Tag: obedience

Sword Fighting Class- Preserve Sound Judgement

On By Judy GlasserIn Sword Fighting ClassLeave a comment

It’s amazing to see what God can do when we review his scripture day after day.  He writes it on our hearts.  And he talks to us through it….constantly…..guiding our days through these words:

“My child, do not forget my teachings but keep my commands in your heart for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the site of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruit of all your crops. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. My child, do not despise the Lords discipline and do no resent his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father, the daughter he delights in.

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, who gains understanding. For she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies, nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways and all of her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her – those who lay hold of her will be blessed.Proverbs 3 to verse 25

By wisdom, the Lord laid the earth’s foundations. By understanding, he set the heavens in place. And by his knowledge, the deeps are divided and the clouds drop their dew.

Great job!  God is so awesome!  Here are our next verses:

“My child, preserve sound judgement and discernment, do not let them out of your sight. For they will be life to you, an ornament to grace your neck. “

Dear Father, we desire sound judgement based on your truth.  We want to be able to discern what is from you and what is a lie.  We ask you to remove anything in our minds that is not true and replace it with your words.  We want your words to guide us, your truth to be obvious in our lives – so obvious that it’s an ornament that graces our neck.

We pray these things knowing that we will receive them because they are in your will for  us.  Thank you, Father.  In the awesome name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

 

Its Not Complicated

On By Judy GlasserIn NovemberLeave a comment

The night of his betrayal, Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15.

How often do we say we love Jesus?

How often do we show that by keeping his commands?

It’s not complicated.

But it’s not easy.

Because we get in the way.November 14 2014 If you love me

What we want.

What we think.

When we truly put God first in our lives, it’s not nearly as hard.

Because he helps us.

And he keeps us on track.

He keeps our thoughts focused on where they need to be.

He helps us submit our desires and thinking to him.

And it all works.

The seven simple words of this verse changed my life.

I realized that, if I wanted to truly love Jesus, there were strings.

And I’m accountable to my Father God for those strings.

He wants me to obey him because that is the best thing for me.

It’s not complicated….

but it’s impossible without God in the middle.

Thank you, Abba Father.

Sword Fighting Class – The Best is Yet to Come

On By Judy GlasserIn Sword Fighting ClassLeave a comment

In our Sword Fighting Classes, we are memorizing God’s word together.  God commands us over and over in his Word to store his commands in our hearts, to write his words on our minds, to never forget his teachings.  We are being obedient as we review our verses daily and God does the hard part of engraving them on our minds.

With God’s help,  we have memorized James 1 and Proverbs 2 so far.  Isn’t that amazing!  God is now pointing us to Proverbs 3….more wisdom.  Let’s get started with verse 1 and 2:

“My child, do not forget my teachings but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.”Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

How appropriate that God starts out again with his command about not forgetting his teachings.  It’s really hard to forget his teaching when it’s etched on our brains.  Its part of how we think, how we feel.

God tells us that his teaching will prolong our lives many years.  I have been reading a lot about God’s teaching about food this last year and I believe, if we follow his guidance on this, it really will prolong our lives.  Lower our blood pressure.  Take us out of the danger zone for other diseases.  Help our heart to be more healthy.

God promises us that his teachings will bring us prosperity.  His form of prosperity is not the empty prosperity taught by the world where we never have enough…never content.

God’s prosperity comes in the form of things money can’t buy – peace, and purpose and love and completeness and more.

Much more.

You are more than enough, Abba Father.

Audio file of me sharing the verses I’ve memorized so far in Proverbs 3:

 

Sword Fighting Class – Walk in the Light

On By Judy GlasserIn Sword Fighting ClassLeave a comment

As we go over and over the words of Proverbs 2, we are realizing that a supernatural thing is happening.  God is writing his words onto our minds and into our hearts!

