11:4).  Some are in love with a feeling, not the person Christ Himself<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" >.</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_26"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="370" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 109 ><NOBR><div> <B>Revelation 1:5</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> ...To Him who loved us </div> <div> and washed us from our sins </div> <div> in His own blood </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     "Jesus loves me, this I know."</div> <div>     But many a Christian has a hard time relating to the fact that Jesus loves <I>him </I>personally.</div> <div>     Why is that?</div> <div>     Christians have the idea that it's Jesus' JOB to love everybody, so to speak.  In other words, Jesus loves everybody automatically, no matter what; therefore, it's nothing that special if He loves me too.</div> <bR> <div>     Well, in the first place, does Jesus love everyone automatically?</div> <div>     Not if He's the Jehovah of the Old Testament:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" >Psalm 5:5</FONT>  The foolish shall not stand in Your sight. You <U>hate</U> all <U>doers of iniquity</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     The common Christian maxim is:  "God loves the sinner but hates the sin."  In the verse above, God isn't hating iniquity- the sin- but the <I>doer </I>of iniquity- the <I>sinner</I>.  So our little Christian maxim doesn't stand the test of Scriptures.  (You could also look at Ps. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >10:3</FONT>; Lev. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >20:23</FONT>; Prov. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >6:19</FONT>; Hos. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >9:15</FONT>; Matt <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >7:23</FONT>)</div> <bR> <div>     Therefore, if God loves me, it <I>is </I>special.  He<I> doesn't</I> just love everybody automatically.</div> <bR> <div>     However, there's more to it than that.</div> <div>     God's love for me is actually a <I>better </I>love in that it is a love He has for <I>all  </I>His children.  When God calls us as one among many whom He loves, He is teaching us that our own love is to be shared.  If I had God all to myself, I would become selfish.  I would also have cause to wonder about His love if He loved me alone.</div> <div>     The only question I need to answer is whether Jesus does love me individually.  The answer to this is certainly yes:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Galatians 2:20</B></FONT>  ... And <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>that</I> </FONT>life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith toward the Son of God, who <U>loved</U> <U>me</U> and gave Himself on my behalf. </div> <bR> <div>     Notice that Paul doesn't say "who loved US"; he says "who loved ME."  Paul knew that Jesus loved others too, but he was comfortable saying that Jesus loved him personally.  </div> <div>     <B>We should have the same comfort</B>. </div> <bR> <div>     It's not just Jesus' job to love us.  He loves us by choice.  </div> <div>     He doesn't love us because of who we <I>were</I>, but because of His own choice- that is, because of His own work He's doing and will complete in us.  He is making us something good, something really worthy of loving.  But He <I>loved </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>us even when we weren't worthy.  Because of His grace, He loves us <I>now</I>, in spite of who we still are.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>John 16:26, 27</B></FONT>  At that day you will ask in My name; and I do not say to you that I will pray to the Father for you, for the <U>Father</U> Himself <U>loves you</U>, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came out from God. </div> <bR> <div>     "Jesus loves me; this I know."  And so I love Him.  And so the Father loves me, and so does the Spirit (Rom. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >5:5</FONT>).</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <div>     </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <A NAME="aug_27"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="342" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 109 WIDTH="330"><div> <B>Psalm 103:1</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Bless, O my soul, Jehovah, </div> <div> And all my inward parts-</div> <div> His Holy Name. </div> <div>  </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     "All in the midst of me" or "all that is within me" is supposed to bless Jehovah's name.</div> <div>     Psalm <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >103:1</FONT> is an exhortation.  It is an exhortation to <I>self</I>.  <I>I  </I>am telling <I>me </I>to bless God, to give Him praise.</div> <div>     All that is inside me needs to respond to God.</div> <div>     Well, then, if all that is <I>inside </I>me responds to God, all the <I>outer </I>me will be affected as well.</div> <bR> <div>     I must be <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Castellar" >overcome</FONT>.  The Holy Spirit must overcome me.</div> <bR> <div>     Does this imply any particular mode of <B>worship</B>?  No, though it does imply the willingness and ability to do whatever God tells me to do in worship.  There are a variety of worship modes recorded and exhorted in the Bible.  Apparently, not all of them are in use every time we worship.  The one consistent factor is a true worshiper being deeply affected, not superficial in his worship.</div> <div>     Does being overcome by the Holy Spirit imply any particular mode of <B>living</B>?  Yes, it means that I am not out 'on loan' to God during worship times only.  It means that I belong to Him <I>all the time </I> in <I>all that I do</I>.  