Category Archives: Rules

Aug27

Random (hopefully inspired) Thought

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I have hidden Thy word in my heart. (Picture by Lisa R)

I have hidden Thy word in my heart.
(Picture by Lisa R)

Joshua 7. “Achan replied, ‘It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.’ So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord. Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor.  Joshua said, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today.’ Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from His fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since” (Verses 20-26). Think the punishment was too serve? Then we clearly don’t understand God’s disdain for sin. But more importantly we don’t understand the effect of sin. God said, “DON”T do this….” Achan did it knowing that he was sinning (he wouldn’t have hid it so carefully otherwise). Not only did he know he was sinning, he knew the cost of his sin and chose to do it anyway. His selfish behavior cost 35 men their lives. Upon seeing the consequences of his actions, he still choose not to own up. I genuinely believed that had he confessed God would have been gracious to forgive, however, he chose instead to continue acting as though life was normal. It wasn’t until God personally called him out that he admitted his sin. He didn’t admit because he was wrong, he admitted because he got caught. There was no repentance. That is the problem with sin, it causes one compromise after another, a little at a time till your heart is hard and you don’t care about others you only care about…YOU. That’s why the serve punishment, that’s why God completely eradicated any trace of it. We need to do the same in our lives (no I am not saying to kill ourselves, that is not the message here) I am saying kill the sin. Let go of what keeps God from blessing us. Eradicate it, don’t let anything stand in the way of what God has for us. God disdains sin and if we don’t kill it, it will kill us (and just so you know not all death is physical). 

Feb4

DAY 35 (2014)

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Read THE BOOK. Follow the instructions.

Read THE BOOK. Follow the instructions.

Learned an important lesson today. Which is rules are made to be FOLLOWED. Not the sentiment that much of the world follows, is it? In fact the catch phrase is quite the opposite: Rules are made to be broken. I hurt my foot several weeks ago. On a recent trip to my podiatrist, my foot was bandaged and wrapped. Then I was given this instruction: “Don’t get it wet.” For the past week I have adhered to the rule, unfortunately tonight, without trying, it got wet. It was then I learned why the doctor gave me that direction. Under the wrapping a pad was cut and adhered to my foot in such a way as to correct the issue. The adhesive pad under my bandage does not like water, I can feel it moving out of place. Hence it is not doing what it was meant to do. Life comes with a set of instructions, given to us by the One who created us. But we don’t follow them, in fact, many of us go out of our way to break them. I noticed, people smile and laugh, but have no joy. They say nice things, and love to compliment, but aren’t sincere. They act happy, but are miserable. They strive to attain stuff, but end up feeling empty. We don’t experience life the way we should, the way we are meant to. Why? We don’t (won’t) follow the instructions. If the author of life took the time to write an manual on how to do life, shouldn’t we take the time to read it? Follow the rules, experience life to the fullest.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what the LORD requires of you. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

So what’s my plan of attack? Follow His direction.