Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Proverbs 4:23

Our thoughts are what determine our success.  It is our thoughts which determine our behaviors, but more than that, it is our thoughts which determine how we feel, and our values.

Beyond the natural, it is also in the realm of our thoughts in which our faith is founded.  We have faith in God’s Word.  Faith in His promise to heal.  And, it is in keeping the realm of our thoughts rooted and grounded in God’s Word that we are able to keep our hearts from doubting what He has told us.  So important are our thoughts that they are, indeed, the realm of our salvation, as it is written, if we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Romanbs 10:9).  Our thoughts are what make our lives.

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Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way.

Luke 10:4 NASB

When Jesus sent out his disciples here in Luke chapter 10, He gave these instructions, that they should not greet anyone on the way.  Various explanations are proposed for the reason why He gave such specific instructions, but the rationale can be found in both understanding the Scriptures, and the power of God (see Mark 12:24).

Jesus introduced this command with this statement, “Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” (Luke 10:3 NASB).

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Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Deuteronomy 28:47-48

All throughout the Old and New Covenant, poverty is a part of the curse.  It is said, it doesn’t take much time of the hunger of famine to humble a man.  The same is true of poverty.

Christ’s Kingdom, Paul writes, consists of Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).  When Paul wrote of not muzzling the ox that is treading out the grain, he said that the reason was that the plowman should plow in hope (1 Corinthians 9:10).

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But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Luke 10:42

Jesus told the disciples, concerning Mary, that only one thing was needful, or needed.  This one thing, sitting at His feet, listening to His words in humility, is all that was necessary.  This could be likened to the mustard seed, the simple seed of faith, willingness to hear His voice, as it says in the Proverbs, “Wisdom cries aloud in the street” (Proverbs 1:20).

But, let us consider another time in Jesus’ life, when there was something that seemed vital, but proved not necessary. Read more…

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8 KJV

For love is the fulfillment of the Law.  This is the road to freedom, owing no man anything.

Once we have settled it in our hearts that we serve only the Christ, His Spirit, and once we have established Him alone as the source of life, freedom comes as we give it.

A man once said another one had a love debt–a level of love that was unmet within the heart.  But, among all the other remedies, the greatest was simpy to forgive our debtors, that Christ might forgive me.

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Who I am in Christ

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The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

John 17:22-23

True unity consists in obeying the first and second greatest commandments, in proper order.

One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’  On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:35-40

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Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:21

“Death and Life”, it says, are in the power of the tongue.  Why not “life and death”?  Because the last thing on your tongue is death.  Is that what you want?

You might be tempted to say that “words don’t matter”, but, well, check the verse again.  Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and, if you love it, and accept it, you can choose to receive the rewards of your words.

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You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

John 8:44

The enemy is a deceiver, and he has “no truth in him”.

Even when he tempted Eve in the garden, he could not even speak the truth.

And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

Genesis 1:3b

That snake, he couldn’t even even quote the truth.  He was challenging what God had said, but he couldn’t even speak it.

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He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.

Matthew 13:31-32

Though it starts small, it grows large.  Though it is the greatest thing above all creation, it is fully contained within the single seed.

Consider the mustard seed.  It needs no addition, just to grow.  It is self contained, self replicating, and able to endure.  This is what the Kingdom is like.

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