Reviving the Dead

You know you write for God when you stop in the middle of a sentence, erase the firsts three lines of a new post and write something completely different. I had a plan for this post but I am listening to His will and let's see where this takes us.

Tonight we went to see the movie, Jesus Revolution, with Kelsey Grammar and Johnathan Roumie and it's about the Jesus movement back in the late 60's early 70's. It was the last great revival the US has seen until, coincidentally, we have what appears, our own revival happening in Asbury KY. What is a revival? It is what it sounds like. To revive something means that something was dead. So, Christians, who's purpose is to walk in Jesus daily are actually not living up to their full potential and they need a shot of God to get them motivated again. 

I see this as a huge issue instead of a great miracle. If we as Christians need jump started like a dead car battery every now and then, then we aren't submitting to His authority in our life. Inaccurate doctrine and false teachings will more than likely play a major part in a Christians apostasy but revivals should not be for Christians but for the lost.

However, if anyone's been to church for any length of time, a revival is a way for guest preachers and special music to come and try and revitalize a dead church. I've seen several and they are pretty much that very thing. Come to my revival this week, we have a guest preacher. Tag lines and car lot advertising run amuck as the church leaders try and infuse some energy back into their members. 

Why can't we remain in Him? Why do we need to have an injection of Jesus every year? 

We cannot be effective in what we were called for if we cannot maintain our relationship with Him.

I have gotten a true taste of God's goodness through a change in my heart, why would I want to ruin it. If we taste and see the goodness of God, we will never turn back but keep pressing towards the mark. 

If we fall and stumble, we cannot afford to wallow in self pity or question the goodness of God. Instead we should find a place of humility in our selves but a place of confidence in Him. Failing, which is stepping away from Him, is not supposed to be the normal Christian life. Instead, the normal Christian life should look like Christ and if we have a moment of weakness, not when we have a moment of weakness, we have the ability to ask for forgiveness and get beck in step with God. 

Our minds are preprogrammed by our families, friends and the church to anticipate failure. If the anticipation of failure carries on after we are born again then we set ourselves up to live according to the flesh and not the Spirit. For the Spirit is life and purpose inside of us and the flesh is death and disobedience. If we constantly expect our lives to fail in Christ, where we must go and have injections of Jesus weekly, then a big shot every year in revival, then we weren't living a healthy Christian life. We must take control of our thoughts and submit then over to God, we cannot anticipate failure and still walk in a healthy Christian life.

Doubt in God is what we have if we walk in the thoughts of failure. What we say is, God, I don't trust you to keep me from my fleshly desires and if we say that in our mind we become self fulfilled prophets as the enemy has full ability to carry out your wishes. Walking in doubt, walking in defeat, walking in your eye being focused on your inabilities and not in His abilities is a setup for failure. 

There is no magic formula that we can carry out that keeps our minds straight. There's no ritual or prayer that we can constantly recite that will keep our batteries full. There's no revival that can take the place of a daily surrender to God. What does it look like? A daily surrender never and I mean never focuses on us. We cannot surrender if we are focused on our needs, our issues, problems, wants, doubts, fears or anything not of God. Surrender is a mindset and a heart that says I am yours God, live in me freely, work through me freely and I thank you for using me as a vessel for Your will. 

If we focus on failures, we cannot let in Gods ability to use us. We set up ourselves for failure if that is all we expect.

The doctrines I've heard all my life are doctrines of defeat as we are taught that we are filthy rags and wretches. That we must continually confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. That there's no way out from under the fleshly desires we have. That we get dirty, then washed, then dirty, then washed over and over and over. This my friends is how we get in this self defeated attitude, because it is taught in our churches. We must however be their examples of how God can not only forgive sins but He can cause us to walk sinless, in Him without failure. Our part is just to believe He can do it.

The Israelites got caught doubting God as they left Egypt and they never got the fact that God could take full care of their needs and protect them from enemies. What God did for the Israelites coming out of Egypt, then in the wilderness, then in Israel, then in Jesus is the very same thing going on in us. God wanted them to trust in Him and place their confidence in Him. Yet they did nothing but doubt and complain. Is that not what we do when we get pulled out of bondage. The symbol of the Israelites walking through the Red Sea is the same symbol we use as being Baptized. They were saved and baptized as they walked through the sea, though it was dry, they still walked through it. Then as they journeyed to the promise land, the doubted God and looked at themselves instead of Him. Of course they couldn't defeat those giants, that was the whole point. It was God who was going to do it for them. We have giants in us as well called the flesh. If we look to ourselves to defeat the giant then we will walk in the wilderness. However, if we trust in God to defeat those giants in us, then we have nothing to fear and a land will spring forth in us flowing with milk and honey. 

Revival is for those stuck in the wilderness, still trying to figure out how to do things on their own, walking in defeat and not in victory. God is our victory and our strength. He will lead us into the promise land and defeat every giant we have in us. It just takes faith in Him. Do we have a unwavering faith in Him? Do we call His name and say, you are my God and I will not doubt you or look to anything else but You. My faith is in you oh Lord. 

God, if anything, lead us in a revival to see our lack without you. Lead us into a revelation that shows us our need to fully put our trust in you. Change our hearts and minds to understand that we are your people, called, elected and fitted with You as our all in all. Let us never look at our own abilities to do anything for You but that we surrender to You and the power of Your Holy Spirit to walk in faith in You everyday. My prayer is not for another cleansing but for a transformation. Transform our minds and hearts to be a house for You.

To God be the Glory!

The Divine Expression of God

 

If you look at the Greek definition of "Word" in the Bible, whether it is referencing Jesus as the word or the Bible as the word, they both translate into "The Divine Expression of God." 

The reason I looked up the Greek was because of a sermon I heard recently where they stated that the Bible was life and was the only authority we need to live by. There was a bunch of other stuff said but I almost lost it when He said that the Bible was more important than the author of it. This is a very big issue with a lot of churches where they exalt the written word over the living word. 

The written word of God is His divine expression. His word was written down so that we can be shown how to get back in a relationship with Him. In the beginning, the only word Noah, Abraham and all the early Old Testament people had was oral. They heard the voice of God calling them. There wasn't a Bible or text written down for them to follow. They were spoken to by God Himself. Later on, scribes wrote down oral stories that had been passed on from generation to generation so they could be retold by hundreds or used as teachings. As even more time passed, as Jesus came on the scene, written words became more important than oral or divinely spoken words.

When Jesus arrived, God now had two expressions of Himself. He had Jesus, a walking talking expression of God and the written word. When man however, wrongly interprets the written, Jesus is discounted as He doesn't line up like their interpretations did. There is the main issue with written word, interpretation. The Bible isn't a clear cut instruction manual that needs no interpreter, quite the opposite. The Bible was written by men who were divinely inspired to do so. So as God expressed Himself through them, the wrote what He expressed. Simple. Yet, because it was divinely inspired, it takes a divine interpreter. Hence, the role of the Holy Spirit in us. As we read, the Spirit is supposed to unlock the meanings and the heart of what God was saying. We as fleshly creatures look at the Bible with fleshly understanding and everything is taken at face value but the Creator of the book was divine in nature and He was revealing that nature to us through the book. 

As Jesus came, He disrupted generations of thinking. As those in high standing in the temple only interpreted the scripture literally, millions of people were led to follow the written word through laws and rituals without their heart being changed. The coming of Jesus was meant for God's people to finally have a relationship with Him in their hearts, yet they rejected Him. Now, two-thousand years later, we have the Spirit of God to interpret the Bible for us if we let Him. However, as they did back then, some have taken the written word and exalted it over the spoken word through the Spirit.

