And we think we have it bad

 

The bible describes the kingdom of King Solomon and all his wealth.  At the time, aside from the wisest, he was also known as the richest man on earth.

Yet for all the glory of King Solomon, let’s examine these observations:

Although Solomon was richer than either Donald Trump or Bill Gates for his time, he did not have air conditioning, nor  cell phones, modern medicine, electricity, automobiles, air planes, stereos, tvs, vcrs’ dvd’s, computers, video games, baseball, laundry service, dishwashers, fast foods, pizzas, he didn’t have books as we have them nor availability of vast, immediate knowledge, nor space ships, nor lasers, nor the food that we have such as pasteurized milk or microwaved meals.  Yet, Solomon is gloated about in the bible for his wealth. Also, Solomon lacked basic health care as we know it of: vaccinations, anesthetics, vitamins, antibiotics, or sanitized surgeries.

So then, as poor as any of us may be, we probably have more than Solomon had.  Clearly we’re not a Bill Gates, but we still have more.

In personal profile after profile I have read where single people are struggling.  Yes, I struggle as well.  However, we should stop and think about the wealth we possess and the good that we could do with the little wealth at our fingertips. Even the poorest of the poor possesses a smart phone or tv.

There is so much in the activity of giving we could be engaged in rather than our constant complaining.  We are now all Solomons, maybe not In glory but certainly in material riches..  We could be written about.  I think what is left is what they would write about us.

Are we giving, or are we selfish?  Do we hoard and wait for more or take advantage of the material goods that we have?

No matter how little we have, I’m sure that Solomon, if he could see us now, would envy us.  In fact, I think he’d be downright jealous.

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Fear (Primal instincts)

 

Nothing could be more agonizing, more difficult or cumbersome to cope with than the excruciating, negative element of fear.  Fear is a survival instinct.  It protects us from journeying too far into the unknown.  It arouses our senses, speeds up our brain, synapses and brings all the electrons and neutrons into firing on all cylinders.  However, fear is autonomic and being autonomic, fear takes on a mind of its own and begins to suddenly control the mind and body.  Where fear may serve us in one circumstance, it allows little room for the discipline of reason.  Reason is pushed to the side, pupils wide-alert, blood pressure elevated, and the simplest of logic becomes an entangled mass of irrationality.

In the distant past, survival hinged on our ability to escape the lunging bear or other prey that fell before us.  Modern urban society presents an entirely different set of fears predicated on personal issues that plague many in phobias of either accomplishment or acceptance.

‘I’m afraid she won’t like me.”  One says.

“I’m afraid I won’t get that raise.” Says another individual.

“I doubt I can run fast enough.” States one person and another is afraid of strangers, of a math test, failing a driver’s license test or another is afraid to ask a girl out on a date or to meet a new associate or still, perhaps one is afraid of failing at their business and thus, simply doesn’t try.

Fear and Doubt

It might be argued that fear and doubt are either synonymous or at least causal relatives of each other.  Doubting oneself or the circumstances around us is problematic to most, while some are stricken with fear and fail to function completely in imposing predicaments.  Some suffer nervous breakdowns whenever internal resolutions are not met in terms of recognized goals and expectations.  Doubt once again is established within the mental mind set of the individual, and fear is the outcome with its paralyzing effects.

One component of fear is the overwhelming feeling of panic.  Panic and a loss of control are elements that forge the mind to race to resolve internal and external conflicts. When panic controls the mind, all the electrical gates flood the brain, over riding logic and the disturbances create a mental-chemical imbalance in the brain.  The acuity and length of the fear source determines the individual’s ability to adjust or to succumb to the situation.  Failure to adapt or adjust to the fear results either in a sudden breaking down of the person, or at best, post traumatic shock which has lasting effects.

Not all situations can be controlled.  In fact, life experiences demonstrate that most circumstances cannot be controlled. It should be noted, however, our final, deliberate action in relation to the fear is the ultimate judge as to determining circumstances that can or cannot be controlled or changed.

Acting on Our Fears

A key phrase to fear is that most fear requires our deliberate, straight forth action to our fear.  Simply put, most fear will not dissipate or go away until we act on the phobia that hinders us.  Acting on the fear requires trust.

