Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 01/22/2023
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Study Discussion at: Doin' Business with God Podcast
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Doin’ Business With God
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try
me, and know my anxieties;
And
see if there is any wicked way in me,
And
lead me in the way everlasting.” Ps. 139:23,24
Eventually each one of us
will have to do business with our God. The most dangerous thing you can do is
to take your faith seriously.
Jesus said, “If anyone
comes to Me and does not hate his life father and
mother, wife, and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Lk
14:26
These are fighting words. A war within rages between the new creation man, and
the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Our worst
enemy is casual, melancholy, sentimental, Christianity. Jesus says He will, “vomit
you out of My mouth.”
Believe it or not, God is
serious about this stuff.
What is it that we speculate
Jesus meant when He said things like, “But I say to you that for every idle
word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.” Mt. 12:36
or
“Then He said to them all,
‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross daily, and follow Me.” Lk. 9:23
God is determined, through
sanctification, to change us into the image of His Son. Rom. 8:29, “For
whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…”
and
II Cor. 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a
mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from
glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
So, how does He do this?
When a metallurgist, when purifying gold, will turn up the heat in order to bring the dross to the
top of the liquid gold. He scoops it
off, and when he can see his own reflection in the
pot, he knows that the gold is pure.
How can we miss the metaphor?
“For the LORD your God is a consuming
fire, a jealous God” Deu. 4:24
I Pet. 1:7 says, “that the genuineness of your faith, being much
more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be
found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Does God turn up the heat? That’s hardly a
fair or worthy question.
But in Lk. 22:31, Jesus
said to Peter, “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat."
Satan turns up the heat in order to break us, but the next vrs. reveals the
Lord’s heart toward us, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not
fail.”
“take every thought captive
to make it obedient to Christ” II Co. 10:5
Before it becomes a word.
For, “The tongue has the
power of life and death” Prov. 18:21
Balak said, “Must I not
take heed to speak what the LORD has put in my mouth?” Num. 23:12
That was the Spirit of Christ
in him, who would say more perfectly later, “For I have not spoken on My own
authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and
what I should speak.” Jn. 12:49
When trials come to the believer, waves of conviction should
likewise accompany it. It’s time to do business with God. We should be willing
and anxious to purge out the leaven, even the subtle sins, as Peter says, “laying
aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking.” I Pe.2:1. It’s
time to take inventory. Not that God would instantaneously remove the trial but
that He would give us grace to endure it. He said to Paul, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” II Cor. 12:9
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Encouragement for the Path of
Christian Discipleship
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