Do You Trust God?

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

God has this way of working in my life that leaves me uneasy many times.  He calls me to do things that I am unequipped to do, at least in my fleshlyness.  The root of the problem is a lack of faithfulness in my life in the small things.  The things that I know to do but don't.  God calls us to love others and to treat them better than ourselves, to sacrifice for His glory and the good of others when it is inconvenient.  He wants me to forgive others just as I have been forgiven.  That means restoring a relationship as if the offence had never occurred, opening myself up to be hurt again.  Jesus tells us to look at His life and go and do likewise.

This something that we cannot do without strong abiding faith in Christ.  Trusting in Him for both the power to do what He has called us to do and that He will do in us exactly what He promised to do.  He wants us to trust Him.  Faith isn't really faith until you have to stepout into it.  When you have nothing else to hold onto - to depend on.  It will either strengthen and grow or crumble because it was never real.

We have got to learn to be faithful in obeying what we already know to do.  To depend on Christ to give us the grace to do what we already know to do.  The power to obey is not resident within ourselves, but must come from the indwelling power of God's Spirit.

Simple actions of faithful obedience will cause us to find faith the kind of faith that can take us through anything that God calls us to do.  Start with the basics, major on the minors.  Spend time in pray and in His word to find out what he is calling you to be obedient in today.

Pearls and Pigs

Matthew 7:6 "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.


This is one of those scriptures that bothered me.  It didn't seem to fit the context.  Everyone seemed to avoid it when they preached through this section.  Well after many years one day it just seemed to fit really nice and make sense.  If we don't break up the natural flow of the scripture, just prior to this Jesus was teaching about judging righteously.  How to be spirtitually concerned for God's glory in your life and in the life of others.  The idea of understanding our low standing before a High and Holy God.  That we ourselves are as suspectible to falling into sin as any other.

So the meaning here is really very simple.  Don't try to apply godly standards to those that are not rue disciples of Christ.  Only those that have been redeemed will receive and rightly respond to humble rebuke and restoration.  Those that are comfortable in sin - it is just who we all were at one time or another - will not only reject the rebuke but will proceed to tell you where to go, how to get there and help you along the way.

So remember.  We are to gentle rebuke, admonish and restore a brother or sister taken by sin.  We have no buisness trying to apply godly truths to the ungodly.  The only turth they can hear and respond to is their need for a Savior - Jesus Christ.  Give them the gospel not judgement.  Show them they are damned inspite of their sinful life - but because they have rejected the Son of God.

Romans 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,