WHEN YOUR FLESH STINKS

 

Growing up, we use to burn our garbage outside in a big metal drum. Sometimes the smells that came from the burning garbage would be so bad that you would have to walk off and get away from it in order to breathe. There were many times that I would stand and watch the garbage as it burn. The odor would seem to attach itself to my clothes, flesh and hair. Upon returning to the house I would have to change my clothes and bathe because the odor would become trapped deep in the fibers of my clothes and in my hair and on my flesh and only a good washing would eliminate it. Had I continued to wear those clothes and not make the effort to change them nor bathe, I am quite sure that over a period of time I could have gotten used to it, even to the point that it no longer bothered me. It’s kind of like going to someone’s house and you notice a foul odor and wonder how the people who live there are able to stand it. Yet they can and if you ask them about it, they will say that they do not smell it.

You see they have chosen to live with the odor so long that they are unable to even notice it anymore. Often times our choices and decisions in life can be like those odors. Both right and wrong decisions can attach themselves to us and we feel helpless or even worse, our laziness keeps us from doing anything about it. The result is, that others around us will notice as well.  We can make wrong choices so long, without doing anything about it until we reach a point that we will not even see them as wrong anymore. The reason for that goes as far back as the Garden of Eden. Since the fall of man, every human is born with a sin nature.  The Bible refers to our human or sin natures as the flesh. The flesh is our natural desires to obey that sinful nature. Upon salvation a person is regenerated and receives a new nature whereby God begins the process of refining and changing their desires to become His desires. As they respond to their new nature and no longer listen to their fleshly nature, they begin to take on the characteristics of God. They begin to act more like Him and less of their sinful natures.  

Many people do not understand this concept of the new birth or nature because they have never received that new nature through salvation. For those that have received salvation and yet choose to live in their fleshly nature God will discipline them until they, understand that which He is trying to teach them and they will not grow much spiritually until they have learn how to feed their spirit and starve their flesh. The reason that many are unable to discern properly the things of God is because most of the things of God are only understood within the new nature, not the flesh. Some live in the flesh because they have never been regenerated or ever received a new nature. They have only one nature and that is their flesh. While they may be able reason between good and evil, the difference is that they have no spiritual power to overcome what the child of God is able to overcome and understand about God through their new natures. This is why it is so very important to study the Bible and obey the things therein. For the child of God, Galatians 5:15-18 talks about whichever nature you feed or gratify will grow and whichever nature you starve will die. Our fleshly nature puts out an ungodly odor to the world, while they may not can see it in themselves, they can sure see it in the child of God. We must bathe ourselves in God’s Word and strive to obey what it says in order to wash off that which our flesh produces in us as foul.

Loving on you today sweet friend,

Bren

YOU KNOW THAT CHURCH IS FULL OF HYPOCRITES, DON'T YOU?

 

“Why do you go to Church all the time and make your kids go?”, a friend ask me one time. Oddly, her question kind of startled me. I guess I was startled because someone would even ask me that question. The way that she had approached me with it was not to ask me because she wanted to know for her own personal spiritual quest, but because of her personal reasons, she chose to be a little sarcastic. I know this because she followed her question with this comment, “You know that churches are full of hypocrites don’t you?”. At that comment, I busted out laughing, but she did not think it was very funny! As a matter of fact, she insisted that she chose to worship God at home and in her car because she did not want to be a part of, a bunch of hypocrites who claimed to be Christians. Well, I must tell you that as hard as I tried to hold back, I just plunged right in with this comment. “Well sister”, I said, “If you do not go to church because it is full of hypocrites, then you are disobeying the Word of God and you are no different than the hypocrites that attend church”, “What” she said, “I don’t sit around talking about other people and then go to church, thinking that God is going to bless me”. In love I responded to her by saying, “You are right that God will not bless a mouth that speaks ill will of others, but sister may I tell you that if you are a child of God and you neglect the fellowship of other believers, then you are deliberately disobeying the Word of God and he will not bless that either!”. As we continued talking about this issue, I shared with her some things that I myself had learned about what God expects of us and how I am no better than anyone else; only saved and covered by His grace which enables me to live for and serve Him the way that He commands in scripture to do so. He also enables me to have the power to love those that claim the name of Christ but by their lifestyles, do not live it.

There is a parable in the scripture that refers to exactly what my friend was talking about in Matthew 13:24-30, The parable states  that,  the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then, hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?  But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."