Perfect love casts out all fear. John 4:18

The perfect love this scripture refers is the love of Christ.  Christ’s love for us is perfect.  Our love to him should strive toward perfection, not always done, but should strive to that effect.  Trust is instrumental to this love for no love can be achieved without the trust.

To overcome the fear of rejection, acceptance or failure, we must trust that our Lord loves us regardless of circumstance.  We come to know, to realize there is no success or failure unless it is measured against the standard of God.  God’s standard is that as long as we maintain our faith and relation with him, then we are counted unto righteous.  That is enough. It is more than pure Gold.

No one said this would be easy

To restate the issue:  Perfect love casts out all fear.  This is well and good, however, while Christ has perfect love, we don’t.  The idea is that we are to trust Christ and his perfect love.  His love will make up for the lack we possess as a result of our mortality.  In other words, where Christ is perfect and we are not, Christ will make up for our imperfections

Paul states this as such:  My grace is sufficient unto thee in thy weakness.   2 Corinthians 12:9

Consequently, we are not fully blessed in our strength, but in our mortal weakness.  This means in fear and in total incapacitation of ordinary, physical and mental means.  It also means that as a Christian, we really cannot be strong against the world or to our circumstance, but we are or should be strong within our conviction to our Lord.  Our strength will quickly fail, and in our weakness, we receive God’s grace.

The action we are to perform is simply to obey the words of Christ, his commandments and to trust his resolution to our every problem.  The issue then is no longer our acceptance or rejection to the standards of this world; we only seek the face of God as our sole standard of right or wrong.

Putting it another way:  it doesn’t matter if the girl accepts or rejects you.  It matters not that we received our raise, or hit the home run, or made an A in school.  What matters is our constant relationship with our Lord for whom we rely to resolve our problems.  Perhaps ironically, it also means that Christ as sovereign of our lives is able to determine whatever outcome is best.  Where we might have thought that having enough money to buy the car of our dreams was important, our master might think otherwise and have even greater things in mind and on his timetable.

Thus, we are to seek comfort from our fears through God.  We are to resolve our self in serving God and only God in spite of our fear.  We are to step outside our fear and act, acting in trust that God through Christ will eventually act on our circumstance in whatever way intended by His great plan for our lives.

Relinquish Control

The end result is that we are to confirm through our thoughts, action and speech that we do NOT have control, that we give control over to our Lord and trust Him to perform his perfect will in our lives.  Admitting to our lack of control over our circumstances is a major step toward healing in situations that defy logic.  Trust in Christ and his Lordship becomes our quest for his love.  His love casts out the fear and our fate becomes resolved with our external and internal war that drifted us into chaos in the first place. Maintaining our mission, our pledge to love and serve God remains our only point of focus, and difficult journey for good mental and physical health.

Enslavement Mentality

 

Pervasive words of doom and gloom such as hopeless, hopelessness, doubt, fear, are associated words that embody those who have submitted themselves to a lifestyle and pattern of non-stop failure and despair.  Even in praying to God, there is that outreach to a constant God of poverty, a God very unlike those who are succeeding.  The poor turn their passions, their sufferings to that impoverished God that concerns himself with that omnipresent condition of neglect and without.

In this proverbial state of lack, the mentality of existing from without is much like that when one considers a curse.  Where expectation is the motto for those who achieve, lack is the word for those who feel attainment is intended only for others.

Before jumping to the conclusion that I’m writing about prosperity riches or the power of positive thinking, zero in on the idea that achievement is not only a state of mind, but in accepting consequences of actions only in terms of achievement.  In other words, achievement is measured by the resulting expectation of God’s will, God’s help and therein we accept the fate not only as a done deal, but in terms of consequences that are not questioned.  Our Western society has been reduced to the business model whereas quality and numbers have the most meaning.  It might be said that God has His most concern with quality.  Not only quality, but commitment to purpose seems to interest the process in fulfilling ‘a calling’ or vocation.

