Odds and Ends
The spiritual growth of a believer may be divided into three parts - the spiritual child (whose relationship with the Lord is characterized by fear), the spiritual adolescent (whose relationship with the Lord is characterized by obedience) and the spiritual adult (whose relationship with the Lord is characterized by love).
Proverbs 1:7a
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 15:33a
The fear of the LORD is the instruction for wisdom,
The book of Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. A fear of the Lord is good and healthy because through fear the Lord gets our attention and can begin to teach us about Himself.
Unfortunately, many believers never mature beyond the stage of the spiritual child and become spiritual cry-babies - constantly whining and complaining before the Lord.
John 14:23, 24
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
Through fear we learn to obey the Father maturing into the spiritual adolescent. Obedience is vitally important for us to learn because it is through obedience to the Father that we begin to see and understand the love that He has for us.
Unfortunately, many believers never mature beyond the stage of the spiritual adolescent and become spiritual tattle-tales - self-righteous judges of their fellow man always finding fault.
John 15:10
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
As the Father reveals Himself to us through our obedience to Him and as we begin to understand the love that He has for us we mature into the spiritual adult.
When we become spiritual adults our motivation for doing things is not fear of the Lord or obedience to the Father but it is our love for Abba and our love for Jesus.
The book Song of Solomon describes the ultimate relationship between you and me (the Bride) and Jesus (the Bridegroom)…
Song of Solomon 6:3a
“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,”
Song of Solomon 7:10
“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.”
So…
Are you a cry-baby, a tattle-tail or the bride of Jesus?
Odds and Ends
According to Hebrew tradition when the children of Israel came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh in hot pursuit they put their total trust in the Lord and started walking out into the water.
The water rose to their ankles, but they kept on walking.
The water rose to their knees, but they kept on walking.
The water rose to their wastes, but they kept on walking.
The water rose to their necks, but they kept on walking.
And it was then that the Lord parted the Red Sea and they escaped from Pharaoh on dry land.
As we grow in our faith and our relationship with the Lord deepens He will desire to draw us closer to Himself.
And one of the ways He does this is by putting us in situations where we must put our total trust in Him and then wade out into the water.
The flesh does not like to get it’s feet wet and wants to see the result before it takes the first step.
But the Spirit will take that step of faith and trust the result to the Father.
As you and I grow in our walk with the Lord and we learn to depend upon Him He will encourage us to take more and more steps before giving us the answer we are seeking Him for.
Proverbs 3:5, 6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
And with each step that we take we come closer to Jesus.
So…
Get your feet wet lately?
Odds and Ends
Psalms 139:1-3
O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
The Father knows us better than anyone else - better than our parents, better than our spouses, better than our children, better than our best friends. The Father even knows us better than we know ourselves. He is intimately acquainted with all our ways.
Psalms 69:5
O God, it is You who knows my folly, and my wrongs are not hidden from You.
There is nothing hidden from the Father, He sees all that is within us - the good and the bad, the strengths and the weaknesses, the clean and the dirty, the successes and the failures. There is nothing hidden from Him.
Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”
In spite of our shortcomings, in spite of our failures, in spite of those things we wish we had never done, in spite of our faults and in spite of our weaknesses the Father loves us anyway. He has drawn us to Himself with lovingkindness and He has loved us with an everlasting love.
So…
How well does the Lord know you?
What’s it like to be loved with an everlasting love?
Revelation 13:18
Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.
According to Hebrew thought seven symbolizes perfection and completion.
Six symbolizes imperfection and incompletion.
Seven symbolizes the Creator and the Spirit.
Six symbolizes man and the flesh.
Revelation 13:16, 17
And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
The mark of the beast (the flesh) are those things which have been created by man and not by the Creator (the Spirit).
The mark of the beast is man’s technology - the Internet, AI, smartphones, medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, video games, Facebook, X, etc.
Revelation 14:9, 10
Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”
To worship the beast and his image means to be influenced by, obsessed with, consumed by and controlled by man’s technology.
To worship the beast and his image means to put one’s trust, one’s confidence and one’s faith in the creations of man rather than in the Creator.
So…
Do you have the mark of the beast?
Do you worship man’s creations or the Creator?
