aSacredRebel

No good

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalms 16:1-11 ESV)

What is good in us?

How does anyone do good?

If we hear and believe what the psalmist says, no one can do good apart from God. Which means everyone that does good is filled with God… We have no good without God. But when we have Him we are filled with His goodness and it over flows from us to everyone around us. He gives us a wonderful inheritance and blesses us with more than we could imagine.

So look to Him to be your portion and your cup to fill you with goodness.

Tribute To Rollie

10 things we all can do to be a success at what we do!

Most important

Examine whose life?

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. (2 Corinthians 13:5-10 ESV

How many of you hate to take tests? I know I am not all that fond of them. I get worried whether I have all the right stuff in my head, if I studied the right things. Do I remember everything I need to know.

Then after, or during, the test there is second guessing. Did I answer that question right? Was it A or was it C? Which one?

And today Paul is telling the Corinthians to make sure they are in the faith. That they have examined their lives and determined if they are following Jesus. We are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. We are to test ourselves.

Hold on. Did you hear what Paul said? He said we are suppose to examine the lives of the people we worship with, or work with and determine whether or not their lives are following after Jesus from our standpoint. Right we are to test all other people and determine if they are followers of Christ. No that is not what Paul said. He said to test yourself. Not others. We are suppose to be making sure we are following after Christ, doing what is right even when we don’t. We are to make sure our lives are right, not anyone else’s. We are not the judge of anyone’s life but our own. Christ is the judge of all, not me or you.

So test yourself, and walk in the path Jesus has set before you and allow that to be what shows His love and grace to all.

Set free, whose way?

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, (Luke 9:37-43 ESV)

O faithless and twisted generation… Wow! How do we take this? Jesus asks how long does He have to bear with us. Wo is He bearing with? The ,an asking for his son to be set free or the disciples? And why were the disciples not able to cast the demon out?

We can only speculate, as Luke does not go into it specifically. When Jesus hears the boy is held by a power and the disciples could not cast it out, He knows why, but does not tells us right out. He asks how long He has to put up with our faithless and twisted generation… Oh if Jesus were here now what would He say?

Why are they faithless and twisted? Why can the disciples not cast out the demons?

Maybe the generation is faithless and twisted and can’t cast the demons out because of the reason they are trying to cast them out. What is the reason the disciples are trying to cast out the demon? Yes the father asked them to, but are they motivated by freeing the child, or because they want the notoriety of casting out a demon? Why do we do the things we do? Is it because we are truly motivated for others to feel and receive the love of God, or because we want people to see the things we are doing and give us the credit?

You see Jesus is telling us it is not about us, and it is not our way. Jesus calls us to follow and to give everything up and allow Him to guide us and to lead us where are is taking us. It is not my way but His way that matters.

Back door friends…

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22 ESV)

Once we were far of, we were not a part of the circumcised, and were not a part of the hope…

Do you always feel like you are filled with hope?

Life comes at us hard and we it is really easy to get bogged down in the day in and day out tasks in front of us and lose track of the bigger picture. You see we have hope through the promise that God made to Abraham, in the offspring. Jesus has come and bridged the chasm that separated us from the Father. Jesus made us not strangers or aliens, but part of the family.

We are no longer people who have to knock on the door or ring the bell, but we can open the door and walk right in. We know where the key is, or the code to the garage door. We are a part, we belong. And that is the hope. When everything else in life is falling apart we have the best gift we could ever have by being accepted into the family of God. We are now all apart of the building that is, and the body of Christ…

Remember when it seems all hope is lost, remember you can always go to God’s house and walk right in the back door!

stumble..

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:18-31 ESV)

What happens when you trip over something? There you are walking down the street and your foot catches on something… Do you keep walking or do you stop and look back to see what you tripped on?

Most people will look back to see what they tripped over.

And those who think themselves wise and learned think that anything they do not understand is foolishness… We want to think that we have it all together and know all we need to…

What we need to do is let go of our knowledge and our pride and let God have control. Only when we let Him have control will we not stumble and be a beacon of hope for the world!