Praise the Lord everybody! God is great and greatly to be praised! I can't thank God enough for what He is doing in my life. I can not stress to you enough the importance of being obedient to the Holy spirit when He gives you instructions. Oh how I love Jesus and it is that Love that keeps me striving after Him, to walk in His way.
The Lord wants to know today how strong our love is for Him. Is it strong enough to withstand the call of the world? How about the call of our other nature? God has called us out of the world but sometimes our flesh hears another call, can your love for Jesus keep you straight?
God's chosen people were often faced with the same issues as we see in Jeremiah 2:17-25(NIV) Have you not brought this on yourselves
by forsaking the Lord your God
when he led you in the way?
18 Now why go to Egypt
to drink water from the Nile[b]?
And why go to Assyria
to drink water from the Euphrates?
19 Your wickedness will punish you;
your backsliding will rebuke you.
Consider then and realize
how evil and bitter it is for you
when you forsake the Lord your God
and have no awe of me,”
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
20 “Long ago you broke off your yoke
and tore off your bonds;
you said, ‘I will not serve you!’
Indeed, on every high hill
and under every spreading tree
you lay down as a prostitute.
21 I had planted you like a choice vine
of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
into a corrupt, wild vine?
22 Although you wash yourself with soap
and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
the stain of your guilt is still before me,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.
23 “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;
I have not run after the Baals’?
See how you behaved in the valley;
consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
running here and there,
24 a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
sniffing the wind in her craving—
in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
at mating time they will find her.
25 Do not run until your feet are bare
and your throat is dry.
But you said, ‘It’s no use!
I love foreign gods,
and I must go after them.’
A Donkey in "heat" who can restrain her? When that second nature calls you do you respond as a donkey in heat saying "it's no use!" and then turn away from God and go back to those things that satisfied your lust, your flesh? Or is your love and desire to please God keep you going forward in Him? I must admit there was a time after I got saved that I was that wild donkey, turning back to drugs every time the desire to get high would strongly come upon me. I would struggle to stay clean but after awhile I would throw up both my hands and say "it's no use!"
Thanks be to God for His long suffering nature. After He delivered me from death time after time despite my weakness I began to understand and appreciate His love for me.The love I thought I had for God finally became real and began to manifest itself by giving me a stronger desire to please Him and not myself. In that love I found the strength to live holy and the strength to say no to the cravings of my sinful nature.
I'd like to leave you with this to chew on from Ephesians 2:1-6 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
God bless you all, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off the Wall
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