Mon, Jul 19th - 10:02AM
Any number of directions
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:
There are any number of directions that we can go with our faith. It is extremely easy for us to be lead off of a pathway that we only look down for a moment. I have found that God forgives us for all of the mistakes that we make in searching for truth, but at the same time encourages us to continue to test out these different things by holding them up to the light of the truth that has already been given to us; and that is His word.
As we look at our faith there must be a drive created within our heart to believe even more today than we have in past days , weeks or months. I have found that I will get lazy easily if I don't push myself to grow in faith. It gets to be much like the person who has a mindset to get in physical condition and starts a program that works for them, but who gets lax in the process after having achieved some success. The question is what level do we want to have that relationship with God? In everything that I have seen within my own life I have noticed that the more of a closeness I have with God the more I want to get even closer to Him. In a few cases I have found that I had to re-assess what I was getting myself into as those around me saw a change in me that made me not be able to relate to the world or to anyone else around me, and so I would have to take a step back and look at what was going on. For me I found that I was fine with that process, but people around me were dropping by the wayside like flies simply because they were not able to relate to me anymore. What was actually happening to me was that I was getting so Heavenly minded that I was no earthly good to anyone else, and not to God's purpose within my life either.
What is the answer? For me I found that it was once again allowing God to punch on that lump of clay that I was and begin to remold me into a usable form.. I really don't think that is really all that uncommon among Christians who are serious about their relationship with God. I also think that there are very few people who are willing to admit that they have had to take a step back from a direction they were taking, and allow God to do some retooling. I have known this for a while , but recently a pastor stated that we need to be more focused on the seasons of or lives, and how God wishes to use us from season to season. Those seasons are changing in me from that of entertainer, artist, and leader in various ways into mentor and teacher who reaches out to others in various ways. Anyone of you who comes by here to share in some of what is said are welcome to go to my Facebook page as well and share in a more personal approach through cartoons and writings of who I am in Christ. Here is the thing folks; we are all called by God to be someone who carries a message to others around us. God has a direct purpose in all of our lives, and yet we tend to miss it. My head spins when I try to think of all of the things that God's Spirit has involved me in if only for a very short time...not because I had any great potential in doing something to call attention to myself, but to be simply used by God to give a message. For me that has become enough...How close is close enough? I don't know because I am not in charge of it. I do know that when His Spirit begins to draw me closer it is for a purpose. I know as well that if I am not careful I will try to over step where God wants me to be. This brings us down to your personal walk with God and what it is in you that caused you to be right here at this very moment to read this blog? Now I know it was created for a purpose...I don't know why these particular thoughts came to me today, but you do. God works in so many mysterious ways that my mind cannot understand it. If you need to talk more about this please simply contact me. I am easy to find. May you richly bless God through your life in Him;
The Unworthy Servant
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Mon, Jul 12th - 5:53PM
The Things we call love
Blessings and love to all who claim the Salvation of Christ Jesus our Lord:
For many years I have heard others say they "loved" something...I Love that Movie...I Love that thing ...I love that person...I love you... As I have lived out my life I have begun to understand that most of us never really know what real love is. I think perhaps for the greatest majority of people we have never really experienced what real love is either. I cannot say it is because no one has ever love us, but rather because we have never really allowed ourselves to accept love in a real way. Love is very costly, and very rare. Although for most of us there has been a great amount of experience with the experimentation of love it has usually been in very limited forms. Most people think of love as some how connected with the physical aspects of intercourse with someone, and yet that is the cheapest and most simplistic of all forms that love can be used by mankind.
If we were to be really truthful we may be able to only find a few occasions in our lives when we were truly in the presence of real love. I have found for the most part that love cannot be given or accepted until someone understands the true value of life. It is in those moments when true love shows up, and it is usually in some kind of crisis situation that has nothing to do with any sexual experience. We tend to confuse ourselves with a large number of cheap imitations for love, and we call just about anything that gives a moments pleasure " Love", but it isn't love at all.
