But Recall

 

Hebrews 10:32-35 New King James Version 

32 But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: 33 partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; 34 for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves [d]in heaven. 35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 

(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2010%3A32-35&version=NKJV) 

What have you recalled lately? Have you recalled past hurts? Have you recalled regrets and disappointments? Have you recalled a lost loved one? How did the recollection of those events or people affect you? Past events and past relationships are a part of our life, they are things we remember, yet just like the future, they are things that our out of our control. We can either let them consume us or we can dwell on the One who saves us and will judge us. The One that loves us so much to die for us on the cross so we can have eternal life with Him. Let’s look at what God’s Word tells us we should recall. Recall “after you were illuminated” in other words, after the light in your heart came on and you saw the wickedness of your heart and you met the invisible Savior who could clean up that heart, when you accepted Christ as your Savior. 

 For myself, I was a little girl who accepted Christ as my Savior at a young age. I was quiet and it was not like me to use words to declare my Savior but I tried by my actions to live for Him. In middle school, I lost friends that, in their words, “did not want to corrupt me” so they shunned me and made jokes about me or at least I thought they did. Christ walked me through those times and today I know that He cleaned house of the old and gave me new friends that encouraged me in my faith and helped me grow to know my Lord more intimately. I can see how he protected me during those fragile years of my life. I need to recall those times and give Him the glory. Do I fail? Yes. Does He draw me back? Yes. 

 For others, who have come to know Christ as an adult, I have seen radical changes in their lives. They stop drinking, smoking, doing drugs and they become sold on serving Christ no matter the cost. They want to study His Word constantly and ask a lot of questions. Most generally they put older Christians to shame with their new found love for Christ. They make a radical change in their lives and all they want to do is talk about how God changed their lives. Have you been there either as the old or new Christian ? Are you there now? Then something happens and they become the older Christian. So secure in their faith that they forget about where they came from, they are so secure in their faith that they tend to think about it on occasion but they never talk about it. They get stuck in the happenings of the world, perhaps doing things for a good cause, getting involved in their community, and still being radical but for other things, not for Christ. Have you been there? Are you there now? 

The Scripture for today reminds us to hold fast to that faith. Remember the past that changed your life for the better. Remember the One who saved you, the One who died on the cross for your sins, the One who changed you into a person bold in proclaiming your faith, the One who gave you reason to live by faith. Remember the One who protected you from evil or gave you strength in a difficult trial. We should not be ones to want to go back to sin because Christ lives in us. We should not be ones that are so arrogant and proud that we reject those who we see as weak and worthless. We should always be humbled by the One who loved us so much that He gave us the power to change. We should always remember that all the work we do should be to build the Kingdom of God, not for recognition in this World. These works never perish. Our drive should be, when He comes back and we face Him, that we can stand before Him, in faith, and we can hear Him say, “well done” rather than “My soul has no pleasure in you.” Have you been there? Are you there? Recall and be renewed in Him and continue walking in faith and proclaiming Him to the world. 

 Seeing Him with all my heart, 

 Sheila Koop

Faith: Visible vs Invisible

As I opened the Scriptures today God showed me what it truly means to live by faith. A reminder that even though we may feel the pain of the battle, there is One more powerful than us that is fighting the battle. When we decide to step in and fight the battle, that pain becomes unbearable and out of control. Hebrews 10: 26-39 reminds us of the importance of enduring the struggles of this World. 

