Delight*Abide*Love

Close Proximity to Vipers

Where’s Your

Hope?

August 2013

Dearest Reader,

Have you had some issues with your mouth,

your tongue, this month? I know I have and

that’s why so much of what you’ll read here has

been hugely intense for me. In truth, there were

additional writings I had intended to include in

this edition. Unfortunately, I ran out of space. I

suspect that’s a good thing, it means that I

should consider adding pages!

If your words haven’t been problematic for you,

I wonder what has. I heard Joyce Meyer say that

if we were all honest, we could name at least

one thing that the Father has been dealing with

us on. So, let me be intensely forthright with

you. I have an issue with anger. I get mad at the

dumbest stuff and then act in ways I despise.

Not surprisingly, that’s when my tongue runs

amok and that’s why these verses are so

poignant. I hope they’ll speak to you as well.

Father, I thank You for our readers and I pray

that You will keep Your hand upon each of them

and Your fingers on their lips to help them guard

their words. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Peace and blessings,

Ginny Mink

www.delightabidelove.com

Join me in Matthew 11:29. I didn’t originally have this underlined, probably

because it’s a pretty well-known verse especially when you read all the way through

verse 30. So since I didn’t have it underlined, I have to tell you that I am kind of

surprised at my own reaction. Something in me, for lack of a better way to say it,

got all fuzzy. I felt the corners of my mouth slowly curl up and in my mind’s eye I

was reminded of the new collector’s plate on my Mammaw’s organ. I am not going

to lie, I thought it was cheesy. However, when I read the Messiah’s description of

Himself, that gentle and lowly in heart concept ushers in the plate with Jesus

surrounded by little lambs.

I know that I have often made fun of this teddy bear, sweet granddaddy, cuddly –

poo imagery of Christ. Maybe that’s because I’m not comfortable with mushy gushy

stuff. In all honesty, I literally cringe when someone calls me sweet (except my

husband because that’s his nickname for me). I spent way too much time in this life

learning to be hard, building a cold exterior, walling myself in. The goal, of course,

was to portray immense strength; oft times all it did was make me seem mean. So,

previously in my considerations of the Savior I wanted to envision Him as

gargantuan, as the world’s strongest Man (you know the guys that pull the semi-

trucks with a rope). Indeed He is gargantuan and undoubtedly the world’s strongest

Man yet, He’s also gentle and lowly in heart.

There’s one more aspect of that verse that kind of rattles me. Part of me loves its

directive and sadly, another part of me trembles, is terrified. Perhaps you know

what I’m talking about but if you haven’t guessed, it’s the instruction to “learn

from,” Him. I don’t think I have a problem learning to be nicer to people, to give

things away (of course, I’m nowhere near what I should be). The problem for me is

that word gentle. Those of you that know me are probably laughing. I bet some of

you are shocked that I’m sharing this. The problem I have with gentility is its

visibility; being gentle means making your heart, your emotions, your concern and

affection for others, obvious. I would rather care about you in secret, stealthily, in a

way that doesn’t appear weak. Now having stated that, I realize that’s the real

issue; for some reason the word gentle equals weak to me. Sometimes I disturb

myself because I know my Savior is not weak! I guess I need to work on being

gentle, what about you?

Matthew

12:16

James 2:19 says, “You believe that there

is one God good for you! Even the

demons believe and shudder.” I bring

that up because that’s what I think of

when I read Matthew 12:16. We see the

demons knew who Christ was but He

wasn’t ready to reveal Himself so He

ordered them not to tell people who He

was. What amazes me is that the demons

had a sense of urgency to declare Christ’s

position as the Son of God so much so

that He had to command them to shut up

and yet He has to ask us to share with

the world. Is it just me or does that seem

messed up to you?

