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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Tear down to build up




7:47 a.m. Today's project is to think about the best way to build a life that is effective, loving, peaceful and pleasing to God. A life that causes a person to develop both seen and unseen qualities, so that they can be used by the Lord in whatever way He determines.

That means we have to tear down aspects of our lives that are keeping us from being built up in God. God wants an empty vessel to pour His Spirit into, not one filled with habits that contradict His holy nature! In Acts 13:8-12, the apostle Paul rebuked Elymas the sorcerer for seeking to turn a high government official, a Roman proconsul, away from the gospel:

Then Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, 'O [you who are] full of deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around asking for someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord."

And you can bet that every one of the proconsul's staff who were there followed their leader!

Was Paul having a hissy fit and mad that his time was being interrupted, because he had something to say, dadgummit?! (That would be me, probably--"Hey, I'm talking here...") No! Paul was full of the Holy Spirit, directed by the Holy Spirit, and acted on behalf of the Holy Spirit to defeat the work of the devil, full of deceit and fraud!!

And believers today have all the rights and privileges of Paul--through confessing Christ as our Savior and being filled with the Spirit! What are our lives filled with?

If you look at the section of cross stitch here, you can see that the back is pretty tacky looking, but the front is presentable, looking like it is on the way to becoming a finished product. (A long way!) God sees the tacky underside of us, and like a master stitcher, rips out the threads that don't line up to His Word, and neatly pieces in what He wants our lives to consist of.
It is so easy to let our lives get full of pointless activities and unhealthy habits to the point that we wake up too tired to read our Bibles, pray only in emergencies, and our conversation rarely includes God! Ever been there? The enemy is only too happy to fill our lives, our "vessels," with trivia, like video games and television, or even sinful behaviors too numerous and shocking to mention! We need to rip out, dump, or tear down the weak, worthless "lifestyle" structures we've allowed ourselves to become used to, and let God build us up in Him.
Colossians 2:7 says, "As you have therefore 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."
We need to confess that we have let too many things, pressures and habits weaken our lives, and allow our merciful Heavenly Father to gently empty us, cleanse us, and fill us with Himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that each of us might become "a vessel of honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work."









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