For Those Who Say We Should Return To God

The opposite statement is that we should see if God is with us.  This quest alone should be a short one as Emmanuel presented himself as the one that was with us.  Several other biblical names too this just as well.

Jesus said that “Lo I am with you always.  Even until the end of the earth.”  And so once again this answers our question if God is with us or at least among us.

Now then:  about returning to God.  First, that statement assumes that the person was ever with God. In other words, how can one return to a place that he was never at?

The same can be also true for an entire city or country.  You can’t return to a place that you have never been.  Still, in keeping with the intent of the statement…

If a person draws near to God, then He’ll draw near to you.  This answers the problem for those who are desperate and in need of God, cry out to the Lord in anguish.  The answer is a simple one: God has ALWAYS been there.  He never left.

And this is so much different than in the past days of ole. Look at Daniel.  He called out and it took three whole months for Michael to show up and give him his answers.

This is not true today as Jesus gave us His comforter when he ascended to the right hand of His Father.  The Holy Spirit is always there or at least available to us.  He is there but can also be pushed away.

We see David recognizing this virtue:  “Please do not take thy Holy Spirit away from me.”

And this was back in the day when everyone did not possess assess to God or His Holy Spirit.

And so for those who say we should return to God.  I answer that this is a virtuous request and one should look for God insomuch that He never left.  He will be standing right there in front of you

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This comical genius was an Idiot (George Carlin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ8hefESt7c

Once again we have a man who thinks he can out think God.  Just because on the surface things don’t look like they actually are, he thinks he can then dismiss what God says.  In fact, he insists there is no God at all.

I recall in the Book of Job where God asks many, many questions to Job and for Job to answer them.  The truth is that no one other than God could or can answer any of His questions and that was entirely the point.

And so it is today with all of mans’ hubris.  We think that we know and we think that we know enough to defy what God says is.  We should all have learned by now that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts and that he is so much above what we even have the ability to think. Seemly looking at God’s creation should prove how futile is our mind.  In short, we cannot outsmart God.

What Would Jesus Do (I really don’t have a Clue)

For the proverbial saying, What Would Jesus Do—more often than not, I really don’t have a clue.  For some normal, day to day activities, sure this is easy.  Jesus tells us to feed people, to visit the widows, those in jail, tend the homeless, etc.  All of this stuff is more or less a piece of cake to understand.  Okay, now…let’s step this up and just see how easy it can be.

You are the judge and a man is hauled before you.  We discover the man has killed dozens of children after engaging with sex with all of them in the cruelest of ways.  WWJD  ????

No, Jesus would not put his arms around him and tell him how much His Father loves him.  I don’t believe that at all.  In fact, a millstone comes to mind and this was not a highlight of the gospel in terms of pleasure.

We can see similar comparisons with serial killers, cruel dictators, and so on and here I’m not really saying I know what Jesus would do.  In fact, I’m really saying the opposite.  I’m saying that I don’t have a clue.

All I’m saying is that Jesus never said that no matter what we do, it is okay and he’ll accept it.  Yes, I realize he also said the only unforgiveable sin is blasphemy.  I get that.

Then again, common sense says that a hideous killer won’t have the heart to ask for forgiveness.  I get that too. And in this way, he’ll convict himself.

Yet, Jesus would not be in the middle of this clicking His heels for joy over these evil people.  Even in killing Jesus, we are told that they were forgiven for they didn’t know what they were doing.  However, that is NOT true for today’s world.  We do know what we’re doing and so now, there is no excuse.

So then…the bottom line is this:  What would Jesus do?  I don’t know and if we’d want to know what He’d do, we’d have to ask Him.  Who else would know what he’d do other than Jesus?

Virtues of Walking on Water (I bet you can’t do it)

In reexamining the scriptures with Jesus and Peter walking on water, it is easy to give Peter a bad rap on this particular scene.

After all, we see Jesus calling Peter out for his lack of faith and all the other disciples as well.

You and I say to ourselves, “He should have had faith.” Or “Peter had Jesus with him.  He could have kept it up.”

And so then we have our virtues on faith.  In this same light, let’s come around full circle to us.  Ask yourself the question:  other than Peter who is the last ordinary person to ever walk on water? And examining the facts we see that actually it was Peter who was the last to have done so.

Let’s go back to the scriptures and see where it was so easy. It has us there, doesn’t it?

