Holiness and Wisdom vs. Folly and sin

olly says to wisdom you are foolish
Wisdom holds her tongue and by her deeds speaks
Folly forgets herself and so in her pride thinks herself to be wise
Wisdom is meek and humble and with love teaches knowledge to the lowly
Folly exalts herself amongst the fools and they listen
Drawn to grandeur she and her disciples are puffed up
Wisdom is quiet but her still voice roars like the oceans
By Love she draws her disciples whom she protects like a hen does her chicks
Folly is like a snake that forgets her own offspring
Wisdom is like rain on a thirsty land brining forth life
Folly is like bareness of land that lasts continuously bearing only death
Holiness is One with wisdom
Folly is found with sin
Holiness comes from above
Folly and sin drag their disciples to death
Holiness and Wisdom are of God who is a shield to the weak
Folly and sin are corruption from the Evil One
All are born sinners full of folly awaiting death
But in wisdom God saves those he calls and makes them forever his sons

my heart’s soap box

Lord, my heart is set on you
My heart seeks you
My soul desires you
You are with me always
May I fear thee always
May I always meditate on the holiness of your ever present presence
You are with me and I am yours always

My heart is weak Lord
My heart seeks for the fleeting
My eyes search constantly seeking
I struggle with sin, but I know by you I have overcome
Who can fully grasp the measure of love in Messiah’s bleeding?
Lord forgive my sins, I come before your throne;
Mold me, make me contrite in heart and meek in Spirit.

Daily I wish I could be with you in your Home
Seasons come and go
Babies are born and families burry their old
Businesses are made and others fail
Yet I wonder what is it that you measure in your scales?
My heart you weigh, and you know it fully?
My soul’s pains and the weakness of my dusty frame
Your Love is precious and I seek it more than any treasure
Your Word is pure and better than any earthly gift
Worries and anxieties prowl seeking my heart
Your Peace still’s me
Your Word calms me and your faithfulness keeps me.

Zeal I desire, Light that I may shine
May sadness depart from my heart,
Gladness I enjoy from your Love
Anxieties prowl after me, but your Love is a rock of safety
The future is unknown to me
But I know that I await to be taken to you
To be in your sweet presence
Lord give me steadfast Love and zeal
To every day of my life serve you in gladness
To be satisfied in you
To with all my might serve you with my whole heart
Lord may my hands work with what ever you lay before them
May my lips bless your Name.

A body to serve you with you have granted me
A mind to serve you with you have given me
Lips to praise you and a soul to exult in you
Breath to live
Commandments to serve you by and express love
And your word for sustenance
Food for my stomach and clothes for my body
Salvation in Messiah for justification and righteousness
Messiah’s Glory to live for and His Spirit to live by
All this to your Glory, may your Name be Glorified always
Your Majesty and Holiness is above all, may you be praised in all your dominion.

Suffering and Faith

Psalms 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible, it’s like an A-Z of loving, cherishing and keeping God’s Word as the means of showing love, dedication and faithfulness to Him as we endeavor to seek Him diligently and keep his Words out of love for Him. Its long but the heart of the psalm is really touching, its like one who misses and loves God and yet perseveres through it all by keeping God’s word as dear to Him and treasuring it above all earthly things because in it He hears the counsel of God and the desires of God. Suffering on earth is inevitable and in we are called to joyfully join in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, for without suffering with him we can not be gloried with Him…..as He said, if “he who loves His life shall lose it” and again He said “Take up your cross and follow me”…..and as Paul said “I die daily.” In all this and various events in life that may cause our heart’s to ache, there is suffering….how we deal with it and what we see in it, matters a lot to God.

The purpose of suffering is to allow us to first of all fully understand that we need God. The amount to which we need God when we suffer and when we don’t suffer doesn’t change, suffering only allows our mind’s to understand the level of that dependancy, we as human’s are prone to forget and suffering helps us remember the reality of life, the whole duty of life is to Fear God and keep His commandments, walk humbly before him loving mercy, walking in faith as we whole heartedly love and trust Him. This means seeing the temporal blessings we have in this world as things that God puts in our hands for a time as stewards and not getting too comfortable with them to the extent that we forget our God. Too often we become praisers of ourselves and our hard work or our blessings or simply forget that God is our true and first Love. God even warns us of this complacency that a full stomach and plenty can bring due to the forgetting Who The One who blesses and sustains is, the warning is found in deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 8:10-14

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. “Beware that you do not forget the LORDyour God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

In the proverbs, the writer of the 30th proverb asks God simply for His daily bread as Jesus did, and not for excessive riches lest he forget God nor poverty lest he steal, the heart of that petition lies in the fact that He finds more joy and satisfaction in God than in temporary status, or riches or things of this world what ever they may be and so He asks for those things that He needs,

First He praises God saying

Proverbs 30:5-6

“Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,
or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.”

Then he continues and says (proverbs 30:7-8)

Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

Why does God warn us from forgetting Him after we have eaten of the plenty, and the proverb writer pray for balance out of fear of God? Because God is their treasure, and that is why God allows for us to suffer. It is for the testing of our faith, schools give tests and exams….God allows for suffering and it shows whether faith is genuine or not. The seed planted in the fertile ground produces much fruit, it is the house built on a Rock, the servant who Loves God above all others even mother, brother, father, sister, husband, wife etc, it is He who abides in the Love of God so that when suffering comes, one knows to trust God and not let loss of anything affect that faith but rather in confiding, in trusting in God that faith is strengthened and the end result is reward, this may be a temporal blessing(s) on earth but is most more importantly the reward is an eternal reward in heaven and even more important, closer intimacy with God as one clings to God as a small child does to His mother or father when scarred or in need. Thats why the psalmist can say “It is good that you have afflicted me so that I may learn your statutes” (psalm 119:71). So we suffer and in Love we abide in and keep God’s Word in worship of Him and as a way of finding comfort in Him as we hold onto His promises and pray to Him as He in His word commands us “draw near to me and I shall draw near to you.”