The problem with raising the written over the spoken is again the interpretation. If you are devoid of the possibility for the Spirit to translate scripture to you, then you will more than likely be interpreting it wrong. You'll instead listen to the blind guide standing with the microphone as he'll tell you how to think. It is also a matter of using the written word out of context as so many do. Even when they warn others not to do this, they themselves are guilty of it as they pick and choose pieces of scripture and mash them together to create a theme for their agenda. You can create any doctrine that you want by combining different verses together and yet we follow people that do so. 

The Divine Expression of God, which are the written word, the spoken word through the Spirit and the living word Jesus are all one and create a unified cohesive structure we are supposed to receive as they are not as we want. God has used all three to convey His message into our ears, mind and heart yet here we stand still not receiving the message clearly because we want to interject our own understanding or wisdom in there. If we would quit trying to be in charge and let our hearts be guided by the one who has expressed His love for us through all three of those means, well then God's Divine Expression would finally be fulfilled in us. We are the fourth expression of His love. We cannot be that expression when we exalt one of the other expressions and try and manipulate it to fit our agendas. 

As we are to be an Expression of God, we must understand the great calling He has placed in us. We, as the expression, fit into the same category as scripture, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We are tools used to express God's love to the world. When you think of yourself in these contexts, the magnitude of our calling becomes weightier than first thought. We only thought we were to be good boys and girls until we go to heaven and live forever happy. Yet with this call on us to be the Expression of God, we can really let that change how we understand Him and His vision for the world. 

We are the final expression. The world runs the risk of being dragged into hell if we cannot let God use us as His word, His expression. Can we now lay down our selfish ambitions and let God have His way in us? Can we now stop fighting over interpretations and motives and become what we were created for? 

The world, without their knowledge is in pain and they are crying out for a savior to come and rescue them. If we cannot be that for them, if we cannot show them who God is, then they stay lost. His love must cover the world and we are chosen vessels to do that very thing. I implore you, empty yourself of all understanding and come to God as a child. Be His expression today. Fall on your knees and beg Him to use you for His will. 

We are the word of God. Created to be His hands and feet, to lead this world back to the Father. We have all the tools to be His Expression. We just need to let Him. 

Lord, I cry for your world as we fall deeper into darkness. I cry when I see the destruction the evil one has done. Lord use me to be your Expression. Let your love flow through me like a living spring and let those around me drink and be satisfied. To God be the Glory and may His Love spread like wildfire among His chosen.

Tools of the Enemy

 

Know thine enemy, a quote from the book, The Art of War dating back to the 5th Century B.C. It is a tactic that many a general has employed for millennium since. Knowing ones enemy takes the surprise out of their attacks and helps you build a good defense but also helps you look into an effective offense so when the time is right, you can defeat them. 

Knowing our enemy as Christians, is vital to help us in the daily war we participate in. Most people right now would say, right on, get rid of those Democrats and get Trump back in there. He'll straighten them out. Others would target the media or Hollywood or this or that, basically anything that upsets their delicate sensibilities. When I was that age, if I had holes in my pants I'd get smacked by my father for ruining a good pair of jeans. When I was their age, nobody ran around with colored hair. Sound familiar. 

Often we target the outward physical realm. What we see and hear, what we touch and taste to guide us in our discernment of the world we live in. We look at someone's taste in clothes or fashion, we hear their harsh words, we judge their behavior yet this is all fruit of what is underneath. Jesus said, a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and likewise a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, meaning, the heart of someone bears fruit according to how their heart is. How is the heart motivated? Depends on where you are living.

Sound confusing? Let's break it down into chewable parts. The heart of man is not the muscle that beats within his chest. Again if we must change the way we understand how God works and our underlying issues. The heart is a combination of the mind, soul and spirit that is in us. These three things form one cohesive structure sometimes know as a persons personality or character. The heart of man, during the fall, was corrupted by the enemy. For the first time our minds thought of something different than trust. Our feelings which dwell in our soul moved from happiness and joy to dread and condemnation. Our spirit went from knowing God to being disconnected from Him. It was as though we were ripped from our womb and sent into a harsh cruel world. Therefore, the heart of man knew no good from that time until the Law. The Law came to show us of our depravity, yet in our depraved state we took it and ran with the notion of Law equals life. If someone takes a filthy dirt caked shirt and threw it in a washer with other clean shirts with no soap, wouldn't all the shirts come out dirty. Hence, the issue with the Law. With filthy intensions we tried to fulfill something we couldn't do and we ended up corrupting the very Law that was sent to point out our corruption. Then there was Jesus, the only one who could guide us into the light and show us how to do it. 

With sayings like you must die to live and you must be last to be first, His words opened up a whole new world and it sent our corrupted heart into a battle ground. Now, it's up to us to decide. For the first time since the fall of man we had a choice to make, stay in corruption that is so deep it confuses the wearer of it into thinking it is normal or follow the light and be one with God again. Yet the enemy has had much time to create ways to trap us in our corrupted state.

Pride is one of the most powerful tool the enemy has in its arsenal. Pride got us kicked out of the garden and come to think of it, the devil got kicked out of Heaven for the same thing. Pride flies in the face of God as it will try and make us think we are higher and mightier than He. Pride made the Israelites crucify Jesus. Pride kept King Saul from being like David. Pride caused Samson to lose his vision. Pride can even make a Christian think he's righteous. Pride is one of the sneakiest tactics the enemy uses. It makes us feel powerful and mighty even though it's a false sense of it. Pride can ruin relationships quicker than anything and the enemy knows it. When one is full of pride, he never relies on God or anyone else for help or advice. They think they know everything they need to know to live and if they don't know it, they'll learn how to do it. Pride destroys, watch out and if you just said in your mind, I don't have pride, you failed. Saying you don't have pride is pride.

Worry/doubt is the opposite of pride yet just as deadly. Worry and doubt is the lack of confidence in yourself and most would think that is good. However, when someone worries, they often think they aren't worth God's time. Worry and doubt are in partnership with dread, fear, anxiety and anything that creates depression, loneliness and separation. The heart of a worrier tends to believe they aren't able to be loved. The enemy whisper constant claims of doubt in their ear and reinforces the ideas that God doesn't love them. They live in darkness and surround themselves with negativity. 

The enemy knows those well and uses them constantly and in every variation and combination known. If someone is gifted with intellect, athleticism or riches, basically anything they can be proud of, then there's the voices telling you that you deserve it. You worked hard for it. You, you, you. If someone is poor, constantly facing hardships and setbacks, the voices say; your not worthy, you don't matter, your not loved. Inevitably, thousands of scenarios play out daily as we will listen to those voices and swing back and forth from one extreme to the other. 

The enemy uses others to cause doubt and pride too. You ever seen a mom who celebrates their kids way too much. You know, the ones that over inflate the child's ego and pride. Then when they grow up, move out and life happens, the pendulum swings the other way and what once was pride is now doubt and self condemnation. There's also the kid that had the Father that never said I love you, let alone displayed it. You know the father that had the father that never loved him. The voices take over and self loathing, distancing and maybe even suicide could happen.

