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True Forgivness - article Let's Be Thankful - article What Keeps Us from Blessings -article Secret Power of Being Thankful - article Life is better when you find companionship Ask questions, listen to answers Hope sees what faith will produce Should innocent party be punished? Are you sabotaging yourself? Have we covered up idolatry in our lives? Survival tactics for spiritual growth Get free by changing what you think Writers respond to "Divorced People Bad Risk" Exactly what does she mean by "secure"? Make a list of what you want in a partner What if "Love" makes you sick? Can your relationship pass the test? The beginning and the end of all love stories Toxic faith, new area of treatment Finding God's plan and purpose "Divorced people are a bad risk" Loneliness may open door to abuse Even if people reject you, God will not The glory is a revelation of Jesus What is being a doer of the Word? We change our lives with words Is your low-fat diet working for you? Who do you say Jesus is? It's dangerous to be foolish Give thanks with a grateful heart The sacrifice of thanksgiving God had antidote for depression Will He be able to say "Well done"? Return to HOME |
We deceive ourselves when we think that hearing and doing the Word means that we go to work "working for God." By that I mean spending your time running here and there working for the church or a "ministry", being busy, busy, busy trying to please God by doing a lot of things. You may be busy doing good things, but that's not necessarily what pleases God and that's not what being a doer of the Word means. God is pleased when we keep the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ - love one another as I have loved you. Obeying that command is first and foremost being a doer of the Word. If you are diligent to keep that one commandment - because it is a commandment and not an option - God will be pleased and according to the gospel of John (14:23), will come and dwell with you. Yes. God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit will come and make their home with you. If you are not keeping the commandment to love, nothing else will get the job done. Prayer won't do it. All the Word you can stuff in yourself will be the dead letter only. You can pray until you tongue falls off. You can read and study the Word until you eyes fail you, but you are not going to have any light or any revelation if you are not a doer of the command of Jesus - to love one another. What does this command mean? It means being diligent to keep all your relationships right. You are not allowed to do anybody harm for any reason - either by omission or commission. You are not allowed unforgiveness, jealousy, envy, resentment, bitterness, or strife of any kind. You must find that place of love, not a feeling, not an emotion, but an action, and walk in that place continually. You must lay down your selfish interests, your insistence on being right, your insistence of having things your way, and submit to others - give in to them - put their interests, their well being, and their feelings above your own. This course of action is not running around doing what we think is best for people - preaching to them, nagging them, telling them they are going to hell if they don't change. It is simply yielding to the love deposit that was placed in your heart when you were born again. Jesus doesn't really want you to do anything except yield yourself to Him and to that love that's on the inside of you. Let Him use you as a vessel to pour Himself out to others. Think of a jug or a pitcher of orange juice. A jug doesn't squirm around and try to do something on its own. It doesn't jump around and try to tip itself over and pour out that orange juice by itself. That would be foolish. We are to be yielded vessels, just like that orange juice jug. We need to be as yielded as that jug, doing nothing on our own, but allowing the Lord to fill us up and pour us out as He sees fit. That is what ministry is. It's not using your talents and your gifts for God. It's making yourself available to Him so that He can use you as He wishes.
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