Established Hearts

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Ephesians 3:17 says, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love.”
 
Our heart is our belief center. The roots of our heart’s belief become established through the nutrients of God’s word. The world has no life-giving nutrients for our heart.
 
1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Romans 12:2 JBP says to not let the world squeeze us into its mold.
 
David had a great prayer. Psalm 86:11 says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.” Remembering the song: Give me an undivided heart, that I might fear your name.
 
Here is a great verse to embed in your heart. Psalm 112:1 says, “Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.” Verse 2-6 define the fruit.
 
Verse 7-8 says, “He will not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established; he will not be afraid, until he sees his desire upon his enemies.”
 
We never need to be afraid. Why? The Lord is always with us. Always. His promises are eternally true. They ground us in the truth of who He is at all times.
 
Hebrews 13:9 says, “…For it is good that the heart be established by grace…” We are saved by grace, and we walk by grace. We are bid to come boldly to His throne of grace to find the help of His unending mercy and abounding grace.
 
Another way we establish our heart is to gaze upon the Lord. We become what we focus on. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Roots Part Three

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Roots are strengthened and established in good soil. If there is no fruit, then the soil needs to be amended. Amend means to improve. John the Baptist said in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
 
Roots are hidden. All their work is done in secret. We can call it developing a secret history in Jesus. We serve before an audience of One. Everything we do is for Him.
 
We decrease the more we exemplify the Lord. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. We are a fragrant witness.
 
A fragrance is derived from something. Ecclesiastes 10:1 says, “Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor.” That is the wrong fragrance!
 
Here is the right one. Mary is our example. She sat at the feet of Jesus. She listened to every word with her heart. I love to think about this verse. John 12:3 says, “Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” She exuded the fragrance of worship.
 
Here is a new song about this verse.
 
Extravagant Oil of Joy
 
I lift my unveiled face to gaze into Your face. Face to face I behold You as You behold me. No veil separates us. No fear of being known. We have intimate communion. Our hearts are knit as one.
 
I stand O Lord in Your presence unashamed. All guilt is washed away. All condemnation is cleansed. Through the blood. Through the shed blood of Jesus.
 
With joy I lift my heart in song. A song that flows through me like a river. A song that cascades and rushes to be expressed. In pure worship knowing Your joy as You behold me.
 
O the wonder. The marvelous wonder and awe. All my sins are cleansed in the power of Your blood. Let my joy be a fragrance that delights Your heart O God. An extravagant oil poured upon Your feet in worship.
 
 

Roots Part Two

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Mark 4:17 shows us how essential it is to have a root in ourself. I love David’s example in 1 Samuel 30. David and his men were exhausted from their travels back to their homes in Ziklag. I can imagine their anticipation as they came to the last rise before they would see Ziklag below them.
 
Verse 3 says that they came to the city. It was burned with fire, their wives and children had been taken captive. Verse 4 says, “Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep.”
 
Verse 6 says, “Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him…” What? These were his army. They had fought shoulder to shoulder in battles. The end of the verse goes on to say, “…But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”
 
David’s roots were deeply embedded in the soil of God’s word. That is so evident through the psalms that he wrote. He was a shepherd. He understood the needs of sheep: quiet waters, green pastures, and time to ruminate. He applied the same to his own life.
 
After David strengthened himself in the Lord, he inquired of the Lord for clear direction. Verse 8 says, “…Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And He answered him, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”
 
With God’s direction, David marshaled some of his men to pursue. They did recover their wives, children, their flocks and herds. Verse 19 says that nothing of theirs was lacking.
 
David’s strong relationship with the Lord, and the inner ability to strengthen himself through God’s promises, helped him to stand in the face of radical opposition.

Roots

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Years ago I was in a spiritually dormant season. I asked my landscape architect friend about tree roots during the winter. He said that though there were no leaves on the trees, the roots were busily collecting nutrients from the soil.
 
Psalm 1:2-3 says, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whole leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
 
Spiritual roots are fed by drinking in God’s word. They are our root’s Life Source. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
 
Roots need water. Our spiritual water is God’s word. Without it we would dry up at the roots. There are three interesting verses in Job. It gives hope for those who feel spiritually dry, or who have prodigals in their lives.
 
