Psalm
139:23-24 “Search
me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See
if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting.”
Last
week, Pastor Kyle preached that this prayer of king David (above) is telling us
that small hidden things can cause great damage in our lives, including not
being able to see ourselves as God sees us. Unlike the TSA process at the
airports that search everyone for our safety and protection from others who
wish to harm us, God searches our heart to discover, bring to attention any
hidden sin or offense, and work on removing and transforming to align with the
Word, Will and Way of God; not just a thought, but true change – head to heart –
personal transformation. I remember, back in year 2000, when “Walk thru the
Bible” Christian teacher and author Bruce Wilkinson published the book “The
Prayer of Jabez”, based upon this verse in 1 Chronicles 4:10,
Jabez
cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my
territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be
free from pain.” Wilkinson explained that we
prayer, not just for the protection of God for the things that we do see, but
also for the things that we do not see and never make it to us because of His
almighty hand. Sometimes, those harmful things are hidden inside our heart.
Psalm 66:8-10 “Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; He has preserved our
lives and kept our feet from slipping. For
you, God tested us; you refined us like silver.”
It is a small thing that makes a huge
difference in how we see and perceive God. Hebrews 11:1 explains that, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Because, as John 4:24 clarifies, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Although God is obvious
by His fingerprint all over His creation, “since
what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to
them. For
since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” – Romans 1:19-20.
A ‘God concept’ is what we intellectually believe about who God is. This focuses on the heart matters and how they affect us. Per Webster’s dictionary “guilt” is
that state of a moral agent which results from his
actual commission of a crime or offense, knowing it to be a crime, or violation
of law. To constitute guilt there must be a moral agent enjoying freedom of
will, and capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, and a willful or
intentional violation of a known law, or rule of duty. The guilt of a person
exists, as soon as the crime is committed; but to evince it to others, it must
be proved by confession, or conviction in due course of law. Guilt implies both
criminality and liableness to punishment. Simply
speaking, guilt is feeling bad about what we think, say, did or does which offensive
to others or in the eyes of the Lord. They may be hidden, but God knows.
Let continue and conclude Pastor Kyle's great message tomorrow. Blessings.
In Christ, Brian
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