God Is Patient

God Is Patient

8/27/13

Patience is a characteristic that many of us struggle with, and it is one that some of us do not have any compassion for either.  Patience is not a trait that the world advocates but demands that things transpire on an immediate basis.  There is a purpose for having patience in our lives and patience’s influx into our lives is vital for the good of mankind.  God created patience in our lives for a reason for He is patient with us and is willing to sit and wait until we wake up and are ready to make a difference in the world.

I use the example of myself when this topic comes up in conversations with my acquaintances and colleagues.  Patience is not one of my strong points and I understand that it is an essential portion of our being and that it needs to be developed at all costs.  However, the process of gaining, growing and sustaining patience is an enormous task for those of us who are not abundantly filled with this trait.  For a great deal of my life I basically had no patience with other people and I made no bones about this part of my life either; I really did not have to say anything about it since my actions towards others spoke loud enough to them anyway.

I often use the examples of my new life here in western Colorado as a funny explanation of how God is teaching me patience.  When I moved to the western portion of Colorado I admit that I had no patience with many things and most of the human race.  I did not dislike or hate anything or anyone but just had no patience with most things.  I realized that this was a part of me that I needed to work on but was not doing a great job of changing things on my own so I decided to ask God for some help in this area.  Now, always remember that when you ask God for something He will respond in a manner in which that you might not be suspecting and I call this the sense of humor that God has.

When I arrived in Colorado I found a wonderful place to work and fell in love with this organization so much so that after twenty years I am still currently working with them.  I decided to take some classes from the local college that was about an hour’s drive from the town that I lived in so I would have to leave early enough in the morning so that I would not be late, a common theme for anyone who has to commute for some activity.  However, the road that I was to travel on each day was an old two lane road and it was heavily travelled and sadly to say that many people had lost their lives on that road due to the one quality that I was struggling to find.

A few months into my travels and a huge sign appeared on the side of the road that said construction would begin on the highway and would last for a long period of time.  This meant that I was going to have to rise earlier than normal to get past the construction area before the workers arrived so that I could get past all of the delays.  One day after I woke up late I was sitting in line on the highway waiting for traffic to move again and it hit me that this a way that God was trying to show me patience and to accept the conditions that were before me and allow others to complete their lives while I pass by their own areas.  I thought that this was an unusual way of God doing something but accepted it and moved on down the road when the flagman gave the go ahead.

Being human there would be more days that brought me to be late on my journey and the position that I found myself stuck in was of a similar situation.  After a few times I found myself not being very patient with the delays that I was facing due to the road construction and I soon recognized that this process of patience was not working and I asked God to find another route of change within my life.  God allowed this continual delay tactic to occur for almost a year as each piece of the highway was completed and another section started.  As I stated in an above paragraph, God has a sense of humor and I was about to find out another aspect of patience.

After some time in Delta, I found a lady that would put up with my shortcomings and actually still want to be with me.  Almost a year and a half later we were married and another chapter in my patience life began.  With my first marriage and her past we began our life together with two beautiful daughters already a part of our family.  Over the next four years God blessed us with two more girls for a total of four.  Four girls along with a wife will change a male’s perception about life and where he stands amongst the female contingency of the family.  I am not saying that I regret having any of my girls, for I love them with every ounce of my being but God has used the life experiences of these four beauties to get me to realize that patience is really a blessing to have and that if God brings one set of examples into your life there is a reason behind it. 

See, if I would have learned about patience during the road construction period of my life then I would have already been ready for the trials that my girls presented to us then I would have been more apt to respond to these conditions more efficiently to their situations and would have probably avoided many of the petty arguments that come into light during this time.  This is where God’s sense of humor came back into play and this lesson was more intense than the road construction portion of His trying to answer my plea for help.

Each time that God has to “change” tactics He will intensify the situation that we have initially asked for, and in my opinion it is easier to accept the things of change in our lives sooner rather than later; whereas, if we listen to the lessons that we are going through the first time, and ten learn from tem things will be over quicker and our lives will benefit from the completeness sooner which means that we can return to our daily functions and fulfill our overall destiny of having dominion over the earth.

Let me use another example of how God gives us patience but this time I am going to place the story on His side of things instead of ours.  My wife and I recently watched a movie called “The Riddle” and it was about an old manuscript that Charles Dickens wrote that had never been published.  One of the main characters of the story found the manuscript and was trying to communicate to one of her trusted friends its whereabouts without allowing anyone else to locate it.  The lady was murdered a few days later and her friend began to investigate the circumstances of the murder and eventually became involved in a huge real estate conspiracy which positioned himself into getting beat up and if it was not for another person being on the beach at the time, probably killed over the information that he had uncovered.  The person had been warned by several people, including the police not to get involved with the scene and that his life would be in danger if he ignored this advice.  And as you guessed it he ignored the advice and ran with his own journalistic curiosity and pushed the wrong buttons until those buttons finally burst off the shirt.

The friend carried the person investigating the crime back to his cave underneath the pier and waited until he woke up from his beating.  The man placed the person on the bed that was in his cave and made sure that the unconscious man was in a comfortable place while his body recovered.  The man knew that the unconscious person would awake soon and wonder where he was at but until this event occurred the man patiently sat in a chair and waited for the other person to regain consciousness.  It did not take too long for this event to occur and the man woke up and had the natural reaction of wondering where he was at, especially since he did not immediately recognize where he was located.  As soon as the man recognized the other man in the room he asked him where he was at and the man returned the question with an obvious answer which was “you are in London.”

The man that was waiting for the other person to wake up patiently sat in a chair, across the room away, for the man to wake up.  He did not move or walk away from the place but he sat there watching the person until he woke up from his slumber.  The man could have left and not cared about what the other person might think when he awoke but he cared enough for the person to wait until the person’s own response warranted a response from the man waiting in the chair.

