Luke 14: 28-30 "28For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish."
As leaders we must consider the cost of what it is we're doing. We have people's lives in our hands. It may not seem that drastic on a day to day basis but we are responsible for the livelihood of everybody that is subordinate to us. We are responsible sometimes for their pay, education, training, discipline, advancement, and even whether or not they keep a job. We cannot take this responsibility lightly.
While I was task lead on one of the jobs I've had, I was responsible for making sure people's time-cards were signed. If I didn't sign their time-cards then they wouldn't get paid on time. Instead they would have to jump through hoops in order to get the pay they knew was coming to them. Before becoming task lead I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I used it as a learning experience. One of the main lessons that I learned was that I needed more experience. This was something new for me. I was a leader in the military, but while in the military I wasn't a single point of failure. There were always people that I could seek advice from on any problem that came up. However it wasn't like this for me once I was out of the military. People would come to me for answers that I would have to get from corporate, the problem with this was they were in a different country and didn't always get back to me in a timely manner. However not getting an answer from corporate wasn't going to be an acceptable answer for the people that I work with. As I said this was a learning experience.
We never fully know what we're getting ourselves into, but we must learn to be more aware of the costs involved. As leaders you can't just jump into something blind because people will follow you into whatever disaster comes up due to your lack of planning. In Matthew 15:14 it says "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." No matter what our career is, if we as leaders are poor at planning then we are leading our people into disaster. History is filled with examples of people dying as a result of poor planning on the part of leadership.
We cannot allow our subordinates to become victims of our laziness to plan. If you want to be an example of what a leader should be or be somebody that people are willing to follow, then always have a plan. As the saying goes, "He who fails to plan, plans to fail." Without a plan you will fail, it's just a matter of time.
Showing posts with label Bible Study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible Study. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
In Christianity: Christ Crucified
CHRIST CRUCIFIED
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of
speech or of wisdom declaring to you the *testimony of God. 2 For I
determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.
Nowadays we're preaching the Gospel to non believers with Wisdom, and
trying to give the complexities of God. Teaching people about the
fruits of the Spirit, and the Parables of Christ. But the 1st thing we
should preach to them is Christ Crucified. This is the foundation of
our religion, that Jesus Christ died for our sins. That he was
sacrificed so that His blood can cover us. If it wasn't for this
selfless deed then nothing else would matter, we would still be in our
sin, we Gentiles would still be worshipping our gods, instead of GOD.
So in this email I'll be talking about Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.
Some might think that the only place it talks about Jesus Christ's
crucifixion is in the New Testament. However those of us that really
know God, and are in the word, know that our God is a Thorough God. And
if there is anything that we should place Close attention to in the
Bible then it's repeated throughout the bible. Well this is the same
thing that happens when He talks about the crucifixion. Jesus Christ's
crucifixion is prophesied about throughout the Old Testament by the
Prophets and by David. God did this so that when the time came for
Jesus to be sacrificed for us that there would be no doubt about what
was happening. Like I said we serve a Thorough God. He is not the
author of confusion. He won't leave you wondering. If God does
something, he'll let you know what's about to happen so when it does
happen you'll know that it was God, and nobody else but God. So the
Following verses are going to help us to understand Jesus Christ and Him
crucified more. The most amazing thing to me besides God, is him
showing me how His prophesies come true.
Isaiah 53:4-12
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His
stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers
is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His
generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions
of My people He was stricken.
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His
death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He
shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in
His hand.
11 *He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall
bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall
divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto
death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin
of many, And made intercession for the transgressors
Mathew 27:35
35 Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:
"They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots."*
Psalms 22:18
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots
Mathew 37:38
Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another
on the left.
Isaiah 53:9
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked--
Mathew 37:43
43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for
He said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
Psalms 22:8
8 "He *trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him,
since He delights in Him!"
Mathew 37:46
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?"* Psalms 22:1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Mathew 37:57-60
Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named
Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 This man
went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded
the body to be given to him. 59 When Joseph had taken the body, he
wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his new tomb which
he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the
door of the tomb, and departed.
Isaiah 53:9
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His
death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
John 19:31-34
Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should
not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high
day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that
they might be taken away. 32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs
of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. 33 But when
they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break
His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and
immediately blood and water came out.
Psalms 34:20
He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken
Psalms 22:14
I am poured out like water
Luke 24:34
34 *Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what
they do."
