"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:" Ephesians 6:17
This sword is dangerous and it must cut. You can not pick it up without feeling it's tremendous power. It divides the marrow from the bone, the spirit from the flesh.
The truth is an offence. You can not speak it without offending. The truth is not to be trifled with and tossed about as if it were just another worthless opinion.
The truth is fearful to wield. It is sharper than any two edged sword, you are in a state of constant offence when handling it. The world does not love the truth. The world loves sin but this sword cuts sin and error.
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12
Humble yourself.
Who among you can be the most humble when facing the truth? Who looks forward to the sword slicing your spirit from your flesh? Who enjoys the pain of separation?
Who would pick up their cross and follow him, denying yourself? Who would have every word spoken be an offence to the world? Who would bring every thought captive to Christ?
Who would have every relationship feeding itself only on the pursuit of Christ? Who would acknowledge that outside of Christ there is no relationship? We don't enjoy each other's company because we enjoy eating pizza together, we don't like each other because we love to camp and fish, we have nothing to build our relationships on except Christ.
We camp and fish together because we seek Christ together. We eat pizza together because we love the truth together and without that love of the truth, without that willingness to humble ourselves before it and go wheresoever it leads us then we have nothing.
That is the offense, to step away from the pursuit of the truth or get slack in that pursuit means that I must chastise you and eventually separate myself from you when I perceive that you are not responding to the truth.
Except for that love of the truth we have nothing but through that love we have everything.
I cannot, or rather should not, offend you outside of the truth. I cannot take a lie and offend you with it for the sake of offending. I cannot simply call you a hateful name and say that I am wielding the truth simply because I offend. The goal is not to offend, the revelation is in the understanding that the truth is an offence all on its own, it is an offence to the flesh. It is an offence to the world.
You are offended when I tell you that having worship service on the "Sun's day" is wrong. That isn't me offending you, it is the truth offending you.
When I tell you the Rapture is a lie and (even though you know in your heart that you have questions about it and don't fully understand it) in spite of your ignorance, still you become offended. That is the truth working in the world.
It cuts asunder, separating the lies from our understanding. We recoil at it. We don't love the truth, we love only what we believe the truth to be.
When I tell you "Easter" and "Christmas" are evil, sinful, paganism through and through and you get mad. You are not mad at me, you are mad at the truth. When I tell you it is wrong to send Christmas cards and claim Jesus is the "reason for the season". You get mad at me but deep down you sense the truth.
You are angry with the truth. You rebel against the truth. You casually circumvent the truth as if it were not important.
Yet without the truth we have nothing together. NOTHING. That love, that pursuit of the truth is all we have and without that we are separated.
If you are offended, you are in the presence of truth. That truth must become your strong tower, you must embrace it and love it. Then it becomes a solid rock which you can build upon and not a block of stumbling that causes grief in your life.
I am not perfect but this office is perfect. The office of truth.
If I fail to offend I have not the truth.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
For They Know His Voice
"And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers." John 10:4-5
As Christians I know we all want to "know his voice" but how do we get to know his voice? First we need to understand what his voice is.
We are told in Psalms 103:20 "Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word."
This scripture shows us that his Holy Word, the Bible, is his voice. Therefore we should read and study it always so when the time comes we will hear and understand the truth and we will respond to his voice when he calls.
It isn’t enough to follow our hearts and do the things that we think are right and moral because it may not be what God considers right and moral. I dare to say that if you have never read your Bible fully then God is different than what you think he is. You will realize this only after you actually read it for yourself.
In John 1:1 we read. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
And in Hebrews 10:7 we are told "then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God."
We can see now that our Bible is much more than just a book. We know him through it. He is the Word and it is his voice to those that will take time to learn it and study it. If we are faithful over this we will respond when he calls because now we "know his voice."
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