 

You see, Jesus was saying to them that the wheat are the true believers, the enemy is the devil who places his children amongst the true believers for his evil purpose. Those that are not of the household of faith are mere counterfeit Christians. If we tried in our own strength and wisdom to separate the two, we would end up hurting those that belong to God, because even though we may be saved, we are not perfect; and those that attend church, but are not real believers, can act like they are. However, our spiritual fruit should always distinguish us from those that are not true believers and may I tell you that God will hold us each accountable for every word and deed that we commit. I cannot recall who said this, but I like to remember it whenever the temptations come to be frustrated with those that I may be attending church alongside that God refers to as the tares in the church, it is simply, “although the tares hinder the wheat, yet they make it the more beautiful to behold”. You see if the true believer is living like he ought, then the world can see the “real thing” and be able to smell the sweet aroma of the living Savior and feel the kindness that He exhibits in their lives. They walk in true love and forgiveness. God’s word tells us that the World will know us by our love for one another. In the end God’s angels will separate the true wheat from the tares in the Church, but for now, we have but one job and that is to love others, forgive seven fold and stay steadfast in our walk with Christ and do not shrink back.

In my response to my friend’s comment about worshiping God at home and in the car, I said this, “You sure can do that and you should, because there is no place that we can be that we cannot reach God nor He us. But His word is clear in that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:25”. If we are in the habit of forsaking the assembling, I can assure you that God does not agree with our reasons no matter what they may be, if they are in direct violation of His word. There are times when someone may not have transportation, then they are to ask for help. There are times that health and age may hinder someone’s attendance, and if so, they are to take that to the Lord and see what His answers may be for them. But I can assure you that if we have developed a habit and our reasons for neglecting the assembling of ourselves with other believers are shallow and born in our flesh, then we stand without excuse.  In closing I say this, I rejoice with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord”. Psalm 122:1

 

Loving You Today,

Bren

THE LESSON OF THE FLY

 

Once there was a spider who built a beautiful web. He kept it clean and shiny so that the local flies would patronize it. The minute he got a customer, he would quickly consume it and clean up the mess so that his future customers would not get suspicious. One day a fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by the enticingly clean spider web. “Come in and sit a while”. the spider called out to the fly, “no”, the fly said, “I don’t see any other flies around your house and I will not come in alone”. So he flew off. Not long after the fly had passed by the spider’s beautiful web, he saw a clan of his old friends dancing around and having fun on what looked like some shiny brown paper. He was so delighted and was not afraid at all, after all if all the other flies were doing it, it must be okay for him as well. Just before he made his landing he heard a bee zoom by and holler out, “don’t do it, it’s not safe, that’s flypaper”. But the fairly intelligent fly shouted back, “don’t be silly, there’s a big crowd down there and some of those flies are my friends, they are dancing and having fun! Everybody’s doing it! That many flies can’t be wrong!”, so he joined them. I think you can figure out the rest of the story.

Friend, some folks want to be like that fly. As a matter of fact, they want to be with the crowd so badly that they do and in the end, they find themselves in a mess and can’t get out. What does it profit a fly if he escapes a spider’s web only to end up stuck in glue. We live in a society that beckons our allegiance to another system other than God’s, for our lives. We must always be on the alert, and take heed to those warnings that God will send us if we will be sharp and on your spiritual toes to see and hear them. The world constantly lures us to come over and join in the fun. However, it is crucial that we understand the wiles of the devil and how he lives to lure us away from truth and will stop at nothing to do so. He spares no expense on our behalf to lead us as far away from God’s will and ways for our life as possible. For some, it may be an effort to keep them from hearing the gospel message of salvation, while others may be to hinder their walk in Christ and yet still others to keep them stuck in the darkness and lies that he has created for them and they have believed. Whatever it is for, it is always to steal truth from us and distract us from God’s perfect will for our lives; and if he has to, he will even use the very word of God by whispering in our ear the misrepresentation of what God means about a thing, to lead us astray.  Just as he did Eve, he can and will cause us to question that very thing that we know to be truth and before we know it, we have compromised God’s truth and when this happens, there is always folly that follows.

 

We will adopt the world’s system or we will reject it. Jesus Himself said in the gospel of Matthew that no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold to one and despise the other, you cannot serve God and mammon. We are told not to love the world nor the things of the world. Yet, the pull for us to love the world is strong and unrelenting. To fight it requires more that an occasional shot in the dark. It requires embracing the truth as God give it to us moment by moment. The Bible tells us that God has overcome the world and if we are in Him we too will be able to overcome it through His power. However, God’s power is only released through our obedience to Him. No matter what rut we get in, if we belong to Him, we have the power through God, to get out! But we must choose to do it God’s way. A rut is only a hole with the ends kicked out of it.  So, if the grave will not hold those that are in Christ, then friend what makes us think a dirty old rut will! If you find that you are in a rut, maybe one that you have allowed yourself to be in, then start kicking friend and don’t stop until you no longer feel the dirt flying back in your face. God is able, but are your willing?