The enslavement modality progresses its cogs and concepts into our consciousness by its constant call to industrial measurement.  This measurement call means we always want more and never possess enough.  Our attitudes are shaped and formed by our constant comparisons to those who possess more and those perennial adjustments are eternal reminders that we are never good enough.

Enslavement means that we always fall short.  If we sport short hair, we want long.  Brown hair, we desire it to be blonde. If fat, we seek to be slim, tall, we must be short.  If our complexions are light, we want bronze or tan, and if dark, we long to be light.  The poor hate the rich, yet pursue the goals of the rich.  In fact, there is that forever chase to become the rich.  This constant imbalance can be likened to a tuning fork that is maladjusted.  Disharmony is the result.

Freedom from the slave mentality is an energy source that is initialized on external surroundings.  This is the backward approach to psychotherapy.  First, in psychotherapy, we peer into the subconscious and attempt to explain everything irrational in rational terms, gradually working our way outward.  In other words, we work from internal to external.

The route to freedom involves not positive thinking, but positive behavior.  This is especially true for Christians.  Through faith, action is set into motion and thus, we abide in God’s word.  We examine Peter walking on water vis-a-vis a positive behavior through faith.  Next comes Peter falling in fear when the internal reaction is realized by observation.  Faith was mastered by obedience to the word.  Fear was actualized by over rationalation.

Counseling then, by traditional thought involves deliberate steps into the darkness and sinister forces deep without our brains.  Counseling becomes fraught with mistakes and missteps as most of the wisdom imparted involves the wisdoms that divide the truth of rational thought to that of aberrant behavior.

Establishing freedom outside the slavery mentality means to act on a precept that has been erected between a covenant of man and God.  The mental process is such where our only mental exercise is to ‘Yield’ to the stated terms of the covenant.  The terms of the covenant are simple.  We are to trust God to provide for us as we go about the world obeying what he has asked us to do.

Central to the covenant is one of trust and belief.  We must believe God when God has said that his creation is good and that we are heirs to his kingdom reined by His son, The Christ.

Think about it this way.  For those of us as Christians who believe in the mission of Jesus, most of us believe as a result of his actions.  We can relate to all he did by his external behaviors to his environment.  In fact, if one were to examine the internal workings of Jesus, we would come to a complete and automatic halt as the fact is:  We simply don’t know the internal mechanism of Jesus.

A depressed person who despairs home in bed will not make headway until the sufferer journeys outside the bed and performs something.  First comes the action, and then afterward comes recovery.  We seek recovery first from our mental afflictions, but a call to action is the solution, not the other way around.

A slave mentality means we focus on poverty.  Slavery means we have a have and detest our master.  We see our environment and those over us as horrible masters who live for the sole purpose of control and for squeezing the energy out of the oppressed for evil purposes and horrible results.  Moreover, being enslaved means that our war, our first thought is escape.  It means we fight and hate and resolve our total soul on the terms of personal freedom away from the slave breaker.

Once we are rid of the slave mentality, our eyes are no longer on the internal factors that enslave us.  Instead, we are guided by a personal mission to enjoy life as it was intended by our creator.

The procedure is an easy one as promised an easy yoke from our Lord.  We are simply to trust Him for our needs and to obey as we give our lives into service to others. By this way, we crucify our live from this live into another life given freely by our Lord.

The desire of our Father is for us to possess an abundant life.  We are to participate in a journey filled with promise and trails that build character and growth.  The entire message of Christ is a message of conquering the death of this world and the promise of life into a new world.  With Christ, the new world begins now.  Thank God, we no longer have to be slaves.

 

 

 

 

Awakened from the Dead

 

Over the objections of Mary, Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb. Mary’s objection had seemed normal insomuch Lazarus had been dead four 4 long days in a humid climate.  The statement was made that he ‘Stinketh.’

In this example of our Lord, we are called attention to a great miracle, raising the dead back to life. In conversation earlier, Jesus had stated that Lazarus was merely asleep, but upon being pressed on with the matter, he finally admitted that Lazarus was dead.

Where the above example draws attention to Christ’s power of the physical death, it should also bring attention to the fate of our own lives.  Many of us are neatly tucked away in our personal tomb and are spiritually, mentally and essentially dead for all practical purposes.  As in the illustration above, we need our Master, in a loud voice to call us forth causing us to be alive.