With all the sermons, preachers preaching faith and books and videos and tapes and booklets and tv shows with everyone telling us how to do it concerning faith, let’s put everyone to test:  put up or shut up.

For those who always shout how much ‘anointing’ they have, how much personal experience with God and insights into the Kingdom:  put them to the test on the virtues of walking on water.

No, they aren’t going to do it for they don’t have the faith of Peter who was called out for his unbelief.

This is more or less a Gideon thing here.  We have a fleece and ask God to perform an event to prove His presence in an event. However, I’m saying that we don’t have the faith of Peter nor Gideon and that on these messages of faith, we should simply refer to the scriptures and otherwise remain silent as we lack the credentials to speak.

And here if you think I am wrong:  then I ask you to demonstrate to me your ability to walk on water.  And if you do:  I’ll listen to you for clearly your words will be virtuous.

If Only We Possessed the Tenacity of a Weed

Not long ago, one of the most remarkable scenes I’ve ever witnessed was while driving over a local, tall spanning bridge.  About 1/4^th the way up onto the bridge and in the middle, on top of the concrete medium sat a weed growing proudly, standing about 7 inches high.

One can only wonder how this seed ever possibly germinated and grew.  Other questions remain:  how did the seed get where it did or perhaps even the seed was already dormant in the concrete years ago when the concrete medium was set into place.

As magnificent and remarkable as this situation is: the take away point is clear.  Christians should be like weeds—at least like this weed who holds on, who grows in spite of overwhelming odds.

Perhaps thousands of seeds could be deliberately planted on a site such as a concrete medium and perhaps only one or two would ever grow.  Yet, as impossible as the odds are, the seed grew and grew into a flourishing weed.

Our faith should be as such.  We should be as resilient as that weed and as determined.  Clearly if God can use something as useless as a weed to proliferate, then God can use us so much more so.

To that degree then, we become like weeds and morph our faith into useful dreams and services.  Our faith at this juncture is indestructible and while improbable in its all likelihood, this model should be the eventual prize of our determination.  It then becomes good to grow like a mindless weed to the satisfaction and Glory of God.

What is it we don’t have?

As an American or a member of western society, when is the last time you have ever actually gone without food?  I’m not speaking about a diet; I’m talking about being hungry and not having food within your reach.

In western societies, the poorest of our poor wear Nike shoes, possess smart phones (at least the Obama-phone), have tv sets, and many other electronic devices.

The majority of Americans and others from western societies possess far more and so then: how is it possible that we can go to God and ask for more?

With our wealth it makes it easy to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all the rest shall be given to you.”

We already have all the ‘stuff’ that we need and then some so we should ample time on our hands to do nothing but serve the Lord.

So then, back to my original question:  what is it that we don’t have?

We don’t have the full grace of our Lord because we fail to follow Him and we fail to serve His church.

The end result is unhappiness and ineffective following from the church.

Consequently, we should NOT be praying for any new thing or for more, we should be praying for the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit to set our minds and hearts on the matters of GOD.

And this is the other thing that really matters.  For if we don’t have HIM then we have nothing worth having at all.  And so when we pray.

We should pray to have Jesus, his spirit and His Father.  Afterward, we never again pray for the things we don’t have.

We Have Run Out of Excuses

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Even a casual scanning on the social-psychology site would reveal that modern science has made a ‘medical’ excuse for any action that is possible by man.

It really doesn’t matter how bad the behavior, we have defined and labeled a ‘disease’ as the responsible cause.

Anyone, for example knows that poverty causes crime.  Of course this doesn’t explain why rich people commit crimes as well.  Nor does it explain why many poor people all over the world are honest, hard working people.

The fact of the matter is that we have an excuse for everything:  We absolve ourselves from even the most trivial and critical matters.

Yet, today because of the availability of bibles, the internet and instant access of knowledge, we have run out of excuses.

How is it possible we can say that we did not know?  If we don’t know the only reason why –is that we don’t want to know.

And for those of us of whom have been given the good news, even a greater burden falls on us.

Clear and simple when we do wrong now, it is because of the evil inside of us.  This is just another way of saying because of sin.

To blame our environment is almost identical to blaming the devil for the things that we do.  This is total nonsense.

In the end, it will be you and I who will stand in front of the Lord.  It won’t be a sociologist or the devil standing for us.

