Ya know, I overheard something that, although it may sound crass, would speak volumes about God to someone livin' in the trenches with no energy for beating around the bush, this statement you are about to read was expressed by someone, who like many of us, is simply knee deep in the world's crapola and recognizes God working in the midst of it. Ready? Here it is:
"God just took His big can of 'Unf--k' and sprayed it all over!"
God is good. He is able to unf--k stuff.
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Monday, April 28, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Two Kingdoms
This morning during my drive to drop
off my youngest at playschool I had some very interesting thoughts
going on. I'm not sure how it got started, but I began to think
about how humans are hosts to spiritual beings, spiritual beings who
want authority in the earth, but can only get it through an alliance
and agreement with a human being. Truth is stranger than fiction.
Why can't these beings just take what they want? Because the earth
was given to mankind by God.
We abdicate our authority when we make
agreements with the deceiver, Jesus Christ got it back for us, but
we have to believe the keys exhist before we can use them. What we
believe makes a world of difference. When I asked Jesus to come into
my life and be my Lord and Saviour, I became His human host. This is
why the Bible refers to the Church as the Body of Christ. When
Jesus came into my heart and life He began to clean up any resident
darkness, and so over the years, as I've surrendered to His process,
I've become lighter as He cleanses this spiritual house that is me.
The opposite happens when we let darkness in through agreements we
make with the things of the kingdom of darkness.
During Jesus' ministry on earth He
delivered some people by casting out the dark spiritual beings they
were hosting. In one such story they begged Jesus to let them go
into pigs, since they had to come out of the man at Christ's order.
I gather that a pig host is better than no host, but the pigs rushed
into the water as a result, and drowned. Eventually, the kingdom of
darkness leads to death, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. Since God
loves the world, He sent His son to deliver it from the kingdom of
darkness. All who invite Him into themselves and submit to His
transforming power, will prove it in increasing measure, by coming
out of agreement with the kingdom of darkness and destroying the
spiritual work, and thus the physical destruction, caused by that
dark kingdom. We are to do this by loving people.
God is love. Satan cannot love. Not
real love. If we cause factions and strife, if we make judgements
and condemn people based on judgements, we have missed our true
calling. If we need to be right, we've missed it there too. Wrong
exists. It touches everyone, it hurts, it's painful, it's
frusterating, especially if someone you love is being hurt. We are
to protect the innocent. We are to set the captives free, to release
the prisoners of darkness. We do that by shining the light of love
and truth. The truth is Jesus, not a philosophy you smack people
with. Jesus shed His blood for us. That is truth. When we invite
Him in, we invite the dominant spiritual power of light to overtake
the darkness, from the inside out.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
To Be A Hero
I have been thinking lately, what it means to be a Christian, what it should be like. The thought process was spurred by conversation about situations that rubbed me the wrong way and I was trying to figure out why.
As I sat in my vehicle amidst running errands it dawned on me that too many Christians live like victims instead of the heroes they are meant to be. This is not to say we don't struggle, no, we struggle, we battle, that is a given. But our struggle should always contain a seed of hope and expectation of victory (Jesus tells us in scripture that "in this world you will have trials, but take heart, I have overcome the world"). Our victory meaning God being glorified through us, not just in end results of a trial, but of how we conducted ourselves during the trial. Did we compromise what is right? Did we use and abuse people to get what we want? That is the test, what you do in the battle, how you fight the battle. Too many people do all sorts of underhanded things to try to ensure that they come out on top at the end, and then justify their behavior by the end result. That is a definite "fail" with God.
In our struggle, the temptation to feel sorry for ourselves, to succumb to a victim mentality, must not overcome us. Yes, at times, when the battle is fierce, our soul goes through dark night seasons. In the dark night of the soul it's debris gets churned up, but in this even, God has redemptive purpose. You can't get rid of what you can't see, so these seasons are meant to expose what lurks deep within. Heroes face it and recognize their need for God's redemption and renewal, heroes embrace the fire of purging, because they know that on the other side, when the purging and refining is done, they will have earned the privilege to help remove, in love, the blinding specks of others. This is not unlike Christ facing and enduring the cross for our sakes. To burn so others may live.
Somewhere along the line many Christians forget they are more than conquerors, that they are made in the image of God (all mankind is) and that through Christ we have been given everything we need (truly need, not what we may think we need), we have eternal hope in the goodness of God and the deposit, the assurance of Holy Spirit within us.
