Lessons

2011 has been a very lesson-filled year. A lot of nuggets have been given to me.

To recap a few highlighted nuggets:

Flee idolatry--fly away from idolatry. God doesn't want us to simply run away from placing things above Him, but He wants us to run so fast it's like we are flying. He's that serious. He doesn't want us flirting with other lovers, lovers who won't satisfy and who bind us in a never-ending cycle of desiring love only to find artificial love. He wants to be number one in our lives, to be all we think about, to be all we love, to be all the reason we do things.

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God wants us to grow. And growth is rooted in love for God. And abiding in Christ bears us fruit(growth).
Lessons are given by God in variety of methods. But lessons don't make us grow. It is by applying the lessons we learn that we grow.

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Don't be anxious. And cast those worries and anxieties on Christ. It does us absolutely no good to get worked up over a situation. God knows all and sees all and can work things out accordingly to perfection--not us.

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Smile before you go crazy. I learned that scientifically, smiling releases endorphin or something into your brain, which causes you to be happy(ier). So the study went to show that if you make a habit of smiling, even if the situations are less that happy, you will become happy. So, before you become crazy from anxieties or sadness or whatever, SMILE!

There were so many lessons, so if you want, you can just go through this year's entries. The four things here are a few things that are still fresh in my mind, or that are stronger pressing. May God grant me the strength and determination to apply what I learn.

And may you also apply whatever God has taught you this year. Don't simply learn--apply; and grow.

Dams

In life we have rivers for different things. Love and hate, peace and worry, sin and righteousness. And they each flow to and fro our hearts; and it is somewhat of a cycle.

If love is unobstructed and flows in (and there is no dam against outflow), then there is a constant outflow of love. And the more love you channel into your heart, the more love can ebb outward.

Same applies with hate. If we don't dam the inflow of hate(nor dam the outflow of it), we have a constant stream of hatred. And if we channel more hate in, more hate comes out. But, if we try to dam the outflow without trying to dam the inflow, we have only one obstruction. As the inflow persists, the hate-level rises and the pressure on the outflow increases. However, if we dam both inflow and outflow, then the streaming of hatred shrinks and eventually dries up.

On the same note, we can dam up sin. By saying no to the flesh and desires we can dam the outflow of sin, of committing sin. There are two ways to do it, and both ways I think provide an obstruction. Damming the sin-channel flowing outward with your own strength and resources, and damming it with God's strength and resources. When we dam it by ourselves, it is thin, unfortified, and weak. As the inflow continues, our dam breaks frequently and quickly.

However, when we use God's resources in His strength then we can construct a dam that is stronger that the old one.

But, as stated in the case of hatred's channels, if we dam only one side, then the inflow will swell and create enormous pressure on the dam.

So, say we dam the outflow of sin(the committing of sin) with God's resources and God's strength; but we don't dam the inflow(thoughts, entertainment, friends, etc.). The current of sin will swell against the dam against the committing of sin and the pressure will be great and eventually the dam will break and burst forth with unyielding power. However, if we dam both sides, using God's power and equipment, then we have a greater chance of lasting longer without committing sin.

And on side note with that: Dams have cracks and because of that they need constant surveillance and repair. We may dam up the inflow and outflow of sin, but if we aren't mindful of the cracks(small leakage of sin) then eventually sin will work its way through the dam and destroy it. And when that happens, a fast-moving current will be unleashed.

So, build the dam against sin, both the inflow and outflow. Build it in God's power, with His resources. And keep watch over the dam. Don't ever think that because it is constructed you know longer have to worry about sinning. No, watch out for those cracks, those little instances of sin. Be quick to address it and repair it lest it become destruction for the rest of the dam.

Complacency

How have you grown this week? Have you applied anything you learned 2 weeks ago during the past week? Or have you been complacent? Are you apathetic? Is godliness a "it would be nice to have" thing to you, or is it vital, your lifeline? Do you live just to get through the day? Or do you live to live? Do you strive each day to grow closer to God? to know God more? to know your true self more? to stand in awe of God more?
Does God matter to you? Or is being saved enough? is knowing that you won't go to hell enough? ...Could one even call that redemption? We aren't saved to live however we want. God didn't send Jesus to live a life a rejection, of an outcast, He wasn't labeled an illegitimate child, spat upon, hated, despised, mocked so we can live how we want. He wasn't slapped, beaten, whipped, clubbed, pierced, crucified, put to open shame so we can live free to our own carelessness.

