JustJeff

Because His people had violated two of His basic laws, having gods before Him and making graven images, God ordered Gideon to destroy both Baal and the Asherah pole. God instructed Gideon to make an altar to Him, replacing the false idols, and to offer Him a sacrifice which Gideon did. Gideon realized that he faced capital punishment by doing this, even at the hands of his own father who was the caretake of the false idols. He was fearful of this punishment and that is why he did it by night. If we had no fear of situations like this there would be a problem. Anytime we are placing ourselves in a dangerous place fear should be aroused which stimulates caution. It is that fear which will cause us to run or to step out in faith and trust God to carry us through. Gideon was exercising great faith while being cautious.

God saw Gideon as a mighty warrior while Gideon saw himself as a simple farmer. The Lord only can discern our innermost being, something that we ourselves cannot do. Because He is God He can know who we are way in advance of who we think we are to be.

Depending upon your religion, Israel broke the first and/or second commandments. They turned to idol worship. In doing this they felt the wrath of God who allowed the Amorites to oppress them. All of this happened to God's chosen because they didn't listen to His word. We are in the same situation today. America professes to be about 87% Christian but acts 100% secular in whom we allow to run the country and who we have chosen to idolize. Is there any doubt as to why we are suffering the hardships we are on so many different fronts? Not to me.

Gideon believes that God abandoned His people. Those who have turned from God to sin usually blame Him when their sin finds them out and they fall on hard times. In addition, the Israelites had again turned to idolatry and, since he was a young man, the chances are that Gideon never knew God in the first place. This is the state of affairs in America today wherein many of our young people do not know the Lord and are being raised as immoral rascals. Our God has promised to never leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5). When we blame God for our troubles it is simply a copout, denial, as pride prevents us from confronting our weaknesses. The real danger is that we can fall into apostasy and become reprobates. The best and only way to avoid this is to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and repent.

In 1 Sam 15:22 it is written that "to obey is better than sacrifice". It is expected that a disciple of the Lord Jesus would not only obey but do so in a manner that the whole world can see, that is by our witness. Grace is a free gift. The works that we do are a result of the application of that grace by our obedience.

It is really quite easy to convince yourself that you are something that you are not. During my 27 years of addiction I was convinced that I was in control when I was in fact a slave to sin. I see where some believe that by going to church on Sunday and tossing a few coins into the collection plate satisfies what they believe is needed to be a doer. Doing is a lifestyle change. Living entirely by the Word of God, heart, mind, body and soul. God gave gifts to mankind and we are to use them for His glory. Pride may result in using our gifts for vanity and power as well as the accumulation of personal wealth. It is then that we turn from the truth and live a lie and will be shocked come judgement day.

I have experienced the preaching and teaching of false prophets. Thankfully the Holy Spirit kept me in the Word which confirms itself and I was able to turn ashes into beauty. Those experiences showed me that false prophets do not understand the bible nor care to. As a result they often gather to themselves disciples of the false doctrine that they are spewing out. The end result are followers twice the children of hell than they are, which I see as bad fruit. I have a habit of making certain that what I am being told aligns with the Word. If not, it is false teaching. Many false teachings have lead to the creation of the numerous sects that we have in Christianity. There was a scene in the Jim Jones movie in which he blantantly threw the bible down during a service, saying that he no longer needed the Word. The end result of those who believed that rubish was Jamestown and over 400 suicides. Bad fruit is truly rotten.

As a full time servant of the Lord (that is I am in a ministry that is available to the destitute, poor and needy 24 hours per day, seven days a week and live amongst them as did Jesus) I am continually examining my walk. It is why I take bible studies, so that I can add depth to my understanding and become fully mature in seeing God's will for me. This is the type of commitment required to keep me on the straight and narrow. I don't trust myself to live any other way. This ministry is located in the inner city, in a residential neighborhood. We work to be a light that shines to everyone; homeless, addicts, prostitutes, thieves, and more. We have fought with the neighbors who would see us shut down and have won a tremendous victory by our witness, gaining acceptance by the grace of God. Oprah Winfrey is called the "Queen of the New Age Movement." She has become amongst the wealthyest women in the world. I have never watched her but have seen advertisements for her show. By those ads, I can only condemn what she and the New Age represent as blasphemous. The Lord has taught us that He alone is the way, the truth and the life. No one will see the Father unless it is through Him (John 14:8). All other teaching is paganism.

