Idols

Proverbs 29:11

A man who remains stiff necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed with out remedy.

Anything that takes us from God and the worship of God is an idol. Idols can be anything we rely on to supply our needs or love enough to totally occupy our heart and mind. Things that are good but become bad as a result of worship. Idols can be jobs, people, hobbies, children or any object once we choose to worship them. There is a simple test for identifying idols: can you give it up? Can you say... God, I accept your will in my life. I choose you. Here, I give this to you. If you can not do this,then regardless of what is, it is an idol in your life.

As I look into this verse, I notice several things. One is this: will suddenly be cut off. That phrase is not God's judgment. God has, will and will always seek us out. He does not cut us off. His desire is to bring us all to Himself. We cut ourselves off from Him. The verse points to our response. Note what is says about the responder.

• He remains stiff necked: He decides. It is a decision to not listen to God's call.
• He ignores many rebukes: He continues to turn from God and walks away from God's light, a choice to stay in darkness.
• Sudden destruction comes: Eventually he lacks the ability to respond. A habit forms, a habit which leads to destruction.
• No remedy available: Thoughts lead to actions, actions lead to habits, habits lead to a life style, a life style decides our destiny. We either choose God, or we do not.

Lets take a a moment and look at the idols in our lives, those mini gods and habits. Do they lead us into worship of the one true God? Are we surrendered to Christ and His leading?

Do not despaired. If you are caught up in something, ask for a miracle. Ask Him to take control and watch Him lead you to eternal life now and in the future.

Leaders

1 Cor 11:1; Luke 10:27; Matt 12:36

This is an election year. Often I think about those who wish to lead and look into their qualifications. I check into their ability to lead, which means do they live what they preach? I also look at the constitution (by the way have you read it lately) for those in office, even those who serve in the armed forces, pledge to defend the constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic. But most of all I look at their basic nature in relationship to Christ.

In 1 Cor 11:1, Paul says follow me as I follow Christ. I focus on the word as today. He did not say follow me. He said as I follow Christ. In other words we do not follow anyone who does not live out Christ's example. It was my daughter that causes me to look into this for she some how caught it early in life in reference to churches, husbands, and any leader. Many times we allow others to lead us with out this qualification. Regardless of who they are, a husband, parent, government official, civil authority, political party, family member, church leadership, teacher, regardless of who they are note their lives. Do they follow Christ's example?

What is Christ's example? What did Christ say? What is the fruit we look for in a leader?
It is stated often in scripture: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Do those you follow qualify? Do they think, talk and act like examples of Christ? Do they even come close? Now I am not talking about taking a magnifying glass and checking out every one's sins. We all sin. Christ died for our sins, forgave us and continues to as we surrender our lives to Him. I'm talking about the actions of their lives in relationship to leadership. Are those leaders surrendered enough to lead

Do we blindly follow people....NO
Do we trade freedom for safety...NO
Do we allow anyone access to our lives...NO
Do we believe everything someone says...NO

Do we check the qualifications...YES
Do we look for Christ's fruit in them...YES
Do we surrender to Christ....YES
Do we have the courage to face the demands of this reality...YES

Check out those you follow and see if they qualify. For there is only one person we surrender our freedom, our lives, our hearts to as Christians. His name is Christ Jesus. We follow Him and leaders who's actions (fruits) follow Him.

1 Cor. 11:1; Luke 10:27; Matt 12:34

Life/Death

I Corthians 15:35-42

Physical death and life after death is talked about in this chapter. I am at the age now where death is experienced more often. My friends, their parent, families involved in war all bring stories of death more often these days. I have been comforted and do comfort others with the verses above as well as the verses that talk about our eventual reunion which includes the rapture in the sky and our eternal home.

These verses indicate that we are to look at the death of this physical body as a seed that goes into the ground. The seed does not look like the plant that comes from the seed. Even though the seed must die the plant that is produced by the seed is far more beautiful and looks very different from the seed. In other words, the seed becomes something new. That is the way physical death is for us all. Once the body dies we becomes something new.

The Body:
Dies perishable/ raises imperishable
Sown in dishonor/raises in glory
Sown in weakness/rises in power
Sown physical/raises spiritual

I've also heard many testimonies that say this about the moments before physical death.

• She talked to God and then she fell asleep.
• He pointed to an unseen someone in the room and smiled.
• She said,"Look I see Him."
• He said,"Son, it's true. I see heaven. It's right there."
• He sat up talked to one unseen, then turned and said good by to us.

These testimonies along with Scriptures tell me that we are escorted in to the next world. Joy fills the heart of those who take the journey and it is obvious they want to be with the one who come to meet them. That leads me to also believe that the moment of death comes after the spirit leaves the body, not before. It appears that we never experience death. We leave the body and then the body dies. The verse that says death where is your sting, to me means there is no sting. We leave this world and enter eternity with Christ Jesus to ever be with Him.