This isn't redemption. We are not free to live a careless, apathetic, complacent life. Salvation is freedom from sin, not freedom from God.

It's a punch in God's face...

Can we really live our day to day lives like the following:
Wake up
Facebook
School
Friends
Homework
TV
Video Games
Books

(Or for those of you who are living a more grown up life:
Wake up
Facebook/email
Chores
Friends
TV
Book
Work)
**Nothing in any particular order, though it could be in chronological**

Day in. Day out. A constant neglect of God. A constant complacency. A constant apathy.

Do you think God is pleased? Do you think he doesn't care? Do you think it's all right?

Galatians 4:18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

The last first talks about the Laodicean church, how they were lukewarm in their spirit. It was detestable to God. In this verse he tells them he loves them(hence his rebuke and chastening) and then commands them to be zealous. But, as an end tag, he instructs them to repent. From what? Apathy, complacency, living their lives under the cloak of "salvation" but not living salvation.

Reading the Bible to soothe your conscience is not living salvation. Praying for your meals, claiming that as your prayer time, is not living salvation. Going to church, singing the songs, ministering in the church is not living salvation.

Living salvation is diving into God's word. Reading until He speaks, and then continue that thought until you are drawn to change. (Note: The Bible is a mirror revealing your faults. Don't read the Bible with the faults of others in mind, hoping to shove a verse down their throat). Living salvation is taking that tugging, that drawing, and following it; it's applying what you learn. Living the rest of the day in light of that truth. Living the next day in that light. And the next day. And the next...

Living salvation is praying to know God. To express your devotion, your love, your praise, your admiration, your inferiority before His supremacy.

Living salvation is walking in the Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

It takes work. It takes thought. It takes action.

You can't go through your day and "just happen" to live salvation. No, you must make a conscious effort each moment. An purposeful action of walking in the Spirit, of delving into God's word.

It's easy to live with salvation's cloak. Just sit back, think about yourself, be conceited and envy others, provoke others. It's real easy. Just go through the motions. Don't think about the Bible when you read it. Think about what's for lunch tomorrow, or what your friends need, or who you miss, or...well, anything. Just not what's being said to you. That's how you become complacent. And then you become apathetic, lukewarm...detestable.

So, it's up to you. It's up to me.

God's calling us(again) to tear off the cloak of salvation and actually live it. He is calling us to be zealous--and to repent. He's calling us to live in the Spirit. He's calling us to abide in Christ. He's calling us to bear(not produce) the fruit of the Spirit.

But Satan also is calling us.

He's calling us to forget everything that was said in this entry. To forget about God when we wake up. To forget about God at noon. To forget about God after work or school. To forget about God as we're going to bed. He wants us to do as we wish. He wants us to bear foolishly the name of "redeemed," but not to bear the cross.


Your option. Your decision. God, or Satan.

Atheism

Have you found yourself realizing a failing in your Christian life regularly? What are you doing about it? Christianity is not a game; it is not fictitious. It's real. We are not saved to sit on our rears idly passing the time. We are not redeemed to forsake God. We are not forgiven to continue in our sin.

It's insanity to weekly, daily, hourly be reminded of a fault in us(not praying, not reading the Bible, not loving, not serving, not praising, not worshiping) and yet do nothing about it.

If we sit in our pews thinking "I know I have this problem, and I'm 'working on it'" we are fooling ourselves. Would God really convict us so much on the same matter if we are actually working to mend it?

Conviction is the moment decisions are made on how we will change. If we don't say yes to God and obey Him, we won't later un-convicted. It is so much easier to go through the day without prayer, without reading the Bible, without praising God, without loving. It's almost natural. It goes against the grain to do those things. That's why we won't if we aren't convicted.

We must act at the moment of conviction. We must cry out to God to impart His strength on us to resist the urge of being lazy in our Christian walk.

