Category: The Word

Fragrance and Beauty

Hosea 14:4-9 “The Lord says, Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever. I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from heaven. Israel will blossom like the lily; it will send roots deep into the soil like the cedars in Lebanon. Its branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees, as fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon. My people will again live under my shade. They will flourish like grain and blossom like grapevines. They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon. “O Israel, stay away from idols! I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you. I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me.” Let those who are wise understand these things. Let those with discernment listen carefully. The paths of the Lord are true and right, and righteous people live by walking in them. But in those paths sinners stumble and fall.

Thoughts on these verses:

God says he will be like the refreshing dew. = There is no end to the dew, it is new every morning, it is continually replenished. We should Look for Him, Expect Him, Feed on Him and His Word.

Then you will bloom like the lily. = The lily is compared to great beauty.

Your roots will go as deep as the cedars of Lebanon. = The cedars of Lebanon were more fruitful as they aged and their roots held firm, as we are to hold firm to our faith and in our relationship with God. (Also, the cedars were resistant to rot and decay and repelled insects. We should be resistant to sin and repel the enemy.)

Your branches will spread like a beautiful olive tree. = Branches will provide shade for others, to guard them, nurture them, teach them in the knowledge of God.

Flourish like grain. = Each stalk of grain produces many seeds and grain feeds others.

You will be fragrant like the oil of the cedars of Lebanon. = Fragrance attracts

You will Blossom like grapevines. = Constantly bearing fruit again and again, season after season and make new wine. Be an example of the true grapevine, Jesus Christ and our Father is the Gardener. (John 15:1)

Fragrant as the wines of Lebanon. = Again, fragrance attracts and wine quenches thirst.

The Lord answers our prayers, He cares for us. = We should have a prayer relationship with God. Not a ‘laundry list’ of our desires but prayers of thanksgiving and worship, we should care for him as He cares for us.

He is the tree that stays green. = The cedars of Lebanon are evergreen, we should not wither, but have life continuously.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord  and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”

He is the source of our fruit. = Our fruit can only ripen and be fully formed through Him. How can any bad fruit come from God?

Matthew 7:16-20 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

When we are wise in the Lord, we understand. = When our wisdom comes from God, we have understanding.

When we have discernment, we listen carefully. = When we perceive what is true and good, we will listen intently to the Word of God.

Proverbs 4:10-13 My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. I will teach you wisdom’s ways and lead you in straight paths.  When you walk, you won’t be held back; when you run, you won’t stumble. Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life.

Righteous walk in the true and right paths the Lord has prepared, however sinners will stumble and fall in the very same paths. In the NIV, it says the rebellious will stumble. If you are not following God, you are rebelling.

Prayer: Father, help me to seek you daily and worship you, to recognize your refreshing ways Every day. Help me be firm in my faith, to attract with the beauty that comes from inside of me, which is your light. Help me to guide others to you and show them the fruit which you have given me. Help me to be an instructor, an encourager, and a protector of those who are less mature in their faith. May I be fruitful and fragrant with your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Saturated

God speaks to me in words. Sometimes it is just one word and I know I am to study what the word means and how it is spiritually significant. My word for today is ‘saturated.’ When I think of saturated, I think of a sponge which cannot contain any more liquid. I decided to see if there were other meanings. Even though the thought of being so full (my cup runneth over) that my heart spills the love of God is exciting, I know there is more. I am thrilled with the definitions from the online dictionary:

  • soaked, impregnated; charged thoroughly or completely; brought to a state of saturation.
  • (of colors) of maximum chroma or purity; free from admixture of white. 
  • Saturated as related to Chemistry: (inorganic compound) having no free valence electrons. 

Now, let’s take a look at these definitions. Impregnated: to be with child (to have the Word Living inside of us so that we can draw on it at any time.) To cause to be infused or permeated throughout, Ex: a piece of cloth can be ‘impregnated’ with perfume. Our lives saturated with him and his love is a sweet perfume to God and our worship is as fragrant as the costly perfume Mary used to pour on our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! 

Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. 2 Corinthians 2:15

Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. John 12:3

Charged thoroughly or completely – charged with the Words of our Lord! Brought to a state of saturation – so there is hope to be in the process of being saturated. When we become saturated by the Word, it is life to us.

My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Proverbs 4:20-22

Of maximum purity and free from admixture mean to be free from any alien element. What is alien to a believer? Anything that is not from God or pleasing to God. If you look up the word pure in the Bible, you will see that all the fragrances in the temple were pure, as well as the silver and gold. We are called to pureness and we are his temple.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8

And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight. 2 Peter 3:14

But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. John 2:21

In chemistry, it relates saturated to having no free valence electrons. This means if a substance is saturated, it cannot bind to foreign matter – it is pure. There is nothing free to allow a bonding with a saturated substance, nothing can penetrate it. If we are saturated with the word of God, the truth, then nothing else can bind to us or penetrate our hearts. When we are saturated, none of the evil gets in, nothing can pull us away, because He has filled our hearts and minds. Furthermore, we are in unity with Jesus and those who follow God with their whole heart.

Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. Ephesians 4:3-6

“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! John 17:22-24

Prayer: Father, help me to be saturated with your word. Bring it to my remembrance in every situation. I want to be so saturated that your Word flows out of me and rids me of anything that is not pleasing to you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil

Jesus kept the good out of ‘good & evil’ and nailed the evil to the cross! Then why do we try to pull it back off? We are to walk in the New Covenant in our new nature. Hebrews 8 and 2 Corinthians 5:15

Every time we walk away from God and his plan for us, we walk away from the new covenant and our true redemption. We walk away from the truth. What is that truth? Look at: Ephesians 4:21-24

God created man for communication with Him. Our omniscient (all-knowing) Father knew both good and evil and tried to protect us from the responsibility of that knowledge. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:16-17  It was okay to eat any fruit from any tree, but not of that certain tree. Why do we usually want to do what is forbidden instead of what God’s plan is for us? Because we walk in our sinful nature and not the nature of the new man. 2 Corinthians 5:16 God’s original purpose was not for us to obtain knowledge of good and evil. We were not to partake! But don’t blame Adam and Eve, because many are still resisting what God wants in our lives today. Hebrews 3:12-14 When we follow evil, we are taking it off the cross where it was defeated. We are pulling back down the evil that Jesus died to rid the world of. Evil is the force that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin. Sin is going beyond the limits that were set. Therefore, evil is Anything that opposes God. We are not in the new covenant which reaffirms our relationship with God when we don’t fully Trust God and follow Jesus. Galatians 2:20

Through the new covenant God has put his laws in our minds and written them on our hearts! The old covenant is obsolete. We are not to live for ourselves but for Christ who died for us. Our new nature is to be put on and renewed by reading the word and allowing the Holy Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes. We use God’s vision which he has given us and we evaluate the world with new eyes when we follow Him. We are to be faithfully trusting God to the end. We are to carry the zeal that we were given when we first believed.  Our old self was crucified on the cross with Jesus Christ. He lives In us! God has brought us Back into relationship with Him. Now let us bring others Back to God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-25

Prayer: Father, Thank you for sending your son to give me a new covenant with you. Keep me from pulling my old nature off the cross and wearing it again. Help me to trust in your perfect plan for my life and help me bring others back to you! I love you! Amen.