Come Into The Deep End... with ImHisServant (2)

[krys4ever]

March 27, 2007
Unlikely Heroes​

The Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. —Judges 2:16

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The book of Judges is an account of God’s people descending into spiritual indifference and rebellion. After the death of Joshua and his peers, the next generation “forsook the Lord God of their fathers, . . . and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them” (Judg. 2:12).
This dismal record of wavering allegiance hardly seems the place to find spiritual heroes, yet four people from Judges—Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah (chs. 4–16)—are named in the New Testament book of Hebrews (11:32). Along with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and other notables, they are commended for their faith.
Judges, however, presents these men as flawed people who nevertheless responded to God’s call during a time of spiritual darkness in their culture. The Bible honors them for their faith, not for their perfection. They were recipients of God’s grace as surely as we are.
In every generation, God raises up people who are true to Him and to His Word. The measure of their lives and of ours is not the absence of failure but the presence of God’s gracious forgiveness and the faith to obey His call. All of God’s champions are unlikely heroes. —David C. McCasland
Heaven’s heroes never carve their name
On marbled columns built for earthly fame;
They build instead a legacy that springs
Out of a life lived for the King of kings. —Gustafson​

Faith in Christ can make extraordinary heroes out of ordinary people.​

How are you doing with your heavenly legacy In Deepers? Are you remembering you're not perfect and not being too hard on yourself? Are you remembering to ask for forgiveness when you fall short and keeping in perspective you are human? Please discuss . . .​

I feel I am doing really good in my spiritual walk in God. I believe my faith has increased a lot. Im very excited about that.

There is one area in my life that seems to get me down at times. I try not to be too hard on myself. I know that I am human and I am not perfect. I know one is only then perfect once God has taken them home to be with Him.

Sometimes I try to solve things on my own. This one area in my life gets better, then when Im tempted in this area I usually fall. I dont plan to. I want to desperately live for God and please in Him in every way. There are those moments I feel as if God wont forgive me in this area anymore. I repent, believing I have repented truthfully in my heart, but then when I do that sin again, I feel like a failure and God has no more chances for me.

I begin to think about His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and most of all His Love. I know its not all about "oh I sinned and God wont forgive me". Its not about me, me, me. God loves me and knows I will make mistakes. He knows my heart and He knows I want to stay delivered and free in all areas of my life. But I know it is a process and God will carry me through. I just have to learn that everytime I fall or slip, God hasnt left me. He is here for me, waiting for me to come to Him and let everything out.

I pray that I never sin in this certain area again. I will continue to learn to trust in God and lean on Him, not trusting in myself because I will fail everytime. I ask that u all pray for me in this and that I dont loose hope and faith that God is with me as Im goin through this.

This is a Great Topic.
God Bless U All.

 

[krys4ever]

 

[rosiecotton]

Yay, I remembered!!! I know I haven't posted many responses to the topics lately, I've been busy! I will plan to come back and post either later today or tomorrow (I'm off work tomorrow--Yay!!!)

How's Your Love Life?, Part 6http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/roh/today.php?pid=118#commentscomments​

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Series: How's Your Love Life?​

We've been looking at one of the very most important subjects in all of God's Word, and that's the matter of our love life. How's your love life?
We looked in our last session at the fact that love is patient. Love is long-suffering. Love does not retaliate. Now we come to the second characteristic, that love is kind. One writer has said that patience, the first characteristic, will take anything from others. But kindness will give anything to others, even to its enemies.
Kindness is a giving love. It's being useful, serving in graciousness--it's active goodwill toward others. It's not enough just to feel kindly toward others, it's important that we express kindness in tangible ways that communicate the love of God to others.

Remember as we take this test, if you're like me, and you hear these characteristics--and I've been mulling over these for a long time before teaching these sessions--I come away from those study periods feeling like such a failure. There is no way I will ever be able to love in this way. I'll never be as kind as I need to be, as patient and long-suffering as I need to be.

That's the first key to developing the love of God--to realize that I will never be able to love that way by myself. There is nothing loving in me. No matter how long I've walked with the Lord I will never have any natural love inside of me, not that selfless kind of love, not that love that gives to meet the needs of others without expecting anything in return. How do I get that love? I have to continually acknowledge to God that I don't have it, confess it to Him, and then ask Him to fill me with Himself, with His Spirit, with His love.

Love acts kindly toward others. There are some wonderful illustrations of this in the Scripture; but one that comes to mind, in particular, is the story of Joseph. Remember the last several chapters of Genesis? Remember how Joseph experienced one event after another at the hands of people who treated him wrongly. He was mistreated, misjudged, abused, misused, and a lot of the abuse came at the hands of his brothers, his brothers who were jealous of him. We're going to see that love is not jealous.