How many times do we feel the

prompting of the Spirit to declare His

work, to bring up His name in

conversation, to share all the great things

He has done in our lives? Yet, we hold

back, we bite our tongues, we hesitate,

we think of every possible reason not to

tell people about Him. He had to tell the

enemy to keep quiet about who He was

and now the enemy does everything he

can to keep us quiet. I can’t tell you how

many times I’ve felt that inner twinge,

that little poke (I see in my mind that

movie, Drop Dead Fred, when he pushes

the girl on the shoulder and she jerks

forward but nobody can see him so they

wonder why she jerks forward… anyway

that’s what the inner poking feels like to

me) and I’ve ignored it, I’ve shut it down;

essentially I have said, “No,” to my King.

That’s why James 2:19 comes to mind

because even the demons know more

about Him and have a greater respect for

Him than many of us do.

[Sidebars are great for calling out important points from your text or adding

“a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench…”v.29

We have now reached Matthew

12:21 and I find this verse very

encouraging. Jesus is quoting

Isaiah, which is funny because

Isaiah was prophesying Jesus’

coming. We see in verse 18 that

God says He’s well pleased with

Christ, that His Spirit is in Him

and that He will bring justice to

the Gentiles. Verse 19 tells us

that Jesus isn’t going to make a

scene, He’s not the kind to get

loud with you. And then verse 20

reiterates the fact that Christ is

gentle and says He’s not going to

break a bruised reed, which to

me means He’s not gonna kick

you when you’re down. And it

says He won’t quench a smoldering wick, which to me

insinuates that even if your light

is faint, He’s not going to forsake

it.

All those things are encouraging

in and of themselves, but the

definitive style of verse 21 is

significant. It doesn’t say that we

will hope in His miracles, or His

healings. It doesn’t tell us to

trust in His fish provisions, or His

water to wine capabilities. No,

our hope is in His Name! This is

the same Name that demands

every knee to bow and every

tongue to proclaim. This is the

same Name that whatever you

ask in it will be given to you.

There is power in His Name!

He’s not gonna kick you while you’re down…even if your light

is faint, He’s not going to forsake it!

Wisdom is a topic that begs

further consideration. When

Solomon was given the

opportunity to ask for anything

from God, he chose wisdom and

because he wisely made that

decision, God also gifted him

with wealth and other talents. So

when we read Proverbs we

know that Solomon is giving us

a glimpse into all the things he

learned via wisdom. Thusly

when Proverbs 4:7 tells us that

the beginning of wisdom is the

pursuit of wisdom some people

might get a little confused. That

amuses me; I can see why that

would sound odd to people but if

you don’t already have some

minute amount of wisdom within

you then you will have no desire

to seek out more; makes perfect

sense to me.

Once we understand that getting

wisdom is the principal thing,

then we can understand that it is

the underlying factor which

allows us to fear God. That’s a

touchy subject, I understand, but

it is a requirement regardless of

our personal feelings on the

matter. God deserves, and

commands fear, not that He has

given us a spirit of fear as the

Word tells us He has not.

However, He is all-powerful, He

is Almighty. Listen, anyone who

can blink, snap, consider, and

your life is gone, is Someone to

tremble before! The only One

that’s capable of such is: God.

Wisdom allows you to

understand His greatness and

develop a reverential fear of the

strength within that.

Proverbs also tells us that wisdom allows us

to know God. Think about it, how would it be

possible for finite creatures, minute beings, to

grasp the inexpressible magnitude of His

intellect? We give ourselves too much credit;

we can only know what He allows us to know

and Solomon informed us that if we would

seek after wisdom we would learn to fear

God. Therefore we would start to get

glimpses of who He is; we get to know Him!

Proverbs 9:10 tells us that fearing God is

where wisdom starts and insight will give us

knowledge into the Holy One. Knowing God

by gaining wisdom is of inestimable worth.

Maybe Job would have said something

similar to Forest Gump’s, “I’m not a smart

man…” but if you look at Job 28:18 you see

that he understood wisdom was worth more

than pearls. Solomon and Proverbs 8:11,

tells us that wisdom is better than jewels and

anything you could ever want could not

compare. Then, in 16:16 he tells us wisdom

is better than gold, understanding is better

than silver; these instructions are completely

contrary to what the world would teach us.

