ISDAMan
06-24-00, 02:08 AM
I hope you all remember wherein I stated that I wanted to get more in depth in, this, the second series of the FNS. I liked our coverage of Romans. Still, in this series, we need to get more into the meat of the matter. For that reason, we are going to do more than just review what we have gone over. We are going to take the time to work on actual real life application of what we have gone over so far. We’ll cover several areas of life as we live it today. I can say unequivocally that, we will find that God’s Word is as relevant today as it ever was. There is no, “Yeah, But!” Times haven’t changed as much as some may think.
Personal Purity
It’s incredible that we think that we must be doing right if God is still blessing us with money and other things. To take another page from my life, there was this one particular day at work when I was quite upset with the manager. Did I have a right to be? I sure think so. Was it right to be? I think not. I could have had a much better outlook on the situation. In fact, God was good to point that out for me. While my manager had me doing something that I regarded as stupid and counterproductive to my sales, inside I was fuming. Did that change anything about what I was doing? Nope. Did being angry make it seem any less stupid and counterproductive? Nope. Then what was the use of being angry? Try reading Php 4:8 (KJV)
<FONT COLOR=BLUE>Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.</FONT>
Here’s how God pointed this out to me. I’m setting in the back office fulfilling this assignment, poorly, I might add, because of my bad attitude and not my actual proficiency, missing potential sales, in my mind, and what happens? A woman, ready to purchase, walks up to the counter requesting my assistance. I sold the woman what she wanted and then, I had to reflect. God is the one in charge. Regardless of whatever else is going on, God is still in charge! I was never the one in control over my sales. God was! He even sent me one, when I had absolutely no power of my own to produce one, to remind me of that fact. Sometimes, the blessings, that God sends, are blessings meant to bring about faithfulness and are not a reward of faithfulness. Remember that! Look for what you can learn in both blessings and hard times. Having money, fame, the world’s standards of success, and so on are not marks of personal purity. Conversely, being poor, unwanted, and destitute might be the mark of a looser as far as the world is concerned. However, where God is concerned, He gave us, in His Word, Proverbs 16:19. Now, whom are you going to believe? Will it be the world or God? If you say God, then, how about getting to know the God that you say you trust. We can see from the writer of the book in the Bible that, he was spending as much of his time as he could getting to know the worlds system. It didn’t matter to him that God said do it like this and like that. He wanted to do it his way and that’s just what he did. That’s just what I did when I decided to do my work in anger and not for the Lord. How about you? Can you say that you have spent time in your own power when you should have been taped into God’s pure source of power? Personal purity only comes from the only pure source. That source is God! Whatever it is, if you can’t see God in it, stop wasting your time with it. It will only amount to what looks to be something but is actually nothing.
To search for personal purity is to search for the value of yourself. Remember this! To God, we were so valuable that He let righteous Blood be shed in order to save us. We know this. Yet, we each build our own precious shrines to our own value so that we and others can see how great we are. Don’t do this do you? What kind of car do you drive? What kind of car are you trying to get into? Is it a vehicle that best suits the needs of your family and your service to the Lord or is it a style-mobile? How many extra thousands of dollars did you or are you willing to put as a down payment on that car that you would never dream of donating to some less fortunate than you? Why do you even have a computer? Tell the truth. What do you actually use it for? How many picnics in the park with your family have you done away with to be able to afford that computer? How many extra hours at work and away from your family do you spend so you can: have that bigger house, send your kids to the most elite private school, have that new hair weave or plastic surgery, have 205 channels of smut piped into your home that you don’t need to see, provide your kids with all the latest games and game systems, and on and on? Luxuries are fine. Have them if you can and if God blesses you with them. Never the less, you’d better realize that they are just stuff. These things are not the mark of your value. The mark of your value is the price Jesus Christ paid. The mark of your value is seen in the effort Satan puts in trying to turn you away from God. The mark of your value is in the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in His children that trust in the Savior He sent. The mark of your value is the plan that the Father designed to redeem you. The mark of your value is in the work God has ordained for your life. I can assure you that your value does not include things like amassing untold sums of money, deep relationships with ungodly people, pouting, self-pride, and indulgence in pornography and fornication. God has promised a reward to His faithful children that God will construct in the eternal. My wants and desires are no different than your own. Just because I write this FNS, it doesn’t mean that I don’t go through the same things that you do. That’s one of the reasons that we are instructed to join together. Not only can we not do it of our own power, we also can’t do it alone. God values me. God values you. He has brought us together to grow in Him. Now, let’s act like we’re worth something. See Col 3:16, Romans 12:1-21, and James 4:1-10.