Jesus, as He showed us by His walk, was about compassion or, love in action. This agape love is part of His nature. We, on the other hand, are basically selfish, putting our own best interests before that of others. He taught that if we consider this and extrovert rather than introvert those selfish desires would be directed toward others resulting in compassion. In Matthew 22 I note that Jesus reminds us to love God first, with every member of our being. Doing this makes loving our neighbor as ourself a simple deed.

God wants to treat us as would any father who loves and cares for their own. He seems to desire that we demonstrate our love of Him by our faith. In turn, He gives us His very best for all of our needs. Early on I was wrongly taught that if you ask God for patience He will bring you tribulation. That was wrong. What He gave me was greater understanding and people to witness to and to teach. He is a wonderful Father. Seeing this only adds depth to my prayer life and confidence that He will comply, in His time.

Tied up into a neat little bundle this is all about faith demonstrated by persistence. To quote a song whose credits escape me: "He's an on time God yes He is. He may not come when you want Him but He'll be there right on time." I once prayed for a obstacle to be removed from my path and it was ten years before I received the answer that I had petitioned for. It turns out that that obstacle was a test for me and God was using it to prepare me for leadership in His ministry. I had become more mature as a man and as a Christian because I was able to endure not to mention how my faith grew as well.

Ask, seek, knock are all verbs, indicating that the Lord requires genuine faith in action rather than a repititious, slothful show. Ask would be requesting a specified need from God. Seek is to look for an answer while knock means petitioning Him to open a door of opportunity.

During Jesus' time dogs and swine were unclean and of no value whereas holy food and pearls were and are wholesome and of great worth. In Titus 3:10 we are instructed to walk away from a heretick after one or two admonitions. It is useless to continue to witness to someone who is convinced that you are wrong. It will only lead to an argument which is sin. Once one becomes comfortable witnessing to folks it will become easy to discern the type of response you are getting. The disciples were able to recognize those who readily received the Good News and as a result many were converted. They walked away from or, dusted the dirt off of their feet, those who were not interested. Saves us a lot of grief and adds to our prayer list.

Perhaps I'm just too serious but I don't think that Jesus saw humor when discussing the possibility of a hypocrite going to hell when that hypocrite was judging someone's little sin while he himself was engulfed with great sin. I mean, the Pharisees were of grave concern to the Lord because they were His brothers yet had become hard hearted by their religious traditions and led many the wrong way. Here comes Jesus with a new and fresh outlook, willing to die for that outlook and He has but a short time to undo years and years of false teaching. Paul taught us to be sober minded because peoples lives are at stake. Yes, there are times for humor and fun from the pulpit but when we see someone drowning I don't think we should toss them a little levity. The Lord wants us to examine ourselves as we look at others. Before we open our mouth we need to make certain that we are clear of conviction and sin. Lets not throw the rock until we ourselves are clean.

What we give is what we will receive in return. The one thing that we should know about our Heavenly Father is that He is consistant and does not change. In Romans 12:19: "Vengance is mine, I will repay...", coupled with; Deut 19:21: "eye for an eye".. and in the parable of the servant who did not treat his fellow servant as his Lord had treated Him (Matt 18:22-35) we see how He gauges His punishments and His blessings. In this manner He remains fair and equitable, not respecting one's person. Bottom line, no matter how we are treated we should give love in return. It is what our payback from the Lord is that we seek. To our silent Sister up north, thank you and may the love given be the love returned.

