Spiritual Tapeworms.

Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked change their ways
and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.

“banish even the thought of doing wrong” very interesting phrase. Sin truly starts in the mind and the more we muse over or entertain any given temptation, the more likely we are to take sin further from thought to action.

In Proverbs 4 vs 23 we are told to:

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23 –

And in 2 Corinthians 10:5 we are commanded

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 –

Thoughts can seem harmless on their own, yet small smarks are all it takes to create large fires and blazes. If we let our thoughts go loose and unchecked, they can easily spread fires throughout every other area of life.

Jesus taught that evil begins first in the heart.

He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Mark 7:20-23 –

We all get tempted by various things, thoughts that come into our minds. We begin to give into sin only when we choose to entertain these thoughts and contemplate ways to carry out those desires.

Once the thought is entertained a moment too long we start find ourselves wanting to satisfy that desire. James describes the cycle of sin in this way

but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
James 1:14-15 –

It starts with allowing the temptation to settle into our minds, from there our thoughts drag us into unhealthy thinking and imagining the possibility of sinning. Then often we do sin through actions, and the more we do that, the more sin is born, and then it grows into habits and lifestyles. Then when it is grown it produces spiritual death and corruption.

It is a lot like a parasite. There are parasitic worms that can grow very large in human and animal intestines. Yet it starts with consuming something that is contaminated with parasite eggs. Once the egg goes in, it passes through the stomach as an egg. The egg is resistant to gastric acid so it is not destroyed. Thereafter, it goes into the small intestine and hatches, where the parasitic worm gourges itself on the blood supply from the lining of the gut.

The problem with parasites is they often in many places of the world contribute to malnutrition. The reason for this is they eat up the nutrients that come from the food a person eats and hogs them. Therefore, the person with intestinal parasites are robbed of the nutrition they eat.

Sin also does that to us spiritually. We can read the Word of God and study the Bible even, yet if we fail to address and issue with sin, we are robbed of properly hearing God’s voice or absorbing His life giving Word. Sin can keep us both out of the Word and keep the Word out of us. We stifle God’s movement in our lives by failure to address sin.

Spiritual malnourishment can come from a few sources, failure to read and take in God’s Word, (Spiritual starvation) or plain old refusal to deworm our lives of behaviors or influences that hinder us from hearing and retaining God’s truth.

Sometimes the worms are actions and wrong attitudes that lead us to behave sinfully. Sometimes the worms are negative influences that hold us back. Some relationships must go, and certainly any behavior we are actively engaging in that is sin, also must go!

From A Dusty Old Shack To A Cozy Home

“It is the church that is unmerciful sometimes, but not the Master: he is ever willing to receive us when we come to him.”

-Charles H. Spurgeon—

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
Isaiah 30:18 –

Jesus Christ bids us to come as we are and drink from His river of life without cost and price

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Isaiah 55:1 –

We see here in Isaiah 55:1 there was the invitation to the thirsty “come to the water and drink” and there was no price set on that. Likewise no matter how great our sins are before Holy God, he expects from us no down payment of our own to receive forgiveness of our sins- and enter a life of “wine” and “milk”

The wine of joy and the milk of new life through the Word. Though not literal wine or milk, nor literal water, we see this a metaphor for the thirsty soul, the discouraged heart- through Christ we can drink from the river of His life, and have our hearts filled with the wine of gladness and joy, and partake in the nourishing milk of the Word and grow in this salvation

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:2-3 –

Christ invites us to come as we are, as broken as we are, but does not want to leave us as we are. Like a person who buys old junker cars, Christ wants to pull us out of the scrap heap of sin and restore us to all we were originally created to be. Ask then, “What man or woman would buy a junker without the intention of it being a fixer upper?” Would someone buy an old delapadated house just to live in some worn down mess? No, rather the buyer sees the worth of the purchase with vision in mind, ah a buyer of some old worn down house might say “With a little work, I can transform this old shack into a comfortable home to live in!”

Ah see how the buyer sees “potential” when most go by that house and say “That house is so run down and needs to be torn down”

Yet that is us in our state of sin, though many see us as damaged and beyond hope, Christ sees the potential we have with the touch pf His grace! Ah what a blessed Savior and Lord, He wants to move in and bring warmth of home into a dusty old shacks.

For when Christ moves in, expect you never will be the same again!

Spiritual Dentistry And “New Teeth”

“See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 41:15-16)

Recently I had extensive dental work done to repair my teeth and get rid of the cavities I had. Cavities from my understanding are parts of the teeth that have gotten bad and began to decay. Yet what the dentist had to do was drill away the parts of my teeth that were bad and fill them with this substance that would harden and make my teeth like good as new.

The worst part of the whole procedure in my opinion was having to get a shot in my gums to numb it up. Honestly, I do hate needles and the thought of getting poked with a pointed object in such a sensitive area made me cringe. Yet I cooperated and stayed still cause I knew it had to be done.