The enemy tells us that money makes the

world go round, money is an end-all be-all,

the only reason you get an education is to

make more money etc. Solomon understood

that the reason that he had money was

because he sought wisdom first, that’s God’s

order of operations.

God’s Order of Operations!

We are to incline our ears

toward wisdom, attend unto

it, seek, know and behold it,

get it and treat it as a sibling.

At least that’s what the Word

tells us; those are the

instructions we receive from

Solomon and Job for that

matter. It’s interesting that we

see wisdom showing up in

both these men’s writings.

Solomon was given wisdom

as a gift, he asked for it and

God granted it. However

when we think of wisdom

today, we generally associate

it with age and obviously

people in that time lived

considerably longer than we

do. Therefore maybe age

played a part, but with

regards to Solomon, we know

specifically that he was given

wisdom freely. Which brings

me to Job, it seems

assumable that Job’s wisdom

came out of hardship, life

lessons. So we have two

aspects of wisdom; we have

the wisdom that we are just

given, maybe it’s kind of

genetic, internal, ingrained

and that kind is great, but for

many of us we need hands-

on, real life Job wisdom. I

heard at some point in my life

that wisdom is learning from

other people’s mistakes;

perhaps that’s wise advice!

The next thing in reference to wisdom is kind of

funny: it is beyond the reach of scorners. Maybe

you know people who belittle you, or degrade you

when you move in the direction of wisdom

attainment. Perhaps there are people in your life

who would rather see you rich than spiritually

brilliant. Well Proverbs 14:6 tells us that people

like that can’t even get wisdom. Wisdom is a vain

endeavor for them but it’s easy for those of us

who really want it. Wisdom is personified in

feminine form and therefore I suspect the

concept is relational in that women are more

open to frequent and constant conversation, to

long discussions. So if I’m right in that, it makes

sense that wisdom is perfectly willing to be found

but needs to feel valued before revealing itself.

Here’s another interesting piece of information, in

Ecclesiastes 2:26 we find that when we please

God, He gives us wisdom and knowledge and

joy, but the sinner has the business of gathering

and collecting only to give what he collects to

those who please God. I’m sure that I don’t

please God every day, but the fact that I am His

daughter (although hard for me to grasp) means

that I am pleasing to Him. My Hazel, a two-year-

old, can infuriate me and yet I am so pleased that

she is my wee one. That’s how He feels about

me, and you; and because He feels that way

about us He (without favoritism) provides us with

the opportunities for wisdom and knowledge and

joy. Basically it’s up to us to grab hold with all our

strength and never let go.

Wisdom is

learning from

other people’s

mistakes; perhaps

that’s wise advice!

I’m wondering now where we really place our hope,

what do we truly depend on? So often we look to God,

and our relationship with Him, kind of like a last

resort. When something bad happens in your life who

do you run to? What do you run to? Is God first on

that list? It’s sad but I suspect we place humanity

before divinity; we elevate people on earth to a God –

like pedestal and they can never fill the requirements

therein. People let us down, they hurt us, they take

advantage of us, they talk smack about us (and we are

all guilty of it). We must make a conscious decision to

allow Isaiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled, our hope must

be in our Savior!

Maybe this will sound harsh, or insensitive, but it is just plain brutally honest:

with God there is no middle ground. You cannot play Switzerland in the spiritual realm,

there is no neutral when it comes to faith. God demands you make a choice and even

when you think you are choosing not to make a choice you have made one. That to me

is what verse 30 is all about.

Anyone who claims to be agnostic or atheist, or any other faith aside from the

Biblical Christian Faith has made a choice, and that choice is to be against God, to be

against Christ, and to scatter with the enemy. Just because you don’t believe in God, or

you think Christ was only a good man and not the Savior of the world, that doesn’t

change the Truth. Your disbelief in His Divinity does not deplete or dissolve its validity.