Isaiah 53:12
And made intercession for the transgressors
I'll stop here, but there is so much more, I just did this to show you
why this is important. There is soo much in the bible about Jesus, more
then what is shown in the Gospels. So many prophecies to let us know
that he truly is the Messiah. This is why Paul said that I came to you
knowing nothing else but Christ crucified, because once you can
understand Christ crucified then it will make you appreciate being a
Christian that much more. God loves us so much that he told us that
Jesus was going to come, and be a Savior not only for the Jews but also
for the Gentiles, he told us that Jesus was going to suffer for us so
that we might be saved. Jesus knew what he had to do long before he was
Crucified, and yet he Loved us so much that he went through with it
anyways. Can you imagine being able to read in the bible about
yourself, and know everything that you're going to suffer for people
that won't appreciate it until you've suffered. That's love, that's
AGAPE We need to start being more obedient, to show Jesus that it
wasn't in Vain. That we truly appreciate what he did for us. It was no
small thing.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of
speech or of wisdom declaring to you the *testimony of God. 2 For I
determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.
Nowadays we're preaching the Gospel to non believers with Wisdom, and
trying to give the complexities of God. Teaching people about the
fruits of the Spirit, and the Parables of Christ. But the 1st thing we
should preach to them is Christ Crucified. This is the foundation of
our religion, that Jesus Christ died for our sins. That he was
sacrificed so that His blood can cover us. If it wasn't for this
selfless deed then nothing else would matter, we would still be in our
sin, we Gentiles would still be worshipping our gods, instead of GOD.
So in this email I'll be talking about Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.
Some might think that the only place it talks about Jesus Christ's
crucifixion is in the New Testament. However those of us that really
know God, and are in the word, know that our God is a Thorough God. And
if there is anything that we should place Close attention to in the
Bible then it's repeated throughout the bible. Well this is the same
thing that happens when He talks about the crucifixion. Jesus Christ's
crucifixion is prophesied about throughout the Old Testament by the
Prophets and by David. God did this so that when the time came for
Jesus to be sacrificed for us that there would be no doubt about what
was happening. Like I said we serve a Thorough God. He is not the
author of confusion. He won't leave you wondering. If God does
something, he'll let you know what's about to happen so when it does
happen you'll know that it was God, and nobody else but God. So the
Following verses are going to help us to understand Jesus Christ and Him
crucified more. The most amazing thing to me besides God, is him
showing me how His prophesies come true.
Isaiah 53:4-12
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His
stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers
is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His
generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions
of My people He was stricken.
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His
death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He
shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in
His hand.
11 *He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall
bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall
divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto
death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin
of many, And made intercession for the transgressors
Mathew 27:35
35 Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:
"They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots."*
Psalms 22:18
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots
Mathew 37:38
Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another
on the left.
Isaiah 53:9
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked--
Mathew 37:43
43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for
He said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
Psalms 22:8
8 "He *trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him,
since He delights in Him!"
Mathew 37:46
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?"* Psalms 22:1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Mathew 37:57-60
Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named
Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 This man
went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded
the body to be given to him. 59 When Joseph had taken the body, he
wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his new tomb which
he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the
door of the tomb, and departed.
Isaiah 53:9
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His
death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
John 19:31-34
Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should
not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high
day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that
they might be taken away. 32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs
of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. 33 But when
they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break
His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and
immediately blood and water came out.
Psalms 34:20
He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken
Psalms 22:14
I am poured out like water
Luke 24:34
34 *Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what
they do."
Isaiah 53:12
And made intercession for the transgressors
I'll stop here, but there is so much more, I just did this to show you
why this is important. There is soo much in the bible about Jesus, more
then what is shown in the Gospels. So many prophecies to let us know
that he truly is the Messiah. This is why Paul said that I came to you
knowing nothing else but Christ crucified, because once you can
understand Christ crucified then it will make you appreciate being a
Christian that much more. God loves us so much that he told us that
Jesus was going to come, and be a Savior not only for the Jews but also
for the Gentiles, he told us that Jesus was going to suffer for us so
that we might be saved. Jesus knew what he had to do long before he was
Crucified, and yet he Loved us so much that he went through with it
anyways. Can you imagine being able to read in the bible about
yourself, and know everything that you're going to suffer for people
that won't appreciate it until you've suffered. That's love, that's
AGAPE We need to start being more obedient, to show Jesus that it
wasn't in Vain. That we truly appreciate what he did for us. It was no
small thing.