It has been established that man is the Church and that God is the head of this Church.  Yet man has purposefully ignored the advice and steering of God and has chosen to take on the conditions of the world unprepared.  Because we have rushed out and tried to complete things on our own without understanding the complexity of the scenery that is before us, we have fallen for many tricks of the world and its leader and it has caused us to become beat up in the process.  This beating up process has been so effective that we have returned from the world with our tails between our legs with the assuredness that the enemy would leave us alone if we sit back and take a sentimental and pity nap for a while.  Not only was this a lie to the Church but we accepted and believed this lie for so long that we are almost in a coma state of life.

It is at this point where God is sitting in His chair and watching us to see if there are any signs of movement that would indicate our willingness to get back into the Church’s functioning capacity to the dying world.  He will never use coercion tactics to get us to come alive once again nor will He force Himself on us in order to complete our mission.  It is strictly up to us to wake up and realize what has occurred, where we are currently located and what we need to do to return to the position that we need to be, in order to fulfill our destiny.  We humans were created for a purpose and it was not to join forces with God’s enemy and to allow his lies to control the movements of God’s Kingdom.

God’s patience with our laziness, self adhesion to the world, pride and general malaise is un-measurable and it should be known that His methods of patience far outweigh ours and in all honesty cannot be compared.  Many times we have demanded that God give us answers to our problems immediately.  Many times we humans have become angry with God for the events that take place in our lives and the situations that we are faced with but if one seriously looks at the overall picture, it is our fault that we have these problems to begin with and even though we ask for healing and understanding from God, His answers might not be available for our finite minds at that stage in our life.  So, God sits and waits until our recovery is far enough along for us to understand everything that transpired and then He can give us the answers that we need in order to continue on our journey.

However, we humans, as in my case, fail to get the true meaning of our situation that God sets before us and we must have a second round of situations so that we may understand the answers that have been provided.  The path of recovery for the Church and the mission that she has been given is steadily increasing because even though we are personally awake we are choosing to live within the drug induced state that the world has offered and that we the Church have graciously accepted.  The belief that the Church must align itself with the world has been one of the major side effects of this drug induced stupor and God cannot do anything but sit and wait for us to realize that we are being lied to while we infuse ourselves with the world’s policies

It is time for the Church to wake up enough to pull the plug on the world’s involvement within the confines of the Church’s heart for us to realize what has occurred to the Church, where the Church is presently located and in what condition she is in, and most importantly how we can once again focus upon the truth concerning the dying world and separate us from it so that we can honestly reach the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The only way we are going to achieve this action is for us to repent of our ways and completely separate ourselves from the dependency of the world.  The Church is you and the Church is made up of more than a billion people throughout the world, there cannot be any mistake that we have the means necessary to accomplish the mission that has been set before us and there is also no doubt that we are continuing to suck on the pipe that the world has offered us to feel accepted in this world.

It is obvious that God continues to sit back and to watch humanity try and figure things out on our own.  It will obviously become apparent that when things go south God will get the blame for things no matter what results occur.  Another obvious point will be that humans will continue to fail in acknowledging that God is in control of everything and His way is the best for our lives and painfully humanity will ignore the redemptive power of God’s love for us when it is so bluntly available to our lives.  So we choose to sit in the collective cave and scratch at our wounds and watch the world create more wounds upon us as if they had no other goal in life.  When will the Church wake up and realize her condition?  Time is running out and if we do not end our dependency on the world we will sit back and watch the leader of the world destroy billions of people and the Church together, and what kind of legacy would that bring to God’s chair?

It is an easy process to allow God to show us the answers that will grant us life abundantly once again.  When the Church makes the effort to say to God that we are tired of the worldly chains, then God will get up from His seat and begin the process of restoring us to our feet.  But that shall never happen until we are willing to rid ourselves of the ways of the world.  As the story in the Garden of Eden God cannot dwell among purposeful and willful sin nor will He act upon those who do not wish to purify themselves through the blood of Jesus.  It is clear that we as humans cannot function as a holy figure and it is also known that the Church cannot function properly as she should when she allows the world to run interference with its spiritual bylaws.  But when the Church turns herself back over to God and allows herself to be purified once again the anointing of God, not of man’s goals, will fall upon her and she may become the bride that God intends for His Son.  So if you want to see God move, then we must act accordingly.  If we do not wish God to move then humanity will act accordingly and which scenario would you rather see unfold?

DLB

The Real Hatred for Mankind

The Real Hatred for Mankind

8/26/13

It is hard to find good stories about mankind these days.  It seems like all man can do is retaliate for some absurd action that others have done and what really astounds me is that there are no boundaries when this type of retaliation occurs.  It does not matter which part of a person’s life one might enquire about, some form of animosity can be found.  But what is the sole purpose and real root of this hatred that people carry for others?  The answer is simple and even though we have read about this answer we very rarely place the root of our hatred into our forebrains, which when we ignore this truth we serve as a host for the lies that were thrust upon us by our own choices.

There is a good picture that has been circulating around the internet for a while now that depicts two very young toddlers sitting in their respective mother’s shopping carts.  They are very close in proximity of each other and the picture shows that they are looking directly at each other.  Both of the young children have huge smiles on their faces and are trying to get closer to each other with each leaning over towards the other.  There is no visible sign of disagreement or anger that is being portrayed only feelings of desire to be close to each other.  The caption of the photo says something to the effect that we as humans do not start out as enemies and that it is a learned pattern that we have to hate.  This means that there is some point in our lives that we learn to hate and that starting point can be defined as the one event that changes our entire belief system.

