Our Lives Are Not Our Own

 And what about freedom? 

We seldom see anyone that refers back to the founding fathers. They were certainly a breed apart. Our nation is in deep turmoil; baited into heresy and hate by the evil one. He knows his time grows shorter and shorter. The toll he’s racking up is impressive to say the least. It doesn’t seem as though we want to use the power we have for any good reason. Selfishness is an ‘addicting force’ overcoming our young ones   glued to the glass screens; blinded by ‘shiny things’ that go bump in the night. 

‘Our very lives hang in the balance’ as they say. Hanging is a quite descriptive word. We ‘hang’ on every word someone says. We ‘hang out’ with our friends. We ‘hang on’ when things get so fast that we lose our grip. We ‘hang together’ when found guilty as a group. 

How much longer before ‘the break’, ‘the crash’, the end? Something has to happen. The direction we are going dictates it. It is far more difficult to stop a falling object than a rising one. 

The thoughts and intents of our hearts are more or less ‘out in the open’ these days. “Coming out” has become as much of a sport as it is an action of discovery. People make a show of their darkness; no more hiding or disguising the sin. Rather it’s blatant even and overt to the extreme. The definition of guilt in open display; defiant and brazen and cruel. 

Then how do we overcome? How do we succeed when all else fails? Where do we turn for the answer? Simple; so simple, yet people make it hard, so they don’t have to try. “Oh, it’s too hard...I just can’t do it!” 

For one thing, we aren’t the ones ‘doing it’. God and only God can make the changes that must be made. "Our lives are not our own. We are bought with a price” and that price cost the very blood of the Son of the living God to accomplish. 

Surrender. That’s our only option. We can’t defeat God. The Devil has already lost that battle; long, long ago. What are we thinking when we try it? For some ‘free will’ means total stupidity. I’m reminded of the small Chihuahua that takes on the Bull Mastiff. Who do you think will win? Duh, I ‘doh-no.’ 

Let’s stop fooling ourselves by doing things ‘man’s way’. Search out the answers where they were written down for us so long ago. Where truth originated. Stop thinking we are so much smarter and stronger than everything else and ‘listen’ for the still small voice that leads us to peace and joy and ...freedom ...and salvation. 

“Our lives are not our own...” 

Can we have a real relationship with a God? 

Adam did. Abraham did. Isaac did. So many others have. Mary certainly did. 

The ancient ones seemingly had a handle on getting and being close to God. They ‘lived’ in His presence for the most part. So, how do we accomplish that task? How do we get so close to God that we even know what He’s thinking? Impossible? No.  

Maybe not so easy at first, but doable still. 

The setting is the key. Everything around us has energy. It’s stored in the cells and emits power as needed for the specific task at hand. If we tap into the energy, we can use the power for various things. 

Getting into the presence, or ‘energy’ if you will of The Holy One takes a lot of effort in the beginning. That’s because the world is revolving so swiftly, and things are ‘thrown’ at us so often and so fast that we get used to dealing with it all in ‘high gear’ and we don’t slow down enough to retain ‘the good’ parts and discard ‘the bad’. A lot of bad stuff gets ‘hung up’ in our thoughts and hazes over a lot of the good things we can benefit from. What to do? 

Relax, this isn’t a new workout program where you lose twenty pounds in ten minutes. It’s a natural transition into finding your inner self waiting and listening for God to speak to you. You do know that you have an inner self, right? Well, you do. Everyone has one. We come equipped with one when we are born and it’s just waiting for us to recognize it so we can get closer to God, the Father, God, The Son and God, The Holy Spirit. It’s a supernatural part of us that God put in there so we can know and understand what we need to know in order to be perfectly complete. Spiritual DNA. 

Now, you may be wondering, or not, about how you get to ‘that place’ where you can so easily know and hear God’s voice speaking to you. Actually, God made it pretty simple. He speaks in any number of ways. Through His Word, the Bible. Through music and poetry and even through the things others say that only you understand at the time. To them, they may be talking about something entirely different to what you are ‘receiving’. It’s God ‘inserting’ a word of knowledge or an answer you’ve been waiting for. Or it can be any number of other ways that ‘reach you’ and into your inner person. There are many other ways God speaks to us; it’s personal and only you will come to know how He does what He does in your life. It takes focus. My wife sometimes gets things from nature and the animals around her. No, they don’t audibly speak to her. It’s the actions and the setting and the beauty of the moment that ‘speaks’ to her. It’s God talking to Dianna in a way that she easily understands and recognizes as Him. 

Why do you think the evil one wants to distract you so much and so often? It’s primarily to keep you from hearing God and what the Master has for you; which is always good. The evil one only wants bad things to happen to you even if they are disguised as ‘gifts’ or ‘riches’ or ‘rewards’. Beauty is often used to distract us. 

