Tag: obeying

35.b. “Passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind”

 

 

Genesis 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

 1 Samuel 15:22    And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

 Ephesians 2:1-6   And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

 There was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so called because there was a positive revelation of the will of God about this tree, so that by it man might know moral good and evil. What is good? It is good not to eat of this tree. What is evil? It is evil to eat of this tree. In these two trees God set before Adam good and evil, the blessing and the curse. God has put certain boundaries and restrictions in place for our benefit. Yet there is a lie that the enemy has tried to whisper into our ears since the beginning of time: obedience to God leads to misery. You see, we have this idea that the freedom to do what we want to do leads to happiness, while obeying God leads to unhappiness. Deep down, we think God is some cosmic killjoy, and the reason He gives us boundaries for our behavior is to restrict our happiness. We think these rules, these standards of behavior, really are for God’s benefit rather than for ours. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The reason God has given us certain restrictions even though we live under grace is not for His benefit but for ours. There are boundaries that are given for our benefit, not for our detriment. What kind of Holy Creator would remove all barriers and standards for behavior? Satan.  What motivates people to live as close to the edge of disobedience as possible?

106. Warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice.

1 Samuel 15:22  “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Psalms 51:16-17     For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Proverbs 21:3    To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Isaiah 1:17    learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

Jeremiah 7:22-23     For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.  But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’

Hosea 6:6    For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Micah 6:6-8     “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Ecclesiastes 5:1      Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.

Jeremiah 11:7    For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice.

God is clear about obedience. Obey My voice, I desire steadfast love and knowledge of God, love justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God, draw near, guard your steps, broken spirit and contrite heart.  He says obedience is far and above sacrifice.  So how do we know if we are being obedient?????  This is a good question to ask and a good question to answer.

To understand how to be obedient we should know how God speaks into our life.  He speaks through His word.  Hebrews 4:12; “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” He gives the Holy Spirit to indwell those who believe in, trust in, cling to, and rely on Jesus Christ. John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” And He speaks through what He has shown and continues to show us Romans 1:19  “For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

His word brought our heart and mind to the place of knowing sin, repentance, and forgiveness so that may know we have been saved from the judgment of sin and have been given eternal life through Jesus Christ.  This is given to all who believe and is rightly called being born again.  Born not of flesh and blood but of God.  John 1:13 “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”   

The first step of obedience has 4 parts, first is belief,  second confessing sin, third is repentance, fourth is trusting in/relying on/clinging to Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made on the cross. This initial act of obedience led to a new birth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

A life of obedience is a desire/choice to listen, a desire/choice to follow, a desire/choice to act/obey.  There is little chance of obedience when there is little desire for His word in your life.  There is little chance of being influenced and directed by the indwelling Holy Spirit when there is little desire for His word in your life.  We cannot honor Jesus Christ without desiring to be obedient.  Without His word and a deep desire to know, understand, and humbly serve, honor, follow, and obey Him we deceive ourselves into thinking we are obedient.  His word is to be the bread of life, living water, and the air that we breathe.  I fear our society/culture has influenced us to the point we cannot see that we are starving, dehydrating, suffocating, and either dead or close enough to being dead that the depth of His word has no place in our heart, mind, and soul, and the understanding of obedience has been diluted to non-existence.

An obedient life must have a continual daily desire to be in, listen too, and act on His word for the sole purpose of humbly serving, honoring, glorifying, following, and obeying Jesus Christ.  Live obediently. Seek and desire His word each day with a heart seeking to honor Him.

60. I did not speak in secret

Deuteronomy 30:11   “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Isaiah 45:19    I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right.

Romans 16:25-26     Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages  but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—

Colossians 1:26-27     the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.  To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Can His word be so close to our heart and so familiar to our soul that it can not be understood or not be put into practice?  NO!  I wonder how it is possible to spend day after day, and week after week, and possibly month after month without more than a glance at His word when we know of the blessings and curses that come from either obedience or neglect.  Have we watered down His word so much that following it only requires a showing up in Church a few times per month and speaking to God is dialed back to only when something troubling is happening.   

His word would tell us that we can comprehend it, we can understand it, it is revealed to us, it is not far off, and it is brought to the very door of our heart, mind, and soul.   However, it does no good in the heart, soul, and mind of anyone who does not cherish it or read it, or seek it, or desire it, or want to obey it.  Neglects and complacency are not excuses, they are a choice.

