Relationships Matter

Relationships that Destroy Ministry

Corinthians 15:33 (KJV)
³³ Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

Relationships are a powerful influence in a life. When a relationship is established you have been given access to the inner sanctums of a person’s heart to influence them. Because relationship is built on trust and trust opens the door of a person’s soul. They gain opportunity to steer your life in a particular direction. This is why Paul said that we should “not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” When a believer joins together with an unbeliever in an intimate relationship, they have given that person power to influence them. It’s one thing to have a work friend and/or acquaintances but these are relationships that we do not give access to our innermost being. There is a line drawn where a relationship crosses over into intimacy and now becomes a powerful force in our lives.

Relationships come into being because of sharing common interests. The only way an on fire Christian and a lukewarm Christian can have intimacy is if one compromises. They must meet on common ground. It has been said and it is true that you can tell what a person is by who their friends are.

Ask yourself this question today: “who am I giving access to my heart to influence me?” Be careful of who you are intimate with because they have more power in your life than what you think.  

We honor a person we esteem. Honor gives access and authority to another person to influence my thinking and decision making. Why is it that a person can remember the date, time, and the color of the room… where the infidelity of a spouse was revealed and they can’t remember the color of the car that cut them off in traffic yesterday? The closer to the heart the relationship is, the more access to pain it has in that heart.

Commitment Pease

Jeremiah 34:18 (KJV) 

18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof, 

[cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof] This was a very ancient method of making a covenant. The two contracting parties slaughtered an animal, cut the body into two parts, and passed between them. The idea was that if one of the parties broke the covenant the same fate awaited him, that of being cut into two pieces like the calf. - Dake's Annotated Reference Bible.

To walk between its pieces to signify their commitment to the bargain. By walking through the parts of the animal they were symbolizing the judgment that should befall them if they violated the agreement. - The Bible Knowledge Commentary.

An animal would be split in two and the parties would stand in the

midst of the split animal, thus representing as the animal gave up its life, so too, will I give up my life to maintain this covenant.  In a mutual; covenant both parties would then cut their own wrists, raise their hands into the air and clasp hands while pointing to heaven making God their witness to this agreement. The intermingling of the blood signified the joining of a blood relationship.  They would then often cauterize the wound with a hot branding iron to inflict a noticeable scar which would act as a perpetual reminder.

Our wedding rings instead of a scar produce a reminder of the covenant we make in marriage. Covenant today is not understood in our culture. Marriage is too often looked at as an agreement of togetherness similar to a business deal. If the deal goes sour, we make no effort to become self sacrificing, we just move onto the next relationship that will forward our own agenda and inoculate our feelings. If this selfish trend continues, marriage as the Bible presents it will become a rare commodity. Through the arrogance of superior ideals, America will begin to believe culturally that marriage (as the Bible speaks of it) as something inferior. The elitists will smile with a smug expression, feeling sorry for people who are trapped in the inferior state of marriage.    

I hear phrases today like "I am going to try marriage." Or how about this one "we are living together first to see if it is going to work." We try on shoes - we commit to marriage! We need a revival of commitment in the human heart again.

 

A Carrot, Egg, or Coffee, your choice.

Carrots, Eggs, or Coffee; "Which are you?"

A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, "Tell me what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft.She then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The granddaughter then asked. "What's the point,grandmother?"

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity--boiling water--but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her granddaughter.

"When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?

Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Living Close is for my Protection.

Living Close is for my Protection

Exodus 32:15-19 (KJV)
¹⁵  And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
¹⁶  And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
¹⁷  And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
¹⁸  And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
¹⁹  And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

The closer I get to God the level of my love for him elevates in intensity while simultaneously, my hatred for sin will intensify. Holiness and sin are polar opposites. The closer you get to the one, automatically, the further you get from the other.

Look at Moses - he has been in a complete holy environment for 40 days. There has been no contact with sin or its effects for forty days. Moses has been in the presence of truth and this all he has heard for this entire time with the Lord. He now walks right into an environment of total depravity and debauchery. Moses is radiating the glory of God, and it reacts violently to sin.

This is a normal response when a person is living close to the Lord. I wonder, is the opposite happening to the American church which is embracing compromise and ultimately dangling itself over the pits of confusion. It seemingly is staying just far enough away from God in creating an atmosphere of acceptance to sin. The church leans right but not far enough to break all connections to sin. Our attitude towards sin will be an indicator of our proximity to God in relationship. Look at the following:

Hebrews 1:9 (KJV)

⁹  Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Living close to God is for our own protection, because it will keep us far from sin. This close relationship will produce not just an emotion but an accurate understanding of how devastating sin really is. We begin to realize that sin is not simply a mistake, a mere negative thought, or an act, but treason that lampoons the heart of God every time it is committed.

When we love someone, we won’t be able to bear the thought of hurting the one we love so much!