Let us learn the lesson from the fly, don’t do it just because your friends are doing it, for those friends may be headed in a different direction than you ultimately will want to go!

Loving on you today!
Bren

THE PURPOSE OF A WOMAN

 

 

"She was adorned with all of heaven and earth that they could bestow upon her to make her amiable." Grace was in her steps. Heaven was in her eye, and every gesture possessed dignity, poise and love. Perfection was stamped on her. The sons of God shouted for joy, the morning stars sang together, and Eden was Transformed. Now Adam has what he needed.
–Milton                                                            

All that God had made before Eve, was made for man. It was called the Garden of Eden. God had made it and the entire universe for one person and that was Adam. He had everything he would need; though it seemed, in this idealists bliss something was missing! Adam found his first need and it was for companionship. Though he did not realize it at first, his heart longed for someone to share with him the beauty that his eyes embraced at every sunrise and sunset.  Adam needed someone to whom he could say, "Look at those blinking lights, I call them stars!  He longed for communion with a kindred soul, one whose wants and joys were like his own. The new virgin world was beautiful in almost every way, yet his soul longed for something else.  In Gen 2:21-24, God met Adam’s first need, He put Adam to sleep and from his side produced the first woman.

 

When Adam awoke, the winds were a thousand times more refreshing now that she was there. The flowers were a thousand times more fragrant. The trees were more beautiful and it’s fruits even more delicious. The sun seemed brighter and the moon more lovely. Even the animals felt the difference because she was there. She was created because all of the perfection that the Garden of Eden had to offer, did not give to Adam what he needed. Nothing is happy, until it fulfills its purpose for existence. God has made everything with its own purpose. He makes nothing by accident. He was still working on His plan for Adam. Now that Eve was on the scene, Adam would have someone to cheer for him as he gave names to all of God’s creation. He finally had someone to say, “yes, Adam you are so right about those blinking lights, and yes sweetheart, I did know that you named them”.

 

You see God has a plan for your life and mine. We were created for a purpose. We were created for each other. Often times people will talk about their rights, when they should be talking about their purpose. We have only one right in this life and that is to find God's will and purpose for our life. Then sit securely and work actively right in the center of God's purpose and place for us. As a woman I am convinced that I was created to complete someone else. Someone like my husband, who longed for someone just like me. In watching my little grand boys riding their bicycles one day, I noticed they were competing for my attention and praises as they often will naturally do. One of them would stick a leg out and say, “Hey Granna, take a look at this” while the other one was saying at the same time I might add, “Hey Granna, have you ever seen anybody do this as good as me?” I am sure that you can guess the answers that I gave them. You see, that is why I believe God made women. He made us to cheer on the sidelines while our fella’s strive through life to make touchdowns; and when they don’t, we are their private cheerleaders that will always give them audience as we see them doing things that others will oftentimes fail to see. We were made to finish in them what God stared, I like that, it makes me feel good inside!

 

Loving on you today!

Bren

DIVINE DARKNESS

 

What must you do when darkness comes into your life? Keep walking! Don’t stop! Haul yourself up and do your duty to keep going in the same direction you were going when the darkness came. What did God say to you before you went into the darkness? What was your call when the voice of God was clear? Then do it still. Keep on walking. Nothing has changed on the path except your perception of it. Do your duty nevertheless, and keep walking even when the lights go out. Your darkness may very well be a divine darkness that stops you in your tack with no warning, nor any word from God concerning it. You are not the first one to walk in divine darkness nor will you be the last. Isa. 50:10 says this, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of His Servant? Let him who walks in the darkness who has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God. There is divine darkness that comes to those who walk with God and for some, it can nearly wipe them out. If you are experiencing this kind of darkness you will search your heart and find nothing, you rebuke the devil, you ask for prayers, you listen to great preaching, you consume the Word of God, yet still nothing, no answers from God; just darkness. Tozer called it, “the ministry of the night” while Spurgeon preached about “the child of light walking in darkness.” The experience is common among God’s children. It is not the kind of darkness of wrong or guilt or demonic oppression. Nor is it sin. It is instead, an inexplicable sense of loss and uncertainty. It is above all, a withdrawn sense of the presence of God. Notice I said, withdrawn sense, underscoring the word “sense”, of God’s presence. While He has not nor, will He ever leave you because of the divine darkness that you are sensing, it will appear to you that He has. What you are going through is not new. It came to every man and woman of God in Scripture that ever sought to live in obedience to God.  It came to Abraham as he stood waiting for God to accept his sacrifice. Moses experienced it on the mountain as he waited to receive the word of God for His people in the thick darkness the scripture says, where God was. Job felt the divine darkness as he looked for good and yet evil came upon him. David experienced bouts of divine darkness as he tried to serve God. The prophets of God wept as they walked through their own divine darkness. It came to the godly kings and they humbled themselves and were broken even greater than before. It even came to the Son of God Himself as He hang on the cross. So be assured that if you set your heart to seek God, this darkness will also come to you. You will not escape it nor be exempt . It is an essential factor if you are to walk and have a deeper relationship to God. It will only come through the divine darkness of Christian experience. May I encouraging you today sweet friend to simply hold on, and be not dismayed, for there is nothing new under the sun! You are not alone in what you are going through. Though you may feel as though God is sleighing you for a time, keep serving Him! Don’t you dare give up. God will release in you the light and answers that you are looking for, when the time of your darkness is to pass!

