Hard hearts don't let go easily

Exodus 7:14 "So the Lord said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go. "

Just as Pharaoh did not let go of the people of Israel due to a hard heart, so we don't let go of sin because of a hard heart. Sin hardens the heart so that the heart will not desire to rid itself of sin. It is looking for a place to stay and call home, so it gets the owner of the home to be comfortable with it's presence.Like a salesmen knocking on your door with a tempting product, it introduces itself as a kind stranger to be welcomed in your home. The more sin is allowed in and practiced, the harder the heart gets,sin turns from an acquaintance,to a guest, to eventually owner of the house! When sin introduces itself as a kind salesmen, it only advertises the pleasurable aspects of it's product without the side effects or cost, i.e, Satan to Eve in Genesis 3:5, "..and you will be like God,knowing good and evil.."..Never mind you'll die and know the pain/sorrow of evil as well.

Satan sells the alcohol's buzz- not the car wreck, the sex- not the broken relationship or the unwanted pregnancy/STD, the porn- not the broken marriage from unreal expectations/discontentment, the laughs- not the destroyed career/friendship by gossip.. etc.

Salesmen are trained to talk about cost, last and little... They'll skim over it after they see the product is desired by the prospect and they know they are ready to buy, convinced it is worth it regardless the price. Some salesmen (like the devil), will get you to sign the contract without even knowing it's full cost. Jesus puts up the cost first and clear with no fine print (Luke 9:23).

Like a neighborhood cat at our door, we can feed sin and cause it to grow and become a welcome visitor (Gen 4:7), or we can feed our hearts with God's word and cause our love of God to grow. That is why it is so important to remember our first love (Rev.2:4), One: because He commands and deserves it of course, and wants an intimate relationship with us. Two: because without loving God as we should we will start to love this world in ways we should not.

Your heart will inevitably love something,it is designed to love, direct that love to God, not to self or sin, which is love perverted, as Satan perverts all good things by taking them out of their boundaries and twisting them to another purpose than God originally intended (like sex, made for marriage, is perverted by fornication. Fornication illegitimately takes the reward of a lifelong commitment it has not made). A loving relationship is not easy and takes work, but the Lord must have our hearts, because when we possess them they are wicked and deceitful to our own spiritual ruin (Jer.17:9). But when we abide in Him and return to Him, what peace and good fruit will flow from our hearts and lives (John 15:4/Isaiah 26:3/Psalm 119:9-11) !

When Suffering Doesn't Make Sense

I spent years trying to make sense of a particular suffering that didn't make sense. Regardless of any suffering, God can turn it to a testimony. We go through trials, it is part of life. What is always in a legal trial? A testimony. You do not have to just sit and suffer as the trial goes down, but be a witness in your trial as to who God is and what He has done in the midst of it. Not all suffering is sent by God,though God does test us. Ultimately all suffering is because we live in a world fallen by sin and suffering reveals how truly ugly sin is and it's consequence, it warns us that because of sin there is suffering, so we need to hate sin as we see all the destruction it has brought forth. God does allow suffering though, just like He allows us to be tempted, yet He does not tempt anyone. When God allows, we must let the fiery trial refine us and our character,revealing what is hidden in our hearts and letting God turn our hearts to Godly character. Responding the right way to what God allows is critical, instead of failing the test of being found faithful and allowing a bitter root to grow and destroy us from the inside (Hebrews 12:15).

God allows trials to increase our character,  as we read here:

Romans 5:3,4

“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

James 1: 2-4

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

Psalm 119:71
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn your statutes."

God's ultimate goal, is to make us like His Son, so if suffering makes me more like Him with His character traits I would not otherwise have, I welcome what God will use to make me like Jesus.