 All this from the enemy taking a situation and compounding it so much that our hearts are manipulated into believing it. Even when truth is presented to them, they are so entrenched, they can't except the truth as truth. Instead they violently appose the truth calling it a lie because they have lived in a lie so long, it's become their truth and they'll defend it. The enemy is always there and always watching for the right moment to strike. They will pick ever so slightly at you that you'll never know it's them. They'll hound you and constantly work on you till you cave in to what they have suggested. 

We are not without hope. To know thine enemy is to know that they are stronger and more clever than you. To know them is to try and not defeat them in your own power. They'll laugh at you and keep coming. Yet we know the one who can defeat them and we can have faith in Him to do so. As I have already stated many times over. With faith in God and Jesus living in us, we do not need to worry about trying to defeat the enemy as they will always flee in His presence. They will still look for that one moment of weakness, that one moment where we think we can handle something in our own power and then they will draw you out and lead you away. 

A specific scenario could be where you worried for a moment about an upcoming big decision. That worry is the one small crack where you stepped out of faith in God to handle it and they have you like a fish on a hook. The more you fight to get off the hook the more they reel you in until your exhausted and they have you fully turned away from faith and now your in full doubt spiraling even further. Now when this happens, when doubt or worry comes to mind for that moment and they start to reel you in, just remember the truth. Don't condemn yourself for being caught, don't fall for their lies about you or about God's love for you. Just say your sorry for doubting or worrying and go right back to walking in faith in Him. It works. He loves us all and doesn't want us to be apart from Him yet it is fully up to us to maintain our faith in Him.

One last thing, we must remain neutral in how we wage war. Switzerland had always remained neutral throughout two World Wars. They never got involved in the conflicts that surrounded them. Did they have a preference, most likely but they didn't engage the enemy. They let the allies, with much bigger armies take care of the situation and they always promoted peace. With us, the war is waged in the spiritual realm and we should not get involved. Yes the enemy wants us involved as they want us as dead as they are but if we stand in perfect peace knowing that God has you under His protection and you walk in faith in that truth, then no harm will come to you.

Now we know that this is all in the mind, heart, soul and spirit and that yes we must still deal with physical everyday issues yet a time will come when God will give us a body that is eternal, incorruptible and perfect. This is the reward for those who overcome the world and the enemy through faith in Him. 

It's a daily walk, a daily war but it is winnable in Him. Praise the Lord for that.

To God be the Glory! 

Out With the Old, In With the New?

There are some that claim that the Old Testament of the Bible is antiquated and out dated. That the stories in it and the content aren't relevant to our current needs. 

I admit, the Old Testament isn't my go to part of the Bible but there are hidden gems throughout its text.

In fact, littered throughout it's text are hundreds of prophecies about the coming of Christ. I read an article that said, the probability of one man fulfilling just eight of the prophecies would be 10 to the 17th power. Which means if you had that many silver dollars and you spread them across the state of Texas, they would cover the state two feet deep in coins. Now mark just one of those coins and place it somewhere amongst the rest, blind fold a man and ask Him to find it, that's the odds that Christ went up against when He fulfilled the prophecies. This is the treasures you find in the Old Testament. 

When Christ hung on the cross He says, My God my God why have you forsaken me, this is a quote from Psalms 22, go read it, and it's the first line of that Psalms. In Jesus’s dying breathes, He's trying to convince the crowd He is their Messiah. The Psalm is a direct telling of what was happening to Him at that moment. He's basically saying to those that new Old Testament scripture, look at that Psalm, see it talks about Me, right now in this moment I have fulfilled this scripture and if you read the last part of the Psalms, while He is dying, He is telling them to place their trust in Him and turn their hearts to Him. Basically, in just a few words, hanging on the cross, Jesus was preaching His last sermon. 

If we get rid or discount the Old Testament we lose those kind of treasures. 

One of my favorites and I've said it before, is the book of Esther. If you read Esther as a purely historical account then you've missed the deeper picture. Esther is you and the King is Christ. He sent out a call for all the women of the land. When He brings you into His palace, you are taught by the Holy Spirit how to be presentable to the King. It's a story of how we get drawn in by God, get born again and come to be one with Christ. It's a beautiful story if you read it like it's your story. 

We cannot do without the wisdom of Proverbs or the poetic praises of Psalms. We can't be without the warnings of how Israel acted towards God or lost their way. We can't discount how their mistakes gives us grace as we can learn from them and not repeat what they did. How can we look into the eyes of God and say, 5,000 years of your history with man is not relevant to us anymore. It just doesn't make sense. If it wasn't for Genesis we wouldn't know where we came from or where we need to go. If it wasn't for God calling Abraham and Him trusting God or Noah or Solomon or David or any of them, Jesus wouldn't have come and we would all be lost still, in utter darkness. We owe our salvation to their foundations. We owe our understanding to their journey. 

So, for someone to say, the Old Testament is irrelevant our out dated, they have internal issues and need them worked out with God. So read it, learn from it and glean all you can from it. However, don't live as they did, without hope. Live with hope because we have something they didn't have and that is Christ Jesus. Now some knew of His coming and praised the day He would come but they didn't see Him. Yet we get to see Him in us daily and we should also be extremely humble for that fact. They wanted signs and wonders and miracles to see but we have faith. They wanted provisions and physical comfort, we must seek spiritual comfort. They had the law and tried to obey it by their fleshly means. We have the law living inside of us that we might fulfill the law, not by our own hands but by the hands of the one living in us. They proclaimed a day when Messiah would come, we proclaim He is with us....Oh Emanuel. 

So they paved the way and we can see that. They opened a door and we walked in. They proclaimed from death we proclaim from life. They saw and did not believe, we don't see and we do. Yet in all our differences, we have developed the same sense of over inflated egos. We are the church, look at us, we have God. We are chosen and loved and highly favored. This may be true but our hearts are far from Him like theirs was. We can sit for an hour and sing then sit another hour and listen to preaching, yet our hearts are corrupt and they show no love for the Father. Both ages have raised up huge buildings for His name yet those that are in them cannot seem to understand how to worship Him. Stones were thrown in anger as those that broke law were punished. Now we throw insults and the same hatred for those who disagree is still lingering. 

As we read the Old Testament, we are supposed to learn from their mistakes yet I don't think we have. They gave us a road map to God's heart and we have ignored it. No wonder the enemy wins daily as we cast aside the examples and the pathfinders of our faith. 

To God be the Glory!

God in Action

 

1John 5:18-21 We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. 19We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

20And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.

21Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

1John is a treasure trove of quotes and my last post really opened up my eyes to its potential. It explains every important aspect of why and how to be a Christian. It's just amazing! The above passage is the conclusion to the letter, the last few verses as he's finishing up. The very last line is perfect. You see, we have explored all through my posts, that our journey is in faith in the Son of God and by that we are forgiven, cleansed, redeemed, and made righteous through His sacrifice and through the Spirit that dwells in us. As our faith in Him to live in us increases, our ability to sin goes away as the first verse above says. Jesus, through our faith in Him, keeps us from sinning and all it takes is our faith.

The last line, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts, is key to how we continue in Him.

This world is full of flash and fun. It's why so many people are lost. When you have an entertainment device in your hand throughout the day your need for a heavenly Father dwindles. That need may not even exist. If we look back at the history of the human race, we can trace our march away from God to the existence of machinery. When the industrial revolution came to pass, men placed their confidence in themselves and not in Jesus Christ or God. It's been a downward spiral ever since, as we gain more self awareness and our feelings become our god, we march headlong into a world full of darkness which is void of love. 