Loving on you today,

Bren

LEADERS

It has not always been the will of God for men to lead men. His initial plan was that He alone would lead His creation. However, as sin entered the world  and men became lovers of themselves and chose to worship His creation instead of the creator, war and unhappiness was the result and it seemed inevitable that God would have to raise up godly men to lead His people .

Upon the death of Moses, God worked through and used another faithful leader Joshua.  He used Joshua to lead Israel to victories as they battled and journeyed their way to the Promised Land. After Joshua died, God’s people again lost their zeal for Him. The Israelites grew weary of their constant need of driving out the Canaanites. They became tired of besieging city after city in order to conquer their enemies and stay on top of their game. They decided to slow down, lay back and not work quite so hard at driving away the pagan influences that was corrupting them and bringing new thought and religions into their lives and their homes. As they became more tolerant of those changes, they began to change their behaviors and beliefs about God and in doing so they brought judgment to the household of God which was His people. More and more as the people of Israel tolerated their idol-worshipping neighbors, they grew accustomed to their ungodly beliefs.

As time passed, a new generation of Israelites came into adulthood, one that was easily enticed by the sexually loose and morally corrupt ways of the Canaanites. God’s plan was that Israel become a shining example of His Ways. His laws were to be their wisdom, leading the Israelites to be a blessed people for their obedience to Him. The nations surrounding them were to take note and thus yearn to know about God’s laws because of the role model and influence that His children were being. Instead, the Israelites entered a cycle of rejecting God in favor of idols and in doing so they suffered the military conquests of neighboring enemy nations. As those times happened, they would always turn back and cry out to God for deliverance. God would always respond to His people by sending a deliverer to deliver them from their trials and bondage time and time again. That repetitive cycle is recorded in the book of Judges, and refers to a time when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” Judges 21:25. Like the Israelites did time and time again we too live in a day when men and women do that which is right in their own eyes and like them we too are paying the great cost! God has provided us someone today that can lead us out of our transgressions and into a life of abundance.

Unlike those that believe in the name it claim it religion, God’s abundance does not promise money, power, nor any fleshly thing. But His promises are eternal. They are not carnal that man can tarnish them or take them away. His abundances are greater than anything the eye can see. They are peace, faithfulness, happiness, joy, contentment and so much more. He who loves us, calls us into all truth. However, if we are unwilling to follow His leadership we will not enjoy the blessings of His rewards. Let it be Lord to our credit, that we hear the truth and follow it.    

During the period of the judges in the Bible, God used them to deliver His people from affliction. Sometimes judges led armies, as Gideon did against the Midianites. Other times, judges worked alone as did Samson. The servants that God used to judge His people were men, except for one woman. Her name was Deborah. The story of Deborah a prophetess or judge of Israel occurred around or about 1125BC. In those days a judge in Israel was more of a tribal leader unlike the judges of our day. God used them to lead and guide His people during the days before Israel had Kings. God used them to deliver His messages to His people as well as using them as advisors in times of peace. They were given God’s authority to settle disputes and solve problems among the Jews. They also acted as councilors in war times and were used as rallying points to gather the tribes and organize their resistance.