Often at a young age, we have permitted others of whom I will call spirit breakers to squash our dreams, our personalities and hopes.  Often as well, we relegate ourselves to become oblivious to the world, so much so at times, that no one at all knows that we are alive.  The sad fact is that we become comfortable being numb to our environment and live within the cocoon of fear of being exposed.

We become convinced that nothing we do is worthwhile anyway, thus we give up attempts and never even try.  Our spirit-man becomes marginalized and we are content in being autonomous with the world, i.e., we are content being free from such trials as opposed to living theonomously, the freedoom for something.

As autonomous creatures we feel a relative freedom from crime, from personal assault, invasion and such.  Theonomous freedom, on the other hand, is the freedoms we have been endowed with our creator.

Hence, relegated to autonomous freedom, our principle concern is to rid ourselves of external fears and strive for personal mediocrity.  Afraid of extending ourselves outward, we become afraid of our neighbors, of our fellow man, and somehow justify our goodness intellectually, yet fail to participate in the reality of personal engagement with others.

We speak of our Lord in Past tense and mutter statements such as:  “If Christ were here, he’d act this way or that…”  The truth of it is:  Christ is HERE and is HERE now.  The simple adage is that Christ is with us whenever we perform his commandments to our brothers.  Taking this one step further, we see that Christ also is within our brothers for if we do it unto our brothers, we have performed it unto Him who lives in us.

Years ago, Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed that God was dead.  He proclaimed that God was dead for man had killed him.  Perhaps this is even more so true today as it appears we go out of our way to make sure that God is not magnified in our own lives, by failing to heed the words and commandments of Christ, we have denied the existence and spirit of the living God; thus, we kill Him daily in our daily refrain from excising our duty through the extension of ourselves.

So then, what does this mean to the average Joe?  It means there are a lot of Average Joes in this world and that God created no one average.  He created each of us as unique members of his kingdom to perform mighty works NOW in this world.

Spiritual death causes depression, anxiety; it grieves the heart, loss of self esteem, and even physical death.  The opposite is the promise of our Lord, Jesus.  He calls us from our personal tombs and calls us to wake from our sleep and to be alive.  Aside from the horrible issue of fear, spiritual death generates and creates a huge chasm, a chasm of total separation from life.  This lonely travail is deadly as most importantly we are finally and suddenly also separated from our life-source, our living God.

Unlike programmed animals, man requires a special need of purpose and to remain alive.  In the absence of purpose, man will suffer; man will eventually lose the will to live at all.

Okay, the backdrop has been provided.  The problem then is that we become numb to our environment, forget how to feel, retreat to the comfort zones of our personally built shell, and then dwell within our hollow shell.  We are safe, autonomous and content until we hear:  “Come Out!”

The words might even be uttered from the back of our own minds.  The words might have been shouted from our preacher.  We might be harboring in the safety net of a mental hospital, or even worse, might be in convalescence from an illness or accident that forces us to change our mode of operandi in reacting to the world.  We are called from the numb states of denial of those around us.  We are called into the theonomous stage of total interaction with our environment.  This includes all of God’s people.  It means that we must being the risk of exposure. As Adam and Eve we are naked with all our openness and humility. It means that our spirit-man is seen exactly for what it is and no matter what we give, we will see it as not enough.  More importantly, it also means that as long as we obey our good conscience to obey the words of our Lord to serve others, that whatever it is that we provide will suffice.  It is our job to set forth the motion of giving, and God’s job in providing the necessary materials in completing the job.

Presently, if you have read this far then you should also realize that we are standing outside your deathbed, your tomb.  We are calling you to the waking phase of your life and begging you to come out.  We are insisting that whoever you are, that you are nothing but top quality and that whatever gifts, talents and attributes, that they are grade-A.  We are also declaring that it is our job to call you out and now it is your job to come forth.  Once again, we ask of you:  to come out.