Hebrews 10:26-39 New King James Version 

The Just Live by Faith 

26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: 33 partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; 34 for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. 35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: 37 “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. 38 Now the[h] just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2010%3A%2026-39&version=NKJV)      

By Faith We Understand 

Hebrews 11: 1-3

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2011%3A1-3&version=NKJV) 

I realize this is a long Scripture passage for a blog but I want you to be able to look at the whole picture not just a part. There is so much we can unpack in this Scripture. As I read this Scripture today, the Lord reminded me to keep my faith no matter what I see or what I hear. That the God of the invisible is the God of truth. Our eyes allow us to see the World and the beauty of His creation but the creation itself, although seen, is a mystery to us, unless we know the One True God. The Creator of this Universe is the One that bears all truth. He is the One that fights our battles for us and He is the only One that can conquer death. Death, a separation from the One who created us which can lead to eternal separation from Him. That sounds quite frightful, doesn’t it? If we do not have faith in this One, if we decide to go our way and not His way because of arrogance, pride, self-determination, and the list goes on, we will find that our faith is in ourselves rather than the One true God and that is very frightful. We will find ourselves trusting in whatever we can do and not dwelling in His peace and assurance of our faith in Him. We begin to do the work rather than allowing Him to do it. When we do this, what seemed at first to be initiative, a good work ethic, a driven person becomes a sinful man/woman desiring their way and not God’s way. We become a broken down person that sees the World in the visible sense, thinking the tangible is what we want and forgetting the God who is invisible in the eyes of man but quite visible in the hearts of those who serve Him. 

 Let’s ponder, however, the vast greatness of a God who cares and loves us so much that He sent His One and Only Son to die for us that we may be able believe on the Name of Jesus and be saved from the destruction of sin. Jesus came to save but when He comes back in all of His glory, He will come to judge us. Will He find us trusting the invisible God or will He find us seeking our own ways? 

 Don’t forget the times that He has delivered you and don’t forget to let Him fight the battles of today, trust in the invisible, give the control to Him and know that He cares for you. 

 Seeking Him with all my heart, Sheila Koop

Walking by the Spirit or Flesh? continued

In the last blog, I asked a couple of questions for us to begin thinking about how we walk, whether in the flesh of by the Spirit. The question I posed, "Can we say the Spirit is leading us?" More specifically, I have to ask myself, "Is this from the Holy Spirit or is this my own desire". I was once told about an idea that someone had and asked what I thought of it, it was something that I was opposed to but had not really thought about it, nor had I prayed about it or researched it at all so my answer was, something to the affect, "my initial response is that I am opposed to it but if it something the Lord is asking you to do, who am I to stand in your way". The response I received was less than reassuring to me, "I don't know if it is something that Lord told me to do, it is just something that popped into my head." That response did not settle well with me because the individual had not discussed it with the Lord, had not measured whether it was a fleshly desire or a God given direction. So, today, let's look at what warrants something being God directed through the Holy Spirit or led versus a fleshly desire. This morning, in my time with the Lord, I asked the Him to tell me more about His Holy Spirit. When I looked at the verse of the day in my Bible app, it was Galatians 5:6: 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%3A16&version=ESV That was a God given verse for me today, an answer to my prayer. I didn’t stop with that verse though because I wanted to see what it looks like to be led by the Spirit and not by my flesh. One of the most challenging times in my life was when I thought I was following the will of the Father, He worked everything out for me but in the end, it didn’t end the way I thought it was supposed to end and I became frustrated. As I look back on that time, I was looking at how it would benefit me not at how I can exemplify the Lord in the skills that He had given me. I was walking in the flesh, He was leading me in the Spirit, but my fleshly fulfillment is not what He had in store for me, He had a much better plan. So, how do we know when it is a fleshly desire or a desire led by the Holy Spirit? If we continue reading in Galatians 5, we will find our answer. Galatians 5:19-21 9 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,[a] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[b] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%3A19-21&version=ESV Contrast those verses with the Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5: 22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%3A22-23&version=ESV When I read those I decided to write them down one column flesh and one column Spirit. You can easily categorize them in complete contrast to each other. Example: The first Fruit of the Spirit is love. We could go into a deep long study just on love. There are many types of love but God’s word make it clear what type of love it is talking about in the fruit of the Spirit I Corinthians 13:6-7 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[a] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2013%3A4-7&version=ESV) Just looking at those verses we see that love encompasses the fruit of the Spirit from patience, to kindness, to self-control. Love is not described in a way that allows us to be sexually immoral or impure yet many times the flesh tells us that we need to show our love in ways that are sexually immoral and impure. Showing the Love of God to others, means that we are patient with them, we are kind to them, we are not jealous of them, we don’t have fits of anger towards them, we don’t have rivalries, or cause dissension and we are not envious of them. Those are all works of the flesh. I would like to encourage you to go through the works of the flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit and measure something that you are struggling with. I wish I would have done that years ago as I wrestled with whether it was my will or the Father’s will. In recent days, when I have done this, I have realized fleshly desires and the Fruit of the Spirit. When I struggle with an issue, become angry with a situation, I have to look back and see where I am coming in with a fleshly desire rather than seeking Him with all my heart. I would love to hear your stories where you have seen God work in your life and how that was made evident through the Fruit of the Sprit versus the desires of the flesh. Seeking Him with all my heart, Sheila ,

