John,
The other night during my sleep, I heard this “The standard, that is what they love. . . ” and then a few seconds later, “. . . and hate.”
I love what we have been talking about lately, and especially the authority and love that was in your message to us last Sunday. There is a standard required by us from God, and if there is within someone’s heart a struggle with that standard, there is a battle between the spirit of God that loves the standard and the flesh that hates it.
I looked up “standard” in the Oxford American dictionary and read the definition: “a thing or quality or specification by which something may be tested or measured; the required level of quality; a specified level of proficiency.” I then looked up the word proficiency and the definition of that was this: “doing something correctly and competently through training or practice; skilled.”
That is what we have: a “required level of quality”. We are being tested everyday in how we are conducting our lives and measuring up to the standard that has been given to us. And, “Where much is given, much is required.” And if we are a part of that, we have a responsibility.
I have thought on the words spoken to me the other night often: “The standard, that is what they love. . . ” and then a few seconds later, “. . . and hate.” How much does God see? What does He see in us? Are we proficient in His standard? I couldn’t help but think about how much hate Jesus has felt coming from his own people. It must wear Jesus out after many years of love/hate relationships. It really makes you pray for more of the love of God in all things and to be diligent in those things so as to love him and not be one that hurts him, and to encourage others that living right is not impossible or hard (as so many seem to think) and that his ways are just and right. I wish that everyone could hear “The Law” as you have taught it to us, and hear it through the ears of the learned.
It’s a blessing to be in a place where the standard of God is enforced. You can then rest and trust that you are safe and taken care of, and you grow and learn the standards of God — and they become you. And whenever the standard becomes hated more than it is loved, “the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him”, and that also is our rest and safety.
Amy
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Hey John,
I have enjoyed the messages and emails on having a standard, and thinking about how much it really matters, how much it saves us all from.
I remembered this morning a time you came to Louisville and talked to us about God’s standard, and how it made me feel: safe, relieved, loved. I loved the feelings. I had an experience from that night that I want to tell.
It was when you and Barbara stayed with Jammie and me for one of the first times. I began to feel the spirit showing me about the standard and how it applied. It was as if I saw for the first time how many times in my career as an electrician that I have read the word “standard”, but I never really understood the word. On most of the sets of electrical drawings, they refer to the word “standard” as “light pole standards”. I knew what the function was for that standard, but that day, I saw how important the standards function for a light pole was…. It was more than just a hefty concrete footer with reinforcing steel in it, and that it should be installed level and on sound, good soil. It had to hold this pole up with very heavy loads on it, high in the air. It had to withstand all the elements, and all the time stay level and true. It was mind-blowing to me to see the similarities in that and God’s standard. I began to realize that God’s standard isn’t something we hold up, but the complete opposite. It holds us up! It’s something we walk upon. It keeps us, when we love it with all our hearts….
I would feel pressure in times past, before 2001, to “Hold Up The Standard!” After hearing you talk, everything changed, and it was so easy! I realized I loved it. There was no pressure for me to make the right choices, do the right things, put God first. All that began to come natural, and I loved it! I don’t remember all of what I learned from that, but I remember telling you about it, the next day. There is No Pressure when you love the ways of God. I have seen so many of God’s people misuse the term “Standard” so that all they feel is “pressure”. They would feel that pressure when they fell short, because they were made to feel that they lacked love for God.
It has brought back good feelings writing this. Wow. All we have learned!
He’s still talking!
Bro. Paul