The God Shaped Hole

So many people are looking for GOD and don’t even know it. They have an emptiness in their heart that they can’t fill; although they might try to fill it with sex, drugs, alcohol, food, or anything they can buy, the hole never gets filled. They don’t realize that only GOD can fill that hole and only GOD can make them complete.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. (Psalm 139:13 NLT)

Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands. (Psalm 119:73 NIV)

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. (Ecclesiastes 11:5 NIV)

This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer and Creator:  “I am the Lord, who made all things. I alone stretched out the heavens. Who was with me when I made the earth? I expose the false prophets as liars (Isaiah 44:24-25a NLT)

GOD created us and this world, our purpose is for HIM, our purpose is for sharing GOD with those who don’t know HIM.   

             

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV)

Let me explain the difference between religion and relationship – religion is what Jesus explained as the cold ritual of following rules and regulations but without a heart for GOD. The Pharisees were pious and religious, judging and condemning others; Jesus told them they didn’t know GOD because they didn’t have a heart for GOD, but only for themselves.  Jesus was so angered at how the teachers of religious law had become, He let everyone know:

 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach.  They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. “Everything they do is for show…And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues.  They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces….

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites!  For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.  Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel! “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!  You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.  

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.   (Matthew 23:1-7, 13-15,23 -28 NLT )

Jesus came to set us free, not to condemn us and imprison us with rules and regulations that complicate our lives.The Laws haven’t changed, they are the morals that we are born with. The Laws that were given after the Ten Commandments were meant to protect GOD’s Chosen people from themselves. The more the Israelites began to assimilate with the nations and cultures around them, the further they fell away from GOD. The further they fell away from GOD, they began to try to fill that God shaped hole with other things, the more they tried to fill that hole with the wrong things, the more they fell away – a vicious cycle that only caused more pain and suffering.  

One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.  And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 NLT)

Jesus came as GOD, He came to show us that GOD loves us, HE loved us when we were full of sin. HE wants us to love him, HE won’t force Himself on us; we have to come to HIM. Jesus wants a relationship with us, He wants us to make Him the Lord of our lives, to spend everyday with Him because we want to, not because we feel we have to. Jesus died on the cross for us because we could never get ourselves right with GOD unless we have Jesus; so we don’t need to try and wait until we’re good enough to come to GOD (since without Jesus, that's impossible)!

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."  (John 3:16-21 MSG)

Once you have GOD in your life, you are a new creation, you are made right with GOD. This doesn’t mean life has become perfect and there will be no pitfalls, detours or mistakes. The difference is now you aren’t living for yourself, you are living for GOD, you WANT to please HIM. When you WANT to make changes and become who GOD created you to be, life is different, because your focus is different. You will know the difference in your life when you've discovered that God shaped hole, isn't empty, it's being filled and the more you spend time with GOD and in HIS Word, the more that hole is filled and you you experience a comfort, joy and peace you've never known before!  

image from :http://hixdei-love.deviantart.com/art/God-Shaped-Hole-196152428

Day 6 of 21-Day Challenge: Boldness

“And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:29-31 NLT)

BOLDNESS is actually translated from the Greek word, parrhesia (Strong’s #3954): Outspokenness, unreserved utterance, freedom of speech, with frankness, candor, cheerful courage, and the opposite of cowardice, timidity, or fear. Here it denotes a divine enablement that come to ordinary and unprofessional people exhibiting spiritual power and authority. It also refers to a clear presentation of the gospel without ambiguous or unintelligible. Parrhesia is not a human quality but a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

I want that kind of boldness, I want to walk without hesitation and fearlessly stand before man and share GOD’s love. I want to be a laborer that harvests a great number of souls for the Lord (1). I want to be a child after GOD’s own heart.  One day when I stand before our Lord, I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”(2) Until my last breath, I want to fight the good fight, I want to finish the race, keeping my faith and lay a crown before my King.(3)

Jesus died for me, so I can live for HIM. I want to see Brothers and Sisters in Christ standing up for their faith, sharing GOD’s love, true doctrine and not preaching hatred.(4) I want to comfort the broken hearted and take care of the widows and orphans. (5) I want others to see a light shining in me and my family, to experience the joy and peace that this world can never deliver, that only the creator of the Heavens and earth can give. (6) I want to show people that it’s my relationship with Jesus Christ that has made me a new creation, not a religion of rules and hollow traditions. (7) There is a thirst inside every person that can only be filled by GOD, we were made to seek HIM and only by acknowledging Jesus as Lord can we be saved.(8)

That is my challenge for all today, be bold in our faith. Pray for boldness, strength, and the words to speak to non-believers. Ask GOD for encouragement in our boldness; ask GOD to allow you to bless and share HIS love with others. Pray for wisdom that we would follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and not our flesh. Pray that people not only hear us speaking about GOD’s love, but see us sharing GOD’s love, so that we would be doers of GOD’s Word. Be bold in our faith so that when others see the trials we are going through, they will notice we are standing strong on the Solid Rock and not faltering in the howling winds from the storms of life.  Our faith in GOD and HIS Son, Jesus Christ, has set us free from the bondages of death and sin; so let us live with the boldness that our Savior has given us by HIS righteousness!