The last line is a warning to us in this world that we live in. Do we need 99% of the stuff we have and use on a daily basis. Probably not but does it make life convenient? Of course it does and that is why we fall away from the desire and need of God because we think we have everything we need. It was the rich man that couldn't follow Jesus. Because we find refuge in games, hobbies and entertainment, we find ourselves failing at our one job, faith in Them. If we wake up in a comfortable bed, have hot water to shower in, have convenience food for breakfast, drive a car to a job that we work at, have a paycheck to give us the power to buy whatever we want, do we really have that desire to need God. For most, if your living comfortably, need for a God is not priority. 

Opposite that, if your poor and you have very little, you may believe in God and have faith but your poverty finds you begging God for riches instead of trusting in Him. Poverty also has a way of obscuring peoples minds towards God. It's our situations and our environment that often dictate how we believe or if we even do. 

God in us, exists to bring us through this world untouched by the world, unscathed, unmoved. He lives in us so we can walk through, yet not be influenced by it. He is there to keep our eyes focused on what matters and that is His life. If we let the distractions of this world rob us of our focus on Him, then we've made a big mistake. The world breeds selfishness and seeks its own. It can never bring forth life which is Love. 

It's like the world is a scum filled pond, full of creatures big and small. It looks inviting with all the plants and animals living in and around it. Yet, if we drink of its water, it can make us deadly sick. In a clean flowing spring or mountain river however, the water has very little animal life in it but it brings us life. The world looks active and vital and full of life yet drink of its poisonous attitude and character and you'll find death. However, real life is found in the well spring called Jesus. Did He not say drink of Me and you'll have everlasting water springing forth from within.

God in action. I often times write these blogs over several days or some in the morning and some at night. For instance, I wrote the beginning of this one two mornings ago and two mornings later am finishing it up. I try to write what comes to mind with no predetermined path, I just try and let the Spirit do the writing for me. When thoughts stop, I stop, then I revisit it later. I've had half written posts before that I've gone back to finish and I've deleted it. They have to have some sense of me pointing to Them and not pointing to me. So, if the tone is all me, bye bye. 

What I wanted to say about God in action was this. I work on my own vehicles on the side to save money and frankly I love the learning experience. Am I a master mechanic, no, but I have done my fair share of vehicle repairs. That said, my usual demeanor starts out with a good attitude until I run into an issue. As soon as an issues arises, my attitude changes and like most mechanics, I would curse a lot more than I care to admit. This time however, I have a time deadline to get this current project fixed. Our mini-van is leaking oil and I've been putting it off because of cold or rainy weather. Yesterday was beautiful so I thought I'd tackle it. However, I also booked an overnight stay in a town 2 hours away to do some biking. The van is our only vehicle that can transport our bikes. So, the delay in fixing the van should have me in a meltdown right now but with God as my source of everything, I am walking in calmness and peace. 
The whole project I found myself pleasantly full of peace. Unlike my normal self that would have been upset at each delay, and there were plenty. So what I am saying is, walking in Them with faith works. Their life, their character, who They are will live in us if we invite them to do so. Why walk around frustrated by setbacks and disappointments? Why stress over the slightest thing going wrong? Why do any of us try to bring ourselves calm and peace through any other means other than through the Trinity. 

I cannot explain how much God has overcome so many things in my life in the last four months. It is just staggering. 

I want, what I am experiencing daily, for you to have too. I wan God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit to find a home in you. It isn't a hostile takeover. It isn't a lose of any will, it's a gain of self-control and love and peace of mind. Its not loosing you mind every time things don't go you way. Its a peace like no other and as the world crumbles around us, we can walk in Him unmoved by it all. Have you ever seen those massive explosions going off behind some actor portraying a cool hero. They never flinch and it makes them look even more bad than they did before. That is us with God in us. We can walk straight through the flames of anxiety and never be touched. We can walk through the explosions of things not going the way we planned it and never flinch a bit. Why? Because our confidence is in Him. Our ability to cope relies on faith in Him. Our hands never touch it, we don't worry about it because we let Him take care of it for us. Does He correct the happenings around us, nope. Instead He gives us the ability to go through and never be affected by it.

That is fact, it's happening in me daily and it can happen in you too. Just let go of the controls. Don't try and figure it out or think of how your going to deal with something, just let it go to Him. If I worry about what I'm going to do about that van, then I have no confidence in Him. If I get upset and throw things and curse, I am not letting God handle the issue. If I even think or worry about it for a second, then I'm not trusting God to keep me in Him. We often times let God handle the small stuff but when it comes to the big stuff we think we have to take over or we let Him handle the big stuff that is truly out of our reach only to take care of the small stuff ourselves. 

God wants us to rely on Him for everything. We cannot wake up in the morning and try to tackle the day in our minds. We must let Him work through us. My daily prayer to God is this: God be my hands and feet today, be my ears and lips and tongue, be my mind and my heart Lord. I cannot live without You taking complete sovereignty over all of me. Lord thank you for living in me, walking in me and shining in me. The key to that prayer is having the faith to believe the words. It's not the words themselves but the faith behind it. If you give God control by word alone yet continue to doubt His ability to do so, then He will not work in you. The words are only as good as the intentions of the heart behind them. Wow, now that's good.

I think I've exhausted you enough for today. I've got a van to fix. Love you!

To God be the Glory! Always!

Remain in Me

 

John 15:1-8 1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. 2He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. 

5I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.

1John 2:3-6  3By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments. 4If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

1John 3:1-10 Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 2Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.

4Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.5But you know that Christ appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6No one who remains in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has seen Him or known Him.

7Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. 8The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

9Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

Let's combine these quotes I have highlighted in red above to make one cohesive statement. I included the scripture around it so you can get a sense of the context and I encourage you to always read several verses ahead and behind to get that context. It's unfortunate that we take so many quotes out of context but here I want the context above to resonate with what I have below. I have combined them and made them cohesive as if Jesus would continue to talk instead of the apostles. The black words I changed from Him to Me or I. So instead of someone talking about Jesus, it's like He is still talking about Himself which is perfectly fine. 

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. Whoever claims to live in Me must live as I did. You know that I appeared to take away sins, and in Me there is no sin. No one who remains in Me keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has seen Me or known Me. Anyone born of God (like I am) refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

It's a cohesive formation from multiple sources blending together as one, which if we study scripture, should happen as we study. It also supports the fact that John and Jesus are one as they both are saying the same thing. This is coming from one source, which is God, as He speaks to Jesus and to John across decades and now centuries to line up what they said to what we should be hearing from Him as well. This is why the study of what man says over what God speaks to you or what scripture says is dangerous. We cannot rely on others to tell us what the truth is, we have to find it for ourselves.

Remain in me, how is that done. In Romans, Paul puts it like this, walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Jesus says remain in me, so does John. Different ways of saying the same thing but basically it comes down to realizing Christ dwells within you and God dwells in Christ. Therefore, Jesus says both of them dwell within us and we have them as weapons to destroy the flesh which in turn destroys sin. Sin is just disobedience, so if we stay in Him then we have no disobedience and therefore no sin. 

