Habakkuk 2

Then the Lord replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

Friday, July 8, 2022

Will You Walk with Integrity of Heart?

Psalms 101:1-2 ESV

 

“I will sing of steadfast love and justice;

    to you, O Lord, I will make music.

I will ponder the way that is blameless.

    Oh when will you come to me?”

 

If we are true followers of Jesus Christ, our desire should be for our Lord to walk in his ways and in his truth. We should want to know him and his will for our lives, and we should desire to do his will. Justice and mercy should be important to us. Holiness and righteousness should be what we are living. And we should be loving the Lord our God with everything within us, and this should be evidenced by our faithful obedience to him and to his commands.

 

God/Jesus should never be someone we occasion when it is convenient for us and only to go through religious rituals but never to apply his truths to our daily lives. He should be our life 24/7, day in and day out. Our Lord should be guiding our steps every step of the way, and we should be listening to him and following him wherever he leads us. He should be in our thoughts all throughout the day to where we can converse with him anytime.

 

Sin should no longer have mastery over our lives to where we obey its lustful desires. For, we should have our minds and our hearts guarded against all evil to where we immediately reject all temptation to do what is sinful. For Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross to deliver us out of our slavery (addiction) to sin so that we would now serve him with our lives as slaves to God and to his righteousness.

 

Psalms 101:2-3 ESV

 

“I will walk with integrity of heart

    within my house;

I will not set before my eyes

    anything that is worthless.”

 

If we are those who walk with integrity of heart, first and foremost it means we are people who practice telling the truth and we are not people who make it our practice to tell lies. It also means that we have strong moral principles of honesty, uprightness, faithfulness, and moral purity, and we do not toy with sin or with lust or with sexual impurity at all. We lack corruption and we are consistent in our walks of holiness and in righteousness.

 

My Lord has me on Facebook (social media on the internet) that I might share his word there. But social media is filled with advertisements and something called “suggested for you,” and even though we are able to select what we want to see or don’t want to see, still sometimes what is sleazy and sexy and sensual will be in our news feeds. And so as soon as something like that shows up I mark it as something I do not want to see.

 

We got rid of our television 14 years ago, and I have not missed it one bit. Even if we tried to find things decent to watch on there, the advertisements were often filled with sensuality or else they would slip something sensual into the programming. Even when we got down to just watching “Christian” music videos, many of the women singing had seductive looks in their faces and were dressed sensually and were moving their bodies in sensual ways.

 

It was actually my husband’s idea back then to give up the TV and I readily agreed for we did not need that in our minds. And that means that we also stopped watching movies, and we were both big fans of movies. But even as we examined the movies against the Scriptures we found that, even the ones appearing the most innocent were glorifying and uplifting evil, rebellion, sensuality and adultery, and so we gave up movies. Good move!

 

Psalms 101:3-4 ESV

 

“I hate the work of those who fall away;

    it shall not cling to me.

A perverse heart shall be far from me;

    I will know nothing of evil.”

 

We are not to hate people but we are to hate evil deeds. We can hate the evil things that evil people do. And not only should we be those who are resisting evil and who are clinging to the good, but we should be those who speak out against evil, and who are exposing the fruitless deeds of darkness for what they are so that others do not fall prey to evil and deception. And we should be calling people to repentance and obedient faith in Christ Jesus.

 

We should not be those with perverse (obstinate, deviant, rebellious, and wicked) hearts. We are to know nothing of evil. And this does not mean that we are ignorant about evil, for we need to know about evil at least to the degree to where we recognize it for what it is so that we know to resist it and to flee from it and to not partake in it and to speak out against it. For a lot of evil is being cloaked as something good.

 

And knowing nothing of evil is not just about head knowledge. This means that we are not to be intimately acquainted with evil through partaking in evil. We should not even be taking in a hint of evil. We should make no compromises at all with sin to where we accept a little bit of evil so that we can be entertained by the whole. For what we choose to take into our minds does impact our way of thinking and behaving. And we need to have pure hearts and minds which are ready to do the will of God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:21-25; Rom 12:1-2; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-11; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Ac 26:18; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15; Eph 2:8-10]

 

Seek the Lord  

 

An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

 

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

 

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

 

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you,

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

 

https://vimeo.com/379408296

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