Fill Me with Your Passions

Fill Me with Your Passions

Fill me with Your passions, Lord,

with all Your tender love.

Send down Your Holy Spirit now

as gentle as a dove.

Let all my life be sold to You

and none of self remain.

Forsake I now all earthly calls

and go in Jesus’ name.

No power and no pleasure

can compare to knowing Christ,

and not a thought of earthly gain

can hold my heart enticed.

Christ is now my only prize.

His equal nothing is.

I hold Him as my highest goal

and pray my heart be His.

So keep me as Your dearest child,

and guide me, loving God,

that neither foot would slip a step

wherever I may trod.

Keystones of Contentment

Proverbs 15:15-17--All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

Contentment seems to be a missing concept in today's society. Nobody is ever happy or satisfied with what they have; they always want more money, more friends, more success, more power, more clothes, more water in that glass--you name it, people want more of it. It seems contentment is the only thing people don't want more of! But we know contentment is a virtue that God greatly desires us to have. In fact, 1 Timothy 6:6 says, "But godliness with contentment is great gain."

So how can we be content in a society constantly wanting more? How can we be satisfied in a world consumed with greed and covetousness? How can we be like Paul, who, in Philippians 4:11, said, "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content"?

This is exactly what Solomon addresses in Proverbs 15:15-17, and Paul may have used these same verses to develop his own attitude of contentment. So let's take a look at them and see what the Holy Spirit, through Solomon, had to say.

Solomon begins, in essence, by describing what we have already stated above. All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. The merry heart is the contentment. The person with a merry or content heart will see everything as a feast, even if it's just stale bread and half a glass of water. Solomon starts with this description of a contented life to intrigue the reader. Having a continual, happy feast all the days of your life sounds pretty good, doesn't it? This is Solomon's hook, his attention-getter. The audience will hear or read that and think and ask, much like we did above, "Wow! That sounds great! How can I have that? How can I be like that?" Then Solomon gives the two-fold answer.

Before that, however, let me say something about the structure of Solomon's introduction. He uses a contrasting statement, illustrating two opposing ideas in the same sentence. This is to show that contentment is a black-and-white issue. There is no gray area, no fence-straddling. Either you're content, or you're not. If you're "kind of happy" or "almost satisfied", you're really neither because there is something preventing you from being truly happy, satisfied, and content. Even if there's just one tiny thing you're not satisfied with, it means you're not truly content because you'll always be trying to improve that one thing. Always remember, contentment is a choice. You either choose to be content with all, or you're not content at all.

Now for the two keystones of contentment. Solomon uses two illustrations, once again utilizing contrasting statements, to share these building blocks of satisfaction.The first one he points out is fear of the Lord.

Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. Solomon claims it's better to be poor with God than to have the riches of the world and the troubles of not having Him. As Jesus asked in Mark 8:36, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" I believe the point here is very clear: if you do not know God as Lord and Savior, nothing you have on earth will help you, be profitable for you, or give you contentment. This is the first thing you absolutely must have settled before anything else. It is the most important matter you will ever face. Do you know with one hundred percent certainty that you are saved by God's grace?

The fear of the Lord also deals with more than salvation, though that is the most crucial aspect. Sadly, there are many Christians, true born-again believers, not living in the fear of the Lord. They walk contrary to His commandments and His will, and this certainly leads to trouble. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). This fear isn't a cowering terror felt toward God, however. It is a reverential awe and respect at His holiness and greatness that makes us bow at His feet and surrender our lives to Him. Basically, it is loving Him with all your heart. As Jesus said in John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." If we truly love God, we will respect Him and want to please Him, which entails obeying and worshiping Him. That is the fear of the Lord: reverencing Him, respecting Him, obeying Him, and, most of all, loving Him so that you surrender everything in your life to Him, simply because He is Who He is, and He is worth it.

So how does this play into being content? Well, once you realize that the Almighty God Who breathed the heavens into existence loves you and desires a relationship with you, it will be more than enough to make you content with whatever earthly things you have. Once you realize that you are simply a worthless sinner that the King of glory loved enough to die for, nothing else will seem as important. And once you see that everything you have, even every breath you breathe, is a gift from a holy and righteous Lord, you will be grateful for whatever He has seen fit to bless you with. However, this cannot work unless you've been saved. Once you've been saved, you should keep your focus on God, Who is greater than anything and loves you more than anything, Who redeemed you out of the kingdom of darkness and the pit of Hell. Then you can, as Paul exhorts in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord alway". You can have that "continual feast". But you've got to keep your focus on God and nothing else.