The example that I am going to use in this article comes from one of the great bad boys of human history.  When I mention this person’s name in a few moments there will be no doubt about his abilities to create havoc upon the world.  However, how I am going to use him as the example will be from a different approach, it will be from the root of his anger and one of the main reasons that he tried to overtake the world.  Some people in today’s world still idolize this person and hold his values and standards as their example of correctness; still others loathe his behavior and set his patterns as the ways and means of what not to do while alive.  It is not my intent to portray this man in any light or screen but to illustrate that no matter what a human presently believes there is a root or certain event that has occurred that brings a person to follow an idea that could change the course of the world.  And this one event comes from a certain choice that one makes whether it turns out in a good manner or not, the choice has been made and the consequences can lead to eternity.

The person that I am going to be using is no longer alive but ended up taking his own life when the times became tough and the results of his actions were becoming clear.  This person was named Adolf Hitler.  Though we read about the horrific details of his authority we hardly hear anything about what actually was the foundation of all of his anger towards the surrounding countries and the beliefs that he harbored that commanded his drive to instill Europe as one country.  Yet even though this one past event, in one man’s life had a resounding affect in shaping the twentieth century, it still does not go back to the sole reason that his anger and fury was unleashed upon the world.  It may be the defining point in a human but it does not accurately represent the true foundations of why mankind learns to hate enough to destroy other human beings.

There are many starting points a person can take when analyzing the life and experiences of Hitler and everything that happened to him during his formidable years.  I am not going to deal with those personal things about him but do keep in mind that they did serve as another portion of this base for his future reasoning about why he was angry at Europe.  There can be no question that his love for his country was great and with being a human he had certain thoughts and plans for his country, all of us have some of these ideas and ambitions for the places that we dwell.  However, it was one certain act by a governing body that propelled Hitler into a tyrannical being towards other countries in the region and that was how he perceived that Germany was treated after the end of World War I.

World War I was dubbed the war to end all wars but as history has proven when man is in control of things it is only a matter of time that the war “show” is taken on the road to another location.  This was the case when Hitler fought in WWI as a foot soldier and was treated harshly after the surrender of Germany to the Allies.  However, this was not the root of which brought the world to almost utter disaster a few decades later. What triggered Hitler’s hatred was that the Versailles Treaty and how it reprimanded Germany for starting the Great War and how the treaty also spelled out that Germany was also responsible for rebuilding the entire continent of Europe, ban every mode of militarization ideas, formations and concepts of its country, and financially repay the Allied countries every bit of money that they had to spend to ward off Germany’s aggressions.  The list of demands by the Versailles Treaty basically stripped Germany of every right, its dignity and standing within the world’s status which propelled Germany into a world crisis that looked like it would never recover.

This might seem like a petty reason for a Bavarian corporal to adhere to for decades while he rose to power and then used as a platform after his rise to dictatorship but in truth the forced signing of the Versailles Treaty and the formation of the League of Nations was the focal point of Hitler’s hatred of the surrounding Allied countries.  Hitler was not directly involved in the signing of the Versailles Treaty nor was even in the area in France where the signing took place.  Another interesting thing to keep in mind was that Germany had lost a war that was not fought on their soil and the people really could not understand why the German government was allowing all of these new regulations be placed upon them.  The common person in Germany did not know of the cruel actions that the war had produced for no blood was shed on their fatherland, yet everyone living within the confines of the German borders suffered the consequences of the war.

The Armistice that formally ended World War I was signed in a railroad car in one portion of a French forest just north of Paris.  Many pictures were taken of this event and eventually plastered all over the front pages of every major newspaper including the cities of Germany.  Almost every eye in Europe saw that famous picture of the men that were present in the railroad car that day along with the exact location of the railroad car itself.  It would be a very long time before Hitler would forget about that sad day in German history and this exact setting would soon serve in Germany’s favor, for a short time that is.  Hitler and all of his fellow military comrades in arms felt betrayed and humiliated that the German leaders gave away so much of their heritage to the surrounding countries, some of them took the next progressive human step by beginning to erect solutions to the impending slavery that was facing their country.  If one reads war history whether it is on a country level or a personal level, the person studying the event in time will draw a conclusion that every event that the studied subject did was for a reason and for a purpose.  Some of the acts that occurred might be deemed random or a side effect but when the bottom line is drawn it is clear that everything was completed for a specific goal. 

Hitler and Germany had built up a massive military machine and had rallied millions of people around his ideas for their country, all of which was in direct violation of the agreement that Germany signed at the end of WWI.  Yet this mode of development actually rebuilt not only the defenses of Germany but the national pride of its citizens once again.  By this act and many other superficial contracts with its citizens, Hitler was able to seize control of every part of the German government and then declare himself supreme ruler of Germany; in other words, anyone who publically disagreed with his policies faced immediate and dire consequences for their actions, including the surrounding countries.

At the beginning of World War II Poland became the immediate target of German military might, a confusing act to some military historians since Poland was not a prime target for Germany but was used as a staging areas or trial run for another great invasion.  Hitler tasting complete victory in the Austria, the Sudetenland and the remaining portions of Czechoslovakia, and Poland then set his eyes on the revenge factor of the war.  Hitler began to turn his troops towards the west and to take quick action against France, one of the major role players in the humiliation of Germany after WWI.

After a short resting and reinforcing period, Germany launched a massive attack towards the west with France being the major target of this campaign.  It was not difficult for anyone in Europe to understand what the underlying message of Hitler and his war machine was at that time, and for Germany nothing would be acceptable but a quick and commanding capitulation for the state of France.  This objective was soon met and France was now in the same predicament that German was in a few decades earlier, at the mercy of a conquering state that had no compassion for the defeated party whatsoever.