We hold up a defiant hand when we choose to deal with conviction later.

I don't know...maybe it's just me that has this dialog.
God: Get this right. You know you aren't doing your best--if any.
Me: I don't need to. I mean, I know it's a problem. I'm trying.


But am I really? Am I pushing past the laziness, the apathy, the whatever to actually live the Christian life?


To be saved and to deny the presence of God in our lives by living how we want(Not reading the Bible, not praying, not loving God and others, not praising God, not worshiping Him, etc) we are only living the Atheist life, not the Christian life. The atheist denies the existence of God. They see him as a mere man-made theology, a feel-good philosophical system.

We are living the atheist life if we live how we want to live. We deny the lordship of God if we don't love him (for he has commanded us to love him). We deny the lordship of God is we live for ourselves.

What has God been placing on your heart lately over and over again? Are you choosing not to pray to Him? Are you choosing to neglect reading the Bible? Are you rejecting the thought of loving others, of loving God? Are you resistant to His call in an area of service?

Think about it.

Everyone can improve how they live their Christian life, but do you even have one? I'm not asking if you are saved--that's another issue entirely. I'm asking if you have taken that step from simply being saved to living out your salvation? You can't improve something that isn't there.

So, answer your conscience. Do you have a Christian life? and are you living it?

Or have you abandoned God after being saved? Are you now living the Atheist life after taking the sonship of God?


This is something you can no longer ignore. You need to deal with it right now.

Just because you are a teenager, if you are, doesn't mean you are incapable of becoming so deaf and blind to God that he can no longer use you. Satan seeks to destroy and devour you. That's his goal; that's his ambition. He doesn't have to only resort to tempting you to committing murder, immorality, or bank-sized theft. He can simply sit back while you do the work of ignoring God, and then slowly(so you won't notice) begin hardening your heart, making you a little more deaf, a little more blind.

The longer you remain atheistic, the more he can harden your heart. And the more he can harder, the closer he is to totally destroying you(though God can always break the hardened heart, mend the broken heart, and bind you up in forgiveness and love.).

So stop, stop, stop thinking you can live however you want. You can't and get away with it. God is not interested or pleased in His children living the in the flesh. He is only pleased when they live in faith and in the Spirit.


Take a look at your life right now, ignore the friends around you, ignore the laundry that's buzzing at their finish, ignore the TV show that is starting. Are you living the Spirit-filled, Christian life? Are you praying? Are you reading the Bible? Are you loving?

Or are you living the Satan-filled, Atheist life? Are you praying to your idols(of self, of friends, of money, of entertainment, of boredom relief)? Are you opening the Bible maybe once a day out of a guilt-erasing act? Are you secretly, or not so secretly, hating those are you or even hating God?


Just as the Spirit is convicting me now, I'm sure He is convicting you now. So now is your chance to act. Now you can put behind you the past of born-again atheism. Now is the time you can pursue the true Christian life. Now you can put a pause to every idle distraction and pull out your Bible. Now is the time you can thank God for his love and enter into a praise session with Him.

I'll leave you with the repeated question. You do with it as you wish, God won't force your hand.
Are you living the Christian life? or are you living the Atheist life?
God's conviction is now if you are living the Atheist life. So take this moment to pursue Him. Live the Christian life now.

Adultery

I wonder…do we excite ourselves when we get the opportunity to talk to God? Do we feel lonely throughout the day if we go without talking to him? Do we ache with every moment we are away from Him? Do we smile broadly when we get a chance to talk to Him? Do we get giddy inside knowing He loves us, when we enter His presence, when we see Him through His word, his songs, his people?

Or, is he an acquaintance we met along the pathway of life that we couldn’t care less, really, if we never met again?

When we talk to a single person extensively for a long time and then suddenly we are without communication, we feel empty, pained. We miss their fellowship, we miss their laugh or their mannerisms or simply just them.

But…can we say we miss God if we go a day without talking to Him? Can we say we agonize over the neglect we might have in a day to spend time with Him? Is he the only thing on your mind when you are not talking to him? Do you anticipate greatly that moment when you can open up the Bible to hear His voice, or turn on the radio to hear his harmonies, or open your lips to speak to him?

