Posts
timewithgod.blog-city.com — January 2007
Proverbs 18 Confession and forgiveness -- what's required
We need to agree with God, admit our sin, and forsake it
I read a lot about confession, forsaking, and forgiveness this morning. Verse 13 says, "If you hide your sins, you will not succeed. If you confess and reject them, you will receive mercy." My commentary said, "There is no blessing for the person who covers his sins, that is, who refuses to drag them into the light and to confess them to God and to anyone else who has been wronged. But anyone who confesses and forsakes his sins has the assurance that God not only forgives but forgets."
I've come to believe that it is important to daily review what I've done and to ask God for forgiveness. I'm not talking about a confessional to have sins removed by someone else. Instead, I'm talking about agreeing with God (hopefully before I've forgotten it, because God certainly hasn't) about what I've done and calling it a sin, and doing my best not to repeat it. In our fleshly bodies, as Paul reminds us, we have to wonder why wd do the tings we don't WANT to do. That's something we'll face until we reach heaven and we shuck off these sin-infected bodies.
But as Christians, we know that Christ died for our sins -- both past, present, and future. This gives us judicial forgiveness, which according to my commentary means forgiveness from the penalty of sin. But it's not until we confess our sins to God and agree with Him that they were wrong that we receive parental forgiveness, which maintains our fellowship with God, it said.
Another problem we face with sin is mentioned in verse 9. God will not hear our prayers. In my commentary was a short verse by John Burton:
I may as well kneel down
And worship gods of stone
As offer to the Living God
A prayer of words alone.
If our prayers aren't backed up by our lifestyle, our prayers are actually hateful to God, it said. In much the same way, our offerings are hateful to Him as well in that case. He doesn't want offerings and sacrifice. He wants a broken and contrite heart.
Father, there have been days when I have sinned and not stopped to agree with You and ask for forgiveness. That's like spitting in Your face. Please burden my heart when I sin, to make me sensitive to the broken relationship it's caused with You. Let Your silence speak loudly to me and cause me to understand my need to confess to You so that I may receive parental forgiveness and restored relationship.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
I've come to believe that it is important to daily review what I've done and to ask God for forgiveness. I'm not talking about a confessional to have sins removed by someone else. Instead, I'm talking about agreeing with God (hopefully before I've forgotten it, because God certainly hasn't) about what I've done and calling it a sin, and doing my best not to repeat it. In our fleshly bodies, as Paul reminds us, we have to wonder why wd do the tings we don't WANT to do. That's something we'll face until we reach heaven and we shuck off these sin-infected bodies.
But as Christians, we know that Christ died for our sins -- both past, present, and future. This gives us judicial forgiveness, which according to my commentary means forgiveness from the penalty of sin. But it's not until we confess our sins to God and agree with Him that they were wrong that we receive parental forgiveness, which maintains our fellowship with God, it said.
Another problem we face with sin is mentioned in verse 9. God will not hear our prayers. In my commentary was a short verse by John Burton:
I may as well kneel down
And worship gods of stone
As offer to the Living God
A prayer of words alone.
If our prayers aren't backed up by our lifestyle, our prayers are actually hateful to God, it said. In much the same way, our offerings are hateful to Him as well in that case. He doesn't want offerings and sacrifice. He wants a broken and contrite heart.
Father, there have been days when I have sinned and not stopped to agree with You and ask for forgiveness. That's like spitting in Your face. Please burden my heart when I sin, to make me sensitive to the broken relationship it's caused with You. Let Your silence speak loudly to me and cause me to understand my need to confess to You so that I may receive parental forgiveness and restored relationship.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Proverbs 29 -- Raising up a child without losing your temper?? Is that possible??
a flaring temper only adds to the problem, it seems
There were several verses about how to train up children in the ways of God, yet conveniently there were more verses about controlling one's anger and temper. I've found that they tend to go hand in hand, with my temper flaring and often making matters worse. So God knew what He was doing when He sprinkled these among each other.
Last night, we were all very tired from our Disciple Now weekend, and my aim was to calmly get everyone to bed to catch up on lost sleep. Yet the simple act of brushing their teeth led to problems, a quick scuffle, and finally a spanking and a verbal dressing down. Probably what we should have done instead was to pick up this chapter and read it.
I did tell my boys that when people are overly tired, they don't tend to think in the same way they normally do, and they become hyper-sensitive to the least little thing. We therefore have to 1) watch ourselves more closely to make sure that we don't overreact, and 2) understand that what otherwise might be borderline back-and-forth verbal sparring may instead be taken the wrong way when we are tired, so it's best not to do it at all when those situations come up. There was definitely a failure on their parts to see it all escalating and realize their parts in the problem.
Father, help my boys and help me as well to remember this when we are all so tired. Find me some way to wear them close at hand so that I am constantly being reminded of what I need to work on here. I want us to walk among the wise, for Your word says here, "Foolish people lose their temper, but wise people control theirs."
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Last night, we were all very tired from our Disciple Now weekend, and my aim was to calmly get everyone to bed to catch up on lost sleep. Yet the simple act of brushing their teeth led to problems, a quick scuffle, and finally a spanking and a verbal dressing down. Probably what we should have done instead was to pick up this chapter and read it.
I did tell my boys that when people are overly tired, they don't tend to think in the same way they normally do, and they become hyper-sensitive to the least little thing. We therefore have to 1) watch ourselves more closely to make sure that we don't overreact, and 2) understand that what otherwise might be borderline back-and-forth verbal sparring may instead be taken the wrong way when we are tired, so it's best not to do it at all when those situations come up. There was definitely a failure on their parts to see it all escalating and realize their parts in the problem.
