So Close and Yet so Far

Pre-story to set the stage. (and the crowd pulls their pillows into position ...Oh Boy, oh Boy a widdo story!)

My awesome brother Jerome, takes part in my devotional life by sending a verse a day to my Blackberry. I stop read, reread or recognize the text from memory . Lately it has been from the book of Proverbs and he sent Proverbs 23:23 (Thursday )and it read strangely on my Blackberry like this:

"But the truth and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding," Do you see anything strange here?????

I responded back with this ..."The problem is found in the slip of the text finger ... BUY not but. Check the next HLFA".

So that you are not too awe fully cornfused, the actual verse (which he re-sent today with the correction): "Buy the truth and sell it not." not BUT the truth.

What is cool about the slip up it reveals the basic reason we - don't hear the voice of God, don't see the miracles of God, and don't enjoy the will of God.

WE CONTINUALLY "BUT" THE TRUTH INSTEAD OF BUYING THE TRUTH.

The bottom line meaning of buying the truth is ...to get, acquire, create, buy, possess!!!

to get, acquire, obtain

... like God originating, creating, redeeming His people to be the possessor .......an ultimate price was paid...covered in righteousness... resulted in Life.

... Like Eve desiring to acquire knowledge and wisdom to be the possessor .......an ultimate price was paid...covered in selfishness... resulted in death.

GOD speaks and we don't buy it ..."but He couldn't mean it could He?"

reminiscent of the words of the deceiver in the garden ...but God couldn't have meant you shall surely die... He knows when you eat the fruit of this tree that you will get to be the decision maker just like Him. But He couldn't mean "You shall surely die".

Instead of fervent following after and seriously acquiring all the truth He will pour our way ... we "BUT" in disobedience ...we want to call it disbelief ...BUT really it is disobedience.

O that there were a heart in us ... that we might give all our energy to acquire His truth ...instead of BUT....

"But" is usually followed by "nothing" ...when we respond to BUT WHAT? ...so sad when He wants to give "All things" ...we will "but away" until we have nothing.
2 Corinthians 4:15
For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

BUY though, don't BUT,

HLFA,

Jeff

There is Always a Way Out!

"Character" has been defined as: "doing right by reflex".
Don't you just hate those Movies and TV shows where the camera plays the villian, and sneaks up on the hero in the shadows,( while the music is queing you but not the Hero that he is about to GET IT) and then womps him over the head with a gun or weird object that comes out of mid-air?

I just want to rip off the front of the TV screen, reach in, grab the hero and shake the living daylights into him.

"Hey stupid! Can't you see what I see?"

Then I realize this is the way most of my life rolls ...the more independent I grow from fellowship ...the further I move away from a potential rescue by a brother or sister; And the more anemic my personal ministry becomes because I put myself out of reach to rescue.

Have ever noticed that it is so much easier to sin when (you think) no one is watching.

2 Corinthians 6:14: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? Fellowship with Believers.
Ephesians 5:11: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.Fellowship in Spiritual ventures.

1 John 1:6-7 :If we say that we have fellowship with him,
and walk in darkness,
we lie , and do not the truth: Fellowship with Him NOT sin.
But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. This is the way out!

Remember, Although Character is doing right by reflex ...your fellowship has a big part in developing your character...."Love one another!"

HLFA,

Jeff

DISTORTION - Enigma

SO you think you are smart enough to fly solo?no time to pause to hear from Him, the Bible that was over there on the counter has walked away to an unknown hiding place ... Oh! there it is ... but look at the time??? How time flys and I've got so much to do.

Think you're able to sort through all the "air wave babble"Radio, TV, IPOD, Billboards, People Chatter, Gossip, Stereo "all-a-blaring Ready to rock! and still come away with pure thoughts, pure motives and reasonably pure actions?even though my mind is so cluttered with all the "crap" being jammed into my senses ...NO FILTER ...NO CONTROL ...NO SHUT OFF VALVE ... EYES AND EARS WIDE OPEN.
OPEN TO WHAT ...DEFINITELY NOT HIM ... though possibly willing and longing..... We really don't understand our terminal condition...

We have Spiritual Myopia w/ terminal distortion! 

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see through a glass, darkly * ; For at this present, moment by moment, "NOW" ...the perception of our vision is enigma-tized as one staring into a crudely polished steel mirror.... our perception without His Reception only creates more and more unanswered questions.

Web definitions for myopia  

(ophthalmology) eyesight abnormality resulting from the eye's faulty refractive ability; distant objects appear blurred

"DISTANT OBJECTS APPEAR BLURRED" ....this is the reality... we desperately need His lense ...HIS WORD... until the cure is either introduced via a trumpet or a still small voice that says "Come on Home!"

but then face to face:
now I know in part; (at best)
but then shall I know even as also I am known .

