ISDAMan
07-15-00, 01:55 AM
It's great to be back for another installment of the FNS. I hope that you are all getting as much out of these as I have been. I'd just like to quickly let you know that I have set up a new message board where everyone can get together and post discussions about the things of God. I'm still testing it all and I'll let you know when I'm ready to open it up to the public. At any rate, the new website is www.nailscarred.net. (http://www.nailscarred.net.) I've still got my church website to finish. So, it'll still be a bit before I can start to make some real progress here on this site. Now, let's get on to the lesson for the week.
King James Version
4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
New Living Translation
4 So when you make a promise to God, don't delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him.
5 It is better to say nothing than to promise something that you don't follow through on.
6 In such cases, your mouth is making you sin. And don't defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.
7 Dreaming all the time instead of working is foolishness. And there is ruin in a flood of empty words. Fear God instead.
8 If you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and justice being miscarried throughout the land, don't be surprised! For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice only get lost in red tape and bureaucracy.
I think that it's really important to take some time to seriously look into this matter of making promises to God. When emotions are high, when the valley is as low and as dark black as it can get, and even when we think that we are unstoppable, these are the times when we like to call on God and make our most extravagant promises that we have no way of keeping to God. Did you notice that I did not say, "No Intention"? I think, for the most part; we really do intend to keep them. Yet, it's foolishness that causes us to go down that path. It's not piety. Just yesterday, there was a grease fire that was set by my sister. It made me think back to my little grease fire incident when I was just a few years older than she is now. Like most teen boys, my mind was ravaged with lustful thoughts about the opposite sex. When this fire happened to me, at that time, I determined in my heart, and I promised to God that I would not give in to my lustful thoughts again. I felt that God was dealing with me and that I needed to settle something with Him. That's Great! There's nothing wrong with that. The only problem is that I didn't know about verse two. The words of my promise were many and I was not aware that the spiritual check I was writing, I could not cash on my own. You see, even while in prayer, I had left God out of the equation. Surely, not dwelling on lustful thoughts was a good goal to set in my heart. Never the less, as it was that I was not tapping into the power source of God, which is God, to get both my marching orders and my sustenance, I ended up at the inevitable. I fell back on my word! I fell short of the mark! I only ended up with a broken heart, a downtrodden spirit, a feeling of being lost and alone, and a hindered relationship with God. Let me warn you not to make too much out of the good things that you do. God is interested in the "why for's" of your heart when it comes to your actions. Now, not only should you make your promises wisely, you should also get to it right away and stick with it once you have started. Oh, and don't think that you can beat God on a technicality. I can tell you this. Two paychecks ago, I told God that I'd spend $50 on some things for some missionaries once I cashed the check. Well, two weeks came and went and I had forgotten my words. I eventually did get what I set out for. Do you know what though? Time that I could have spent sooner blessing someone else and being blessed by God, I spent having to be reminded by God of my own words. Where's the joy in that? I would much rather have been on the receiving end of more of God's blessings than His reminder notices. Do you know what else? When I finally did go, I was in the Sports Authority and I got to talk just a bit with a gentleman there about what I was looking for and why and that led to an opportunity to share my faith and invite him to church. Who knows how much sooner I could have done that? God does set divine appointments and the best ones come when you are being obedient to Him. Had I said, as it is common to us all, "Well, it's just too far past.", I would never have had the opportunity to talk with that man. I'm sure that we can all look into our lives and find some sin that we are in a regular battle with. The key to victory is a daily re-affirmation of the basics that we spent so much time on in our Romans study. There's no super-complex secret code to being more righteous. There's no special ritual. There's no promise you can keep or amount of time in prayer that will move you up the piety ladder. It's up to Jesus to keep His promise. All you have to do is trust Him. Go back and trust Jesus like you trusted Him when you first accepted Christ into your heart. Get back to your first love and don't make the mistake of thinking that tacking on some new rule or changing some certain thing will do the trick. If you need something changed in you, first seek after the things of God. Not only will you be too busy working for God, to sin so much, you'll also find that He'll do the changing that you're looking for. Let me further say that you commit a sin if you are not trusting in Christ but in yourself when you take these stands without considering God. Watch out for your own ego my friend. I will crush you when you least expect it. It would be my advice to you that you talk to God like the Friend and Father that He is and keep your word always. Only, be careful what hard lines you draw in the sand. You'd best be sure that God's got His finger right there with yours when you draw that line. Don't forget that you really have no authority of your own. Seek His. He'll give you the marching orders, make the necessary changes in you to get the job done, and see to it that you have the victory. You won't fall short of the mark when God is in it. Only, don't think that just because God let you look at His playbook, the Bible, that you all of a sudden know what you're doing. "I know what I'm doing!", are some famous last words. I like what's said in verse seven about dreaming and working. Having a right relationship with God, through Christ, will produce good works. In contrast, if you think that the good works will somehow get you in good with God, what you've got is a pipe dream! This is how we make it to verse eight. Don't let the lines of communication between you and God be jammed by letting your thought, speech, and actions be routed through all sorts of rules and promises that never came from God. Jesus made it clear that the burden He'd place upon us would be a gentle one. We make our lives to be like the Pharisees in adding all of these useless "Laws" to our relationship with God. Christ would rather free us to not have to be burdened with such things if we'd only trust in Him. Let's face it. The only time that we make those bad promises is when we are not trusting Him like we should be. So, let's encourage one another to trust Christ completely. If it is that you are reading this and you know that you have not trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior or if you simply are unsure of your Salvation, don't be shy. E-mail me and I'll talk to you about how it is that you can have assurance of your Salvation by Christ. You can even call me toll free at 877-743-8557 and I'll call you back and talk with you about any concern you may have. BTW if these FNS's are doing anything for you, drop me just a quick line and let me know. It would do my heart good.