I am unaware of where this quote cam from but it goes like this...Death is but one more experience in the endless life of a believer. Thank you, Lord.

Set Free

I've listened to several thoughts from others lately about the result of negative emotions and how they affect our physical lives. The sources do not seem to matter. They all point to the same answer, regardless of their faith background. The answer is this... forgive, release and renew your mind.

These are some of the medical responses that related directly to Christian principles:

• All negative emotions come out of fear
• Unhealthy stress is the result of toxic thoughts
• Too much adrenalin becomes toxic
• These thoughts create a stronghold in the brain that can be measured
• Permanent physical changes take place in the brain
• It takes four days to make a change in the brain
• It takes 21 days to form a new habit

What is the answer?

Eastern religious practice says: yoga, zen, Qi Jong... to name a few.

Clinical answer: drugs, decompress, change jobs or location ... to name a few.

God's answer in Scripture:

• Forgive, trust in the Lord, surrender your life to the living God
• Repent, renew your mind, believe God for the best
• Take thoughts captive, expect a miracle, look up

Bring the resurrection to every situation in life (John 11:40)
Forgive and release others to God (Eph. 4:32)
Think on truth (Phil. 4:8)
Cast down vain imaginations (2Cor. 10:4-5)
Receive Christ as Lord and Savior (John 3:16)

Robert S. McGee said "Lord, daily cause me to agree with what you think is true of me."
By they way, God has nothing negative to say to His children. Any negative thought is not from Him. He is the perfect expression of the Fruit of the Spirit.

Agree with God and be set free.

The imprint

We watched a delightful movie this week called Fly Away Home. It was about orphaned geese raised by a 13 year old girl and how she helped these geese fly south for the winter. They used a method called imprinting. Seems that geese and other birds imprint their lives from birth and everything they learn is through this imprinting. The first living thing they see becomes their parent and they learn by watching the parent, even flying south for the winter. Apparently many birds lose their parents through hunters, climate, or building developments. They have a natural desire to fly south but they do not know the way because the parent who helps with the imprinting is gone. Thus the birds get lost, confused, fall into the hands of unprincipled people or are destroyed by hungry animals. However, once the birds are imprinted they fly south and miraculously return to the origin of their birth.

The story has many amazing aspects. The ability of these small creatures to fly a 1,000 miles a day. Their perfect imprinting that causes them to live the life designed for them. The ability to fly back to the exact origin of their birth. Their innocent and complete trust in who they decided was their parent.

The correlation loomed at me. We have a parent. He is God the creator. We have an imprint. We are created in Him image. We have a direction. It is called life in Christ. We can fly through a lifetime. It is called walking in the Spirit. We fly to a designated home. The home is called heaven. We are asked to completely trust our parent. Our parent is Emmanuel, The Mighty God, The Prince of Peace, The Everlasting Father.

Let His imprint remain on your heart and life now and forever, so that you may always find your way home.

1 John 4:19

We love Him because He first loved us

This week I listened to and read two devotionals on God's unmatched love for us. One talked about how His desire to love us and His desire for us to know the depth of this love is a goal He intends to complete. The other devotional talked about the pleasure of experiencing God's love and how nothing in life can measure up to the personal experience of His touch of love on the soul.

Now I am sure that each one who reads this is similar to myself in that we know the love of God and we seek to encourage others in the love walk. However maybe that love, that agape love, is something we uncover in layers and as we get closer to the center of this love we look back and ask "how did I miss this?"

So let me dig deeper with you and suggest that this love is still beyond our present understanding. For I have no doubt that when we are thoroughly drenched and filled with His love it spills over within and flows from us like a river. Nothing present, past or anything we can experience in the future will ever match the pleasure of His touch. Every addiction, low self-esteem, heartache, bad habits, wrong thoughts, actions or words will be abandoned, for His love heals, fills and completes us. Not to mention the pleasure and joy that comes when we release this love out to others...a love, by the way, He supplies.

I have no doubt that nothing in this life can compare to His love for us and that the only reason we love is because He first loved us and allows us to experience this love.

No Secrets

I Corinthians 4:3-5


I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in the darkness and will expose the motives of men's heart's. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

It is a waste of time to judge ourselves or to judge someone else.
Everything we have ever done will be judged, the motives.
Nothing escapes the eyes of the Lord.
Every thought, action and motive will be exposed to all.
None of us are perfect or innocent

Sobers things up a bit, right? Note the positive ending. It does not say judged and sentenced. For there is no condemnation for us His children (Rom. 8:1). It says at that time each will receive his praise from God. The junk in us will be reveled but God's focus is on the good we did. By the way, the only good we actually do is the good He motivates and preforms in and through us as we trusts our lives to Him (phil 2:13). All the rest is lost.