It was time that Hitler made the French pay for their actions a few decades earlier and he ordered the same railroad car that France used to sign the WWI Armistice used to sign the formal surrender to Germany.  The surrender terms were directed in the same manner to which Germany was forced to sign years before and even the conditions of the surrender were almost identical to those of the Armistice that ended WWI.  With technology being more advanced during this time period, Hitler made sure that every major German reporter and French reporter had direct access to this humiliating feat.  Hitler did not care how many people witnessed this act nor did he care to hear any other options for peace coming from the French.  He had methodically and meticulously planned for this moment as a symbol of his revenge for what the French did towards his country after WWI and he was not about to lose sight of this moment.  In one movie reel the motions of Hitler were captured of him stomping his boots onto the soil and having a great smile on his face.  This photo op proved to be the linchpin that Hitler needed to finish off his dreams of European revenge and to secure his further conquest of Europe.

It has been stated that Hitler no other time during World War II that he had been happier.  France had brought many sleepless and angry nights to his life and with the complete surrender of France to the German war machine, his hatred could finally be resolved within his own heart.  Yet the hatred did not stop at this point but it only continued to grow until eventually the emotions of this victory became too much for his mind and body to fulfill and his decline began to protrude from within.  The anger and hatred for a long lost enemy had taken its toll on the tormented person and an alternative solution for relief had to be found.  The root of his problem was believed to have been overcome, but in reality the root actually destroyed the man from the inside out.

I find this type of setting very interesting since Hitler followed a human pattern that many of us know quite well.  Once we find a way to seek out and to execute our revenge upon the person or group of people that have irritated us at some point, we still do not find the true satisfaction that we believed would come after our successful procedure.  Instead our minds take over and we continue to search for other ways to inflict our successful and vengeful motives on others, even helping out other people that we find trying to accomplish the same feat.  When this type of activity is allowed to filter through our veins long enough it will eventually consume our entire bodily systems and completely overtake our behavioral status.  It is impossible for us to release this tension and lust within our lives so that we may be satisfied with the completed deed, which means that there are other things about our histories that we do not understand or are totally ignoring.

The words “In the beginning” were a profound statement in human history.  Yes, that is right I said it was a profound statement in human history because it defines our lives from the point in which God begins to create the world as we know it today.  Yes, there are some changes that have occurred over those thousands of years and yes there will be more changes to come in the coming the years and decades as we know it.  But even though we are God’s excellent creations and the most desired branch of life in His eyes, the world of the spirit did not start at this point in the Bible, it had been already set in motion long before we ever arrived. 

See God does have an enemy and that enemy will stop at nothing from destroying anything and everything that God stands for or has ever created which automatically includes us.  But why would God’s enemy even wish to mess with us, there has to be some defining reason for Satan to set his eyes upon us and to proclaim our existence as the reason to seek revenge.  There must have been something that happened in times past that set this act into motion, an event so humiliating to Satan that would cause him to spend the rest of his days trying to defeat what God has created, and that is exactly what occurred.

There came a point in time that God had allowed Satan enough time to have proven himself according to his wishes that he so desperately wanted to portray.  At this sudden and provocative moment between the two entities God said something like this: Hey Satan, look at this and in front of his eyes God formed a creature in the image of Himself and placed into His creation His spirit, he one portion of life that Satan had but could not replicate nor create, then gave mankind the dominion over all of the things that He had created as well.  To top it all off, God said for mankind to replenish the earth from its void.  This entire scene was a direct slap in the face of Satan and everything that he had “dreamed about” went up in flames, so to speak.  With all of the actions completed God rested and then proclaimed to very living substance that His actions were “good” and was pleased with the final say.

Here lies the accuracy of my point concerning our hatred towards others.  God created us from nothing, up until His forming of our bodies from the basic elements of the ground, we did not have the knowledge of hatred or anger towards others.  We were created perfect and pure in every way which is the condition that God operates through and the same condition that Satan once knew as well.  This perfect state of being was our beginning and not the flawed conditions that we survive with today.  So, there had to be an event that changed this pattern within our lives, which in turn means that at some earlier point a previous event had to have occurred for God cannot create anything but perfect and pure.

This was the result of the scene that Satan had to deal with and it was the defining moment that struck a plan to separate God’s prized and holy creation from His presence.  It was this accumulation of events that drove Satan into the tizzy that we still witness between God and Satan today and it was by our choice that we allowed Satan to claim coup over our lives and everything that our world represents.  All of us have the capability of being jealous of the things that others can do or objects that they have and we do not and jealousy was one of the major factors that Lucifer had against God.  In the end of the creation scene, while the ultimate goal of Satan was not achieved, he did eventually receive the confines of the world due to our actions in the garden and the option to control every movement that the earth has to offer, including us if we choose.

It is vital that we understand that while we are God’s prized possessions and creations we were not the original starting point for all of the things that occur within our lives.  There was a huge supernatural argument over spiritual territory long before our existence.  Our presence on this planet was the defining point in our lives but not why Satan hates us so much.  We would “like” to believe that everything evolved around the human act of rebellion against God that started all of our processes, and there are those who believe this concept but there was another defining point at some other point that actually began our conditions, we were just the objects of that attack.

The hatred that consumes mankind is a result of a conflict that had nothing to do with us initially.  Isn’t a shame that we continually allow to ourselves walk blindly in this truth about our past?  Why would anyone reject this truth and not shake off one of the most horrific chains that can be placed upon our lives?  We all need to set forth an effort to understand this root and to return to the only means by which to remove it within our lives.  We were not created to have hatred in our existence; it was placed there as a result of someone else’s hatred for our creator.  One more thing to think about is that if hatred is a possibility within all of our hearts, then what other possibilities are we humans capable of performing as a result of this root?