I got this parable yesterday as I was driving and praying on my way to work. Think of God, Jesus and you in the setting of a football game or really any sport. God is the owner of the team. He owns the team, the stadium and anything having to do with the team. If His team is doing good, He gets the glory for it. If the team does bad, He starts firing people. The coach of the team is Jesus. He creates the plays that make the team succeed. He oversees the entire team and He gives the quarterback, the Holy Spirit, the directions on how to lead the team. We are the players on the team. If we follow the direction of the  coach and the quarterback then we succeed but if we refuse to listen, we fail. We cannot go out on the field with our own ideas on how to run or catch the ball and score. There are too many players. If every player stepped out on the field without being led, there would be chaos. The opposing team is the devil and his demons. They are very organized and very intimidating. They taunt and tease as we line up across from them but if we stick to the training of our coach we will succeed. 

If anyone has played organized sports, you win by who is mentally tougher. With the devil, he is always mentally tougher unless we listen to our coach and quarterback. Each time a football team runs a play, the coach on the sidelines tells the quarterback what play to run. Then the team huddles on the field quickly so the quarterback can relay that play over to the rest of the team. When the team lines up to play, everyone on the team should know how to execute the play so they can succeed against the enemy. If one person fails at understanding or the enemy gets under the skin of a team member, then the whole play can fail. 

The enemies whole goal is to stop God's team from scoring and eventually winning. They cheat, they lie and they'll do anything they can to keep us from winning in the end. What's at stake, the stadium full of fans. They aren't players yet and they only look to see who is winning. If the devil is winning, then they root for his team. If God is winning, then they root for God's team. Lately, God's team has been struggling to listen to His guidance and therefore are losing. 

It takes complete obedience in order for a team to succeed. Again, abide in me. If we want to abide in Christ we listen to His leadership and follow what He tells us and we learn from His example. God is the team owner, He instructs the coach and the coach instructs the quarterback and the quarterback instructs the team. If we don't have faith in that system, if we struggle with listening to our owner, then we may be cut from the team, not by His doing but by ours. God never cuts anyone from the team. He sees in us the potential to succeed in His program. Like all good coaches, they create players that succeed and not fail. When a player does fail, it's usually because they failed to listen and thought they could play the game better or differently. Each time they try, they fail. 

To Remain in Him is to listen, to listen is to succeed, to succeed is to win. What do we win? We win Him and all He has.

To God be the Glory! 

False Christs

Matthew 24:23-25

At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. 25 See, I have told you in advance.

The urge to look and see what's happening is beyond our control. We are eager, hungry and in need of God everyday. However, that hunger can lead us in the wrong direction. It doesn't take much leaven for the whole loaf to have leaven in it. Which is another way of saying, there's full truth and there's truth mixed with lies. The early church with Paul and Peter and the other apostles battled issues like these in their letters. They warned of antichrists and their false teachings. The thing about false teaching is that it uses just enough truth that it sounds convincing. Just as Eve was deceived by the serpent, so too can we be deceived by one omission of the truth or an addition of a lie. It doesn't take much. 

Look back at 1 and 2 John, he warns the readers to not fall for those that say Christ did not come in the flesh. We look at that today and say how ridiculous. How could anyone believe He didn't come in the flesh. We say that about them but what is being spread around today that denies Him in some way. Can we say that everyone calling themselves Christians believe in the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, that through the Spirit, the life of Christ can be manifest in us and that God himself will live in us. It's in scripture yet there are whole denominations that don't believe that. Gifts of the Spirit is contended as well as most churches belief that gifts of tongues and prophecy and healings were reserved for the early church. Yet, scripture says these things will follow those that believe.

See, we already we have spirits of contention, disbelief and false doctrines at work tearing the church apart. As such, we are all hungry for truth and starvation will lead a person to eat some pretty disguising things. Ever watch Bear Grylls, just plain nasty but in a survival situation it gets you through till you can get a proper meal. Same goes for the current situation in the world today. Darkness is enveloping the world and with it comes desperation. In that desperation for a morsel of light, people will run to anything that looks like the real deal. 

This is why we must stick to truth and not a doctrine that denies things that are clearly written in scripture. Don't seek Christ where He isn't. Christ is in you and we cannot deny that, if we do, we are already deceived. The gift given to Jesus after resurrection was the ability to give the Spirit to those who believed in Him. Before His resurrection, He could not do that. It was only after that He breathed on the disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit. This breath was to regenerate their souls. Before they only had flesh with the Spirit man inside of them completely dormant. We are made of flesh and Spirit and when disobedience came, our flesh became a ruler over us. The Spirit was still there but it wasn't in charge. Our Spirit was quenched by the flesh as we chose to obey it instead of God. So now, when Jesus breathed upon the disciples, their Spirit inside of them was regenerated so it can overcome the flesh. It is just like now, as every believer's Spirit is renewed at the time we believe Jesus came, died and was resurrected for us. Later, at Pentecost, the disciples were given the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the upper room. This was the power of God to do things like Jesus did in His ministry, like healing. 

It's plainly written in scripture but most of todays church doesn't believe in a Baptism of the Holy Spirit yet several times in scripture it is mentioned. As people look towards the things they can see, feel and hear, the Spirit is left out of our narrow-minded modern society. Yet, there's a hunger coming upon the nations that will bring them into deception and has already done so. 

Christ speaks of the elect in the above scripture from Matthew, that even the elect might be deceived. Who is the elect? It can be you. All the things we have discussed has been leading to this. We must believe that we can live a life fully in Christ. Where we do not let flesh rule over us and that we know without a doubt that through the Holy Spirit living in us that the flesh is no longer our worry. That we can walk in Him and He will keep us, lead us and move us in His will. All this is accomplished by faith in Him yet it is our minds that stand in the way of believing. We have been taught all our lives that we are devils, mean, problems, cruel, haters, and more but in Christ, we have hope. We cannot sit and let the world dictate how we understand who we are in Him. 

The sure fire way of knowing a false Christ from the real one is the need to be seen, heard and followed. Jesus, when He was here on Earth, always pointed to the Father and never to Himself. Never once did He say, I do this or I did that. He always stated that He was about His Father's work and that when you saw Him you saw the Father. Jesus never took glory for Himself, He received glory from God but He never asked to be glorified by men. So, if you see someone who is boasting about themselves instead of pointing to God, then they are false. This goes for preachers, teachers, prophets or anyone claiming to be from God. Read the Bible and let the heart of who Jesus is become real to you. Let His voice be the only voice we follow. We can be the elect. We can follow only one voice. We can be overcomers. We can be everything God wants us to be as long as we continue to walk in faith in Him.

To God be the Glory.  

Talk to Him

Talking to God is something most people only do when they are in need. However, the most freeing and personal time with Him comes when you talk to Him and you need nothing. His presence alone is your reward as you just thank Him for being Him. 

We sometimes get in that rut of treating God like a teenager treats his dad. "Dad, I'm going out with friends. Can I have some money?" We treat our Heavenly Father in that same manner. God isn't an ATM or a genie in a bottle or a priest that listens to all your confessions, He is a person that wants relationship. 

The Bible says love the Lord God first. It's the first commandment and Jesus even said this is the greatest commandment. Loving God requires selfless behavior. We can't go into a conversation with Him with a hidden agenda or selfish motives. It's like being married. Most only marry so each others needs can be met but if you go beyond the needs and truly have a sacrificial marriage where no matter what your spouse does, you still pour out love to them. We can create this idea in our head that God is always going to be the one supplying the miracles and the power and everything we need to walk as Christians and that is true but we cannot take advantage of Him by expecting those things. It's a difference between humility and arrogance. Humility is receiving His love and power and gifts with a grateful heart of thanksgiving. Arrogance is expecting it no matter how they act. 

