Jason Sneed Examine Yourself, Simple Thoughts

The Surrendered Life

my-upmost
By Oswald Chambers

 

I have been reading through the 30-Day Edition of My Utmost For His Highest on the YouVersion app and this morning it really spoke to me. It made me ask the question – am I truly surrendered to Christ in EVERY area of my life? Not just on Sundays, or days I feel like surrendering, or just when it is convenient for me but EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Oswald Chambers says this about the Surrendered Life:

To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things. Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else. The first thing we must surrender is all of our pretense or deceit. What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty, or our efforts to do better, but real solid sin. Actually, that is all He can take from us. And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness. But we must surrender all pretense that we are anything, and give up all our claims of even being worthy of God’s consideration.

Once we have done that, the Spirit of God will show us what we need to surrender next. Along each step of this process, we will have to give up our claims to our rights to ourselves. Are we willing to surrender our grasp on all that we possess, our desires, and everything else in our lives? Are we ready to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?

We will suffer a sharp painful disillusionment before we fully surrender. When people really see themselves as the Lord sees them, it is not the terribly offensive sins of the flesh that shock them, but the awful nature of the pride of their own hearts opposing Jesus Christ. When they see themselves in the light of the Lord, the shame, horror, and desperate conviction hit home for them.

If you are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, make a determination to go on through the crisis, surrendering all that you have and all that you are to Him. And God will then equip you to do all that He requires of you.

Breath on me, Breath of God, until my mind and spirit are in suitable adjustment to You. Shed abroad liberty and purity and power among and in us all.

Have you surrendered EVERYTHING in your life to God?

Check out YouVersion’s Devotional Plans: 30-Day Edition of My Utmost for His Highest

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Jason Sneed Examine Yourself

Examine Yourself – What Is Upon My Lips?

As we come to our third topic in this “Examine Yourself” series, we move to an area that is difficult for most people – controlling their lips.

Warren Weirsbe has said this, “Whatever is in the heart will ultimately come out of the mouth”. How very true this is!

In the book of Proverbs, the words mouth or lips are mentioned over 40 times, so Solomon is warning us to be careful with our speech. In the passage we are looking at in this series (Proverbs 4:20-27), verse 24 says this,

 “Put away crooked speech and put devious talk far from you” (ESV)

Crooked speech is speech that is used to deceive someone or some group either by directly lying or by intentional misdirection to achieve a selfish or self-centered purpose. (1)

The word devious means – “showing a skillful use of underhanded tactics to achieve goals” (2)

As christians, we must be careful with the way we use our lips. So many times we use our lips to tear down other people INSIDE THE CHURCH! How much since does that make? We don’t like the way the song leader sings or we don’t like the type of music he does or we think that the preacher goes too long or we think this or we think that! I am all for everyone having their own opinions because the world would be a very boring place if everyone where to agree with me 100% of the time, but the point that I am making is this – instead of complaining with our LIPS about things, we need to use our LIPS to praise God above and share HIS love and not use crooked speech or devious talk against other people.

THE WORLD IS WATCHING THE WAY WE LIVE OUR LIVES! They are watching our every move and the first time we slander someone or tear down a co-worker – BAM! That is when they will begin to call us a hypnotic! “You say you believe in the Bible and that is how you act” or “You say you’re a christian and you talk like that”.

If we have repented and confessed that Jesus is Lord then we are a peculiar people! We are different because we have Christ inside of us. Let’s act and talk like it! We must look into our lives and examine ourselves to make sure that what is coming out of our lips is what is pleasing to God.

Solomon warns us again other ways that we can use our lips:

  • Lying lips
  • Flattering lips
  • Deceptive lips
  • Undisciplined lips

Just like the heart – we must be careful to guard it everyday!  “Proverbs 13:3 – Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life;
 he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

Examine yourself today to see how you are using your lips!

_________

(1) – The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (The B Series) – Warren Wiersbe | (2) – Websters Dictionary
Jason Sneed Examine Yourself

Examine Yourself – What Is Within Your Heart?

Last week I began a series of posts about how we, as Christians, need to examine ourselves (II Corinthians 13:5) to make sure we are living out what God has told us to do.

In today’s post, we take a look at the heart. I love this quote – “Whatever the heart loves the ears will hear and the eyes will see”. So my first question is this – What does your heart love the most? Now before you jump in and answer that question with a resounding “JESUS”, please really think about the question and examine your life and the way you live it.