Now we move to the second keystone of contentment: love. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. This one sounds great doesn't it? Everyone wants love--that magical feeling that flips your stomach, flutters your heart, elates your mind, and makes everything alright. Love is wonderful, and love is powerful. Of course it will bring contentment! But 1 John 4:16 says, "God is love", so how can we have love if we don't have God? Answer: you can't. That's a problem for many people. They want the love, but they don't want anything to do with God. But it does not work that way.

Let's explain love a little bit. Love is not what was described above. Real love is not a feeling; it's a choice. Love is sacrificing of yourself in order to meet someone else's needs before your own. This is totally against the selfish nature of humans! That means love is a supernatural choice and action, and it is the highest of its kind. "Now abideth faith, hope, charity (love), these three; but the greatest of these is charity (love)" (1 Corinthians 13:13). Since love is supernatural, its source must be supernatural also, and that Source is God. When we show love, God is acting through us with His Holy Spirit to display His love to the world. Love can never come from selfish and sinful flesh. That's why it's impossible to have love without the Lord.

So how does love make us content? It's similar to the keystone of fearing God. Once you realize how powerful love is, nothing else will really matter. Love is able to melt the hardest heart, open the heaviest door, and tear down the most fortified wall. And only true, godly, self-sacrificing love can satisfy the craving that every human heart experiences--not the selfish, temporal emotions of infatuation we so mistakenly identify as love. Sacrificing of yourself, serving others out of a heart of love, and seeing their needs met instead of yours will provide a joy like nothing else. It may seem contradictory, but it's one of the great truths of life. It's just another paradox God uses to show us that we don't know best and that we should just trust Him and do things His way.

This applies both to love for God and for your neighbor. You should love and sacrifice yourself for both. (Sound familiar?) Love for your neighbor naturally flows from love for God. As the latter increases, so will the former. This is because when you love God, you desire to be like Him, and as you become more like Him, you love people as He does. And we all know what God did to express His love. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16; see also Romans 5:8 and 1 John 3:16). And what does John 15:13 say? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." When we love God, we will love others. Then we will truly be content.

Once again, though, this cannot work without salvation. You have to know God in order for this to happen. It's absolutely impossible to be lost and content at the same time. You may think the things of this world are pleasing you or making you happy, but that will only last for a season. And there will be no happiness whatsoever after death. They will do you no good in Hell. Please, if you don't know Jesus as Savior, accept Him today. Click the Salvation tab above for more information.

For the Christian, it's very simple to be content. Solomon gave us two keystones for contentment: fear God and live in love. We've taken these and boiled them down to a one-step process: love God. So if you're not content, you've got your focus off somewhere. You're depending on something besides God for happiness and satisfaction, and it's not going to work. Pray for God to show you any areas in your life you have not surrendered to Him, where you are not relying on Him, where His love is not showing through. Thank you for reading, and God bless you as you seek to grow in Christ and serve Him.

The Object of Your Trust

Jeremiah 17:5-8--Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

In this passage from Jeremiah, we have another case of antithesis. For a reminder, antithesis is two elements presented in parallel style, but with opposite meaning. I think it's pretty easy to see the parallel style and opposite meaning here. The opposite themes are being blessed and being cursed, and they are presented in the following basic style: the reason for being blessed/cursed, and then what the blessing/curse will be like.

Jeremiah begins by stating that whoever trusts in man and not God will be cursed, and he goes on to describe what this will be like. He then contrasts this by stating that whoever trusts and hopes in God will be blessed, and describes what the blessing will be like. It's simple to understand, and it all boils down to the object of your trust. So, as we discuss the effects of where you place your trust, consider your life and what you're putting your trust in. Are you trusting God or something else? How completely are you trusting Him or it? What are the results of this trust?

Jeremiah uses two extended similes to detail the effects of where you place your trust. He begins with the negative of trusting in man. Jeremiah states that whoever trusts in man "shall be like the heath in the desert", a barren wasteland. His whole life will be dry and arid. There will be no beauty, no flourishing life, just empty stretches of desert sand. It will be useless and good for nothing. Jeremiah becomes even more detailed after this, stating that he "shall not see when good cometh". This person's life will be vain and hopeless, but when something good passes by, he won't even notice it. This is because the person's focus is turned inward; his trust is in himself, so he focuses on himself. In his pride, he refuses to let go of himself and accept any help that is offered, especially help from God. As humans, this is one of the hardest things for us to do. By nature we are prideful and selfish. We think we can do everything on our own and we don't need any help. But, as Jeremiah so bluntly points out, this attitude only leads to failure.

