Entertaining Evil?

Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? *

Why do you keep them at bay?

Why do they stay?

Why?

What do we do when our hearts will not rest?

What do I do?

What?!?

Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

Why do Jesus’ words haunt me this day?

Why does why matter?

Why?

What do I do today?

What will make it go away?

What’d my Jesus say?

What does He say?

What?

Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

“Father, forgive me I pray.

Turn me from my wicked thoughts.

Turn me from my wicked way.

Make straight my wayward thoughts.

Please restore our communion,

PLEASE LORD I pray.!

Create in me that clean heart.

LORD Jesus, I pray.”

^“ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”  1 John 1:5-10 NIV

Perhaps you’re one who’d like to throw that first stone?

Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?



 * Jesus' words not mine. and image courtesy of http://www.hellojon.com/.

Pawns And Players

The little pawns of life move in their places.

Move by move, my enemy presses and blocks.

Taunt by taunt, he presses in.

My plan can it fail?

My moves are not so great.

Through briars and thistles, I trip and fall.

Is it in word or deed?

Is it in thoughts or malice?

Yes, through briars and thistles I fall.

Our enemy blocks our road with ridicule or storm.

The pawns they move.

He thinks he’s in command.

He pulls out all stops and takes out the queen, that’s his plan.

Tugging, trying, pulling, and buying I guard her with all my life.

Though I try, he takes her.

Yes, that’s his plan.

All seems lost.

All seams loosed.

The queen drops out of my hand.

I gave her no protection; I was lost in my plan.

Plans play.

Moves move.

I moved here.

I moved there.

Did I move her out?

My wit was out matched.

I feel prey to the tricks of old.

Stuck in his net, he goes for the King.

Big mistake!

Rather than play out the game.

Rather than wilt in some shame.

Rather than hide in some shadow, tonight I was ready for the battle!

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”

My sword is sharp, while honing, it sizzles!

Rather than move to his moves.

I went with a plan.

Plans play.

Moves move.

Move here?

Move there?

Move to her?

How?

Where?

Ploy? I’m ployed out.

I placed my plan in His hand.

Masters have better plans.

As the deer pants for the brook, I pant for Thee.    King David

I want it to be we.

I pray it to be we.

I implore Thee, make it we.

Little pawns and pieces, they move about the board.

Is it life’s play, is it life’s plan?

Is it some new plan?

NO, it is old!

Every plan of mine failed and lost the queen.

Weary, I wept.

Listen…

It is the One of old!

Far beyond the one who scorns…listen.

Elevated and exalted, we see the One!

It was redemption!

NEW what?

Christ, the Ancient of days comes!

He had the plan!

Redeem the queen? He would play the plan?

Israel’s Holy One! He steps in the game and by a mystery He wins!

Satan and saints, really, are they pawns and players?

Testing’s over, triumph takes place, and the queens home!

“As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.”  Daniel 7:21-22 NIV

There is a war going on if you don’t know it. It’s being waged against God’s holy people. He’s already won the war. The enemy just won’t quit until he has to.

Soon God will mop up this earth, and take out the trash. Out of mercy, He offers Jesus to all. Come to Him! Cast aside what keeps you from Him or drag all that you have to Him and let Him take over. He’ll win, He is the winner!

Have You Ever . . .

Over the last several months I've enjoyed the company of several good blog writers. I didn't hang out with these people literally. We enjoyed each others' company the way we are doing now, via the Internet on Google's G+ communities. With G+'s communities, Christians have joined forces in many ways. Christian bloggers have too.

Christian bloggers from all over the world come together in the G+ Christian Bloggers community. There I've had the privilege of reading from and speaking with many Christ centered writers. Today I will share one of those.

Welcome Peter Watt, blogger of  Wandering Thoughts  and author of this hilarious piece (Of course I'm still in Jr High). Just don't quit reading to soon or you'll miss out.

"Have you ever smelt a fly 
fart?" by Peter Watt

The attendees and I started laughing.  What could be better?  A room full of men and our speaker, Doug, talking about farts.  This was going to be good.

"My neighbor has the ability to smell a fly fart.  Anything that smelled odd, he would let you know.  One very hot day - you know the type where all the windows are open hoping for some sort of breeze?  Well, we had a problem with our
septic system."