Job 14:7-9 says, “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, YET at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant.”
 
In Mark 4:13-20 Jesus explained the parable of the sower to His disciples. Some of the seeds fell on the wayside, some on stony ground, some among thorns, and some on good ground.
 
Verse 17 says of the seeds in the stony ground, “And they have no root in themselves and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises, for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.”
 
I encourage your to ask yourself this question: How deep are my roots?
 
 

Root Out And Plant Part Two

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At my old house I had weeds with tap roots. It seemed impossible to get to the root. I could have removed what was visible to make the garden bed more acceptable, but that was only a futile cover up.
 
Do you have any stubborn behaviors that you have tried to get rid of and have not been successful? The good news is that the Holy Spirit is able! Progressive sanctification is getting at the tap root.
 
Hunters have blinds they hide behind. They can watch, but the prey doesn’t detect them. Deception is a blind that blocks and hides us from the truth that will set us free.
 
I have an ebook on Amazon called: Emotionally Indifferent: pretending you are not affected. Emotional detachment is a tap root. It is rooted in self-deception. A deceived person does not recognize they are deceived.
 
James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Jeremiah 1:10 says that we are to uproot and then plant. Allowing negative behavior to control our lives is manifest as the fruit of emotional detachment.
 
It is good to ask this question: What lies have I believed that are bearing the negative fruit of anger, bitterness, resentment, doubt, fear, unbelief, or unforgiveness? Everyone of these unresolved issues is addressed in God’s word.
 
We are to be doers of the word. 1 John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
 
1 John 2:3-4 says, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
 
Renounce means to disown. 2 Corinthians 4:2 says, “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Root Out and Plant

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Jeremiah 1:10 says, “See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.”
This wording is used multiple times in Jeremiah. It is in reference to the words that God put in his mouth. Jeremiah was the spokesman, but God was the orchestrator and initiator.
That is essential to remember in our own progressive sanctification. We follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, because He knows what to uproot.
Roots are hidden in the soil of our hearts. We know they are there because of the fruit. 2 Kings 19:30 says, “…take root downward, and bear fruit upward.”
Years ago I was going to change a flower bed. The flowers were straggly, and wanted something more dynamic. As I began to uproot the first plant, I discovered a whole network of roots. They were not visible on the surface, but the bed was a massive interlocking of roots. I finally had to shovel out the dirt with the roots and start over entirely.
The visible fruit is the evidence of the hidden root. Let’s take bitterness. Hebrews 12:15 says, “Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.”
Peter told Simon in Acts 8:23 that he was poisoned by bitterness and bound in iniquity. Verse 22 said to repent of his wickedness, “…if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.”
Our thoughts come from the roots in our heart. Therefore in order to get rid of bitterness, we have to go to the root. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Unresolved issues are the seed bed for the roots of bitterness to spread out.
Colossians 2:6-7 says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”

You Are Chosen

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John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
 
This morning I began reading the book of Jeremiah. Verse 5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
 
It is absolutely amazing to think about how the Lord formed us in the womb. Everything needed to fulfill His purpose through us was encapsulated in the seed of our conception.
 
The Lord set Jeremiah apart and ordained or appointed him as a prophet to His people Israel. Jeremiah immediately said that he couldn’t speak and that he was not qualified.
 
I love how the Lord said: do not say. Verse 7 says, “…whatever I command you, you shall speak.” Then He assured Jeremiah that He would be with him. Verse 8 says, “Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”
 
The Lord has chosen you, set you apart, and appointed you to bear fruit that will glorify Him. Have you ever said, ‘I can’t’ to His command?
 
Here is a new song that the Lord gave me. After that song He began to open my eyes to recognize the natural qualities that He had placed in me when He formed me in my mother’s womb. May it encourage you, as this word is for you also.
 
Celebrate Your Uniqueness
 
My hands have made you and fashioned you in My image. There is no one else like you. Don’t try to copy others. Influence them through who you are. Be you in the design of My making.
 
Creativity is freedom from sameness. It all begins in your thoughts. Be free to explore and develop the passions I’ve given you. Thoughts can box you in or free your spirit. Accepting who you are will cause you to thrive in every aspect of your life.
 