Father, help my boys and help me as well to remember this when we are all so tired. Find me some way to wear them close at hand so that I am constantly being reminded of what I need to work on here. I want us to walk among the wise, for Your word says here, "Foolish people lose their temper, but wise people control theirs."
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Provebs 30 -- Knowing how to know God
We must open ourselves up for His examination
Agur, the man writing this, "begins with a confession of his own inability to attain understanding ... and he recognizes that he does not have the power in himself to attain to the knowledge of the Holy One," my commentary explains. He marvels at how God is revealed in nature and our inability to fully comprehend Him through it. He also meditates on how God is revealed through His word.
Just as he witnesses "an easy mastery, by the appropriate agent, of elements as difficult to negotiate as air, rock, sea, and young women," he's come to understand that the best mastery of things on earth still cannot compare to God's ability as Creator to know us, it added.
My sidebar brought it home: "Many Christians admit that they do not really know God. For other believers, lack of knowledge of God is the cause of vacillating spirituality, inconsistency between the talk and walk of faith, and ineffectiveness of prayer. For still others, inadequate knowledge of God accounts for the reluctant response to holy living and moral responsibility. What does it mean to know God and live with a knowledge of Him? It involves both intimacy and integrity. The intimacy of the Thou-I relationship we were created to experience with God requires the opening of our innermost being to Him, just as He has revealed His innermost nature to us....In Hebrew, the word for knowledge has the same root as "to know'. It is also the physical and spiritual oneness of a husband and wife. Knowledge of God is more than ideas about Him. It involves our total inner selves: intellect, emotion, and will."
Father God, I strive to know You, yet I realize that often I do not open myself up to You. Even though You know me very well, it's only in my sharing myself with You that I can compare and contrast and see just how insignificant I am and how far short I fall of Your desires for my life. Yet I want so badly to know You more, so help me to open myself up to You, Father. Clean up what You do not want in me.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Just as he witnesses "an easy mastery, by the appropriate agent, of elements as difficult to negotiate as air, rock, sea, and young women," he's come to understand that the best mastery of things on earth still cannot compare to God's ability as Creator to know us, it added.
My sidebar brought it home: "Many Christians admit that they do not really know God. For other believers, lack of knowledge of God is the cause of vacillating spirituality, inconsistency between the talk and walk of faith, and ineffectiveness of prayer. For still others, inadequate knowledge of God accounts for the reluctant response to holy living and moral responsibility. What does it mean to know God and live with a knowledge of Him? It involves both intimacy and integrity. The intimacy of the Thou-I relationship we were created to experience with God requires the opening of our innermost being to Him, just as He has revealed His innermost nature to us....In Hebrew, the word for knowledge has the same root as "to know'. It is also the physical and spiritual oneness of a husband and wife. Knowledge of God is more than ideas about Him. It involves our total inner selves: intellect, emotion, and will."
Father God, I strive to know You, yet I realize that often I do not open myself up to You. Even though You know me very well, it's only in my sharing myself with You that I can compare and contrast and see just how insignificant I am and how far short I fall of Your desires for my life. Yet I want so badly to know You more, so help me to open myself up to You, Father. Clean up what You do not want in me.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Proverbs 31 -- It hardly sounds like our culture today
What a nation we would have if we followed God's wisdom
Written in a time when kings thought that excesses in life were their right, it's refreshing to see the mother of a king (who likely was queen once) giving such good advice. To this woman, responsibility of ruling trumped privilege any day. Just because a king could did not mean that he should.
In much the same way, we are a "kingdom of priests" to Christ, and all our sins have been forgiven. We are free from the Law, but our responsibility to God trumps our privileges that we might could otherwise claim.
Also, in the same way that the king was urged to stand up for the rights of the poor and downtrodden, Jesus taught us to value those the world scorns and to care for the unloved.
The virtues of a good wife listed here may sound like June Cleaver on Leave It To Beaver to some. We've "progressed" as a society to where it is almost demeaning for a woman to exhibit some of these qualities. Yet God has seen fit to list them here as an example of what a wife should desire for herself. It stands in stark contrast to so very many of the MySpace.com pages of women from Hamlin that I noticed as I was getting an eyeful on that service last night. With few exceptions, they wouldn't care a lick about trying to achieve these standards, and I was sickened by much of what I saw.
Father, the world might view these examples of quality people as out-of-step with today's culture, and maybe even call them "sadly misinformed" about life. But what a country we would have if all men and women would follow Your advice. Help me to desire Your wisdom and not the world's for my own life, Father.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
In much the same way, we are a "kingdom of priests" to Christ, and all our sins have been forgiven. We are free from the Law, but our responsibility to God trumps our privileges that we might could otherwise claim.
Also, in the same way that the king was urged to stand up for the rights of the poor and downtrodden, Jesus taught us to value those the world scorns and to care for the unloved.
The virtues of a good wife listed here may sound like June Cleaver on Leave It To Beaver to some. We've "progressed" as a society to where it is almost demeaning for a woman to exhibit some of these qualities. Yet God has seen fit to list them here as an example of what a wife should desire for herself. It stands in stark contrast to so very many of the MySpace.com pages of women from Hamlin that I noticed as I was getting an eyeful on that service last night. With few exceptions, they wouldn't care a lick about trying to achieve these standards, and I was sickened by much of what I saw.
Father, the world might view these examples of quality people as out-of-step with today's culture, and maybe even call them "sadly misinformed" about life. But what a country we would have if all men and women would follow Your advice. Help me to desire Your wisdom and not the world's for my own life, Father.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
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