You and Them

Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me.

 (Psalms 27:6a)

There are times when the world seems to come down all around us. Accusations and innuendoes are flying all around you. Some of them being partly true and others completely false. Occasions like these will show you with whom to put your trust.

You may be trying to do good, and the world will tell you that you are doing badly. When you are trying to do the right thing, those around you will say to you that you are doing wrong.  When you are trying to give your best, those close to you will demand even more. There does not seem to be anywhere to run, yet God is our fortress.

When we are actually doing badly, God gives us the Gospel to show us how to be good. When we really are wrong, God grants us his grace to help us to do right. When we are not giving our best, the Lord reveals to us his son, who teaches us how to do better. Whereas the world tries to revile you, God works with you to lovingly correct you.

The Devil actively seeks to distort reality, manipulate and condemn you. When someone makes you feel like there is no hope for you, this comes from the pit. God accepts you just as you are, but he loves you enough to help you be better.  God sees you not just as you are, but as you can be. Therefore, he has great hope for you.

What you focus upon, you become. If you dwell on the trash the world says about you, it will eventually bring you down. If you gaze at a kind and just God, it will transform you.

Speaking about the world, Mother Theresa once said, “It was never between you and them anyway.” It’s between you and God.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes, the author of  “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: Ken Barnes' Book Site
Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com
            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

The Heart and the Mind: Doing good things the right way

 But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon,  the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the Ark.  Then the Lord’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and he struck him dead because he had laid his hand on the Ark. So Uzzah died there in the presence of God.  (1 Chronicles 13:9-10 NLT)

 

David had good intentions.   King Saul’s did not honor the Ark of the Lord, and David did not want to do the same. Good intentions are not enough. The work of the Lord must be done not only through good means but right ones. We can follow our hearts without exercising our minds and have disastrous results.

In I Chronicles 15:13 it says, “Because you Levites did not carry the Ark the first time, the anger of the Lord our burst out against us.  We failed to ask God how to move it in the proper way.” David learned a harsh lesson on how to accomplish the purposes of God. He assumed he knew how to do it without first asking God. Self-sufficiency may be the source of a multitude of sins.

It appears to me that people in the Church today fall under two categories. Those who emphasize the truth, exercising their minds, and those who dwell on the spirit and follow their hearts. The is a need for both as Jesus said that we must worship in “spirit and truth,” but not one at the exclusion of the other. If I might paraphrase what I heard someone say; All truth (mind) and no spirt and you dry up. All spirit (heart) and no truth and you blow up. Spirit and truth, and you grow up.

God gave us a mind and a heart, and he expects us to use them both.  We can avoid experiencing problems of our own making by doing good things the right way.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes, the author of  “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:Ken Barnes' Book Site
Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com
            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Justice and Fairness

Justice will settle down in the desert and fairness will live in the orchard.
(Isaiah 32:16 NET)

As Christians, we sometimes confuse the concepts of justice and fairness. God is just but life at times is not always fair.

Ten of twelve Apostles were martyred. Were they treated fairly? They were killed just for proclaiming the truth. Justice and fairness are similar yet different concepts, while fairness is an issue seen from a temporal or a short-term perspective. Justice has eternal or everlasting benefits.

If you liken eternal life to a movie, our life on this earth is but a few frames. In those limited scenes of our earthly existence is where injustice and or lack of fairness arises. God sees the end from the beginning, and from this perspective, dispenses his justice. When God said he would give justice to all mistreated, that is what he precisely means. The Apostle Paul, when treated deceitfully, said,” For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body” (2 Corinthians 5:10 NLT). The all-seeing and all-knowing God will one day set all accounts in order. Until then, we walk by faith and not by sight and trust in the character of God.

There is one manner that we can receive justice now. Darlene Cunningham, the co-found of Youth With A Mission, was looking across the barrier between free and communist Europe. She had heard of the extreme persecution of the believers on the eastern side of the divide. She asked the Lord, “I don’t suffer as they do, where is your justice?” God spoke to her spirit, no, you don’t suffer like they do, but neither do you know me like they do. To whom much is expected, much is given, and in the most valuable form, the knowledge of God. God is not a debtor to any person.

We have all experienced injustice in varying degrees. Of course, my unjust treatment looks more significant than yours, because it is mine and not yours. At God’s judgment seat, he will reveal the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. The corresponding rewards will last throughout eternity, unlike temporal ones who always have a fading glimmer. At this point, our eyes will be opened to the big picture, and we will see that God has been unquestionably just.

Image used with permission by MIcrosoft.

Ken Barnes the author of  “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com