Spiritual Archives

October 15, 2024October 15, 2024

Don’t Wait Til It’s You

⁷ The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. ~ Proverbs 29:7

¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. ~ James 4:17

In the show Avatar, there’s a main character by the name of Uncle Iroh. Now, Uncle Iroh was a military hero. He led siege after siege, taking over other tribes for the Fire Nation until he came to one particular city, Ba Sing Se. The siege lasted for 600 days but ended when Iroh lost his son, Lu Ten, in battle. After he lost his son, he no longer saw the necessity of the war, and he brought his men home. The rest of his life he spent trying to help others. We later find out that he lives his life trying to help others because he was unable to help his son.

He never saw a problem with leading the sieges, taking homes or lives, burning down cities until he lost what mattered most to him, his son. He simply bought into the lie that was told to him because he didn’t want to see the truth until the truth directly affected him in a traumatic way. So many of us in the Church are exactly the same way.

We don’t want to open our lives to the truth because we’re benefiting from the lie. Or we’re apathetic because the lie isn’t directly affecting us. But see, that’s how the enemy gets us. He doesn’t directly hit us at first. He allows us to get comfortable. To put our feet up. To turn a blind eye to little things until we’ve completely gone blind, and we don’t even realize it. Then, when we’re completely disarmed, he takes away all security and comfort we once had and suddenly the lie is no longer a big deal, it’s now directly negatively affecting us.

So, how do we combat this? We refuse to listen to apathy’s lullaby and by refusing to turn a blind eye to things, even if they seem minor. When someone else is done wrong, we stand up for them because if it could happen to them, it could happen to us. We can’t wait for the mob to be at our front door before we want to fight back. We need to fight back before they even enter our city. We need to wake up and pay attention to what’s going on in our world before it’s too late to do anything about it.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Wait Til It’s You.

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October 13, 2024October 13, 2024

Pray For Open Eyes

¹⁵ Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, ¹⁶ but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. ~ 2 Peter 2:15-16

Balaam was a prophet of God who was enticed by King Balak to curse the people of Israel. Balaam, however, refused, saying he could only bless the people of Israel because God blessed them. But the money had his heart desiring to do as the king requested. So, God told him to go on then to Balak, but on the way, the Angel of the LORD stood in his path. Balaam’s desire for the money had blinded his spiritual eyes, and he could not see the Angel of the LORD before him.

Matter-a-fact, Balaam even tried to go straight through the angel of the LORD but his donkey refused to go. So, what does Balaam do? He strikes his donkey. So, the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and the donkey spoke, “Why have you struck me these three times?” Balaam, of course, tells the donkey she (the donkey) is in the wrong, and he wishes he had a sword to kill him with. The donkey asks, “Am I not your donkey? Is it my habit to treat you like this?” Balaam responds with no. Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes to see what fate stood before him.

Though Balaam was a prophet of God who heard directly from God Himself, his eyes were shut to the LORD when He appeared before him to bring judgment for his ungodly desires that were taking hold of him. Even though we may be in high positions of authority or are spiritually in a high place hearing directly from God, that does not mean the things of this world cannot lead us astray. That doesn’t mean our hearts cannot be corrupted, and we fall into a spiritual slumber, no longer seeing our own judgment that’s standing before us, so we lash out at the one who is trying to warn us.

This is one of the lessons of Balaam, you are never too big to fall. You may hear from God, but God may also be turning you over to your sinful desires if you allow them to consume you. Therefore, surround yourself with people like Balaam’s donkey who will try its best to maneuver you out of the way of judgment even when you yourself don’t see it.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pray For Open Eyes.

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October 10, 2024

First Put On Your Oxygen Mask

1 Corinthians 9:27
[27] But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

If you’ve ever been on a plane, you’ve heard the flight attendants tell you “in case of an emergency, put on your oxygen mask before assisting a child or another person in need.” This line of thinking can also be applied to salvation.

We can’t try to save others unless we ourselves are saved. Why? Because if our oxygen runs out, we’re no help to anyone, not even ourselves. We’ve now become a liability for someone else. A burden for someone else to have to carry because without oxygen we are asleep. If, LORD forbid, the plane goes down, we risk drowning if we don’t have the oxygen mask on.

Everything that we could have helped with, now we are needing help with, and therefore, adding to the stress of others. Therefore, secure your own salvation first, and then the Holy Spirit will be your oxygen mask. He will guide you, protect you, and keep you, as you lead others to Christ.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and First Put On Your Oxygen Mask.

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October 7, 2024October 8, 2024

Don’t Succumb

⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ~ 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

There’s a show called Downton Abbey, and within this show, one of the main characters’ husband dies in a car crash right after she gives birth. He was on his way home to get the rest of the family to see their new baby boy, but he never made it home. That destroyed this main character. She was once strong and confident, but now she is scared and unsure of herself. She and her brother-in-law, who lost his wife (her sister) during childbirth, get into an argument of sorts one day, and this is what he told her:

You’re frightened of being hurt again. But let me tell you this. You will be hurt again, and so will I, because being hurt is part of being alive.

