Your life.

Your life. It is filled with joys. It is filled also with sorrows. Sickness, pain, death, hatred, divisions...

Life would seem a senseless roller coaster of emotions. Why have pain? Why have sorrow? There would be no purpose in it...if there wasn't a Divine Orchestrator.

God chooses you when "bad" things happen. He knows you can handle it, and He wants you, with that ability to handle it, to be a beacon for Him.

No, I don't think the idea would be to stand on a pedestal when you experience hardships and proclaim the love of God. Not everyone will listen to that. What they listen to is someone who is going through similar things, who live through it with God's light showing through.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. " -Matt 5:6


Don't look at your problems(be the genuine, or petty) and then blow up in God's face about the lack of fairness. This problem you have both molds you, and gives you an opportunity for God to mold others.

Life is a tapestry. Your discolored life of a thread weaves perfectly into the tapestry as a whole. It may be stained with the cold colors of sorrow, but placed into God's hands it shows beauty. "Beauty? My son/father/mother/sibling dying is beauty?!"

The showing of beauty is the beauty of God's hope. There is hope in every trouble in life. That hope can be ignored, or it can be harnessed, and the light of God's love revealed.


Don't dwell on the dreariness of your life. It may truly be hard and dreary. I won't minimize that possibility. But you can handle it. You can grab hold of God's hope for yourself, and then shine forth the light of God in so doing. So, please, see this problem you are facing as God telling you that he trusts you enough to choose you to shine his light to the world.

Freedom

"All my chains I can't disengage
And I don't believe that I want to
One hand sings your praise the other brings me shame
I have selfishness to blame

And I'm singing for freedom
I know I'm not the only one
Praying to the One
Who can bring me this freedom
And I'm ready for change

Broken down I lay
I keep holding my chains
No longer bound but here I stay
I scream Father please
I need rescuing I need you and you alone

And I'm singing for freedom
I know I'm not the only one
Praying to the One
Who can bring me this freedom
I'm ready for I'm ready for (change)

Still you patiently wait
Yet i won't just let go
I see you and you alone
Saying come follow me despair has come so you can see
Release

And so I'm singing for freedom
And so I'm singing for freedom

The time has come separation has lost the war to love
Take my hand grace has found you where you once began
Your alive You're alive in the waking of new life
Take my hand in the end there's only love
There's only love

There's only singing for freedom
I know I'm not the only one
Praying to the one
Who can become this freedom
And I'm ready for I'm ready for
Father please I need rescuing
I need you and you alone"

Christian lyrics - FREEDOM LYRICS - RUN KID RUN


Oh, how that describes me right now. I can't take off the chains sin has placed on me, but I don't even know if I truly want to. One half of my body praises and serves God...but then the other half serves my self--selfishly I work to satisfy my flesh.

So I sing for freedom, pray to God to free me from this sin. But he tells me He already has--on the cross and from the empty grave. I look back down to the chains on my wrists and realize I was mistaken--they weren't locked. So now they fall to my feet.

In my head, I take a step away from the chains--but in reality I remain. I break free and run as fast as I can...on stationary feet. Despite all my knowledge to run away from the chains that no longer bind me, I stay. My feet won't budge, so I scream to my Father to come and rescue me. I begin to pray, cry, sing to God to bring freedom.

God waits for me. God knows it is too important for me to choose Him, to run to Him. So He beckons me, but yet I stand here by my chains. He pleads me to forsake this folly, but my deceiving heart deafens me, and I gaze at the chains.

I see His hand reach out. His lips mouth words, and slowly my ear begins to hear the beauty of his words. "This war is won by love. In the end of it all, it is love that brings you to me, and me to you."

We love God because he loved us first. So, in order for us to love God, He must first love us. But we can't love God if we don't know fully His love. It will only be an appreciation.

Once we experience His love, we can love Him. Abide in His love, and God will abide in us. God's love will be loosened on our hearts. Then we can love God. Once we love God, the love for sin will diminish. The key to winning the war with sin--hate it!

But Jesus says to abide in His love is to keep His commandments. (John 15). So, keep his commandments, abide in His love, love Him, hate sin, and you will then take that step away from those chains.


-Kevin

Salvation

It is definitely more than a ticket out of hell. More than the pass into heaven. More than a title. More than a knowledge you are the son of the King. More than a hope for the future. More, even, than forgiveness of sins.


When Jesus rose from the dead, sins present, past, and future were forgiven. The only thing that was needed was humans to reach out and claim that forgiveness. But is that salvation? I dare say that it is not exclusively salvation.

No, salvation is change. Salvation is a relationship. Salvation is a longing to love God, and a inner hatred toward sin. Salvation changed our heart, and opened the door for the Holy Spirit to come in and breathe into our spiritually dead bodies the breath of life.