This is the main test for whether or not "all that is within me" is blessing God's holy name:  Has God bought me or just 'rented' me?* </div> <bR> <div>     Jesus said that all His people are overcomers:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Revelation 3:5</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  The </FONT><I>one</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" ><U>overcoming</U>, this </FONT><I>one</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not at all blot his name out of the Book of Life; and I will acknowledge his name before My Father, and before His angels. </FONT></div> <bR> <div>     So now we know that an <I>overcomer  </I>is also someone who has been <I>overcome</I>.</div> <bR> <div>     Have you been overcome?</div> <bR> <div>     Prove it.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" > * </FONT><B>God obviously does not really </B><I><B>rent  </B></I><B>anybody.  That is just the way false Christians approach the relationship</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" >.</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_28"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="434" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 173 ><NOBR><div> <B>1 Corinthians 14:5</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Now I wish you all spoke in tongues, </div> <div> but even more that you should prophesy; </div> <div> for he who prophesies </div> <div> is greater than he who speaks in tongues, </div> <div> unless he interprets, </div> <div> so that the church may receive edification. </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Paul said that he wished that all the Corinthian Christians had the gift of tongues.</div> <div>     Why would Paul wish that?  When we think about it, that is a rather strange wish.  He had taken a whole chapter earlier* to say that no one could have a spiritual gift just for the asking:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>1 Corinthians 12:18</B></FONT>  But now <U>God set</U> the members, each one of them, in the body, even <U>as He desired</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     The Holy Spirit distributes the various spiritual gifts <I>as He wills</I>.  He does not consult us first.  He does not confirm with us afterwards.  He knows what gift we need to fit us beautifully into the Body of Christ.</div> <div>     The Corinthians apparently had an overblown esteem for the gift of tongues.  Paul spends most of <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1 </FONT>Corinthians <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >14 </FONT>showing them the <I><B>superiority </B></I>of the gift of prophecy because of its ability to instruct the church.</div> <div>     So, again, why would he say he wished they could all speak with tongues?</div> <div>     For one thing, there is a mild rebuke implied.  He is implying that some of the Corinthians speaking in tongues might <I>not  </I>have been doing so by the Holy Spirit.  Since, apparently, quite a few of the Corinthians were speaking in tongues, Paul seemed to conclude that the Holy Spirit had not distributed the gift that widely.  Tongues were less important that any gift Paul could name:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>1 Corinthians 12:28</B></FONT>  And God has appointed in the church <U>first</U> apostles, <U>second</U> prophets, <U>third</U> teachers, <U>then</U> miracles, <U>then</U> gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of <U>tongues</U>. </div> <bR> <div>     A big hubbub about tongues, then, was out of place, at least compared to other gifts.</div> <bR> <div>     But the real point is that Paul's <I>wish </I>for the Corinthians to have a gift did not equate to God's <I>will </I>for them having it.  Listen to what Paul had said earlier about the 'gift' of celibacy (not a spiritual gift, but still a gift or ability from God which some are given and others aren't):</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>1 Corinthians 7:7</B></FONT>  <U>I wish</U> that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. </div> <bR> <div>     So Paul said the exact same thing about celibacy as he did about tongues.  He <I>wished </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>that all the Corinthians, or at least all of them who wanted it, could have it.  But does that mean that he really thought that they <I>could </I>or <I>should </I>have it?  No.  He was merely acknowledging that all God's gifts were great blessings, and, if bestowed, would be a great benefit.  Paul could only leave the bestowing of it in God's hands, though.</div> <bR> <div>     Strangely, in our day, the gift of tongues is clamored after again.  The church has had no inordinate desire for the gift for nearly two thousand years after the Corinthians' misjudgment.  The Holy Spirit is still distributing gifts <I>as He wills</I>.  </div> <div>     The gift of tongues, though a great gift, is still lowest in the overall list of gifts.  And not all the <I>gifts </I>put together equal one ounce of the spiritual <I>fruit</I>, love (<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1 </FONT>Corinthians <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >13</FONT>).</div> <bR> <bR> <div> *<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Bell MT" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Bell MT" ><B>A chapter in our Bibles, that is; chapter divisions were added much later.  All Bible books were written without chapter divisions or even paragraphs</B></FONT>.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_29"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="434" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 87 ><NOBR><div> <B>Proverbs 14:10</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> The heart knows its own bitterness, </div> <div> and a stranger does not share in its joy. </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     We are each looking out from our own isolated fortress into the wide world around us, including the domains of others.  