The real problem is that people think they can sit idly by, that they don’t have to serve

God to be a good person, but this verse throws some massive illumination on the fallacy

of that belief. It’s not a matter of riding the fence anymore, there are only two sides in

this world and if you aren’t for Christ then you are for evil; period!

Part of me feels bad having to share that with you simply because it’s human

nature to not want to offend people, but really, the Bible is offensive if you choose the

other side. There’s a verse that says to choose you this day whom you will serve and

every day every human being makes that choice. If you have not committed your life to

Jesus Christ then you have committed your life to lucifer. There are two eternal

destinations and whether you believe in them or not makes little difference because

you are going somewhere when you die. I can tell you that I hope you’ll join me in

heaven, because I don’t desire for anyone to burn and neither does my Savior, but the

choice is yours. Will you join Him and gather or stand against Him and scatter. The latter

of the two choices won’t be pretty.

We have arrived at a verse that can be

considered controversial. Go look at it, it’s the

one that tells us about the unforgivable sin (v.

31). Surely you’ve heard all sins will be forgiven

you and indeed they will be. Today I spoke with

someone who was paying for an abortion, and

this man told me that as he took his girlfriend

there he thought, “I am definitely going to hell

because I am about to murder someone, and

I’ve broken the 10 Commandments.” Thankfully

I could encourage him by informing him that

everyone has broken the 10 Commandments. I

wish I could tell you that I was able to talk him

out of the situation or rectify it in some way but

that’s really not the point here. The point is,

every sin will be forgiven us if we repent in

complete honesty.

I suspect there are people that tell God they’re

sorry for things namely because it’s what they

think they’re supposed to do and that’s a

problem. It is a problem because God tells us

multiple times in His Word that He is not

interested in lip-service. God doesn’t want you

to kiss His butt; He wants you to love Him.

That’s where this verse comes in, if you love

God, if you have begged His forgiveness and

accepted His salvation, then it is my belief that

you can never commit the unforgivable sin. To

me, the blasphemy of the Spirit is an utter

denial, slamming the door in the Spirit’s face, a

purposeful choice to say no to Jesus Christ. If

you say no to the Messiah then there is no

hope for you; you can’t be forgiven because

you have chosen not to repent in honesty. I feel

like Forrest Gump here but, “that’s all I have to

say about that.”

mine did; I know I tell

my nine-year-old son

to do just that, and

there’s a reason for

that instruction. Have

you ever said

something and

wondered, “Where did

that come from?”

Well, this verse tells us

the answer to that

question and that is a

scary thought to me. If

my words are a

reflection of my heart,

there are times when

it is very dark and very

cold and very hard and

that’s not cool. I hate

to have to admit that,

but it’s the truth

nonetheless.

We are told in other

verses that our hearts

are deceitful above all

things, terribly wicked,

and when curse words,

gossip, name-calling,

complaints, and

judgment spew forth

from the strongest

muscle in our bodies,

our close proximity to

broods of vipers is

revealed. Certainly no

one wants to envision

himself as being

similar to a snake, or

being aligned with the

evil one, but aside

from grace, aside from

marvelous salvation

Close Proximity

to Vipers

Matthew 12:34 is a really convicting verse for me. In this particular verse Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and He calls them a brood of vipers; that is significant because in other verses He tells them that they are their father’s children and He means that they are sons of the devil. I’m sure some of you are wondering why I said this verse was convicting given that introduction but, it’s the latter half of the verse that grabs me: “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” There are a number of verses about the evil tendencies of our tongues. We are told that no man can tame the tongue, we are told that it has the power of life and death; therefore, the words that roll off of it are more indicative of our true character than we realize, or than we care to admit.

Did your parents ever

tell you to think before

you speak? No doubt

(which creates

righteousness and purity

within us), that’s exactly

what we are. Which

reminds me of the fact

that because I am

blessed by salvation,

because I have been

embraced by the love of

the Savior, I should

always be cognizant of

my own vileness and

therefore never nitpick

anybody else. Our

hearts are black by

nature and the only light

in them is from above;

we can take no credit

for it!