Where Are You? Who Put You There?

 Tuesday, April 7, 2015

 "But if (notice the if) the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11).

Hey Gang:   Right this minute...where are you?  Who put you there?  Do you think God had anything to do with where you are and what you are doing? Do you think that God had a plan for you even before you were a gleam in your father's eye? What say ye?  Are you something special in God's eye?

Peter said, "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (I Peter 4:10).  Luke also had something to say about the subject in Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth".

Paul gives us a warning about thinking too lowly of ourselves.  After all we are a creation of God, or did you come from the amoeba from a mud puddle?  In 2 Timothy 3:5 Paul tells us to turn away from the toxic- you may catch the disease.  "He wrote, "…holding a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.  Avoid such as these".  Down two verses, he continued with his warning, "They will always be in a learning mode but never come to the knowledge of the truth"

 I just completed re-reading Jeremiah. God had a heap to say about false prophets and teachers, but if you are not into the word, you do not have a clue when you come face to face with a "slicky-boy", as we called them in Korea.   Keep in mind you may have been victorious in sending Satan a kicking yesterday, but he is a pro at sticking around and watching your every move, waiting for a more opportune time, so he can move in with his seven cousins.

And how can I be so smart and make such a statement?  "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (11 Tim 3:16) In very simple language that even a hillbilly kid can understand, "If you do not put Scripture in your heart and mind, The Holy Spirit cannot pull it out when the alligators are snapping at our heels.

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the Lord of Hosts,  "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it over flows".   I have found the power phrase in that verse is "test me".   (Malachi 3:10).

Soooo, really, test God! Are you kidding?  When you dig a little deeper you find why He said that.  In Leviticus 27:30 Moses wrote this clarifying statement: "Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land, or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord".  You mean what I have and give to Him is holy to the Lord?   So, what am I giving?  Only what He has blessed me with?  He does own all the cattle on a thousand hills.  (Psalm 50:10).
  

Blessings,

Wait!  Before you put your Bible away and start the day, you must read the promise that is attached to Malachi 3:10 "Then I will rebuke he devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,"  says the Lord of Hosts".    When I read those two verses I have a mental image of me in a standoff gun fight at the Old Woodward Avenue Corral with Satan; the enemy with his bag of tricks, his holster ready to draw, and me with Malachi 3:10-11 strapped to my hip ready for action.   There is NO contest!

Gramps