Yet God too says in this passage he would make his people into a “threshing sledge” and “new and sharp with many teeth”

Sometimes God has to drill out some of the things that are in our hearts and lives that hinder us from becoming the new creations He has called us to be. Just like tooth decay, God has to drill out old habits and attitudes and make room for his fillings-

God wants us to be filled with His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)

God wants to drill out all the bitterness and anger that is trapped deep inside of us (Ephesians 4:31)

God says in Ezekiel “Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? (Ezekiel 18:31)

It’s true God does the restoration work, yet what is our part to play? Well we must cooperate and give Him access to do His work! Suppose I said to the dentist, “No, you wont give me a shot in my mouth and you are not going to drill my teeth!” Well if I had did that, I would still have bad teeth and nothing would change. True dental work can be unpleasant, so can God’s work in our life as well, its not always comfortable but the results are worth it.

We got to trust that the pain He allows will result in later good. We must trust He is doing it for our good and cooperate with Him. In order to do that we must trust His wisdom and goodness. If we cannot trust Him, we will be hard pressed to even thing of cooperating with Him in the process.

Yet God wants to chisel and drill away what is not healthy in us, so we can truly experience the life He wants us to experience. A life of “joy and overflow of peace”

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. Isaiah 48:18

Jesus said “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come to give you life, and life abundantly” (John 10:10)

We often hold on to to many things that will rob us of joy and abundant life. Sin is definitely one of those things, too many people live enslaved to habits and addictions. Too many people are bitter all the time. Some people live with fear and anxiety controlling their lives and have no peace. Yet if we let Christ set us free, we can truly experience a life of victory and peace!

Calling On The Lord In The Day Of Trouble

and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
Psalm 50:15 –

This is a really wonderful promise that Psalm 50:15 speaks of, but what is the conditions to qualifying for this promise.

One is we must be thankful to God and glorify Him. We see the verse before says: ““Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Psalm 50:14-15

We see in the book of Acts this literally play out. Paul and Silas had been imprisoned and beaten. Yet as they were in the jail, they began to sing praises and hymns to the Lord

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved —you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household. Acts 16:25-34 –

God used this their praises to be a catalyst for their deliverance but also used it to be a light to the other prisoners and jailer. The Jailor saw what just happened and feared for his life that the prisoners would escape but none did. As a result Paul and Silas get the opportunity to do as 1 Peter speaks of “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
1 Peter 3:15 –

As a result the jailor believed in Jesus Christ and was saved!

Yet we cannot expect Psalm 50:15 to apply to us if we do not belong to Christ or if we do not obey God or care to do His will. Psalm 50:16 says

But to the wicked person, God says: “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips?
Psalm 50:16 –

We cannot just expect to live a life contrary to God and claim any promise like this. We see the wicked person in Psalm 50 tries to “name it and claim it” but God says basically “What gives you the right to claim my promises since you cast my instructions behind you?”

You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son. When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you. “Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you: Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation. ”
Psalm 50:17-23 –

So the condition of a promise like this is spelled out “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation”

-The grateful
-The blameless

Those seem to be the prerequisites if we want God to work powerfully in our lives. Yet we must first repent of our sins and give God credit and thanks for his goodness.

Does that mean that if I live for God and am thankful God will spare me difficulty? No, its not the case, we see as Psalm 50:15 says “Call on me in the day of trouble” meaning the Lord will allow days of trouble to come into the lives of even his faithful followers. He does not say “I will spare you a day of trouble when you call on me” but rather “Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you and you will glorify me”

He does not say He will immediately get us out of a hard situation but does seem to suggest He will eventually “Deliver” and that is often how it is in seasons of testing and hardness. We may have to go through them for a time but we can have hope that after the storm we can “See the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13)

Trials must come, but they do not have the final say over the believer. Paul and Silas faith did not keep them from being beaten or thrown in prison but delivered them through and out of that dark place.

Eventually we see: “When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.” Acts 16:35-36 –

As the Psalmist says “Though sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5)

In their case it was literally a hard night- and they were freed by morning. Yet in the dark night they still chose to praise and glorify God. The “dark night” though can represent a season of suffering over a period of time where life is just hard, persecution is real, sorrow is heavy and pain is real. Yet in our “dark nights” of trial the response should always be the same, praise God and look for opportunities to share his message and hope.

When we live that way, even the dark nights of mourning and sorrow can have the light of God shine in and comfort us. When we call on the Lord in our troubles, he may not immediately resolve a hard situation but He can give us supernatural grace and encouragement to stay strong and endure. Until he brings deliverance or breakthrough, we can taste His goodness shining into our hearts.

“Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.
Psalm 112:4 –

This is the power of faith in God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that no matter how dark things get we can truly experience His glorious light and comfort guide us through whatever we face. Yet its not so with the wicked, its not so with the unbeliever, when calamity sweeps over them they have no one really to call upon or rely on- they often trust themselves or their own schemes. They may turn to addictions or vices or a number of things to try to cope.

Yet we as believers must turn to the Lord in such difficult times and His strength will provide all we need to not just survive hard times but thrive in them!