When we were dead, the dirt of sin fell on us without resistance. The rotting of sin bound us. But now we are alive! The dirt should bother us. Sin should be so excruciatingly painful.

But...how often do we view sin as it is. If our BEST ACTS are disgusting rags...how much less tantalizing are our acts of sin?

I'm not sure if hating the end result of sin is the same as hating sin. Perhaps not even hating the consequences of sin in regards to the break in our relationship with God is hating sin. Hating sin is a detest. A genuine longing for it to be demolished.

I don't think we will get victory over sin until we hate sin. And we won't hate sin until we move past the future results of sin to the present truth of sin. Sin is dethroning God from your life. Sin is placing your will over His. Sin is loving yourself more than loving Him. Sin is spitting in God's face--He offers freedom just so we can run to that which we have been set free from?

Until we hate placing ourselves on the throne, sin will lurk in the distance, and with a snap of the fingers Satan has you in his clutches.

In order to hate placing ourselves in governance, we must love placing God on His rightful throne. That means we must love to obey His wishes. Beyond that, we must love God himself. No one will ever love someone telling them what to do until they love that ruler.

Loving God means keeping His commandments. Once we love God, we can love His rule in our lives. Once we love His rule, we can hate our foolish "power" of our lives. Once we hate placing ourselves on God's throne, we can hate sin.

In order to hate sin, we must love God. If we don't completely love God, then we won't completely hate sin--and if we don't completely hate sin our hearts will be spotted with sin stains, stains we eventually hate to remove, eventually love.

Love God, hate sin. Love God's rule, hate your rule over your life. Obey God, ignore sin. "Walk ye in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh."

When the blindfold is taken off.

Kids are prone to believe with all their heart whatever those they love say. Sometimes it can go further than that. (As a kid) what your father friend believes, and your father believes too, grows on you.

Christianity. More than a religion. More than rules. It is a relationship that is derived from the longing of the heart with the Creator of your heart.

But...put your child in a sect of people that are heavy on rules and the child grows up to worry about rules as a subconscious. Being rule-wary is not wrong, but in Christianity rules should not be placed above relationships. Especially rules that may claim as being a relationship tool.

A child will be blindfolded by the trust he has to his loved ones. They seem to agree with this sect, therefore they grow to like it. They go through life wanting to do right. Wanting to make sure they are wearing socks when they go to church, that they sit in the appropriate pews, that they dress right, speak right, and look right. Sometimes this mentality will dominate their thinking wear if you do any differently, you're sinning.

No, this can't be Christianity. To make rules on dress, appearance, where to sit, who to talk to, where to go...is this truly Christianity? No doubt it is religion...but can it be Christianity?


So, this child has now lived his life up until he is close to embarking on the journey called life. He's been blindfolded to the mentality of relationship over regulations. Now suddenly the blindfold is ripped off of his eyes as he sees issues within this religious sect. The shepherd he knew for years begins to grind at his heart in a negative, non-rebuking way. The system of rules established show themselves to be extraneous.

As life is a year or two away, he has begun to make choices: Of dress, appearance, of what to do and where to go, of how to talk, and of who to be with. Basically he has begun to think for himself. But there is no doubt in his mind everything he chooses will be looked down on. But how is he to know what is right and wrong choices if those telling him he is wrong are those who make extraneous rules?

Shadows begin to cloud his plans. Circumstances arose, and now he has wondered if the choices he makes and are planning to make are right. But at the same time he knows that living in that religious sect will drain his will. Stress will build, and only time will determine when he explodes in a violent wave of distress and burden.

This is what happens when the blindfold is taken off of those with the mentality that rules supersede relationship with God. The act of removing the blindfold is not what confuses this grown child, but the sudden change of reason and views.

Now he must begin to worship God, read his Bible, build a relationship with his Creator from scratch--even though he had ample time as a small child. To blame exclusively the particular religious sect would be foolish. Though they have much faults, the decision was all on this child now grown.



Do not blindfold children into believing rules are more important that a relationship. Rules are important. But a relationship with God should be pursued, not a pursuit of the accordance with the rule book.

A relationship with God will produce personal rules that go beyond rules laid out in the Bible. But those rules(the personal ones) should not be forced on fellow believers. Especially those under you(in a church setting, not a parent setting.)


-Kevin B

God alone can satisfy.

I don't believe I am yet in a position to, from my heart, declare that only God can satisfy. Do I believe that He can only satisfy? Yes. Is it my hearts sincerest declaration? Not quite.

Why?

I don't believe God has brought me to the place where I can say all else fails under His satisfying love.

I've been struggling with an issue of satisfaction. I have yet to be persuaded(evidenced by the continuous searching for satisfaction) that God is THE ONLY source of satisfaction.

