Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Today I knew exactly what passage to find, because my search came from my mind, and the message has everything to do with me. Most days I receive a Word from the Lord without subject or context. I do a word search to find what He means for me to do with the results.

There are two distinct word searches that occur, one is from the mind and the other is from the heart. This one is from my mind, my experiences and with an earnest desire to help others to understand me a little better. If by any strange coincidence it helps anyone else, praise God.

When I began this long journey with God I had no idea what I was doing. It had been years since I had attended church services and even longer since I attended Sunday School. My memories lead me as best they could, as weak and frail as they are. Not much has changed in that arena, in fact my memory is weaker now because I don’t rely on it as much.

John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

It took me a long time to realize His abiding presence. My mind thought that memorization of scripture is all that was required. I relied on a fallible instrument. A craftsman is only as good as his instruments.

Psalm 119:11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

I thought that storing His Word in my heart was only good for avoiding sin. That is what I get for thinking rather than experiencing. Discovering the will of God cannot be reasoned out. His will is discovered by revelation from the heart where the Holy Spirit dwells by faith.

Reading everything that has been said about the bible from learned doctors of theology and gifted teachers is head knowledge. It is not heart knowledge.

Jeremiah 17:10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

If the Lord does this, we need to follow His example. Search our hearts and test our minds to determine which of the two directs our path and our deeds upon the Way.

Leviticus 26:42-44 English Standard Version

42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43 But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.

When I did a word search for abhor I found this opening verse. What I was looking for was this; 

Romans 12:9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

We read the Old Testament to see what transpired between man and God as examples of what to expect since God does not change. Then returning to the search I found this;

Deuteronomy 7:26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.
Deuteronomy 23:7 “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.

Those passages confused me. What is abominable and abhorrent if it is not the people?

Answers without context only lead to confusion. Even then the context may lead us to study even further to satisfy our understanding.

Deuteronomy 7:25 The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.

What is an abomination to the Lord, the worship of a powerless god or the lust for the items that are a symbol of their dedication to those false gods? That was then and we live in the here and now. How can we relate to past mistakes in order to avoid the same mistakes? I find it difficult to watch what is going on around us and separate what people do from what they are. Are they evil or do they do it for gold and silver? I find it more and more difficult to make a righteous judgment every day.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7)