Outside the Gates of Eden

 

For most of the world’s civilized existence, a system of elders have been in place to guide, lead and pass along wisdom to the younger generation going after them.  This system of leadership is an archetype, intrinsic and is even an established order among the animal kingdom. Modern, technological, urban societies have disrupted this orderly process.  Now, seniors retire off away from everyone into their gated communities, evading and avoiding their past leadership roles.  The basic idea is that they have put into society what they feel they should have and now should relax and bask on the golf courses to the dereliction of the younger generation.

The aspect that brings this scenario to my attention is multifold.  To begin:  there is no scripture for believers that say anything about retirement.  Put simply, believers are not absolved from their responsibilities due to age.  As a matter of fact: to the contrary.  The elder in the faith bears a greater responsibility to carry on tradition and elements, tenets of faith in leadership roles and capacities.

When anyone of any reasonable imagination examines and views today’s society, it requires no great stretch of the imagination to know that something is wrong.  When children are raised by corrupt programming of television and movies and when videos and video games are the norm for socialization skills, and when the end results are misguided young people with no sense of identity or purpose, it is clear it is time for the elders to come back from behind the gates of their communities.

When male and females alike question their identity, national leaders are groping for answers, when churches and schools, and businesses fail due to self indulgence and lack of moral fortitude; it is time for the elders to assume their proper role at the helm.

For some seniors, it would involve dismissing the slave of their golf cart, their arm chair with the remote, the comforts of swimming pools or malls.  It involves a personal consciousness, a moral, group and collective action to cash in on natural talents that contribute to others: a mission of doing and giving, risking and at times, losing.  Of course, there is also the winning.

Beyond those locked gates of comfort and opulence is the constant calling of our creator. And when it all comes down to it, there is only one calling and is pronounced by the words our Lord Jesus.  The pronouncement of Christ is one of service to others.  His commandments are one of sacrifice and giving and loving and forgiving and leading and being with.

I can’t think of any greater cry from one person to God, but for God to be with the person who cries for him.  There is no less a cry that from the young to the old.  Be with them.

Often it is said that we look to the youth for our future.  And while truth is within this statement, there is even greater testimony to the future and it comes from the elders.  Children will only do what the adults permit them to do.  Children copy by example and look for guidance to a higher authority.  The natural order of authority is from the old to the young.

No great secret from anyone savvy to the world that children disobey and defy from a lack of correction and attention.  We have fully demonstrated we don’t care when we push aside the interests of others only to retreat behind our gates.  I know, I know, we want to get away from it all.

Clearly, we should have learned that there is no getting away from those tasks, responsibilities that we are required to perform.

Do any of us believe that God is so old that he has shielded himself from us?  That our Father in heaven is ducking our prayers because he perhaps is plugged into his ipod and cares not to hear our own wails and requests.  What more so of our own children and grandkids.

The answer is obvious:  we must deny our desire to rest, deny our desire to be absolved from society.  We must deny our attitude, wants and desires to forsake the problems of today and hide in our glory from the past.

My own personal proclamation to those who shun my words is that the seniors who run and hide from their natural order of responsibly are selfish and only survive for the purpose of self satisfaction.  The sadness of this is that those people are dead.  They are cold, dead people who are only counting the numbers on the clock, waiting for their time to completely die.

The call to salvation always involves the engagement of other people.  In finding God, God is discovered not by meaningless platitudes, but by the extension of his living creation.  God is not the God of the dead, but the Lord of the living.  God’s world is a living organism.  The organism comes in all types.  The organism of the living is beauty and also ugly, young and old, in many colors and degrees of health and wealth.  God’s testament to man is found among the homeless and sick and imprisoned and those brave souls who wake up in the morning attempting to work and feed their families.

The qualities of truth and love are not discovered in mere thought but by the action of reaching out and becoming part of the organism.  Thus, truth and love is an experience and not a written statement.

Our endowment to our children is for rejection by our children and their children.  Nonetheless, it is our high calling to constantly point the way, to lead and to guide the younger to the truths that we have experience and know that are true.  The role of the elders is to exhort, to provide answers and resolutions.  It means we are willing to be wrong, to build and to grow and even expect our own words to come back into our face.  The good part of this is that there are times that we are right.

Those few times we are right makes it all worthwhile.  Being wrong is only part of the experience in discovery and the older should be setting that examine for the young.

