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" For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgements." Ezra 7:10
If you are reading this post on this Spiritual Sunday most likely you are, like Ezra, one who desires to prepare her heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach it to others. What I would like for us to consider this Lord's Day is, in our desire to seek God's law, are we counting sincerity as preparation?
Unfortunately, religious sincerity is being proclaimed as religious RIGHT from many a pulpit today. Now, in no other realm do we take sincerity in ones beliefs as a sufficient safeguard that we are in the right. Not in law, education, business, medicine, or any other realm, except religion. If someone swallowed poison, sincerely believing it were a multi-vitamin, their sincere belief would not be enough to change the poison into something harmless. You may think that sounds ludicrous, but why do we accept sincerity in religious beliefs as enough?
God wrote through Jeremiah the prophet "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23
And He wrote through the apostle John "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." John 4:23
God uses the apostle Paul himself to show us that being sincere in our beliefs does not make us right.
"But, on the morrow, desiring to know the certainty whereof he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him and commanded the chief priests and all the counsel to come together and brought Paul and set him down before them. And Paul looking steadfastly on the counsel said: Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience unto this day." Acts 22:30-23:1
Paul was speaking of a time in his life when he was arresting innocent men and women and casting them into prison, condemning them to death, believing he was doing God's will. He sincerely believed he was in the right. And he was sincerely wrong.
In a day and age when the world says believe whatever you want, let us carefully examine our hearts and our beliefs, and measure them not by men's teachings or creeds, or even our parents' or grandparents' beliefs but solely upon God's word.
In preparing our hearts to seek the law of the LORD, let us challenge ourselves and our children to always have an open heart to the truth and a closed heart to stubborn will worship. Let our desire be to live by the Bible, and if along the way we find at any time that our lives are not in sync with His word, let us decide to modify our beliefs and behavior, and not His word.
Have a blessed Lord's Day.
Warmly, Debbie
If you are reading this post on this Spiritual Sunday most likely you are, like Ezra, one who desires to prepare her heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach it to others. What I would like for us to consider this Lord's Day is, in our desire to seek God's law, are we counting sincerity as preparation?
Unfortunately, religious sincerity is being proclaimed as religious RIGHT from many a pulpit today. Now, in no other realm do we take sincerity in ones beliefs as a sufficient safeguard that we are in the right. Not in law, education, business, medicine, or any other realm, except religion. If someone swallowed poison, sincerely believing it were a multi-vitamin, their sincere belief would not be enough to change the poison into something harmless. You may think that sounds ludicrous, but why do we accept sincerity in religious beliefs as enough?
God wrote through Jeremiah the prophet "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23
And He wrote through the apostle John "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." John 4:23
God uses the apostle Paul himself to show us that being sincere in our beliefs does not make us right.
"But, on the morrow, desiring to know the certainty whereof he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him and commanded the chief priests and all the counsel to come together and brought Paul and set him down before them. And Paul looking steadfastly on the counsel said: Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience unto this day." Acts 22:30-23:1
Paul was speaking of a time in his life when he was arresting innocent men and women and casting them into prison, condemning them to death, believing he was doing God's will. He sincerely believed he was in the right. And he was sincerely wrong.
In a day and age when the world says believe whatever you want, let us carefully examine our hearts and our beliefs, and measure them not by men's teachings or creeds, or even our parents' or grandparents' beliefs but solely upon God's word.
In preparing our hearts to seek the law of the LORD, let us challenge ourselves and our children to always have an open heart to the truth and a closed heart to stubborn will worship. Let our desire be to live by the Bible, and if along the way we find at any time that our lives are not in sync with His word, let us decide to modify our beliefs and behavior, and not His word.
Have a blessed Lord's Day.
Warmly, Debbie
16 comments:
Good message, Debbie. We can't improve the Word of God and should not take it lightly but respect it for the ultimate truth.
Fantastic post Debbie, I have learnt that I would rely to much on others because I believed them be way more knowledgeable about God and His word that I doubted some things I believed to be true, I doubted God in me. Now I am starting to believe God in me and what His word says...hmmm I hope that makes sense.
Thank you because to me your post confirmed that I was taking the lazy way and just believing what others said rather than finding out what God says.
Have a great Sunday and a fabulous week!
Melly:)
There is only one TRUTH and that is the WORD of GOD.
I can't say more.
But of course, the life we live in have so much temptations. And yes there are times that we do stumble and fall. But I guess the important thing is we do realize our fall and repent.
The Bible says it all. It serves as a guide and mirror for us.
A shame, really, that in a man's mind and its capacity, certain things are bended. And sometimes, instead of molding ourselves to what the Word teaches us, we tend to mold the Bible to fit us. Not supposed to be, right?
Yes, there is only one TRUTH and that is the WORD of GOD.
Appreciate the post Debbie
I think sometimes we confuse INTENTION with ACTION. The man who DOES these things is the man who built his house on a Rock. We've got to work the Word not just read it. Application to our own life is the key. Thanks for a great post!
This is great post! I wish that everyone at my church could read your words that say MODIFY OUR BELIEFS!!!
God Bless,
Ginger
Great message and much needed. It has always been needed but maybe more so today. Thanks for posting.
Hi Debbie,
Amen. Now more than ever, we need to stand on God's Word. Thank you for your wonderful post today and have yourself a beautiful Sunday.
Blessings,
Sandi
I agree with you. So many people believe that if you believe in God, any god, and you treat people right that is all that is required. This concept is certainly foreign to the Bible. Thank you for your thoughts on the subject.
Blessings,
Charlotte
Wonderful reflections!
xo...Kathy
Wonderful words of advice-thank you for sharing.
Great post Debbie, it is so easy to take the easy way out and think we are sincere without really studying to train our hearts and actions (2 Timothy 2:15.) We would never allow our children to continually not listen to our instructions, which is just what we do when we are not studying God's word. Thanks for the encouragement today.
Thanks for sharing this. It is something to strive for.
Hugs and blessings, Lisa
Beautiful post. It is about time that the word of the Lord is changed to fit our own needs.
What a beautful message..I really enjoyed reading your post today..Yes there is only one truth and that is the word of God...
Stephenie
Wonderful message, Debbie. The last statement you made about making sure our lives were in sync with the Bible is so TRUE. Sometimes it is easy to let pride get in our way of making the necessary changes to conform our lives to the Word of God.
Prov. 16:18 - Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
What a wonderful post!
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