And if we don’t present any excuses and present the truth the way it should be: then another person will be there standing in the gap:  in spite of our sin, no excuses made—only because of grace, will we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The time for excuses is over.

Forgiving the Unforgivable

For those of you who are honest, there are some things you simply don’t forgive.  Come on, now.  You should be honest and owe up to it.

Sure, we say that we do, but deep down we are just not there yet.  And try as we might, there are some things we’ll probably never rise to the occasion for.  For example a murder of one of our kids or another family member and such like atrocities against us.

I’m not trying to get us off the hook simply because we have limitations, but I believe these issues should be addressed as Christians.  And in these cases, I believe about all we can do is pray that we are forgiven by Jesus for our inability to forgive.  Okay, then having said that:  the bible says that we WON’T be forgiven if we don’t.

While I am sure this is true, we should then believe still another scripture which tells us that where things are not possible with man, all things are possible with God and thus, we place and hinge our faith on the possibility of us growing in faith where we can honestly forgive the unforgiveable.

Once again, this is where Jesus comes in as He is good at forgiving the unworthy.  And in that sense we should hold hands with our Lord for supplication and humility insomuch that we are simple humans with limitations.  And in this posture we pray that we may forgive the same as our Lord for all those who are naturally unforgivable.

Long-winded Corporate Prayers that are Really Sneak Attack Sermons

More than likely we’re all pretty well guilty of this.  We lead a prayer for many and discover with our long windedness that we begin to lecture God in our Prayer and ‘preach’ to those following us.

No, I don’t believe this is deliberate, but in our efforts to express ourselves and communicate with God, we really should question our true motives for honestly, we attempt to sound ‘smart’ and intelligent when we pray.

So then, two things happen:

The first thing is that we end up ‘preaching’ to God.  Imagine that.  Yes, we do and we do it by explaining out, delineating why we do things, how God does things, when our effort was supposed to be nothing but petitioning and praising God.

The second thing is that we begin to ‘preach’ to those joining In on the prayer. I call this a sneak attack as it is really, actually sneaked into the prayer.  The intent was NOT to preach but to pray, yet we find ourselves actually preaching.

The answer to this is once again to follow how Jesus taught us to pray.  It was clear that we really didn’t and don’t know how to pray.  As people it is so convenient for prayers to evolve around us and as humans, we can so easily side-step the true purpose of prayer.

Some of these prayers are so bad that they go on and on for minutes and minutes, seemingly forever.

In a way, this is humorous.  However, I am sure God’s humor lasts only for so long.  Besides we are not cracking jokes, we are going forward with prayer.

All I am saying here is that we should be fully mindful in what we say and how we say it: this is particularly true when we approach the Lord in our prayers.

 

When God Doesn’t Answer

Some people, maybe even most people go to God last as a last resort effort to change a situation in their life.  Others however, are not like that but too, end their efforts once it is clear that God isn’t answering.

When this happens and it seems we are on the last knot of our rope, anxiety can rush over us and indeed, life can really suck.

Let’s make sure that we have set up this equation correctly.

For one, we all should be able to agree that God listens to ALL our prayers.

We know we can’t brow beat God into submission in answering our prayers either and for us making all kinds of promised probably won’t edify the situation anymore than saying a prayer in a particular way or routine or method.

What I am dealing with is the harsh answer of God dealing us in no uncertain terms of “NO”.

Okay.  Then this is where we have to really deal with.  No, we can’t get angry with God for if we trust Him we know he said no simply because it wasn’t good for us and that is all.

I’m not telling you that I understand it and really, I can’t speak for God in that capacity.  However, when God doesn’t speak he has in fact spoken in silence.

And yes, in moments like that it really does suck for it is easy to become exasperated, frustrated over what to do.

In fact, it appears that when the tides have turned against you like that, the first think we should do is to stop.  Next, we are to listen and to listen to the silence around us and within us.

The next step would be to pray differently, permitting God to decide what we need and also to take charge of our plight.

Afterwards, the answer will probably still be no.  And rather than get all kinds of bent out of shape we should simply rest with the thought and confidence that God is with us and will steer our every footsteps.

I know my advice here is not an easy one to take hold of:  but our roles as Children Of God is to know that God cares for us.   God cares for us so much, there will many, many times when He will answer us by not answering.  He is simply saying NO.