> General Discussions
Our Filthy Rags
hillsbororiver:
I will go back to my old buddy Zechariah to describe what I call a "Joshua moment," this I believe is something we all go through at different times, especially when we attempt to pull on the yoke independent of Him..
Zec 3:1 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
Zec 3:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
Zec 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
Zec 3:4 And he answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
Zec 3:5 And I said, Let them set a fair miter upon his head. So they set a fair miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.
Zec 3:6 And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
Zec 3:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
When we walk alone we walk in the filthy garments of our own righteousness, He teaches (through these trials) us to walk with Him in the clean white raiment which is His righteousness.
When Satan zeroes in on us accusing and confusing us we must rebuke him in the name of the Lord and refocus our attention from ourselves back to Him.
Jam 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
His Peace and Wisdom to you all,
Joe
YellowStone:
Hi Brother Joe,
It just hit me how hard or perhaps impossible it is to live within any hope of Righteousness, regardless of how are we try.
Zec 3:4 And he answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, (a) Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, (b) and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
Before we have any chance of living such a clean, pure life, we must first (a) have the iniquity within us removed; something we cannot do on our own. Then and only then will be able to (b) rightfully wear the white raiment which is His righteousness.
We are for out betterment still being formed into the righteous son and daughters of God that we will someday be. It is not easy for we are fighting an unceasing war with the god of this world and our own carnal nature.
2Cr 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Cr 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Without God we are nothing, we owe everything to him.
Well that is what I got out of it :)
Love to in Christ,
Darren
hillsbororiver:
Hi Darren,
This battle within is relentless and the moment we think we are standing firmly and take our eyes off of our Lord we sink faster than when Peter attempted to walk on water! ;)
His Peace to you,
Joe
hillsbororiver:
Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
One of the (many) things I found to be Eureka! moments on Bible Truths is the fact that the primary, most important thing to understand is that this spiritual warfare, this battle between good and evil is taking place within each and every one of us, every time we lose sight of this and begin to look outward at the sins and failings of others and make that our focus we stumble and fall flat on our faces.
I believe this holds true not only when we look at the imperfections of people, institutions and doctrines but also when we attempt to justify or see the "good" in things that are not of the Spirit of Christ.
It seems the minute we start trusting our own instincts without praying for His guidance things start to get earthly, ugly & dirty within us and all around us.
Mat 23:26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
The total uncompromising need for His Spirit to guide and lead us is a direct result of how He is creating us;
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
We were given this imperfect, deceptive nature purposely so we would learn to despise the carnal heart/mind and yearn for Him to transform us through this process into spiritual Sons and daughters of the Perfect God.
If you think (and pray) about it you can see that this really is the quickest, surest route to spiritual Sonship rather than any other way our human brain can conceive of to accomplish this goal.
If we despise the evil within ourselves we are heading in the right direction.
His Peace and Wisdom to you,
Joe
Kat:
Hi Joe,
Eph 2:1 And you He made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins
v. 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
v. 3 Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
We have all been there, done that.
Ecc 3:10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
v. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity(long duration, antiquity, futurity) into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Ecc 2:10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.
v. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
So it's the way we all have gone, seeking after fleshly desires, only to find it all to be "vanity and a striving after wind."
It's like what you said,
We were given this imperfect, deceptive nature purposely so we would learn to despise the carnal heart/mind and yearn for Him to transform us through this process into spiritual Sons and daughters of the Perfect God.
mercy, peace, and love
Kat
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version