God knows every intent of your heart: Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 1Ki 8:39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;) Luk 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. From these verses we gain a great understanding from and about God. In the order presented, we first learn that the Bible reveals God to us and that it cuts through our opinions, our preconceived notions and our misunderstandings. Then we began to learn something of great importance that many today fail to understand. The devil is not all powerful, nor is he all knowing. Only God knows our hearts. The devil must read our actions and words to know what we are likely to do. To repeat, The devil does not know your thoughts, or your innermost values, what makes you “you”. Only the Lord does. Thank you Jesus! There are those today who hold to man’s opinion and man’s inventions concerning God. Especially concerning “Who” is God. The Bible states in many places that God is “One” but many insist that He is Three. This article will not go into that debate which will go on until the Lord returns. Instead this article has a different destination completely. This article is inspired by the apostle Paul. But not by one of his great achievements rather by a huge failure. Saul of Tarsus you see was a bright young man, full of life and intelligence. He had his life planned out to become a leader among the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day. Unlike most people Saul went on to get a higher education. He was trained in the Jewish religion and instructed in the Torah. Similar to our Old Testament. Saul was full of zeal for the Lord and wanted to do his best for God. Everything he did was directed toward the Lord and then came those men preaching heresy. That man Jesus had been found to be a blasphemer and was put to death on the cross. Some of His disciples claimed that He had resurrected from the dead but Saul believed like most that the disciples had taken Him during the night and hid Him somewhere. But they began preaching falsehood, heresies and using His name… saying that men must repent of their sin, call on this Jesus to be saved from hell. Saul could not understand why anyone could not see that this was blasphemous… One day Saul happened to be near where one of them, Stephen, was preaching his blasphemy. The other men decided to do something about it. As they prepared to stone Stephen Saul held their robes for them. Watching this execution Saul decided this would be his life’s work, to help rid the land of these blasphemers. God needed someone to defend Him and Saul was ready to be the one. Saul began to work hard at getting rid of them by harassing them, putting some to death and casting some in prison. He obtained warrants that empowered him to do as he pleased with them where ever he found them. Hearing of a group of them in Damascus Saul taking his warrants headed out to do them harm. We are all familiar with the story from there, but lets look at what has happened up to this point, • Young man feels led to live his life working for the Lord. • Learns all he can about God, gets a good education. • Is very zealous to do God’s will. • Devotes his life to ridding the land of blasphemers. Even to killing them. • Willing to go long distances and give up the comforts of home to do God’s will. This sounds like just the opposite of what we first think… We think this murdering Jew is killing off God’s people… Well, that IS what he was doing! Saul was doing everything he could do to do right concerning the Lord… but he was quite mistaken. Act 9:3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: Act 9:4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Act 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Act 9:6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. Act 9:7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. Act 9:8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. Act 9:9 And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. Act 9:10 And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. Act 9:11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, Act 9:12 And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Act 9:13 Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: Act 9:14 And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. Act 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: Act 9:16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my names sake. What a transformation! This young man so full of zeal for the Lord but mistaken about right and wrong was stopped in his tracks by non other than the Lord Jesus! From killing and imprisoning those who followed Jesus Saul became one himself! God revealed Himself to Saul, and Identified Himself as Jesus… What a revelation! I would that we all could have this revelation! Instantly Saul realized that he had been fighting God instead of helping Him. Those he had imprisoned or killed were right and Saul was wrong. But God saw inside the heart of Saul… and saw that Saul was honest hearted, trying to do what he honestly believed was right. And God can use that! To call someone ignorant often causes instant anger. But ignorance is fixable. I am ignorant of high finance. How the stock market works I have no idea. I gave up programming several language generations ago and am ignorant of C++ and other high level languages. Now basic, that’s another story! But if I needed to I could buckle down, get some tutoring and come up to speed with a modern language. Ignorance can be fixed. Might be painful, take some serious studying but can be fixed. Saul needed fixed. His zeal as honest as it was needed to be set straight. Saul was told to go down to straight street and remain until he received more instruction. Ananias was told to go give this instruction. He was reluctant until God told him about His plans for Saul. We know that following this Saul went away for some time to learn about the Lord and then returned to become the apostle Paul and wrote most of the New Testament! He was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned and much more. God truly had much in store for this zealous young man. Why this story now? What is its relevance to us in this particular moment? There have been those opposing the doctrine that we hold dear to our hearts. But we need to remember that Jesus died for them as well as us. They are valuable. They are a part of the jewel of great value, the pearl of great price found in the field that Jesus bought with His blood. We are of no more value than them. If you reading this are one who opposes the Oneness doctrine we want you to know that we love you and pray for you. You are not our enemy. Although your barbs cause hurt we believe that you mean them from an honest heart and are, like Saul doing your best with the knowledge you have. Because you are of so much value to our Lord Jesus Christ you are of so much value to us as well, and we will never fail to hold you up in our prayers. Unfortunately there are some who do not have an honest heart and we gladly do not know this. Unless God should reveal that we have to assume that you are honest with yourself and the Lord and mean well. If you do not, well that is between you and the Lord. We will pray for all those who oppose us. Regardless your intentions, which the Lord knoweth completely, we will pray for you. 2Co 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2Co 4:5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. 2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. Col 1:26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 03:48:38 +0000
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