John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

The suffering is only for a short period of time, we hold on and there shall be better things to come in the world to come and in the presence of God and the Lord Jesus. The things we go through now, we go through paradoxically to hold on to God where others would flee. Suffering allows us to know God as our provider, sustainer, Lord over all circumstances and situations no matter how big or small, our comforter (like a mother who squeezes her child’s boil causing pain and yet healing the child and comforting the child so that the child may realize that the pain is a necessary part of the good work being done). God shows Himself as God and we are shown to be creatures that are unable to exist without Him, and we do not lament at this rather we embrace it and find hope, comfort and our trust is established because we know that The God who has brought us thus far will carry us to the end of the race though it may come with tears, pains and agonies together with joy, comfort and great peace. This is the experience of those who know God, great examples are Joseph and David, James and Paul. Suffering helps us remember the LORD in times of plenty to Bless Him and continue to cling to Him, and in times of lack to remember his blessings in the times of plenty and know that even in the time of lack He is God. It allows for us to be able to faithfully speak out on the Faithfulness of God as we experience it for ourselves. God uses suffering to show the smallness of the things of this world and keep our mind, heart and eyes on the treasures above in Heaven, the greatest treasure being Himself. The one who knows suffering can say with the psalmist (psalm 73:25-26)

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Comfort us

High and exalted you sit on high
Comforting your people as you see and feel their groans and sighs
Generations have come and gone all bound by demonic lies
The Powerful have oppressed
Over wealth, glory and title they have obsessed
Overlooking the poor and the afflicted whom with their lips they have cursed
The poor die naked
The beggars die on the streets
Whilst the dogs of the wealthy feast on luxurious treats
The young rebel against the old and all hearts seek after idols; the world is jaded
The poor have murdered in revolt
Revolution was their melody and murder was the song
Mankind is lost in darkness yet still you have looked down and shown your light
Still you separate for yourself children of Adam and in Christ make them your delight
Like sheep we have all gone astray
Our hearts have wandered away
Yet in Christ’s atonement you have made us a way
You have given life where there was death
To the dead men you have given new breath
High and exalted you sit on High
Yet you descended and dwelt among us to shine your light
To The Father you have ascended to intercede for us
By Your Spirit you draw us who were afar of nigh

Filling homes with Glory

As sons of The Kingdom and heirs of God we are provided with a rich heritage. All the words of God are given to us for spiritual enrichment and growth, whilst in exile on earth we should fill our lives with The LORD’s Word and seek every opportudfdsnity to meditate and think on and speak on his words to each other and our families especially. Lets seek to give God continuous worship in our homes.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Freedom songs!

The songs of freedom we sing!!! Liberated from sin, promised with eternal liberty in Messiah!!! Freedom is slavery to righteousness……peace. What is righteousness? If the Law sums up what righteousness is, and the Law is summed up as Love. And if our sinful nature stops us from being able to live completely through the expression of love through the written code, and because of that we are justly judged. Then it seems to me that The Sacrifice of Messiah to fulfill the Law on our behalf and free us through His death and give us liberty in life through His resurrection and His Spirit then it is clear that God expresses Love from beginning to end, and if we are made in his image and likeness we too are to express love towards him and each other. Our inability to do so deserves a just punishment. In Love however he predestined us for salvation in Messiah. Who in love gave himself for us and in Love guides and sustains us. It becomes clear that we are saved to Glorify Him as an expression of ultimate Love, this is worship. How is it to be expessed? “If you love me you will keep my Word” (John 15). The commandments are now written on our hearts, Love is now written on our Hearts and the power of this Love is through the Holy Spirit who enables us to walk in it. Righteousness that comes through faith in Messiah who is the doorway to the Father. Abide in The Vine. Love is expressed in tender hearted steadfast faithfulness towards God, His own Love for us is the foundation and fertile soil in which our love grows.

another little note

King of Kings
Lord of Lord
From now till eternity your praise we sing
We are yours the sheep of your fold
Supreme Dominion eternally in your hand
You own all things, every inch of all land
The stars, the heavens, the seas and all that fills them
Glorious in Splendor
Holy, Holy, Holy there is no one greater
Dwelling in Everlasting
May all flesh kneel before you and extol your Great Name
Creator of all
Savior of our souls

Take your stand

We stand
In defiance of sin and submission to God
Faces to the floor in worship to the Lord
We are secure in his hand
Therefore the meek shall inherit the land
Innumerable are his thoughts towards us
Similar to the number of grains of sea shore sand
In Love he predestined our salvation
The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world
Supreme is the King’s Word
So whether the terrors creep by night
Or war knocks asking for a fight
We in defiance of sin shall take a stand
And instead turn our eyes to the Lord
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies and Hordes
For His Love is everlasting and nothing can sever us from it
So we choose to be zealous
we refuse to be luke warm and become vomit

a confession to my Lord

Lord, thoughts of doubt have been troubling me

Its like the dark has crept on me and my heart closes it’s and refuses to see

I find myself reading your word and rationalizing all I read

Lord water me, I long for you

I walk in the streets with my headphones on

I listen to your songs, but its like my heart still bleeds

There are moments of great joy

I thank you for them

Lord I ask that you keep me awake

Keep my eyes focused on you

Keep my heart set on You

Rescue me from myself

Calm this mind from its own storms

Speak your word that the storm may be calmed

May my mind be content with trusting your Word

May my mind not seek to rationalize all I hear of you

I need you

Day is Dimming- Brooke Fraser