I can't do this without Him ... what about you?

HLFA,

Jeff

God Doesn't Throw Away People

Wild day to be alive!!!! ...."Because iniquity shall abound, The love of many shall wax cold" ...this is a strong prophesy... people will use people more and more UNLESS THE WORD OF GOD IS DWELLING IN THEM RICHLY ...we will be caught up in PEOPLE ABUSE too. UNLESS THE WORD DWELLS IN US RICHLY Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound , the love of many shall wax cold . Babies in garbage cans, Active kids shackled by perscription drugs, many tender minds raped by porn, the family unit stripped of dignity, humanistic dogma being pounded into students, citizens blinded by media that has been ransacked of integrity, anti-faith becoming the new religion ... people are disposable ...people are in the way ... "move over or I'll run you over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This is why parents are used by children and children are abandoned by parents and parents are dispised by children and children loath their parents and parents are abandoned by children .......on and on!

GET REAL CHILDREN OF THE LIVING GOD!!

the abuse stops with you ...in His Word? on your knees? before His throne.......daily, moment by moment ....every day a holy day ...wholly His.

WARNING .... the words you are about to read should be taken deeply to heart ...into your heart of hearts.

Those who were to be the ones with spiritual insight, those who were to infuse the truth in a way that would cause God's Love to grow in His people, THE LEADERS, THE FORTH TELLERS, drawing from the Word to draw the people closer.
LIARS
Ezekiel 13:19 KJV
And will ye pollute me among my people
for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread,
to slay the souls that should not die ,
and to save the souls alive that should not live ,
by your lying to my people that hear your lies?

Have you ever been spiritually assaulted??? Spiritually Abused? Wounded by a person representing the Word?

Jesus said,"Offenses would come!"

You may have been hurt, but the offender carries the "Woe of God."

Ezekiel 13:19 teaches that the motive for this type of abuse ... is for gain of things that perish.

1.Rise up and don't let a "crumb grabber" ruin your life.

2.Don't be an offender.

3.Don't be a liar .....

4. BE A PEOPLE LOVER for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.

God's speed to you who will live openly in love with Jesus!

HLFA,

Jeff

From the Beginning it Was Not So

In general, it has been a strange week for friends and family. Stunning medical rescues, families at odds, couples walking different directions, a constant stream of lies like flies ....everywhere a nuisance. Stupid hurtfully selfish decisions everywhere. Just painfully pitiful personal reports (as if it wasn't bad enough in our nation that we had to beat at the very core of our love and strength) one right after another. GOD, WHERE ARE YOU IN THIS?
It keeps coming like a severed artery ----Unfaithfulness ....trust issues....fear of loss....fear of the unknown ....hope started and then thrashed without remorse.... pride puffed to proportions of near explosion ... lies ...lies ...lies.

I think I have it somewhat figured out!!!!Although this story is about questions about divorce ... I'm not necessarily choosing it for that part of the context BUT let the chips fall where they may .....But I chosen it for the last line in this verse, where Jesus risks all and unveils his heart.

Matthew 19:8
"He saith unto them," (Pharisees - from the Hebrew word meaning to make distinct, clarify, distinguish, seperate,to declare ....at one time a sect of the Jews that were dedicated to distinctly declaring the Word of God, declaing it as distinctly true ....but they forgot that there was a distinct HEART behind that Word --- alot like fundamental believers of today)
"Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives:" (our hearts, not seeing His heart, will become like their hearts, "your hearts" HARD
...... HARDNESS - (Greek)Sklerokardia - Skleros: harsh, hard, stiff, rough, violent, offensive, intolerable --and Kardia: heart, seat of the emotions, attitudes, center of motives and decisions. Here is a wierd idiom from this word - "Stiff-legged-heart".
"but from the beginning it was not so." This is our Lord pleading ....you are trying not to listen .... it would be so much easier to give up, give in or what ever to make the pain go away ....even if but for a moment. Stop your ears but now you hear the thump of your impatient heart.

DON'T GIVE IN to the out side pressure that wants you to DO IT YOUR WAY and GET IT OVER WITH.....

Someone is not looking at the heart of God... either by ignorance (and it is not bliss) or by stubborn perception.

If this is getting anywhere near your heart ....fall to your knees(in your mind if that is all you are capable of) ...and listen to HIS HEART in His Word ...quit your wandering, wondering way ...His is the only WAY,

His way is the only Truth, His way is the only LIFE, His way is the only way of peace.

What ever you need ... he can supply ...trust HIM.

He sees your tears.....His heart usually goes against the tide of so-called righteous opinion.

"thy Will(desire) not mine be done".

HLFA,

Jeff