Wise As We Observe

"Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." - Matthew 10:16 ESV

"For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil." - Romans 16:19 ESV

Let's take everything we see and hear and run them through this filter of an 'innocence that realizes that there is deception in the world'.

"Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD? He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear." - Isaiah 42:18-20 ESV

A deep passage... God had many messengers but Jesus is the ultimate example and He was blind and deaf to certain things... He had a single eye.. The religious people who opposed Him were 'blinded' but Jesus had 'blinders on'.

We can be like Jesus was and Is.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" - Philippians 2:5 KJV

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." - Ephesians 6:12 ESV

I'm not saying we should shut everything out and live in a monastery. It is good to do that sometimes just to regain perspective but not always. We need to see what is happening around us but not be deceived by human goodness or human selfishness.

"Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house." - Proverbs 17:13 KJV

We live in a state of innocent awareness that comes from having divine perspective. We look to see what God is thinking and we find that in the Bible.

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." - Revelation 20:12 KJV

Small and great... influencers and nobodys... all standing before God on an even plane... be careful who you choose as a hero and as a villian... they are just flesh and blood. We need to see beyond that and deal in compassion as innocent ones.

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Thriving Or Surviving

Woke up just surviving but now I'm thriving
Saw myself but then I looked away and saw a bush burning and burning
I've been to that bush before... It speaks... No... God speaks when I go there
I tell Him about my half broken things
He speaks about a new life... a new vision... a fresh provision
He gently brushes off my objections with His perfections

I'm thriving... the dust was on me but I've shaken it off and left it behind me

"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord [is]. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;" - Ephesians 5:14-18 KJV

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, [even] to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush [was] not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here [am] I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground." - Exodus 3:1-5 KJV

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." - 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Thrive with God... or wander in the dusty world

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." - Deuteronomy 30:19-20 ESV

That nation had a choice... we have a choice... you have a choice.. a new option... a way of escape.

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.' " - John 14:6a ESV

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