Their castles are as impenetrable to us as ours is to them.  Each man's experience is truly his alone.  Others may go through essentially what I go through, for "human" is stamped on each of us from the same original; but my particular mixture of joys and sorrows is mine alone.</div> <div>     Each of us has six different kinds of perception from our little lookout turrets.  These make up our participation in all that is around us and within us.</div> <div>     We each have:</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1</FONT>)  Self-perception.  That is how we perceive ourselves.</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2</FONT>)  Other-perception.  That is how we perceive others.</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >3</FONT>)  Self-perception through others.  That is how we think <I>others </I>perceive <I>us</I>.</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >4</FONT>)  Other-perception through ourselves.  That is how we imagine <I>others  </I>think <I>we </I>perceive <I>them</I>.</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >5</FONT>)  God-perception.  That is how we perceive God.</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >6</FONT>)  God-inspection.  That is how we think <I>God </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>considers <I>us</I>.</div> <bR> <div>     God's <I>actual </I>inspection of us uses ALL the other means of our perception AND searches beyond them:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Proverbs 20:27</B></FONT>  The <U>spirit of man</U> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>is</I> </FONT>the lamp of Jehovah, <U>searching</U> all the inward parts of the belly. </div> <bR> <div>     God uses all our kinds of perception to search us out.  It doesn't matter whether we consciously include Him in the process or not.  In fact, we <I>cannot </I>include Him to the actual extent of His inspection; His gaze is too deep and comprehensive.</div> <div>     God's use of our perception to search us is why Jesus could say:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Matthew 7:2</B></FONT>  For with whatever judgment <U>you judge</U>, you <U>shall be judged</U>; and with whatever measure you measure out, it shall be measured to you again. </div> <bR> <div>     Our perception becomes our personal standard.  God says that whatever measuring stick we hold up to others, He will hold it up to us.  How we look at others will be how God 'looks' at us.  Therefore, our various perceptions are extremely important.</div> <bR> <div>     Here is an example of how all our perceptions work together:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Luke 18:11</B></FONT>  The Pharisee stood and prayed within himself in this way: God, I thank You that I am <U>not as other men</U> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>are</I></FONT>, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. </div> <bR> <div>     Here we see the Pharisee's self-perception:  that he is a righteous man.  We see his other-perception:  that others are his inferiors.  We can glean something of his self-perception through others:  that he is confident that most others thought him good.  His other-perception through himself is probably little concerned with how the tax-collector regards his (the Pharisee's) outlook; the Pharisee is only concerned that his own evaluation <I>is  </I>correct.</div> <div>     The Pharisee's God-perception is that God sets certain standards which men must meet.  The Pharisee's God-inspection, then, sees God approving of him for meeting that standard.</div> <div>     Jesus is letting us know that the Pharisee's perceptions are all askew.  He sees everything wrongly.  This is in keeping with Jesus' teaching:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Matthew 6:22, 23</B></FONT>  The lamp of the body is <U>the eye</U>. Then if your eye is <U>sound</U>, all your body is light.  But if your eye is <U>evil</U>, all your <U>body is dark</U>. If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! </div> <bR> <div>     Your "body" = the whole you.</div> <div>     So we see that '<I>how </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>you see is <I>what </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>you are.'</div> <div>     We also see how important our view of other people is.  All our perceptions are coming from one set of 'eyes'.  Our view of God is coming from the same spiritual source as our view of people.  If we minimize people, we cannot be exalting God.  All our perceptions stand or fall together.</div> <div>     Hopefully, this is scary stuff for the doctrinally astute who are all about 'standards'.</div> <div>     Hopefully, it's scary stuff for any of us who 'look down our noses' at any other group or individual.</div> <div>     If our eye is "sound" (Greek, "folded together, unified"), a correct theology (view of God) causes a low self-esteem (view of self:  "I'm a sinner") and, thus, a compassionate view of others.</div> <div>     If our eye is "evil" (Greek root word, "toil", implying that our vision is strained from being inconsistent), we start with a wrong view of God, must therefore justify ourselves in our own view, and hence cannot rightly relate to others either.</div> <bR> <div>     Yes, when we go to the spiritual eye doctor, we end up jumping up on the table for a transplant, eyes and all.  (Does that spiritual pancreas come in any other shade?)</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_30"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="361" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 130 ><NOBR><div> <B>John 3:12</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> If I tell you earthly things, </div> <div> and you do not believe, </div> <div> how will you believe </div> <div> if I tell you heavenly things? </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     Jesus is talking to Nicodemus in the above verse.  