Luke 11: 34“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness.35Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness.36If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.”

 

some versions say the eye is the light into the soul... that you can see the spirit within someone by looking at their eyes..

I tend to think it isn't really meaning anything that literal.. I think it means more about our heart... that our heart is filled with darkness.. then we too are filled with darkness.. but if our heart is filled with Christ.. with His love and His word.. then we tend to radiate that from within us...

 

I don't think you can be miserable on the inside... yet be pleasant on the outside... at least not long term.. you can fool some of the people some of the time.. but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.. who you really are within shows itself... I believe anyone without Christ is miserable inside.. you have no light.. nothing to bring true joy... you may not have problems with money.. you may have people who really love you.. but without Christ.. there is no joy.. no true peace... and that shows itself... eventually...

Exodus 19: ³ Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “Give these instructions to the family of Jacob; announce it to the descendants of Israel: ⁴ ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. ⁶ And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.”

 

when I look at how much God loved the Israelites.. how He did so much for them.. rescuing them over and over and over.. and look how He talks to them.. He calls them His own special treasure... that they belong to Him.. that they are His kingdom of priests and a holy nation...

 

you can see the love He feels for them pouring out through His words and His actions.... and we sometimes think.. how awesome to have been able to see that.. to live that...

 

yet we do... we live it every day... because God loves us like that too.. and He says those same great and wonderful things to us and about us... thank you Father.. for loving me so much... for sending your Son to save me.. and sending your Holy Spirit to lead and guide me... I love you so much...

so this morning I am sleeping and thinking in my sleep about this movie I watched a few weeks ago called Queen.. it was about a slave that was born to a slave and the owner... when emancipation came.. she wouldn't leave the plantation... she said it was her home... she said this is where her mother and father and grandparents were all living and buried and she didn't want to leave and she knew nothing else... where would she go? in the end they forced her to leave...

 

as I was thinking of this I realized.. or had the revelation.. if she had never left that plantation... she would have never been free really... she would have continued to serve them as a slave.. not as a freed woman.. she would not have received wages more than likely... she would have continued to remain a slave in her mind...

 

1 Corinthians 9: ¹⁹ Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. ²⁰ When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.

 

I wonder how often we start out as a slave to Christ.. and end up being a slave to pleasing self or man... how often does our motive stop being about God and become all about us or about someone else? pretty often I am thinking...

 

our mind is our battlefield.. the best thing we can do to fight this battle is to keep our minds on Christ and not on what we think or want or feel..

Matthew 7: ⁷ “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

 

I think too often we think this scripture gives us a free pass... we imagine that God will go along with everything that we ask for... I don't see it that way.. I think that the only time we can be sure God will give us what we pray for is when we pray for His will over our own... I think that we often want our will to be His will and maybe it is not... so at the end of all of our prayers.. we have to go to the place of accepting that not my will be done.. but Yours...

 

I am sure that God will answer every prayer... but I do not always think He will give us what we pray for.. many times the answer is a no... that is hard to accept.. but I am sure that it is in our best interest too... I wonder if we were to just pray for God's will alone and stop telling Him our will... I wonder how different our prayer time would be...

Phillipians 4: ⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

 

I am just thinking.. can we imagine what a better life we would have if we focused only on these things.. if we didn't let the fears and doubts and suspicions creep in and cloud our mind and our relationships.. if we could look at what is true and only deal with that... I think we would be way happier... that is my reality...

Philippians 3: ⁵ I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. ⁶ I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

⁷ I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. ⁸ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ ⁹ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, ¹¹ so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

 

I was thinking about the way I think.... you know... I think Jesus is showing me that I am more pharisee than I think... way more than I would like to admit... you know paul stands here and recites all the reasons that people would say he is the perfect godly man.. due to being pure blooded israelite who was circumcised on the eighth day.. followed all of the rules and regulations...

 

I find myself... the longer I live for God for real... doing that with myself... thinking I am this great christian.. then God will slap me upside the head and remind me just how far I really am from being so righteous... and that it is alot in my mind and not so much in my heart.. and our heart is really all that counts...

 

and paul says he once thought this was so important.. and so did I... when I had so much of the world in me and in my thoughts.. then I thought if I could just LOOK like a christian and SOUND like a christian.. man I would be in good shape!! and now.. here I am.. looking all crisp and clean and christlike.. and sounding like Jesus.. reciting scripture.... having left the world behind....

 

only to find out.. the real issues are in my heart.. and they may be even worse than they were when I was worldly... when I was of the world.. I knew I wasn't worth anything.. then I change my actions and some of my thoughts and I get to thinking how righteous I am living... but really... is my heart clear before God? or am I often judgemental and fighting my thoughts....

 

I was laying on the roller bed at the  chiropractor today realizing that I think sexual thoughts constantly.................. I may not do anything about them.. but they sure are at the top of my mind... I envision the male body on a regular.... *long sigh* still so far to go toward really being righteous..............

 

I kept reading.. and this was the next line..

¹² I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. ¹³ No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

 

so he was still screwed up too!! LOL and I surely know he was righteous... and surely his heart was right before God...