In Christianity: Forgiveness
Mathew 18:34-35
34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he
should pay all that was due to him. 35 So My heavenly Father also will
do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother
his trespasses.
We all know that forgiveness is important. In the above scripture Jesus
talks about what will happen to us if we don't forgive our brother from
our heart of their trespasses. But an important thing to remember is we
will not be forgiven also if we can't forgive ourselves of our own
trespasses. Being a Christian we believe that Jesus Christ was
crucified on the cross and died as a sacrificial lamb to take away all
of our sins. By that selfless act all of our sins were forgiven. So
why do we not forgive ourselves when we stumble? Why do we call
ourselves a failure, or an idiot. Why do we walk around ashamed of
ourselves when we slip. There are something's that we have going on in
our life that we are trying to be delivered from. And just when we feel
we've been delivered from it we will slip up and do the very burden that
we feel has been taken off of us. And what do we do when that happens,
we curse ourselves. We condemn ourselves and sometimes we turn our
backs on God because of it. We'll turn our backs on our brothers and
sisters in Christ because of the shame that we feel. How can we forgive
others if we can't forgive ourselves. How can we love others if we
don't love ourselves, how can we love God if we can't love ourselves?
We are told to always speak nice about others, and not gossip, we're
taught that if we don't have anything nice to say then don't say
anything at all, but do we practice that when it comes to us? Jesus
says: Mathew 12:35 "36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may
speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment. 37 For by
your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be
condemned". So if by our words we will be justified or condemned, why do
we speak negative things to life? If you call yourself a failure then
you're a failure and you won't be delivered, but if you say I will be
delivered from this and give it to God then you will be delivered. We
expect it in our own time, instead of in God's time. God knows that he
wants you to be delivered from your afflictions. God doesn't want us to
keep sinning, but God also knows that we are human. God knows that we
rely on him. God wants us to know that we rely on him. When God
delivers you from something he doesn't ever want you going back to it.
So when you keep on going to God eventually he'll make you so turned off
by the very thing that makes you stumble that you won't even think about
doing it again. Some things are detrimental to us so he'll deliver us
from it right away. Others we have to struggle with for awhile, but the
whole time we're struggling we're supposed to be going to God. Paul
talks about this in his letter to the Corinthians in it he says: 2
Corinthians 12:7-10 "7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the
abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a
messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might
depart from me. 9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I
will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am
weak, then I am strong". Paul said that he will boast in his
infirmities. He boasted and praised God in everything that we will cry
about and beat ourselves up over. We need to stop doing this. We need
to praise God no matter what.
Christians aren't supposed to have Low self esteem, Christians aren't
supposed to have a bad attitude at all, whether it's because of
something that somebody did against us, or what we did against
ourselves. We can't sin, and then because of the sin, sin. That
doesn't make since. When you sin you're sinning against God, whether
you sin against a brother, or you sin against yourself, Paul also says
that: 1 Corinthians 3:16 "16 Do you not know that you are the temple of
God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" So if you are the temple
of God and you stumble, ask for forgiveness and move on don't talk down
about yourself, because when will it go from us beating ourselves up, to
us putting God down. People know that we belong to God by our actions:
Mathew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works and glorify your Father in heaven". So we need to start doing
what we're called to do without any negative thoughts, whether directed
towards God or other people or ourselves. If you stumble praise God,
because you know that eventually that'll be something that'll be taken
from you, at least you know what you stumble over: Proverbs 4:19 "The
way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them
stumble+. If you're happy praise God, if your sad Praise God, no matter
what Praise God, because in your Praise is redemption, in your Praise is
Love, in your Praise is God
In Christianity: Focus
What is the focus of our lives? Why do we focus on the unimportant aspects of life rather than the important? Why do we focus on the appearance of things rather than what they really are? For example if I look at a good looking woman, I'm attracted to what she appears to be on the outside, how her body looks, the way she dresses, her smile, but I won't look at who she is and what she stands for. I won't look at the pain she has inside of if her smile is a mask that she puts on.
In Genesis 2:11 when God told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he probably did that because He knew that man couldn't handle that kind of knowledge. He knew that once man's eyes were opened to the "evil" things in life he would lose focus of the good or would blur the lines. You could tell by what happened after Adam and Even ate the fruit. Genesis 3:7-12 gives an account to the immediate reaction that they had from eating; all of a sudden they felt embarrassed because they were naked, shame when they heard God to make them hide, when confronted with their own disobedience they passed the blame on to somebody else. We see in Genesis 4:8 that Cain was the first person to commit murder due to envy of his brother. All this happened as a direct result of the knowledge of good and evil, this opened the door to our selfish and sinful nature. We can't help the way we are because we are corrupt from birth.
