HEART COMPLETELY HIS?

2 Chron 16:9
9 "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. NASU
** Wow! Not only support us, but STRONGLY SUPPORT us! Ok, yep there is a catch…. “those whose heart is COMPLETELY His.” So I guess that would mean that if your heart is not completely His, He will not strongly support. I suppose that this would bring me to two responses…. Either I can give my heart completely to Him and be strongly supported or keep my heart to myself and not have the support of the Lord… Hmmmm…. What should I do? Lord, I fully give my heart to you.

GOTTA STOP LOVING ME SO MUCH

Phil 1:21-22
21 For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better. 22 Yet if I live, that means fruitful service for Christ. I really don't know which is better. NLT
** I just have the hardest time getting this right! Uuuuhg! The reason I live is Christ? I am just too much in the way for Christ to be first….I know I can say that Christ is first and it’s easy to preach and talk about but when it comes down to making the decision to put me on the shelf and put Him first…..THERE IS A HORRIBLE STRUGGLE IN ME! Now don’t get me wrong. I love Him more than anything except I keep finding that at times I love me more…. I don’t like it and I keep trying to change it but my flesh is so hard to kill and keep dead. So when Paul says that “dying is even better” I run into more problems because I think I love me so much I don’t want me to die so I struggle with death and dying because I don’t want to loose me! Yep, I know I’m a mess and my wife says it takes a mess to make a message. So I’ll continue to work on putting me last and Him first…. I hope you’re having a better time at it than I am.

LIVE LONG AND WELL

Eph 6:1-3
6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and mother"-which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." NIV
** This verse has been with me since I was about 8 years old. I remember every new years eve, our church would gather together until midnight and we would sing songs and eat those wonderful little quartered egg salad sandwiches and just before midnight we all would share our new years promise that we felt like God was sharing with us. This was mine. I knew that living a long life on the earth was something that I wanted and so when I found this verse I looked and saw the answer to a long well life was honor to my parents. At that point I chose never to dishonor my parents. I remember even asking my mom when I was married and struggling with some kind of sickness in my life, if I had been honorable to her and dad and she told me that I had been the most honorable child that they ever had. (they had 9). So…. This verse has always been a life saver (literally) when I felt I was doubting my health….. and another verse that goes with this one that I quote consistently is:
Heb 10:23
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. NIV

WHAT ARE YOU SEEKING OUT?

Eccl 7:29
29 "Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices." NASU
** Boy isn’t that the truth! God’s design on our lives is for us to be upright and righteous and yet we will always find a way or “device” to draw us away from it. Every generation finds something to draw us away from the upright people we are to be. Whether it be rock music, free love, down with authority, texting or a million other things that will draw us away, we will always find something that will distract us from His plan and purpose for our lives. We must seek Him every day and decide in our hearts that we will not be moved by what comes our way. We must choose to stop seeking out many devices and only seek Him!

I'M NOT BEING FED

Prov 19:24
24 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
he will not even bring it back to his mouth! NIV
** Many times as a pastor I’ve had people say to me or I’ve heard people say about other churches and pastors… “I just don’t get fed over there.” Or “I’m leaving because I don’t get fed here.” It always made me feel bad as if I just didn’t do enough or it was personally my fault that they were leaving the church. Then one day I came across this scripture and I realized the only reason these people are starving is that they are not feeding themselves. To be honest the people who usually say this kind of statement are older Christians. If anyone should be feeding themselves and not relying on the Sunday services for their feeding, it’s the mature older Christians. I totally understand when a person feels like they are done at a particular church or that God is moving them for a specific purpose to another location with their pastor’s or leaders approval but to say you’re starving when you have the word of God sitting before you every day? You’re just lazy and need to straighten up and feed yourself and others around you.