With Love,
ISDAMan
[This message has been edited by ISDAMan (edited July 14, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by ISDAMan (edited July 14, 2000).]
King James Version
4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
New Living Translation
4 So when you make a promise to God, don't delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him.
5 It is better to say nothing than to promise something that you don't follow through on.
6 In such cases, your mouth is making you sin. And don't defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.
7 Dreaming all the time instead of working is foolishness. And there is ruin in a flood of empty words. Fear God instead.
8 If you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and justice being miscarried throughout the land, don't be surprised! For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice only get lost in red tape and bureaucracy.
I think that it's really important to take some time to seriously look into this matter of making promises to God. When emotions are high, when the valley is as low and as dark black as it can get, and even when we think that we are unstoppable, these are the times when we like to call on God and make our most extravagant promises that we have no way of keeping to God. Did you notice that I did not say, "No Intention"? I think, for the most part; we really do intend to keep them. Yet, it's foolishness that causes us to go down that path. It's not piety. Just yesterday, there was a grease fire that was set by my sister. It made me think back to my little grease fire incident when I was just a few years older than she is now. Like most teen boys, my mind was ravaged with lustful thoughts about the opposite sex. When this fire happened to me, at that time, I determined in my heart, and I promised to God that I would not give in to my lustful thoughts again. I felt that God was dealing with me and that I needed to settle something with Him. That's Great! There's nothing wrong with that. The only problem is that I didn't know about verse two. The words of my promise were many and I was not aware that the spiritual check I was writing, I could not cash on my own. You see, even while in prayer, I had left God out of the equation. Surely, not dwelling on lustful thoughts was a good goal to set in my heart. Never the less, as it was that I was not tapping into the power source of God, which is God, to get both my marching orders and my sustenance, I ended up at the inevitable. I fell back on my word! I fell short of the mark! I only ended up with a broken heart, a downtrodden spirit, a feeling of being lost and alone, and a hindered relationship with God. Let me warn you not to make too much out of the good things that you do. God is interested in the "why for's" of your heart when it comes to your actions. Now, not only should you make your promises wisely, you should also get to it right away and stick with it once you have started. Oh, and don't think that you can beat God on a technicality. I can tell you this. Two paychecks ago, I told God that I'd spend $50 on some things for some missionaries once I cashed the check. Well, two weeks came and went and I had forgotten my words. I eventually did get what I set out for. Do you know what though? Time that I could have spent sooner blessing someone else and being blessed by God, I spent having to be reminded by God of my own words. Where's the joy in that? I would much rather have been on the receiving end of more of God's blessings than His reminder notices. Do you know what else? When I finally did go, I was in the Sports Authority and I got to talk just a bit with a gentleman there about what I was looking for and why and that led to an opportunity to share my faith and invite him to church. Who knows how much sooner I could have done that? God does set divine appointments and the best ones come when you are being obedient to Him. Had I said, as it is common to us all, "Well, it's just too far past.", I would never have had the opportunity to talk with that man. I'm sure that we can all look into our lives and find some sin that we are in a regular battle with. The key to victory is a daily re-affirmation of the basics that we spent so much time on in our Romans study. There's no super-complex secret code to being more righteous. There's no special ritual. There's no promise you can keep or amount of time in prayer that will move you up the piety ladder. It's up to Jesus to keep His promise. All you have to do is trust Him. Go back and trust Jesus like you trusted Him when you first accepted Christ into your heart. Get back to your first love and don't make the mistake of thinking that tacking on some new rule or changing some certain thing will do the trick. If you need something changed in you, first seek after the things of God. Not only will you be too busy working for God, to sin so much, you'll also find that He'll do the changing that you're looking for. Let me further say that you commit a sin if you are not trusting in Christ but in yourself when you take these stands without considering God. Watch out for your own ego my friend. I will crush you when you least expect it. It would be my advice to you that you talk to God like the Friend and Father that He is and keep your word always. Only, be careful what hard lines you draw in the sand. You'd best be sure that God's got His finger right there with yours when you draw that line. Don't forget that you really have no authority of your own. Seek His. He'll give you the marching orders, make the necessary changes in you to get the job done, and see to it that you have the victory. You won't fall short of the mark when God is in it. Only, don't think that just because God let you look at His playbook, the Bible, that you all of a sudden know what you're doing. "I know what I'm doing!", are some famous last words. I like what's said in verse seven about dreaming and working. Having a right relationship with God, through Christ, will produce good works. In contrast, if you think that the good works will somehow get you in good with God, what you've got is a pipe dream! This is how we make it to verse eight. Don't let the lines of communication between you and God be jammed by letting your thought, speech, and actions be routed through all sorts of rules and promises that never came from God. Jesus made it clear that the burden He'd place upon us would be a gentle one. We make our lives to be like the Pharisees in adding all of these useless "Laws" to our relationship with God. Christ would rather free us to not have to be burdened with such things if we'd only trust in Him. Let's face it. The only time that we make those bad promises is when we are not trusting Him like we should be. So, let's encourage one another to trust Christ completely. If it is that you are reading this and you know that you have not trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior or if you simply are unsure of your Salvation, don't be shy. E-mail me and I'll talk to you about how it is that you can have assurance of your Salvation by Christ. You can even call me toll free at 877-743-8557 and I'll call you back and talk with you about any concern you may have. BTW if these FNS's are doing anything for you, drop me just a quick line and let me know. It would do my heart good.
With Love,
ISDAMan
[This message has been edited by ISDAMan (edited July 14, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by ISDAMan (edited July 14, 2000).]