neumatikos

I believe that the opening of Proverbs is one of my favorite passages in the Bible:

To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, Judgment, and Equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man [or woman] knowledge and discretion – A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:2-7)

Lord, give us ears to hear the wisdom of your teachings and let us grow in wisdom everyday as we walk closer to your side.

If We Are The Body
Casting Crowns

It’s crowded in worship today As she slips in trying to fade into the faces The girls teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know Farther than they know

CHORUS
But if we are the body Why aren’t His arms reaching? Why aren’t His hands healing? Why aren’t His words teaching? And if we are the body Why aren’t His feet going? Why is His love not showing them there is a way? There is a way

A traveler is far away from home He sheds his coat and quietly sinks into the back row The weight of their judgmental glances Tells him that his chances are better out on the road

CHORUS
Jesus paid much too high a price For us to pick and choose who should come And we are the body of Christ

CHORUS
Jesus is the way

If we are the body, why are we not doing the things he’s called us to do and go where he is leading?

The pastor at the new church KB and I are attending is doing a series on Faith. One of the questions that he asks people when he visits them on the street and in the neighborhood is, “In your personal opinion, what do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven?”
He hears all kinds of answers to this question and so have I, but in truth “wide is the way to destruction and narrow the way of life.” Lord I pray that we will choose your path to life and not the smooth road to destruction.

One of the reasons that the Jews became so legalistic during the four hundred years between the last prophet of God and the birth of Christ is that they were not hearing from their Lord. God had stopped speaking to them, and even though they still had their written scrolls, they did not feel that there was anything real about the “religion” they were practicing. Since we are called to be prophets as Christians, we have no excuse for not hearing from God. Pray for the Jews who still have not heard from their God and are practicing empty religion and also for the Christians who have let legalism guide their relationship with God.

The word is the bread of life, what better “health food” is there? There are countless stories of people visually changing when they have the word of God spoken to them, over them, or used in prayers for them. As an aspiring primary care physician, when is a better time than right now to start honing my skills as a healer? And what better way is there to heal someone than by showing them toward someone who loves them so deeply and fully that he’s willing to heal their broken hearts, minds, and souls? Lord, thank you for your life giving bread, and I ask that you to fill the lives of your people with rejuvenating love that heals all wounds.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” II Corinthians 4:18

We tend to complain that seem to be made to “break down,” like appliances, cars, and furniture, but everything is made to “break down” here on earth, including us. We need time to refresh ourselves because we are in truth frail and easily break down if we’re not careful.

It is good to remember that we do have an unseen home, where we can be completely refreshed, awaiting when we have finished our work here in the world of temporary sight.

Thought to Ponder (Cont.):

The scripture reference that I remembered was, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” Matthew 5:48. The sermon on that day was to encourage us to be perfect and blameless before God. Other references were Genesis 6:9, Job 1:1, and I Kings 15:14. All of these references speak about people who were blameless because they walked with the Lord and had a personal relationship with him.

James 3:2 speaks about the perfection of man as being someone who in never at fault in what he says. Now, I don’t know about you, but I need to constantly repent for some of the things I say or think because they are not thoughts or speech that edify and build up. Through that repentance I can reach towards my goal of becoming a Godly woman and become perfect and blameless in the eyes of my Lord.

We should have Christ as our goal of perfection. The definition of “perfection” I use is that it is a process “to bring to full maturity.” Moreover, we can attain that perfection through a personal relationship with Christ by “confess (ing) our sins, and he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” I John 1:8-9. With Christ as our guide we can reach the perfection of maturity in our faith and can “purify ourselves form every thing that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” II Corinthians 7:1. We should not “conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of (our) mind(s)” Romans 12:2, which can be done by keeping Christ as our focus and continuing to be perfected by his life as we discard who we used to be.

God wants the church to be unified through the perfection of maturity, but that is very difficult to attain because everyone is at different levels in their growth. For this reason, “he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” Ephesians 4:11-13. When we reach a point when we let God be in control of our lives, he can use us to help to mature the Church to do his works.

No one is perfect; including (and especially) Christians. Even after accepting Christ, people are still tempted to do what is “fun.” Unfortunately, we are not allowed to be people who make mistakes according to the spyglass of the world. According to society, Christians are not permitted to make mistakes because they’re supposed to be “perfect” after they accept Christ. As Christians, we are called to be perfect and a people after God’s own heart. The only way to attain that perfection, however, is through constant communication with our God through prayer, repentance, reading, and listening for what God is saying to us. We can’t get away from the world’s spyglass, so let’s use it to our advantage and show forgiveness, love, patience, and perfection (as David was perfect by being a people after God’s own heart) in our relationship with other Christians and the world.

Today’s Thought to Ponder comes from my attendance at MorningStar last night:

A popular phrase is that “A picture paints a thousand words,” but one word from God spoken through the lips of a man (any man, woman, teen, or child who is connected and listening for God’s voice) can change a life and paint a picture of love and hope into the life of the depressed, desperate, and lonely.