Of course in the suffering you think “How could you allow this God?” But you do not see the story from the other side and what He can accomplish through you if you allow your trial to turn into a testimony. For years, I did not see or understand the fruit of how God was going to use my suffering; After being forced away from the town I grew up in and loved, also suffering great physical/mental/emotional and even spiritual, trauma from an abusive father who ended up trying to kill me and almost did (much blood was donated to keep me alive). I now can say I have seen the fruit in eternal value. My testimony allows me to have empathy toward hurt people and share the reason for the hope in me (1 Peter 3:15) that doesn’t make sense to this world. I have seen the lost come to Christ who had experienced other traumas and when they heard how God saved me from despair, attempted suicide, from hatred and anger, how He gave me the power to forgive, and the joy on my face, they realize they are not hopeless either and some have accepted Christ.

Note this:  If just one soul gets saved , as a result of God using the circumstances in your life, to create a testimony to reach their heart, in a way that someone who hasn’t suffered could not, it is worth any suffering you have endured.  

I do not say that ignorantly or hypocritically as I intimately know the suffering of near death,abuse,loss of justice (no jail time for attacker as he got off with insanity defense) and years of trauma to the point of madness that brought attempted suicide. God lifted me out to help those still in it.Ask God to make your temporary suffering have eternal value. Even 90 years of suffering would be worth one soul not suffering forever and by far worse.  So whatever your suffering has been, small or major, be sure to keep the right attitude and confidence in God to use it for His glory and ask Him to be glorified in it.Ask Him to use it as a testimony for people suffering similarly. If you have been divorced or abandoned or raised in a broken home, reach out to the lost who are going through the hurt of broken relationships, if you have suffered trauma, reach out to victims similar, if chronic pain, reach out to those physically hurting and depressed from it. When people who are suffering without Christ see how you overcame because of Him, or, how you are currently dealing with it and having joy that doesn’t make sense; it will draw them to want to know the reason for the hope that is in you.

Don’t allow bitterness to ruin your story and defeat the purpose God can make for your suffering. With great suffering can come a great testimony. Even tiny insignificant suffering, like being stuck at a long red light, instead of fretting something you can't change, use that time to sing a praise song to God, you might wish it stayed red longer...       

The bible mentions patience and perseverance in suffering, there is also here where Peter writes:

2 Peter 1:5-11

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”

Wonderful, eternal  promises in the next verse 10-11:

“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

 You need to understand this and grow and live in God's word so you are prepared for trials ahead and so you don't turn from Christ out of an unexpected event in life that can easily bring bitterness. There is also a suffering you need to be prepared for because it is completely voluntary and avoidable, yet shouldn't be avoided, because there is a much greater eternal suffering if you refuse it, because to refuse it is to deny Christ, and Christ promised if we deny Him He will deny us (Mathew 10:33), How can you go to Heaven if the only way in there denies you? That suffering I am referring to is promised to the Godly (2 Timothy 3:12), it is persecution, not a popular promise to claim out of scripture...but it as much a promise as any other promise in the Bible, something prosperity preachers tend to avoid "naming and claiming." Persecution is avoided by the unfaithful 'among' the Church, when they deny Christ in order to escape the suffering of persecution; whether it be from Universities mocking you and failing you, keeping you from a degree you have put so much time and debt into because you won't do immoral assignments, employers firing you for not condoning sinful co-worker behavior,witnessing or for posting truth online, friends forsaking you, whomever. Count the cost (Luke 9:23,24/Luke 14:26-33), for all who desire to live Godly will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12, this includes Americans too) and prepare yourself, as we are in a spiritual war.

If you are suffering right now, have suffered, or will in the future, you need to lean on the everlasting arms and let God make something good out of it, so that your suffering is not in vain, and to spare someone else from eternal suffering. Stay in walking and trusting in God’s word, because your own heart will deceive you (Jeremiah 17:9) to feel so sorry for yourself, that you are blind to the desperate need of the hurting world around you, and it will keep you from knowing Joy in suffering. Make Satan regret that he attacked you by using it for the glory of God.