Take Samson for instance. He was given a great gift of strength where no one could beat him and his arrogance got the better of him. It wasn't until he learned humility that he was able to get that strength back. His plight has a direct link to us. The Philistines represent everything about our flesh and we are given strength through God to beat our flesh and conquer it but as soon as we step out of faith in Him, we end up blind like Samson did, striped of our power that we had in God. If we come to God arrogantly assuming He will always be our strength, then we may one day wake up without His presence and we may not even know it. When the battle comes and we stand up to fight our flesh, we may end up succumbing to it instead. It's a grim tale that leaves us blind and weak and useless for the Kingdom of God.

David listened to God, fought with God, disobeyed and still he's known as the one after God's own heart. His heart was always in humility and faith. Yes he messed up and yes he disobeyed but there was always repentance. Read Psalms and you'll understand the heart David had and the heart we should have towards God. 

I often get up early or wake in the middle of the night and I seek God in those moments. I don't need Him for anything but His presence. It's like basking in the sun after a week of rain. I need His presence in my life because I cannot go back the way I came. I have so enjoyed Him that the thought of me leaving Him makes me cry. I cannot go back to what I was, struggling, limping along. His love for me has caused me to love Him and I cannot undo that. 

If your relationship with God is based on needs, then stop. Don't come to Him with a laundry list of requests. He knows your needs and He is a good, good Father and those needs will be met but faith must have its chance to work. We must come to Him without needs and just be in His presence. Some say, I don't feel Him. You don't need to feel Him to have faith in Him. You don't need to have a spectacular show in order to know He is in you and all around you. It is by humble faith that we come to Him and just like children, be excited and giddy for Him. Open your heart to Him and empty all doubt and He will fill you up. 

It is very hard to explain but I know coming to God in this manner didn't always work for me. I was coming to Him with great expectations and anticipation of some show of His presence and instead of just appreciating Him and trusting Him, I was coming to Him for self. I wanted to have Him show so I could have faith instead of having faith and Him being in me. I had the cart before the horse so to speak. 

Don't come wanting Him to prove Himself to you, come with a humble heart that is full of faith. Know He is good and thank Him for that. Know that He loves you and thank Him for that. Know that He is the one who is living in you and thank Him for that. Come to Him with a grateful and thankful heart with no expectations of reward and He will respond.

To God be the Glory!

Isaiah 58

Isaiah 58:1-11

1“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.

Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.

Tell my people Israel of their sins!

2Yet they act so pious!

They come to the Temple every day

and seem delighted to learn all about me.

They act like a righteous nation

that would never abandon the laws of its God.

They ask me to take action on their behalf,

pretending they want to be near me.

3‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.

‘Why aren’t you impressed?

We have been very hard on ourselves,

and you don’t even notice it!’

“I will tell you why!” I respond.

“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.

Even while you fast,

you keep oppressing your workers.

4What good is fasting

when you keep on fighting and quarreling?

This kind of fasting

will never get you anywhere with me.

5You humble yourselves

by going through the motions of penance,

bowing your heads

like reeds bending in the wind.

You dress in burlap

and cover yourselves with ashes.

Is this what you call fasting?

Do you really think this will please the LORD?

6“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;

lighten the burden of those who work for you.

Let the oppressed go free,

and remove the chains that bind people.

7Share your food with the hungry,

and give shelter to the homeless.

Give clothes to those who need them,

and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

8“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,

and your wounds will quickly heal.

Your godliness will lead you forward,

and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind.

9Then when you call, the LORD will answer.

‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.

Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!

10Feed the hungry,

and help those in trouble.

Then your light will shine out from the darkness,

and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.

11The LORD will guide you continually,

giving you water when you are dry

and restoring your strength.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like an ever-flowing spring.

"It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves, This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me."

In these words, we see how God has seen through their religious behaviors and has called them out for it. I cried when I read this because God's heart is on display for us to see and it is beautiful.

Below I have inserted the 7th chapter of Zechariah and in this chapter which was written 200 years after Isaiah, God is referencing the message He gave to the earlier prophets which was Isaiah. We have an opportunity to see that God's request is still active and has not changed one bit. Now understand that Zachariah was written shortly after the nation had spent 70 years in exile in Babylon for not obeying the Lord. So he references the fasting again in verse 5 as He did in Isaiah and He called them out for doing it selfishly.   

Zechariah Chapter 7

In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. 2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord 3by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

4Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: 5“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’ ”

8And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

11“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.

13“ ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. 14‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’ ”

If we can learn from these two chapters, written hundreds of years apart, it is this. God hates when we put on a show. The show is religion. We slap on our Sunday best and drag ourselves into church with a fake smile and a fake handshake. We stand in worship and raise our hands because we want others to see us being Holy. We bring our Bibles and walk around with them like they're trophies. We pretend to like others in the parking lot but as soon as the show is over, the act is dropped and we treat our waitresses like dirt and leave a small tip. We pass by the man with the buggy, clearly homeless, and never even look his way let alone help him. We talk about God, guns and religion and how we hate those in the White House yet never greave for them or pray for them to know God. We are proud and pompous, void of His life and love. We quote, we judge, we gossip and spread false rumors. We hate our jobs, our boss, our lives, our wives and our husbands. We look like a fraud to the eyes of the world.

Where is the compassion for people?

God stands at the door and is ready to judge this nation as He did back then. He has weighed the hearts of His people and have found them lacking and just as the nation of Israel was taken away to exile, so will the church. It's already begun, for the first time the majority of households in America are not claiming to be Christians. The nation is in an uproar calling Christians the enemy. They will be targeted even more as the enemy will take away those that are not truly God's children. Those that have stood in church for selfish motives will leave and will become enemies. They will expose the hypocrisy and call out their falsehood. Christians will rise against Christians as they try and defend their so called Holiness yet all the while they are false as well. The church as we have known it in America is doomed to fail.

However, just like the Lord had a remnant in the time of Elijah, there will be a remnant that comes out of the church. They will be the ones who never bowed their knee to religion and selfish motives. They will be the ones who God will use to lead the nations back to Him. They will be His people and His chosen ones who sacrificed their flesh upon the altar of God. They will be the ones who have a heart for God.

God loves those that love Him. As we draw close to Him, don't do it for selfish reasons. Don't pray for your day to go better or for someone else to change. Be the change. The world is in desperate need of a people who shine with the radiance of Moses. The world needs the love of God and those who let God live in them, they will provide the world with that love. 

Oh God of my soul, let your light shine in me. Let it root out any selfish motive I may have and any religious tendencies left in me. Lord, may you live freely in me to project your love through me as a lighthouse guides those lost at sea. If you see a root in me that needs removed, let me know Lord so I can present it to you for removal. Let me not fall prey to selfish ambitions but let me be as humble as you oh Lord. 

You are a blessing to me God. I could have been left to my selfish ways, yet you pursued me with your everlasting love. You cleaned me and made me new. You set my feet on solid ground. You groomed me and made me beautiful in your site. You showed me your love and you crushed the serpents head in me. Thank you God for your continued grace and love. May those that read this also pursue you for selfless reasons. May they lay on the altar of sacrifice and let your fire consume all that is not of you. May they come to you Lord and let you dwell in them for your Glory and your Mighty name so the nations will come to know you. May they shine in the darkness in the days ahead. May they never lose sight of you Lord. 

To God be the Glory, Always and Forever!  

Path to Peace

    

Been working on this for days as I have been very busy lately. 

