Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy;
No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.

Psalm 101.5

October 5th brings me to Psalm 101:5…

Are you still singing the October Song and dancing the October Waltz. Are you still focusing on October Worth and cleansing your October Heart. Are you letting the verse by verse of this Psalm resonate…

If we are to be able to sing of the lovingkindness and justice of our God and walk with integrity in our house and not put anything worthless before our eyes and if we are to have a heart free of perversion and if we are to know no evil then we must remember Psalm 101:5.

What does it mean to secretly slander your neighbor but to gossip about them behind their back…

Has there ever been more greater damage done than by those who accuse someone of evil when the one they accuse is not there to defend themselves? That’s what slander is… it is to accuse.

The two latest I have seen that all will most likely know about:

1) Carrie Underwood and her kiss to a 12 year old boy: Oh my did the “christian” tongues wag over this! It was quite sad the way people jumped to accuse this woman of such evil and they slandered her without even having seen the act.

2) President Oboma and Mitt Romney and Big Bird: President Obama had an opportunity to address Mitt Romney’s comment about Big Bird there in Mitt’s presence, but instead he takes it to the campaign trail, takes it out of context, and slanders him when he is not there to defend himself… as did many others in the media. 

God says that he will destroy him who slanders his neighbor. He will silence the accuser. When we are the accuser, the slanderer, it is not God that we are imitating…

 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,

“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God

and the authority of His Christ have come,

for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down,

he who accuses them before our God day and night.

Revelation 12:10  

We better be very careful when we begin to use our tongue to decide the motive of a persons actions. God is going to cast Satan down for his accusations against His people… please don’t let us think we would receive any less.

There are twelve references to accusers in the NASB… Job was accused, David was accused, Jesus was accused… so if you are the one being accused, my friend, you are in good company! And you can trust that eventually all your accusers will be silenced.

and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered,

those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

1 Peter 3:16

You see, if you are taking care of Psalm 101:1-4, then you will be keeping a good conscience before God and if you know that you are good with God… then what can man do to you?

Those who secretly slander, those who accuse, they do so with a haughty look and an arrogant heart.

If you are honest with yourself you know the difference in your attitude when you have become the accuser and not the concerned.

It is visible in you and it is visible in others… You can see it as you walk through the halls in any American school, from Elementary to High School, and sadly you can see it in corners of every American church, and most definitely from the platforms from most every political podium. You can easily recognize the haughty eyes when you truly choose to see.

You know when the person who approaches you is speaking out of an arrogant heart or whether they are speaking out of frustration…

You know, and you know that you know.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother

shall be guilty before the court;

and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’

shall be guilty before the supreme court;

and whoever says, ‘You fool,’

shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Matthew 5:22

So what you should do. If you are the accuser, the slanderer… repent. Repent before God, repent before the one you slandered to, and repent to the one you slandered. Once words leave your mouth they will produce a result… but God can take what you intended for evil and use it for good if you give it to Him.

Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar,

and there remember that your brother has something against you, 

leave your offering there before the altar and go;

first be reconciled to your brother,

and then come and present your offering.

Matthew 5:23-24

We live in a world that is evil enough as it is. It’s full of accusers and slanderers and gossips. There are plenty who live to tear down another to make themselves appear better. We have a world full of people who do deeds of darkness let us not waste our words and energy trying to create evil out of  good intentions… Let us pursue peace, and humility, and seek to build others up not tear them down.

To quote Ravi Zacharias, “with boldness but with love take your stand“

Face to face… heart to heart… believe me I understand the need to “vent” and I have those around me that I know I can “vent” to but venting is not accusing… it is not slandering… venting comes out of one’s own frustrations and it is an attempt at working through a personal hurt in order to heal and move on and not let the hurt or frustration take root within you (Hebrews 12:15, James 5:16)… but it still must be done in confidence because there are those who will take your “vent” and use it to slander and accuse.

In this you greatly rejoice,

even though now for a little while, if necessary,

you have been distressed by various trials, 

so that the proof of your faith, 

being more precious than gold which is perishable, 

even though tested by fire, 

may be found to result in praise and glory and honor

at the revelation of Jesus Christ 

1 Peter 1:6-7

Trials come in various forms. 

The word various comes from an interesting Greek term, poikolos, which means “variegated” or “many colored.” We also get the term “polka dot” from it. 

Trials come in a variety of forms and colors. They are different, just as we are different. Something that would hardly affect you might knock the slats out from under me—and vice versa. But God offers special grace to match every shade of sorrow. . . .

This variety of trials is like different temperature settings on God’s furnace. The settings are adjusted to burn off our dross, to temper us or soften us according to what meets our highest need. 

It is in God’s refining fire that the authenticity of our faith is revealed. And the purpose of these fiery ordeals is that we may come forth as purified gold, a shining likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

~ Swindoll

 

I read this and immediately my mind went to Joseph. Joseph received a coat from his father…

 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons,

because he was the son of his old age;

and he made him a varicolored tunic.