There must be a beginning point of hatred in our lives and many people can understand how a certain event or act can ignite this emotion, but if one thinks about it on a logical level this action does not line up with a simple point in our lives that produces a pattern of hatred to people we do not even know or understand anything about, yet it is there and is well represented in human history.  This origin of hatred goes back to an event that did not even involve humans at that time but were direct respondents to this “call” as a result of the defiling spiritual act.  It even goes even further back to an event that began even before the words “In the beginning” was verbalized and written down by human hands.  It has been proven that Satan lost this war of wills and he was humiliated in the process, so why even serve or agree with a loser when you can live with the perfect creator?

There is however, a remedy for this process that thrives within our hearts.  That remedy is God and the restoration process that His Son gave to our lives when He came to this earth.  This process was initiated at the same time as the fall in the Garden and it too was set into motion at this time.  A previously recorded act that has caused so much hurt within humanity can be wiped clean with one simple gesture from our hearts.  We still have an opportunity to change our lives even on this foundational part of our houses but it strictly depends upon us making another choice to initiate this change within.  This choice is clear and it is to reject all aspects of the world and to accept the new standards of life through Jesus Christ.  There is no other way for us to rid ourselves of this horrible standing, for it is a perfect plan which cannot be altered by any means if we choose to accept it.  Choose this day to accept the plan of God’s restoration and break away from the ruler of this world and I guarantee that your life will find and know true peace even when times are tough. 

DLB

Why Would God Allow?

Why Would God Allow?

8/19/13

This is a very common question that is asked to people that believe in God and this specific question is also a question that many people who do not believe in God ask as well.  The question of “why would God allow” is one of the more intriguing situations that most Christians fear to address and at the same time one that many others use to defend their lack of faith.  Humans are built with a natural curiosity that compels their minds and hearts to wonder and ponder upon what the past can tell us today.  Many have established a distant relationship with God and have chosen to ignore His words of wisdom concerning the entire truth of our past.  There is an answer to this avoided and confusing question and the answer has been there all along.  What is most amazing is that the answer comes from the same origins of the question which in too is hard for us to accept.  Our enemy desperately wishes for us not to understand this concept but if a person begins the quest to understand this concept, it will make perfect sense to our minds and give us a definition of why God allows things to occur.

It is normal for humans to question things.  It is a normal reaction for us humans to read or hear about an issue and immediately have an opinion about the pertinent contents solely based upon what we have just encountered, but can this accession of ideas be totally correct on our part?  What happens to our assessment when further details become common knowledge and more details about these things shed more light onto the subject, do our conclusions continue to the be the same?  I have found out that this may not always be the case and when these questions and answers involve God, one cannot always and immediately say that our first conclusion is always an accurate one.  It has been stated within the Bible that it is ok to ask God questions for it His desire to answer all of our questions.  But where humans get hung up on is the answers that God provides and when and how He provides these answers.

God gave us the ability to think and to draw our conclusions by using the minds and hearts that He created for us.  It is imperative that we understand that God cannot change His ways, methods, thinking, laws or anything else that represents His existence.  Therefore, we need to understand that everything that God has written for our lives is permanent and lies within His perfect will for our lives and that there are answers to all things.  We may not like the answers that He provides nor may we completely understand them at first, but He does provide answer to us and it is our responsibility to listen to these answers with a pure and honest heart and not just the surface emotions that we tend to display.

We have witnessed this type of status portrayed within our lifetime, not just recent instances, but earlier ones as well.  It is human nature to want to be right and then defend our position when more information presents.  It is hard for us to accept the fact that our concepts and ideas about God can be flawed for it places God outside of the box that we tend to place Him into and it brings into light that God and His Word is everything to our lives which represents the truth.  God loves for us to ask Him questions and He loves explaining the answers to us in His ways.  God is not ashamed of how He created the universe or how we have reached this point in our individual worlds of today.  He does care about each and every one of us and has provided an answer through His words that will bring true hope to our lives.

The question that many atheists, and hardcore non-believers have, and it is a central or common one for them, is why would God allow ___________ to occur?  Following the human pattern of wanting to know things that we are not familiar with, it is a logical question and one that deserves an answer.  As one reads this article they must understand that even though the answer to this question is a logical one, many of the very people who ask this type of questions will not believe it since they do not believe in God but when you place the answer into their laps on a human level they still will question it since hey revert back to their original way of thinking that there is no God and in turn question the authority of the Word of God.  And if we must be honest in all things, then the answers that are presented to us might not even settle well with those who believe in God either.   But we must do our best, in a friendly manner try to explain the answer to the people that have these questions and then allow God to work through their hearts to show them a deeper meaning where it concerns the relationship between God and man. 

Some people that call themselves Christians have problems with the Bible and everything that it states.  I agree that there are some issues that we read about are a bit tedious in their explanations but if we keep in mind that the Bible was written about other humans’ lives and the conditions that they lived in, one can place things into perspective when it comes to some of the doubts that people have.  One may call it reading between the lines of what has been written but I call it what occurred within a human life so that a specific story had enough meaning within its boundaries to write about the entire situation.  If God created us for a specific reason then we must consider that the characters within these stories have done things according to their own capacities and thus, subject to whatever consequences that might have followed.  At the beginning of the Bible it states that in the beginning God created the earth.  A few chapters later we find that God has created the animals, trees and all other forms of life that we know about.  Then He creates humans as the last perfect thing.

God is a perfect being and for our finite minds to conceive this concept is near impossible and makes it extremely difficult us to grasp everything that God’s realm encompasses.  But we must do the best we can in order for us to understand what actually happened during this time in the Bible.  If we say that God is a perfect being that means everything He does or creates must be in the created in the exact same way; this is a logical way of thinking and thoughtful analysis.  We also must realize that once He has created something His creations must have the same capabilities that He has; this too is a logical conclusion.  So if God is everlasting, perfect in all His ways and never has done anything wrong, why would His creations seemingly inherit such fowl conditions that would eventually cost us the only type of life that we know about?  It would seem that some kind of event must have happened in order for us to inherit certain uneasy living conditions, yet if God cannot change His means, then that leaves only one other possible option.