Guilty as charged! I have most definitly been a gossiper and backbiter and still find myself doing this at times. It is a fine line between constructive criticism and destructive critcism. I prayed that God would reveal to me this flaw in myself. I see that when I have sinned myself that I find fault with my brothers and sisters. I am trying to pass the conviction that the Holy Spirit has laid upon me on to them. It doesn't work. It just adds to my sin. I also note that as I grow in the Lord I have a tendency to look down my nose upon others. From this high and lofty position it is easy to censure folks. This leads me to conclude that it is better to correct, admonish and exort brothers and sisters who have an issue. I will need them to do the same for me one day. I believe that it is called love.

I suppose one could see the humor in letting tomorrow worry about itself as a day will do what a day does and is controlled by God. We too should let what may come if we are the Lord's. We have placed our lives in His wonderful love and worry and trust are contrary.

Seek the Kingdom of God and HIS righteousness means right now. Do it! This is to grow our relationship with our heavenly Father day by day. In so doing we feed the Holy Spirit and His kingdom grows within us. As this grows so grows our righteousness creating in us an amazing transformation from evil to good. Along the way we become responsible persons which brings material gain to us in order to survive. Oh how He loves you and me!

Nonbelievers are pagans and Gentiles so there is no faith with them other than what they put into their possessions. This is our society, based upon capitalism which puts greed and gain first. Christians ought to be living in bible-ism, always using the will of God to order our lives. From the day I turned my life over to the Lord I have a growing love which He feeds every minute of every day by His tender care of me.

I counted five instances of "take no thought" used by Jesus. His point is that excessive worry is a preoccupation of the mind. Worrying about temporal things distracts from meditating on heavenly things, our Father in particular. When we put anything before God we are sinning.

The validity of Jesus' parables are again set back in the Old Testament when God directed His people to the promised land. He would that they would soley depend upon Him to provide their needs which would not only care for them but, would have built their faith and increased their time with Him. Jesus is teaching us to put all of our cares upon Him for the same reason. It works!

As a young person money always burned a hole in my pocket and, coming from a poor family, I always wanted to have more because of my lusts. Since I wasn't earning enough to satisfy my desires I charged and charged some more which eventually lead to more debt than I could pay. The end was a disaster which caused my family great hurt. So, while I thought I was doing good (light) I was actually in (sin) because of debt and my lusts (darkness). Had I continued along this wide road I surely would have ended up in hell and the Lord is quite clear on this.

It would seem to be figurative. I know of rich people who do serve God and do so with humility and reverence to Him. Jesus told His disciples that anything is possible with God in terms of rich folks making it to heaven. I do feel that for the most part most rich people do have severe problems as to who they worship more, money or God as they tend to spend their time acquiring more wealth and idolizing what they have. By the way, you don't have to be rich to fall into the money loving trap. Jesus was addressing the average person who works endless hours to accumulate money in order to be a rich person. They have little or no time for God.

Obedience, love, prayer, fasting and living a life for the Lord come to mind when I think of laying up my treasures in Heaven. This is true wealth that will be waiting for me after this life. Whatever I accumulate materially here on earth will remain here as I came in naked and I'll go out the same way. Speaking for myself I'm not at all uncomfortable with this thought though I do at times feel I could do more to increase my heavenly riches. I guess a lack of faith would lead one to not believe this.

I believe that Jesus was being very specific here. As pointed out, beyond making certain that we have what we need to survive and live a life that He has given us why would we need to gather wealth? Today's financial woes are what they are because of that very reason. People looked at real estate and saw escalating prices and value and didn't bother to see that all was an illusion. Their greed prevented them from knowing that an adjustment was going to be made and the real value would come forth. So, here we are. People are stuck in houses they cannot afford or additional properties they can't unload. Banks are foreclosing and they too are stuck with properties destroying their liquidity. In the Old Testament God told the Jews to leave Egypt with basically what they could carry. He promised to provide for them while guiding them to the Promised land. Jesus wants to do the same today.