Now for my readers who live in the city, a septic system is where the country folk collect all the
sewage from the home that eventually needs to be emptied.  You know, the
crap?  

This was getting better and better by the minute. Farts. Excrement.  Where was this talk
going?

"We had the septic guy with his overalls come to the house. As he lifted the lid to the
septic tank, all we was heard thunk, thunk, thunk..."

Doug takes a moment to settle his laughter; he is enjoying this as much as we are.

"My neighbor was running around closing all the windows as fast as he could."

More laughter as we think about this poor guy, with a sensitive nose, running around trying to
block out the smell.  Can you imagine how extra potent it would be lifting
the lid off of a sewage container on a very hot and humid day?

NASTY!

Doug waits a few moments for the laughter to subside.  

"Now imagine if we could open up our hearts and look inside.  What sort of crap and
excrement would we find?  How bad would it smell?"

You could hear a pin drop.  As guys, we carry our burdens.  We lock them away from our
friends, our wives and even God.  We think we can control it and manage
it.  We try to reason with ourselves that like a septic tank, it is best to keep the lid
on it.  

We are all carrying a septic tank inside of us.  It will
fill up.  It will turn foul.  It doesn't just go away.

What do we think would happen if we did open our hearts and exposed the nastiness to the world?
 Would we discover that we had neighbors with sensitive noses who run
away?  Or would we discover that we have friends with overalls willing
to dig into the excrement of our hearts?

Jesus is always wearing His overalls.

The talk ended and we were all very challenged.  A little later in the day, a smell began to
permeate the room.  

Now ladies, while we were in a room full of guys on a retreat, the stench was not coming from the
guys. It was coming from the bathrooms in the room beside us.  The
septic system wasn't working!  

Coincidence?  I think not.  Another example of a "Confirming Circumstance".

The day continued, and we heard a back-hoe (tractor) digging a hole just outside the room we were
in.  After we finished, we walked outside to find the tank and pipes
exposed.  There was a blockage; none of the crap was getting through.

A church friend, Kelvin, who played a pivotal role in "The Reluctant Attendee", was one of the
first to go and investigate. 

Later that evening, we had chapel time.  The discussion and imagery of the septic
system came back up.  We were challenged to clean it out. To invite Jesus, with His overalls, to step into the mess with us and clear the blockage.  

There was a lot of cleaning done that night.  

As we dealt with the filth at our own pace, we slowly left the chapel.

Towards the end of the time, Kelvin got up to leave but he hadn't completed the cleaning.
 Before he could leave, Doug (the speaker) asked to speak with him.  

"Kelvin, I need to tell you something.  My talk today was not going to be about fly
farts.  God told me to tell that story today and He told me you needed
to hear it.  He wants you to open the lid of your heart and let Him get rid of what’s blocking your relationship with Him. Why won’t you just let God love you?"

Kelvin invited the guy with the overalls in to help him clean out the crap.




Do you have a friend with overalls?  Do you let Him in?

__________________________________________________



Thank you for taking the time to read one of the many Wandering Thoughts that God has been putting on my heart. If this has touched you in anyway, I would love to hear from you. You can leave a comment below and share your own personal revelations; or send me a personal message on Google+ or Facebook.

If you enjoyed this, please sign up here for email updates to never miss another Wandering Thought.


Have a wonderful day.   Peter Watt

Complacency

The complacency of fools will destroy them.

I’m fine.

I’ve got it together.

I don’t need help!

Be careful, these are lies from Hell.

We sojourn in this world. Wait! Sojourn? We don’t even know what that means today. Do you? Do you Gordon? (Why do I talk at myself?) It means we are temporary residents here.

Through the grace of God, we realize we are just passing through. Passing through what? We are passing through our home, Earth. We seem to forget that at times. We get comfortable in this skin of ours. We get comfortable about our place in this world; doing everything we do and enjoying everything we have. We love our easy content feeling of safety and security. It can be individually or corporately. We kick back and look at what we have and say, “Awe, the fruit of my labor! Isn’t it nice?”