 “Oh how beautiful she is! Oh, man, Looks at that car! What a beauty! Man, have you seen my new boat... She’s a real beauty!” 

Our eyes get distracted and that takes our thoughts with it and before you know it, we are engulfed in something that totally takes us away from what God would have us doing or hearing. Does that make sense to anyone else besides me? I certainly hope so. 

Now, the relationship. What kind of relationship do you want? 

Does it matter? Definitely. If you don’t know and hear God, you are in big trouble. My wife heard something from God one day that sticks to us very brightly to this day. 

He said, “If you don’t know the truth, you can’t recognize the lie”. 

We must know the difference between right and wrong just as we must know when something is true or not. That’s where God comes in.  

His wisdom comes into play so strongly here that it goes all the way back to creation. God made His plan so complete that it covers any and all contentions. No matter what happens, God has a way to either bring us through the trouble safely, or He changes the circumstances so we can overcome the difficulty. Either way we are winning the war if not the battle. 

Yes, we can lose battles. Everyone knows that misery. But we don’t have to be defeated by any means. God is our refuge and our redeemer. His methods may seem foreign to us at first, but the longer you ‘stay in there’ with God, the more confident and successful you become, no matter the circumstance. 

Read about Paul in the Bible. Time after time, battle after battle; Paul stayed in there and fought and fought and fought. Remarkable to say the least. If only we could all be more like Paul. No! If only we could be more like Jesus!!! 

Sorry, I get excited about these things and carried away. Let's get back to relationship. 

The main thing about being close to God is the security. You have nothing to fear when you are close to the Creator. His magnificence permeates the atmosphere. All we have to do is drink it in and worship Him in spirit and in truth. Be real about it. No contrivances or phony actions to get attention as to how ‘holy’ you are. That’s totally unnecessary with God. He just wants ‘real’. He made ‘real’. He knows ‘real’. 

The last thing I want to share is about time. The amount of time you spend is of great importance; especially to God. If you only give him a few minutes each time you are with Him, you will totally miss the point of being with Him. And more often than not, you will not hear Him. If you care about someone, you want to spend time with them. They are a priority, and you will ‘make time’ for them. God is certainly worth spending time with. More ‘real’. 

Am I preaching to the choir or are you sittin’ way up there in the cheap seats? Join the choir. You’ll be singing His praises in no time!! 

time and distance and space

The thought occurred to me that I hadn't posted in quite some time. How does one keep up anyway? We often run head long into the future looking at what is happening in 'the now', and missing what is actually going on. We travel miles and miles each day into our destinies unaware of the surrounding events we are experiencing. The world is swiftly decaying all around us and yet we miss the signs, even ignoring evidences that are so prominent they stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. Why have we become so "dulled" and insensitive?
The 'programming' is taking effect. Decades of commercials and intentional misinformation repeating itself day in and day out until the results begin to manifest in diluted and desensitized feelings and actions. We no longer care with intensity or love deeply. Only our anger and our anxieties are increased exponentially by the droning of the 'programmers'.
Murder is an accepted and expected outcome today. Almost every television series promotes violence and bad behavior and or perverted lifestyles as 'the norm'. Our young are being bombarded with social media devices gorged with degrading curriculum designed to lower the morals and create 'robots' that conform to the message to the masses. Those of us who are thinking for ourselves are in danger of extinction as much as the tiger or the great elephant. "People poachers" are just as prevalent as the animal poachers in any jungle.
What is the answer? That's easy; God.
Every answer to every question every time is found in God's Word. Now, don't take my word for it. Think for yourself. Read the Word for yourself and apply what it says; then you'll have the answers to your questions.
By the way it's alright to question. That's how you learn and how you overcome the obstacles that are holding you back.
Like I said, don't take my word for it. Think for yourself.

....that's what I'm talkin' about

The onslaught has begun. Dianna and I made a commitment to fast and pray in July but already, all hell has broken lose.
I worked on a video until almost 2 am last night for a ministry in India; everything was fine and dandy when I shut down for the night. All I had left to do was transfer the completed work to a thumb drive and deliver it. However when I went to turn on the computer this morning I got, "missing operating system" on the screen. The hard drive had failed. Now the computer has to be taken to the shop for a new hard drive and all the programs will have to be reinstalled. Many of you know what that entails.
Next, I went to remove my van seats to get them ready to go to the upholsterer. I couldn't find any of my deep well sockets anywhere. I ended up buying new ones to get the job done.
When I decided to take a break and have a cup of coffee, the Keurig overflowed and grounds went all over the counter. It's never done that before.
The enemy is definitely at work people. When you decide to get closer to God all of a sudden all the demons kick it up a notch or two, trying your patience and your resolve. I should have seen this coming.
My typical reaction is to say a few choice words under my breath and move on. I just had to laugh.
We're not alone you know. The evil one knows who you are and he is going to make our lives as miserable as he can, yes even killing some in the process if we give him the chance. Anything to keep us from our rightful place with the Master.
Joshua put it best when he said, "As for me and my house, I'm gonna serve the Lord".
That's what I'm talkin' about.

