OzThoughts Thursday 31st December 2009

OzThoughts Thursday 31st December 2009


[ A Happy New Year to all readers of OzThoughts. My prayer is that this year will be a year of rich blessings for you and your loved ones.

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For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah 9: 6 New International Version).


This week we are thinking about Jesus, the Wonderful Counsellor and some of the messages he shared about how e should live.

Jesus was not a counsellor with personal standards which he purposely kept hidden to have people try to work out their own acceptable standards. Jesus does not operate as a “non –directive” counsellor. He knew that his Heavenly Father has set a code of acceptable behaviour long ago and people should live their life according to that. His counsel was in giving clearer understanding of what God’s standards are.

Again as Jesus spoke to his disciples on the mountainside he gave clear advice. His advice shows clearly God’s standards have not and do not change.

17 "Don't suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures--either God's Law or the Prophets. I'm not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama.
18 God's Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God's Law will be alive and working.
19 "Trivialize even the smallest item in God's Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom.
20 Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom.

21 "You're familiar with the command to the ancients, "Do not murder.'
22 I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother "idiot!' and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell "stupid!' at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.
23 "This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you,
24 abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.
25 "Or say you're out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don't lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. After all, if you leave the first move to him, knowing his track record, you're likely to end up in court, maybe even jail.
26 If that happens, you won't get out without a stiff fine.

27 "You know the next commandment pretty well, too: "Don't go to bed with another's spouse.'
28 But don't think you've preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices--they also corrupt.
29 "Let's not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here's what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile.
30 And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump. (Matthew 5 The Message).

PRAYER AND MEDITATION:

[Listen: Tune: Belmont (also used yesterday): http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_976.mp3
or
Crimond: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_3322.mp3 ]


I want a principle within
Of jealous, godly fear,
A sensibility of sin,
A pain to feel it near.

I want the first approach to feel
Of pride or fond desire,
To catch the wandering of my will,
And quench the kindling fire.

Quick as the apple of an eye,
O God, my conscience make
Awake my soul when sin is nigh,
And keep it still awake.

O may the least omission pain
My well-instructed soul,
And drive me to the blood again
Which makes the wounded whole.
Author: Charles Wesley (1707-88)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 425

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