All things work together for good to those who are called according to My purpose. Nothing is in vain. I will redeem it all. The things you have been through have given you eyes to see and ears to hear and compassion to minister to others. I want you to celebrate you as I celebrate you. You are created for My glory.
 
 

Paul The Prisoner

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The book of the Acts ended with Paul in prison in Rome. Acts 28:16 says that he was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him.
 
He called the leaders of the Jews, and explained why he was there. Verse 20 says, “For this reason therefore I have called for you, to see you and speak with you, because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”
 
They went to hear him. Note: whatever he said to them, the soldier also heard. Verse 30 says that he dwelt in the rented house for two whole years.
 
Verse 31 says, “Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus with all confidence, no one forbidding him.”
 
Though Paul was a prisoner, he freely spoke of the Lord at every opportunity. 2 Timothy 2:9 says regarding the gospel, “For which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained.”
 
Remember, Paul encouraged us to imitate him. Though we are not in prison, the whole world is reeling with the impact of COVID19. Ephesians 4:1 says, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”
 
We are, in a sense, prisoners as we are sheltering in, but the word IN us in not chained. Let us look for every opportunity to speak of the Lord to others. If you have unsaved family or friends, now is an opportune time to write to them or call, or get on Voom for face to face conversation. Let them know that you are praying for them. Show care and compassion for their lives.

Shipwrecked Opportunities

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There is so much in the story of the ship that carried Paul to Rome. It seems prophetic for our times in this pandemic. The world has been caught up in a tempestuous storm.
 
Paul had just told everyone what the angel had said to him. Then in Acts 27:26 he said, “However, we must run aground on a certain island.”
 
In verse 30 some of the sailors were seeking to escape. Paul told the centurion that unless the men stayed on the ship they wouldn’t be saved.
 
Verses 39-44 is the account of the shipwreck. Verse 44 says that they all escaped safely to the land, which was called Malta.
 
Acts 28:1-10 is the account of their time on the island. Paul had many shipwreck opportunities to bear witness of the Lord. First, the natives welcomed them. It was raining and cold so they kindled a fire. Verse 3 says, “But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.”
 
Verse 5 says, “But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.” What a testimony! The natives were expecting him to suddenly fall down dead.
 
The leading man of the Island entertained the shipwrecked men for three days. His father was sick. Verse 8-9 says, “…Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid hands on him and healed him. So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed.”
 
Paul used the shipwreck to declare the Lord before those around him. Nothing daunted him. He moved forward in the power and confidence of the Lord. He demonstrated his faith at every opportunity.
 
Paul shook off the deadly viper. What an example for us. We must shake off the fear that seeks to fasten onto us through this virus, just as Paul shook off the viper. Those around us are watching to see how we react. May our confidence be in the Lord. May He be glorified through our words and actions.

Undeterred Part Two

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Yesterday I was working on my Emotional Freedom paperback. That was written in 2016, but the words were about Jesus not being deterred. I love God’s timing.
*Jesus is our ongoing example. Luke 9:51 says, “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.”
*Nothing deterred Jesus from His set course. He did not shrink back. He knew that when He died on the cross, it would pave the way for you and me to have an intimate relationship with Him.
*Hebrews 12:2 told how He endured. His focus was on the joy that was set before Him. The verse also reminds us to keep our focus on Him. It says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Paul was undeterred as he stood before the council. He wisely spoke words that would disrupt the council. The Sadducees and the Pharisees were divided in what they believed. Such a great dissension took place that the commander brought him into the barracks to protect him.
Acts 23:11 says, “But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.”
Paul remained undeterred when there was a plot against him. Forty men made a great oath to not eat or drink until they had killed Paul. The Lord intervened. Paul was moved in the night and sent to the governor Felix. By the way, the Bible never said another word about the forty.
Paul stood before Felix, and King Agrippa as he recounted his journey and salvation on the road to Damascus. He appealed to Caesar, and thus his journey to Rome via a ship was procured.
The ship was caught in a tumultuous tempest and everyone feared for their lives. Paul remained undeterred. Acts 27:2 he told the men that an angel of God had stood by him. Verse 24 says, “…Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.”