“Many of you pretend to love God for show, but your deeds expose your heart.”~TB
Performance
It’s amazing how lukewarm Christians get when things are comfortable. Hiding behind your decorated walls, it’s easy to judge and turn away those in need. You pray for the helpless, yet offer no help. Of course, this must be done publicly, so that your peers can see how spiritual you are. No amount of superficial acts can clean your blackened heart. Who do you think you are fooling? God knows you better than you know yourself.
Evaluation
God puts tests in front of all of us. Some come in the form of helping others, some in the form of external obstacles, and others an internal struggle. This is why reading and practicing the Words in the Bible is so important. His Word is a direct connection to His Will. When you understand Who you’re connected to, you can lay down your fake worship and fake Christianity. God is evaluating and judging us all. Make sure you’re not failing your tests.
Today’s Question
Is your love for God for show?
Enjoy the reading
Proverbs 1
1These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.
2 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise.
3Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair.
4These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young.
5Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance
6by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles.
7Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
8My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.
9What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck.
10My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them!
11They may say, “Come and join us. Let’s hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let’s ambush the innocent!
12Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave; let’s swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death.
13Think of the great things we’ll get! We’ll fill our houses with all the stuff we take.
14Come, throw in your lot with us; we’ll all share the loot.”
15My child, don’t go along with them! Stay far away from their paths.
16They rush to commit evil deeds. They hurry to commit murder.
17If a bird sees a trap being set, it knows to stay away.
18But these people set an ambush for themselves; they are trying to get themselves killed.
19Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of life.
20Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square.
21She calls to the crowds along the main street, to those gathered in front of the city gate:
22“How long, you simpletons, will you insist on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools hate knowledge?
23Come and listen to my counsel. I’ll share my heart with you and make you wise.
24“I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.
25You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered.
26So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you—
27when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and anguish and distress overwhelm you.
28“When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me.
29For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.
30They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them.
31Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes.
32For simpletons turn away from me—to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.
33But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”
“Imagine what we could achieve if we were honest with ourselves”
It is
Having a relationship with God logistically isn’t difficult. Think about it. Reading the Bible, praying, treating others with kindness– these aren’t difficult things. Yet, there’s never enough time to pray or read, which are vital essentials to that relationship. Even better, we tell ourselves we have valid reasons as to why we aren’t doing these things. Funnily enough, many of us are well-read on what’s going on in social media, but we haven’t the faintest clue of what’s in the book of Luke.
What it is
We’re prone to overcomplicating/ over-reasoning why we don’t achieve what it is we need to do. Whether it’s cleaning up your room or spending time reading the Bible, everyone is guilty of throwing out a reason as to why the work was left undone. Then we feel bad, as though the guilt is enough to absolve us from our lukewarm relationship with Christ. Honesty is a tough pill to swallow. In order to get to know God, completing our missions and objectives are crucial. As I work on being black and white on how I spend my time, I find myself unburdened by anxiety when I honestly account for my day-to-day activities. I’ve learned that bottom line, I’ve either done the work or I didn’t because I didn’t want to. Nothing more and nothing less.
Today’s Question
Are you being intentional in your time with God or are you tired?
Enjoy the reading
Deuteronomy 14 NIV
Clean and Unclean Food
1You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead,
2for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.
3Do not eat any detestable thing.
4These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
5the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.
6You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.
7However, of those that chew the cud or that have a divided hoof you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the hyrax. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you.
8The pig is also unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.
9Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and scales.
10But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is unclean.
11You may eat any clean bird.
12But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,
13the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon,
14any kind of raven,
15the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
16the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
17the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,
18the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
19All flying insects are unclean to you; do not eat them.
20But any winged creature that is clean you may eat.
21Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
22Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.
23Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.
24But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away),
25then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose.
26Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.
27And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
28At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns,
29so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
