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As Long as I Behave “Good?”

To be a perfect Christian man or a perfect Christian woman, one must behave perfectly?

During Jesus time, the most religious Jewish leaders added hundreds of laws prescribing how good Jews must live. What did Jesus think of these epitomes of religious perfection? In Matthew 23 alone, He called or said to them the following:

  • Hypocrites
  • Woe unto you, ye blind guides
  • You fools
  • [you … have omitted… judgement, mercy, and faith
  • [you] strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel
  • [you are] full of extortion and excess
  • You are full of dead men’s bones, and all uncleanness… and hypocrisy and iniquity
  • You serpents, you generation of snakes… you kill and crucify… you scourge in your synagogues

Earlier, when asked to define the greatest commandment, Jesus replied:

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:37-40)

Do you think that loving God and loving others is about our behavior?

Yes, . . . and no

Are we to extend acts to demonstrate our love? Absolutely. Can we “demonstrate” love to manipulate or gain favor? Can we execute “required” behaviors just like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and not be genuine?

I serve my wife, . . . so she will sleep with me. Hey, I sacrificially served my wife, don’t I GET something for that?

I respect my husband, so he will not grouse when I spend outside our budget. Hey, I stroked his ego, he owes me.

Looking on, we observe serving and respect, but the motives have nothing to do with love.

The crux? My motives and my heart.

Can you see  now that it comes down to our hearts, to your heart? Can you behave properly and be far far from God and His purposes? To understand how to live and love as men and women, we must first agree that it IS all about our motives and our hearts. That is where we will begin.

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Want a Pickup Truck?

“The only folks who talk about Satan drive pickup trucks,” said the pastor.

Guess Jesus has an awesome truck, as He Himself said the following about our enemy:

Per Jesus, Satan  is:

“The enemy”, Matthew 13:39
“The evil one”, Matthew 13:38
“The prince of this world”, John 12:31; 14:30
“A liar”, and “the father of lies”, John 8:44
“A murderer”, John 8:44

And Jesus said that Satan is the one who:

Jesus “saw . . . fall from heaven”, Luke 10:18
Has a “kingdom”, Matthew 12:26
“Sowed tares among the wheat”, Matthew 13:38,39
“Snatches away what has been sown in [a] heart”, Matthew 13:19; Mark 4:15; Luke 8:12
“Bound a woman for 18 years”, Luke 13:16
“Desired to have Peter”, Luke 22:31
“Has angels”, Matthew 25:41

Scripture in general represents Satan as the one who is:

“The great dragon”, “the old serpent”, Rev 12:9; 20:2
“The tempter”, Matt 4:3
“The prince of demons”, Matt 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15
The “source of demoniacal possession”, Matt 12:22-29; Luke 11:14-23
A roaring lion seeking to devour Christians, 1 Peter 5:8
Overcome by faith, 1 Peter 5:9
Wily, Eph 6:11
The spirit that works in the disobedient, Eph 2:2
Our “adversary”, 1 Peter 5:8
“The deceiver of the whole world”, Rev. 12:9; 20: 3,8,10
The “seducer of Adam and Eve”, Gen 3:1-20
“The god of this world”, 2 Cor. 4:4
“The prince of the power of the air”, Eph 2:2

He is the one who:

“Fashions himself into an angel of light”, 2 Cor. 11:14
Put betrayal into the heart of Judas, John 13:2,27
Perverts the Scripture, Matt 4:4; Luke 4: 10,11
Will “flee if resisted”, James 4:7
Caused “Paul’s thorn in the flesh”, 2 Cor. 12:7
Hindered Paul’s missionary plans, 1 Thes. 2:18
Caused Ananias to lie, Acts 5:3
Blinds the minds of unbelievers, 2 Cor. 4:4
Can produce false miracles, 2 Thes. 2:9
Moved David to sin, I Chron 21:1.
Caused Job’s troubles, Job 1:7-2:10
Was the Adversary of Joshua, Zech. 3:1-9

In addition:

False teachers are “a synagogue of Satan”, Rev. 2:9; 3:9
Evil men are his children, 1 John 3:8,10

You want a truck too?

The 4th Wednesday of every month we will write about warfare and how you can prevail. You can subscribe to our blog posts to be certain not to miss any.

PS. Thanks to Richmond Hill Baptist Church for nicely organizing these scriptures.

 

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Insidious Assaults

Satan came to kill, steal and destroy; the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour; the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus; Satan is the father of lies; the enemy is the accuser of the brethren; and it is called the ruler of and the god of this world.

Had enough? Has it sunk in? Is this part of your reality? Do you live like it?

Let’s review the precise nature and resulting impacts of our enemy’s “assaults.” In future posts, I will expand on each item below, supported by scripture references.

  1. Men and women uniquely reflect different attributes of God.
  2. Men are designed to come through, and women desire to be pursued.
  3. This leads to core questions. For men, it is “Do I have what it takes?” For women, it is “Am I captivating?”
  4. The father of lies has strategically answered these questions with a resounding “No!”
  5. Each answer is a lie, shot with precise targeting to intentionally corrupt our God-purposed strengths and desires.
  6. Each lie implants evil messages that are engraved into our hearts.
  7. We must decide how we will handle these messages — to accept, reject, or ignore them.
  8. How we handle these messages then shapes how we see ourselves, and through that lens, how we relate to the world.
  9. We then make decisions of how we will live our lives. These decisions are called agreements.
  10. These agreements imprison us, causing us to live far from our God intended design.

Understanding this, when you meet someone, you see the “me” that he or she created to survive the lies and messages shot at their hearts.

Let’s put flesh to this.

The young woman had a stunning voice, but she was “thick” by Madison Avenue standards, so her world told her she was not lovely. She believed the message that her frame made her imperfect, so she struggled with her value, even to the point that she believed herself a disappointment to God. Her agreements? Survive in her worship music while accepting that she should be alone. She accepted the “fact” that she was unlovable, in spite of the fact that she was stunningly beautiful in so many ways.

As a young boy, he courteously addressed a teacher that did not suffer the voice of children. “You must keep quiet. You must shut up. You cannot speak to me. You do not belong here,” all said more sternly than warranted. His agreements, “I have no voice, and if I did, offering it is dangerous, so I will hide.” Meeting him as an adult, you leaned in to hear his soft voice, and he selected jobs where he hid his God given passion and gifts. Who is he now? Via his loud and clear, courageous, and gifted voice, he offers hope and love to kids in unforgiving lives.

The arrows that resulted in the agreements of “unlovable” or “hide,” were aimed EXACTLY at the desires, strengths, and passions God had placed in each of these stunning people. Do you think it was random?

On the 3rd Wednesday of each month I will discuss assaults, posing, wounding, and healing. To your freedom.