You Must Practice What You Preach.
Exercise yourself unto godliness.
Listen, my soul, for you to persist through time as a living walking bible (studied of all men); from your small beginnings as a living letter (read of all men), you must practice what you preach and that practice must also persist through time. As a living walking bible (studied of all men), you manifest the height, and depth, and the width of the love of God; in all the gifts of the Spirit, producing all of the fruit of the Spirit.
You were able to grow because you as a living letter, were also an expandable blue-print (a prototype of growth) for that which came later. You as an expandable blue-print; rested upon you as a launch-pad for change. The power to change is a large part of your underlying strength. You are truly spirit in that you are resilient when compared with matter, not to mention that it is you that gives life to your body.
To persist in maturity, you must manage and persist-with in the eternal realm an important axiom, to please God in all things. To the degree that you lose focus or diminish this, to that extent you lose the ideal. 'That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness'.
Also you must manage and persist-with in another axiom of like kind and quality, to glorify God in all things. 'Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God'. To persist in maturity, you must 'give diligence to make your calling and election sure' by knowing and doing certain things: 'whereby are given unto you exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be a partaker of the divine nature ... giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in your knowledge of your Lord Jesus Christ'.
To persist in maturity, you must 'exercise yourself unto godliness. For godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore you both labour and suffer reproach, because you trust in the living God, who is your Saviour. These things command and teach, be an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in you, which was given you by prophecy. Meditate upon these things; give yourself wholly to them; Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine; and continue in them'.
So that 'practicing what you preach' persists you must endure until the end, 'For your light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While you look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal'. And 'If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory'.
As a living walking bible (studied of all men), you manifest the height, and depth, and the width of the love of God; you are a living book of true Love. This is only true if you faithfully love others, for 'If you say, I love God, and hate your brother, you are a liar'. Now keep in mind that true Love is greatly confused with the secular idea of 'love', for true love has a severe side and does never flinch lowering the hammer on the highest in creation if that one finds himself on that side of the watershed. 'Herein is love, not that you loved God, but that he loved you, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for your sins. If God so loved you, you ought also to love one another'. 'love one another: for love is of God; and when you love you are born of God, and know God. When you loveth not, you knoweth not God; for God is love'.
True Love, which you as a living letter, now manifest is incredibly practical, for 'you suffer long, and you are kind; you envy not; you vaunteth not yourself, you are not puffed up, you do not behave yourself unseemly, seek not your own, you are not easily provoked, you think no evil; you rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; you bear all things, you believe all things, you hope all things, you endure all things. You, my little charity case, as love - never fail'. And you fulfill completely the second command, which proceeds from the first, 'you shalt love your neighbor as yourself'.
So that 'practicing what you preach' persists you must consistently speak in a way that helps others, 'Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how ye ought to answer every man'. And just as important 'Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that you may minister grace unto your hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit'.
All of the above will flow in sequence, if you continue your press forward. 'Go on unto perfection'. 'Not as though i had already attained, either were already perfect: but i follow after, if that i may apprehend that for which also i am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 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, i press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus'. 'Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called'.
As a living walking bible (studied of all men), you must avoid that outward focus. 'no longer should you live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For in time past of your life ... you walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries'. 'You 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'. 'That you which live should not henceforth live unto yourself, but unto him which died for you'.
For you to persist through time as a living walking bible; from your small beginnings as a living letter, you must continue true to yourself as a expanding prototype of change and growth. Continue to drink a little milk with your meat, 'desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby: for you have tasted that the Lord is gracious'. 'Now the God of peace ... make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight'. 'Exercise yourself unto godliness. For godliness is profitable unto all things'. 'Speak the truth in love, grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ'. 'For you are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that you should walk in them'.
'Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of your faith'. 'For it is God which working in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure'. 'Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ'. 'For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance'.
The high level of being and doing under examination here is all about a high sense of responsibility about daily persistent practice, for true religion in general is our manifest lifestyle in response to the revelation of God. 'Therefore to you that knows to do good, and does it not, to you it is sin'. 'And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men'. 'See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time ... understanding what the will of the Lord is. Be filled with the Spirit'.
You will have had to overcome immaturity, 'You were like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For you saw yourself, and went your way, and straightway forgot what manner of man you are'. You were dull of hearing. For when you ought to have been teachers, you had need that one teach you again'. 'But you were carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. i have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. For you are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men?'.
You had to overcome foolishness and delusion. 'And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon your house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it'. 'Be a doer of the word, and not a hearer only, deceiving your own self'. 'And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? You were like a man without a foundation built upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and your ruin was great'.
You will have to know from experience the resilience of change, the kind well known as repentance. ' Nevertheless i/I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent, and do your first works; or else He will come unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick (Him), out of your place (me), except you repent'.
So far i have been showing you what it takes to persist in that ideal transfigured realm and high level of existence of transformed godliness, being a living bible - study-able by all men. Next, i will move back to the lower level of a specific set of choices that it takes to get there. There is the beginning level of learning to glorify God rather than yourself.
There is a beginning level of pleasing Him in all things like the one above. There is the beginning level of proving your love. 'And this is love, that you walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it'. 'For this is the love of God, that you keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous' to you. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind'. And from the early scriptures, 'What doth the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul'.
The main skill-set for this period for you as an expandable fabric, blue-print, or design (my soul); is the putting-on and the putting-off of the garments of my outer realm. 'And you shall put off your garments, and put on other garments'. 'But now you also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him'. 'Put off concerning the former conversation your old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And put on your new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness'. 'Thou have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness'. 'Draw not nigh hither: put off your shoes'. 'Put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what to do unto you'. 'And David put them off him'. 'I have put off my coat; how shall i put it on?'. 'Cast off your works of darkness, and put on your armour of light'.
This putting-on and putting-off is not dealing with the symptom but the source of failure in the power of sin. This dealing takes place by changing the fundamental arrangement of all that is with-in you. It has everything to do with being crucified with Christ, and yet being alive. It has everything to do with the removal of the long standing ingrained habits of your old man, and the extending of the reign of your new man in Christ. It has to do with the placement of your armor of God, somewhere upon my extremities (your hidden man), but yet inward enough to protect me from the spiritual warfare in the areas feelings and thoughts when needed.
So, carry on my wayward soul, and know that your underlying strength is in your power to change, i.e, to repent. That you yourself are the launch-pad for repentance and growth, two different kinds of change but not unrelated. That you as a living letter (readable of all men), exist as an expandable outline with dynamic potential, i.e, a fabric or design for change and growth. That you will become a walking bible (study-able by all men), and that men will press into you because of the treasure you hold in your earthen vessel (which can be quickened and transfigured). That you will approach and manifest the height, and depth, and the width of the love of God; in all the gifts of the Spirit, producing all of the fruit of the Spirit in the fields of your life and existence.
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Author: bimonics
Location: Rocklin California USA
Gender: Male
Age: 58
Blog Entries: 219 (archive)
Blog Comments: 250
hello, my name is grant. my user name is bimonics which is short for bible mnemonics. i am blessed with a wonderful loving wife; a gifted, mature, christian lady. between us we have 8 children and at present 27 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren. i was born in 1952, to...
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i was lost when jesus found me. i am still lost without his company, and without all that he does. i was a lead guitarist in a rock band, until i gave up my old life and picked up the bible. i am still a guitarist for the rock that...
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