Distractions

 

This day in age there is more to see, do, hear and experience than ever before. We have the information highway at our fingertips. Individuals have the ability to influence others for the first time in history. Before, that job belonged to teachers. We have so many things coming at us 24/7/365 that often times we get lost in the background noise of it all. Times were simpler when I grew up yet we had our distractions too. The generation before me, same things, so on and so forth. Each generation has distractions and the enemy has set it up that way. Distractions may not even look like a distraction from your perspective either. This blog, for me can turn out to be a distraction if I let it. It could come between me and God yet I try and let Him write these things through me. I had no clue what I was writing until I started typing. 

Let's look at the oldest trick used by anyone wanting to get your attention away from something else. Misdirection is used to this day in media all the time. If something is news worthy but those in power want it hushed, the media will focus on something else instead thereby redirecting your focus. Magicians do it all the time. They focus your eyes away from the object they are trying to move or make disappear. So they purposefully point to a hand and use that hand only to do something while the other hand is doing something else. We are programmed for distractions.

Recently I went as a volunteer to a large church gathering of thousands of church youth. I got to listen to some of the preaching and the preacher mentioned the performance or devil worship at some award show. I've seen the pictures on social media and I personally didn't care much about the whole thing. Free country and all, they can do that if they want. The only thing is this. It is a stunt to distract the church into retaliation. 

Anything that takes your focus off of God is a distraction. Anything that pulls you away from pursuing a relationship with the Father is nothing but a distraction. The devil knows this and uses this tactic constantly. It always works too. The LGBTQ thing is a distraction from the enemy. BLM is a distraction from the enemy. Devil worship on TV is a distraction. It is all meant for us to step out of Him and into a fleshly reaction. 

If the distraction works and it often does, the eyes of Christians are pulled away from dying to the flesh, to putting on the flesh. The flesh is appalled. The flesh can't believe this is going on. The flesh wants to react. The flesh says we must say something about this, give our opinion. The flesh contains hate for them. The flesh contains disdain for them. This is the whole goal of the enemy. To draw us out of Him and to bring us back into the realm where he can manipulate, confuse and distract you. If our eyes are single, on God alone, and we walk in Him and He in us, then we are walking in light as He is the light. If we are walking in Him our minds and hearts are changed into who He is which is love, compassion, grace, forgiveness and self control. If we are in Him and He in us then our whole personalities change and then we have a chance at influencing others through the love they see in us. It takes sacrifice in us for others to see we are different. If we respond like the world does to anything not of God then we stand with them. If the world sways one way and we sway that way too then there's not much difference between us and them. However, if our response to something blatantly not Christians isn't hate but love and compassion, then the world turns their head. 

If we see a gay rally going on in our town, what is the response of the church, picketing maybe, with signs saying they are going to hell. How is that going to show the love of God if we do that. Instead, if we set up a food stand or beverage stand and hand out drinks or snacks for free and love on those people instead of hate them, then God has an inroad to their heart. We have to remember, the seeds we sow, produce the fruit from that seed. If we sow hate and anger, we harvest hate and anger. If we sow love and peace, then God can work.

To love those that persecute us, was one of the main points Jesus preached about. We cannot deny that fact, yet with every breath the church has set itself up as the enemy to anyone not walking in God. How's this possible if we are to be walking in God's love. We can't pretend to be Christians if we walk in hate for others. We cannot pretend our lives are surrendered to God if we still have some kind of distaste for those in the world. 

Jesus came to save the world through His sacrifice and we condemn it instead. See anything wrong with that. An image comes to mind. We've seen the movie scenes where the affluent are in some fancy restaurant eating a fancy over the top meal, being served by waiters in tuxedos. Then outside the window is a homeless man looking in, just wanting a piece of the bread. The people eating either ignore the man all together or they have him removed. Either way, they treat him as garbage instead of someone in need of help. Sometimes the church can be that way. They look out the window and say, they made their bed now let them lie in it. This is not God and it shouldn't be us.

We all have to take a hard look inward to see who we are. We have to do a test and see where we stand. If we see someone that is of the world and our response is repulsion, then we do not have the spirit of God in control of our lives. Tears should well up in our eyes and anguish should fill our hearts when we see someone that isn't in God. Instead of recoiling, we should embrace and love. If you cannot say you love those that are not of God then perhaps your not of God either. Harsh realities like this convict us into pressing closer to Him, who can change you from the inside out. 

Let's change gears. The moon is a symbol of the church. It is tidally locked around Earth. It is with Earth but it is not of it. If God and Jesus are the Sun, which the Earth and the moon orbit around, we get all our life from it, just like we spiritually get our life from Them. The moon, being the church, reflects the light given to it by the sun into the darkness on Earth. So, if the moon is not present in the sky at night, the darkness on Earth is very dark. Of course now with all the artificial light it's hard to imagine how dark it is but you get the picture.

If the church is distracted and it gives no light unto a darkened world, then the world is lost. We need to remember this too, the church has no light of its own. It only reflects the light given to it by the Son. One more fact about the moon and Earth. When the moon (church) is dark and only shows a sliver of light, you can look and see a small faint glow from the dark portion. That glow is called Earth shine. It is the sunshine bouncing off Earth hitting the darkened part of the moon then coming back to our eyes on Earth. So if the moon, church, is darkened then the Earth or world provides its influence upon the church and not the other way around.

It's crazy to wrap your head around but it is quit awesome to think that God put those heavenly bodies there as a guide to remind us of spiritual truths. We all live here on this planet called Earth. It is all our home and we must cooperate together for it to thrive. If we are at constant odds with each other then the outcome is inevitable but if we by the Spirit live in harmony with one another, we could usher in a new era of life here. 

So, don't worry, don't be distracted, don't look at what is bothersome or disturbing to you but look to the one who can change you and the world through you. Look to God.

To God be the Glory!