Today I was at a leadership seminar which is sponsored yearly by the Willow Creek church. In one of those sessions, there was a mention of an "audit" that is needed in our lives...now audit is never a good word to hear, especially when you add the word "tax" in front of it...for the definition of the word is "an official examination and verification of accounts and records, especially of financial accounts."http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/audit?s=t
But when looking at the 1st part of the definition of the word, something Paul writes jumped out at me from 1 Corinthians 11:28-"But let a man examine himself", one commentator put it "let him examine himself thoroughly" and the Greek word is dokimazo, which means "To approve after examination" So a Lozano translation would be "But let a man (or woman) examine himself (or herself) thoroughly, spiritually speaking, so that they can be approved by the Lord".
What I am saying is that every so often, whether on our own or by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, let us look at every area of our lives in relation to God and see whether or not He would approve of our walk with Him; and if not, to be honest in our assessment of ourselves so that we can fix those areas that need repair so that we can have a proper relationship with Him.
And in essence, I needed to hear that, because it brought me back to the blog entry from June 30th-"Off the chest" http://1ncisfan.blogspot.com/2013/06/off-chest.html . I look at it now in a different sort of light...the reason I say this is when I look at the second or third paragraph: I have to ask myself: "What was the real motive in writing this blog entry? Was the act of writing this entry sort of doing like what Moses did at Meribah? Did I hear the voice of God, but choosing to do something that lifted me up ("Let me show you how naive you are, and how zealous I am"). Was it to be ruthless and crush what someone sincerely may have felt was a right belief?"
When I really look at it, there is a conviction that tells me that maybe, just maybe I should have waited to write that particular blog entry. I don't apologize for the need that we have as believers to be as the Lord mentioned "wise as serpents and harmless as doves" and to be watchmen. What maybe in the end I should have done was to ask why the person in question believes the way they did and then to write out in a blog entry what I wrote. Because as so many have said, that we could win the battle but yet lose the war...and in this case win the argument, but cause someone else to tune out forever what I have to say.
Lord, help me to look at myself and the reason why I do the way that I do things...because I think of Moses of what happened at Meribah, that by not exalting You, he was denied entry to lead the people into the land You had promised. And by exalting myself, You may deny me entry to blessings and influences that You may have put in my life to be able to expand Your kingdom. Help me to be slow to anger and slow to speak (or in this case type) and quick to listen and maybe even to ask "Why?" a little more often so that I can see things a little better and see them a little more like how You see things..I'm reminded of "The wrath of man does not bring glory to God" and if that blog entry was more the wrath of man, may it be forgotten, but if it was something that You could use to bring glory to Your name, You be in the midst of it. Lord, I ask these things in the name of Yeshua ha Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah), Amen!
