Thursday, August 8, 2013

Knowing God Is Personal Is Our Heritage

" 'You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.' Thus says the LORD: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land." Jeremiah 17:4-6 ESV

Grace is our heritage. The faith of the Son of God is the mode of operation we have been given... His faith in His Father has become our faith. Our enemy is not just the thing that is actively against us... It can be the things that are just impersonal to us... laws, principles and policies that do not have us as individuals in mind.

If a use credit without paying it back in a timely way I will soon begin to work for my creditors and earn them money. Anyone with a large credit card bill can attest to the truth of that principle.

" 'Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.' The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 'I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.' " Jeremiah 17:7-10 ESV

God is not nor will He ever be impersonal to our needs and desires. He knows and He cares. Yes. He has knowledge and and He was compassion. Jesus knows just what it is like to be us.

My heart is deceitful in many ways, and that is an understatement, but one of them is to make God impersonal. God is not a creditor. All debts have been paid as far as He is concerned. If I abide in grace my roots will go deeper and deeper. Fear will not be a primary motivator. The fruits of love will continue in seasons of drought.

"Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water. Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise." Jeremiah 17:11-14 ESV

We are faced with options every day. Faith living or sight living. Hyper-spirituality uses subjectivity to deny reason and makes God a piggy bank for the flesh. We don't have a God that wants us to ignore reality. We have one that wants us to live like He is personal and connected along spiritual lines. Faith is a higher law that does not negate reality. It simply opens options that the natural man has no access to.

God wants us to be salt and light in the place and time we are living in now.

"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:2 ESV

The 'grace economy' not only makes things possible... this faith give us assurance that God will be seen and the invisible will be made visible. If people refuse grace that is their decision but on a deep level they will have been exposed to something divine and that exposure will have multiplying consequences in their life for the rest our their life.

If you are in debt up to your ears. Fear not. You don't owe the Eternal King anything. Go to Him and trust in Him. He will help you.

We add but God multiplies. The steps might not be easy but God will do the work if we let Him.

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