The prophet continues, describing the habitation of the self-trusting man. He claims it is dry, full of salt, an uninhabited wilderness. That sounds like a miserable and lonely place. It's true that God has created man as a social creature. He has put in us the desire and need to build and foster relationships with other people (Gen. 2:18-22; Ecc. 4:9-12). It's very hard to grow spiritually without developing healthy relationships with others. However, it's also true that the more selfish a person is, the less friends he or she usually has. And no matter how many friends you have, if you don't have a relationship with God, you have nothing. People will never be able to fill the void in your heart created by not having Jesus. Even surrounded by friends and colleagues, you will still feel alone in the universe because you have never met the One Who created the universe. Your life will still feel pointless because you have never come to the One Who gave you life. No amount of physical, social, or material success could ever meet your spiritual need; only God can.

The next description, in which Jeremiah describes God's blessing as being like a fruitful tree, makes two characteristics stand out in my mind: stability and abundant life. The tree described here is "planted by the waters", and the waters represent God. He is the source of our life, our strength, and every good thing we have (James 1:17). But not only is this tree near the water, it also "spreadeath out [its] roots by the river". This tree's roots are spread far and sunk deep into the nourishing, life-giving water. This entails a person whose trust is deeply anchored in God, firmly founded on His Lord. He has no confidence in himself, but he has complete confidence in God. This is the way we should be. We can't trust ourselves or any other person because we are weak flesh. Abraham said he was "but dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27); Paul stated, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing" (Rom. 7:18); and Jesus Himself said, "The flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41). The point is that we can't trust in ourselves; we will fail every time. Either our flesh will lead us to do something wicked, or when we try to do something good, we will fail at it. Even if it seems like we succeed, if we did it in our own power and not God's, it is not glorifying to Him, and that is a failure. And no matter how good a person is, they are still human. They are imperfect, and if you put your trust in them, they will eventually disappoint you.

Now, because of this tree's habitation near the waters, it displays the two characteristics mentioned above. We've already touched on the abundant life, but let's look at it a little more. We know God is the source of all life, and Jesus said He came "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). The more you trust in God and the closer you draw to Him, the more fulfilling your life will be. In terms of the tree, Jeremiah says its "leaf shall be green" and it will never "cease from yielding fruit". This is a healthy, vivacious tree abounding with life and fruit. If trees could smile, this one would certainly have the biggest and brightest. It's always healthy because it's near the waters, it's always joyful because it's in the waters, and it's always bearing fruit because of nutrients from the waters. Also, this is a stable tree. Nothing is moving or shaking it, and nothing affects its health. Jeremiah says, "[It] shall not see when heat cometh...and shall not be careful in the year of drought". This tree is firmly planted by the river and has no reason to worry. When heat comes, it stays cool in the water and doesn't dry up. It just keeps producing fruit. When drought comes, it's not worried at all because it's right next to the very source of life. If we wholly trust in God, we will be the same way. He is the solid Rock of ages we can stand on through any storm. He is our strong Tower and Refuge we can run to. When we hide ourselves in God and trust completely in Him, nothing can move or shake us.

So where does your trust lie? Is it in yourself or another person? Is it in success or material things? Or is it in the ever-faithful, everlasting, perfect, omnipotent, omniscient God of the universe? Maybe you're not sure. Pray for God to show you, and use some of the signs and characteristics described above to find out. If there's anything you haven't handed over to God, do so.

More importantly, are you saved? If you died right now, do you know that you would go to Heaven? If you're not saved, there's no way you can put your trust in God because you don't know Him and don't have Him. You haven't taken the first step of faith and accepted Him as Lord and Savior. Only then can you have a relationship with Him and trust your whole life to Him. Don't wait a moment longer to make this decision. Click the Salvation tab above for more details.

As a Flower

As a Flower

As a flower toward the sun

let me ever upward grow,

that Your light I would behold

and Your beauty I would know.

Though rooted in the earth I stand

my face to You is turned,

and for Your loving favor

I the earth will gladly spurn.

And in the darkness of the night,

in the beauty of the stars,

let me not forget the sun,

who has loved me well thus far.