The trials of a Christian should always produce good fruit, when they don't, we should start asking ourselves the hard questions. Questions like, "Did I stray from the path God intended for my life?", "Am I running (from God, instead of to God)?", "What are my motives for being on the path I'm on?", "Have I justified behavior that is wrong in order to get what I want?"(that's a huge one), "Am I walking in integrity in every area of my life?", "Have I lost God's vision for my life, taking my life into my own hands?", "Am I striving for selfish reasons or for the greater good?".
Every person can be a hero, every day. And most especially Christians, because we are to be what our title calls us "little Christs". Do people know us by our fruit or by a name we've given ourselves? Are we being heroes to the sphere of influence God has given each of us? Are we being faithful with the little things He asks of us, so He can entrust us with more? We all, are on different legs and stages of our journeys, these all look different, God looks at the heart and doesn't judge by appearances, however, this blog being about Christians meant to be heroes, God will judge the motives and actions of those who call themselves Christians.
His love for us is unquestionable and unquenchable, but I have always wanted more than His love, I wanted Him to like me, I want to bring Him pleasure, I don't want my behavior to require disciplining (but welcome it when I need it!) or my motives to bring Him grief. For me love is not enough, I want friendship, I want intimacy - that deep heart knowing of one another. I am blessed to say that I have been experiencing that place and have been enjoying that level of His presence. My heart's desire is for all to experience this with Him, their Creator, their Father, to reflect the light that transforms darkness. This is the great need. So we can rise up the heroes we were created to be.
As I sat in my vehicle amidst running errands it dawned on me that too many Christians live like victims instead of the heroes they are meant to be. This is not to say we don't struggle, no, we struggle, we battle, that is a given. But our struggle should always contain a seed of hope and expectation of victory (Jesus tells us in scripture that "in this world you will have trials, but take heart, I have overcome the world"). Our victory meaning God being glorified through us, not just in end results of a trial, but of how we conducted ourselves during the trial. Did we compromise what is right? Did we use and abuse people to get what we want? That is the test, what you do in the battle, how you fight the battle. Too many people do all sorts of underhanded things to try to ensure that they come out on top at the end, and then justify their behavior by the end result. That is a definite "fail" with God.
In our struggle, the temptation to feel sorry for ourselves, to succumb to a victim mentality, must not overcome us. Yes, at times, when the battle is fierce, our soul goes through dark night seasons. In the dark night of the soul it's debris gets churned up, but in this even, God has redemptive purpose. You can't get rid of what you can't see, so these seasons are meant to expose what lurks deep within. Heroes face it and recognize their need for God's redemption and renewal, heroes embrace the fire of purging, because they know that on the other side, when the purging and refining is done, they will have earned the privilege to help remove, in love, the blinding specks of others. This is not unlike Christ facing and enduring the cross for our sakes. To burn so others may live.
Somewhere along the line many Christians forget they are more than conquerors, that they are made in the image of God (all mankind is) and that through Christ we have been given everything we need (truly need, not what we may think we need), we have eternal hope in the goodness of God and the deposit, the assurance of Holy Spirit within us.
The trials of a Christian should always produce good fruit, when they don't, we should start asking ourselves the hard questions. Questions like, "Did I stray from the path God intended for my life?", "Am I running (from God, instead of to God)?", "What are my motives for being on the path I'm on?", "Have I justified behavior that is wrong in order to get what I want?"(that's a huge one), "Am I walking in integrity in every area of my life?", "Have I lost God's vision for my life, taking my life into my own hands?", "Am I striving for selfish reasons or for the greater good?".
Every person can be a hero, every day. And most especially Christians, because we are to be what our title calls us "little Christs". Do people know us by our fruit or by a name we've given ourselves? Are we being heroes to the sphere of influence God has given each of us? Are we being faithful with the little things He asks of us, so He can entrust us with more? We all, are on different legs and stages of our journeys, these all look different, God looks at the heart and doesn't judge by appearances, however, this blog being about Christians meant to be heroes, God will judge the motives and actions of those who call themselves Christians.
His love for us is unquestionable and unquenchable, but I have always wanted more than His love, I wanted Him to like me, I want to bring Him pleasure, I don't want my behavior to require disciplining (but welcome it when I need it!) or my motives to bring Him grief. For me love is not enough, I want friendship, I want intimacy - that deep heart knowing of one another. I am blessed to say that I have been experiencing that place and have been enjoying that level of His presence. My heart's desire is for all to experience this with Him, their Creator, their Father, to reflect the light that transforms darkness. This is the great need. So we can rise up the heroes we were created to be.
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