So true there is a time to cry and a time to die–those all come on their own.  For now, I say there is a time to be alive. And being alive means climbing from behind the gates of Eden.  It means opening up the locks from those gates and rejoining the group for which you were born.  You were not born for the sake of the elder.  No, you are born to be the elder and for the sake of the young.

The calling then is always just around the corner, for the closed gates are from within our own communities.  As prayed of the Berlin wall to fall, we should now also all pray for the guarded gates to fall.  We now should commit our own resolve to appear outside the Gates of Eden.

Climbing down from the Cross

 

Popular among Christians is a miniature depiction of our Lord, the Christ hanging on the Cross.  Naturally, the idea behind it is to portray ourselves and to boldly state the fact that we are Christians.  The down side of this is that the Cross is sterile.  It is prophylactic and devoid of the sweat, blood or anything else our Lord had to endure in order to conquer death which was the ultimate point in dying on the cross.

Indicative as well, is that the cross now aw it was then, represents how we have always been.  Conveniently, at Calvary, it was Christ alone who died alone for our sins.  Truly, there was nothing sterile or prophylactic about this trail.  Christ’s suffering was far beyond our own personal trails, yet still we find ourselves separated from the cross.

The close disciples studied and anguished their master from afar while near the skull, or known as Golgotha.  They were away, afraid but safe from execution, yet hailed their friend in personal grief.

We are the same today.  Our Lord is hanging on a cross and we are far below, separate and safe from the sorrows of the world.  We leave the glorious story at the cross when really; the greatest story is more than the cross.  The story really centers on the events following the death at the cross and on the miracle of the resurrection!

The resurrection, among other things, means that life is offered in place of death.  It means that cute cross hung around our neck only tend to separate us further from the real tasks of permitting our Lord to resurrect us in this life and to go on for the consequences of true resurrection means that we must be quickened in this existence into a greater calling of a spiritual existence.

A call to this duty also means that a witness is built as a result of our own subjection to obedience as a result of this resurrection.  Once again, the message is that we are called into service.

In more personal terms, the cross is behind us.  What matters more is our Christ that goes beyond.  We are called into discipleship and called into greatness as Christ had prepared for us.

No more do we cling to the cross that we never accepted in the first place.  No more do we plead with God, begging God to do things for us.  Quite the reverse is true.  Now is the time when God has prepared many, many tasks for us.  And while all was done for us on the cross, the resurrection spelled out that “And greater things than these shall you do.”  The mission, the onus is now on us.

Actually, the reasoning seems simple enough.  Why do we over and over again ask God for things he has so freely already given us?  Why do we ask God to change things when mostly we are the guilty party that cause the grievance or lack to begin with?

As promised from our Lord, we are members of his Kingdom, called and blessed as his ‘Sons of God.’  We are already consecrated as believers to inherit a kingdom that first begins in our lifetime on this earth.

We were not referred to as servants, but as friends as “A servant knoweth not what his master doeth.”  No, we are full friends with full rights and responsibilities therein.

Examples of the types of miracles we can perform are astounding.  We have the ability to transform beer into a sofa.  We can change drugs into a rent payment or raise a wayward son or daughter from off the streets into a position of esteem.  We can forgive and build and give and receive, all with the good grace of love.

This type of behavior is NOT natural.  It is not the way of the world; instead, this is the way of God to tend to the matters of others as if it were our self.  In our efforts, our concern for the life of others, we indeed glorify the resurrection of Christ as we live exceedingly as he taught us.

The solution is a simple one.  It is easy to rest on our duffs, to sit back and point to the cross:  easy to wear a cross around our neck and then battle life daily without real meaning.  The promise to the Christian is a promise of life.

In counseling anyone with problems, my answer would be consistent:  take the focus off our own personal crucifixions and focus instead on others and then most of our problems would disappear.

Our principle task should not be going to Christ as much as our real onus is bringing Christ to others vis-à-vis by the introduction and gifts from our own personalities.  At that point, we no longer point to the cross as much as our own testimony testifies to the scars set by nails into our own hands, feet and soul.

