CHRISTIAN
BEWARE OF EASE
7 “Two
things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: 8 Keep
falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me
only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say,
‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of
my God. Proverbs 30:7-9 (NIV)
10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he
swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with
large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses
filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not
dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and
are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who
brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 6:10-12 (NIV)
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD
your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be
careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his
commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise,
when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and
when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all
you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget
the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 8:10-14 (NIV)
4 “But I am the LORD your God, [who brought you] out of
Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me. 5 I
cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. 6 When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were
satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. Hosea 13:4-6 (NIV)
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to
store my crops.’ 18 Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns
and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.’ 19 And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid
up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very
night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have
prepared for yourself?’ 21 This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for
himself but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21 (NIV)
15 “I know your deeds, that you
are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am
about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a
thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and
naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me
gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so
you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you
can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and
discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my
voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation
3:15-20 (NIV)
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)
BUTTER
“How often have we seen the Christian rendered
obedient to the Lord’s will by the absence of bread and the presence of
difficulty. When rich and increased in goods, many professors carry their heads
much too loftily and speak exceeding boastfully. Like David, they flatter
themselves: ‘My mountain stands firm; I shall never be moved.’” C. H.
Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“Do not pray for
easy lives; pray to be stronger people! Do not pray for tasks equal to your
powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks.” Phillips Brooks
“In these days of easy-going Christianity, is
it not well to remind ourselves that it really does cost to be a man or woman
whom God can use? One cannot obtain a
Christlike character for nothing; one cannot do a Christlike work save at great
price. ‘Can ye drink of the cup that I
drink of, and be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized?’” Dr. & Mrs.
Howard Taylor
“Losses in business are often sanctified to
our soul’s enriching. If the chosen soul will not come to the Lord full-handed,
it shall come empty. If God, in His grace, finds no other means of making us
honor Him among men, He will cast us into the deep; if we fail to honor Him on
the pinnacle of riches, He will bring us into the valley of poverty. Yet do not
faint, heir of sorrow, when you are rebuked in this fashion; rather, recognize
the loving hand that chastens and say, ‘I will arise and go to my Father.’” C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“Temptation comes in attractive packages.
Satan makes bad things look good. He makes wicked things look appealing and
makes deadly things look like they’ll be the best experience you’ve ever had. He’s a liar. And he’ll do whatever he needs
to do to pull you down.” Greg Laurie
“Popularity and
adulation can be far more dangerous for the Christian than persecution. Unfortunately, it is easy when all goes well
to lose our sense of balance and our perspective. We must learn like Paul ‘how to abound’
and ‘how to be abased.’” Billy Graham
“God refines us in the
fire. The flames in our life sanctify us and draw us to God in ways that nothing
else can. We emerge with a stronger faith and an unrivalled dependence on him.
But the process isn’t easy. The furnace contains treasures I can’t find
elsewhere.” Vaneetha Risner
“You can learn a lot about a man by
what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth—they worship money; some
groan continually under the troubles of life—they are merely impatient. But the
man who sighs after God, who is uneasy until he is made like Christ—that is the
blessed man. May God help us to groan for the coming of the Lord and the
resurrection that He will bring to us.” C.
H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“If you would grow into the beauty
of the Master, you must accept the conflicts,
and fight the battles. You
can live easy if you will, by declining every struggle — but you will then get
little out of life which is truly noble and worthy. The best things all come
after the battle — you must fight your way across the field to get them. Heaven
is only for
those who overcome. No one gets the crown — without the conflict!”
J R Miller
“Gratitude, in spite of all circumstance turns our broken and beat up hearts back to the safe place of faith in the Giver. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.” Ann Voskamp
“The Lord taught me how to sigh in pain, how to
weep in gladness, and how to trust during days of hope deferred. It was not an easy road to walk. It still
isn’t easy, and it isn’t safe. Rather, it is a
confounding country full of myths and mirages. Here, faith resembles denial,
settledness looks like surrender, and hope is the scariest creature of all. If
you are with me here in this land, you know all about discouragement. But look up, friend. The path before us is paved
with secret riches.
To embrace it is to
embrace the terrifying tension of God’s inaugurated but unfinished Kingdom: the
already and the not yet, the treasure in the field, costing us everything
but giving us even more. It is the
place where I thank God for my son, who is enough, and in the next breath, I
beg God for more. The road ahead is
dangerous but not barren. There is sustenance here, because Christ
Himself is here, and He goes before us. He
walked this path already, this Man of Sorrows, and endured all that we must
endure and more. But He did it all for the
joy set before Him. In the
land of unanswered prayer, we follow His lead. He
does not hover above us on the winds of false expectations. Rather, He stands next to us with His own humble
scars, beckoning us forward.” Jason
Hague
HEART SAVOR
·
It is often in the
plenty that we are in the greatest need.
·
When we walk the difficult
through the power of the Spirit we become “oaks of righteousness, plantings of
the Lord for the display of His splendor.”
Isaiah 61
·
There are
treasures in the darkness that are not disclosed in the ease. Sadly, we are much too busy in the frivolous
wasteland of plenty.
