Advice everywhere! Tools to make a sound decision

Have you ever noticed if you have a dilemma and you ask three different Christian friends for direction, you are likely to get three very different (and sometimes conflicting) pieces of advice?

Who's advice do you take? It's easy to be confused. You probably asked advice for clarity's sake anyway.

Here are a few ideas from Scripture to help you weigh what advice to take to make your decision:

1. Will this action break a commandment? (Exodus 20)
2. Will something die because of it? Your testimony? The truth? A relationship?  (The wages of sin is death Romans 6:23)
3. If you are married, does it honor your spouse? Wives, does it respect your husband? Husbands, does it show love for your wife the way Christ loved the church? (Ephesians 5:25,33)
4. If you are a child, does it honor your father and mother? (Mark 7:10)
5. Have you prayed and asked God for wisdom? God promises to give us wisdom when we ask in faith. (James 1:5)

Sin's Curse: Recap of Sunday's Sermon

Sins’s Curse

(Genesis 3:8-24)

Our sin has consequences only God’s grace can relieve.

1. When we sin, we hide from God. (vs. 8)

2. When God calls, we shift the blame. (vss. 9-13)

3. When we shift the blame, God judges sin. (vss. 14-19)

4. When God judges sin, we trust His grace. (vss 20-21)

5. While we trust His grace, we suffer death. (vss. 22-24)

~~~~~~~~

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
    cursed are you above all livestock
    and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

17 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:8-24 ESV)

You are engraved on the palms of His hands

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands."—Isaiah 49:16

O doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word "Behold," is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. Zion said, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me." How amazed the divine mind seems to be at this wicked unbelief! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God's favoured people? 

The Lord's loving word of rebuke should make us blush; He cries, "How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands? How darest thou doubt my constant remembrance, when the memorial is set upon my very flesh?" O unbelief, how strange a marvel thou art! We know not which most to wonder at, the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of His people. He keeps His promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt Him. He never faileth; He is never a dry well; He is never as a setting sun, a passing meteor, or a melting vapour; and yet we are as continually vexed with anxieties, molested with suspicions, and disturbed with fears, as if our God were the mirage of the desert. "Behold," is a word intended to excite admiration. 

Here, indeed, we have a theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that rebels should obtain so great a nearness to the heart of infinite love as to be written upon the palms of His hands. "I have graven thee."It does not say, "Thy name." The name is there, but that is not all: "I have graven thee." 

See the fulness of this! I have graven thy person, thine image, thy case, thy circumstances, thy sins, thy temptations, thy weaknesses, thy wants, thy works; I have graven thee, everything about thee, all that concerns thee; I have put thee altogether there. Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee when He has graven thee upon His own palms?

-C. H. Spurgeon

Fertilizer...in your spiritual life????

Fertilizer- Any of a large number of natural and synthetic materials, including manure and compounds containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, spread on or worked into soil to increase its capacity to support plant growth

Synonyms: manure, plant food, compost, dung 

                                                                                     - TheFreeDictionary.com

A friend gave some very wise insight on fertilizer the other day - yes, fertilizer. The synonyms listed above for fertilizer are not "pretty" are they? Manure, dung, compost. Actually, they are downright smelly. No one would relish the thought of putting their hands in dung let alone being covered in it!

Yet, as smelly and unclean as these things are, fertilizer is often necessary for the healthy growth of the plant. Fertilizer can make the plant grow bigger, stronger, healthier and more robust than without it. Moreover, fertilizer can even make the plant grow more quickly then without it. Can you guess where we are going with this friends?

We often run away from the odorous situations and uncomfortable challenges that present themselves in our Christian walk - not even wanting to touch them, but it is often NECESSARY for our growth in the LORD! 

Though the Shulamite spoke of a different situation, I think her words can be applied to our own attitude about fertilizer in our lives: "I have washed my feet, How can I dirty them again??" (Song of Solomon 5:3c NASB)

Do not run from the fertilizer that the Lord puts in and around your life. Know that in GOD’S time, your seed will begin to break ground and sprout leaves, and then will grow into the plant, then fill out, and, at last will become a robust tree!  You will endure God's trimming and pruning- the cutting away of stray branches that grow out of place, but everything happens in the Lord's own time and season.  

Don't be discouraged and keep pressing on toward the goal!

~~~~

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV)

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-4 NASB)

What is painful will end

I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls; which I have made. (Isaiah 57:16)

Our heavenly Father seeks our instruction, not our destruction. His contention with us has a kind intention toward us. He will not be always in arms against us. We think the Lord is long in His chastisements, but that is because we are short in our patience. His compassion endureth forever, but not His contention. The night may drag its weary length along, but it must in the end give place to cheerful day. As contention is only for a season, so the wrath which leads to it is only for a small moment. The Lord loves His chosen too well to be always angry with them.

If He were to deal with us always as He does sometimes, we should faint outright and go down hopelessly to the gates of death. Courage, dear heart! The Lord will soon end His chiding. Bear up, for the Lord will bear you up and bear you through. He who made you knows how frail you are and how little you can bear. He will handle tenderly that which He has fashioned so delicately. Therefore, be not afraid because of the painful present, for it hastens to a happy future. He that smote you will heal you; His little wrath shall be followed by great mercies.

-by C. H. Spurgeon