Tag: desperately sick

4.r. How unsearchable are his judgments and how incomprehensible his ways!

Job 4:12   “Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth. Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?’

Romans 11:33   Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Romans 9:20     But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

Ecclesiastes 7:20    Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Jeremiah 17:9   The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Matthew Henry:   “Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our own hearts, and are still, Ps 4:4, then is a time for the Holy Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great fear. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more just, more pure, than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of man! How great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very foundation of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon than others but still it is the earth that stays us up, and will shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering distemper, which consumes like a moth, be sent to destroy him, he cannot resist it. Shall such a creature pretend to blame the appointments of God? Look upon man in his death. Life is short, and in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength, learning, not only cannot secure them from death, but these things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or power, continue after them. Shall a weak, sinful, dying creature, pretend to be more just than God, and more pure than his Maker? No: instead of quarrelling with his afflictions, let him wonder that he is out of hell. Can a man be cleansed without his Maker? Will God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from guilt? or will he do so without their having an interest in the righteousness and gracious help of their promised Redeemer, when angels, once ministering spirits before his throne, receive the just recompence of their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming impunity of men for a short time, though living without God in the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen angels, and is continually overtaking them. Yet careless sinners note it so little, that they expect not the change, nor are wise to consider their latter end.

Thoughts lodged within you

Genesis 6:5  The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Deuteronomy 29:19     one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.

Ecclesiastes 7:29    See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Ecclesiastes 9:3     This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

Jeremiah 17:9     The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Matthew 15:19    For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Mark 7:21-23     For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,  coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Ephesians 2:1-3     And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience —  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Titus 3:3    For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Jeremiah 4:14    O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?

Thoughts come and go.  Some thoughts like to hang on.  They seem to be firmly planted and gain more and more substance as they continue and cycle through our mind.

Do you ever catch yourself in a thought and say where in the world did that come from.  I doubt we can stop these thoughts from coming but we certainly can do something about what we do with them. Recognition and intentional discarding them from spending more time in our head.

  We have been given God’s word that tells us be on guard against the evil intents and thoughts of our sinful nature.  In His word we find we can compare our thought against what the word of God says.  We can know if it is a right or wrong thought.  But this does require us to have His word in our heart, mind, and soul continually.

Thoughts of lust, pride, greed, coveting, hate, unkindness, and deceit all are seeds planted within our sinful nature and fueled by so many outside influences. I was thinking about things we see during what should be a good movie and only to have it include partial or full nudity.  For what reason other than to plant seeds of lust and want.  Reading the news can also be a vile thing, where news of hate, sex, abuse, and violence race for headlines.  I read an article on Larry Flynn, the person who started Hustler magazine, and who took the right to publish to the supreme court and won.  He said I am just giving people what they want.  Pop-up adds tell us we need something more, planting the seed of coveting.  How many times do you see adds promoting how to look better, act smarter, look younger, look sexy, being thinner, being stronger, blah, blah blah…. seemingly all for the purpose of planting seeds of wanting and that true satisfaction will only come through what they provide.   Yielding to any small seed of thought on these is a problem because it takes very little watering to make them spout, grow and produce unwanted fruit.  Doesn’t is seem pitiful that we allocate so much time in things that have little to no value for eternity.

Being aware of this sinful nature and cultivate an understanding – seeking, desiring, humbly serving, honoring, following and obeying God’s word which allows us to more clearly see right – wrong, truth – false, light – darkness, lust – purity, hate – love, worry – contentment,  restlessness – peace, despair – hope, pain – pleasure, vicious – merciful, cruel – kind, coveting – generosity, and temptation – resisting, humbleness – pride.

Our heart, mind, and soul needs more than just the seeds of God’s word.  These seeds need watering daily from the living water of God’s word to root and grow.  In our culture of liberal tolerance and no absolute truth, His word in our life seems to have been replaced with indulgent application of complacent neglect.

Look closely and monitor what seeds are lodged within your heart and seek to fill your heart with that what is good and pleasing to Him who is worthy of our lives glorifying Him in our thoughts and actions.

I have chosen the way of faithfulness

Psalms 119:30  I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me.

Joshua 24:15     And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Proverbs 1:29   Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,

Luke 10:42    but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

John 3:19-21     And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 8:45     But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

1 Peter 2:2     Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation

Deuteronomy 11:18-20     “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

If we are to be kept from sin, it must be by the grace of God exercised through the teaching of his Word.” (Boice)

“Men do not drop into the right way by chance; they must choose it, and continue to choose it, or they will soon wander from it.” (Spurgeon)

The fact that  we have free will in “Choosing” our thoughts, actions, and what we say, means we have more than one path in life to pick from.   “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter.” The wide gate and broad road are all decisions we make.  These choices are decided upon what is influencing our heart, mind, and soul.

Our sinful nature has many “non-God serving, honoring, following, and obeying thoughts and actions to pick from – “Wide Gate” “Broad Road“.  Paul says to take every thought captive.  Our sinful nature has a way of throwing some very non God like thoughts into our head.  Being able to discern that it is not God honoring and taking it captive means we have something to compare the thought against.  “God’s word”.

We are not going to stop all of these thoughts from popping up, but what we do with them we can.  Why does God tell us to “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,“?  So we can recognize these non-God honoring, serving, following, and obeying thoughts captive in and through His word.

Pride, hate, selfishness, lust, greed, self-reliance, anxiousness, worry, all have ways of manifesting themselves in reactionary thought.  Having God’s word in our heart, mind and soul – meditating on it in the morning and evening, teaching it through out the day to our children, giving thought to it with the purpose of honoring God at all times will reduce the non-God honoring thoughts and keep our heart, mind and soul from choosing to walk through the wide gate and broad road.