Think about where you spend most of your time. Think about what motivates you and what drives your passions and your desires. Look inside yourself and see where a majority of your time is going. Does your heart love:

  • Family
  • Children
  • Spouse
  • Job
  • Possessions
  • Pleasures
  • Bank Account

The list above is a list of things that are not bad things at all, but when they take the #1 spot in our lives, they become nothing more than idols that have taken the place of God.

So, whatever the heart loves the ears will hear and the eyes will see.  What do you hear and see the most in your life?

Again, I am not looking for fake answers here – I am looking for each of us to really look deep inside and find the real answer that is in all of us.

Solomon warns us in Proverbs 4:23 that we must guard our hearts:

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

The definition of the word vigilance means “Alert watchfulness”. Solomon is telling us that we must always be on the alert about our heart. We must monitor it all the time because Jeremiah 19:7 says,

“The heart is deceitful above all things,
 and desperately wicked;
 who can understand it?

The wisest man that has ever lived told us that we must guard our hearts because he knew that our hearts would lead us astray and would get fixed on other things besides God.

When Robert Robinson wrote the words to the song “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” , he understood a little about how the heart could lead us astray if we are not careful to guard it. He wrote these words,

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee;

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it; Seal it for Thy courts above.

We must guard against a heart that is pulling us away from God. We must guard our hearts against things like our job, our money, our possessions, our family & even our church. Because if we love them more than God, our heart is leading us astray.

We need to daily pray Psalm 139:23 – “Search me, O God, and know my heart”

“Whatever the heart loves the ears will hear and the eyes will see”.

Jason Sneed Examine Yourself

Examine Yourself – What Do Your Ears Hear?

In my last post, I said that I was going to go through a series of things that, as christians, we needed to “look within” ourselves and examine in order that our lives match up with the way the Bible tells us that we should be living.

Today, we look at the topic of our ears.

Proverbs 4:20 says,

My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ears to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart

Warren Weirsbe had this to say about the ears:

Whatever enters our ears will untimely influence our minds, our hearts and in the end our decisions.

Solomon was warning, if not begging, his son to listen to the words that he was trying to tell him. Solomon understood the importance of the following words and just how these words of wisdom were going to help his son down the road.

  • We must be careful what we hear or comes into our ears: There are several things that I can say about this but I want to point out one in particular here – we must be careful about what we let other people put in our ears. Ephesians 5:4 says, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving”. As christians, you have the choice as to what goes in our ears from other people. Whether it be people telling filthy or crude jokes or tearing someone else down – we have the option to listen or not and the Bible tells us that we are to have no part in that type of foolish talk!
  • We must be careful who we listen too: Psalm 1;1 says,  – “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
 nor stands in the way of sinners,
 nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
 and on his law he meditates day and night”.  This verse is telling us to be careful about walking in the “counsel of the wicked”. Who we walk with will be who we get our advice from and we must make sure that that advice is godly and biblical. We must make sure that we weigh everything that comes into our ears against the Word of God!
  • We must be careful to hear the Voice of God above all: (John 10:3-5 / 16) – To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. We must be able to hear God’s voice!

So, what is entering into your ears? As Christians, we should make sure that everything that entering into our ears is glorifying to God. Are you listening to filthy jokes? Obsene talk? Who are you getting your counsel from? The world or from the Bible?

Can you hear HIM?

Video: “A Personal Spiritual Examination”

Jason Sneed Examine Yourself

Examine Yourself

In the book of II Corinthians and chapter 13, Paul is talking to the church at Corinth and says this,

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Paul is writing to a group of people who call themselves christians, and he is telling them that they need to look deep inside of them to really see if what they are doing and how they are living is what christians should be doing.

My honest opinion is this – that the church today is made up of too many people that call themselves christians but don’t ACT or LOOK anything like a christian!

The word church in the Greek language means “a called-out people.” Each church has two addresses – a geographic address (“at Corinth”) and a spiritual address (“in Christ Jesus”). The church is made up of saints, that is, people who have been “sanctified” or “set apart” by God.

If we are a “called-out people” then we should ACT & LOOK different from this world!

In this passage of scripture, Paul turns the tables on the church of Corinth. In verse 3, the people of Corinth are wanting “proof” from Paul that Christ was speaking in him. So Paul decided to ask the people the same question, and he basically says to them – instead of worrying about someone else – take the time first to test yourself to see if Christ is in you!

Over the next few post, I am going to be looking into the Book of Proverbs at ways that we, as christians, need to “look within” to “examine” ourselves to make sure we are a “called-out people”.