Genesis 37:3

This coat was a coat of various colors… I have always been taught and heard others teach about this coat was so special because it was like no one else’s… it was a coat for the rich, the special, the royal…

Maybe we are teaching and being taught all wrong.

Maybe this coat given to Joseph by his father was to point to the various trials that Joseph would endure to refine him. Maybe this coat was a message from his Heavenly Father to say, Joseph I love you… and I have great plans for you… but first you must face many trials that I might get you ready to accomplish My purpose. You must learn to trust Me and live by the faith in the promises that I have given you even though you do not see Me or hear from Me.

Joseph received the coat of many colors before he received the visions from God that revealed his brothers bowing down to him. I don’t believe this was an accident… everything is in order of God’s sovereignty.

First know that I love you. You are my child.

Second know that various trials will come, but every trial has a purpose.

Third if you trust Me, if you persevere through the trials, remembering that I love you, then you will obtain the promise.

and though you have not seen Him, you love Him,

and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him,

you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 

obtaining as the outcome of your faith

the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:8-9

Precious one… I don’t know what you are going through. I don’t know what sufferings you have faced, are facing, or will face in the future… but I do know that God loves you… is and will be with you… and He alone is big enough to carry you. No matter how great the hurt, His grace is greater. No matter how raw the pain, His balm is soothing. No matter how deep the degradation, His justice will redeem it. No matter how often the injury returns to haunt, His authority will override it. No matter how great the damage to the mind, body, and soul, His touch will restore it. No matter the reason behind it, His mercy can handle it.

Today is October 4th and so today I will focus on Psalm 101:4…

 

A perverse heart shall depart from me;

I will know no evil.

Psalm 101:4

A perverse heart shall depart from me… now for something to depart from you it had to first be with you.

And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” (Mark 7:20-23)

Perverse in this verse is `iqqesh and it means twisted, distorted, crooked, perverse, perverted. 

A perverse heart takes God’s truth and twists it and distorts it and makes it crooked.

But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Acts 13:9-10

This has been the problem since the beginning…

Satan was the first to pervert it and he has been helping man do it since the fall. If we look at the bottom line there is always only one reason to pervert the truth of God… selfish gain. It was the reason Satan did it… it’s the reason man does it. It’s the reason men do it from the pulpit, it’s the reason politicians do it from the podium… to get their own way, to be their own god, to get people to follow them and do their will… not God’s.

‘Come now and hear what the message is which comes forth from the Lord.’ They come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain. (Ezekiel 33:30-31)

Our God calls out to us to be saved from this perverse generation… He desperately wants us to walk in His truth.

For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:39-41)

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. (Acts 20:29-31)

God has called out to us through His law, through His prophets, and through His Son to give us the truth, so that this perverse heart of ours might depart from us. He had made the way for a new heart to be given us… a heart that desires to walk the straight and clear path to our God.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

In the NASB the phrase “know that I am the LORD” is used seventy-seven times. The phrase “know Me” is used sixteen times. The phrase “the name of the LORD” is used one hundred and four times.

Do you think God wants you to know Him?

God wants you to know HIM. He wants you to know Him with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul. He wants your spirit to be one with His Spirit. He want you to know Him and all that He is. All His majesty. All His glory. All His grace. All His love. All His ways.

He does not want you to know evil.

The word know in this verse is yada and it means to know, to learn to know, to know by experience, to be acquainted with, to be skillful in, to be or become known, to make known…

The perverse heart gets to know evil. The perverse heart makes evil known. The perverse heart knows evil by experience and it is well acquainted with it.

God wants you to be well acquainted with Him. He wants you to make Him known. He wants you to know Him by experience. He wants you to learn to know Him more. He wants you to grow in knowledge of Him every minute of every day…

He wants you to prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. (Philippians 2:14-16)

We live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation… but it does not have to live in us.

Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Romans 16:17-20)

 

October 3rd brings me to the third verse of Psalm 101…

I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;
I hate the work of those who fall away;
It shall not fasten its grip on me.

Psalm 101:3

What causes us to fall away?

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes,… Genesis 3:6

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:22-23

What do you choose to put before your eyes?

The word eyes here in Psalm 101:3 is more than just the two eyes in the front of your face.. this word includes your spiritual and mental faculties. What do you pump into your mind and your spirit? Have you really stopped and been honest with yourself and examined the connection with what you choose to watch and hear with your thoughts and actions?

Jesus came to open blind eyes so that we might see sin for what it is… and turn from it, not park our butts down in front of it and be entertained with it and say “well I know it is wrong and am aware of it and I won’t do that so it’s okay for me to be a sideline participant.”

Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. Luke 8:13

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons… 1 Timothy 4:1

I find it sad when we spend more time paying attention to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons than we do the Word of God and then we wonder why we can’t crucify our flesh and live holy lives pleasing to God… My friend what temptation are you struggling with today? What do you put before your eyes and what do you pour into your ears daily?

Do you even care that you sin?

