Don’t be fooled by the colors. They look lively but they are dead. What do we do with something that’s dead or brings death? We do away with it. As for these leaves, even though they are dead, keeping it tucked between the pages of a book preserves it. You can keep going back to it as often as you like. How it comes naturally to us to tuck and hold on to things that we know hinder us from our faith walk.
We collect dead weight as we journey in this life, the weight of disappointment, disillusionment, guilt, trauma, unforgiveness and a host of things that bring a lot of pain to us and to those around us. Being in this fallen state, everything mentioned is inescapable, even for those who think they did not deserve having to go through it.
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”
1 Peter 4:12
The only way of knowing the genuineness of our faith is being burned and passing through the fire (Daniel 3, 1 Peter 1:6-7).
Looking at a day old news feels like looking at last year’s news and this feeling certainly reminds me of the ‘days being cut short’ and knowing the imminency of Christ’s return, what is keeping you off course?
Luo (loo-oh)… Paraluo (parah-loo-oh)… I am not a greek scholar but these words came to my mind yesterday. I’m not sure if I’ve heard it before, maybe, but I’m not sure. Looking it up was part of an awakening. I have gotten too comfortable where I was, in an undeniably weakened, to the point of being paralyzed state.
Trauma has knocked me off course and though this prison has no lock, it can become comfortable. The danger in this is when we start looking for answers apart from God’s Word. The trauma attempted to lead me back to an avenue of the arcane. I’ve been there before and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I refuse to go that road again.
“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”
Matthew 18:8-9
Friend, what is God asking you to burn?
((( ❤️ )))
Hands and eyes do not cause us to sin. Sin comes from the heart. My prayer is that of David in Psalm 51: “Create in me a new heart, O God.” And through the cross that prayer has already been answered. J.
“Hands and eyes do not cause us to sin. Sin comes from the heart.”
– Though sin originates from the heart, to every sin conceived comes the act, and to take on what you mentioned, no one can commit theft or murder without physically involving the hands and no one can lust or covet unless the eyes are involved. This being said, the cutting off and the gouging out is an expression of hyperbole to stress the severity of the measure that must be taken on our part. Of course this is farthest from being taken literally. An example would be Samson. His main downfall was lust and interestingly, his eyes were gouged out. Unfortunate as what happened to him, it restored his focus in doing God’s will, which we can tie to Psalm 119:67, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word.”
“My prayer is that of David in Psalm 51: “Create in me a new heart, O God.”
– We pray to get delivered from certain sins. Sometimes, God answers speedily and completely empowers a person to overcome like those who quit addictions cold turkey. The temptation is always there and He turns it for good, the agent that causes us to be in utter dependence on Him. Nevertheless, if I happen to have a collection of occultic books and paraphernalia sitting around, am I supposed to keep them? This is where the literal ‘cut it off and throw it away’ comes in.
“And through the cross that prayer has already been answered.”
– The new heart in David’s prayer is available to every person who is born of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17, John 3:3). Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished the redemption of mankind and made available to all, but not all are willing to receive it. What you are saying reminds me of a Christian universalist frame of thought that eventually, all of humanity will be reconciled to God regardless of their state, repentant or unrepentant alike. If that were truly the case, it’s one that asserts that God disregards free will.
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