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April 30, 2006 Psa 119:138 Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful. Within the quantum of traditions, beliefs, spiritual applications, personal theological preferences, and biblical speculations that form one’s religion, it is important to make the difference between what is the Word, or “testimony” that God “hast commanded”, and what is the “testimony” “commanded” by “man”, be it of ourselves, or of a religious authority. In the course of my missionary life, I have met many, who claim to have believed in God, and later became disappointed and left the “faith”. At that point, it is important to clarify, “What did “believing in God” look like to them”, “What did it mean”? Was it the following of an endless and meaningless set of traditions? Was it an experience based on an emotional high? Was it based on loyalty offered to a man/woman or peer-group? Or was religion even approached as many do a support group, for the comfort of personal problems? Any of these attitudes towards faith represent a faulty foundation, and any “house” built upon it will certainly fall. But the Word, or Testimony that the LORD has commanded never fail; they are “righteous and very faithful” one who builds on them is never disappointed. .(Mat 7:24-27). We have here a situation where one creates his own “religion”, expects God to honor it, and jilts Him if He doesn’t. It is sad when people “jilt” God, as one would an unfaithful and unreliable lover, when their relationship with Him was not based on His “promises”, but rather on their own speculated expectations. This problem of unrealistic personal expectations is witnessed today by many a marriage counselor. People have “Hollywood-ian” expectations in their marriage that have nothing to do with what God intended of marriage, and they wonder why their marriage, just like their religion, ends up in “divorce”! “Lord, you have given me your Words, as well as the wit and ability to read it. Give me now the discernment to separate the “wheat from the chaff” (Mat 3:12)--Your reliable “very righteous and faithful” Word, from the sinking-sand of the traditions and perversions of man” Mar 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. Patrick Lumbroso For past issues of the daily devotion go to my blog at: http://hearthstoneministries.blogspot.com/
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