A Scripture a Day...

James 1:23-25

"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

Talk is cheap.​

 

Note: That last bit is only implied in the original text.

 

Be sure to check out the FREEdom process. Its heart is found in Romans 12:2. This is key to the disciple's daily practice.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zqVL11JjWICOHCRUDmqXr9TNC_gpb6yhRF1hKp-fxcc/edit

 

I suppose it is @TaoJones recent post about how to love the Lord with all of your heart that got me thinking about the following verse. Currently, these words seem to be new and fresh for me, although I have heard and read them countless times.

Mark 12:30 (NAB) "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'"

It strikes me that my heart still harbors some desire for sin and thus I have not managed to achieve a state of complete love for God. However, I have also been reminded that God's messages are not complicated ones. He doesn't have a secret formula for communicating with Him that only a few can understand. In order to love Him with all of my heart, I simply need to choose to do so.

Every time I turn away, change the channel or scroll quickly by a tempting picture on my computer, I am choosing God. Each time, I choose to be patient with someone and listen to them, instead of focusing only on my own immediate plans, I am choosing God. Truly, it is not complicated, although not necessarily always easy to love God with all my heart. Yet, it seems the more frequently I make a choice for God, the easier the choices become.

 

Not easy, but dead simple. This is why even a child or someone mentally disabled can be a disciple. Christ does not require us to be PhDs in theology to follow him.

We choose in each moment and with each decision. When I find myself looking after something that I know is not God's best for me, I stop and ask: "Spirit, what lie am I still believing here? What is it I think I must provide for myself that you cannot or will not? What is the truth that, if I knew it, would set me free from this temptation?" Sometimes I have to wrestle through things for a long time. Occasionally I have breakthrough moments where everything clicks into place and I feel I have progressed deeper into the reality of the Kingdom. I am a very slow learner, I think.

I am grateful we do not need to be PhDs to know him truly.

 

Let us continue to help each other see, know and feel the incredible love of God. A God so beyond us in intellect and wisdom that He embodies the phrase "hate the sin but love the sinner". How amazing to consider how abhorrent and ugly the P business must be in God's eyes, since it reduces humans to the level of unconscious animals, but yet at the same time God loves those who perpetuate this sickness and even through their sinfulness God finds a way to bring goodness to our world through your efforts and mine. Our God is amazing to a degree beyond our comprehension.

 

I heard a chapter from the book of Sirach yesterday. This Old Testament book was written circa 125 B.C. The words in the chapter are not only a testament to the importance of controlling our gaze but more fundamentally a testament to the incredible susceptibility of man. Our susceptibility to lust has been around since the fall of Adam and Eve. We are foolish to rely on our own willpower to keep us free so we must find strength somewhere else. God's strengthening grace, love and care for our wellbeing is so vital to each moment of our lives. Please pray for me. I am praying for you.

Sirach ch 9, v8 (RSV-CE)
"Turn away your eyes from a shapely woman,
and do not look intently at beauty belonging to another;
many have been misled by a woman’s beauty,
and by it passion is kindled like a fire."

 

Recently I've been reading a book that roughly takes you through all bible stories (old and new) in one year. Since I haven't read that much of the old, except genesis and exodus (always get stuck when I'm at numbers), I was quite surprised at how many times there were stories of people sinning due to temptations. Even great people like King David and Salomon couldn't withhold there temptations, which led to sin.

 

Love this verse

 

Yes, isn't amazing to read the Old Testament and consider all of the broken lives that God used to lead His people. Abraham, Issac, David, Soloman, most of the kings of Israel, all had slips, falls and character flaws but God gave them grace and used their good and bad points to lead us to Christ. God has revealed Himself to us over centuries and although Christ was the ultimate revelation, God continues to teach us with patience and mercy.

 

Sirach 50: 22 -24 (RSV-CE)
"And now bless the God of all,
who in every way does great things;
who exalts our days from birth,
and deals with us according to his mercy.
23 May he give us gladness of heart,
and grant that peace may be in our days in Israel,
as in the days of old.
24 May he entrust to us his mercy!
And let him deliver us in our days!"

 

There is an incredibly rich degree of wisdom in this verse. Thanks for posting it!