Purer in Heart
We sing the song, “Purer In Heart, O God” regularly in our worship services. It’s a very good song. It’s a prayer of request to God and it has within it, a line that I think that we should especially pay close attention to and mean with all of our hearts when we sing it.
The line is, “Keep me from secret sin, reign thou my soul within.” Within the line is both the request, “keep me from secret sin,” and the way to keep from that danger, the second request, “reign thou my soul within.”
The request to God to help me to have the integrity to not get secretly caught up in living that is sinful is not a new request, but a very old one.
For instance, Psalm 139:23-24 says, 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
In this particular request, the Psalmist is unaware of the sin that he’s asking God to help him to remove, but often times we are not asking God to search us to determine IF there is any secret sin, because we know already that there is.
Our prayers are more often for relief from the temptation of sin, which is a good prayer when I am also doing what is within my power to avoid it.
And sometimes our prayer is for forgiveness, when we’ve been involved in something that we know is wrong, and this too is a good prayer when we actually take action to stay away from that sin.
But don’t indulge in sin and find some way to justify it. Is there a secret sin that you are indulging in? These days that most common of secret sins lies in what we consume with our eyes and ears.
As a follower of Christ, I should not watch everything. I should not listen to everything. I should not read everything. Most of what is out there is sinful. Let us be a people that do whatever we do to God’s glory and if we can’t do it to God’s glory, may we have the strength to forsake it. Keep me from secret sin!
For our good and His glory,
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
Read more...
Don’t Miss a Blessing
Would you like to receive a unique blessing from the Lord? The reason I say, “unique” is because we have all received blessings from the Lord and most people I know would say that they are already very blessed.
Read more...
Another Possibility
There are so many things that we don’t understand, especially theologically speaking.
Our passage today proves this to be true. It’s very common to hear people who work in ministry, people at ministry conferences, and just members of the church in general, have lengthy discussions and even conduct investigations about why the current state of the church is what it is.
Read more...
Have You Ever Noticed?
Have you ever been discouraged when trying to understand difficult Biblical teachings? Don’t be discouraged! You are not defective. Not all things are easily grasped.
Read more...
The Journey Continues
Everyone who earnestly studies the Bible has their own frustrations. Some get frustrated over theological questions, others about authorship of different Books of the Bible, and others about translations from ancient to modern languages.
But as one of my favorite theologians frequently says, “The main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things.” I find that saying very helpful and try to maintain my focus on the things that I can know, however, the greatest frustration that I deal with, nags at me from time to time.
Read more...
It Bears Repeating
Imagine what it was like to be one of the Apostles, called personally by Jesus, learning from Him and observing His miracles.
But then one day, He says to partner up and then He send you and your partner to another place to do the preaching yourself. You can read about Jesus doing this very thing in the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Not only did Jesus tell them to go and preach, but their message was one of the toughest messages to preach, but also the message that even true followers of Jesus need reminded of most often. Mark 6:12 says simply,
They went out and preached that men should repent.
You may understand the implications of that message, but then again, you might think, what’s so hard about that?
To preach repentance is to look men and women in the eye and tell them that they need to change. It’s to tell them that the sin in their life is not okay with God and that they must turn away from that sin. Preaching repentance is telling people that they have a great problem and that great problem, sin, is separating them from a relationship with God in this life and will damn them for all eternity in the next life.
When repentance was preached, some cried out requesting a solution, some walked away believing that they didn’t have anything to repent from, and others reacted with violence. There were also some that pondered the message a while before drawing their own conclusion of what, if any action they should take.
The thing is, Jesus is still sending out His followers – you and me – to teach the same message. It’s an old message, but one that must be taught again and again and again. We all need to hear it over and again as well.
Living a life of constant repentance, a constant striving to be less like ourselves and more like Jesus is a hallmark of Christianity.
It is a message that bears repeating. Do so with humility and gentleness.
Much love!
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
Read more...
Don’t Be Bored – Think Differently
Don’t Be Bored – Think Differently
What do we do in these last chapters of the Book of Acts when there is so much repetition regarding the themes and principles laid out in the text?
One response would be to say, “We’ve already heard this,” which is really to say, “I don’t need to hear this again.” But what if we’re wrong?
Read more...
Trouble With Time
If I live to be 86 years old, then I am currently at the halfway point of my life. For reasons I do not totally understand, it is at this point in my life that many people experience what is referred to as a mid-life crisis, and I admit, I feel some of that.
When I was young, I couldn’t wait to get older. I saw my youth as a hindrance keeping me from doing the things I wanted so desperately to do. I wanted to drive. I wanted to have money. I wanted to experience individual freedom. As I saw it, the biggest hurdle to having these things was time. I had to wait to turn 16. I had to wait until I was older to get a job that paid a decent wage. And I learned quickly that individual freedom was an illusion.
I view time differently now. I attempt to view time in a biblically correct way. I don’t claim to understand this fully, but I think it’s worth looking at. Here are a couple Bible facts regarding time:
- Life is uncertain – James 4:14a says, 14…you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
- Life is short – the second half of James 4:14b says, 14…You are justa vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
One of the troubles we face regarding these truths is that we don’t always believe them. We often believe that we know with pretty good certainty what our life will be like tomorrow. We also feel at times that life is not short, but that it is long, because sometimes it feels long.
The longer we live and the more we experience, changes how most of us consider time. For instance, if you’ve lived very long at all, you’ve already figured out that life is uncertain. Many of us have lost loved ones of all ages at times we didn’t expect. Many of us, though life has felt very long at times, look back at the years that have passed and are shocked at how fast they seem to have gone.
To be less troubled by the uncertainty and shortness of time, I think it would do us all good to simply remind ourselves, and one another, of these facts. No good comes from living as if we have control over our times.
Considering these truths, what do you need to do now, before it’s too late?
Much love!
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
Read more...
The Wrong Idea
Many have wrong ideas about following Jesus. I’m no different, but I have learned differently.
Allow me to cut through all the excuses that I could use as examples and just simply say that following Jesus will always require two things:
Sacrifice and prioritization.
Read more...
The Time In Between
Over the next few chapters in our study of the Book of Acts, we get to observe the Apostle Paul navigating life while waiting for a particular life event to happen.
Read more...