Since there were two perfect beings that were present at the beginning of human history, this means that some other entity or variable must have been added to the equation in order to account for the change in status for the newly created being.  But was this new entity actually added to the scene or was this being already present and then allowed it to be introduced into the setting by a certain right.  While this gives us a direction to proceed in, it also opens up many more questions concerning what actually happened to force the other entity into a vile enough state to inflict this permanent change.  It also establishes that since our present human state has not changed with our physical conditions this means that the battle must still be warranted between the two original beings.  This also translates into a millennial battle that has had enough dire consequences for the subjected being to thrust all of his might into destroying the newly created beings which happen to be us.

So when the newly created being comes into contact with the other original being, that being must have the same access to the newly created being as does the creator Himself.  So that means the other being understands what was going on at that time and that the newly created being must have been some type of replacement for the being that lost the battle, which would really irk the other original being.  So that means that for whatever reason the other original being had an opportunity to change his standing within the hierarchy which means he had a choice.  And since the creator of the newly created being had the perfect idea for creation then the new being must have the same opportunity for choices.

In order for the creator to be fair and just, the creator had to allow the other unusual being to have access to the newly created being.  For if not, the other being could cry that conditions were unfair towards the new creation, which in all reality would be an accurate account.  So when the perfect opportunity arose, the other original being must have begun his operational gestures towards one of the newly created beings.  And when this occurred, time had passed long enough for this being to accept the company of the other being.  This setting provides a perfect setup of a conditional time period in which all factors would line up perfectly for the overall challenge to the creator Himself.

After the relationship and intrigue portion of the accompaniment began, a detailed plan was set into motion by the other being in order to set the revenge factor into play.  This part was completed with just enough precise motion, influence, trickery and seduction that the one being tempted would be willing to go against the rules that were in place.  This is exactly what occurred when the other being convinced the one that he had picked for his plan complied with his questions and seduction to violate the commands of the creator.  For the creator had given the newly created beings the option to choose their destiny and when the time came to choose the newly created beings chose to disobey.

So here is the part of the equation that many might have not realized or have ignored all these years.  The perfect creation from a perfect eternal being chose the ways of a defeated enemy by the manner of choice.  This is how current way of human existence came into being, we still have the original design and creative organs inside our cavity but in some unexplainable manner they were all changed when we, humans, chose to ignore the commands of God and choose to go our own way.  The blunt fact that the reason God allows things to come into our lives is that we made our own choices to follow what is seductive and fruitful at the time being instead of looking at things from a rational point of view when it concerns the long run.  Now, be totally honest with yourself and ask is this the way that humans live and thrive upon?

So, if one wishes to get technical about things then that person or group could still claim that it was God’s fault for allowing such activities to take place.  But if God did not allow His prized possessions to make these choices then we would still be in the same condition, as slaves, unto Him and His laws which He has said that He would never force anyone to choose Him.  As it stands He gave us the free will to choose between His Kingdom and the defeated kingdom of our enemy Satan.  If one does not wish to believe in this example that is fine, it is your choice in action, but others will choose differently than you and there is nothing wrong with them choosing a different path than those who do not wish to believe.

This example does not place blame solely upon Eve either.  According to the Bible, Eve immediately went to Adam and told him what was going on and Adam chose to eat of the tree as well in which case all of humanity was now subject to their newly chosen path.  Since man and woman were created together, in this aspect we are equal because both have done wrong and gives justice to the phrase all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  If Adam had resisted and said no to the forbidden fruit, do you have any ideas of what would have eventually occurred? 

In hindsight, I truly believe that Adam and Eve would have done things differently if they had the opportunity to do things over, but that brings up the question if something else would have occurred later down the road.  Our enemy knew exactly when to begin his quest for Eve and he understood exactly what her positions and vulnerabilities were at that moment, which means that he watched her from a distance and gained all of the intelligence he needed to effectively gain access into her thinking.  All imaginable opportunities concerning temptations probably would have occurred if at first he did not succeed, and since we are still tempted in the same manner today but who is to say that you or I could have been the ones to make the choice to disobey God’s commands; oh wait, we already do.   It was not God’s choice to create our bodies and lives as faulty entities, it was due to the fact that we as humans, people in our human lineage that was totally responsible for the conditions that we have to endure on a daily basis.

The next time you open up a webpage and see that a person has blown up a church building, that action is directly due to our choices as human beings; when you hear about a school being taken hostage and kids being killed during this senseless act that is a result of our choice to disobey God’s command a long time ago.  When your friend tells lies about you remember that their product of untruths comes from a lineage of deceit and lies that was established many thousands of years ago.  God being God must allow these things to transpire according to His established laws and unless we turn back towards His ways these actions by our fellow humans will only trend to the downside of our existence.

All is not lost however, even though this horrific event occurred there is still a way out of our misery.  The path of our restoration was actually provided while God’s judgment was being spoken into existence.  It would take millennia for this process to occur and mankind had to endure the consequences of their selfish choices in the meantime but the answer did come and His name was Jesus which ended mankind’s separation from God and once again restored access to God and all of His blessings.  We need only to make the choice to choose His ways and to ironically separate ourselves from the ways of the world.

So there is your answer and it is now your choice to believe what occurred.  If a person reads what happens in the Garden of Eden and places them into that storyline, then they must come to the rational and logical conclusion that the human is responsible for the actions of man and not God.  God has given His most prized possession and creation the option to choose Him and as a child runs up to their parent and embraces them with unconditional love, so does our Father who created all of humanity.  I personally believe that there is no way that our human minds can fully comprehend everything about God but He has left us clues for us to read and study that will encourage us to keep our faith in Him and to know that He loves us unconditionally.  This answer also states that there is still a battle ongoing for your life and that we all have a choice to make.