We used to say that the reason we didn’t memorize scripture was that we didn’t have a very good memory.  Well, we still don’t have a great memory – except when it comes to scripture.  We’ve got whole chapters of the Bible memorized!  Because God is faithfully doing it. We’re doing our part and he is doing the amazing part that we can’t do.Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

God is blessing our obedience to the words he used as he started out Proverbs 2:

My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  Then you will understand what is right and just and fair, every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose ways are perverse.”

Great job!  Here’s the next verse:

“Who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,”

Jesus is the light of the world.  He brought light into a dark and broken world.

When we choose to think and act like Jesus wants us to, we are walking in the light.

When we choose to rebel and disobey, we are choosing to walk a dark and crooked path.Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

This path just leads us farther and farther away from the light.

The Good News is Jesus will always accept us back.  We just need to repent and turn  around.  We must choose to come back into the light.  Get back on the straight path.

This is the path God has prepared in advance for us through his love and grace.

Thank you, Abba Father.

 

Audio file of Proverbs 2:

 

Psalm 119 (aleph), 2015

On By Judy GlasserIn MayLeave a comment

You bless us when we make decisions and choices that are in line with your word, oh God.

You bless us when our actions are guided by your truth.May 3 Psalm 119 aleph 2015

You bless us when we seek you with all of our hearts.

When we follow your directions to us, we are right where you want us to be.

You have given us all the guidance we need.  Now its our turn to do our part – and that’s to obey.

I want to be obedient, dear Father!

Then I will have no regrets.  No shame.  No guilt when I read your word and realize the difference between my behavior and how you want me to behave.

I want to be able to praise you with a heart fully committed to living my life according to your plan.

Please help me live a life of obedience to you!

Amen, let it be so, Abba Father.

Psalm 40, 2015

On By Judy GlasserIn AprilLeave a comment

When I was faithful in seeking you, God, you lifted me out of the slimy pit of my rebellion and sin.

Out of the mud of my bad choices.Apriil 27 Psalm 40, 2015

Out of the mire I got stuck in by trying to do things ‘my way’.

I am now solidly planted on you, my Rock.

And now I have a new song of praise to sing to you.

I pray that many others will also decided to put their trust in God.

You, oh God, bless those who trust in you.  We are wise when we put you first in our lives and don’t follow the example of others who are only focused on themselves.

You have great things planned for us, the faithful.

You have done many awesome things – there is nothing to compare you to.

You don’t want us to just read the Bible – you want our eyes to be open and our minds to be obedient.

You don’t want us to just give our money to the church – you want us to care about the things you care about.

You don’t want us to just close our eyes to pray and start down our list of requests.  You want a relationship with us.  You want a conversation.  Most of all, you desire listening ears and a softened heart.

Here I am , Lord.

I desire to do your will.

Your words are written on my heart.

We love you, dear Father.

Caving In

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

Or should we call it making the ‘popular’ choice?March 30 2015 Caving In

In 1 Samuel, Saul disobeyed God by keeping some of the ‘stuff’ that they took from the Amalekites after defeating them.  When Samuel pointed this out to Saul, Saul rationalized the sin by telling Samuel that they did this so they could give the best of the sheep and cattle to God.

Samuel then tells Saul that the Lord didn’t want the burnt sacrifices as much as he wanted obedience.  As a result of Saul’s disobedience and rebellion, God was rejecting Saul as king.

Well, NOW Saul admitted that the real reason he kept the plunder was because he was afraid of how his men would react if he destroyed it all like God wanted him to do.

Saul didn’t trust God.  He didn’t believe God had his back.  He got all wrapped up in being a hotshot king that everyone looked up to and he didn’t want to put any of this hero-worship into jeopardy.

So Saul made the ‘popular’ choice rather than the obedient one.

Do we ever do that?  Are we ever more concerned about what other people think than what God thinks?  Do we fail to take the more Godly position on issues sometimes because it may not go over well with others?  What will people think?

We probably all do.  Maybe even without realizing it.