Living the message of Christ means we endure joy, but as importantly, we also endure pain.  We participate in the life and sorrows of our fellow man and so doing kill off our mortal nature slowly as we step ahead, day by day beyond the cross and even beyond the resurrection into the present world of today.

The actual death on the cross by our Lord occurred over 2,000 years ago.  As Christians, our examples should not reflect back to days of old, but on days of new.  We should be a direct threat to this world as we insist our ways are the Lord’s ways and the Lord’s ways are not the ways of the world.

Posit.  Our first step is to climb now from the comforts of our own cross and endure the death that leads to the resurrection with Our lord.  The second step involves living day to day as a child who has received the birthright as a child of God in good standing.  The third step would be the never ending story of performing miracles by the presence of our own personalities.

Living the life as a Christian does not involve or at least does not require that we have the intellect of a rocket scientist. Any person hung up on a cross long enough should have enough sense to get down, to dust off the blood, guts and dust and eventually heal from the wounds of this world.

However, the healing cannot take place until we go through this rite of passage and come down.  Once we endure the pain of getting over our mortal death we can proceed to enjoy the gift of life.  And once we have the courage to look into the eyes of our brother, we can see God’s kingdom fully illuminated away from the cross, away from death and into the world among the living.

Too Much Load

 

A common misrepresentation of the scriptures is that God will not give you more than you can bear.  Below is what the scriptures really say and clearly it is about temptation and not any ordeal or trial you may be enduring.

1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

However, even though this scripture is dealing with temptations and not ordeals, we can still fully depend on God to help us.  We can stumble, fail, back pedal and even twist and turn away from our responsibility to God, but regardless, we can depend on God to be there for us.

Where God provides a path or way out of temptation, he also provides the way and means of performing His work.

Once again, we are to:  Lean not to your own understanding.  Trust the Lord with all your heart and He will make your paths straight.

 

The question then surrounds itself:  “What if I fail in what I attempt to do?”

Where often times you might succeed, our life experiences tell us all the time that indeed, we fail and fail miserably.

And even though we fail, it doesn’t mean we should give up.  When Peter attempted to walk on the water, he succeeded for a short while and then failed, spilling into the water with fear.

Albeit he failed, what about the others who failed to get out of the boat at all?  In fact, I would wonder how many would even be in a boat, much less attempt to walk on the water with Our Lord.

Personally, when we are overwhelmed, I’m not all that sure we are doing what it is the Lord has asked us to do even though what we are doing is good, is wholesome and beneficial to others.

The Lord said that his yoke was light.  If his yoke is light then it is obvious that some of us go beyond what God intended for us to do.

There are times when we can take on so much that we begin to bend, we start to crawl, bent over with agony and misgivings.  We become tired, at times, sick and in despair.  Finally, we become broken.

What I would say is that you are a wounded warrior.  In one way it is a good thing, but in another, we should then focus on rejoicing in the Lord. It is in moments as such when we come to terms that all we are-are common, ordinary men attempting to perform supernatural functions.  In short, we are not perfect, we are not God.

In our obedience to God, part of our service is to be willing to obey and give service to others.  And yes, there are times when we do too much.  Is all of this from God?  No, I don’t believe all of it is.  I believe God doesn’t ask us to do EVERYTHING, but he ask us to do something.  If all we were to do were a little, it would amount to 1) being in the boat willing and 2) attempting to get out and walk on that porous water. If we get to that point, I say to you:  God Bless You for your effort.

Backed Up In Traffic

For over 45 long minutes, John Paul had already waited at the corner of the expressway for his friend.  As usual, they were to meet each Friday evening for their weekly get-together and night out filled with eats and a movie.  However, as usual, Tifton was late.

Agitated, John Paul cussed under his breath and then stomped his feet hard into the concrete payment.  At that instant, a fierce gale blew up from the south followed by a cold, penetrating rain.

“Damn.”  John Paul swore.  “Damn Damn!”

Traffic from all parts of the city had laced the expressway, joining bumpers with no end in sight for at least a mile.  And with that thought in mind, several panhandlers approached and demanded money and cigarettes.  John Paul pushed them off with a menacing frown and a flat, “No!”