Watch out! This means we are getting hard. This attitude of complacency is a hardening of our hearts. It’s like the cooling of a HOT liquid metal as it cools; it’s slowly becomes solid and can no longer move.

I love analogies. We can read one thing and see another too. Not that the first view, the literal reading was wrong or incomplete. No! Not at all! Yet, looking at one thing and seeing a deeper meaning or comparison is exciting. That’s what I’m talking about with this picture of steel as it cools. Heated, it’s flexible and moldable. Metals in liquid form seep and penetrate into places they cannot go as a solid.

Hot Christians, rather than lukewarm or cold, are liquid ready to fill in where others won’t. They gladly pour out into the world to spread the heat from the Word of God, through the love of God expressed: the Gospel of Jesus. Aren’t we to melt personally and mold into the image of Christ? In liquid form we do that, we penetrate our surroundings, with the love of God. The sad thing is that Christians become complacent, resting on their laurels. They become the lees. Yeah, I had to look it up too.

Lees.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary, define this as:

(Hebrews shemarim), from a word meaning to keep or preserve. It was applied to "lees" from the custom of allowing wine to stand on the lees that it might thereby be better preserved (Isaiah 25:6). "Men settled on their lees" (Zephaniah 1:12) are men "hardened or crusted." The image is derived from the crust formed at the bottom of wines long left undisturbed (Jeremiah 48:11). The effect of wealthy undisturbed ease on the ungodly is hardening. They become stupidly secure (Comp. Psalm 55:19;Amos 6:1). To drink the lees (Psalm 75:8) denotes severe suffering.

Christians in the Western world easily become complacent.  Complacent or Complacency is closely related to lees. Our cooling off as Christians makes us too comfortable in this world. We forget we are just temporary residents here.

Our cooling off as Christians causes the Gospel message to slow in its spread to the entire world. Resting on our comfortable 401ks or other retirement plans, insurance plans and everything else we rely on rather than God. Taking advantage of such gifts in life is not only fine, it is wise. Yet, in doing so, the deceit of riches allows an open door to temp the influential. Don’t become a victim of self reliance and seductively lulled into being that Church Jesus described. You know the one that is poor, miserable and blind. Though they are collectively the rich of this world, they are paupers in the Kingdom of Heaven. Revelation 3:18 NIV

I have to stop. My daughter’s home!

Bye!

Though she may not think so, she's a higher priority than this!

Words

If blessings of words we hold too tight, no one will hear them as go through the night.

Imagine if David never a blessed us with a Psalm?

What if from Solomon, a Proverb never was heard?

Doesn't that now just seem so absurd?

If the Father held back the Word, all Creation would cease.

Then Jesus, the blessed Savior, Oh even Him… we would never meet.

Give blessings in words, if you can.

Give those blessings, yes you can.

Kind words, gentle words, truthful word and Jesus words, are those blessed words.

Please bite that tongue before you speak.

Are they blessed words? 

If they are, they may carry you through this night! 

Like apples of gold in settings of silver

Is a word spoken in right circumstances.

Proverbs 25:11 NASB

New Life's Blood

Life’s blood pounding now...dau.tau...dau.tau..

Listen live and don't lie...

If your heart stops: you die!

Where ya gonna go?

Heave or Hell what will it be?

If Hell, it's deserved.

If Heaven, it's reserved!

I asked for forgiveness, on a child's bent knee.

Jesus gave forgiveness!

And He’s reserved a place for me!

Heaven is my hope, my home.

Will you join in Heavens’ rest: Jesus?

Take the one who made Heaven, yes take Him indeed!

He offers Heaven to all; don’t you see?

Jesus will save your spot.  Do you believe?

Will you come join Him?

Will you come?

Will you?

Please?

He hears the faintest call.

He hears the faintest plea.

Jesus, please forgive me!

Please make that your plea!

He will answer and be your all.

He offers gracious forgiveness.

He offers you change.

Yes He will change your destiny!

So listen to your heart beat...dau.tau...dau.tau..

If you die, where you gonna go?

Will you earn Hell?

Why not choose life?

Be with me in Heaven.

Take Jesus' Heaven: the free gift, life eternally!

"Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.  Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.  But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:1-9 NIV

Image source: theheavenlypress.wordpress.com  via Google image search.