His brothers did not love, but Joseph was a man of a different spirit. Years after he had first suffered at the hands of his brothers, and they'd been separated for years--there came a time when his brothers came to Egypt. Joseph was now second in command in Egypt; and he was in a position where he could have taken vengeance on everyone who had ever wronged him, including his brothers. His brothers came to Egypt. They didn't recognize Joseph at first, but finally Joseph identified himself to them. The brothers, as you can imagine, must have been terrified! "What is Joseph going to do to us? He was powerless when we wounded him, but now he's a very powerful man. What might he do?"

Genesis 45 tells us his response. He said to his brothers, "You will dwell in the land of Goshen--[Here there's a special place where I have set apart for you to live]--and you shall be near to me, you and your children. There I will provide for you, lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty. For there are still five years of famine left" (v. 10). Then the Scripture says, "He gave them provisions for the journey back to Israel. He gave them changes of garments (clothing), ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt and 10 donkeys loaded with grain, bread and food."

That's kindness at work. Joseph owed his brothers nothing; but instead filled with the love of God, he said, "I choose the pathway of kindness." He gave provisions to them. He said, "I'll meet your needs." He did it in practical ways--food and clothes and a place to live. Think about the person who has most wronged you. Can you imagine yourself saying, "What can I do to meet your practical, physical, material needs?" That's kindness. I know some of us are looking a little shocked, like how could that ever be? It cannot be--unless God loves others through us. The kindness of God is what motivates our kindness.

You know what the Book of Romans (Rom. 2:4) tells us, and that is that the kindness of God leads us to repentance. God is kind to us in giving His Son for us and pouring out mercy on us and meeting our needs--our physical needs, our emotional needs, our spiritual needs--when we were rebels against Him. We were His enemies. We killed His Son! And God says, "Draw near to Me. I've got a place for you to live in heaven forever. I'll give you spiritual food. I'll come into your life. I'll eat with you and let you eat with me. I want a relationship with you. I'll minister to your needs." Our hearts cry out, "O God! We don't deserve your kindness. How could you be so kind to us?" Then what happens? We're moved to repentance. The kindness of God provokes us to repent of our wrongdoing. Kindness--giving to others in useful service.

I think that one of the places that kindness is most important and most neglected, perhaps, is--where? Inside the four walls of our own homes or with the people who know us the best. Why are they the ones we're supposed to love the most, and we tend so often to take them for granted? And why is it that so often in our homes, we are more kind to guests and to strangers--to visitors--than we are to those that we live with? Why do we take for granted those that we know the best?

You know, if someone comes into my home and spills something on the carpet--it has happened--or makes a mess or breaks something, I'm quick to say, as you would be if I were visiting in your home, "Oh, it's no problem. Here let me fix that! I'll pick it up. That vase, it wasn't worth anything." It was an antique, but--no problem.

And we're quick--I'm quick when guests come to my home to show kindness. I want to often take time to make sure there's a little note next to the bed in the guest room on the night stand there. We'll sometimes make sure that there are candles lit in that guest room part of the house. I want to show acts of kindness: "What can I get you for breakfast?'' I'm not a breakfast eater; I'm not into fixing breakfast. I'm really, actually, not into mornings! But if I have a guest, I'm going to show kindness.

What about the members of my own family? If there's a guest in my home and she wants to talk about something that is of interest to her, I'm going to take as long as she wants to sit there and listen. I'm going to be kind and attentive. But what about when I'm with my mother, my brothers, my sisters--those that I've known all my life--and they want to tell me a story or something that is happening in their lives, and I've got a book that I'm more interested in reading at the moment? Are you kind in your own home? Are you kind to those that you know the best, those who are going to put up with you even if you aren't kind, those that you maybe take for granted?

There's such an importance in doing kind acts, and this is one of the things that has always marked women of God. Holy women of God do kind acts of service with hospitality, with cards, with notes, with being sensitive to the needs of others. It's not only important to have kind acts, (but) also to have a kind spirit in the way that we perform those acts, and then to speak kind words. There's that little verse in the Proverbs, I kind of wish it wasn't there sometimes. Proverbs 31:26 says that the wise (or virtuous) woman, that on her tongue is the law of kindness. When she opens her mouth to speak, the words that come out are kind words.

Are you a kind woman--kind acts, kind spirit, kind words? Are you quick to be helpful, to render service to others, to look for opportunities to minister to the needs of others? Jesus went about doing good. As we are filled with His Spirit, with His love, we will go from this place where it's easy to be kind, back to our homes, our workplaces, our relationships, and we will be kind, doing good as He has done to us.

 

[ChrisBot]

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