And perhaps the reason I struggle with this certain sin is to teach me to KNOW God is the only one who can satisfy. Perhaps in order to learn lessons, we must come to a point where God shows it to us with all sincerity--but that moment may not come until after we have gone through the tunnel.

Keep in mind, God does not tempt with sin(Tempt can be tempted to do wrong, or test, I believe). He does however allow us to choose what we want, because we are not robots. He can use wrong choices for our learning. He may also allow Satan to tempt you with certain things to learn lessons.


If you are struggling with sin, do that which was stated in the earlier post. If you come to the point where you are calling out for God and waiting for His Spirit to quicken you, then consider what good God is trying to teach you through your choices.

Sometimes when you do everything you can do, you have to call on the Spirit of God to bring life.

Ezekiel 37: 4-10

Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but [there was] no breath in them.
Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

So,Ezekiel is commanded by God to prophesy to these bones. In so doing, they would eventually come to life, and become a great army. He prophesied to them, and there was rattling and noise, and the bones came together, and the bones were covered with flesh... but the bodies were not alive.

Ezekiel did everything God told him to, but there was still no life in them. Then God tells him to call to the four corners of the world and call for God's spirit to come and breathe into them the breath of life.


Let's apply this to our spiritual lives. Sin causes death. So, we can say we are dead in sin. (Though technically this is not true once we are saved, but I hope you understand where I am coming from.)

We can try to read the Bible, try to pray, try to go to church, try to put up walls to defend against Satan's attacks, try to do our best not to commit certain sins. And yet, we fail. We 'fall' into sin again and again. Why? Because we did not have the Spirit of God breathing into our nostrils the breath of life.

We need to do what we can to combat Satan. We need to read the Bible, pray to God, go listen to the preaching of God's Word. But sometimes that isn't enough. We need God's Spirit to come in and breathe into us life and power and victory.

When you are at the end of the road, turn north and call for God's spirit; turn to the south and call for God's spirit; turn to the west and call for God's Spirit; turn to the east and call for God's Spirit. Life may come in a moment, it may come in a day, it may take a week, but call for God and he WILL come.

Stand your ground

Recently...or rather for about 2 years...I've noticed that Satan has favored a certain arrow, one that he uses frequently. Rarely does a week go by that Satan doesn't whip out his bow, ready it with his favored arrow and send it rocketing into my heart. There are places where I know he will attack, and there are places he lurks quietly in the shadows until he is ready to strike.

I've grown to be wary of those places, even though sometimes I choose to go in there. The arrow fancies me...until it pierces my heart. It glitters in the sunlight as it is in Satan's bow. The attractiveness of it ensnaring me into his seductive grasp until TWANG...Satan lets go.

However, recently God has spoken to me. If Satan can seal a deal in one area, he'll move onto another one. While we should walk circumspectly, walk with caution, peering in every way--we should not avoid EVERY place Satan sets up camp. Sometimes it is God's will for you to cross paths; running does no good.

Think of David. He was sent to bring the food to his brother who were with Saul's army in a battle against the Philistines, notably Goliath. I can't say off the top of my head if the Bible records that David knew of Goliath's presence, but even if I doesn't, I speculate David was fully aware of the enemy's presence.

He could have decided to avoid that encampment, choosing not to go to his brothers. After all, he might be attacked by the enemy. Would it not be wise to avoid circumstances that would give the enemy opportunity to attack? Whether this crossed his mind or not, he knew he had to obey his father and give his brothers the food prepared for them.

So, David packs and is on his way. I don't know how long it was from David's home to the battlefield, but I'd guess he'd play songs in worship to God at times when he took a break. He did this when he watched over his father's sheep. God fellowshipped with him, and even endowed him with strength--strength to slay a lion and a wolf(or was it a bear? I apologize, I can't remember).

When he arrived at the campsite, he gave his brothers their food, and then heard Goliath's disgrace toward God. Not willing to let God's name be bashed like that, he eventually fought Goliath face to face. Not in the useless armor that King Saul offered, but in the strength God gave him.

He got stones and his sling and went running toward Goliath. With a flick of the wrist the stone sailed out of the sling, slicing the air with great power, embedding itself into the forehead of the giant, Goliath.

God gained a victory that day. Because David chose not to flee from the enemy, but to stand fulfill God's will, fighting the enemy if needed.

This is what we need to do. We need to stand our ground in the given strength of God. We must raise our sword(the Bible) and defend and attack Satan for victory in Christ's name.

We will utterly fail if we go out in our own defenses, our own strength. We need to rely on God, depend on him to give us the victory over sin and Satan.


So gird up yourselves. Take on the whole armor of God. Take the shield of faith with which you can quench those fiery darts of the devil. Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and gain the victory God wants you to have THROUGH Him.


-Kevin B