2 samuel 23: ²⁴ Other members of the Thirty included:

Asahel, Joab’s brother; Elhanan son of Dodo from Bethlehem; ²⁵ Shammah from Harod; Elika from Harod; ²⁶ Helez from Pelon; Ira son of Ikkesh from Tekoa; ²⁷ Abiezer from Anathoth; Sibbecai from Hushah; ²⁸ Zalmon from Ahoah; Maharai from Netophah;
²⁹ Heled son of Baanah from Netophah; Ithai son of Ribai from Gibeah (in the land of Benjamin); ³⁰ Benaiah from Pirathon; Hurai from Nahale-gaash; ³¹ Abi-albon from Arabah; Azmaveth from Bahurim; ³² Eliahba from Shaalbon; the sons of Jashen; Jonathan ³³ son of Shagee from Harar; Ahiam son of Sharar from Harar; ³⁴ Eliphelet son of Ahasbai from Maacah; Eliam son of Ahithophel from Giloh; ³⁵ Hezro from Carmel; Paarai from Arba; ³⁶ Igal son of Nathan from Zobah; Bani from Gad; ³⁷ Zelek from Ammon; Naharai from Beeroth, Joab’s armor bearer; ³⁸ Ira from Jattir; Gareb from Jattir; ³⁹ Uriah the Hittite.

There were thirty-seven in all.

 

in this chapter it talks about the special fighting men of david and the amazing feats they performed and how God helped them in battle... look at the last name... uriah the hittite... this was the husband of bathsheba... he was one of the closest men to david.. one of the inner circle... yet when david saw bathsheba.. he even asked who she was and they said she was the wife of uriah the hittite.. so david KNEW what he was doing when he called her to the palace and slept with her... he knew who he was betraying.. that this was one of his most trusted men... THEN... because she got pregnant and he couldn't get uriah to sleep with her so he could pretend the child was uriah's.. then he has him killed....

 

yet this is a man that is called a man after God's own heart....

 

what can that really mean deep down.. a man after God's own heart? and if God still felt david was so special after all the things he did... what about us... first of all.. how we judge ourselves as not being useable by God because of our previous life.. but on top of that.. look at how we look at someone else who screws up royally... we assume they can't really be in relationship with God because if they were.. wouldn't they do better... wouldn't they be righteous and holy all the time like we think we are....

 

sheesh!! we are so screwed up and judgemental... yet God overlooks these things in david.. in us.. and surely in the people we think we are judging too.... people are just people.. we will never be God.. we will continue to fall... I may not fall in the area you are falling.. and we are expected to live at a higher level.. we are expected to STRIVE daily to be more like Christ... but in being more like Christ.. we need to stop feeling like we can look at someone else's failure and decide that it is a reflection of their relationship with God.. surely it is not...

Isaiah 65: 24 ²⁴ I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!

 

I can think how awesome it will be when God answers my prayers before I even pray them... then I wonder.. isn't that happening anyways? how often is it that we don't even know what to pray for and still God has worked everything out for us.. I can look back on my own life and how many times I didn't have sense and walked straight into trouble.. not asking for guidance or protection or anything at all.. sometimes even having the audacity to want God to back up and let me taste trouble just a little bit...

 

yet there He was protecting me.. saving me... caring for me... all the time.. even when I had not prayed for it...

 

I think our prayers are important... I believe we co-sign with God's ultimate will through our prayers.. or we should be anyways... and then He works with us and for us... changing us and making us new creatures in Christ with a transformed heart and mind...

 

but I am thankful still when God hears me before I cry out.. and answers me anyways...

2 samuel 18: ⁹ During the battle, Absalom happened to come upon some of David’s men. He tried to escape on his mule, but as he rode beneath the thick branches of a great tree, his hair got caught in the tree. His mule kept going and left him dangling in the air. ¹⁰ One of David’s men saw what had happened and told Joab, “I saw Absalom dangling from a great tree.”

¹¹ “What?” Joab demanded. “You saw him there and didn’t kill him? I would have rewarded you with ten pieces of silver and a hero’s belt!”
¹² “I would not kill the king’s son for even a thousand pieces of silver,” the man replied to Joab. “We all heard the king say to you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘For my sake, please spare young Absalom.’ ¹³ And if I had betrayed the king by killing his son—and the king would certainly find out who did it—you yourself would be the first to abandon me.”
¹⁴ “Enough of this nonsense,” Joab said. Then he took three daggers and plunged them into Absalom’s heart as he dangled, still alive, in the great tree. ¹⁵ Ten of Joab’s young armor bearers then surrounded Absalom and killed him.
¹⁶ Then Joab blew the ram’s horn, and his men returned from chasing the army of Israel. ¹⁷ They threw Absalom’s body into a deep pit in the forest and piled a great heap of stones over it. And all Israel fled to their homes.

¹⁸ During his lifetime, Absalom had built a monument to himself in the King’s Valley, for he said, “I have no son to carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and it is known as Absalom’s Monument to this day.