Our goal is that this happens less and less as we make obedience to God an increasingly higher priority in our hearts and minds.

God trumps popularity.

Every time.

We love you, Abba Father and we want to show you our love through our obedience.

It’s So Easy

On By Judy GlasserIn MarchLeave a comment

March 17 2015 Its so EasyIt’s so easy to listen to the selfish, sinful thoughts that come into our minds.  Satan’s team is also always there – encouraging us to focus on ourselves and what we want.

We take our eyes off of God.

We wander away.

It doesn’t take any effort at all.

This is what happened to the Israelites after Joshua died.  They didn’t finish the job of completely take over the Promised land.  Despite all of their promises to God, they let the pagans continue to live in the land.

It was easier.

Some of the pagans were forced into being servants for the Israelites but they stayed…

along with all of their idols and false gods.

This began a period of decline for the Israelite nation.

Yes, the idols became snares for them.

Yes, the false gods became traps.

The Israelites disobeyed God and began to experience significant adversity in their lives as a result of their bad choices.

Just like we do when we choose to disobey….when we make decisions without consulting God and his truth….when we focus on our own desires rather than God’s.

Fortunately, we read over and over in the Old Testament that the Israelites also recognized their rebellion and repented.  They turned away from the things that were trapping them.  They turned back to God – just like we need to do when we recognize our own rebellion.  Our own sin.

Dear Father, Please guide us back to you whenever we wander.

From This Day Forward

On By Judy GlasserIn JanuaryLeave a comment

We drive a stake into the ground.Jan 14 2015 From this day forward

This is it.

From this day forward.

Sometimes God shows us we need to make an abrupt change in our lives.  Something happens and God uses it to significantly change the direction we are headed.

Most of the time, God transforms us gradually – baby steps.  But, every once in while, we get an epiphany from God – our eyes are opened to God’s desire to make a big change in us – and we are compelled to drive a stake into the ground.

From this day forward, we will be different.  There’s no going back.

I had one of the epiphanies 6 months ago about eating right and daily obeying God’s commands in the Bible regarding food.  I am forever changed.  My eyes are opened to how God wants me to use food in my life and there is no going back.  The stake is in the ground.

We read in Genesis that Laban and Jacob made a covenant and Jacob set up a pillar to remind each of them of their promises to one another.  From this day forward, we will not harm one another.

A pillar in the ground.  From now on, our behavior is going to be different.

There is no going back.

God is transforming us as we walk this road of faith.  The Holy Spirit is convicting us of the truth in God’s word which we need to apply to our lives.  God is teaching us.  He is guiding us.

If we are listening, we should be experiencing these epiphanies and working with God has he transforms us from the inside outside.  We should be more like Christ today than we were a year ago.

It doesn’t matter if we’ve been on this road of faith for 50 days or 50 years, God is renewing our minds and remodeling our hearts.

Changing us.

Thank you, Abba Father.

I Have the Right….

On By Judy GlasserIn DecemberLeave a comment

to do anything – but not everything is beneficial,” Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians. dec 1 2014 i have the right He goes on to tell us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.  We were bought with a price and God wants us to honor him with our bodies.  These verses also mention food.

Recently, the Holy Spirit convicted me that this is true for me.  Don’t you love how you can read these verses for years and then, suddenly, the Spirit uses one of them to rock your world?

This is true for me and food.  I needed to start using food for the right purpose – to nourish me.  Not to comfort me or make me happy or to ‘treat’ myself.  That’s not the way God wants me to take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit which is my body.

When God made this a matter of obedience for me, it was a game-changer.

We have the right to do a lot of things, but some of these things are not beneficial.  So God tells us avoid things that are not beneficial – even if we have the right.

This fits in with God’s direction to us that we will have to deny ourselves – what we want – when we pick our cross and follow him.

It’s not easy, but it’s the truth.  And lining up our lives with what God wants for us is always the right thing to do.

Thank you, dear Father, for the truth.