I’ll stop here for this week’s FNS. In the next, we’ll get a more in depth look together at some common and key areas of actual application of things we have learned from these first four chapters.
With Love,
ISDAMan
Personal Purity
It’s incredible that we think that we must be doing right if God is still blessing us with money and other things. To take another page from my life, there was this one particular day at work when I was quite upset with the manager. Did I have a right to be? I sure think so. Was it right to be? I think not. I could have had a much better outlook on the situation. In fact, God was good to point that out for me. While my manager had me doing something that I regarded as stupid and counterproductive to my sales, inside I was fuming. Did that change anything about what I was doing? Nope. Did being angry make it seem any less stupid and counterproductive? Nope. Then what was the use of being angry? Try reading Php 4:8 (KJV)
<FONT COLOR=BLUE>Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.</FONT>
Here’s how God pointed this out to me. I’m setting in the back office fulfilling this assignment, poorly, I might add, because of my bad attitude and not my actual proficiency, missing potential sales, in my mind, and what happens? A woman, ready to purchase, walks up to the counter requesting my assistance. I sold the woman what she wanted and then, I had to reflect. God is the one in charge. Regardless of whatever else is going on, God is still in charge! I was never the one in control over my sales. God was! He even sent me one, when I had absolutely no power of my own to produce one, to remind me of that fact. Sometimes, the blessings, that God sends, are blessings meant to bring about faithfulness and are not a reward of faithfulness. Remember that! Look for what you can learn in both blessings and hard times. Having money, fame, the world’s standards of success, and so on are not marks of personal purity. Conversely, being poor, unwanted, and destitute might be the mark of a looser as far as the world is concerned. However, where God is concerned, He gave us, in His Word, Proverbs 16:19. Now, whom are you going to believe? Will it be the world or God? If you say God, then, how about getting to know the God that you say you trust. We can see from the writer of the book in the Bible that, he was spending as much of his time as he could getting to know the worlds system. It didn’t matter to him that God said do it like this and like that. He wanted to do it his way and that’s just what he did. That’s just what I did when I decided to do my work in anger and not for the Lord. How about you? Can you say that you have spent time in your own power when you should have been taped into God’s pure source of power? Personal purity only comes from the only pure source. That source is God! Whatever it is, if you can’t see God in it, stop wasting your time with it. It will only amount to what looks to be something but is actually nothing.
To search for personal purity is to search for the value of yourself. Remember this! To God, we were so valuable that He let righteous Blood be shed in order to save us. We know this. Yet, we each build our own precious shrines to our own value so that we and others can see how great we are. Don’t do this do you? What kind of car do you drive? What kind of car are you trying to get into? Is it a vehicle that best suits the needs of your family and your service to the Lord or is it a style-mobile? How many extra thousands of dollars did you or are you willing to put as a down payment on that car that you would never dream of donating to some less fortunate than you? Why do you even have a computer? Tell the truth. What do you actually use it for? How many picnics in the park with your family have you done away with to be able to afford that computer? How many extra hours at work and away from your family do you spend so you can: have that bigger house, send your kids to the most elite private school, have that new hair weave or plastic surgery, have 205 channels of smut piped into your home that you don’t need to see, provide your kids with all the latest games and game systems, and on and on? Luxuries are fine. Have them if you can and if God blesses you with them. Never the less, you’d better realize that they are just stuff. These things are not the mark of your value. The mark of your value is the price Jesus Christ paid. The mark of your value is seen in the effort Satan puts in trying to turn you away from God. The mark of your value is in the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in His children that trust in the Savior He sent. The mark of your value is the plan that the Father designed to redeem you. The mark of your value is in the work God has ordained for your life. I can assure you that your value does not include things like amassing untold sums of money, deep relationships with ungodly people, pouting, self-pride, and indulgence in pornography and fornication. God has promised a reward to His faithful children that God will construct in the eternal. My wants and desires are no different than your own. Just because I write this FNS, it doesn’t mean that I don’t go through the same things that you do. That’s one of the reasons that we are instructed to join together. Not only can we not do it of our own power, we also can’t do it alone. God values me. God values you. He has brought us together to grow in Him. Now, let’s act like we’re worth something. See Col 3:16, Romans 12:1-21, and James 4:1-10.
I’ll stop here for this week’s FNS. In the next, we’ll get a more in depth look together at some common and key areas of actual application of things we have learned from these first four chapters.
With Love,
ISDAMan