DON'T BE DUST-CONSCIOUS

The reason yesterday's devotional spoke to me was because I can and do fall into limited dust thinking. And when I do it's often the recipe for failure. Daily we are called to look beyond our obvious limited situations. Not to believe the the information coming from those 3 places;

1. The world

2. The flesh

3. The devil

Those 3 things are in the faces of all humans even Christians every second of every day. But the unsaved have no born again spirit and can't look beyond those 3 things. But we believers are CALLED to look beyond those 3 things TO JESUS. But the Holy Spirit won't force us to look beyond ourselves. It's a choice we now have. That is why looking away to Jesus is vital to survival.

Dust also has to do with humiliation. Being humble and being humiliated are very different. How amazing is it that God never humiliates us but seeks to lift us up when we acknowledge our weaknesses and limitations. We are never brought to humiliation such hope in Christ never humiliates us or disappoints us. HOW GREAT IS THAT!!? God could easily humiliate us but He never does. We humiliate ourselves by believeing the world....flesh...devil.


Isaiah 54:4 [SUP]4 [/SUP]Fear not, for you shall not be ashamed; neither be confounded and depressed, for you shall not be put to shame. For you shall forget the shame of your youth, and you shall not [seriously] remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.[SUP]
5 [/SUP]For your Maker is your Husband—the Lord of hosts is His name—and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth He is called.

For me, as life happens, that means keeping the eternal perspective in mind. We walk through this life, and there are joys, trials, sickness, failures, triumphs, challenges, loss, gain . . . and Christ promises to be our Good Shepherd through all of it \o/ !

If we fail or fall short, He's not there to beat or condemn us, but to help pick us up, DUST us off, and by His Grace continue to lead us and teach us.

What is now is for a moment, but we have the Promise of Christ in us, the Hope of glory!

What a wonderful promise!

-JGIG

Amen. Especially when life gets extremely IMPOSSIBLE.... confusing and difficult. When we don't know what to do or even how to do what we know we should do. I'm amazed that God doesn't require us to have all the answers today. I used to rush around in panic mode when a decision needed to be made.

Instead of thinking about Jesus I can easily think about ME. How am "I" going to figure this out? How am "I" going to answer this problem? How am "I" going to manage??


Seriously the proverbial chicken with their head cut off. As if worrying and running around helped! What does help is what you wrote here about hope IN Jesus... the Hope of Glory

That kind of hope NEVER shames us. Romans 5:5

[SUP]4 [/SUP]And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of [SUP][a][/SUP]character (approved faith and [SUP][b][/SUP]tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] [SUP][c][/SUP]joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.
[SUP]
5 [/SUP]Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
[SUP]
6 [/SUP]While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly.

When we were unsaved He saved us. Now that we are saved... how much MORE He provides for us in every way.

heh i also want to understand better what God means by this.

He made man from dust, when he sinned, He said man will return to dust, and cursed the dust for man's sake.
He said He'd write on our hearts and minds. He became a curse to save us from sin.

and when He was here doing that, when people came to goad Him, asking who should throw the first hard piece of dust at a woman until the life went out of her and her body returned to dust, for sin, He didn't speak to them at first.
instead He stooped to write in the dust with His finger.

was He ignoring them or answering them?
answering what they said or what they meant to do by asking?

i get the idea that i could spend my whole life finding out what this means and never be able to say it any better than He says it by the things He did.

I always thought Jesus was doodling in the dirt waiting for his Father to reveal to him the right thing to say!

John 8:8
And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.

((in the dust, with His finger))

I always thought Jesus was doodling in the dirt waiting for his Father to reveal to him the right thing to say!

I think Jesus was writing in the dust the sins of the accusers.

That is why they left and there was no one to accuse her.

How did you miss putting "JUST KIDDING" at the end of that sentence?

Yes, by way of reminding them of all the other laws there are in the law of Moses.



If I remember the account accurately, the oldest started to leave first, maybe because they had the weightier guilt of a lifetime of more broken laws that required they be stoned to death too.

