THINK-THINK-THINK
BREAD
1 Then
the Lord answered Job out of the
storm. He said: 2 “Who
is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I
will question you, and you shall answer me. 4 Where were you when I laid the
earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions?
Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-- 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels
shouted for joy?” Job 38:1-7 (NIV)
15 Woe to
those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and
think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” 16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were
thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He
did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”? Isaiah 29:15-16 (NIV)
15 It is
man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a
fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an
idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he
prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself
and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” 17 From the rest he makes a god,
his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me;
you are my god.” 18 They
know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they
cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. 19 No one stops to think, no one
has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even
baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable
thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes, a deluded
heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my
right hand a lie?” Isaiah 44:15-20
(NIV)
20 So
Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount
Carmel. 21 Elijah
went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions?
If the Lord is God, follow him;
but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. 1 Kings 18:20-21 (NIV)
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one
and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You
cannot serve both God and Money.” Matthew
6:24 (NIV)
14 “Now
fear the Lord and serve him with
all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the
River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
15 But if
serving the Lord seems undesirable
to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the
gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in
whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Remember
Whose you are and Whom you serve.” Oswald
Chambers
“To
love God, to serve Him because we love Him, is…our highest happiness…Love makes
all labor light. We serve with
enthusiasm where we love with sincerity.”
Hannah More
“When the Bible speaks of ‘following Jesus’
it is proclaiming a discipleship which will liberate mankind from all man-made
dogma, from every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and torture which
afflicts the conscience. If they follow
Jesus, men escape from the hard yoke of their own laws, and submit to the
kindly yoke of Jesus Christ. But does
this mean that we can ignore the seriousness of His command? Far from it!
We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when
His command, His call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its
entirety. Only the man who follows the
command of Jesus without reserve, and submits unresistingly to His yoke, finds
his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere
in
the right way. The command of Jesus is hard—unutterably
hard—for those who try to resist it.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“I keep trying to
find a life, on my own apart from You. I
am the king of excuses, I’ve got one for every selfish thing I do. What’s going on inside of me? I despise my own behavior. This only serves to confirm my suspicions
that I’m still a man in need of a Savior...O Lord be my Light and my Salvation. The disease of the self runs through my
blood, like cancer fatal to the soul.
Every attempt on my behalf has failed, to keep the sickness under
control…Lord be my Light and be my salvation.” Charlie
Peacock
“There is no broadminded approach when it comes to entering into the
life that God has for you. God doesn't present you with a variety of doors to
consider. He doesn't say, 'Go ahead and pick the door that looks best to you,
and after you decide, I will support your decision and bless all that you do.'
It is true that God does have a plan and a purpose for your life, but it can
only be entered into through one door. Jesus Christ is that door. There is no
other entrance. There is only one Gospel to believe; only one Truth to embrace;
only one Shepherd to follow; only one Savior to trust; only one Lord to serve;
only one Master to obey.”
Roy Lessin
“Since we are made
to worship, we are always centering our lives on something whether we realize
it or not. It is like a fire hose that
is stuck in the ‘on’ position and shooting water out endlessly with great
force. We must decide where we aim the hose as the focus of our worship. The
idols of our modern world are not necessarily the hand-carved statues of the
ancient world. In our autonomous
self-seeking ways, people have instead come to serve or worship the
self-erected idols of approval, comfort, and security. We must ruthlessly inspect the sin in our
heart for these idols… so it is vital that [we] get to the heart. As Tim Keller
puts it, ‘The solution to our sin problem is not simply to change our behavior,
but to reorient and center our entire heart and life on God.’ Therefore, we must go after the nature of the
sin by going after its root and not just the fruit of the sin. Oftentimes
people repent of sin that is simply the fruit of the idols in their hearts. We
must find out the why of the behavior and not just the what”. Tom
Wood & Scott Thomas
HEART SAVOR
· God is God and there is no other.
· I am foolish to “worship” a God of my own making.
· I cannot serve two masters.