Walking by the Spirit or by the flesh?

As we seek the Lord with all our hearts we need to remember to seek all of Him, not just the portion that feeds our ego, or allows us to be who we want to be. We should be seeking Him to know ALL of Him in His Majesty, His Greatness, His Presence, and yes, even His Judgement and His Wrath. All that He is makes us all that we are, when we know Him and ask His Holy Spirit to work through us to be what He wants us to be. Last Friday night our church had our weekly prayer meeting. During that meeting I was challenged to truly seek the Holy Spirit’s direction in my life. When I seek the Lord, the place I go is in His Word. I asked the Lord to reveal to me the power of the Holy Spirit through His Word and I was taken to Romans 8:12-13, which reads: "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ‭‭Romans ‭8‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.8.12-13.ESV Later in the evening, the pastor had us look at Romans 8:26 which reads: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭26‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.8.26.ESV He asked us to reflect on that Scripture and what it says to us. I recalled a time when I was in such distress that I had no words to pray to the Lord and I just wept. I knew the Holy Spirit was doing the praying for me because I had no words to express. Through that, I have seen miraculous happenings that allow me to know that He sought the best for me and He answered my cries. I also have to think of those times when I thought I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do but it didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. Then, I beat myself up because I didn’t hear Him correctly. I forgot that my ways are not always the Lord’s ways but He directs me in the way that I should go. Who knows, I may have touched a life that I never would have touched had I ignored what I thought He was calling me to do. It turned out the way He wanted, just not the way that I thought He wanted it to turn out. Our pastor began a series on Sunday dealing with the works of the Holy Spirit and then today, I read of Him in Ezekiel. It was so amazing and refreshing to read these words of a vision given to Ezekiel which gives us a picture of the workings of the Holy Spirit. I found it quite refreshing today as I read my daily Bible passage. As I began to read Ezekiel, the visions he experienced, and the working of the Holy Spirit paralleled so closely with what the Holy Spirit has been revealing to me through His Word. There were several passages that stood out to me but for today I want to look at the following passages: “Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.” ‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬, ‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/ezk.1.15-21.ESV I believe this is how He works in those who are called according to His purpose for you see in Romans 8:28 we read: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.8.28.ESV If we are walking in the Spirit as He has called us to do, not desiring our own fleshly needs but focused on the will of the Father, the Holy Spirit will guide us. When we seek Him and His ways and the wheels turn, we will be led by Him. Notice in vs. 20 "wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went". Can we say the same for ourselves? When we begin to think that all that we do is because of our own actions, our own dreams, we will be led by the flesh but when we deny the flesh and live by the Spirit, the wheels of the Holy Spirit will guide us in the way that we should go. That sounds so easy to do but yet we have to daily seek Him and find Him with our whole heart, not with the desires of our flesh. We can be assured that we will go where He leads and be powered by His Spirit. What can you deny today so that you may know Him more fully and be led more clearly by the Holy Spirit who dwells within those who know and love Him? Seeking Him with all my heart, Sheila