Are You Personified?

Isaiah 10:15--Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

 The verse above contains two literary devices I would like to draw out: personification and simile. For review, personification is the attribution of human characteristics to an inanimate object, and simile is a comparison using like or as. In this verse, Isaiah adroitly uses these two techniques to detail the steps in the progression of pride.

Pride is the most subtle of all sins, and all sin can be traced back to some form of pride. Even when we think we are without pride, we have pride because we are in essence boasting that we are humble. Furthermore, God hates pride severely. In my rationale this is because of two reasons: 1) Lucifer, one of God's highest angels, was cast out of Heaven and became the devil, enemy of anything God loves, because of his pride; and 2) pride, as stated above, is the root of all sin.

All of these are reasons why we need to watch out for pride in our lives. We must constantly be on the lookout for it and be praying for God to humble us, even as He humbled Himself and came to this earth (see Philippians 2:3-8). I am so thankful that Jesus humbled Himself and died on the cross for me; and I'm thankful that God, through Isaiah, gave us this description of the way pride can sneak into our lives and corrupts us. Let's take a look at what the Scripture says so we will better know how to combat pride.

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? The first simile given by Isaiah is the personification of an axe. Specifically, Isaiah is dealing with the pride of Assyria's king--but this applies to everyone--and Isaiah states that his pride is like an axe boasting itself against the one using it to cut something. How foolish is it to think that an axe, a simple tool, would think itself better than the one who uses it, who controls its every action and maintains its condition? Likewise, it is foolish for us to think we are somehow out of God's control and doing our own thing, when in reality, God is ultimate Sovereign over all and it is only by His grace we still live. He raises kings and brings them low; He grants us every breath; He provides for us all our sustenance. What foolishness for us to think we are masters of ourselves! However, this pride is only in the mind, or, at most, verbal (but God still hates it). Pride, like all sin, begins in the mind (Matthew 15:18, 19). This is the first step in pride's domination of someone, and it is the hardest to combat. We must strive to keep our minds free of pride and have the humble mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). If not kept in check, prideful thoughts quickly and eagerly lead to more wicked things.

Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? This is where true outspoken pride, the second step in pride's siege, comes in. Prideful thoughts will lead to prideful words about yourself. As Isaiah's similes move from boasting to magnifying, so we will escalate from inwardly boasting of ourselves to outwardly magnifying ourselves as better than others, or even God. This is where pride becomes noticeably evident to others besides God and ourselves. By now, our attitude, words, and demeanor have been corrupted to haughtiness. This is where pride begins to destroy relationships and hurt others, and it severely weakens our relationship with and testimony for God. Remember, what proceeds out of the mouth comes from the heart (Matthew 15:18). Once in this stage, proud actions quickly come into play.

As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up. Now Isaiah's personification focuses on prideful resistance against the One Who holds us in His hand. This is when pride becomes extremely dangerous, when we actually act out against God. Imagine holding a rod, and it begins to shake. What are you most likely going to do? First, get a tighter grip on it. Then, when it shakes more violently, you'll drop it and it will fall to the ground. This is exactly what will happen to us. When, in pride, we act out against God, or sin, it causes our relationship to become strained and difficult. God will get a tighter grip on us by convicting us, but if we continue, He'll let us fall on our faces and punishment will come to pass. There are terrible aftereffects of pride that God, in His great love, never wishes on us. When we act out against God in pride, we are saying we don't need Him, and when God lets us go, we will utterly fail.

Or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. Lastly, Isaiah brings out his most interesting point, and, to me, his most laughable. I mean, how ridiculous is it to think that a staff, a piece of wood, could lift itself up? It's impossible, and the point is clear: without God, we are helpless and can do nothing (John 15:5). By using this analogy, Isaiah is also stating that when we act in pride, relying on ourselves and not God, we're not even acting like what God created us to be. That phrase "as if it were no wood" means the staff is behaving as if it were made of something other than wood. When we do not rely on God, we are not acting like humans, because God created us to run on Him. C. S. Lewis says it better: "God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other."

I hope you have seen how destructive and dangerously deceitful pride is. Pride causes us to turn away from the Source of our strength, the very Source of our life, and brings horrendous consequences. It causes us to ignore our God-given purpose. In a sense, pride "personifies" us because it makes us behave like something we were not created to be. This is grotesque and disgusting to God, and I hope it has become so to you. I hope you will join me in daily praying for God to eradicate pride in our hearts and give us His mind of humility.