Some days it seems as though we have everything together. From the moment we get up to the time we fall asleep that night, the day is perfect. Other times, it sucks a sour pickle. The highs and lows of life are a direct result of situational emotions. Each moment in our lives, whether good or bad tends to dictate or mood. For instance, you go to bed late the night before and you know you'll only get five hours of sleep. Right there, when you lay down, you set yourself up to have a bad day because the next morning the first thought is, I didn't get enough sleep. So you lay in bed, in reluctance until your now running late for work, which increases the bad mood. On the commute to work, someone drives 20 mph and makes you later, then all the traffic lights are red, then and then and then and then. It's a cascading meltdown that leads you deeper and deeper into a bad mood, then a bad day. Eventually, your bad day is now effecting those around you and when you get home the spouse and kids are usually in the line of fire too. This is all because of the mindset the night before. 

Now those that are more self centered, or walking in their flesh, will see this as normal behavior and often times others will reinforce you and validate you as you vent about your day. I get it, I've been there and done that probably hundreds of times yet it doesn't make it right. If we are always letting our surroundings, our situations, and others dictate our minds, moods and attitudes then we can be manipulated as easy as a puppet on a string. Others know this and some will use this to their advantage against you. Have you ever regretted the mood your in before or couldn't stand being around yourself because you were so irritated by everyone and everything. Yep, been there before too. It's not a good place because continued thinking and being like that can lead you to darker realms like depression and beyond. If we always think that the world is stacked up against us and we constantly see the world as out to get us, then we have no joy or happiness and we lose hope.

The enemies whole purpose in life is too get you so focused on yourself that each and everything that goes wrong or right will affect you and others around you. Your mood can create a run away affect on those you live with, work with and casually come in contact with. How many times has this happened to you? Your going along great but one person cuts you off in traffic because they did what we described above. They're late and in a complete self focused meltdown to get through traffic and you are just another receiver of their bad mood. Now your in a bad mood because now you'd like to smack the crap out of them and how dare they cut you off. Then that mood you just got goes on to do the same to others. Meanwhile the enemy is laughing his butt off because one thought, one bad situation in someone's life has now effected tens of people and ruined their day.

If they're Christian, and they have multiple bad days in a row that week, they hit the church door ready for God to magically take their stress away. They prepare themselves for singing and worshiping and a great sermon that will tell them God's got this and all we have to do is survive till He comes back or we die. We get recharged for that day and then we go back to work on Monday and lose what we got in the first hour of being awake. So now your left with this situation in your heart, God must be punishing me for all the bad things I have done or am doing and not knowing about. Then a deeper division is wedged between you and Him. You set yourself up as the victim now as you can't seem to live up to His impossible standards which are all set by you and not Him. As life continues to beat you down day after day, God has now become the enemy and you leave Him, curse Him, blame Him and all the while the whole problem started with a whisper from the enemy, "Your gonna have a bad day tomorrow because your going to bed too late."   

I can say these things with confidence because I lived through all that. I lived from situation to situation constantly seeking things that made me happy and avoiding those that didn't. I got so bent out of shape when things didn't go my way. I fell into depression many times over as I thought I was not enough for God. I ran from Him thinking He was the problem. I turned inward on myself and loathed who I was. It was bad. Yet, through the darkness, in my heart I knew the only solution was to come back to Him and figure it out. Guilt, condemnation, self-loathing and much more were my companions back then and that suitcase was heavy. 

God showed me that He loved me one day and all that crap I carried with me was thrown away along the roadside and has never came back. It was out of the blue during a conversation I was having with Him. I was just talking about something and my thoughts led from one thing to another and suddenly the thought, I Love You, popped into my mind. It was so loud I knew it wasn't a thought from me so it had to be Him. At that thought, I opened my mouth and repeated what I heard in my head. I Love You, I said it out loud in my car and I began to shake. Tears rolled down my face as I said out loud, He loves me and I just kept repeating it like a victim of shock would because I was in shock. I knew it was the truth because it was speaking directly to my heart and I was turning into a blubbering idiot. I said He loves me through the snot for the last time and the weight on my heart was lifted and I began to now laugh uncontrollably.  It was such a wonderful moment, it's hard to write about it accurately.

After that, I walked around never feeling sorry for myself again. After all, I was loved by God. It's like a father telling his son that he's proud of him. Even though I was released from all the condemnation I had poured on myself over the years, it was just one step to a higher understanding. The next step was me not walking in the flesh but walking in the Spirit. Even though we can walk in being loved, we can still walk in flesh as well. Sometimes, knowing your loved, makes you think that no matter what you do, He'll still love you. For a long while after receiving His love I would still do things I shouldn't have done, yet I had no condemnation. It was now me attempting to live according to what I thought was right and what He wanted yet I failed too often to do those things. 

It was now a time when I tried to be righteous under my own power and will. I knew I was loved yet I didn't know how to quit sinning. It was aggravating to know He loved me yet I couldn't quit doing things I knew I shouldn't do. For a couple of years I struggled to follow Him and pull myself together, until I stopped trying again. I stopped trying to avoid behaviours I knew were not Christian-like. I just gave up and waited for Him. I was waiting for Him to give my flesh the ability to change and the flesh doesn't change. So I resided in a state of neutrality, neither concerned or condemned. 

My behavior became less and less becoming of a Christian until my wife started to ask me what was going on. I re-evaluated and started to listen to Dan Mohler videos again. I had heard him before but I apparently didn't understand them at the time. In my frustration and need, I renewed my efforts and listened to more of his videos. The key, the one I had missed, was right there. I had no where else to turn so I gave it a try.

The flesh is all about self and in that, the enemy entices us to move and be. They also headline the flesh and its resulting sin throughout the church. It's a focus thing. If your constantly concerned and focused on the flesh, its desires and the sin it produces, then you can't focus on Jesus and what He did for us. It's the oldest trick in the book. Keep the focus on fear and through fear you can manipulate someone to lose their relationship with God. Most teach that the flesh and sin will always be there and so we just need to ask God for forgiveness each time we sin and move on, or they teach to try and control the flesh on our own. It never works either way.

The solution was so simple, a child can get it. Faith was the answer. See, faith was always taught as a means to believe in Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection and nothing more. Faith was to get me to pray the sinners prayer so I can be saved and being saved was a ticket to heaven. That's all I was taught when I started in church. Faith got me outta hell and now I try to live a holy life. 

No one ever told me that the term, walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh was by pure faith. If they did, I never got it. Now, the missing link has been solved. I no longer wake up concerned about what I should avoid or not do. I don't worry about my flesh, its desires or the resulting sin. I trust fully in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to live through me and to be what they are. I've talked about this before so I won't go into great detail but I just want to say this. Set your worries, your doubts, your condemnation, your past, everyone's opinions and yours aside and fully trust that God loves you and He wants to live in You. He wants to take over our heart where His nature is made manifest through us. By having simple faith that He wants to, can and will live in you, you change. It's like carrying heavy luggage full of all your junk all your life and a nice porter comes along with a luggage cart and takes those heavy bags off of you and places them on the cart. The junk is now under His care and you are as light as a feather. 

God wants what is best for us and in our state of being, the best is coming to Him through faith that He will live in us to be people we aren't able to be without Him. Lay down your control and just invite Him to take over. Know that He loves you. Know He is there and have faith that He will order your entire life. Just know He is there to change your mind, change your heart and change your understanding. Walk in the light, as He is in the light and we will have no darkness in us.

