ISDAMan
07-08-00, 01:41 AM
KJV
1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. 2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. 3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
NLT
1 As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don't be a fool who doesn't realize that mindless offerings to God are evil. 2 And don't make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven, and you are only here on earth. So let your words be few. 3 Just as being too busy gives you nightmares, being a fool makes you a blabbermouth.
Well, as usual, God’s Word is not pulling any punches. At this very moment, who is the head over your life? Is it Jesus? Is it really? When He wishes to examine what you claim is His, what will you be able to offer Him? Will it be your several hours per day in prayer? Will it be your consistent attendance and service in church? Will it be a life of basically clean living? What will you present? I mean not to dash anyone’s dreams against the rocks. Still, I must say this. You can have the most spectacularly upright lifestyle and all of the seemingly most righteous success in the world, such as the writer of this book had, and you could still have nothing but evil to offer God! God is not impressed by the matter of what you’ve got to offer. He wants to see the mindset and the state of your heart behind the offering. What is your basis of thinking behind all the things that you do? As usual, I ask, can you go to the Bible and prove the basis upon which you live your life? If you can’t then, let me warn you that, whatever is not of God is of Satan. If it is of Satan and you offer it to God, you are in sin in that you have partaken in Satan’s ways and have the audacity to try to pass it off to God as good. Now, I know that some of us are, at this very moment, thinking, “I would never do that.” or, “I thank God that those days are behind me”. Christian, it’s not as far from you as you might think. How many of you with children love your children and feel you would never willingly do anything to harm them? Is it safe to say that all here with children feel that way? Well, when your child (or perhaps your employee or those you manage) does something wrong that makes you mad, do you act a fool and curse, yell, and slam things around? Are you going to discipline your child while having no discipline of your own and then have the nerve to claim that you are raising your children to the Lord? Prove that in the Bible! God doesn’t want your second rate junk! Let’s look in the pocket too. Do you think its o.k. to give $500 to the church building fund when there’s a family of six, in the church, living day to day in fear of being kicked out on the street at any moment? The church building could be a cardboard box out back behind 7-11 for all God cares! It’s His people that are His church. Offer that money to the building you call God’s and you offer it in vain! Discipline your child like that and you whip him with the lashes of Satan and not of Love. That is why, when you enter the house of God, where God’s presence is, which is “Always” for the Christian, you need to stop and take time to take in the things of God. God has done all He needs to do in order to reveal Himself to us. If we would just stop trying to spew out the depths of our own hearts and try taking in the depths of the thoughts of God, we would be able to make every offering we make to God a righteous one. BTW this is just another fantastic time for a commercial for reading the Proverbs. Do you know what’s in the recesses of your heart? What comes out of you is what is in your heart. That is what God is looking for in you. When He looks at you, He want’s to see Him in your heart and in the good works that you do. He doesn’t care to see you asserted to the pinnacle in your own heart. He didn’t save you so that you could take the top spot and all the while claim that you’re living for God. I’m sure that this writer found out a great deal about the emptiness of trying to be Mr. Faithful Churchgoer and, in reality, being so far bent away from God. Some of the things we do and then claim that it’s for God are no better than a man that beats his wife and then claims that he only does it because he loves her. That kind of love a woman doesn’t need and neither does God need a servant that would try to pass off a stone as bread. Now, if you feel under conviction about some things in your life, that’s great!. Get them out to God. Never the less, heed the warning here in this passage. Don’t go making rash promises to God that you have no power to keep. Let’s say you’ve been claiming to use your computer for God and you still slip off from time to time to check out porn on the net. Don’t all of a sudden promise God that, if you ever do it again, you’ll smash your computer, rip all the wires out of the wall, throw away the t.v., and go be a missionary. All those things might be good things but, if you didn’t shut up and hear what God wants from you in the situation, you’ll only end up giving to God what He would not have of you. Weather you’ve got a problem or a blessing on your hands, you need to realize that God is the only one that can cash the checks you write. You’d better ask his advice on the matter first. Let’s take one more look at ourselves. Are we full of the right stuff or the wrong stuff? If we are full of the wrong stuff, we’ll be restless, our lives will be nightmares, and we won’t be able to control our own tongues and actions. If we take the time to listen to God, our living will be peace and joy and grace will take place where wrath once had power in our lives. Which sounds like the better deal to you? I know that I can see room for more quiet time in my life. What about you?
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from all sin.