Or are we adulterers and adulteresses? Have we found another lover? One that we foolishly think can satisfy whatever God cannot(But, alas! There is nothing pure that God cannot satisfy. He satisfies love, peace, hope, forgiveness, happiness).

Read Hosea sometime. I read it once, maybe twice, and am thinking of re-reading it again starting today. God tells Hosea to love and marry a prostitute. To love her despite her affections for various other men, despite having given herself to other men. All to demonstrate his love for us, the adulterers and adulteresses. He loves us despite our unfaithfulness. He loves us despite the fact we give ourselves to every other thing in hopes of gratifying our desires and love-void. We are made to love, and I believe we will seek different avenues to feel loved and demonstrate our love. But God doesn’t want us to find love in glittering things of our lives, or give our love to someone or something else other than Him.
He wants supremacy. He wants priority.

Stop living an adulterous life.

An Afterthought on Idolatry

God is a jealous God. He wants your focus, your love, your devotion, your worship. It isn't too much to ask, he made you and bought you with the price of His son's blood.
When we do not make him our God, and instead make someone/something/someplace our god, He is grieved.

God throughout the course of the Bible has sent his servants to destroy the idols of His people, to destroy their groves, their temples. God doesn't want to share a throne, he wants exclusivity. Either he's on it, or he isn't.

But He doesn't wait idly for you to allow him on the throne. He will speak to you, convict you. Then he will remove the god little by little. In Jeremiah 4 it speaks of God giving an ultimatum. Return to Him, or be burned in an unquenchable fire of his fury. And it goes without saying that in that flame the idols will be devoured, common life will be devoured, and potentially lives devoured.

We are sheep. We need a shepherd, a guide, a god. We don't know the future, we barely grasp the present. We have very little strength, if any, in the grand scheme of things. We have little wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

When we place our trust in gods and let them govern our lives, we will stumble through the paths of darkness and destruction. When we replace God with a person, or a thing, or even a place, then we have no guidance. The underlying goal is to remain in its presence for however long possible. To maintain a grasp of it.

And then God's judgment strikes.

We lose whatever thing we idolized(a talent, a car or house or any other materialistic possession, an ability of the mind--that is, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of any topic).

We lose whomever we idolized(a family member, a friend, a spouse, a girlfriend/boyfriend).

We lose wherever we idolized(a job).

And when those things are chiseled out of enthronement, we are empty, without guide, devastated.


God doesn't want to hurt you. He doesn't want to take away those things you love(so long as what you love is not what God hates). He simply wants to be your God, for you to be His servant, His child, His bride. Several times when dealing with Israel in the Major and Minor Prophets of the Bible, God cries out for them to return to Him.

Read Joel 2. In verse 12 he begins the ultimatum. God wants us to turn to Him with all our hearts. To rend our hearts(the picture being of biblical mourning and the rending of clothes showing outward repentance. God is interested in the inward repentance--the heart, the throne. God wants us to tear apart the throne we have in our hearts, removing the former god).
The passage goes on to say that God is gracious and merciful; and that He will supply full satisfaction (Remember, when we no longer have a god on the throne of our hearts a dark void overcomes us. God fills that void completely. God satisfies. (Note also that even when we have a god enthroned in our hearts, if it isn't God Almighty, then the void is still there, though we can deceived ourselves into dulling the hunger, to ignore the void.) )

Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn [yourselves] from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn [yourselves], and live ye.
--Ezekiel 18:30-32

God doesn't want to put us to ruin. God wants us to live, to have a new heart(throne) and a new spirit. God isn't delighted when we are punished and put to ruin because of our sin and idolatry. It grieves Him.

God continually cries out to the nation of Israel to repent, to remove the strange gods from among them, and to cling to Him and Him alone.

And He is crying out to you and me. He doesn't want a single god in our heart that isn't Him. He doesn't want friends to be elevated above Him. He doesn't want family to be elevated above Him. He doesn't want you to be elevated above Him.

God wants priority, exclusivity.

God made you and He bought you. He deserves our worship, our devotion, our love, our consecration, our focus. He deserves to be the God of our lives. To be our Guide and Shepherd. To be our Lover.