If you are not saved, you will never be able to humbly submit to God, your Creator. Pride is the only nature you know, and maybe that's what is holding you back from being saved. Please, give up your pride. To quote C. S. Lewis again, "As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you." Surrender yourself to the all-powerful and loving God. On your own you will only fail, and you will go to Hell. You need help, and God is graciously offering it. Click the Salvation tab above for more information.

Brotherly Exhortation

Brotherly Exhortation

I greet you in the righteous name

of Christ Jesus our King and Lord.

And may He always in our hearts

be worshiped with love and adored.

Chorus

O let the Father’s love be shown,

and let the grace of God be known.

And whether brother stand or fall,

forgive of one another all.

In my prayers you’re always known;

I thank the Lord you found His grace.

I bear your name to Heaven’s throne

and pray your love would all embrace.

Chorus

Let us thus be nobly living:

Patient in all tribulation,

tender-hearted, kind, forgiving,

found in hope with jubilation.

Chorus

Let us be a great light of love,

and let our light on hilltops glow,

humbly pointing all to above

that glory all to God would go.

Chorus

Antithetical Cases: Condemnation and Freedom

John 3:18--He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Technically defined by Merriam-Webster, antithesis is "the rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences". Basically, it means you contrast two things by using structurally similar items. This is seen in the above verse. On one hand, you have a person who believes and is not condemned; on the other, you have a person who does not believe and is condemned. See how they're set up the same, but have opposite ideas? That's antithesis. The only thing added is the clause "because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

This example of antithesis is extremely important, as it deals with the paramount topic of every living person: the destination of his or her eternal soul. In the first part, the reader is told that "he that believeth on him is not condemned". The one who is to be believed on is Jesus. This is wonderful news! Imagine you are standing in court, guilty of a heinous crime and sentenced to life in prison, or even death. Then someone walks in and tells you, "I have a way for you to be free. You will not be condemned. All you have to do is trust me." You do so, and it works; you're free! Wouldn't you be relieved?

In reality, we are all in the same situation, though actually much worse. We are all guilty of heinous crimes: breaking the perfect law of the holy God. The death sentence we have received for our sin is eternity in Hell, a place of never-ending suffering and torment. This is what is meant by the second clause in the verse, "but he that believeth not is condemned already". You see, even though you may be a "good person", you're still a sinner, and unless you've accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you're already condemned to go to Hell. There's nothing you need to do to go there; you're already on your way!

But there is a way out. That's where your deliverer walks into the courtroom. That person is Jesus. Just like in the illustration above, Jesus is offering a way out of condemnation--out of Hell--for every person. The reason He can do so is because He is the perfect and righteous Son of God Who died for everyone's sins on the cross. Even though He was guiltless, He suffered the punishment that justice required for our crimes. All we have to do, like the verse says above, is believe on the Lord Jesus.

And yes, it is that easy. The verse simply states "he that believeth on him is not condemned". Nothing but faith in Jesus is needed. Someone once told me that other things were necessary for salvation because that verse didn't say that only believing was needed. But that is simply not true. If anything else were needed for salvation, then this verse would only be stating half the truth, and that would make it a lie. God cannot lie, and His Word is inerrant; therefore, faith is the only thing needed for salvation. You don't need baptism, church attendance, a good life, confirmation, confession, communion, or anything else--just believe.

All lives are parallel cases: everyone is guilty of sin and, because of this, condemned to eternity in Hell; all sins have also been paid for by the blood of Jesus, and salvation is offered to all. However, there is one thing that makes lives antithetical to one another: whether or not they accept the free gift of pardon offered by Jesus. That is the crucial point. Two lives can be lived exactly the same, yet one can suffer in Hell while the other rejoices in Heaven. This is perfectly seen in the two thieves crucified with Jesus. They were both criminals convicted for their crimes, but because one was penitent and believed on Jesus, he went to Heaven while the other perished in Hell.

If you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, please do. Don't put it off a moment longer, because you never know when your last breath will be. Click the Salvation tab above for more information.

If you are saved, rejoice and thank God for His work of redemption in you! Take a special moment to get on your knees and humbly thank Him for rescuing you from an eternity in Hell, for taking all the punishment and wrath you so rightfully deserve. Then go tell someone about the wonderful and mighty God you serve. Tell them the greatest news ever to grace their ears: that they too can be free of sin and eternal death.