DLB

Hatred Among Fellow Slaves

Hatred Among Fellow Slaves

 8/10/13

Everyone who reads anything about slavery will come to the conclusion that this type of behavior in humans is despicable and really cannot be defended.  Slavery has been in the midst of humanity dating all the way back to the old Dynastical empires of Egypt yet it still thrives in the world today.  There are many types of slavery that have operated throughout the centuries but there is one type that many of us tend to ignore and that is the status of the slave owner and how he controls his slaves.

Many of us older folks remember back in the early 80s when a very controversial television series came out called “Roots.”  I remember my parents almost forcing me to watch this series with them because they deemed it very important that I understand what happened in the history of our country.  I also remember them talking to me about the many other countries that participated in this type of captivity and how each one justified their actions when called out.  The issue of slavery has always been fascinating to me and the more I read about it and its one time dominance throughout the world I cannot help but cringe when I learn that it still exists within today’s worldly confines.

When a person picks up the newspapers or reads any type of news online they will be bombarded with numerous stories that include the many different races of the world.  The issue of race is a very heated and territorial subject that some tend to intentionally set aflame.  There are over 7 billion people on this planet and each one of us has some physical tie to one of the races that define our physical being.  We find it amusing to place another race above others and tout our own looks beyond the normal scope of life.  How can we intentionally come against another human race in the name of hate and physical superiority when we do not even recognize the true state of our existence? 

History has taught us that slavery and the purchase of slaves provides a great deal of wealth and power to those societies in which the trade is practiced.  Basically free labor is acquired through a onetime purchase of a human being or certain group of humans that have been placed upon the stand for auction.  We can easily agree that this type of practice was commonplace in our country’s past and there are many movies, short stories, oral histories, and books what would attest to this charge.  Most of the people that live in the United States understand that slavery was mainly concentrated towards the peoples of Africa.  And I have to be honest here and say that up until a few decades ago I had no idea that the people from Africa that were involuntarily brought here came from more than one area in Africa.  I have learned that there are many aspects of the slave trade and slavery that our schools and professors have either intentionally left out or have ignored completely and in my opinion it is a disgrace to the human race that these details have not been made known.

Ancient Greece is most famous for bringing us the foundations of democracy and how this way of life has become instilled into many of us throughout the world.  But once again many scholars have left out the fact that Ancient Greece was one of the world’s largest collectors of slaves. In these ancient times there were some slaves that originated from Africa but the majority of the slaves came from other barbarian tribes that Greece encountered while expanding their lands and their democracy.  In short Ancient Greece, or the Athenians, were considered to be slave owners and enjoyed every benefit that their status as slave owners brought.

I know that when I first watched the TV series “Roots” I had no idea that those captive human beings came from different tribes and areas.  The slaves that were brought too many countries might have even been fighting against each other before they were taken captive and everyone knows that the captors had to “sweet talk” these people into submission in order to have entire villages believe their lies of better living and standards that awaited them beyond the horizon.  Ever wonder why the captors had to have people from these tribes talk to the people and convince them that this was a good idea?  It is safe to say that these people were lied to and were forced to leave a life normal life of freedom and happiness based upon a lie.

Returning to Ancient Athens, the majority of slaves that the Athenians acquired came through wars and other types of agreements with neighboring areas.  The Athenians would purposefully understand enough about the tribes’ customs and cultures to deliberately place warring tribes as their slaves within the same household.  So it was not bad enough that a household leader would have slaves but to top it off that slave owner bought slaves that were natural enemies with each other as well.  So with the bad blood that initially separated these tribes and peoples from each other were now placed in a state of intimate collective captivity with each other, sounds like a recipe for disaster doesn’t it.

The Athenians understood their position over the slaves and the slaves understood their position within the Athenian households.  It has been documented that the Athenians would sit around and watches the interactions of their slaves and picks the right moment to entice them into certain conflicting patterns that would guarantee some physical response from the slaves against each other.  The Athenians found this type of behavior from the slaves hilarious and reveled in the fact that they, the Athenians, had the power to begin a personal war between captives.

Let us stop and think about this scene for a moment and understand what is going on here.  There is one group of people that is technologically superior then those that are present around the region and these people capture other people and use them for any task that they wish.  Some of these people that are in captivity are natural enemies of each other and the captors know this about their subjects.  The captors then place their slaves, that do not like each other, in a similar setting and then watch with anticipation of what will happen between the slaves.  The Athenians believed this practice to be funny because it gave them more control over their slaves because at that moment the slaves forgot about their own captivity and returned to their native tensions that dominated their previous interactions between themselves. 

As the world’s population grew and warring states became for frequent, this type of slave scenario became fluent enough that almost every society had adopted the practice.  The conditions and treatment of slaves continued in their horrific manners and the institution of slave baiting each other continued to be a luxurious way of forming an evening of live entertainment.  If one stops and thinks about it, any type of slave trade industry has this concept because if the slaves believe that they actions of superiority could gain them access to better living conditions or an early freedom, why wouldn’t a person in that position try and “move ahead” as quickly as possible.  But the bottom line of the entire their status still depends upon the slave owner and not the slave.

The history of human slavery is well documented and is easily obtainable at any local library.  There is another type of human slavery that is well documented but rarely studied which means it is not well known about nor of its content.  This type of human slavery has been in existence for a longer amount of time than the more read about human slavery and it too crosses the racial boundaries and exempts no one from its grasp.  It has been recorded in the Bible of an event that occurred in the Garden of Eden where our enemy gained access to our lives by the choice that two people made together.  This act by humans declared the open season of slavery to the world in which our enemy has control.

