Gleanings From The Word: September 2017

Sunday, September 24, 2017

The Light of Your Own Fire

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God. But watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires. (Isaiah 50:10-11a NLT)

Have you ever been in total darkness? It can be a very frightening experience. God working his sovereign will, sometimes removes us from the light of his presence. Groping in darkness, the temptation is to build our own fires to guide our path. In doing so, we start to walk by sight rather than faith.

If we feel like God is absent, we begin to trust in our righteousness instead of that of Christ. Walking by sight, we start to fix our gaze on things on earth rather than in heaven. Gradually, we commence finding fulfillment in our worldly possessions, instead of pleasing God. Before we know it, our focus is on the temporal rather than the eternal. Matthew Henry, once said, “creature comforts are like flaming torches, short-lived and soon gone.” We fixate on our ability to create earthly treasures, only to find out it is like trying to hold water between our fingers.

Faith is counter-intuitive to the natural senses. The more you see, the more the senses are activated. Through the truth of his word (Romans 10:17 NASB) faith is initiated by the unseen God. God often takes us into darkness to open our spiritual eyes. In times where all we have on which to depend is God’s word, is when we learn whether God is faithful or not. Live by the light of your own fires, and you will never know his faithfulness.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” YWAM Publishing
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The Flesh and the Spirit

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. (Galatians 5:1 NLT).

There is a monumental struggle ensuing that will determine whether we will do things our way or God’s way. One way is through human effort and ingenuity and the other by faith. As was true in the church in Galatia, it is possible to start in the Spirit and yet to end up in the flesh.

Why is this engagement so prevalent in our Christian walk? It goes back to the son of the freewoman and the son of the slave, Isaac, and Ishmael. Ishmael, the result of human effort to fulfill God’s promise, persecuted the son of the promise (Galatians 4: 29 NLT). Those who seek to keep the law by nature have to resist those who are born of the Spirit. What was the centerpiece of this argument among the Galatians? It was circumcision. The law-keepers were saying that you can follow Christ but must have the mark of the Jew also. The Apostle Paul knew that Christ plus anything was not Christ at all. Why is works righteousness so enticing to us. The pride in our heart manipulates the flesh. We love to believe, at least in part, that our salvation is because of our goodness. Those who embrace the way of the Cross, have nothing to boast about, except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Are you seeking after the son of the freewoman or the son of the slave? Are you pursuing by faith the circumcision of the heart or that of the flesh? Seek the latter, and you will soon be back under the curse of the law.