God told Cain in Genesis 4:7 that he can rule over sin before Can killed his brother, but Cain just like us nowadays, was too lazy to do that. Instead he acted on his emotions and killed his brother. Then when he was punished in verses 11-12 he told God that the punishment was too great, not thinking about his brother that he just killed. This is how we are, we'll persecute those that do good for their righteous acts but be hurt or angered when we suffer rebuke or discipline for our disobedience. We blame God, call Him unfair or curse Him because of the situation that we put ourselves in. I like how God addresses this in Ezekiel 18:25-26 "yet you say, the way of the lord is not fair. Hear now 'o' house of Israel, is it not my way which is fair, and your ways which are not. When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies". But we are too stubborn or ignorant to realize this. We blame our downfall on everybody but ourselves, but our good we always accredit to our own righteousness.
I like when Solomon said that "every way of a man is right in his own eyes" Proverbs 21:2. In our own eyes we are justified for everything we do. That's why we have to live by Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths". If we trust in God and acknowledge Him, He'll direct us to His word or somebody with an unbiased view of our life that we can seek wisdom from. But what we do is look through the dusty grease smeared window of our lives and focus on what we see as something positive or something that with make our lives prosperous and meaningful when in all actuality what we're really looking at is garbage, and if we would've sought outside help they could've told us what were looking at.
If you look at what happened to Adam and Eve you'll see that they didn't trust in God, they didn't let Him direct their paths. Instead they were deceived, and after they were deceived Eve trusted in her own understanding, Genesis 3:6 "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise she took of it's fruit and ate, and gave to her husband with her, and he ate". This goes back to what was said at the beginning of this post, we focus on the wrong things. She looked at the appearance of the tree and how it can temporarily satisfy her selfish desires. Instead of looking at the reality of the tree and what it would eventually do to her. She didn't focus on the warning of the affect the fruit would have on her life. All she focused on was the appearance of tree and it's fruit.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Do you see how this applies to life now? People drink alcohol knowing they can die from alcohol poisoning or liver disease just to get drunk, people smoke knowing the risks, people sleep around with multiple partners unprotected, people do drugs...etc. We do all these things and more knowing the risks, whether death or sickness, or jail time, or loss of families or jobs. We go to extremes to to get a high or a feeling of relief or a false sense of security. But we never look at what it can do to us, or how unimportant it really is. Do these things that you focus on have a positive impact on your life, or the lives of others, is there anything in your life that has control of you? Paul says in 1 Cor 6:12 "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any" and again in 1 Cor 10:23-24 "All things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful, all things are lawful for me but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own but each one the others well being."
Are you subjected to your desires or cravings, or addictions? Do they hurt or help others? Where Paul says "let no one seek his own but each one the others well being" he's showing us what we as christians should strive for, but we don't do this all the time, some never at all, instead we do like Eve, after we partake of that which will lead to our demise we share it with others. Also we knowing that something can hurt oror kill or imprison us will partake of it because it was given to us, because we're too scared or dumb to say anything. This is an ongoing cycle, and we are all held accountable for our part in disobedience. As we see in Genesis 3:14-19. We need to look at the truth in every situation instead of what it appears to be. We need to focus on all areas of our life, and stay away from that which can destroy us and our family or more importantly the body of Christ, no matter how uncomfortable the temporary decision feels. We need to do what's right so that others will see and learn from our examples of righteousness, instead of taking part in our destruction. We need to let God guide us and direct our paths, instead of leaning on our won understanding. Please focus on your life and the things you're allowing to control you, examine yourself and seek deliverance.
I'll leave you with a closing thought and a scripture to "Focus" on. In the beginning God set in the Garden a tree of life whose fruites would lead to eternal life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil whose fruit led to death. Now we are given the opportunity to receive knowledge that leads to life through His word. We just have to be obedient to it. Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.
