Morning Devotional;Simplicity And Purity

[yort]

Troy a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the dilemmas you and I face is how to walk with God and keep the clutter and stuff around us from burying us alive. As a society, our fixation on ACQUIRING has reached psychotic levels.

John Wesley wrote, "The essence of Christian holiness is simplicity and purity… "

Soren Kierkegaard captured the spirit of Christian simplicity: "Purity of heart is to will one thing: God."

"Simplicity is freedom, bringing joy and balance.
"Duplicity is bondage leading to anxiety and fear."

It's difficult to keep life simple if I have multiple passions.

Count Zinzendorf stated, "I have but one passion, it is He alone."

The test as to whether I am seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness is the lack of anxiety. (Matthew 6:25)

Following are several of Richard Foster's principles that may help us in evaluating whether we have captured the inner essence of simplicity:

First, buy things for their usefulness rather than their status.

Second, reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.

Third, develop a habit of giving things away.

Fourth, refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry.

Fifth, learn to enjoy things without owning them.

Sixth, look with a healthy skepticism at all "buy now, pay later"schemes.

Seventh, shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God.

Amen

Troy

 

[Coconut]

I love this message Troy thank you!


If I may think out loud for a moment..

We live in a purpose driven society....I think the hardest thing to let go of is not the 'material' ...well for me anyways....it is the 'doing'...

Have our minds been so long corrupted by the world that we cannot still ourselves from all we constantly purpose to do ...just to be still ..and know God...to hear God...and His purpose ?

I only know this one thing for sure...Gods way is so much simpler and wiser than ours...I feel it, I know it, and yet I can never fully grasp the glorious freedom of this truth...

God cannot give me the freedom to be found in simplicity, if I keep allowing myself to be tangled up in the duplicity of my own doings.

I personally cant abide the phrase "purpose driven"...I think it stands in stark contrast to what Christ intended for His bride...just another shade of duplicity...shadows and corrupted thinking that I must cast off if I am to learn to "be still" and know Him...

I love the way BBE translates the "be still" verse...

Psa 46:10 "Be at peace in the knowledge that I am God: I will..."

(those words preceded and followed by all that God will do, can do, does, and is doing....according to His will...not ours...His way....not ours....by His hand...not ours)

Isnt God trying to very clearly convey something to us there...

Why is that so hard to grasp...its not about a single living thing we "purpose" or "do"...and its because we dont get that, that we lose our peace and become anxious....anxiety produces striving, our striving becomes a driving force within us that tells us WE have got to do something if our lives are to continue to move toward our goals. (even if the goal is 'spiritual' the very target of "our" goal showing we have already missed the mark anyways)

I think many of us will "do" anything for God...but not many of us are willing to "do nothing" and let God have the "I will..."

We may say, "I have but one passion, it is He aloneamen!...and immediately proceed to the pouring our energies into doing "something" to prove our passion...and our "something" becomes our passion instead of "Him alone" ....strange that....


Jas 1:27 What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.

Maybe this is too much rambling to be understandable...:embarasse

 

[yort]

Beautiful

Hey I usually don`t reply to a reply unless it`s some kind of outrageous remark or one such as you posted. I`m glade that you liked it, but honestly, I liked and got more from yours than mine. Amazing ,and honestly amazing how our God uses one in order to reply to another.

I love His majesty, mystery and wisdom.

Thank you, you have brought a blessing to me today, your a great an wonderful messager.

Troy

 

[Coconut]

I`m glad you were blessed...

I was rather preaching to myself there