The fear of the Lord is on a much higher level than our parents watching us over our shoulder every moment. GOD sees every thought, imagination and movie in our head. Our parents only can see the outside, GOD sees the inside. There is absolutely no escaping this fact! Now be rightfully scared...

"Word Pictures" for Our Imagination

Free Printable Devotional Sheets Wednesday, July 30th

Today's Daily Verse is found in Proverbs 1.7

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Can't you see the shock, frustration and disapproval that any child would have to endure the eyes of the parents...

• but the parents only can see what we are "doing"
• the parents have no access to what we are "thinking"
• Big difference!
• And do the children "fear" what the parents may see, and hear? Yes.
• Most children act one way when Mom or Dad is watching, and quite another way when they are not present...
  

But with GOD - it gets into a higher realm...

GOD sees every thought...

The movies we run in our personal, private, secret imagination's movie theater become the basis for our success or failure in life.

1 Chronicles 28.9 "for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts" Genesis 6.5 "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

The "fear of the LORD is when an individual realizes that GOD sees everything that is going on - and that nothing is - nor can be hidden from the eyes of GOD

Jesus "nails" the location of the spiritual heart...

Mark 7.14-23

"Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”

17 Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. 18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? 19 Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.”

20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.

21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,

22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

• these attitudes, ideas, mental pictures, and reactions are all the result of the kind of "information" we allow in our thought-life!
• evil is manufactured by stored thoughts and word-pictures called "imaginations"

Matthew 5.28 "But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Here's the problem...

GOD sees all of that!

If this doesn't put the "fear of GOD" into us - it should...

Let's keep going.

The "fear of the LORD" is knowing that the Holy Spirit of GOD is sitting in the "movie theater" in our head - 24 hours a day...

Satan cannot read our thoughts...only GOD can! 1 Kings 8.39 "...listen in heaven, the place of your enthronement; forgive and take action. Render to each and all according to their ways, you who know every heart; for it is you alone who knows the heart of every human being."

Ezekiel 8.12 "And he said unto me, Hast thou seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every one in his chambers of imagery? for they say, Jehovah sees us not; Jehovah hath forsaken the land." GOD sees everything! And keeps a record...

Let's probe a little further. I am taking a few excerpts from a book that I wrote in 1995 "Wisdom Power"...

What causes the Imagination to go bad?

• Junk imagery we feed on
• Rejecting truth
• Believing lies
• Refusing instruction
• Accepting false information as foundation stones to decisions
  
• Greed
• Wanting our own way, even if GOD information says "no"
  
• Listening to the wrong music
• Watching the wrong television programs that corrupts the thoughts
• Having the wrong friends and letting them influence us
  
• Listening to, and accepting wrong religious doctrines to hide behind
  

How bad can the Imagination get?

Bad enough that GOD will just let them go and wallow in a "reprobate" mind - He just gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts [thoughts, imaginations].

Romans 1.24-32

"So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.

25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.

27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.

29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.

30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.

31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.

32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

The wrong list...

• homosexuality - sexual desire for those of the same sex
  
• deceit - acting as true what we know to be false
• fornication - mental or physical relations with anyone other than spouse
• whisperer - one who tells secrets, gossips, slanders
• wicked - one who causes pain to someone else
• backbiter - when talking deliberately hurts someone else
• unrighteousness - doing what is unjust, unfair
• haters of GOD - feelings of disgust or intense dislike of GOD
• covetousness - excessively eager to obtain and possess
• insolent - arrogant, disregarding others, over-bearing, domineering
• maliciousness - harboring ill feelings, being hostile, crafty
• proud - inordinate self-esteem, unreasonable importance of self worth
• full of envy - discontent, desires for what belongs to others
• boasters - bragging
• murder - hatred to others, destroying reputation of others, cruel actions
• without understanding - inability to comprehend, no discernment
• strife - wanting to argue, unwilling to agree, always seeking to debate
• without natural affection - inability to feel tenderness, kindness
• loving those like-minded - hiding behind those who agree with you
• unmerciful - unforgiving, willingness to punish, without pity
• disobeying parents - being selfish, disrespectful, unwilling to comply

All these are disqualifying behaviors and attitudes. None are worse or better than others in the list... being good, or doing better on 50% of the above list will not make much of a difference as each of these are the results of "vain imaginations" Romans 1.27

Can we change?

Absolutely.

The word of GOD is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword...

David said, "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee"

What was David saying?

• wash the thought-life in the word of GOD

The Word of GOD is like detergent...

• it washes the stains and dirt out of our thought-life

Jeremiah 4.14

"Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, That you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you?"

Ephesians 5.26

"to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word"

Take heart!

Let GOD's word be a the Mustard Seed. Let it grow...

Let the word-pictures of the proverbs, parables and bible lessons begin to transform...

Romans 12.2 "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

Let's get started!

Remember, the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom... it's very healthy to live with the fear of the LORD. Why? Because He loves us and only wants the best for us. Remember David? He committed murder and adultery, yet allowed GOD to change the inside...

It's not "what kind" of sin problem we have. Let's just get it washed out for good!

See you tomorrow...

In the meantime:

Give someone you know a call today and invite them to this Daily Bible Study. You have no idea of how many people are waiting for this kind of information...

E-mail a friend. It would be great if you did that today! Thanks.