Proverbs 8:34

“Happy are those who listen to Me, watching at my door everyday, waiting at my doorway.”

-Wisdom, Jesus

Mark 11:12-17

People had turned the Temple of God into a hideout for brigands, robbers.

The Temple would be destroyed. Jesus would be the Temple of God now, as well as everybody who puts their trust in Him.

We are portable sanctuaries.

Do we make our bodies a hideout for a thief? Usurping God’s authority, doing whatever we want, and not looking to do what God wants to do with us instead…?

Tuning in to God’s frequency shows you life so much deeper than the one of pleasing yourself, doing whatever you feel like doing. Until you experience it, it’s almost incomprehensible. How can doing what someone else wants be fulfilling? Because that “Someone Else” loves and knows you better than you love and know yourself. You know what you want. He knows what you need and deep down crave to be truly satisfied. And that, I dare say, is connection. God Himself.

He knows.

He gives.

Only when we approach Him as the only answer to our life with nothing holding us back from fully embracing Him. Let go of everything not God that you have a grip on and experience Life that really is life!

Proverbs 7:6-8

While I was at the window of my house,
    looking through the curtain,
 I saw some naive young men,
    and one in particular who lacked common sense.
 He was crossing the street near the house of an immoral woman,
    strolling down the path by her house

Foolish people walk close to the edge of sin.

How many times do we knowingly get close to what we know is wrong? If we were serious about killing off sin in our life, we would not go close to it. Wisely, we would keep far from it.

“Inordinate curiosity” as Thomas a Kempis called it.

I wonder how close I can get to that fire without getting burned.

You fool.

Mark 10:27

Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.”

Nothing is impossible for God.

We rarely live this out day-to-day, living in total trust in His goodness and power.

It is lack of faith, I think, that holds back the hand of God so many times.

Lack of trust.

Trust.

He really loves you and He really can do anything.

Trust.

Just ponder the vast wonder of the universe for 10 seconds…..

Proverbs 6:25

Often,

what looks best

is most dangerous.

Be careful.

(The above picture came up when I googled “tempting but dangerous.” Cat Woman from the 1966 Batman series.)

Mark 9:19

Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this?

How often we fail to use the spiritual resources that have been graciously given to us, and that are right in front of us.

We have the power of faith to overcome the enemy. It is not a weapon of mere human design. It is supernatural power that must be cultivated accordingly. Not thru hard work and trying, but thru disciplined dependence.

Nothing great, real, or lasting is accomplished for God without prayer, for prayer taps in to the real, beyond-human power that is God’s limitless power. Whatever is done for God without the power of prayer, is done by our finite, much weaker human effort alone, and therefore, it is infinitely less effective.

The way to liberation and rest lies through a decision and a practice.

The decision is to release the world and your fate, including your reputation and “success,” into the hands of God. This is not a decision to not act at all, though in some situations it may come to that. It is, rather, a decision concerning how you will act: you will act in dependence on God. You will not take charge of outcomes. You will do your part, of course, but your part will always be chastened by a sense of who God is–not you!

A decision to release the world and our fate to God runs contrary to everything within and around us. We have been had by a system of behavior that was here before we were and seeps into every pore of our being. “Sin,” Paul tells us, “was in the world,” even before the law came. It forms us internally and pressures us externally. Hence we must learn to choose things that meet with God’s actions of grace to break us out of the system. These things are the disciplines of life in the Spirit, well known from Christian history but much avoided and misunderstood. For those who do not understand our desperate situation, these disciplines look strange or even harmful. But they are absolutely necessary for those who would find rest for their soul in God and not live the distracted existence Pascal so accurately portrays.

-Dallas Willard

Proverbs 5:12-13

You will say, “How I hated discipline!
    If only I had not ignored all the warnings!
 Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers?
    Why didn’t I pay attention to my instructors?

You don’t have to be that person who loses almost everything because you hated being told what to do.

You would not listen to correction.

You would not listen to your teachers or pay attention to your instructors.

God is teaching you thru so many means, so many people, perhaps ones you don’t even like. But listen anyway. Listen to and for God’s instruction thru them. If it helps, just listen to God and not them if they annoy you that much. It’s amazing how this changes your attitude toward someone! I believe Hannah [The Holy Spirit] is always speaking to us thru people and circumstances. Don’t miss great instruction just because you don’t care for someone. This is humbling, which is good, for God gives grace to the humble and draws close to them. He resists the proud.

Mark 8:33

“Get behind me, Accuser! You’re thinking human thoughts, not God’s thoughts.”

People are miserable when they’re focused on themselves and mere human thoughts.

People are joyful when they are focused on God, confident He knows what He is doing and is capable of carrying anything out He wants. And what He wants is always our good.

To think on God is to think the highest possible thoughts. Why think on anything less? Why aim lower?

I’ve always thought that if I decide to start using drugs, I’m just gonna start with shooting straight up heroin, you know? Go right to the hardcore, skip the amateur stuff. I mean, why waste time messing around with anything beneath the most powerful?