p.s.-

In case you were wondering about the 'hate' for families that Jesus referred to in Luke 14:26, it doesn't mean to actually hate someone, because that would contradict Christ's second greatest commandment to love everyone as yourself. It is meant as comparison, We must love Christ far above all to where our love for others could be mistaken as hatred -compared to- our love for God. We must be willing to choose him over the approval of our families,friends,job positions, whatever, even if it means losing those things because they reject the truth (Jesus) that we are devoted to with our lives. We would hate losing Jesus more, than over losing family, because of them rejecting Him, and would thus choose to lose anything over denying Christ or compromising for a 'watered-down' faith for the sake of 'peace' in the home. This hatred can also mean, as Paul described, counting everything loss for Christ (Philippians 3:8), like if God called you to the mission field in some distant land (we're all missionaries technically, but I am describing an actual physical location move) it would require you to lose everything as you know it, even losing time with Godly family, possessions, and the American Dream...are you willing to give that all away if Christ so called you? He knows your heart, so don't just say "yes!" to that to make yourself feel 'Christian'. Count the cost, if you're not willing to pay, do not call yourself a Christian (that sounds harsh, but the truth is harsh to those who hate it), since Christ demands all, and He Himself gave all for you. He doesn't demand all with hypocrisy, He has not given any order He wasn't been willing to do Himself, Our mighty good leader led by example, just look at Genesis 22:2 when God gave Abraham a test of sacrificing his one and only son,whom he loved...which God would actually end up doing Himself in John 3:16. That is why it sounds so familiar. Give everything you have to Jesus, that doesn't mean you gotta go be a homeless preacher, (like I used to think before reading Timothy in the Bible, In Timothy, Paul rebukes men who don't work and provide for their family -1 Timothy 5:8-), however, the willingness to part with anything at anytime for any cost must be in your heart towards God, even if it does cost you your job or where you live, or if you have to switch jobs in order not to commit immoral tasks like the Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis,was willing to give up.

I know this is a long "p.s.-", but that verse needed clarification, especially for those young in the faith, and it is related because it too is a form of suffering.
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"It's a new wife!"

In America, we trade spouses like new cars. Imagine if the Price is Right game show said, "It's a new wife! The all new wife comes with everything you expected the first one to have, newer body and hair, less nagging, different baggage, and a lifetime of personal fulfillment!" We'd be appalled. Yet that is what people do. They leave and when they get that New Spouse they jump for joy in what they've won, ignoring and despising what they had.


In Genesis 20:3 we read:

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”

God threatened greatly a man for coming close to taking Abraham's wife. Notice God wasn't mad because she was -Abraham's wife-, but simply because she was "a man's wife." He hated the thought of a marriage being broken by another person. What God has put together let no man separate.May we regard marriage the same way God does so we are not stricken by Him. Why does the church re-marry unbiblical second marriages? We have ignored scripture, God forgive us and bring us to repentance. Remarrying is only permissible if the first spouse dies or has broken the marriage through adultery (1 Corinthians 7:39/Mathew 19:9). The victim can remarry, it is not a loophole for the adulterer to remarry. I forget sometimes how serious marriage is, with how our society, even in the church, has treated it. Thankfully through God's word, the culture's standards are tuned out of my ear and I hear God's standards through His word. I must take heed to them and not the culture or even the modern church's loosened standards. You want God to speak to you? He already has. Read His word. If you're looking for some 'new thing' or 'revelation' for God to say to you, could it be because you don't like what He has already said in His word? The devil may very well offer you a new word your flesh would like to hear, to have it your way, like he did with Eve saying, "Did God say?" He does that all the time with people trying to justify second marriages in the church. Even so, "Let God be true and every man a liar." 

"Then men began to call on the name of the Lord."