1 John 1:7
New International Version
ISDAMan
1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. 2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. 3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
NLT
1 As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don't be a fool who doesn't realize that mindless offerings to God are evil. 2 And don't make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven, and you are only here on earth. So let your words be few. 3 Just as being too busy gives you nightmares, being a fool makes you a blabbermouth.
Well, as usual, God’s Word is not pulling any punches. At this very moment, who is the head over your life? Is it Jesus? Is it really? When He wishes to examine what you claim is His, what will you be able to offer Him? Will it be your several hours per day in prayer? Will it be your consistent attendance and service in church? Will it be a life of basically clean living? What will you present? I mean not to dash anyone’s dreams against the rocks. Still, I must say this. You can have the most spectacularly upright lifestyle and all of the seemingly most righteous success in the world, such as the writer of this book had, and you could still have nothing but evil to offer God! God is not impressed by the matter of what you’ve got to offer. He wants to see the mindset and the state of your heart behind the offering. What is your basis of thinking behind all the things that you do? As usual, I ask, can you go to the Bible and prove the basis upon which you live your life? If you can’t then, let me warn you that, whatever is not of God is of Satan. If it is of Satan and you offer it to God, you are in sin in that you have partaken in Satan’s ways and have the audacity to try to pass it off to God as good. Now, I know that some of us are, at this very moment, thinking, “I would never do that.” or, “I thank God that those days are behind me”. Christian, it’s not as far from you as you might think. How many of you with children love your children and feel you would never willingly do anything to harm them? Is it safe to say that all here with children feel that way? Well, when your child (or perhaps your employee or those you manage) does something wrong that makes you mad, do you act a fool and curse, yell, and slam things around? Are you going to discipline your child while having no discipline of your own and then have the nerve to claim that you are raising your children to the Lord? Prove that in the Bible! God doesn’t want your second rate junk! Let’s look in the pocket too. Do you think its o.k. to give $500 to the church building fund when there’s a family of six, in the church, living day to day in fear of being kicked out on the street at any moment? The church building could be a cardboard box out back behind 7-11 for all God cares! It’s His people that are His church. Offer that money to the building you call God’s and you offer it in vain! Discipline your child like that and you whip him with the lashes of Satan and not of Love. That is why, when you enter the house of God, where God’s presence is, which is “Always” for the Christian, you need to stop and take time to take in the things of God. God has done all He needs to do in order to reveal Himself to us. If we would just stop trying to spew out the depths of our own hearts and try taking in the depths of the thoughts of God, we would be able to make every offering we make to God a righteous one. BTW this is just another fantastic time for a commercial for reading the Proverbs. Do you know what’s in the recesses of your heart? What comes out of you is what is in your heart. That is what God is looking for in you. When He looks at you, He want’s to see Him in your heart and in the good works that you do. He doesn’t care to see you asserted to the pinnacle in your own heart. He didn’t save you so that you could take the top spot and all the while claim that you’re living for God. I’m sure that this writer found out a great deal about the emptiness of trying to be Mr. Faithful Churchgoer and, in reality, being so far bent away from God. Some of the things we do and then claim that it’s for God are no better than a man that beats his wife and then claims that he only does it because he loves her. That kind of love a woman doesn’t need and neither does God need a servant that would try to pass off a stone as bread. Now, if you feel under conviction about some things in your life, that’s great!. Get them out to God. Never the less, heed the warning here in this passage. Don’t go making rash promises to God that you have no power to keep. Let’s say you’ve been claiming to use your computer for God and you still slip off from time to time to check out porn on the net. Don’t all of a sudden promise God that, if you ever do it again, you’ll smash your computer, rip all the wires out of the wall, throw away the t.v., and go be a missionary. All those things might be good things but, if you didn’t shut up and hear what God wants from you in the situation, you’ll only end up giving to God what He would not have of you. Weather you’ve got a problem or a blessing on your hands, you need to realize that God is the only one that can cash the checks you write. You’d better ask his advice on the matter first. Let’s take one more look at ourselves. Are we full of the right stuff or the wrong stuff? If we are full of the wrong stuff, we’ll be restless, our lives will be nightmares, and we won’t be able to control our own tongues and actions. If we take the time to listen to God, our living will be peace and joy and grace will take place where wrath once had power in our lives. Which sounds like the better deal to you? I know that I can see room for more quiet time in my life. What about you?
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from all sin.
1 John 1:7
New International Version
ISDAMan