From: "Phil Rembleski" <PHIl@rescuechurchofchrist.org>
To: "1111RESCUEMEMBERS"
Sent: Wed, May 18, 2022 at 6:06 AM
Subject: 5-18-22 THOUGHTS
5-18-22 THOUGHTS
Deliver us from ourselves. The last words of my prayer yesterday. Maybe the reading below will shed some light on that idea. My selfish tendencies are my own worst enemy. The desire to take care of the self runs contrary to God’s AGAPE LOVE theme. God says “Give and it will be given unto you.”. Satan says get everything you can, at any cost! The SOURCE of our internal hemorrhages in our hearts and minds is... “PLEASURES that wage war inside us”! The words RESIST and DRAW, are set against each other. DOUBLE-MINDED is not desirable below.
Jas 4:1-17 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. 11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Isa 29:11-13 The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, "Please read this," he will say, "I cannot, for it is sealed." 12 Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, "Please read this." And he will say, "I cannot read." 13 Then the Lord said, "Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,
Ps 145:18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
My Prayer:
O Lord, teach us your ways and let us not live according to this world. Put love in our hearts and remove the self. Help us to die to the world and live to Christ. May we sing the song of the saved. In the name of our blessed Savior, Amen.