Week Forty-One - Take Heed

TAKE HEED

“Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently…”  Deuteronomy 4:9

The Bible word is “shamar” meaning to hedge about as with thorns, to guard, protect, attend unto, beware, be circumspect, to mark, look narrowly, to observe, protect, regard, reserve, save, wait, watch.  As Moses began to prepare the children of Israel to enter Canaan he repeatedly told them to take heed unto themselves.  Look at these instances in Deuteronomy:

2:4 – take heed in passing through Esau’s land

4:9 – take heed to keep your soul focused

4:15 – take heed to avoid idolatry

4:23 – take heed not to forget God’s covenant

11:16- take heed that your heart is not deceived

12:13 – take heed to perform worship properly

12:19 – take heed to reverence the man of God

12:30 – take heed to not be captured by worldliness.

God knows how weak we are.  We think nothing can move us.  We believe, like Peter, that though all would fall away, we would remain faithful.  Well – we may – but only if we recognize the dangers and set a guard on our hearts.  This is our active part in sanctification.  We do not become holy by prayer alone.  We must choose to take heed of the influences that would seek to draw us away and follow up those choices by action toward God with a whole and holy heart.

We need to take heed to the Word that is preached to us, to the holy promptings of the Spirit of God, and be aware of the weakness of our flesh.  We need to hedge ourselves about with good friends and good fellowship. 

Are you taking heed? Or walking on dangerous ground?

TAKE HEED

“Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God.”

 Joshua 23:11

God will not make me love Him.  I must choose to love God.  And, I must actively protect that love.  Joshua called the people to remember all God had done for them and what service to God truly required.  God offered his love and protection, but they had to choose their response.  In 24:15 Joshua and his family chose to serve the Lord.

        

When we choose God, we must be prepared to stick with it!  We must be prepared to obey with a heart of love.  Rev. T. Smyth wrote “Self-will destroys obedience…first take heed to thyself.  Keep diligently thine own vineyard.  Let no day pass without self-examination.  While it is yet day and the shadows of evening invite to meditation, commune with your own heart and be still.  Let God be heard, and thy own conscience bear witness, and accuse or else excuse thee.  Recount God’s mercies and your responsibilities…the spiritual life…is seated and purified and quickened, not in the head, not in the understanding, not in the will, but in the heart, the disposition, desires and affections, and pre-eminently in love.”

This idea of self-examination at the end of the day is a good practice as long as we focus on self-examination – not the examination of others.  To avoid looking at our own responsibilities and accountabilities is to fail to take heed to the dangers taking root in our lives.  These need to be weeded out.  Honest self-examination faced with the truth of the Scripture will help us see the weeds! We also need to beware of lazy love and loose spiritual living.  Love is an action and requires obedience and vigilance to keep the flame alive.  Sloppy Christian living exhibits a misplaced love and will bring us to lukewarmness.

What is your heart set upon?  Your own ways, or, God’s?  To live so as to prove your love to Him, or, to satisfy self?  Answers to these questions reveal whether you are taking heed, or, taking your ease!

        

TAKE HEED

“take heed therefore how ye hear…”  Luke 8:18

This verse comes after the parable of the sower and the warning of hiding our light and certain exposure of secret things.  It is a warning given by Christ.

        

Let’s examine taking heed a little further.  Rev. T. Smyth wrote “…the faithful Christian next to his supreme obligations to Christ, will regard the welfare of his own soul.  That soul, remember is not yours, but you; and you are the Lord’s.”

        

Take heed to your soul.  It is the only thing you have that will last for eternity.  And, as Rev. Smyth points out, your soul is not a part of you like an arm or a leg.  It is the real essence of who you are.  You are a living soul.  God breathed into you the breath of life.  That is His gift to you.  What will you do with it?

        

Protect your soul.  Grow it in godliness.  “Godliness is a miracle of grace; but is also a miracle of order…as the Christian is the highest style of man as a rational and immortal being, so is piety the most rational and becoming service in which that being can be employed.”  (Smyth)

        

To bring forth fruit one hundred fold requires diligence and attention.  Develop fully.  Stand complete in all the will of God.  Don’t become a spiritual monster with warts and deformity.  Take heed to yourself.  Love your soul.  Let your hidden weaknesses be revealed by His Spirit and His Word.  Dig them out.  Don’t allow yourself to be deceived by excuses for weaknesses.  God’s grace is sufficient for victory.  Becoming a growing, changing and living sacrifice holds joy, peace and real beauty.

Are you caring for and growing your soul?  Or making excuses for it?  Are you taking heed to yourself, or, blaming others for your weaknesses and failures?

TAKE HEED

“…take heed how he buildeth…: I Cor 3:10

Jesus is the chief cornerstone.  He is the foundation.  Paul had been used of God as a wise master builder to plant churches and strengthen the brethren.  Yet, he knew it was not to gratify his pride, but to magnify the Lord.  Much blood, sweat and tears had gone into the establishment and growth of the Church.  It was precious to Paul, and, as we read in Ephesians, it was precious to the Lord because He loved the Church and gave himself for it.

This foundation, this building, this church, has been passed along to us.  We are now building on what has been laid for us in the past.  The admonition is to take heed how we build upon it.  Matthew Henry says, “There may be very indifferent building on a good foundation.  Nothing must be laid upon it but what the foundation will bear, and what is of a piece with it.  God and dirt must not be mingled together.  Ministers of Christ should take great care that they do not build their own fancies or false reasoning on the foundation of divine revelation.” 

I love that phrase, “God and dirt must not be mingled together.”  It reminds me to use discernment in the things I choose to do and to recognize the different in temporal and eternal things.

The phrase, “take heed”  here in I Corinthians means to behold, to look, to regard, or to pay attention.  That is exactly what we must do.  Look – what is happening in your church?  Regard – does it match God’s Word?  Pay Attention – where could you be a wiser builder?  Where do you need to take heed to what you are putting into your life that will affect your church?  What are you building – something temporal or eternal?

 TAKE HEED

“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts…”  II Peter 1:19

Here the phrase means to watch out, be on guard, to beware, to pay attention, or apply oneself.  And what is the object?  God’s Word.  We are to be applying our minds to understand the sense, and our hearts to believe the truth, of this sure word.  If we will apply ourselves to the Word of God, we will find profit for ourselves and become pleasing unto God.

The scripture is a light that God has sent to dispel darkness.  Every man in the world is naturally without that light, those of us who have had the light shine into our hearts, would do well to take heed and share it with those in darkness.  The light of the scripture will dispel darkness.

Our knowledge should be growing and diffusing light throughout our lives as well.  We should be judging our motives and actions by God’s Word.  We should be developing more confidence in the truth and surety of His Word.  Taking heed will mean that more light can be given to us.  We will become more skilful in the Word and better workmen for the effort.

What about you?  Do you believe the Bible to be solidly true?  Are you taking heed to the Word and using it as a guide and measure in your life?  Does God’s Word come alive to you?  Do you allow it shine into the dark corners of your life?