But he will punish you if you ignore Him. He will bring his fury upon you like an unquenchable flame if you regard idols in your heart, if you don't return to Him. He will destroy the groves, He will destroy the temples. God will remove our friends, our family, our jobs, our possessions.


So, right now, get the crowbar out and pry the gods off the throne of your heart. And then get a hammer and destroy that throne. God brings with Him His throne. Don't allow other gods to take enthronement in your heart.

Do you have a family member that you are elevating above God? Commit to yourself, if not to God(But take heed to Eccl. 5:4-5), to spend time with God before spending time with them. Pray, read the Bible, focus on Him.

Do you have a friend(or friends) that consume your thoughts, your goals, your reasoning? Do you fear the loss of their friendship so much that you live on broken glass, making sure you don't do something to ruin the relationship, or making sure they don't all of a sudden hate you?
Spend time focusing on God. Write things down in a notebook if you desire. Think of His love, His mercy, His grace. Think of His pursuit of you. Think of His forgiveness, His power, His ever-presence.

Do you have a job that you would do anything for(giving up time with God and your family)? Do you constantly think about your job, wondering about your security, or wondering about how to get elevated in the commerce ladder? Do you spend endless hours in your job, even if you're away from your job-place?
Devote a day, or an hour, to thinking of God. Thinking how you can improve your walk with Him, how to grow. Think of ways you can enliven your Bible reading. Think of ways to begin your Bible reading.

There is no excuse for not reading your Bible, there is no excuse for not praying. God has given us EVERYTHING we need for life and godliness.


Cast away the idols in your life. Place God as God in your life. Focus on Him.

Right now, go and spend time with Him. Ignore your friends, ignore your family, ignore yourself. God is more important than all of them. Your true friends will not hate you for spending time with God, your family will understand. (Now, don't be extreme and isolate yourself from them for a long time, but don't let them distract you from spending time with God after reading this, or tomorrow, or the next day. Take a part of your day and isolate yourself, think only of God, read only of God, speak only to God.)

Friendships and family are far more prone to destruction and loss by placing them as top priority than they are by placing them underneath God's place of top priority.


The ball is in your(and my) court now. What will you(I) do? God has given warnings in His word, and has spoken to us through this nugget(For me, it is more or less life than it is reading an internet blog).

Will you make God your God right now, removing all other gods?
...Will I?

Growth will not happen by mere knowledge. It takes application. And application won't happen until you choose. And a choice will be made in a few moments. You will either make that first step to removing idols from your life and enthroning God in your heart, or you will neglect God and continue worshiping idols. No middle ground. No "I'll do it later"s. The first step is at your doorstep, will we answer God's call and return to Him, break up our fallow ground, seek Him, and worship Him?

The time to choose is now.

Idolatry

Dictionary.com defines idolatry as "excessive or blind adoration, reverence, devotion, etc." (As well as a religious worship of idols)

To limit our understanding of idolatry to the latter--religious worship of idols--will limit our understanding of what God commands.

In Exodus God commands us to "have no other gods before [him]." God says in Deuteronomy that it is an abomination to him.

The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold [that is] on them, nor take [it] unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it [is] an abomination to the LORD thy God. --Deut. 7:25

Another part of Deuteronomy testifies to God's hatred of idols. "Neither shalt thou set thee up [any] image; which the LORD thy God hateth."


Those who practice it forget God. (And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. --Deut 8:19)


It is a virtual forsaking of God to pursue idolatry. Jeremiah 2, starting in verse 9, talks about God's people turning away from Him to that which is unprofitable. God tells the heavens to be appalled, to be shocked at this fact:

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13 ESV

That is an interesting, and true, picture painted. Two evils have been committed. The first one was the forsaking of God, the fountain of living waters. The other one was trying to fill the void. They created cisterns to collect water, but the cisterns were broken and hold no water, thus leaving them constantly empty, despite them pouring water into the cistern from varying sources.