Pain is a part of this life. It was never intended for mankind, but it has become an unavoidable part of our lives since Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden. Pain is an unavoidable side effect of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. We can’t erase it. We can’t run away from it. It’s something that each one of us has to go through. We have to endure, lest it consume us, as it did the main character of Downton Abbey.

She gave up on work as well as love. She just gave up in life, completely. The fact of the matter is life is hard. It’s easy to give up. It’s easy to allow pain and suffering to consume us, but that’s not our destiny. That’s not what God has called us to. Yes, pain and suffering is unavoidable, but succumbing to them is a choice.

We, the Church, the body of Christ, are blessed and highly favored. We are the very bride of Christ. We may be struck down, but we are not destroyed. We may be persecuted, but we are not abandoned. We are in the hands of the Living God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. He is the Good Shepherd who has given Himself for His sheep.

Therefore, when troubles come our way that begin to weigh us down and try to consume us, we have to lift the burdens off of us and lay them at the feet of Jesus. We have to cast our anxieties upon Him because He cares for us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Succumb.

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Obtain Truth

¹⁰ … your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” ~ Isaiah 47:10b

Secret knowledge makes one wiser than those who are in the dark. And that kind of ‘knowledge-power’ can make one arrogant, haughty, and overconfident.

There is a game played with a whole bunch of players called werewolf. In the game where everyone gets a card with the word ‘villager’ written on it, but two players get a card with the word werewolf written on it.

Then, someone runs the game to ensure that no one is cheating. Then the leader says, “Okay it’s nighttime everyone please close your eyes. Now, werewolves, choose someone to kill.” After the person is chosen, the one in charge of the game says, “Okay, it’s morning, and announces that a certain person was killed during the night.”

All the players now have a conversation about who the werewolf is and who they are going to kill. The game continues until either both werewolves are killed or all but two villagers are killed. More times than not, the werewolves win. What is the purpose of the game?

Well, the game was invented by a Russian sociology student who wanted to prove his thesis that an uninformed majority will always lose the battle of information against an informed minority. Which proves that someone having hidden information can completely manipulate a large group of people, and that’s what they have done, with the secret meetings.

Knowledge is power. As long as we refuse to seek knowledge, we will never have true freedom in this world. We have to seek to open our eyes to the truth. Obtaining truth is the key to fixing our world. Why? Because when we have truth, we won’t fall for deceitful lies.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Obtain Truth.

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Call On Jesus

¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. ~ Ephesians 3:14-19

I want us to fully understand what Paul is writing here because it is very important. Paul said, for this reason, I kneel before the Father. But for what reason? The reason is, the Ephesians were becoming a little discouraged because of Paul’s suffering for the Gospel. And if Paul, a mighty man of God, would go through such suffering, is it not worth it? So, it is for that reason, so that the Ephesians would not be discouraged about serving God because of Paul’s sufferings basically for them.

He wrote, “I want you to understand this.” Understand what? Understand the love that God has for us. Because if you can understand that love, and understand the width, the height, the depth of Jesus’ love that surpasses all knowledge, then you will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

If you don’t understand the love of God, then you will think that God is always out to get you. He is up there just waiting in the wings of heaven waiting for you to mess up, and splat, He has you. But that is not how the love of God works.

God actually looks for someone doing what is right so that He can bless them. And those who are doing wrong? Well, He looks for an intercessor who will pray and intercede for the people who are doing wrong so that He will not have to carry out His swift and terrible judgment on them.

God never interferes with what is going on on earth, unless we ask Him to. He said the Heavens are His, but He has given earth to mankind. It’s our job to take care of the earth and those who dwell on it, and when we cannot get the job done, we call on Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Call On Jesus.

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Make It High Priority

²²How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? ~ Proverbs 1:22

There is none as blind as those who refuse to see. Even when the evidence stares them dead in the face they still refuse to see, or even take a look. The Proverb ends with God promising that whoever listens to Him will dwell secure and will be at ease and will be without dread of disaster.

One thing we can always rest assured of is God is for us and not against us. God always has our best interest at heart. He does not see dollar signs when He looks at us, nor does he look at us with disgust. But as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him (Psalms 103:13).

God will never deceive you, nor will He ever lie to you. We can fully trust Him. He does not have a hidden agenda. God wants us to be obedient to His commands, and to love Him and love each other. Have you thought about that love in terms of eternity? Have you placed it as a high priority?

What I mean is, have you consciously sat and considered the question, where will I spend eternity? Because you will spend eternity in one place or the other. Either you will spend your eternity in paradise with Jesus, where every need is supplied and every tear wiped away. Where there will be no more hunger and no more thirst, or even heartaches, because there will be no more sad goodbyes. Or the alternative is to spend eternity in a lake of fire being tormented and in severe anguish forever and ever with no chance of parole or ever getting out.