Some folks would like to project love toward our country, or toward freedom, but those are ways to live and not objects of love. We can hold dear those things that allow us to live without fear, but love is a different category of emotion that we must come to some understanding of before we finish this life. It is one of the few questions that will be asked of us as God's creation, " Did you learn how to love?" When that is asked of us the answer will no doubt count.
It seems to me that God is very big on love, because in His word Love is the last of the gifts that will be taken away from this world, and is considered to be the greatest part of what has driven God to even consider making an attempt to grant us salvation through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus. That having been said it would appear to me that one of the greatest things that we could do is to understand what real love is.
If you love me you will keep my commandments is a statement from God that has long been glazed over in much the same ways that we miss used the whole idea that God had intended for love. It all has to begin with the intent of heart to put another person above our own cares and desires. In those circumstances love over shadows even our own safety or mortality. I have seen that kind of love given to complete strangers by complete strangers, and yet we cannot seem to grasp how such an unselfish love can be shown by God for us. It takes a great amount of courage to really love. It takes an abandonment of all that we care about in a spit second determination to protect how precious life really is. There is a part in each of us that understands that if we will only allow our hearts to ponder it. When it comes down to it true love demands of us no less than our complete heart mind and soul before it becomes full and true. My question is Have you ever really loved that way yet? Have you ever really loved God that way? Have you ever really loved yourself that way?
May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
The Unworthy Servant
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Wed, Jul 7th - 9:38AM
Blessings and responsibilities
DEARLY BELOVED IN CHRIST
There is no other way to say it....WE ARE BLESSED among all the nations in this world...not just with riches beyond anyone's imagination, but also with a great responsibility to God and to ourselves. It feels like we are constantly trying to figure out what that responsibility is. I wonder if that is really true or if we are just trying to avoid the subject? Now here is an important fact to consider when we think about this; what is the real intent of our heart when we think about our personal duties to life? Are we always being honest with ourselves about what motivates us on the inside?
I don't know about you, but as my life has progresses I have found some rather disturbing things hiding within my heart from time to time that when uncovered have given me reason to pause. I have to ask myself questions often in this age about harboring thoughts and attitudes that have been dropped on the doorstep of my heart by this world. Perhaps I have not sought to bring certain things into my life and yet somehow they have crept into my life, and they remain there and take up residence there without my knowledge many times. At the very outset of our thoughts on this we may say; " I don't harbor any of that", and yet we must ask ourselves "What is it that causes me to feel the ways I do about getting involved in stuff that I know is good, needed, and that I believe in?" There has to be some kind of influence there that we choose to ignore in us that is in control somehow.
I guess we need to ask our hearts about what the solution is to such things? The answer is found in what Paul had written to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12 when he told them that he couldn't teach them the deeper things of God's Spirit because they were not able to bear it. He said " In a time when you should have been teachers of the word, I find that you are still in need to be taught the Milk of the Word". The truth is that for a great majority of us we are still struggling with many of those principals that we may feel we have down pat. It isn't that we don't know what these things are, but that we have never taken the time to really implement them into our every day life. Because of that lack of commitment and follow through to make Christ the Lord of our life we are still sitting in the same place we were many years ago. At a time when we should be grown up in Christ and able to understand and teach another the word, and principal s of Christ we are still feeding off of the milk.
I have to ask ...what does that mean to you personally when we speak such things? Do you rise up on the inside and attempt to defend yourself without thought ? Do you still have that tendency to point fingers at another to take the heat off of yourself? How about those base desires to avoid doing what you know God's words are calling out to your heart? Do you still feel like the teenager to has been told to take out the trash...and are you still going through the work that it always seemed to take to avoid it? If you are dear friend then these are things that indicate that you may still be feeding on the milk of God's word and not producing the fruit of God's Spirit that is so important to your growth. It all starts with Love, and it never stops growing in us. Let me challenge you to be all that you can be in Christ, by realizing that when we put ourselves on the shelf, and try to get comfortable in our relationship, it may also mean that we are not allowing God to continue to grow within us, and produce within us....if we don't produce what does the word say to us? May you richly bless God through your life in Him;
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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Name: Larry Crowell
