The Voice of Destiny

The X-ray tells the Truth

A friend of mine recently fell on the ice and broke his leg.  It was a pretty bad break so he was placed in a wheel chair and told not to put any weight on the broken leg for three months.  The three months is almost up and he was feeling really good.  He felt for sure everything was going to be fine and he would be back on his feet. 

This week he had his doctor's appointment and received the bad news that he needed to remain in the wheel chair for another month.  Amazing how from all outward appearances and feelings he thought everything was fine.  The x-rays told the truth.  Things were not what he thought they were. 

David wrote in the Psalms, "Search me, Oh God and know my heart..."  He knew he couldn't trust how he felt or what things looked like.  Jeremiah the prophet reveals how deceitful the heart can be.   “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?"  It is so important for each of us to allow God to x-ray our heart by the Holy Spirit and not go by how we feel.

This is not only to reveal sin, but to also reveal His righteousness!  Many times we feel forsaken or a failure, but God sees something completely different.  Possibly today you are feeling depressed or discouraged.  Don't go by your feelings or how things look.  As bad as things may be, God sees something completely different.  You are a son of God and He believes in you!  So much so that He has given you all authority to establish His Kingdom on the earth through the power that works in you.  Surely we all know that we need to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us of hidden breaks in our character, but we also have to allow Him the opportunity to show us who we really are.

I love the way Peterson writes Psalm 139:23 in the Message translation; "Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about;"

That is what we all need, "a clear picture of what we are about."  You may be disappointed, but I believe you also might be pleasantly surprised.  The x-ray tells the truth!  Make sure you obey the doctor and hang in there!

"No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm."

- Charles Kettering

My Dirt is Better than you Dirt!

My son recently bought his first home.  Of course that means cleaning and remodeling to suit his personal preferences.  What I have been amazed at is that when cleaning the reaction that I felt concerning the dirt in the house.  As if my house doesn't have dirt in it!  What is it about another person's dirt that seems so repulsive, but our own dirt doesn't even phase us?  I am speaking of the grime around a sink, or grease on a stove. 

Jesus said, "And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."  I know that Jesus was speaking of judging another person, but in a sense we are judging the person where we see all this dirt.  We are saying "How could they live in such filth!  They must be a poor house keeper." 

Then I come to my own home and look a little closer and see I have dirt too!  Here are a few of my observations.

1.  Most of the time we don't see our own dirt because it is too close to us or familiar to us.

2.  Our dirt is not as dirty as someone else's because it is ours.

3.  When you take the time to clean you will find what has been there all the time.

4.  It is hard to admit that I have dirt too.

5.  It usually takes someone else to reveal our own dirt!

6.  I don't like it when someone else says I have dirt!

Though we should be good house keepers, the dirt that God really wants us to see is in our spiritual homes, meaning in us!  Spiritual dirt can be a host of things from a poor attitude to an unforgiving spirit.  All of the above observations are applicable to the spiritual aspect of our lives.  Jesus was not upset about the dirt, or the speck.  He was upset that the person could not see his own dirt!

Finally, dirt is dirt and we all have it.  It doesn't go away unless we see it, acknowledge it, and do something about it!  When it is cleaned, the house is like brand new!  That is your destiny!  Old things have passed away and all things have become new!