1 Kings 12:26 And Jeroboam (king of Israel) said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: 27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
Jeroboam kept the people from going to Jerusalem by telling them it would be too much, too hard, for them to go to Jerusalem. Jeroboam gave them another way, gold calves in Bethel and Dan to be their gods.
But those who set their hearts to serve God did not go in the way Jeroboam set out ...
2 Chronicles 11:13 And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him (Rehoboam) out of all their coasts. 14 For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's office unto the Lord: 15 And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.
16 And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers.
In the new testament church our sacrifice to God is to do the will of God, to go in the way we are shown by His Word led by the Holy Spirit.
Thoughts sometimes come to us that the ways of God are too hard. If we speak truth we've been given, or if we refuse to go in ways of this world that are contrary to ways of God, we may be hated or cast out from among them or thought to be strange. Our flesh doesn't want to suffer like this.
But like those of the tribes of Israel who set their hearts to seek God, we set our hearts to go in the ways of God. Holding to what God has said and going in that way, and refusing to worship other gods.
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Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
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Building your house on the Word of God
The apostle Paul said: 7 But refuse profane (secular) and old wives 'fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. I Tim. 4
During the time when I would go to lunch with that Catholic woman, she would frequently state some superstition as fact.
I would counter by saying: "That's not in the Bible." (Showing the Bible is that which I build my house on. It is a foundation that is sound and true. I do not want to build on anything that is not in the Bible.)
She would become angry and say, "I know that ..." (but she didn't know that for she was filled with superstition, often religious superstition and that is what she believed.)
Paul warned Timothy not to take in "profane" things (secular things) nor "old wives tales" (fables).
Many untrue things are out there. Refuse them, says Paul.
Many times I "reject" profane sayings, saying of man based on their own wisdom and superstitions.
Often I cry out at the TV: "That's not true ..." (rejecting what they say)
And I do the same thing with people when they speak worldly wisdoms and superstitions of man... "That's not true ..." (rejecting these profane concepts)
Ephesians 4:21 If so be that ye have heard HIM, and have been taught by HIM, as the truth is in Jesus: (The WORD is truth.)
We can build our house on the wisdom of this world ... or we can build on what the Bible says.
Preventive medicine?
Luke 5:31... And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
Bodily exercise?
I Timothy 4:8 ... For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Planning for future?
Matthew 6:33 ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:34 ... Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Trusting in man?
Philippians 3:3 ...For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus (The Word), and have no confidence in the flesh.
Psalm 118:8 ... It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Psalm 146 ... 3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;
in that very day his thoughts perish.
5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the Lord his God:
6 Which made heaven, and earth,
the sea, and all that therein is:
which keepeth truth for ever:
Success in life?
Joshua 1:8 ... This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Psalm 1 ... 1 Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord;
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
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John 18 ... My kingdom is not of this world.
Col. 3 ... 1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
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Freedom from troubling thoughts of the past:
II Cor. 5 ... 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ (The WORD)
Phil. 3 ... 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded:
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These are truths from God which I am trying to build my house on, rejecting profane (secular) sayings of man.
But it takes work to live in these truths from God. Man is always trying to get us to accept sayings of man, profane (worldly) sayings, secular sayings and live by them. But I want to build my house on what God says. I see that as safe.
Mt. 7 ... Jesus says ...
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not:for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell:and great was the fall of it.