 

absalom got killed by his hair of all things.. much like samson in some respects...

and one of the soldiers refused to kill him because he was the king's son... I am with him on that one...

 

 

at the end it states that absalom had built a monument to himself... he had no son to carry on his name.. but does that make a good reason to be building ourself up? I don't think so... our pride is often our downfall it is often what gets us trapped... and surely it is the truth for david's son... he tried to take his father's position.. which was given to him by God... and he was destroyed by his selfish desires to raise himself up...

 

 

I think we all need to be very careful not to think ourselves great and wonderful... and if we are to be raised up.. let God do the raising..

2 samuel 15: ⁵ As King David came to Bahurim, a man came out of the village cursing them. It was Shimei son of Gera, from the same clan as Saul’s family. ⁶ He threw stones at the king and the king’s officers and all the mighty warriors who surrounded him. ⁷ “Get out of here, you murderer, you scoundrel!” he shouted at David. ⁸ “The Lord is paying you back for all the bloodshed in Saul’s clan. You stole his throne, and now the Lord has given it to your son Absalom. At last you will taste some of your own medicine, for you are a murderer!”

⁹ “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?” Abishai son of Zeruiah demanded. “Let me go over and cut off his head!”
¹⁰ “No!” the king said. “Who asked your opinion, you sons of Zeruiah! If the Lord has told him to curse me, who are you to stop him?”

¹¹ Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “My own son is trying to kill me. Doesn’t this relative of Saul have even more reason to do so? Leave him alone and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to do it. ¹² And perhaps the Lord will see that I am being wronged and will bless me because of these curses today.” ¹³ So David and his men continued down the road, and Shimei kept pace with them on a nearby hillside, cursing as he went and throwing stones at David and tossing dust into the air.

 

this is really just a continuation of yesterday. david amazes me.. he looks at even the negative things happening in his life and realizes that possibly they are coming from God.. how often do we try to determine that everything that doesn't go our way is from the enemy... and while it is true that the enemy is out here seeking to steal kill and destroy... he couldn't do anything without permission from God.. so ulitmately... even the unpleasant things.. even the negative people we encounter are coming from God in the long run... or at least allowed by Him...  

 

his only response is.. perhaps the Lord will see I am being wronged and will bless me because of these curses...  

 

you don't hear him being angry of vengeful toward the one coming against him... I need a little more of this in my own spirit...

2 samuel 15: ²⁴ Zadok and all the Levites also came along, carrying the Ark of the Covenant of God. They set down the Ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until everyone had passed out of the city.

²⁵ Then the king instructed Zadok to take the Ark of God back into the city. “If the Lord sees fit,” David said, “he will bring me back to see the Ark and the Tabernacle again. ²⁶ But if he is through with me, then let him do what seems best to him.”

in this scripture.. david is leaving jerusalem because his son absalom has decided to overthrow his father as king... he has support and an army... so david is fleeing the city with his household...
 

david.. amazingly to me... rather than act like he is owed the kingdom.. like his son is oh so wrong for what he is doing... david turns the whole thing over to God... and states.. if it is God's will... then I will be back.. but if He is through with me.. then let Him do what He sees as best...
 

I don't know about you but I have never been a big enough person to say " if God is through with me " yet I wonder how often that might be the right response... we have such a hard time walking away from things... letting go of anything that we see as 'ours'.. yet really.. nothing belongs to us.. everything we have.. belongs to God.. so if He decides to end it... we should be willing to accept it and believe He must be walking us in another direction.. giving us something else...
 

in the case of david being king.. God was not done with him.. and absalom was overthrown and killed.. but I think it was a very wise man who was willing to realize that the decision of whether or not he remained king was completely up to God...

Ephesians 5: Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. ² Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

 

This is my new motto..

I desire to do all things in love... I desire to be a reflection of Christ at all times... somehow... I am going to lay down my feelings... and just live as God would have me live...

 

as I feel I have been knocking on death's door... LOL.... it is funny that all other things cease to matter... when we are at the end of the line.. and we have nothing but our breath.... then it seems God is enough... but when things are good (term used loosely) and we are thinking constantly about all that we think we need.... all that we want... then we are so unsatisfied....

  

I am satisfied I am decided... I am thankful just to be in the number of God's chosen ones... I am thankful that He still chooses to look in my direction! I am happy!!

psalms 11: ¹ I trust in the Lord for protection. So why do you say to me, “Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety! ² The wicked are stringing their bows and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings. They shoot from the shadows at those whose hearts are right.
³ The foundations of law and order have collapsed. What can the righteous do?”

⁴ But the Lord is in his holy Temple; the Lord still rules from heaven. He watches everyone closely, examining every person on earth. ⁵ The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked. He hates those who love violence. ⁶ He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked, punishing them with scorching winds. ⁷ For the righteous Lord loves justice. The virtuous will see his face.


I wonder.. do we realize how much God protects us from... how much He watches over us... drives our car... watches while we sleep... protects our house... I am thankful today for the protection of God over me..