"UNPLOWED GROUND"

<sup>"UNPLOWED GROUND"

HOSEA 10


12</sup> Sow righteousness for yourselves,
    reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;
    for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes
    and showers his righteousness on you.

Dear precious believer; We find ourselves at the half way mark, of this new year. Yes, it is time to survey our resolutions(dedication Rom 12:1,2),... holidays, celebrations and missions have all but commanded our attention. Yet, still  the Holy Spirit remembers the words uttered by us in the dawn of this year. So he turns on the spiritual MRI,  CAT scan and X-ray. He searches the inner man and becomes the internal witness to the  Father, and His Son. What will be His report on you, on me ?  Will He report an  advance or retreat in you ?

Let this writer suggest not a cry of his own , but one of the prophet Hosea. For this verse has been written on the walls, and mirrors, door posts and placed ever where the Holy Spirit chose to romance me back to the dawn of my dedication to the Father, and to the Son. In order to give  Him continuous access to "unplowed ground!"


 "Break up your unplowed ground;
 for it is time to seek the Lord"

Notice you are asked to break up unplowed ground?  Why?  because no one knows, as you do the place the Holy Spirit is working in you.

the reason ?  "it  is time to seek the lord".  May the following verse give you new footing, to the path you chose  in dedication at the dawn of this new year. Amen.

Psalm 139 
 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 

 

Psalm 139 
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful— I can’t take it all in! ...
Psalm 139
[ God’s Perfect Knowledge of Man ]  O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. ...

    

"REMAIN IN TRUTH"

"REMAIN IN TRUTH"

John 8:32
[ If the Son Sets You Free ] Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him.

 “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure.

Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”

Dear brothers in Christ;  Why is it so important to know and understand,  "truth" ?

First we should ask ourselves; What is truth ? Why does it make a difference, for the Christian to remain in truth, in the midst of a compromised, and deceptive world, even the church her self, is seduced into the lie, with regrettable consequences ? 

It must be an absolute for the believer, at all times and in every circumstance of life. We must not allow our ears to be tickled by every wind of doctrine, that presents itself as the truth.

 For the church, "truth", is not a philosophy that embraces the popular mind set. "Whatever seems right, and acceptable in the culture,... just do."

No for the church, "truth" becomes the very power of a transformed life, free from the conformity of the world (Rom 12:1,2). It holds true to the scripture, which promises to be light to our path, and a lamp on our  table. "Truth" lights up the room  of hidden dangers.

Let us look at  Pauls  admonition to the Thessalonians;

2 Thessalonians 2

 

⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness ( hidden principle of rebellion ) is already at work in the world, [but it is] restrained only until ^[he who restrains is taken out of the way.

⁸ 

And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by His appearing at His coming.

⁹ 

The coming [of the lawless one, the antichrist] is through the activity and working of Satan and will be attended by great power and with all sorts of [pretended] miracles and signs and delusive marvels—[all of them] lying wonders—

¹⁰

 And by unlimited seduction to evil and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing (going to perdition) because they did not welcome the Truth but refused to love it that they might be saved.

¹¹ 

Therefore God sends upon them a misleading influence, a working of error and a strong delusion to make them believe what is false,

¹²

 In order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe in [who refused to adhere to, trust in, and rely on] the Truth, but [instead] took pleasure in unrighteousness.

¹³ 

But we, brethren beloved by the Lord, ought and are obligated [as those who are in debt] to give thanks always to God for you, because God chose you from the beginning ^[d]as His firstfruits (first converts) for salvation through the sanctifying work of the [Holy] Spirit and [your] belief in (adherence to, trust in, and reliance on) the Truth.

¹⁴

 [It was] to this end that He called you through our Gospel, so that you may obtain and share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).

 

Therefore, with this in view "truth" for the Christian is found in one person.

 

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me.

 

Why will the world reject these words of our Lord ?

 

Romans 1

 

Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it).

 

 

 

2 Corinthians 6

 

 Laboring together [as God’s fellow workers] with Him then, we beg of you not to receive the grace of God in vain [that merciful kindness by which God exerts His holy influence on souls and turns them to Christ, keeping and strengthening them—do not receive it to no purpose].

² 

For He says, In the time of favor (of an assured welcome) I have listened to and heeded your call, and I have helped you on the day of deliverance (the day of salvation). Behold, now is truly the time for a gracious welcome and acceptance [of you from God]; behold, now is the day of salvation!

³

 We put no obstruction in anybody’s way [we give no offense in anything], so that no fault may be found and [our] ministry blamed and discredited.

⁴ 

But we commend ourselves in every way as [true] servants of God: through great endurance, in tribulation and suffering, in hardships and privations, in sore straits and calamities,

⁵ 

In beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless watching, hunger;

⁶ 

By innocence and purity, knowledge and spiritual insight, longsuffering and patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love;

⁷ 

By [speaking] the word of truth, in the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand [to attack] and for the left hand [to defend];

⁸ 

Amid honor and dishonor; in defaming and evil report and in praise and good report. [We are branded] as deceivers (impostors), and [yet vindicated as] truthful and honest.

 

 

 

 “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure.
 
Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”

Amen!!!!!