While Deborah did not have the characteristic of masculinity, nor any great power given to her by the people, she did have authority from God to judge and facilitate the people of God during her time. Deborah is the only woman judge mentioned in the Book of Judges. The people of her time had no difficulty in accepting her as a judge which suggests that judges were seen simply as God’s people, and their gender was unimportant. She had authority rather than power, and people respected her for the qualities she had, rather than for her military might or physical strength. You see the judges of Israel did not impose their authority on the Israelite people they did not have to. They were simply representatives of God, transmitting direct messages from God. Most often the message was about staying apart from the surrounding cultures and maintaining their unique identity and beliefs from what they had been taught about God. Deborah was inspired to speak out about the deteriorating state of the country around Ephraim.

Law and order had broken down, and it was no longer safe for society. It has to be said that the Israelites that settled in the hill country of Canaan, were largely to blame for these problems. For they continually raided the Canaanite farms and villages on the prosperous plains below their hill settlements, and of course the powerful long arm of their enemy retaliated and oppressed the Israelites. God used Deborah’s obedience to what He said and how He was going to bring relief to a worn out nation who was testing God’s patience once again. How is God using your life today? If you are a child of God, you are merely His representative to others. It is only His light that you should be reflecting. Are you leading others to a better understanding of God by your own witness and lifestyle? Or, are you hiding it under bushels of trails and burdens, so that others cannot see the light from the smoke?  Our society needs good leaders that will stand up and represent the truth by their lifestyles; not merely what they say. We need great leaders in every aspect of our society. But let’s make sure that the light that they are carrying is the light of truth.

Loving on you today,

Bren

A FATHER'S LOVE FOR HIS FAMILY

I read the other day that almost 30 million children in America grow up without a father. Eighty five percent or more of them live in poverty in this great country. Oh it gets worse! Those children are 20 times more likely to attempt suicide, fifty times more likely to take drugs and 40 times more likely to go to prison. However, what is really alarming about those statistics is that, they are old. I heard a statement once that, if we paid as much attention to our plants as we do our children, we’d be living in a jungle of weeds. Is that not heartbreaking to you? Yesterday on the radio I heard a song and one of the verses was, “I wish that I would do what I didn’t do in the past”. How true are those words to us all; because we all have regrets. However, each new day allows us a new opportunity to recapture what time and wrong choices have reeked on our lives and our families.

There is no doubt that there is a huge gap in the family when the father is either absent or he is not providing for his family with the proper emotional and spiritual training that his children need. I believe that most folks would agree not to condemn, but to challenge fathers to question their time and where they are spending it, or if it is simply neglect. There is no doubt that many men work hard to care for the physical needs for their family. Yet, even within that group of men, many of those fathers neglect other areas that need the attention that only a father can provide. Some men believe that as long as they put food on the table, they are doing their jobs as a provider. While that may sound manly, it is simply not acceptable. Nor, is it the healthy way that God meant for a man to be as a father and leader in his home. Thank God for mothers who do stand in the gap, but the Bible says that God will ultimately hold the man responsible for the spiritual training and emotional well-being of his children. By the time a child is 12 years old research shows that they have learned 75 per cent of all that they will ever know. The challenge is, “what teachers will they have learned it from”? Will it be from television, the words and lyrics of songs that they had no business listing to, but was allowed, because it was easier to ignore than to discipline? Maybe, because the parents themselves listen to it and see nothing wrong with it. Will they have chosen to learn wrong things from their peers, because of the double standards within their own home; do as I say and not as I do? Did they learn what they know from a friend’s parents, who’s teaching was unacceptable? As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

Who is bending your children? If you are investing all of your energy into a job or a hobby and leave none for your family, you will pay the high price. While you get only one chance at raising your children, you can stop at any time from making the wrong choices; and get on the right track. Your children will either grow up to resent you, repeat your mistakes, or rejoice in the memory where a home was filled with love and was spelled TIME. If having grown up in a home where the father spent the time needed and provided the loving nurture and discipline to his children, he will have taught them that no matter what wrong choices they make in life, they will know how to turn them around to their advantage, to be productive and happy; because they will have learned it from home. In the book of Malachi we are reminded to remember the law of God for ourselves and how important they are to teach our children. It gives warning to remember our past mistakes and realize that we are in a war. A spiritual war that is constantly tugging at our children’s heart to come, to take part, to indulge in lifestyles that seem to offer them temporary satisfaction but in the end bondage in some form or another.

As parents we must fight for them, fight with them, not against them. By that I mean to make every effort possible to reach them and not give up! If our love is the kind of love that they need, we will have succeeded in helping them to reach their potential. Malachi 4:6 says that :”He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the children to the father”, God is able, are you willing? Would you begin today, to pray this prayer for yourself or someone you know that may need some extra help in this area. There is nothing that can take the place of a father’s love for and in his family.

Loving on you today,

Bren