To God be the Glory!

  

Indian Flats Falls

I don't normally describe my photos that I use for my posts and yes every picture is one of mine. I have a passion for photography and I do that as a hobby on the side. This particular spot is in the Smoky Mountains National Park in the Tremont Area. Tremont is located just outside of Townsend TN and is on the way to Cades Cove. Just enter the Tremont area and drive to the end of the road where the Middle Prong Trail starts. The falls are marked on Googles maps. It's an eight mile round trip with a gradual assent. You follow an old railroad bed up the valley until you get to the last mile. The last mile is more strenuous but I would consider to be easy to moderate overall. Along the way you'll see evidence of an era time has forgotten. From old cars to sections of the old railroad to evidence of old structures, the Tremont area is filled with history. Stop by the gift shop for more info on the area. Indian Flat Falls is off the main trail a little ways and is not maintained by the park. It's only a tenth of a mile walk but has some very rugged terrain so wear appropriate shoes and be very careful. The picture is of a blooming Rhododendron with the falls behind it. It's one of my many favorite photos I've taken. 

When I hike in the mountains, I don't see the destination as the main attraction but I see the journey to it as being the most important. It's the humdrum of the mile after mile, step after step progression that is  the real wonder for me. If we always look towards the reward at the end of the trail, we miss the small miracles along the way. For me the small stuff like little mushrooms growing on a log or a small flower tucked behind a stump or the call of a passing bird gets me excited. The smell of the forest, the sounds of water, the whole of it all just gets me going. 

It's like life, we must trudge through life just like walking mile after mile uphill to reach what we are after. Whether that is retirement, heaven, graduation, a better job, marriage or even a vacation it is all about that destination for some. We tend to live from highlight to highlight and ignore the small miracles all around us. We live a simple life my wife and I and we constantly get ribbed or told, we need a dish washer. In our entire lives, we have never owned a dish washer. So we get called out on that and also told, once you get one you'll love it. Now personally, I think doing the dishes side by side with my wife is a small enjoyment. It's time we aren't in front of our phones or TV or any other distraction. We just click when we are doing chores together. If we take that away, what will we do with that time. Probably on our phones or in front of the TV. The comforts of electronical gadgets have taken away the interactions we can have with family, friends or even strangers. 

Don't get me wrong, the modern day gadgets are nice to have but if they replace interactions with others then are they really a help. We have a social deficit in this social media filled society. We've forgotten how to interact beyond a screen, especially for the youth.

If you can chose to do it easy or do it the hard way, choose the hard way. It builds character,  gives you a chance to ask for help or it can be a group activity. 

To God be the Glory 

Small Victories

 

When I started this blog back on Nov 22, 2022 I had gone through a paradigm shift in my thinking. I went from circumstance consciousness to truth consciousness. What does that mean? So, instead of letting circumstances dictate how I thought or reacted or believed that day, I began to rely on God's truth instead. I let go of trying to change my life to letting Him change my life. I looked at it from a different perspective and as a result, I am changed. 

My idea of being a Christian was putting forth effort and thought into it. If I knew something then I could solve issues through knowledge. I tried that but something was missing. If I tried to read more or pray more or sacrifice more then that would do it. I knew something was off and I was trying real hard to figure it out but everything I did seemed to work for a day or maybe a week or sometimes even a month but there was always a reset back to where I was before. Often times, the reset took me back further than I was when I started. I got to the point where I stopped trying and basically said if God wants me to do something, He will ask or intervein. So I stopped everything. Which was a huge mistake. I felt myself slipping further and further away but I told myself, I believe in Him. Well, the devil believes in God. 

So, just before I stated writing I listened to Dan Mohler. I had done so before but something He said just stuck with me. He said to basically, stop trying to be and just believe that the Christ in you has the ability to walk for you, talk for you, see for you and hear for you. In other words, He would order my entire life if I just believed and had faith that He would. So I started to have faith and trust. I stopped looking at my past failures and stopped asking, what is wrong with me or why can't I get this and it is going well so far. 

One change in the way I think, changed me entirely, one perspective shift did it. The issue with why we don't get this or teach this is that it requires little to no effort on our part. We have to just believe in the finished work of the cross and in the ability of the Spirit to change us from who we were into who He is. So, because it only takes faith, we often struggle with it. "It" being love, peace, joy, happiness, self-control and everything God is. 

Before, I would rely on results. If I stayed up all half the night praying for God to move in me to make me more like Him then I'm praying for my flesh to be exalted, unknown to me of course. I always thought that to get something, you prayed for it and God would answer the prayer. I also knew it didn't work for money, cars, and other selfish stuff but for more of Him or a Spiritual gift I thought prayer worked. Then the understanding of faith came into play. If I drop to my knees and wail and complain and cry for God all night and day and I fast for a week but I never have faith that He can live and be in me then all the prayer's in the world won't move Him. 

It is incredible how much faith changed my perspective and my walk in Him. I mean it's like night and day. Before, I held judgement and condemnation for myself. If I couldn't get what God wanted or didn't understand what direction He wanted me to go, I'd fall apart. Now, I just trust. I know He will do things in me and cause me to be. I never worry about my day, I just have faith in Him. Before, I relied on things going well but one slip and I'd fall into a massive self loathing campaign that could last from hours to weeks or longer. I judged my relationship with God on how I performed that day. If I slipped and did something the Spirit convicted me of, I thought of myself as a failure. Now, I know He has it all under control and He does.

My mind was set on sin and flesh and trying to avoid the mine field of them. I was always aware of my faults, mistakes and lack. It was no different than being under the law of Moses. In my mind I had certain ideas of how I needed to conduct myself and each time I failed. So now, I don't look at sin as a thing anymore. I don't look at flesh anymore. If you give them attention then they have power over you. Lets try and see if I can properly describe this.

We are helpless to avoid sin and flesh yet we have someone who can do that for us. If we let go our attempt at control then we can let Him have control in us. If we let Him have control through our faith in Him to do so, then we can let go of the control and let Him do it in us. Now I want to praise Him and love Him and spend time with Him because of His goodness and love to correct what was wrong in me. I want to appreciate Him more.

I got an image in my head. The difference in walking in my efforts versus walking in faith in Him is like trying to pedal a roller-coaster. What if when you got on a roller-coaster there were pedals on the floor that you had to pedal in order for the coaster to move. You'd climb in and start to pedal but as soon as you hit that first hill you'd struggle and struggle to make it to the top. It may take you a long time to get up there but once on top, that car is grabbed by gravity and your victory is short lived. Down you go and for a small moment, the ride is awesome until you can't clear the next hill then it's a struggle to get back up. Around and around you go and you work to get that few moments of happiness then the next challenge comes and your right back to working again. When we believe in God to be in us through His Spirit, to live and do and be through us, the coaster becomes like it should, fully powered where all we have to do is ride. We don't know how many hills or valleys but it doesn't matter because we do not have to work to climb out of the valley. The quote, The valleys made high and the mountains made low comes to fruition when He is living through us. We no longer have to worry because nothing can affect us anymore.

I can say that the things I struggled with, I no longer do. The things that bothered me, no longer does. I'm more aware of others needs than my own and I do not feel like people are a burden. I am becoming like Him and I can feel the change in me with how I think and how I function on a daily basis. It's incredibly freeing when I do not have to worry about peddling up the hills. I count every day as a small victory and I look forward to more as I go from who I was to who He is. 

To God be the Glory