That’s just like Tifton,” John Paul said.  “Late.  Always late.  He doesn’t care about me.  Doesn’t care about my situation.  He’s only thinking of himself.”

An hour later, the traffic calmed down to a trickle and John Paul trotted home in disgust only to see a pair of blue stroboscopic lights flash in rotating circles on his front lawn.  It was the police.

“Are you John Paul Reddy?”  a police officer asked.

John Paul nodded and proceeded over to the officer next to a patrol car.

“Well, we have a report that your friend, Tifton was to meet you for his weekly appointment.  Apparently he was backed up in traffic and tried to speed around a group of cars to meet you.  In the mayhem that followed, he was killed at an intersection when a city dump truck was unable to stop.  Tifton had run that light . . . you know how accidents happen.”

Being impatient with our friends is a common approach to our problems.  Our first thought is to blame THEM for whatever happens whenever it doesn’t occur the way that we would like.  The next time you find yourself pointing a finger at your friend, or your girlfriend:  Stop and think about the story of John Paul and Tifton.  Instead of blaming, simply thank God that your friends are alive.

 

Eye To Eye

 

The eye is the window to the soul.  Thus, a look into another’s eye reveals their inner-most parts.

Isaiah 52:8 Speaks about deliverance.  While no one has seen the face of God, his eyes are upon us and it is the hope which can be seen.

Paul spoke of hope and of faith which is unseen. Your brother in Christ is right there before you in the flesh and easily seen.

Since the Holy Spirit dwells in your brother, look to him to reveal our God.

Without God expressing himself in John 3:16 “That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.  That whosoever shall believe on him shall not die, but have everlasting life.”

The biggie here is that God came, eye-to-eye in the flesh so that we may know him.  If he hadn’t come, the God would only be a power way up there that we couldn’t access.

In turning to Christ, you must turn to your brother in Christ for that Christ is his ambassador.

NO, they are NOT perfect, but should point you to the perfect one, our Lord, Jesus.

As sad as it is, without the shedding of blood through Christ, we would have no real idea who God is.

We know that God is love for it is expressed through his son, Jesus, the Christ.

You are led to Christ through your brother who is alive.

Christ said that we pray to a God who is not dead, but is alive. God is of the living and not via the dead.

If you can read this, you are alive and should ask your brother to affirm the reality of our Lord, the Christ.

Jesus died and was raised in order for us to live.  If we are dead, then indeed our Lord, the Christ is as well, for he died for us.

Reveal yourself eye-to-eye to your brother and sister and permit the truth of you to shine.

Cast your head up in victory through Christ and live together in abundance of our spirit.  Any other path in life leads not only to dead, but in the absence of God himself.  Love ye one another.

We know more than we do

 

All around us, daily we are surrounded by people and various media bombarding us with advice from the ‘experts.”

We have ‘experts’ in childrearing, education, education, politics, war, disease, mental health, sales, science: in every department you can imagine.

Despite all these geniuses we have looming over us, doesn’t it seem strange that people, the world seem even more screwed up than they have ever been?

The music industry contains wailers that shout out their truths, usually about love or some other facet they know absolutely nothing about.

Books are employed for entertainment for many who are so very lonely and seek an upsurge in perfection.  Still, try as we might, we fall flat.

Don’t you just feel so much more enlightened than you did, say even a mere 20 years ago?  Yes, it is true, I suppose we have many more answers than in the past.  And as much as we have answers, it appears we are short on solutions.

The solution is so clear, yet we deny it in our hearts all the time.  God created us and possesses the solutions.  We beg for more information, when we don’t even study his bible for the many solutions presented.

Matthew 11:16 tells us, “How can I compare this generation.  The children say they played the flute for you yet you did not dance. We mourned for you yet, you did not weep.  Truly, wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Simply examine our deeds:  selfishness, adultery, murder, creed, lying, and so much more.

When we come to the point when we can admit that in reality we really know very little, ascribe to God as the first step to wisdom, we will come to Jesus who stated that we could nothing without him.

The sad fact, is that we are doing so very little good as a nation.  It follows that Jesus is not with us.