rob12870's Blog

Ephesians 5:15-18 Be very careful, then, how you live,not as unwise but as wise,16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.



One of my favorite songs out there right now would have to be the song Empty Me by Chris Sligh. Just the chorus alone is enough to cause me to search myself and cry out to God begging Him to help me empty me of me. Here is the chorus from that song. ( Empty me of the selfishness inside. Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride. And any foolish thing my heart holds to Lord empty me of me so I can be, filled with you.) These words sound so true and so power full yet how do we do it? How do we empty ourselves of ourselves. I mean sure it's easy to sing it but man how do you do such a thing? Well one of the best ways I have ever heard it described was you take an empty jar. Okay so the jar is not totally empty because you still have air in it. Now think for a minute what do you think is the best way to get all the air out of the jar? Don't read ahead think about it for a moment........ did you say put a vacuum on it and suck all the air out of it? that's a good answer but it's not the right answer because if you fail to turn the vacuum off the glass will implode on its self, and if you take the vacuum off the glass will just fill back up with air. The best way to get all the air out of a glass is to fill it with water. As the water enters the glass all the air rises to the top till there is none left in the glass. In a way you could say that we are like a glass. We hold all the things we see do and hear in the world on the inside. Jesus said in Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, %#ual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. All these things we store in our own hearts and we need to get rid of them. Know one should ever think for one minute that they are above any sin or that there is some sin out there that is to far gone for them to get into. I guarantee you there are a lot of Christians today sitting in prison cells across the country wondering how they ended up where they are and it all started with sin. We need to take sin seriously and we need to clean it out regularly from our system. Even the littlest sin if left unchecked can eventually become something bigger than life if we don't put an end to it. The best way to do this is to fill our glass... ooops I mean ourselves up with the word of God. Because it is His word that truly flushes our system clean. We can't do this in our own strength we need his strength and His word to do it for us. It's his word that finds it's way into the depths of our hearts and shows us what needs to go. As His words fill our hearts it empties our hearts of all the impurities that easily entangle us and we become filled with God. So remember the next time you pick that bible up. Before you start reading it hit your knees and ask God to use it to show you where your holding back and ask Him to help you empty you of yourself so you can be filled with Him.

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.





The cross, there are several things that we can associate with the cross none of which spark pleasant thoughts. Pain, Suffering, Sorrow, Death, Sacrifice, Torture, Agony. Jesus suffered through everyone of these on the day He was put to death on the cross for you and me. The Torture from the beating he received from the soldiers, the Agony of the crown of thorns placed on his head and the sin he had to bear, the Pain from the nails in his feet and hands, the Suffering he must have felt as he struggled to pull his body up for each and every breath of air as he slowly suffocated, the Sorrow from knowing that God the Father had turned his back on him in the moment he really needed him most. And then Death, the final outcome for all who suffer the horrible fate of the cross. Sometimes I don't think we spend enough time thinking about just how much a price was paid for us. Jesus gave his all for us, and now he wants us to do the same for Him. He said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Just what exactly did he mean? what could he possibly be saying? surely he doesn't want us to be crucified? Rest assured Jesus does not want us to be crucified. But if you wish to follow Him he does expect sacrifice, he does expect you to deny yourself. You know what I mean, those things you do that he does not like, those things that go against everything found in his word. When a person carried their cross it showed that no matter how rebellious they were before... they were now under the authority of Rome. No longer would they be aloud to do whatever they felt like, no longer would they be aloud to make their own choices. From now on they did what Rome said they would do. When a Christian or better yet, when a True Christian learns what it means to take up his cross it's because he understands that God is calling him to a life of self sacrifice That means it's going to hurt, it's going to be a little tough at times. If it didn't hurt and if it wasn't a little tough at times it wouldn't be much of a sacrifice now would it? No longer will a True Christian live rebellious towards God, no longer will a True Christian do things just because it feels good to him or because everyone else is doing it, no longer will he be led by the lust of the flesh. No, when a True Christian chooses to pick up his cross, what he is totally saying is Lord I'm giving up that old way of life, I'm throwing it all away for you, I want to be under your guidance, your authority. No longer do I want to live for myself. LORD I WANT TO LIVE FOR YOU!!!







Jesus isn't asking us to crucify ourselves

He just asking us to crucify the old nature.



Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.



It's time to kill the old person and let the new one run free



God Bless

Rob

James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it he will be blessed in what he does.



If your like me as you get older you tend to use mirrors less. I don't know maybe it's because I don't want to see my age creeping up on me in the form of another gray hair. As a teen I couldn't go anywhere without checking myself in the mirror. Maybe it was because I thought there was a world out there that I could impress. I can remember mirrors being in the locker areas at High School. You would always see a slew of kids lined up at them between periods. I guess they felt like they had someone to impress to. Some of those same people could be seen at those same mirrors between every class in fact sometimes I wondered if they just skipped class and stayed at the mirror. They were just so worried about protecting there image. I wonder who the guy was who invented the mirror? I mean was he looking to invent something that he or she could see them-self in or did it happen by chance? and were they happy with what they saw when they first looked into it? After all that is why we use mirrors isn't it? to see whats on the outside. To make sure everything is in place. That our hair is combed right, the clothes look good, the teeth don't have stuff in them, the make up is on right. Yeah mirrors really do the trick for what is on the outside and they sure don't lie. But what about what's on the inside? Well God has given us the perfect mirror to see whats on the inside. It's called the bible. The bible like a mirror shows us our flaws on the inside. It's up to us to make the changes necessary to reflect the likeness of God on the inside. You see when you look in a mirror for your outside person and you see something bad you don't just say oh well and walk away. No you almost always fix the problem and then go on your way unless your weird of course (just kidding). What God is saying in these verses is look when you take my word and you look into and I show you how you really are on the inside don't just go away and forget about what you read. Make the changes necessary. We worry so much about what's on the outside yet sometimes we act like we could care less about whats going on... on the inside. God uses His word to convict us of our sin and to show us whats wrong with the inside and He expects us to do what's necessary to keep the inside well groomed. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it he will be blessed in what he does. Have you checked your spiritual mirror lately?



