Got Fruit ?

In yesterday’s post I made mention of how in Old Testament times the Israelites repeatedly turned away from God. I went on in comedic relief, giving a description of the Israelites conviction and turning away from their false gods. I start off again today recollecting with similar description of tears, runny noses, and a mournful heart concerning the early days of my renewed walk with Christ. I went through a tearful period of conviction by the Holy Spirit revealing sin in my life. I had acknowledge problem areas, adjusted and thought things were fine between God and I.

Peering back at those early months I think that the initial stumbling spells I had were a result of seeking Biblical knowledge, but not grasping the critical and essential difference between seeking knowledge of God versus seeking God through His Word.

Months later, after having adjusted how I approached The Father, I began having that feeling of a distance between myself and God. Fueled by the desire to now comprehend from God’s perspective, what “it” was that I was missing, I found that jealousy issues were rooted in my heart. Talk about being shocked. I was utterly repulsed upon discovering this character flaw, this SIN! This revelation wasn’t immediate though, it took some “soul searching” and submission to dig up this impediment. I believe that it only came to me because I finally reached a broken state. I finally had enough one evening, not of God, but of myself, of my flesh. Frustration had set in from not finding the answers on my terms. I was tired of warring with God. I was tired of straddling the fence. I gave up. I had enough of my flesh, I had enough of it’s vileness, it’s corrupt and deceitful ways. I knew in my spirit that until the sinful attitude of jealousy was addressed (James 5:16), it was still just another bump in the road affecting my walk with Christ, hindering it.

This is when I began to no longer view God as some grand school teacher, nor as the Creator with the constant scowl on His brow, just waiting to smote me once I screwed up. I now saw Him, Jesus as the only way to truly resolve my issues. I saw Christ not as a therapist that I paid to merely hear my problems, but as someone that desires to come along side of me during my troubles because He is a friend that truly cares for me.

Continued thoughts…

Grace and peace be with you.

A continued train of thought from today’s previous post…

With a friend, there comes a certain amount of trust and faith,an expectation given that they’ll be there for you through the highs and the lows. Coincidentally or not and loosely connected, the devotional readings from the past two evenings have dealt specifically on the subject of faith. From last night’s devotional, The Shield of Faith coming from Ephesians 6:16 was read.

Ephesians 6:16
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

The devotional’s author Rick Renner, provides some imagery from Greek and Roman culture to represent the shield and our God given faith(Romans 12:3). Paraphrasing Renner: The word “shield” is derived from the Greek word THUREOS, which described an oblong door that was wide in width and long in length. The mental image of a shield that I normally have is something slightly wider than a forearm and long enough to cover most of the torso when held up at chest height. According to the description of THUREOS however, this “shield” that Paul Renner speaks of is massive; large enough to completely cover a soldier. This shield offers maximum protection!

Attributes of the Roman soldier’s shield:

• composed of multiple layers of animal hide tightly woven together (normally 6 layers)
• very strong
• very durable (provided it was maintained daily by rubbing it down with oil to keep the hides conditioned [soft, supple & pliable])

Now, if the Roman soldier failed to go about his daily duty to maintain his shield, it would become hardened, liable to crack under pressure. This in turn would put the soldier’s life in danger, his life depended on his equipment functioning as designed. In a like manner Paul uses the shield as a metaphor of our faith to express the point that daily maintenance is required of our faith. Which segues nicely into the devotional from Tuesday.

As the Roman soldier’s shield required oil rubbed into it daily to stay conditioned, this thought of spiritual conditioning is expressed, again by Renner in his reflections of anointing in Psalm 92:10.

Psalm 92:10
10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

CHRIO the Greek word for “anoint”,is a a word often used to describe the smearing or rubbing of oil or perfume on a person. The visual here would be of a physician in ancient times deeply rubbing oil into the sore muscles of someone. Since oil was very expensive in those times, it was common for the physician to have someone pour oil into his hands for application versus liberally pouring it directly onto the patient’s body. Renner’s point here is not the oil itself but rather the one applying the oil, the act as he describes is a hand’s on procedure. Renner’s illustration is to make the point that it is the hands of The Father (The Great Anointer) that are laid upon us when we seek a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Shields up!

Grace and peace be with you.