In Genesis 2:11 when God told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he probably did that because He knew that man couldn't handle that kind of knowledge. He knew that once man's eyes were opened to the "evil" things in life he would lose focus of the good or would blur the lines. You could tell by what happened after Adam and Even ate the fruit. Genesis 3:7-12 gives an account to the immediate reaction that they had from eating; all of a sudden they felt embarrassed because they were naked, shame when they heard God to make them hide, when confronted with their own disobedience they passed the blame on to somebody else. We see in Genesis 4:8 that Cain was the first person to commit murder due to envy of his brother. All this happened as a direct result of the knowledge of good and evil, this opened the door to our selfish and sinful nature. We can't help the way we are because we are corrupt from birth.
God told Cain in Genesis 4:7 that he can rule over sin before Can killed his brother, but Cain just like us nowadays, was too lazy to do that. Instead he acted on his emotions and killed his brother. Then when he was punished in verses 11-12 he told God that the punishment was too great, not thinking about his brother that he just killed. This is how we are, we'll persecute those that do good for their righteous acts but be hurt or angered when we suffer rebuke or discipline for our disobedience. We blame God, call Him unfair or curse Him because of the situation that we put ourselves in. I like how God addresses this in Ezekiel 18:25-26 "yet you say, the way of the lord is not fair. Hear now 'o' house of Israel, is it not my way which is fair, and your ways which are not. When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies". But we are too stubborn or ignorant to realize this. We blame our downfall on everybody but ourselves, but our good we always accredit to our own righteousness.
I like when Solomon said that "every way of a man is right in his own eyes" Proverbs 21:2. In our own eyes we are justified for everything we do. That's why we have to live by Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths". If we trust in God and acknowledge Him, He'll direct us to His word or somebody with an unbiased view of our life that we can seek wisdom from. But what we do is look through the dusty grease smeared window of our lives and focus on what we see as something positive or something that with make our lives prosperous and meaningful when in all actuality what we're really looking at is garbage, and if we would've sought outside help they could've told us what were looking at.
If you look at what happened to Adam and Eve you'll see that they didn't trust in God, they didn't let Him direct their paths. Instead they were deceived, and after they were deceived Eve trusted in her own understanding, Genesis 3:6 "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise she took of it's fruit and ate, and gave to her husband with her, and he ate". This goes back to what was said at the beginning of this post, we focus on the wrong things. She looked at the appearance of the tree and how it can temporarily satisfy her selfish desires. Instead of looking at the reality of the tree and what it would eventually do to her. She didn't focus on the warning of the affect the fruit would have on her life. All she focused on was the appearance of tree and it's fruit.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Do you see how this applies to life now? People drink alcohol knowing they can die from alcohol poisoning or liver disease just to get drunk, people smoke knowing the risks, people sleep around with multiple partners unprotected, people do drugs...etc. We do all these things and more knowing the risks, whether death or sickness, or jail time, or loss of families or jobs. We go to extremes to to get a high or a feeling of relief or a false sense of security. But we never look at what it can do to us, or how unimportant it really is. Do these things that you focus on have a positive impact on your life, or the lives of others, is there anything in your life that has control of you? Paul says in 1 Cor 6:12 "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any" and again in 1 Cor 10:23-24 "All things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful, all things are lawful for me but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own but each one the others well being."
Are you subjected to your desires or cravings, or addictions? Do they hurt or help others? Where Paul says "let no one seek his own but each one the others well being" he's showing us what we as christians should strive for, but we don't do this all the time, some never at all, instead we do like Eve, after we partake of that which will lead to our demise we share it with others. Also we knowing that something can hurt oror kill or imprison us will partake of it because it was given to us, because we're too scared or dumb to say anything. This is an ongoing cycle, and we are all held accountable for our part in disobedience. As we see in Genesis 3:14-19. We need to look at the truth in every situation instead of what it appears to be. We need to focus on all areas of our life, and stay away from that which can destroy us and our family or more importantly the body of Christ, no matter how uncomfortable the temporary decision feels. We need to do what's right so that others will see and learn from our examples of righteousness, instead of taking part in our destruction. We need to let God guide us and direct our paths, instead of leaning on our won understanding. Please focus on your life and the things you're allowing to control you, examine yourself and seek deliverance.
I'll leave you with a closing thought and a scripture to "Focus" on. In the beginning God set in the Garden a tree of life whose fruites would lead to eternal life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil whose fruit led to death. Now we are given the opportunity to receive knowledge that leads to life through His word. We just have to be obedient to it. Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
In Christianity: What I will to do
The Apostle Paul said it best when he said For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. (Rom. 7:15) It can get so hard sometimes trying to do what's right when we constantly struggle with wrong. Now everybody has their own form of wrong doing. It doesn't even matter what your religion is you do something that you would rather be freed of. Everybody, no matter who they are, can improve in some areas of their life, there are just some who's areas that need to be improved on is more visible to outside observers.
