A clean heart to worship, O God

The presence of the Holy Spirit always is felt in a stronger, deeper way when we come together in our study and fellowship times!  

SELF-DECEIT. This past Sabbath, it seemed our study group felt pricked about self-deceit. We could see the reality of the dangers  described in our key Scripture passages resulting from making our own decisions outside of counsel from God’s word. It all came down to each believer’s willingness to trust God’s way or our own - and we have two strong pictures of our Lord’s broken heart plainly putting this before us.  In the fifth chapter of Genesis, He reveals the sin-sick condition of the pre-Flood generation:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that...when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great...and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (5).

And by the time of the break up of the Israelite nation that he had shaped, we see those generations caught in the same set of behaviors in God’s word through Jeremiah in chapter 16 through 17:

It shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us?

Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law; And ye have done worse than your fathers; for behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me (16:10-12).

OUR HEART FOR GOD.  This condition of those who will not stay obedient to God’s words comes out of constant decisions to do one’s own thing - to go with our own ways and prefer our own reasoning.  God always speaks plainly to His people, laying out their errors with pain, and pronouncing his judgments - even while holding out the promises of hope and restoration if we will repent and turn away from sinning against Him.  But the confrontation with our own evil is important for us, as we see in Jeremiah’s continued prophesying:

Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh...

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters...

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (17:5-9)

Trusting and believing in our own strength and innate virtue is a mistake.  Our capacity to trust this spiritual insight and believe it will determine our decisions to obey the Lord and walk in His truths...  

*May God's Spirit Be With You As You Study - And Experience His Guiding You Into His Will*

Christian Growth From Flesh to Spirit

From Flesh to Spirit - amazing journey!

God’s command to worship Him in a special way during Sabbath not only signifies our obedience to our Lord, it plunges us into the framework for experiencing Him: sanctification.


Bible Study Points: SCRIPTURE’S LIFE-CHANGING SIGNIFICANCE
THE POINT: THE NEWLY-SEEN TRUTH AND REALITY ABOUT GOD.   As we continue in obedience to God’s commands and claims on our lives he brings us deeper into relationship with Him.  One key change that happens in us moves us from experiencing our lives through self and flesh to experiencing our changing lives through Him and His spirit.


THE SIGNIFICANCE: THE STUDY AND INSIGHT
A Word for me.  In Exodus and Deuteromony’s Sabbath commands I see that worship forms part of the continuum of a life of obedience.  Sabbath worship is a special illustration of our heart of obedience and its love response.  This response that God asks of us really can be seen as a guide for sin-blinded humans to know how we should relate to what he is like and what he really wants - respectful, focused time together! Not so unreasonable...


This life of obedience can be also understood as the ongoing experience of sanctification.  Sanctification then becomes the framework for the heart of my Christian experience, my daily experiences with God.  Paul clearly points to this journey of obedience in 2 Corinthians 5 in: the movement from “flesh” to “spirit.”

The passage.  Paul’s 2 Corinthinans discourse describes the view of the Christian who has learned to live spiritually.  Verse 16-17 shows the outcome: Christians who no longer relate to each other “after the flesh” or an outward human point of view.  “Yea, even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” 

The Context.  This creature is new - transformed.  How? In our steadfast looking to Jesus Our Savior, we experience the spritualization or sanctification process only experienced through focusing on Him, that can move us from living enslaved to “fleshly” concerns to being daily focused on looking for pathways to heaven in all experiences.  

As Paul illustrates, whether the Christian actively ministers or sleeps in death, the aim has been to serve God faithfully (6-9).  And he further emphasizes, “whether we be beside ourselves (crazy) it is to God: or whether we be sober  it is for your cause,” which continues to give service to God (13).  

The outward concerns, even of preserving their human life, become less important than serving God faithfully.  This Christian has plunged deep into the experience of sanctification and moving from fleshly to spiritual living: even death becomes but a threshold to an ultimate resurrection and being with God. 

*May God's Spirit Be With You As You Study – And Experience His Guiding You Into His Will*

Hearts of worship: Moses, Aaron & Joshua

Approaching my Scripture study this week in the principle of personal prayer and openness to the spirit's promptings about lifeapplication, I found myself pursuing insights about the personal encounters with God in the lives of Moses, Aaron and Joshua and how they fed their hearts in lives of worship toward God.

The following verses opened up my studies. 

 "Show me now thy way, that I may know thee" (Ex 33:13 KJV)

As we see the Lord confirming the intimacy between Himself and Moses, the tenderness of the moment strikes me.

Moses' shares his need for God's reassurance and the Lord is hearing him and responding.  The humility and obedience displayed in this conversation opens a window to something beautiful.

THY WAY.  Moses is focused on getting into the heart of God's will.  He desires to be exposed to God's nature in a focused and concrete way - to be shown what it is.

KNOW THEE.  It is the same term we see used elsewhere in Scripture to refer to the marital relation and this points to the depth of the desire in Moses' heart.  We see here a pursuit of God that is active and which pulls from Moses' deepest being!

The record goes on to show the Lord reassuring Him that His presence is there and that he will give Moses rest - a concept reflecting God's total protection of us and management of all problems in our life experience with him.  And the passage continues to the high point of God's revelation of his "goodness" or "glory" to Moses, including a partial revelation, the "back parts" of his person.  Moses worshipped God throughout a life marked by the intimacy of their connection.

"Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto hm, What saith my lord unto his servant?" (Josh 5:14)

FELL ON HIS FACE.  Joshua's life witness fills me with hope and excitement because he is so bold and sure.  This is a typical moment of total selflessness.  It comes after he has obeyed the Lord and been magnified in the sight of Israel when the Lord parted Jordan to allow 40,000+ of them to pass over the river into Jericho and the rest of the region.  It is a picture of Joshua's heart toward God: total receptiveness.  He is a pliable and beautiful vessel for the awesome power of God.  We remember the young Joshua being present with Moses back when the Lord removed the tabernacle from the Israelite camp and descended there to speak again with Moses after the golden calf incident.  When Moses came forth to update the people as to how they would move forward, Scripture notes that Joshua remained in the tabernacle where God's presence was.  Joshua was sold out for God and was able to live out God's powerful works in his life of obedience worship - in the wake of the Moses' greatness! - because of his heart of ready sacrifice.   

Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well." (Ex 4:14

And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. (4:27)

And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priests's office" (28:1)

God knew this man, therefore his heart.  The golden calf incident was a sad moment in his faith journey, as was the unbelief displayed at the waters of Meribah (Nu 20:12), but God continued to bless his priestly ministry and convert his heart and save him to the end (Nu 7:8; 20:28).  His was a worship of continued service throughout his life witness.

*May God's Spirit Be With You As You Study – And Experience His Guiding You Into His Will*