Word for Today, Wed, 28 Jun 2005: Direction Of Discipline
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
Have you read your Bible yet today? If not, have you read it
yesterday? If you have not read your Bible today, read your
Bible instead of reading this message, then come back and read
this later. Start with Matthew 5. That's the first chapter of
Jesus' famous "Sermon on the Mount". In it we find The
Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, and an entire range of things
about our attitudes. Jesus clearly sets the proper priorities
in place in this sermon, which goes on from Matthew 5 to Matthew
7.
I encourage every one of you to get to know this entire passage
well. One day about five years ago, I was convicted about
knowing the scriptures because a drunk quoted, word for word, the
entire sermon in the original English translation, the authorized
King James version!
I prayed for that man that he would have discipline over his
drinking habit and his lifestyle choices, but he certainly had
the discipline, at least once, to learn the Bible well enough to
quote, word perfect, an entire sermon!
May those of us who claim to have faith spend enough time in the
Word of God to, at the very least, know where to find things, and
to know what the Bible tells us about our relationship with Him.
Challenge: by tomorrow, find at least three promises of God in
the Bible and share them with at least one other person.
Dear Lord, there are times when discipline provides direction for
our lives, but if we do not heed the words of good counsel, we
are still wandering about. Help us first to have the discipline
to read your Word faithfully, but then also have the additional
conviction to heed what it says.
I believe that you have created your Word for the purpose of our
good as well as for your glory. May we glorify you by giving you
thanks and praise when we realize what a wonderful plan You have
for each of us. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
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My Utmost For His Highest : "Direction Of Discipline"
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/ MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST -- http://www.heartlight.org/
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June 29, 2005
DIRECTION OF DISCIPLINE
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it
from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy
members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be
cast into hell.
Matthew 5:30
http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=mt+5:30&sr=1
Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off the right hand, but
- If your right hand offends you in your walk with Me, cut it
off. There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if
you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your
right hand is one of the best things you have, but, says Jesus,
if it hinders you in following His precepts, cut it off. This
line of discipline is the sternest one that ever struck mankind.
When God alters a man by regeneration, the characteristic of the
life to begin with is that it is maimed. There are a hundred and
one things you dare not do, things that to you and in the eyes of
the world that knows you are as your right hand and your eye, and
the unspiritual person says - Whatever is wrong in that? How
absurd you are! There never has been a saint yet who did not have
to live a maimed life to start with. But it is better to enter
into life maimed and lovely in God's sight than to be lovely in
man's sight and lame in God's. In the beginning Jesus Christ by
His Spirit has to check you from doing a great many things that
may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for
you. See that you do not use your limitations to criticize
someone else.
It is a maimed life to begin with, but in v.48 Jesus gives the
picture of a perfectly full-orbed life - "Ye shall be perfect, as
your heavenly Father is perfect."
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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