Tue, Aug 17th - 9:50AM
Greetings in the love of Christ:
It is a simple thing to share thoughts with you about my love for God, and yet very difficult to say anything that is of any great worth to you for the times in your life that drag you under, or that beat you down. I know that there are many who come here from time to time just to read thoughts from others that provoke them on toward better things in their day. For those of us who write down these thoughts and then share it becomes a very lonely and empty place to be when we never hear anything in return. It is very much like speaking into the wind...you can never tell if in some distant place your voice has ever carried any message of help or aid to those who are your target. I guess in truth for those who write and read blogs it becomes a private; personal, yet very public way of communication that can never really be understood.
It is never difficult to know where I am going with my writings. Everything I do is geared toward leading anyone else to an understanding of God in their life. It is that goal that has been my personal mission for many years now. I want for each of you to know that just like you I have had my doubts about my faith too, but in the end there is only one place that I can choose that gives me any hope for a future, and a life beyond this one that I would care to exist in for eternity, and that is with the promises made to me by a loving and caring God. In truth if I looked anywhere else there is always a broken promise, or even a flaw in the existence of what is offered that does not appeal to me. You see for me I need a fulfilling life to look forward to...I need to know that what I do have will not be stolen away or rust away. I need to feel as though I will be healthy enough to enjoy living out that life as the person I am. I need to know that I can put my faith into something that will be sure and true. The Idea of seventy virgins, and a maybe or maybe not future depending on my state at death is not good enough for me. I don't want to morph into a bug, or a cow when I wake up, God knows life has been hard enough as it is! I don't know what it is like to be spirit alone and yet that can appeal to me if I can keep me somehow. I can close my eyes and think of what a kind of heaven would be for me, and yet no one offers me any kind of choice about fulfillment of my life and achievement of my love like Jesus Christ does.
When I look around me in this world all I see is choice and concepts of peoples minds. Quiet frankly some of them really suck! I need something that I can believe in that fulfills me...how about you? If you are looking for some way to find an up lift for the day just close your eyes and think about those promises that God has made to you through Jesus Christ. Think for a moment what it might be like to have all and more that your wildest dreams could come up with, and then realize that no one else even offers you that image except for Christ. Some times as a I drive along and see different things like woods or mountains or skies, trees or anything that I love, I feel good about just asking God if He would include that in my heaven. By the time I get where I am going I already feel rich and fulfilled. Try it the next time you are feeling low...and don't forget to thank Him for all of it. May you richly bless God through your life in Him;
The Unworthy Servant
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Mon, Aug 2nd - 5:32PM
Sharing Thoughts
Greetings in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:
I want to give you always a message of encouragement and blessing. I want to always be able to point you in a direction that will help you to understand and be drawn closer to God who I know first hand can heal your lives and lift your heart from the pits of despair that you may often find yourself living in ...the problem is that I can not always do that. The reason is very simple for in the same way that you will not allow God to change you into a new creature that is poised to fill your life with these blessings; it is also true that you are unwilling to take the words that I give you to heart. Is that your fault? In truth yes it is because we all have a choice to make each day we rise to meet the day.
Now you may have expected me to say to you that it was not your fault, but that the blame could be placed elsewhere; like on Satan or some demon oppression and yet that isn't really true is it? For me or anyone who is called by God to give you a message it is much like the ways we treat scripture itself; it is a useless effort unless you have an open heart and spiritual ears to hear it. You may have noticed that lately we have all been desiring to hear things that make us feel better about ourselves rather than to hear things that motivate us toward change. That is because we are in an age when Satan is hardest at work to deceive us into thinking that everything is alright even though the world around us is falling apart. The enemy of God does not want for any of us to get shaken out of our complacency because it might mean that there would be a very God and very Spiritual resistance to what is truthfully happening around us. The question is do you see that around you in life today? Are we getting so used to the lies that are being told by our government that we are ready to accept lies from them rather than truth? Are we getting to the point where we want some kind of comfort so badly that we willingly accept any kind of watered down message that does not challenge us?
I don't know about you but I am seeing more and more the need to step up to the batters plate on many issues that I would just as soon leave alone because I don't want to have to take any more time out of my schedule to deal with fixing something that someone else has broken. The facts on all of this still remain clear to me in that when we signed on to become followers...in fact disciples of Christ we also gave away the right to sit back and take a comfortable ride in life. We have been told in very certain terms that if we take that journey we will suffer the same fate as did Christ Jesus. Hate accusations and deceit are a part of what we are suppose to get in return for giving truth , love and sacrifice. I am sure as well that God would love to give us a message of love and comfort all of the time, and yet He is too good of a Father for that kind of attitude. How about you as His child? What are you willing to settle for in exchange for your life? May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
The Unworthy Servant
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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
