What is your heart?

I began reading Isaiah today, and to be honest I haven't read this book in a while. I was reminded of how brilliant it is.
Anyway, the verses that really spoke to me were these, "The multitude of your sacrifices - what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats."
This is a really famous verse in chapter 1, and I think its as relevant today as it was all those years ago when it was written.
What is your heart like? How do you come before the LORD? Do you come with gladness? Do you come with fear and trembling? Do you come with a humble and contrite heart? OR Do you come before the Lord of all with complacency? Do you come before the King of kings as a tradition? Do you come before the Creator of the Universe just because that's what you have always done?
We need to realise that when we come to Jesus, we are entering the presence of Almighty God. He wants our whole hearts not just a quick hello and goodbye. 
The Jewish people in this passage were just living their lives as they wanted and bringing their sacrifices with no feeling of regret or remorse, just out of tradition. God wanted their hearts, He wanted to be in their lives, not just a quick sacrifice and back to whatever.
We need to make sure that when we repent, we actually do repent. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us with our failings to ensure that we have a right heart before the Lord. Let's not be a people of tradition. Let's be people that seek the Lord and come before Him with a right heart.

Give God the Glory!

I haven't done my blogg for a few weeks and to be honest I think it's done me some good. The reason for not doing it was originally because I was unwell, and so unable to complete my daily thoughts. But as I regained my strength and started to feel better I still didn't start writing.
I felt that God was telling me that even though this is a good thing, if it becomes about doing it and not glorifying Him then it's not the right thing to do.
I want everything I do to point to Jesus. I don't want to do things because they make me feel good, or because others like it - I want to do what God has called me to do. 
I decided today to write something about this instead of writing about my bible study. It's not about what we do - it's about the heart we have when we do it. I will continue to do my blogg, but I really feel that it has to be about glorifying Jesus and not just about completing another thought process.
Everything we do as Christians MUST be about Him. It's not what we want, what we think or even what we think might be the right thing to do - it's about listening to the Holy Spirit and asking Him to guide us, to strengthen us, and to make our lives about Glorifying the one who was and is and is to come.
Let's make sure that we glorify Jesus today, let's not do things because of the feel good factor or because we've always done it. Let's live lives that make a difference and give the glory to the Name above all other names - Jesus.
Lord use me today for your glory - help me be an asset to your team. 
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven - Matthew 5:16

Who do you Glorify?

Who do you give the glory to? On reading Genesis 40 today that was the question that came to mind. This is once again a famous story of Joseph in prison. He interprets some dreams that some other inmates have and the interpretations come true.

The reason I start today with a question is because of verse 8, "We both had dreams," they answered, "but there is no one to interpret them." Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams." In this one verse Joseph is telling them who he serves and who will interpret their dreams.
Joseph knew that he could do it, he knew that as soon as they told him what the dreams were God would tell him what they meant. However, he gave God the glory before he even did it. He told them that it is God and God alone that can tell the meaning of dreams.

How often do we give God the glory for the things He does through us? How often do we give God the glory before we've even done a thing? When we do something good do we say...Well I worked really hard and it paid off or it was all my own idea!

When we do things for God, we need to give Him the glory. When we do anything we should give God the glory. It's not about what we can or cannot do, it's about our Father in Heaven who works through us for the glory of His Kingdom!
I know that most of the time I will say it's not me it's God, but I also know there are times when I take the credit and the credit is all His! Without God we are nothing, so let's make sure today that we give Him the glory for what we do.

Be a blessing!

So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food that he ate.
This short passage comes from Genesis 39. Joseph is a servant in the house of an Egyptian official called Potiphar. In this verse we see that Joseph is put in charge of everything that Potiphar owns. Potiphar trusts Joseph completely and worries for nothing except his food. What a great trust to put on someone else. Why did Potiphar trust this Israelite slave so much? What made Joseph stand out from the rest of his servants? What made Joseph different?
The answer is simple - God. Joseph was blessed by God in everything he did, from the small things to the large things. Joseph trusted and loved God in such a way that God poured out blessings on Potiphar because Joseph worked in his household.
Are we the same in our place of work? Are we the same in the school yard? Are we the same when we go shopping? It says in this chapter, when his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favour in his eyes and became his attendant.
Joseph got a promotion because of the favour of God. I'm not saying that when we are close to God everything will be all rosy - but what I am saying is that we are blessed to be a blessing. Let's remember that today. Wherever we go or whoever we meet - we are blessed to be a blessing. We are privileged! We are saved! We know the truth! We know the creator of the universe! Let's show others how privileged we are and share the blessing that we have.

Dare to be different!

Genesis 37 is probably one of the most famous passages in the Old Testament. It recalls the story of Joseph telling his brothers about some dreams that he's had. His brothers are not too keen on Joseph and so he ends up being sold as a slave to some Ishmaelites.
The story of Joseph's life is so famous that there is even a musical about it. But sometimes we can be so familiar with something that it looses its meaning.
Yes Joseph was a show off, yes he was probably really annoying - but- he was God's chosen. God saw something in Joseph that his family didn't see. He was different - which was something his brothers could see, but they didn't like it.
Sometimes people don't like what they see in us. It's not because we are weird or different, its because we make them feel uneasy. We should be in the world not of the world and so we are meant to be different.
This doesn't mean that we should stand out like a sore thumb, or annoy people so much that they don't want to be in the same room as us. But it does mean that they should see something different about us.
Do we stand out in the crowd? Do we act differently to others? Do we show others that we have something special?
We don't want to be thrown into a pit for being annoying, but we should show others that we are different because we have a Saviour who wants to be their Saviour too!

Number 1

So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone"

This passage of scripture is found in Genesis 35. Jacob has returned to the land his family is from and has now gone to Bethel where God appeared to him previously.

It amazed me to think that Jacob's household had foreign gods to get rid of. I have read this passage before and not really taken any notice of this, but you would've thought that a home that served and worshipped God wouldn't have any idols to get rid of. 

This got me thinking about our worship. Do we come before the Lord purified? Do we enter His presence knowing that we serve another god? I don't mean that we have a house full of statues that we bow down to in secret, but I do mean that the things that consume our lives can so often get in the way of our worship to God. 

Our God is an awesome god. He is the creator of the universe. He is also a jealous god and so therefore we should serve Him and Him alone. When we come before Him, whether in church, prayer or in service, we need to make sure that He is the only god in our lives. We need to get rid of all the stuff that might take us into idolatry. This could be anything from family, finance, work, shopping, television, reading whatever our lives revolve around if we put God in second or third place then we are worshipping other things.

Let's purify ourselves today and get rid of the idols in our lives. Let's make God number 1

Humble Pie!

In Chapters 31 & 32 of Genesis, Jacob returns to his homeland with his family and his possessions. He is worried about meeting Esau as the last time they met, things were not rosy between them. In fact the last time they saw one another it was just after Jacob had stolen his brother's birth right and legged it to his uncle's house.
God had made promises to Jacob, God had blessed Jacob, however Jacob was still worried about Esau. He didn't want to get on the wrong side of him again, and so he sent gifts to him. He wanted to appease his brother; in fact he bows down before his brother and humbles himself.
How often do we do something that seems a good idea when we are doing it, but then when we have to face up to the consequences it doesn't seem so great?
Sometimes we need to humble ourselves and just admit we got it wrong, or even just let matters go so that we can get on with the job at hand. I know from personal experience that I often get things wrong. Then I have to get to that place where I can admit my mistake and move out of it. Humbling ourselves before others is not easy, humbling ourselves before God isn't always easy either. We need to make sure that we are humble enough to know when we are wrong so that we can grow in the way that God wants us to.