In the trenches, taking on grenades...

I haven't neglected the blog, just been real busy. Seems as though God is really showing me just how much work needs to be done. Just to give you guys some of what God is pressing down onto me:

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

God is really pulling up the mirror that is His word and using it to show me what it is in my life that needs changing. I post the blogs, write the devos, read the word, highlight the bible, but what is it doing to me? Is the bible highlighting my life? When I say highlight I mean two things:

1.) Highlight the change needed
2.) Highlight my life

1.) What needs to change? What in your life needs change. The law is to be obeyed. The word is to be read and done, why? Because the law is the mirror which God uses to show to us all the spots, all the blemish, all the tarnish, all the sin we have in our lives. The law exists to show filthy, wretched man, just how much he needs God. It isn't so I can highlight it with fading ink, it is so that I can write it on the tablet of my heart (Prov 3:3) and never depart from it. Cheesy I know, but so true.

We always see the rules and regs as limiting factors. I say this, what if the law isn't about restriction? What if it is about freedom? When you diet, you in essence are putting restrictions on yourself, why? Because you want to experience the freedom of healthy living, you want to experience the ability to enjoy life without worrying about preventable disease. The Word does just that. A healthy spiritual diet leads to continued growth in Christ which, what's more freeing than that? The Word is there to teach us, to stretch us, push us and pull us. It highlights what it is we need to change, then we decide whether we are going to DO all we can to change, or just hear what we ought do, but not do, just hear.

2.) What is the pinnacle in your life? What is the peak, the up, the good? What is it in your life that highlights it? Is your life highlighted by your job? Your education? Your success in ministry? Or is your life highlighted by the word? By His Love? Are you like Paul who said "To live is Christ, but to die is gain?" For you is living, Christ? Where is your heart at? Why are you doing what you do? Is your motive yourself? Your feelings? Friends? Fam? Man all these things while "permissible" aren't always "beneficial". Anything that stands between you and getting closer to Christ must be pushed out of the way.

I'm not saying push your family out of the way, or push your friends out of the way, but I am saying take the need within you that says, "I gotta have it or I'll die, I can't live without this," and toss it. You don't need anything. If you have Christ, His grace is sufficient. You stand between you and God. Get yourself out of the way and shut up. Let His love, His life, His word highlight your life. Let His word mark you up, not only so that you know what not to do, but so that you know what to do. Let what you should do highlight your life.

Many people today see Christians as the don't do's. You can't do this, you can't do that, but it goes beyond law. It isn't about law. Read Romans 7 and see what Paul is talking about. Is he saying now in Christ we are above the law, certainly not! is the phrase used in one translation. If you love Him, keep His commandments, both the don'ts AND the do's. And be sure your heart is in the right place. You can do all you want, you can live all you want, but if your heart is in the wrong place, forget it. Matthew 7:21-23 shows us that. In the end, people will come to Christ showing off what they did, but Christ doesn't care about what they did. He is more concerned with Who it was they did it for. Themselves, or Christ? If you have Christ within you, if you're all about His word and about Him, then do His commandments, and do them because you love Him, not because you love yourself...