I was challenged this week in a way that I praise God for, but at the same time am so humbled during my days that I cannot begin to count the times tears came to my eyes at the realization of how much my God loves me despite my disobedience and continues to bless me even though I have done nothing to earn it.
My pastor was teaching this past Sunday on the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet, and just what we in our daily walk need to be on the lookout for in living out this on a daily basis.
After the message, I shared thoughts of a favorite author, Francis Schaeffer, that all the commandments could be seen to flow out of this one, and that is one of my fundamentals of the DIGGIT philosophy of striving to live a life of obedience as Jesus did, totally walking in the fruit of the Spirit, never grieving or quenching the Spirit, and glorifying His Father with His whole life, living Holy, a life separated from personal want and desire, only seeking to please His Father, our Father if we name the name of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
When I get my DIGGIT devotional published, the sub title will be "Resting in Obedience". The companion thought that goes with Schaeffer's premise and Bro. Clayton's lesson Sunday is that to DIGGIT we need to rest in contentment with God's supply and provision in our lives. I love Tony Nolan's illustration that we are like vandal's taking a spray paint can to God's Word when we put ourselves on the throne that should only belong to our Creator, Jesus Christ, and this Sunday God showed me again how true this is.
When we covet, we are telling God, "no thanks God, your supply is not what I need, You have failed to give me what is needed for my happiness and I won't be content until I get some of this, that and the other thing that would make my life better. Whether a spouse that doesn't continue to be appreciated as special and God's help mate for life, just for us, with the precise and exact qualities needed for the "two to become one flesh", modeled after Christ and His Church, His Bride in the New Testament, there is the root of adultery. (one of my favorite blues tunes is "Tell The Truth", I like the Darrell Mansfield version in particular, with the great chorus "tell the truth, don't tell me no lies, you're 'sposed to love your neighbor, not your neighbor's wife") What sin cannot be found rooted in this mocking of God's provision, that He is not the one true God, we need to have others before Him? Stealing what we cannot have because it will make us happy and fulfilled?
I see daily so many beauties on television and in the flesh, and satan would have me comparing all the parts, lips, eyes, legs, feet, and all the glories of women in between, and my solution to sinning is to thank God that I can recoginze beauty, and recognize Him as the Creator, and to then pray for the subject of my gaze, that she is born again and close to her Savior, that she would seek Him with her whole heart, and that God would draw her close to Him, and supply her with Christian men in her life to live as Christian men are called to, looking at younger women as sisters, and older women as mothers, the Word is clear, sex and sisters and mothers are not to be mixed in any way, and satan's efforts to get us thinking otherwise, how this would feel, or taste, or smell, is the same tired old tempting that lured Eve and Adam to the tree in the garden, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, all to be made better if we just let our mind's play over the curves and thoughts that easily entice us when we do not take every thought captive to the mind of Christ.
God gave me the realization that we are to have not only the mind of Christ by letting His Holy Spirit reign and taking every thought captive to the mind of Christ, but to have the ears and eyes and hands of Christ, to hear the needs and cries of those hurting around us, to see without lusting and stripping naked those in our field of vision, and to touch a lost and dying world with compassion, to hold doors open, to push a shopping cart up a slope, to have the mouth of Christ, and encourage and bless and accept those brought to our daily walk, instead of lies and deception as satan would lure us to.
During this teaching on coveting, God showed me three things I am to give Him, this me personally, so that I can seek Him with my whole heart. I am being asked to give up sports, politics, and flesh, radio, television, and internet, so that I can not be lazy , and study to show myself approved, ready to give an account and reason for my faith when asked. This is hard, I have two good Christian radio stations, KXOJ and Air One, positive alternatives, to the sports talk and political talk that is so prevelant, and that gets my blood moving, and takes my eyes off the One who gave His life that I might live.
This is the week's personal challenge to me that I am facing, some days went well, but knowing the SI Swimsuit edition is out never fails to be a challenge for me, but I make satan pay by if I fail and I have and unfortunately will again, strive to add a name to the list of women I pray for when confronted by satan with lust and those in the heart adulteries that God sees as sin, I will be a prayer warrior for Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, the porn stars of Charlie Sheen, girls of SI, the Kardashians, and all the others that I do daily battle with to not surf for pictures and stories, but to lift them up in prayer, asking God to send blood bought, bible believing Christians into their lives, to love them to the foot of the cross, and that they will be the next story of salvation and life change, like Stephen Baldwin, or Brian Welch, or Pete Maravich, or Kirk Cameron or the countless other celebrities who have come to realize that all their stuff doesn't satisfy, and why are the poor content in their poverty so often? How are they content with their little, and all the riches of the world will fall away, like the rich man Luke describes and Tony Nolan spoke about during the Winterjam 2010 tour, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose your soul? I love those God calls to clearly present His truth, and it is all of us, II Cor. 5:17-21 tells us we all have been given the ministry of reconciliation, and praise God, He has called us to nothing less than be peacemakers , with each other, and with God Himself, to tell people of the heart disease they have, fatal and eternal, but the most Famous person in the Universe, the Creator Himself, came to Earth as a baby in a manger, and today is calling to you "I have the only matching heart that can cure your illness, let me exchange my life for yours, and come to know life as you have never known it.
Praise God that I can glorify Him, and that some days I have a good 15 minutes, some days good hours,, and sometimes the better part of a morning or afternoon, but that I am loved no more or less due to how I obey, I am made clean by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and once re-born and a new creation, my feet may get dirty, and I may be slow to get them washed off, but God sees His Son's blood covering my dirt and sin, and calls me His Child, and I am made to rest in that contentment of a little child basking in the gaze of his parent, and to rest in obedience when walking as Christ walked, daily in prayer and the Word of God on His mind and lips constantly, and turning the world upside down, our walk will do no less, because it is God that gives the increase and saves, we may lead others to Christ, but then it is up to them to choose, contentment is only a prayer away.
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