1 Thessalonians 5:14-25 says, "But we appeal to you brothers: warn the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, give your support to the weak. Exercise patience toward everyone. See to it that no one pays back evil for evil (offense for offense), instead, try to be helpful to one another (believers) and to all people (the lost). Always be cheerful, pray unceasingly (in the spirit), under all circumstances, give thanks, for such is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Spirit, do not despise prophetic utterance, but test it all, and retain what is good. Keep away from evil in every form and may the God of peace Himself make you holy through and through, may your whole being-spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful and He will accomplish it. Brothers, pray for us. (parenthetical statements are mine)
Pray for me as I write this and as you read this. I am a recovering grump-aholic, and I want to expose this for what it is--a sinful lifestyle, a breeding ground for deception, an invite to a fleshly, carnal, wicked existence that is against the way Holy God wants us to live.
Lord! Thanks you for your Word! Please, Father, let the sword of the Spirit divide our soul and spirit, our joints and marrow and discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts(Hebrews 4:12) Cut away, O Lord, anything that is unfruitful or vile and offense to your holiness. "Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my ROCK and my REDEEMER!" (Psalm 19:14)
I believe by YOUR Word that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, so LORD (Holy Spirit)--take that which is cut off of us and consume it till it is nothing but a sweet smelling fragrance to You!
Brothers and sisters, I believe that each day when we get up in the morning that it's sort of like when God confronted Cain with the condition of His heart-- (Genesis 4:5-7) Cain was very angry and his face fell. Adonai said to Cain, "Why are you so angry? Why so downcast? If you are doing what is good, shouldn't you hold your head high? And if you don't do what is good, sin is crouching at the door- it wants you, but you can rule over it."
Anyone who knows the Bible story knows Cain did not do what is right. He ended up murdering His own brother, Abel, because he was angry at God. The story continues today as there have been countless "Cains" and "Abels" throughout history. We are angry at someone or something else, and we take it out on those who are innocent and those closest to us. Now, I'm not saying that everyone is going to murder another person, but please see the connection here: "man looks on the outward appearance while God looks at your heart."(1 Samuel 16:7)To Him, having hate in your heart toward someone is the same as murder! If you allow a grumbling, complaining heart, it will dwarf the life of God within you!
When I was trying to think of a title to this note, I asked the Lord what I should name it. The title came and my first reaction was: "That sounds dumb." The Lord replied with a question: "Who would you rather be like?" The answer is rather obvious--God was able to use the apostles to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, etc. In short, you could change the world and lay the foundation of the Faith by which we still stand with Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. As far as I know, the 7 dwarfs were never used by God to do anything! And if you want to take the very real story of our faith and make it seem like a stupid fairy tale, go ahead and fashion your life like a grumpy dwarf. The world is watching us and they need hope! They need love! They oftentimes have nothing to live for.
So, as the Apostle Paul said,"Imitate me as I imitate Christ."(1 Cor. 11:1) If you can imagine with me the 1 Thessalonians 5:14-25 passage, but think of it in terms of living based on how you feel, please do. You might start to get a picture of how much trouble this can cause (please remember that this is a confession as well as a message. I can personally vouch for the trouble I've been in and God gets me out! Glory to Him!). The 'it's all about me' version of the Bible passage would be: "Brothers, become the idle, discourage everyone! Exercise impatience with everyone. Revenge is fine, because they deserve it! Always be grumpy, pray when you feel like it and under all circumstances make excuses and snuff out the Spirit. Do it your own way. Despise any sort of correction (who are they to tell me what to do?) Accept everything you hear, retain what is bad. Wander toward evil (I was only curious) and may the god of yourself make you corrupt and miserable through and through. May your whole being, spirit and soul and body, be kept filthy and blaming everyone else for my sin til Jesus comes! He who calls you is unseen, so trust in man who is seen. It's so much easier. Brothers, GRIPE WITH US!"
This may sound like an absurd way to say it. I tell you the truth when I say many who call themselves Christians live like this! Brothers and sisters, we are in a battle zone called earth. The world, the flesh, and the Devil are daily realities; but so is God's goodness, kindness, power, love, healing, deliverance, mercy, forgiveness, blessings, peace, etc. We get to choose each day which we will embrace. We need to arm ourselves with God's armor on the outer and a good attitude on the inner-man(Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires).
Romans 8:5-11 says, "For those who are under the control of the flesh are fleshly-minded, but those who are under control of the spirit are spiritually minded. And to be fleshly minded means death, while spiritual mindedness means life and peace, because fleshly mindedness is hostile to God; it is not submissive to God's law, in fact it cannot be so those who are controlled by the flesh are unable to please God. You, however, are not controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God is at home in you. If, on the other hand, anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead on account of sin, but the spirit is alive on account of righteousness. If, then the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead will through the Spirit that dwells in you also make your mortal bodies alive."
You see, we must be able to live; not from the surface, but deeper, where the spirit dwells. "out of our bellies will flow streams of living water" (John 7:38). Our bodies, no matter how long we've been walking with God, are contaminated by sin. They love sin! If you look at the condition of the world, you can easily tell that sin is not dead. But we, however, are dead to sin (the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord-Romans 6:23). So when we do sin, it pays death, and if you keep on that path without repentance, your wages will start to earn overtime! But it is all death to us who have the spirit of holiness in us. Romans 6:2 says, "How shall we, who have died to sin still live in it?" So we are buried with Him in death through baptism in order that, just as Christ rose from the dead through the Father's glorious power, so we too shall conduct ourselves in A NEW WAY OF LIVING!
