Our Daily Bread”     http://odb.org/

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  

http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht   

“Homily Grits Devotional”   http://www.homilygrits.com/

Proverbs 3:11-12… My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; ¹² For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.  (NKJV)

I wrote yesterday about how the Christian can’t begin to out give God…  It was titled…“Are You Robbing God?”…  Anyone who isn’t giving back to God what is rightfully His, is doing just that !!  These aren’t my words…they are God’s Word, as found in… Malachi 3:8… “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbedMe! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.”  (NKJV) 

You can go back and read about God’s promise to “pourout for you suchblessing That there willnot be room enough to receive it”…for those that take God up on His suggestion to test Him (Malachi 3:10) by giving their 10% tithe to their church…and see if it doesn’t come back to the tithing Christian in magnified blessings…  Go to www.Godsmanforever.wordpress.com  and type 6/13/2013 in the search window to read about God’s promise…

I posted scripture yesterday, written by the wise Solomon…reiterating God’s promise to bless the tithe from “the firstfruits of all your increase” (from Proverbs 3:9-10); and I came across the opening scripture about God chastening the ones He loves…

I write about how God tries to get the attention of His wayward children through chastening (and even scourging), on a regular basis…in hope of God using His Word to bring them back into submission to God’s will for their lives…  I always use the writing found in…Hebrews 12:5-11…for this purpose…   I love to see scripture backing up scripture, so when I saw the opening scripture, I knew what I was going to write on for today…

Here is the link for the entire chastising and scourging scripture, found in… Hebrews 12:5-11…  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=heb12:5-11&version=NKJV;KJV

The writer of Hebrews goes into much more detail about God’s chastening and scourging than Solomon…indicating that God uses this form of correction on ALL of His children…Hebrews 12:6…  Indeed, all of God’s children will break God’s rules at some point, and become unrighteous in God’s eyes in one way or another…  The writer of Hebrews states…

Hebrews 12:9-10… Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us,and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.  (NKJV)

God wants the absolute best for all of His children…  But those that decide to continuously live outside of God’s will for their lives will definitely suffer the consequences of their actions…  As I look around me at people I believe to be Christian’s in God’s eyes…I see some people going through all kind of trials and tribulations with fear, strife, anxiety, anger, the loss of a job, excessive car problems, and other situations that God allows to happen to them…  Is it because they are living in sin ??  Is God trying to get their attention ??  Only God knows why things happen as they do…  But God does promise to chastise the ones He loves…Hebrews 12:6…  

But I also see others that seem to be living lives filled with the absolute peace and joy that a heart filled with the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:16-19) will deliver to a Spirit filled Christian…Ephesians 5:18-20…  I just wrote about how “Faith Trumps Fear”, on 6/12/2013…

For those that believe they are Christians, who are living sin filled lives without chastening…the Bible tells us that they just might not be a child of God to begin with…Hebrews 12:8… But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.  (NKJV)

God is longsuffering, in that a Christian may get away with living in sin for a while…   But the writer of Hebrews has this to say about them, in…Hebrews 12:11…   Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  (NKJV)

Sooner or later those Christians seen living in constant unrighteousness (sin) by God, who are being chastened…will either confess and repent of their sins (1 John 1:9), which “yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it”…or they will continue to be plagued by God’s chastising until they do…

I call this chastening “Happy Punishment”, because at least these Christians can believe, based on God’s Word, that they are one of God’s redeemed children… But disobedient children are missing out on God’s richest blessings that He showers on those children that are living for Him…

Heavenly Father, I for one am ever so thankful for the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life…  I pray Lord, that Your Word will show errant Christians the errors of their ways…  Help all of Your children Lord, to be able to experience “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” that You promise for those children who are living in Your will and Your ways…  I pray for this fullness of Christ for all of our lives, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen… 

Blessings in Christ,  bruce r mills