Mirror, Mirror on the wall,

I believe God's word is the most honest mirror of all.



God Bless,

Rob

Exodus 20:3-6 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.



So I was teaching my 3rd and 4th grade Sunday School Class this week and one of the first things I asked them was to list 5 things that they really loved or thought was important to them. Some of the kids responded with answers like riding their dirt bike or a certain toy, their dog, playing sports, dolls the list was pretty big. After we got half way around the table the answers started to change. I started hearing things like family and God and Jesus. It was funny because after the first person said Jesus I noticed one of the girls at the table who had not given her answers yet grab her paper really quick and start erasing. She wanted to change her answers. I told her to put her pencil down, not to be mean but because I wanted to make a point. Now I knew full well that she wanted to change her answer to the more church answer. Obviously my opening question caught some of them off guard. Perhaps they were not ready for the question. Maybe they were not yet in church mode this morning and instead they allowed there minds to drift to the stuff that they own and loved. And then there is an even more scary thought... what if they truly do love stuff more than God. I mean is that possible? I mean lets face it kids now a days have tons of stuff more stuff than I ever had as a kid. But then again so do we more grown up people. Do I even need to start listing some of the stuff? We are all spoiled to some degree. Why we have so much stuff that some of us have to rent out space to keep it all. Every house I have ever lived in has had an attic and that attic was always filled with stuff. Stuff that at one time was held near and dear to me, stuff that consumed my time, stuff that if I'm truly honest with myself I would have to say I loved. You know after asking those kids that question and hearing their answers I couldn't help but think If I were to ask God what my top 5 things were that I loved or held near and dear to me... what would He say? I would like to think that He would say that I have Him at the top of my list but is that what He would really say? Let's face it we all go through those times when we seem so much closer to God then we do at other times. When our worship is so much more sincere and meaningful then other times. When all we want to do is give God the best we have to offer. Why can't it be like this all the time we ask. Well maybe it's because of all the stuff.



If it's taking all your time it's probably taking you away from your God



God Bless,

Rob

Luke 19:5-7 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. 6And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.7And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.



Many of us know what it means to be an outcast. We've felt the sting of rejection by the people around us. We've heard there insults and wished we could hide. We know what it's like to not be excepted, to be picked on, ridiculed, and labeled. Sometimes it can cause us to pull back and just keep to ourselves, other times it can cause us to lash out in anger. As a teen I was an outcast. I didn't take long for me to realize that I would never fit in with the more popular kids in school so I did what a lot of outcast do I pulled away and kept to myself. I began to change the way I looked. I grew my hair long as a sign of my silent rebellion, I started wearing clothes that looked like they went through a shredder. My taste in music changed, I started drinking,smoking. In a little while I found that I could fit in with a different group of people. In school they called us things like rockers, druggies or treads but looking back now, I know I was just an outcast. You know Zacchaeus had a similar problem. Nobody liked him. You see Zacchaeus was a no good tax collector and tax collectors had a bad rap. They were known for charging more taxes than what was required and helping themselves to the difference. It didn't help his cause any that he was wealthy either. That probably only made the people hate him more because they probably thought he got his wealth off of robbing them and he probably did. Now we all know the story Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was in town and he wanted to see him. Now being a short person he couldn't see over the crowed so he climbed a tree to get a better look at this Jesus he had heard so much about. When Jesus reached the spot under where Zacchaeus was standing He looked up and said "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." Man I wonder how Zacchaeus must have felt. All those people standing around and Jesus picked him the one everyone hates, the outcast, the criminal, the low life, the sinner. It says that Zacchaeus climbed out of the tree immediately and welcomed Him gladly. Here was a guy who by societies standards was a big fat zero and all the sudden this Jesus comes by and says you mean something to me. I want to spend some time with you. Notice the response from all the onlookers in verse 7And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. Wow now there's a shocker, the True Judges judgment call was being called into question. The people simply could not believe that Jesus would choose such a man to be with. But He did. Just like He chose you and me. You know when I look back to the time I was saved it just makes me wonder how my friend Jim found the courage to come up to me and share his faith. I mean on the outside I really didn't look like the type of person you would want to approach let alone share your faith with. But Jim did. He didn't judge me by my looks or what he heard, he didn't care where I had been or what I had done. No he saw right through all that and saw the person who needed a savior and a friend. Now let me ask you, do you have someone in your life that intimidates you? is there someone out there that when you look at them you say no way I'm not talking to him or her? There is no way that person would ever listen to what I have to say. You know Jesus died for that person to. Just because they don't look or act the way we want them to does not mean they are any less a candidate for Gods plan of salvation than we were when we got saved, and just because you think they won't listen does not mean they won't, and just because they look tough and mean on the outside doesn't mean they aren't ready to be cracked like an egg by the gospel on the inside. Sometimes people look that way to cover up how they truly feel on the inside. They're afraid that if people see how they really are they might think they're weak. We all ware masks at times to cover up whats really going on on the inside. God wants us to share what we know with everyone. Even though everyone hated Zacchaeus, Jesus went out of his way to say he was worth it. He went out of his way to spend a little time with him. He wasn't swayed by what anyone else thought and it payed off. 9Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."



1 Samuel 16:7b The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.



God Bless,

Rob