One flame at a time...

HOW I LOVE THE WORD OF GOD! The Word of God sets my world of fire one flame at a time as it burns away at the chaff. An illustration of the power of God’s Word in the lives of those who were once lost to a world of sin. Thankfully the Lord Jesus has taken care of that! Our battle against sin is an ongoing mêlée and yet we have been given all the armour needed to survive this corrupt dying world. Even when hypocrisy plays its part in our lives, there is hope for the Christian so long as we never condone sin as the norm. What an amazing God we serve, praise be to Jesus Christ our Lord and King!

A week or so ago I was shown very clearly that our faith can be measured by our obedience to the Word of God, with our commitment to it, especially when the chips are down and to trust God’s Word in spite of our apparent circumstance. I made reference to this verse last week; “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) – A verse that shakes us to our core when things have not gone the way we had planned. Calamity playing it part in our lives teaching us to trust our God in spite of! A very valuable lesson for all! Its verses like these which builds character in our lives. It adds in strengthening our faith as we learn to take the Word of God at face value. If God has said it we will believe it!   

However I have seen another great truth that we have all be a part of, repentance plays a massive role in a believers life. Equally as important as enduring hardship we too have instruction regarding sin in our lives that only the Christian is privy too. We often find the distraction of sin playing its destructive part in our lives; it somehow creeps up on us, deceiving us in one form or another and then begins to wreak havoc if not checked. Here is some great news, so pay careful attention to it; “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:8-9)

Therefore when we venture down the wrong alleyway and darkness surrounds us and we find ourselves indulging in forbidden fruit, there is an out for the Christian, just as there is instruction for when we are hard pressed, both these types of verse are God’s Word and we must learn to embrace both with commitment. We must trust it and rely on it. Regardless of how we may have fallen, our Saviour makes intersession for each and every one of us who has been drawn by the Father and we have this privilege, no more than that! We have been given the right because of the perfect work of Calvary, which was a once and for all time sacrifice, which paved the way for the sinner setting him free and what Christ achieved on Calvary, never recurrent like the sacrifices of the Old Testament. Done and dusted and never to be repeated!

The Lord Jesus is my only true hero! Who else is able to come to our rescue like He has? We can cry out to our God and ask for forgiveness, praise His name and when we ask, “HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE OUR SINS”. You see it’s about what God is prepared to do, not what others may think in that sense; if God forgives us who can lay a charge against us? He has given us an instruction concerning sin and repentance and we must learn to appropriate it to our lives just like Romans 8:28!

We serve the most wonderful God and heavenly Father; once again I am in awe of His brilliance. I love Him so!

In light of what has just been penned, I feel that this insight from Charles Spurgeon would be good for us to appropriate into our lives and not to look for the faults of others for we have many faults of our own that needs addressing. Pay attention…

"The judging faculty is best employed at home." 

Our tendency is to spy out splinters in other men’s eyes, and not to see the beam in our own. Instead of beholding, with gratified gaze, the small fault of another, we should act reasonably if we penitently considered the greater fault of ourselves.

It is the beam in our own eye which blinds us to our own wrongdoing; but such blindness does not suffice to excuse us, since it evidently does not shut our eyes to the little error of our brother. Officiousness pretends to play the oculist; but in very truth it plays the fool.

Fancy a man with a beam in his eye pretending to deal with so tender a part as the eye of another, and attempting to remove so tiny a thing as a mote or splinter! Is he not a hypocrite to pretend to be so concerned about other men’s eyes, and yet he never attends to his own?

Jesus is gentle, but he calls that man a “hypocrite” who fusses about small things in others, and pays no attention to great matters at home in his own person. Our reformations must begin with ourselves, or they are not true, and do not spring from a right motive.

Sin we may rebuke, but not if we indulge it. We may protest against evil, but not if we willfully practise it. The Pharisees were great at censuring, but slow at amending. Our Lord will not have his kingdom made up of hypocritical theorists, he calls for practical obedience to the rules of holiness.

After we are ourselves sanctified, we are bound to be eyes to the blind, and correctors of unholy living; but not till then. Till we have personal piety, our preaching of godliness is sheer hypocrisy. May none of us provoke the Lord to say to us, "Thou hypocrite"! (C.H.Spurgeon and copied from one of Pyromaniacs posts) http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2015/01/woodworking-101.html

Signing off

Tyrone