The word fall in Psalm 101:3 means swerver, rebel, revolter, deeds that swerve…

When I was sixteen I had a few vehicle accidents… the majority of those wrecks came as I was rebelling against the posted law and then swerved…  I knew the law… but ignored it… and I crashed. Our ignoring and rebelling against the Law of God and the Grace and Truth revealed to us in His Son will have the same results. Eventually our rebellion will become evident we will attempt to swerve to miss the consequences of it and we will crash and our lives will be wrecked.

How thankful I am for the jaws of life that are in the hands my Christ…

When I wholly surrendered to my Savior in December 2001 there were things I just could not physically stomach to pass through my eyes and ears… it physically made me sick and ripped at my heart and grieved my spirit. Those same things still do today… my heart has grown more tender as I walk closer to my Christ and go deeper in His Word.

Sin separates me from Him… and I like being as close to Him as I possibly can.

Psalm 101:3  goes on to say “I hate the work of those who fall away…”. Notice he says I hate the work…  he does not say he hates the those.

My husband laughs at me because he has caught my “head shake“. Apparently every time I see the work of those who fall away, or see the deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons and the things that this world just throws before our eyes and shoves in our ears before we even have an opportunity to run away I frustratedly shake my head. I have to close my lips tight and breathe deep because the holy rage is building up within me and I want to erupt at what I see and hear… but I shake my head and breath.

Here is what my head shake says… “It shall not fasten its grip on me“

I am shaking it off like the dust from my feet…

I will take no part in it…

I will not knowingly support it or encourage it. I will not eat at Hardees because of their ads. I will not go to certain movies or listen to certain groups because of their content. I will not shop at certain stores because of the trash they want my children to wear. I will not get sucked into certain books because of the files they will take up in my mind that belong to the Spirit for the storage of God’s Word.

There is much in this world that I can not control… but what I can I will… for the glory of my God and for the love of my Jesus.

My Jesus said I was worth His death… so my Jesus is worth my life.

I still am singing my October song.

I still am praising Him for His lovingkindness and justice. Today I continue my song with a waltz added in as I sing…

I will give heed to the blameless way.
When will You come to me?
I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.

Psalm 101:2

Our October song begins with praise but our praise songs to God are empty and void of any meaning if we ignore the walk, if we ignore the waltz.

We sit at the feet of our Instructor and we listen as He teaches us the steps… 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1…2…3 and we watch His waltz and we see that it is flawless, beautiful, it is blameless.

Blameless in Psalm 101:2 is tamiym and it means complete, whole, entire, sound, unimpaired, having integrity, entirely in accord with truth and fact.

If we are to dance with this Instructor then we must take heed of His steps and follow His feet, for His steps are the truth and fact of the dance… He leads, we are led.

So we sit and listen to Him teach and watch His flowing movements of grace and like a young lady at her first party we sit quietly and watch the One who has caught our eye and our heart yearns for Him to come to us and ask us to join Him in the dance. We smile shyly and look away when His eyes catch ours because we fear rejection because we feel so unworthy to dance with Him,  yet we want to stand up like a kindergarten girl with our arm flailing in the air “PICK ME!”

Everyone wants to dance with the Instructor… with the One who knows exactly what to do and when to do it… but will you be so bold as to run into His arms when He looks your way… The waltz must have one with strong and sure arms to command the dance and there are no arms stronger or surer.

But there is more to the waltz with the Instructor… when He picks you and He takes you in His embrace and then you go out in His knowledge of the dance into your own house… into the world… will you practice by heeding His blameless steps? When you have danced with the Instructor, when you have learned from His steps… He expects you to continue in His teachings, to dance the way He taught you to dance. To take to heart His lessons with integrity.

Will you practice your waltz within your house in the integrity of your heart?

Will you take your son, your daughter, your husband, your wife in your unsteady embrace and practice the steps with them? Will you today extend your arms and ready your feet and take a waltz through your house? Will you sing your October song and sing of His lovingkindness and justice and praise Him as you dance this waltz in the life you have been given…

Waltz is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, flowing movements, continuous turns, and rise & fall. Graceful and elegant, Waltz dancers glide around the floor almost effortlessly. When first introduced into the English ballrooms in the early 1800’s, the Waltz was denounced by both church and state for its vulgarity and immorality… this was, after all, the first time society had seen this outrageous dance position, with the man holding the lady so close to his body. ~BallroomDancers.com 

Our October song of praise must be given as we are surrendered into the arms of the One who who holds us close to His body and we must let Him lead our October waltz and guide our steps. When we are held close in His body then the continuous turns and rise and falls of our dance are seen by those watching to be taken with steps of grace and elegance and they will appear effortless as we glide in the strong knowing arms of our God.

Dear one let us never forget that God has made it quite clear that His body is the church…

so that He might sanctify her,

having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 

that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory,

having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing;

but that she would be holy and blameless

Ephesians 5:26-27

 

 

I will sing of lovingkindness and justice,
To You, O Lord, I will sing praises.
I will give heed to the blameless way.
When will You come to me?
I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.
I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;
I hate the work of those who fall away;
It shall not fasten its grip on me.
A perverse heart shall depart from me;
I will know no evil.
Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy;
No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.