The thing is though, no matter what it is that we're struggling with, we're not the only one with that issue. The bible says that "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13). We have things that we struggle with, except our struggles are common struggles. The only reason why we feel like we're the only one going through what we go through is because people never really fully admit what it is they're going through. Nobody likes to expose themselves unless they're comfortable in their mess. But the good thing about our struggles is the second part of 1 Cor 10:13 that says "but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
We may go through things sometimes but it's not more then we can bare. The proof of that is we're still here. Sometimes people do continuously put themselves in situations that for some reason or another will feel like life is hopeless and so they take their own life. But life is filled with ups and downs. It's what makes us who we are. We grow through adversity. Sometimes that adversity is self inflicted. But as long as we don't give up then we will be able to move forward stronger than we were before going through. It's like lifting weights. When you life weights you're adding resistence to your body with the intended purpose of ripping your muscles. But when your muscles heal from your workout session they'll be stronger than they were before. The various trials and tribulations that we go through are meant to strengthen us. But we get so distraught when we're going through something or when we are victims of our own carnal desires. But say for example you're addicted to drugs, when you are healed or delivered from your addiction then you stand as a testimony to somebody that is going through what you went through. You can be their support. But what do we do, we'll be delivered from something and then say that we're not worthy of mentoring somebody because of what we went through or we'll allow our past indiscretions to disqualify us from operating in the church or in a role that would make us somebody with authority. But those are the types of people that are the best at being a leader in any aspect because they've been through hard times and got through them.
My whole point in this is don't be discouraged if you're going through something that may be a bit disheartening and don't allow your sins to cause you to condemn yourself. Do what you can to move past your indescretions and allow your eventual deliverance be a testimony to somebody else that is going through the same thing.
One last note, it doesn't matter if what you've done has gotten you in jail for life, if you've learned from your mistakes then you can be the voice of reason for somebody on the inside or somebody that might be headed in your direction. No matter our situation, no matter where our sins have gotten us in life, we can still be a testimony to others. Some sins do have far greater consequences than others, but that doesn't mean somebody isn't out there that can't learn from your mistakes.
The thing is though, no matter what it is that we're struggling with, we're not the only one with that issue. The bible says that "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13). We have things that we struggle with, except our struggles are common struggles. The only reason why we feel like we're the only one going through what we go through is because people never really fully admit what it is they're going through. Nobody likes to expose themselves unless they're comfortable in their mess. But the good thing about our struggles is the second part of 1 Cor 10:13 that says "but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
We may go through things sometimes but it's not more then we can bare. The proof of that is we're still here. Sometimes people do continuously put themselves in situations that for some reason or another will feel like life is hopeless and so they take their own life. But life is filled with ups and downs. It's what makes us who we are. We grow through adversity. Sometimes that adversity is self inflicted. But as long as we don't give up then we will be able to move forward stronger than we were before going through. It's like lifting weights. When you life weights you're adding resistence to your body with the intended purpose of ripping your muscles. But when your muscles heal from your workout session they'll be stronger than they were before. The various trials and tribulations that we go through are meant to strengthen us. But we get so distraught when we're going through something or when we are victims of our own carnal desires. But say for example you're addicted to drugs, when you are healed or delivered from your addiction then you stand as a testimony to somebody that is going through what you went through. You can be their support. But what do we do, we'll be delivered from something and then say that we're not worthy of mentoring somebody because of what we went through or we'll allow our past indiscretions to disqualify us from operating in the church or in a role that would make us somebody with authority. But those are the types of people that are the best at being a leader in any aspect because they've been through hard times and got through them.
My whole point in this is don't be discouraged if you're going through something that may be a bit disheartening and don't allow your sins to cause you to condemn yourself. Do what you can to move past your indescretions and allow your eventual deliverance be a testimony to somebody else that is going through the same thing.
One last note, it doesn't matter if what you've done has gotten you in jail for life, if you've learned from your mistakes then you can be the voice of reason for somebody on the inside or somebody that might be headed in your direction. No matter our situation, no matter where our sins have gotten us in life, we can still be a testimony to others. Some sins do have far greater consequences than others, but that doesn't mean somebody isn't out there that can't learn from your mistakes.
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