49. I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse

Deuteronomy 11:22   For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.  “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

Deuteronomy 30:20    loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days,

Isaiah 3:10    Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

Luke 11:28     But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

John 13:17    If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

A blessing and a curse.  Who would intentionally choose a curse?  Who would say I want to have no peace, no satisfaction, no protection, no hope, no purpose, no future, no meaning, no joy, no rest ……???  I have to think the number who would say this is small.  But still, this is how they walk through life.  If they did not intentionally choose it how does it come to pass?

The curse is the outcome when the blessing is not sought.  Blessings come when there is an intentional choice and continual pursuit to serve, honor, follow and obey God.   Blessings come when we choose to trust in, cling to, and rely on God.  When things look like there is no way out we can choose to go it alone or we can place it in God’s hands and trust Him completely.

As I write this I am so convicted on how I let certain things worry me, cause doubt, affect my outlook…..God does not change and is able to do more than I can imagine.  So why do I walk in a time of testing and allow worry, doubt, and anxiousness to rule.  Could it be that I am choosing the curse of them over the blessings of God?  Faith, Trust, Hope are all rooted in God through Jesus Christ and if they are intentionally desired, sought after, and cherished the voids we find created by worry, doubt, and anxiousness have no place to take rood even though these seeds may have been planted by the circumstance we face.  Faith, trust, hope are blessings from God through Jesus Christ.

Faith Praise

“giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Psalms 113:1  Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD!  Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore!  From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised!  The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!  Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high,  who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,  to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.  He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!

Psalms 103:20-21   Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!

Psalms 134:1    Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD!

Psalms 135:1-3     Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD, give praise, O servants of the LORD,  who stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God!  Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant!

Psalms 145:10    All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!

Revelation 19:5     And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”

Exodus 15:11     “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

Isaiah 40:25     To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

Jeremiah 10:6    There is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.

Luke 1:52-53     he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;  he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

James 2:5    Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

Being mindful of what God has done, is doing, and will do ought to bring praise to our lips and faith to our heart, mind and soul.  God is in control and His plans and purposes for each of our lives.  He gives us free will (choice) to humbly serve, listen intently to whispers of His leading, faithfully follow and obey and to be used by Him.  Praise grows within our heart and mind as we yield more and more to Him.  It is easy to praise Him in good times.  In tougher times, when our heart is broken, relationships are stressed, and consequences of our sinful nature overbear us, praise seems to be buried deep and far way from our lips.  Many times David has stated in the Psalms how his heart was broken, situations were over bearing, and his friends had abandoned him.  In these Psalms he cried out with these burdens and yet finished with – Praise to God for who He is, for His love, for His power, for His might, for His salvation, and for His promises.  This is where overbearing burdens of this life turn into “Faith Praise”.  This is where the heart, soul and mind, in faith, fully trust, yield, and place whatever the situation is into God’s hand.  There is no other place to find peace for our soul than fully in His care.

Good news, happiness, salvation

“ My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.”

Psalms 96:2  Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.

Psalms 72:17-18    May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!  Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

Psalms 103:1-2    Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

Ephesians 1:3    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Revelation 5:13     And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

Psalms 103:20-22     Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!  Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!  Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!

Psalms 145:1    I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.

1 Chronicles 29:20     Then David said to all the assembly, “Bless the LORD your God.” And all the assembly blessed the LORD, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and paid homage to the LORD and to the king.

Isaiah 52:7-8    How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”  The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.

Romans 10:14-18    How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”  But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.  But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

Great verses today extolling us to worship and give honor to God through Jesus Christ.  When we think about creation and the magnitude of everything on earth and in space our mind can not comprehend the awesomeness of God, who spoke all of this into being.  Think about this, at His word earth and everything on and in it was formed.  At His word space and galaxies were formed.  Laws of physics we are still trying to figure out He spoke into existence.  Angels in heaven worship Him.

When it comes to blessing and worshipping God, we can do this in heart mind and soul.  He is ever in our thoughts and actions.  We purpose to live according to our increasing knowledge and understanding of Him through His word.  Humbly we serve, honor, follow and obey.  As well let us not lose sight of “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” and “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation”  Speaking of His might, power, strength, love, salvation, holiness, steadfastness with awe and reverence is something I think pours out of a repentant, thankful, and humble follower.