"Then men began to call on the name of the Lord." At first I didn't know what the Bible meant by that (what'd they do before?), then I thought about where it was placed. In Genesis 4 we read of Cain's lineage, how he begot Enoch, etc.. then we read of Seth having a son, E'nosh. If you notice it didn't say men began to call on the name of the Lord, after mentioning Cain's children. It said it after Seth's lineage (Gen.4:26).Seth was a Godly replacement for Abel. It's so important to model Godly behavior to your kids and raise them "in the way they should go" (Prov 22:6) and in the admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4) so that they and their children will begin to "call on the name of the Lord." I think this nation largely fell in part, to parents either being apathetic, poor role models of Godliness,or, not wanting to "push their views" on their kids. How tragic! Who would want their child to explore any other 'view' since Christ is the only way? They would perish in hell and their families with them! That is not giving your kid freedom by leaving him to his own beliefs, it is bondage and damnation. For Christ alone has the words of life (John 6:68). Plus, it is disobedient to scripture not to raise your kids in the admonition of the Lord. When I think of the warning of causing a young one to stumble, how it'd be better to be cast into the sea (Luke 17:2)....the responsibility of parenthood is a sobering thought. Your kids won't be perfect because your not, but they sure can know and grow in God's word and see you as an example on how to follow Christ. Can you honestly say to your kids like Paul did to the Corinthians, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." ? (1 Cor.11:1) They will imitate you regardless. I came from a home of a Godly mother and a wicked father, but by the grace of God I am what I am today. There's no foolproof guarantee your children will choose you if you are in a marriage like that, but they sure better see it in your life. I saw the peace and life my mom had that my dad did not, and I saw his destruction. Be that light and example and pray your kids and spouse will be drawn to it. If both mom and dad are pursuing God,all the better. If your family is away from God,or you've already blown it, God is merciful! Repent and start today! His mercy is new every morning and He is not bound by circumstance of your mistakes. You may be called a hypocrite at first, but if you are consistent, your actions will silence such accusations (1 Peter 3:16/2:12). They might could be won over by seeing your Godly conduct (1 Peter 3:1,2). It is worth the chance. It is worth it alone for yourself to be found faithful and unashamed at Christ's appearing. Do you have concern for the lost to know Christ? For your child to know Christ? If it doesn't bother or concern you, than you probably need Jesus just as desperately. God bless!

Do you love you? I love me too!

Question: Who loves them self more than they should,extremely values their own opinions, selfish, proud, and self seeking? 

Answer: Look in the mirror

We all are guilty of loving ourselves too much... This is why we must die daily to ourselves if we are to walk the Christian talk and love God above all, as He says we must do (Luke 9:23/10:27). There is no good in ourselves (Luke 18:19/Romans 3:10), any genuine goodness coming out of us is Christ in us (Philippians 2:13/Galatians 2:20). Abide in Him, because apart from Him you cannot bear good fruit (John 15:4), but when you abide in Him, the fruit will naturally start to grow and produce,being evidence of a truly changed heart...

Missing out on Jesus for good things.

Luke 10:41-42.And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Martha was a great woman of God , but the Church today, mostly and sadly remember her for the wrong things (like we do with the disciple Thomas, he wasn't the only doubter). We've all done what Martha the human-like-us did, getting busy doing good things, even things for God,but forgetting to stop and realign priority, and remember loving intimacy with Jesus is far more important. Because if we don't abide in Him, we can do nothing (John 15:4). Look at what Jesus says to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2, very busy church doing good things, but probably became "mechanical", and forgot loving Christ.Love serves joyfully, legalism serves miserably. Sometimes we miss on fellowship with Jesus because we get distracted by things in life: a crazy schedule, a tv show, even church activities... when we have a chance to do something and then stop and choose Christ instead, He is well pleased to be in our company. Get alone with God. Close your door and pray, and choose Him over something else you'd love to do since He must be loved above all anyways. He will bless you with His presence. As He says you will find Him when you seek Him with your whole heart. It is so easy to try to split your heart into partial loyalty to Him and something else. Don't miss a moment God wants to have with you. I find this a challenge when I want to binge watch an old favorite show or am even volunteering somewhere. Relationships take purposeful work to develop and grow. Put the time and effort in God you would put in a lover. Pursue Him like you loved Him. I say all this to myself as well.