Over the past few months, I've been looking to upgrade my phone. I currently have a Blackberry 7290, but it hasn't fit all of my needs. Years before the Blackberry, I owned an iPAQ/HP Pocket PC. I used it to write and build scripture topics that I use today. I also had several Bibles, a Bible dictionary, and commentary on the device.
With the coming of the cell phone, manufacturers have developed hybrid Pocket PC phones that combine the two capabilities. Before the Pocket PC (Windows Mobile) phones became popular, I purchased a Blackberry. The one thing I didn't like about the Pocket PC was a lack of a keyboard - which the Blackberry has. Yet, the one thing I didn't like about Blackberry was the lack of a touch screen and the roller wheel. It made my work a little more difficult.
Since my main purpose for these hybrid phones is writing, I wanted to find a phone that better suited my needs. After searching the web and some discussion online, I was pointed to the T-Mobile Wing. If some of you can remember the Reese Piece's commercial when the guy with the chocolate ran into the guy with the peanut butter (maybe I'm showing my age). The two combined...and it was beautiful! It combines everything I liked about the Blackberry and Pocket PC - it is a work of art...magnificent!
On my lunch break I went to the T-Mobile kiosk and checked it out. Of course I had to get approval from my wife before purchasing. After my creative asking (i.e. begging), she told me to stop bothering her about it and just buy it! YES! Before buying it, my co-workers and I were talking about the phone and the contracts the phone companies place upon us.
The cheaper rates for phone upgrades are provided with one-to two-year extended contracts - that's how they keep you...and if you want to buy a phone outright - it's going to cost you. Now, I will be leaving Hawaii within a year and I may be going overseas. I know for sure I will not be able to support either contract extension, but they do provide military clauses to cancel contracts in case of a move, etc. So, I planned to purchase the upgrade phone with a two-year extension and cancel before I departed.
Just as I was talking about my plans, the Lord spoke. He was telling me that I was being deceitful by entering a contract that I knew I couldn't and wouldn't fulfill. I should fulfill the contracts I agree to enter into.
Whoa!!!!
Right then, I fell under His conviction and I purchased the phone...all $538.16 of it - without any extension. I purchased the phone outright. (Now that I think about it, I'm sure it's cheaper on eBay.) Regardless of where I move next, I will be able to use the device to write - my main function anyway.
That's just half of it...
I planned on writing about this when I got home and when I did, the Lord continued:
How can you enter into a contract (or covenant) with Him and not hold up to your part of it?!
SELAH [pause, and calmly think of that]!
Whoa!!!!
I want to live with God for all eternity, receive His blessings and benefits, and other good things, but I don't always want to live His way. I am reneging on my part of the covenant (or contract). Upon my belief in Jesus Christ, I entered into the new covenant and it does come with commandments (REMEMBER: salvation is free to receive):
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (KJV) - Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
This law will be placed within our minds and written on our hearts through the Holy Spirit. As Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit will be given to those who believe:
John 7:37-39 (KJV) - In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
John 16:13 (KJV) - Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
John 14:16-17 (KJV) - And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (KJV) - Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
What law will be given? The Law of Christ.
Matthew 22:34-40 (KJV) - But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV) - And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Love is the basis of the law of Christ:
Galatians 6:2 (KJV) - Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Galatians 5:16-25 (KJV) - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
The Spirit is seeking to guide you into all truth; to help you live by the Spirit; and fulfill the law of Christ. The Spirit will only speak what is given from the Father, so you would be acting as He desires through your obedience.
In the scripture above, Paul is speaking about the Law of Moses. See, as new covenant believers, we are not under the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses increased the trespasses of sin (Romans 5:20, 7:7-12) and could not solve the judgment of death through sin - given through the disobedience of Adam (Genesis 3):
Romans 5:12-17 (KJV) - Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
This is a Word that comes to me first and goes out to others. I pray you have seen that living as a disciple of Jesus does not mean we can say, "I believe" and live how we want. We were bought with a price and He desires to be glorified among the world.
Your life is not your own. Live for Him.
Romans 8:1-17 (NIV) - There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
May this Word feed us thoroughly!