The bottom line is this, Jesus is coming back real soon, and His rewards are with Him. Those who know Jesus as LORD and Savior will be saved, those who have rejected Him, or who have just plain waited too long, will be sent to the Lake of Fire.

If you want to spend eternity in paradise with all of your needs met, now is your opportunity. All you have to do is repent and accept the free gift of Salvation that has already been offered to you. This is one action you don’t want to put off, as tomorrow isn’t promised to any person, but eternity is promised to everyone.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Make It High Priority.

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Let Truth Flourish

¹³But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. ¹⁴To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. ~ 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15

If you will not search for the truth and believe the truth, you are destined to believe the lie. So, how do we overcome deception?

Be thankful to God, be sanctified by the Spirit, and believe in the Truth. God’s Word is truth. It is not nullified by science; science is nullified by God’s Word. Jesus is the Word that became flesh. Truth is the only antidote for lies, and lies cannot flourish where free speech prospers.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Let Truth Flourish.

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There’s No Sacrifice Left

²⁶For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ~ Hebrews 10:26-27

The writer of Hebrews says, “Do not go on sinning, for if you do go on sinning, you will nullify the sacrifice of the cross. And if you nullify the sacrifice of the cross, you will void the salvation that Jesus has lavished on us. And if you void the salvation that Jesus has lavished on us, then there is nothing left to look forward to, except for the fearful expectation of the judgment of the Lake of Fire.”

So, what does it mean to go on sinning deliberately? The Scriptures says that if you know the right thing to do and you refuse to it, then you are sinning.

Therefore, it would be in your best interest to read the Bible to see what it says about right or wrong so that you will know what the right thing is so that you can do it. Do not rely on a man or a woman to tell you. Yes, listen to your preachers, listen to your pastors, listen to your evangelists, but do as the Bereans did and search the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was teaching them was accurate. You, too, must read your Bible for yourself so that you will not be deceived or led astray.

There is so much deceitfulness in the world today, and it’s no different in the Church, therefore, your only hope of truth is in the Bible. Do not believe the lie that the Bible is outdated, or has changed to the point of being unreliable, or untrustworthy. Believe me, if God is real, and He is, He is more than able to preserve His Word and He did.

Listen to this, Jesus is the Word that became flesh, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will not and cannot change; therefore, neither will His Word change. His Word is unchanging, immovable, indivisible, and infallible; it will remain the same forever and ever.

Therefore, do not listen when society tells you that it is okay to live a certain lifestyle; rather, read the Word of God to see what it says about what they said. Do not participate in everything that those who live to promote the pleasures of life say is acceptable to God or tell you that is what Jesus would do. Read the Word of God for yourself, and the Spirit of Truth will reveal to you and open your eyes because He has promised to fill those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Remember, the return of Jesus is closer now than ever before, and we must be ready to receive Him, so that He will receive us into His kingdom.

Heavenly Father, please open my eyes to see and recognize lies. Help me to see and recognize truth; Your Word is truth. Help me to cling to Your truth and obey Your Word. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Allow For Sadness

³⁵Jesus wept. ~ John 11:35

There’s a movie called Inside Out. The movie is centered around a young girl, Riley, who’s having a great life when, all of a sudden, she moves from her hometown to a whole new state. Within Riley’s mind are five emotions that help Riley become Riley. Fear, Jealousy, Anger, Sadness, and Joy. The entire plot of the movie is centered around Joy trying to find a way to change and/or remove Sadness so that Riley will only feel joy. As the movie progresses and hits its climax, Joy realizes that Sadness is a necessary emotion for Riley to feel. She realizes that Sadness can actually help Riley. This is true for so many people.

We try our best to bury sadness. We don’t want to deal with the pain or grief that sadness brings because it hurts. But sadness is a part of life. When we allow ourselves to embrace and face pain, grief, disappointment, sadness, then we allow ourselves to move past these feelings. Instead of suppressing them and letting them fester. Instead of letting them grow out of hand, which then ultimately suppresses our joy.

Sadness doesn’t mean that we’re weak. It doesn’t mean that we’re depressed, nor does it mean that we don’t have joy. Allowing ourselves to naturally cycle through emotions will allow us to naturally move forward with our lives. Throughout the Old Testament we see mentions of Days of Mourning after someone had passed away. Suppressing the natural emotion of sadness won’t stop sadness, it will only begin to consume you and leave no room for joy.

Therefore, allow yourself to mourn, cry, and face the pain of this world, just don’t let it consume. Because all who mourn will be comforted. One day, we will no longer have any more pain, hurt, sorrow, or sadness when Christ wipes every tear from our eyes, but for now, we have to face the pain and lean on Christ until it is all taken away from us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Allow For Sadness.

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