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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
As the Father reveals Himself to us through our obedience to Him and as we begin to understand His love 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
Matthew 5:1, 2
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them,
Matthew 28:19, 20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
There is a difference between a disciple and an apostle.
A disciple can be thought of as a pupil - one who is in the process of learning.
An apostle is a sent one - one who is ready to go out into the world and teach others what they themselves have already been taught.
Jesus taught His disciples for three and a half years before they were ready to graduate to apostle - before they were ready to be sent out into the world to preach the Gospel and teach others what Jesus had taught them.
Before you and I can become Jesus’ apostles we must first become Jesus’ disciples. We must learn of Jesus and we must learn from Jesus. We must come to know Jesus before we can tell others about Jesus.
Other believers who are more mature in the faith than ourselves can help us become disciples and apostles of Jesus. But we must always remember that Jesus Himself is the only true Teacher.
John 13:13
“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.”
A disciple can also be thought of as a follower whereas an apostle is a leader.
Before you and I can be a leader for Jesus we must first become a follower of Jesus.
Unfortunately, there are people out there in the world today who are leading the people but who are not following Jesus.
Unfortunately, there are people out there in the world today who are leading the people but who are not following Jesus.
John 10:27
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;”
So…
Who are you followin’?
Odds and Ends
John 9:16
Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.
John 10:19-21
A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” Others were saying, “These are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?”
When Jesus walked the earth carrying out the work of the Father He created divisions among the people. He separated them into two groups…
Those who believed in Him…
John 7:31
But many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, “When the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?”
John 8:30
As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.
And those who rejected Him…
John 6:66
As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.
John 12:37
But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.
As you and I live in this world following Jesus we too will create divisions among the people.
There will be those who receive us…
There will be those who receive us…
John 13:20
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
And there will be those who reject us…
Luke 10:16
“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
So…
Create any divisions among the people 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?
Odds and Ends
Job 42:1-5
Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things,
and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You;”
Before Job’s trial he had only - “heard of You by the hearing of the ear.”
After Job’s trial - “but now my eye sees You.”
And what was it that Job saw? - “things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
The Father may bring trails and hardships into our lives and His purpose for doing this is to show us wonderful things which we do not know - things which we could never have known otherwise.
The Father desires to reveal to us His awesome power, majesty, wisdom, splendor, beauty and love. But to do this He sometimes has to get our undivided attention.
James 1:12
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
So…
Have you only heard of the Lord by the hearing of the ear?
Or have your eyes seen Him?
Odds and Ends
By studying the Scriptures we can gain great insight and understanding into who Jesus is.
Exodus 25:8
“Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.”
The ark of the covenant, and later the Temple, was the focal point of all Hebrew life and worship. By studying the details of it’s construction and how it was used during the worship ceremonies we can learn about Jesus.
The Temple was a shadow of things to come…
Matthew 12:5, 6,
“Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.”
Jonah was not only the person who was swallowed by the great fish but he was also a great prophet. By studying the life and times of Jonah we can learn about Jesus.
Jonah 3:4, 5
Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
Jonah was a shadow of things to come…
Matthew 12:41
“The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
King Solomon was one of the greatest kings to rule over Israel. Because of his great wisdom all the other kings came to listen to him and there was peace in the land. By studying the life and times of Solomon we can learn about Jesus.
King Solomon was one of the greatest kings to rule over Israel. Because of his great wisdom all the other kings came to listen to him and there was peace in the land. By studying the life and times of Solomon we can learn about Jesus.
1 Kings 4:21, 24, 25
Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
For he had dominion over everything west of the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River; and he had peace on all sides around about him. So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
Solomon was a shadow of things to come…
Matthew 12:42
“The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”
So…
Have you caught a glimpse of Jesus in the shadow of the Scriptures?
Read them sometime and see why something greater is here.