...that's a commandment not a courtesy

We have to look at ourselves from time to time in the light of day and see who and what we really are becoming as modern day Christians. 

I have been feeling of late that the time has come to make some real changes in my life  and not just the easy ones we all would like to see happen that make our lives better. 

When the mirror sends back an image that isn't favorable we have the tendency to overlook the bad parts and concentrate on the better parts.

However, I haven't even been seeing any good parts lately. Sad.

I have always 'joined the fight' with enthusiasm and vigor but I find both waning a bit. Neither being enthused nor invigorated brings me to one conclusion. It's time for a change. 

I need to get down on my knees and concentrate on what God would have me do and not think about or do anything else until that comes about.

Tonight I stood in front of my church and unloaded on them in a big way. I don't know how they all took it but I had to say some pretty hard things, including some things about apathy and selfishness that probably sounded a little self serving or even egotistic, but it needed to be said.

Our lack of service and commitment has shown up in ways that puts us more in the light of being a social club than a ministry. Again, sad.

I know this post will be more of the same but I truly feel the need to speak up at this point and take more of a stand for my belief.

God intended us to be salt and light. Our words should reflect His temperament and desires rather than our own petty failings. We need to be conduit, streaming the good news of the Gospel of Jesus  Christ to anyone and everyone that will listen at any given moment.

What has become of the strident servants we once were? I include myself in that question.

We have to get back to the business of reaching out to the lost or they will die before they have the chance to repent and be saved. That's a commandment not a courtesy; our service to the King.

....those that have eyes to see

I somehow bruised my right eye. It seems to have happened while I slept; self inflicted. So much for being graceful.
A number of years ago, I hit myself in the same eye while working at a refinery in Cyril, Oklahoma as an Electrician's helper. I nearly lost the eye, but God spared me, healing me completely.
The pain was severe then and significant now, but not nearly as bad. It reminded me of the original event and I then thought of the dozens of other incidents I have experienced that could have cost me a limb or a finger or some other important part.  All of those fights and wrecks and accidents loom large in my memory.
We probably have no idea how many times the Lord has 'saved our bacon' from devastating circumstances. Any number of scenarios come to mind when I take a little time to consider some of the possibilities. My over active imagination brings up some pretty crazy ideas. How about you?
We are so blessed. The Bible speaks about how the evil one is 'roaming about' in search of ways to 'do us in', but then our 'protection' goes into effect and overcomes the attack. Isn't that the coolest? I think so.
Now, when do we make the move to that next level? When do we begin to take back some of the territory the evil one has so often 'stolen' from us? We have that power you know. Jesus said, "you will do greater things....", because He went to be with Father and sent The Holy Spirit to 'teach us all things'.
I like that. I like the sound of having authority over evil and actually using it for good. Too many use their power to do evil, selfish things. We should be bigger than that.
And we  can be.

The past few days have absolutely flown by. How does one keep up in all this speed and spin?

I watch the news but it keeps circling like a revolving hotel entrance. It's as though I can see thru to the other side; the destination, but then things keep returning to the starting point and beginning again.
Like Yogi Berra says, "It's Déjà vu all over again".
Back in the day I would have sworn I was high on some drug, but this is a 'different high', if you will. It's not just with the news.

I keep 'seeing' things. By that I mean, before now, there were events going on all around me that would have had little or no impact on my thinking mind. It was about things that seemingly didn't matter one way or another and I would just 'pass on by' not knowing something important had happened. I would look back and marvel at my ignorance.
But now these 'things' register and I recognize them as significant events. Events that relate to the information that has been 'stored' in my memory. I now understand. Not like a child understands a lesson at school. It's an understanding that stems from a great strength.
Now what I have written here might sound like an idiot penned it, but I'm trying to make a specific point.
The Bible talks about The Holy Spirit. "The Holy Spirit will teach you all things....", and I know that's paraphrasing, but isn't that a pretty good explanation for knowing about something before it occurs and not realizing you know until it happens? This isn't the mystical arts or magic. It's a real setting for many Christians. Knowledge is a gift and God liberally gives gifts to His children.

I'm certainly not trying to 'teach' here. That isn't my calling. I'm trying to share an interesting observation that only recently has developed. Many times in the past I felt 'numb' for lack of a better term when it came to what was going on around me. Now I tend to sense the atmosphere around me and notice more of what is going on. There is a keenness, if you will in the air and it's refreshing as well as intriguing.