1)Matthew 9:37 NKJV

2)Matthew 25:21 NKJV

3)2 Timothy 4:7-8, Revelation 4:10

4) John 3:16-21, 1 John 4:16-20

5) Psalm 34:18, James 1:27

6) Mark 4:21, Romans 15:13, John 14:27

7) Luke 12:21, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Matthew 23:1-33

8) John 4:10-14, 1 Chronicles 16:11-36, John 14:6-7, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 10:9-13, Ephesians 2:8-9

Fired Up

Are you a believer? Are you a child of God, bought and purchased by the blood of Christ? Are you redeemed and have received salvation through grace and not by the law or good works? If so, then you know you are under the new covenant (blood of Christ) and not the old covenant (Old Testament laws). 

I recently entered a ‘conversation’ that revolved around people who are Believers, but who have chosen to judge or condemn others based on laws of the OT (specifically Leviticus). Laws in Leviticus were very specific on rituals to perform after childbirth, what was allowed to be eaten, and offering sacrifices on an altar, etc. The problem with trying to uphold any of these laws, they must realize they are now selecting to ‘overlook’ Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross!  Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.  One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”   (Matthew 22:34-40 NIV) 

If we love GOD first and then love our neighbor next, we will never fall out of GOD’s will for our lives. When you are loving; you are not judging, you are not hating, you are not coveting, you are not sinning. When you are busy loving GOD and others, you don’t have time for all the stuff we shouldn’t be doing. Where our focus is, where our thoughts are, that’s where our heart is. So if we focus on GOD, if we are thinking of HIM and others before ourselves, our heart will follow; thus our words and actions will follow.

Religion is a cold and ritualistic burden, that is why I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.“Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”….”Why can’t you understand that I’m not talking about bread? So again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’” Then at last they understood that he wasn’t speaking about the yeast in bread, but about the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ (Matthew 16:6, 11-12 NLT) The term yeast was often used in the Bible as an evil connotation, as to what is small, may corrupt the whole. We see that a lot today in terms of laws being created based on minority beliefs and not on the majority's. 

Salvation is not based on rules and regulations; salvation is through grace. Faith cannot be seen and when our relationship with GOD is based on laws, we start to fall into the trap of the Pharisees. Agape love is selfless love (without a personal agenda and what can I get out of this attitude). Law is restrictive and binding, law sees right and wrong and doesn’t have room for love - but JESUS said that LOVE is to be first! Sin is a flesh and worldly desire. Repentance is a heart movement, if a believer sins, they will know they have sinned and they will ‘ache’ in the spirit and want to right their wrong; you can't have repentance if you don't have love. 

One thing that we see in the New Testament that angered JESUS, was the burden the Pharisees were putting on man. JESUS came to earth to save the people, not to burden or condemn them. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either……. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are! “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.  Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel! “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:13-15, 23-28 NLT)

Our heart is what GOD is concerned with, our heart for GOD! First we must concentrate on the inside, the heart and when the heart is right with GOD, the outside will change to be more like GOD as well!

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.  As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.  When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”  “No, Lord,” she said.  And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:1-11 NLT)

Here is another example from Jesus that specifically instructs us NOT to judge others….

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?   You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. (Matthew 7:1-6 NIV)

How can we love others and lead them to Christ if we are condemning them? How can we share GOD’s love when we are burdening people with laws and regulations? I’m not saying go against the Bible; I’m saying we cannot share GOD’s love if we are judging. We are to open our arms and share love; if someone is sinning, GOD will speak to that Believer and deal with them. I’m not saying you should encourage a Believer to sin or even turn a blind eye (I am not talking about sins that HARMS a person). Think prejudice, people have thoughts on piercings, tattoos and both of those are tied into OT Leviticus laws and have nothing to do with modern day tattoos and piercings, but yet people are so fired up over these issues that they are allowing the yeast of the Pharisees to hardened their hearts and cast judgement.

People are getting riled up about the wrong stuff, that have nothing to do with the heart of GOD. Doctrines are being preached that are against the Word of GOD, people are claiming to be christian believers and are preaching hate instead of LOVE! These are the kind of things that people should be riled up about, these are the things that will lead a non-believer away from JESUS, or turn a Believer away from GOD. I can only imagine the tears in heaven over the division in the church and what she has become. As Believers, we are the church, we need to show the world that we are LOVE!! We need to be fired up for GOD and fired up for showing GOD's love for others!!