Nicodemus couldn't place the analogies Jesus was using alongside the spiritual realities they illustrated.</div> <div>     The things of the Kingdom of Heaven do not make sense to the natural mind.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>1 Corinthians 2:10</B></FONT>  But God <U>revealed</U> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>them</I> </FONT>to us <U>by</U> His <U>Spirit</U>, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. </div> <bR> <div>     A very common way men approach spiritual things is to <I>mix </I>and <I>equate </I>them with natural things.  In fact, this would appear to be the most prevalent way men handle gospel elements:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>2 Corinthians 2:17</B></FONT>  For we are not as <B>the many</B>, <U>peddling the Word</U> of God</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> Colossians 2:20</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  If then you died with Christ from the <U>elements of the world</U>, why, as </FONT><I>though</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >living in </FONT><I>the</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >world, are you subject to </FONT><I>its</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >ordinances:  touch not, taste not, handle not ...?</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> Galatians 5:7</B></FONT>  You were running well. Who <U>hindered you</U> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>that</I> </FONT>you do not obey the truth? </div> <bR> <div>     And the list could certainly go on.  "The many" in <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2 </FONT>Corinthians <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2:17</FONT> above can also be translated "the majority".  MOST professing gospel ministers in Paul's day were fakes!  -sincere fakes, but fakes nonetheless.  They brewed up a gospel using the elements from the real gospel that appealed or made sense to them, then they went with their <I>natural </I>understandings for the rest:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Jude 1:10</B></FONT>  But what things they do not know, they speak evil of these. And what things they <U>understand naturally</U>, like the animals without reason, they are corrupted by these. </div> <bR> <div>     The things the false teachers 'spoke evil of' in the verse above were the devil and demons (see the two verses right before it)!  Wow!  It would seem <I>more </I>spiritual to speak evil of the devil!  But Jude says that such an approach is more like a wolf pack than a church.  Even the archangel Michael withheld evil speech when contending with Satan:</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Georgia" ><B>Jude 1:9</B></FONT>  But <U>Michael</U>, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, <U>dared not</U> bring against him an <U>abusive</U> condemnation, but said, "May the Lord rebuke you!" </div> <bR> <div>     Hence, many who appear to go 'toe-to-toe' with Satan in our day may simply be using gospel truths to express their <I>natural </I>fighting instincts!</div> <bR> <div>     The whole Bible is a new 'language' we must learn.  Any place where we hop off, thinking we've learned enough to generalize the rest, will strand us in hopeless ignorance.  The only way we can be <I>sure </I>our conclusions are <I>spiritual </I>rather than <I>natural </I>is to verify our conclusions and then re-verify them with Scriptures and more Scriptures.  </div> <div>     When we have made our best airtight case, it will still have leaks.  But if we haven't even bothered to make the clearest, most complete Scriptural defense of a point possible, our bucket is imaginary, and its contents fantasy.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv]vzv</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="aug_31"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="441" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 151 ><NOBR><div> <B>Ephesians 4:28</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Let him who stole steal no more, </div> <div> but rather let him labor, </div> <div> working with <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Georgia" ><I>his</I> </FONT>hands the thing which <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#808080" FACE="Georgia" ><I>is</I></FONT> good, </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >so that he may have </FONT><I>something</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >to give </FONT></div> <div> to him who needs.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     The thief who becomes a Christian must operate by 'The Replacement Principle'.  He must replace his former habit with a new one.  Before, he <I>took  </I>from others.  Now he must work to <I>give </I>to others. </div> <div>     Each of the last five of the Ten Commandments describes a particular slight against our neighbor.  Murder, adultery, theft, slander, coveting- each of these is carried out by someone who has lost respect for his neighbor.  We might even say that we failed to recognize our neighbor.  Our neighbor had to become a non-entity or a non-human in our eyes for us to perpetrate a crime against him.  This is how we treated our neighbor <I>before</I>.</div> <div>     There is therefore a positive regard implied in the last five commandments.  To keep from sinning against our neighbor, we must <B>regard him as a human being</B>.  This, of course, is not saying we must recognize the difference between a human and an animal or a human and a plant.  It is saying that we must recognize ANOTHER human <I><B>as </B></I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT><I>human </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>as OURSELVES.  With this perspective, I can see that there are things that belong to me; so there are things that belong to my neighbor.  <I>My </I>belongings should not be taken from me; therefore, <I>his </I>belongings should not be taken from him.*</div> <bR> <div>     Joseph in Egypt, for instance, recognized Potiphar's humanity by not 'taking' his wife sexually.</div> <bR> <div>     On the other hand, Absalom stole hearts which should have remained loyal to David (<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2 </FONT>Sam. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >15:6</FONT>).</div> <div>     Harlots steal men's souls (Prov. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2:19</FONT>).</div> <div>     Even when God gives us something, we can subsequently steal it.  God gave the nations to Assyria for dominion, but when Assyria boasted as though <I>she </I>had accomplished the feat, it became theft to her (Isa. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >10:15</FONT>).</div> <bR> <div>     Sin has done a dreadful and deceitful thing in cutting us off from one another.  How can I be so blind as to not recognize you as human?  Can't I see that you're no different than I?  Yet sin has put me on my little throne to make me a king with special privileges.  I don't <I>have </I>to respect you.  I have a <I>right </I>to your property, etc.</div> <bR> <div>     Have you become a Christian?</div> <div>     Are you operating by 'The Replacement Principle'?</div> <div>     Are you actively seeking to see others in an <I>honored </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>light?</div> <div>     Would it therefore be impossible for you to take what belongs to another?</div> <bR> <div> *  <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >The ultimate reason I must respect fellow-humans, of course, is because God, their Creator, commands me to do so</FONT>.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ssvwv]vwv]vtv]vwv]vwvss</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="441" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFBF0 HEIGHT= 130 ><NOBR><div> <B>Malachi 3:8</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  </FONT></div> <div> Will a man rob God? </div> <div> Yet you have robbed Me. </div> <div> But you say, In what have we robbed You? </div> <div> In the tithe and the offering! </div> <div>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>     In the previous meditation, we considered what we owe other people by right of their humanity.  We owe them recognition of their humanity- that we would not perform against <I>them </I>acts which we know would degrade our <I>own </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>humanity.  Particularly, we are to recognize what is in the DOMAIN of our neighbor.  We steal when we violate his domain.</div> <bR> <div>     What is <B>God's</B> domain?  How might we steal from Him?</div> <div>     In the verse above, we see that the Israelites were stealing from God by withholding the tithe.  Do we still owe God the tithe (<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >10</FONT>% of our increase)?  Hebrews <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >7:8 </FONT>seems to argue the relevance of the tithe through the reception of them by the ever-living Christ.</div> <div>     In any case, consider what else is apparently in God's domain:</div> <bR> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1</FONT>)  He is owed the <I>best </I>of what we have.  When Cain and Abel made offerings to God, the only difference the Bible notes between them was that Abel offered the firstlings of his flock and the fat portions (Gen. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >4:4</FONT>).  Cain did not offer the firstfruits or the best.  Cain's offering was not accepted.  God is the true owner of our flocks, crops, and everything else.  It is a slight to offer Him back inferior (not the best) material from any of it.</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >2</FONT>)  Salvation is in God's domain.  When He determined not to rescue the Israelites in Jeremiah's day, Jeremiah was to recognize this by withholding prayer for them (Jer. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >7:16; 11:14; 14:11</FONT>).  John faces us with a similar choice when we consider a straying brother (<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >1 John 5:16</FONT>).</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >3</FONT>)  Our abilities are in God's domain.  God was angry with Moses when Moses insisted that his poor public speaking ability disqualified him from service (Exod. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >4:14</FONT>).</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calisto MT" >4</FONT>)  Our anxieties are God's property.  He lays special claim to them:</div> <bR> <div>   <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#008080" FACE="Georgia" >1 Peter 5:7</FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" >  casting all your anxiety onto Him, for He cares for you.</FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div>     It is not so much a matter of the burden we endure by holding on to our worries.  It is more a matter of our <I>sin against God</I> by not giving Him what is His.  Anxieties are an especially pernicious form of theft against God.  By clasping a worry to our heart, we are turning the worry and <I>ourselves </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BwSymbol" ><I> </I></FONT>into idols, treating them both as things stronger than God.</div> <bR> <div>     Our money; the best of all we have; our prayers for salvation, recognizing God's sovereignty in them; our abilities and service based on them; our worries- these are all in God's domain.  To withhold them from Him is theft.  The failure to think of them and actually TREAT them as His are theft.</div> <bR> <div>     Are you stealing from God?</div> <div>     Of course, the real question is:  how badly are you stealing from God?</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>