John 8:34-35

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, everyone who lives in sin is a slave to sin. A slave does not stay with a family forever, but a son belongs to the family forever.” 

Living for God and people outside yourself is the only way to live a fulfilling life.

Trying to make everything happen the way you want so you can be happy has not ultimately worked out that I’ve ever heard of. By trying to satisfy yourself, you actually become more empty, due to our design by our Creator. Conversely, living to please God is always, continually fulfilling. Living for God’s purposes paradoxically satisfies the self by forgetting the self.

Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart’s desires.

or

Take your primary delight in people or things and you might get your heart’s desires some of the time and some of the time you get your heart broken and sometimes you end up angry, empty, bitter, let down, disgusted…

Delight yourself first and foremost in God Himself, not what He can do for you. How can one be disappointed when their source of their happiness is infinite love?

Proverbs 4:7, 13, 21-22

Proverbs 3:17-18

Proverbs 2:2-4,9-11

Mark 5:9,15

Then Jesus demanded, “What is your name?” And he replied, “My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.”  A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.

Mark 5:36

“Don’t be afraid! Just believe!”   -Jesus of Nazareth

Proverbs 1:23

If only you had ·listened [responded] when I corrected you,
    I would have ·told you what’s in my heart [poured forth my spirit to you];
    I would have ·told you what I am thinking [revealed my words to you]. [EXB]

Here is wisdom speaking.

If only you would listen.

There’s so much God will reveal to you.

If only you would listen.

I believe every single “problem” or stressor in our day is an opportunity for growth.

If only we would listen.

Behind every upsetting circumstance could be the loving correction of YHWH.

If only we would listen.

If we would train ourselves to listen for it.

Growth or stagnation depends in very large part on our decision to listen in the present moment.

Mark 4:39

He got up, scolded the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Shut up!” The wind died, and there was a flat calm. [KNT]

The wind and the sea here made me think of the noise and chaos of life. Most, if not all, of the noise and chaos in our lives is self-inflicted or unnecessary.

We do have the ability to silence the storm and be quiet with God. It just depends on how much we want Him and what we are willing to give up for Him. We hear clearly in the calm and the quiet of life, listening only to Him. None of us are too busy to take some time to sit quietly and listen to God. It may be more challenging for some than others, but not impossible.

Example for me personally, I recently decided to be on the computer only once a day for an hour max (most of which is these Daily Meds). Oh the peace of staying away from the polyphonic madness of computer land! And I have what I call my “Amish phone,” which has no internet connectivity whatsoever. I love this phone. It doesn’t even recognize “emojis” I think they’re called? Some of you still send them to me–they look like empty squares on my phone FYI. I just always assume they’re smiley faces or hearts.

Take control of what you can take control of and say, “Silence! Shut up!” Then you will hear the soothing voice of God.

Proverbs 31:8-9

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
    ensure justice for those being crushed.
 Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
    and see that they get justice.

Do you speak up when others are put down? Or do you just stand there and listen in sinful silence as the blast of gossip and slander hits you in the face? God says, “Open your mouth.” With every unkind word that goes unconfronted, a reputation dies.

So much is at stake in our words. They matter not just to us but even more, far more, to God. We are always speaking before the face of God.

-Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

Mark 3:1-6

Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.”  Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him. He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored!  At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.

Jesus always kept the big picture in mind. He was always thinking of “the point of it all.” And His actions always were in line with the point of it all since He was ceaselessly focused on it.

The main thing is to keep the Main Thing the main thing.

I see the point of it all for Jesus as being and staying connected to His heavenly Father in the manner of the two greatest commandments as given by Him–Loving God and loving others.

The point was not keeping all the rules, because the rules were only given as guidelines for loving God and all people. They all point back to healthy relationship with God and others. The point of bowling is not to keep your ball from going in the gutter, it is to knock the pins down. These are two very different focuses.

If your rules, religion, or tradition keep you from justice, mercy, or kindness, then your rules, religion, and tradition are worthless. Everything we do should take us in the direction of loving God and others more and more, to better relationships, to shalom.

I believe love and relationship transcend the letter of the law. This is what I get from studying Jesus. The “weightier matters” are justice, mercy, and kindness.

At the end of the day, we ascribe value to the person and seek their flourishing.

I was discussing with a friend the other nite the story of a seminary class on this very thing where the final exam was a staged person in great need on the pathway to the class for the final exam. If the student bypassed helping the person in need in order to be on time to class for the exam, they failed because the person in need and their response to him or her WAS the exam!

Proverbs 30:13

Some people have such a proud look! They look down on others. [NCV]

Never look down on anyone.

This is contempt.

This is hierarchical.

This is evil.

Rather, let us esteem others as better than ourselves.

That other person is just as precious to the Father as I am.

Mark 2:21-22

“Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

New life calls for a new heart.

Jesus is not merely someone to be added on to your life.

He is someone to replace your life.

The Christ-centered life is not one in which we tag on some self-improvement or new beliefs or ritualistic church-going. It is a new life pervading every aspect of it. It is a new way to look at life and people. Jesus’ ways and teachings become our go-to, our new default thinking system. He replaces our old thinking and worldview.