The reason yesterday's devotional spoke to me was because I can and do fall into limited dust thinking. And when I do it's often the recipe for failure. Daily we are called to look beyond our obvious limited situations. Not to believe the the information coming from those 3 places;

1. The world

2. The flesh

3. The devil

Those 3 things are in the faces of all humans even Christians every second of every day. But the unsaved have no born again spirit and can't look beyond those 3 things. But we believers are CALLED to look beyond those 3 things TO JESUS. But the Holy Spirit won't force us to look beyond ourselves. It's a choice we now have. That is why looking away to Jesus is vital to survival.

Dust also has to do with humiliation. Being humble and being humiliated are very different. How amazing is it that God never humiliates us but seeks to lift us up when we acknowledge our weaknesses and limitations. We are never brought to humiliation such hope in Christ never humiliates us or disappoints us. HOW GREAT IS THAT!!? God could easily humiliate us but He never does. We humiliate ourselves by believeing the world....flesh...devil.


Isaiah 54:4 [SUP]4 [/SUP]Fear not, for you shall not be ashamed; neither be confounded and depressed, for you shall not be put to shame. For you shall forget the shame of your youth, and you shall not [seriously] remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.[SUP]
5 [/SUP]For your Maker is your Husband—the Lord of hosts is His name—and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth He is called.

I find it so interesting to read posts from different people here and how we have been taught much of the same things. They are good and right teachings but they are not the only possibilities for the interpretation of those verses. What do you think?

Yes, by way of reminding them of all the other laws there are in the law of Moses.

If I remember the account accurately, the oldest started to leave first, maybe because they had the weightier guilt of a lifetime of more broken laws that required they be stoned to death too.

Scripture says that she was taken in the very act of adultery. How would these guys know that if they had not had a part in the very act with her? Maybe not in that very instance but at sometime in the recent past.

He is the 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life' that God's justice demands. He is the fulfillment of the law. He found a wise and powerful way to keep the holy justice of his law and keep us alive at the same time. All wise, all powerful, He is to be praised.

I agree, we simply don't know. But together we can be blessed as we talk about them. Matt had a good Jeremiah reference that fits very well, but I'll have to digest it a little bit. But it's this kind of thing that leads us to further understanding.

One thing's for sure. The people there were convicted by what he wrote. And it caused them to drop their stones and not carry out the just and commanded sentence for her sin. That much we know and that's what we can take away from it for sure. Only a spiritual moron with his own load of sin punishable by death would dare demand the immediate, lawful death of a fellow sinner.

But that does not leave the law demanding death broken or unfulfilled. Jesus died the just death for sin commanded in the law. He is the 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life' that God's justice demands. He is the fulfillment of the law. He found a wise and powerful way to keep the holy justice of his law and keep us alive at the same time. All wise, all powerful, he is to be praised.


But not to derail. As far as your OP, the sooner we recognize the frailty of our sinful, cursed flesh--the dust of the earth-- the sooner we will flee to the Lord and find refuge and safety and deliverance in him in ALL of our circumstances and situations.


"He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers."-Psalm 1:4


Promise!

Wow Ralphie,

Very powerful!! Stopped my breathe for a few seconds ...

Agree UnderGrace. Jesus met every single requirement of the law. There remains no more sacrifice for sins today. This fact is one I really need to digest every day. There is NOTHING we can do to be more loved., more righteous., more clean., more holy., more sinless in the sight of God.

Being born again., not of corruptible seed but incorruptible.... 1 Peter 1:23

[SUP]23 [/SUP]having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of [SUP][b][/SUP]God, which liveth and abideth.




His seed remains in us because of Jesus. We are born again., made new. Have a new spirit man. Saints..sons.., heirs...joint heirs with Christ. Romans 8:17
[SUP]
16 [/SUP]The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: [SUP]17 [/SUP]and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.
[SUP]
18 [/SUP]For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.



Not based on what we have done or will do but totally based on the finished work of Jesus on the cross. So when we see the dust of this life when it all looks hopless and makes no sense., we must go to Jesus and see who we are IN HIM. Without HIM we can do nothing....see nothing., be nothing. AND THAT IS GOOD NEWS!!!