Is that not so with us? Isn't it that we have forsaken God and created replacement to contain our joy and happiness and comfort and love? With God out of the picture, we then flock to different mediums for those things: friends, family, money, popularity, pursuing talents, even work. We spend long hours with whatever medium we find to fill our cisterns. We have found different springs for the same thing: memories of friends, thoughts about friends, or hanging out with friends; fantasies about money, gaining money; enhancing out talents, boasting our talents, dramatizing our talents.

The moment we find something we think is filling our cisterns, we try to drown ourselves in it. But our cistern is broken. All the joy, all the comfort, all the happiness we have been accumulating only seep out the cracks and holes. Nothing stays for very long and we feel empty; no, we are empty.


This is obsession. This is idolatry.

My youth pastor, in the devotions writes for our youth group, ended yesterday's Bible Study with this:

What is your delight? (What makes you happy? Or what is your passion?)
What/who consumes your thoughts?
For what or whom would you do anything?
This is your god!

That stuck out to me. That was the biggest thing that I've been struck with in my devotions in a while. Because every answer was the same. What made me happy, what consumed my thoughts, what I would do anything for was all the same thing. And it is my god.

And that was convicting. I don't know why it is as much as it was, but it is. I know idolatry isn't simply worshiping idols. And I know I've had other gods in my life (namely facebook as of late), but it feels different. A sharper sword, a deeper wound. Perhaps because facebook is a byproduct of my "new" god. Perhaps because this "new" god is the root of other gods in my life.


Having a god that is not God Almighty is an abomination to God. God hates it.

Having a god that is not God almighty is drawing my away from God. And when God is out of the picture, I no longer have a cistern in my heart, so I must resort to making my own. But I am finite and weak and I construct one that is broken. Regardless, I seek my "new" god and worship it, spend time with it, reverence it, all the while hoping it fills my cistern. I realize it is still empty, so I spend more and more time. I entertain imaginations(paranoia) that somehow is another form of trying to fill the cistern.

God says to flee idolatry, to have NO other gods.

I just looked up the word "flee" as far as the meaning the Greek text had. It was interesting. Apart from the obvious of quick departure, it said to seek safety by flight or to be saved by flight. So, it appears to have an even more urgent message than just running for your life, but to run as if you are flying.

Think about that. God hates idolatry so much he tells us to fly away from it.

Matthew 6:24 states that:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

I looked up the Greek word for "mammon" as well as the dictionary definition of it. The Greek word has an Aramaic origin, evidently a confidence as exemplified as the personification of wealth. The dictionary defined it as riches personified as an evil or a deity.

I think it might be referring to a security, a confidence. We are capable of personifying things to the level of a deity--a god--for the sake of security. Some choose wealth, others choose other things. While the confidence could be attributed to only the deification of wealth, let us not limit it to wealth itself. Our deified confidence can be placed in non-monetary possessions, in relationships, in personal strength, etc.

When we serve our deified confidence, we love it above God, and we cling to it while despising God.
On the other hand, when we serve God, we love him above our Mammon, and we cling to Him while despising it.


God demands our entire being. "I beseech your brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service." (Rom 12:1)

God seeks to be number one in our lives. Not 2, not 3, but one. Whatever is number 1 in our lives is our god. When it isn't God Almighty, it is an idol. And when we serve and worship idols, God is displeased. God is appalled.

When we love idols over God, we--by the word of Matthew 6:24--hate God. When we hold fast to our idols, we despise God. We are not serving God when we are serving our idols. God wants supreme devotion, not left-over crumbs of our worship.


Has something come to the forefront of your mind while reading this? Has God highlighted a god(or more) that you have placed above Him?

This is a new moment in life, a new beginning. Put off the old man. Flee,run, fly away from your god. Renew your thinking, or love, your desires. Immerse yourself in God's word, in God's love, in God's grace. And put on the love of God. Put God as the first in your life.

Nothing in life can be better accomplished, gained, controlled by having it first in your life. It is only when God is first that those other things can blossom appropriately, grow rightly. Serve God and you will have your needs met.
Serve God and you will have the void in your heart filled.
Serve and love God and you will drown in God's love.


Put God first. Seek safety from idols by flight. Focus on God. Pursue God. Worship God. Obsess over God. Love God.