Some people would argue this concept so I will give you a quick reference to set the foundation.  When Jesus was being tempted on the mount, Satan told Him that if He would bow down and worship him that he would give Jesus all of the lands of the earth.  Now with Jesus being the Son of God and knowing all truth, did not argue this saying from Satan which means that Satan did not say anything incorrect.  Jesus immediately addresses another issue at this time and never says anything contrary about who controls the earth and its kingdoms, which places more emphasis on the meaning of having to live in the world but do not be a part of the world; and here is the reason why.

So that means that our enemy has total control of the world and everything that occurs within its confines is directed from our enemy.  This means that if we allow ourselves to be captivated by the world and then adopt its ways and methods then we automatically become slaves to the master of this world.  It is a perfect setup for our lives to fall right into a trap that if not recognized will have dire consequences to our eternal lives.  We must continually keep in mind that our enemy is the eternal and highest enemy of God and he will do anything to keep the prized possessions and creations of God out of His will.  Our enemy understands that if he can continue to spill out his lies to our physical needs that our spiritual conditions will eventually erode away.

It is easy for us to believe that the ways of the world are all fun and games and that these ways cannot do serious harm to our lives.  This is one of the first and foremost basic steps that our enemy uses against us in order to gain access to our spiritual command center.  The ways of the world may look good at the time but as in the old movie “The Wizard of Oz” we must realize that there is a being behind the curtains pulling all of the strings in order to keep control of the subjects.

Our enemy does have control of the world and every practice that the world has to offer.  Humans were placed in the world to have dominion over the world, not to be a slave to its practices.  Yet, we have allowed ourselves to be consumed by the ways of the world in such manner that we believe that it is a necessity to accept these ways in order to function properly as a society.  This is a great example of being a slave to a condition and it is exactly where our enemy wants us to be.  We have voluntarily believed in this lie of worldly practice and we have neglected to visually see what we have entered.

Our enemy wants nothing more but to keep us from God’s eternal being and ways so he will do anything to accomplish this feat.  Just as humans find reasons to war with each other on the physical side of our lives, so does our spiritual enemy on the spiritual side of our lives.  There is a twist to this control however our enemy will use the physical in his own unique way to dull our spiritual side which engulfs our entire being into slavery to the world.  Since our enemy has the authority to complete this task this means that he is considered the owner of the world which makes him a slave owner and everyone who follows his ways slaves.

Is it hard to conceive this slavery and slave owner idea?  Stop and think about all of the concepts of the world and then place them in a line up all of the issues of the world and then compare them with the issues of God and see what answers fall into place.  We have voluntarily believed in the lies of the representatives of our enemy into walking into both a physical and spiritual captivity and then accepting it as a normal way of life.  We even accept the “gods” of our slave owner that he offers to us on a daily basis all in the name of acceptance and stability. 

We see the world changing its status on a second by second basis which represents a concept that God cannot complete.  This is an area in which our enemy uses in order to satisfy our wants and desires and keeps us “entertained” at his expense while we run around doing our best to keep up with the times.  Also, stop and take a look around you and notice something about the people who follow the world’s standards.  What races, similarities, or differences do you see in these people?  Your answer should be something like, loads of each, or too numerous to count.  All of us are equally divided upon the issues of the world and in our surroundings, so the world must upgrade its overtones in a continual method in order to keep our focus on it.  Have you ever really thought why it is so important for us to keep up with the worldly standards anyway?

Our enemy will use these similarities and differences against us just as the Athenian people did to their slaves.  He gets a kick out of things when we stop our progress and begin to bicker and fight amongst ourselves.  He knows that as long as he can supply the worldly ideas and concepts within our heads his work has accomplished its mission and at the same time provided for some excellent laughing entertainment at our expense.  And the joke continues because just as the Athenian slaves, we forget about our true condition and instead of trying to find a way out of our captive state, we dig ourselves deeper into the world’s standards and sink ever so much over a short amount of time.  The same scene has just been played over again that transpired in Ancient Greece; how is that for reality?

The ways of the world are totally different than the ways of God and since God cannot change His ways that means that these two sides shall never agree on any issue.  While God freely gives us the choice to accept the world and deny Him or vice versa our enemy does not give us a real choice in any manner.  God does not demand us and control us into submission under His rules and laws, but the world does.  God represents a complete and honest relationship with every person and the world does not even come close to this standard.

This topic should open our eyes to what our enemy has been doing for a very long time.  His methods are very seductive and are easily believed, but just as the slave traders had representatives from the potential slaves’ own tribes our enemy has the same process in place.  He does not care anything about you or what happens to your life, you can even die and be with God, he does not care; his concerns are that you are off the earth and cannot fulfill your mission of dominion over the earth and to proclaim the true salvation of Christ to every human alive.

If anyone questions this pattern and doubts this true course, then I ask you to refer back to my articles that deal with the Concept of Conception, The Development of an Ideology, the Directional Flow and the Clock Begins and those articles will demonstrate the pattern in which our enemy uses to enhance his grasp and control over his slaves.  I would not leave you hanging without a way out of this muck and the answer is God.  It is a simple and true fact that God loves us no matter what we have done in our lives.  He understands that we are slaves to this world and He has also made a very clear and simple path for our escape.

Restoration is a process that consumes us out of love, a divine love that no human can really understand or comprehend in its entirety.  However, when someone witnesses and feels this process they know that their lives have been changed and delivered out of this world and the slavery that it entails.  It is a perfect process which aches at times but those aches and pains are the results of the chains that have been placed upon our lives, both physical and spiritual.  No one can understand the concepts and meanings of true life until they understand that God loves them and allows Him to overhaul their life.  Slavery is very real today in both the physical and spiritual realms.  We humans can rid ourselves of both if we place our trust in God alone.

DLB

When Jesus Becomes a Statue

When Jesus Becomes a Statue

8/6/13

Anyone who has read history understands that statues have portrayed many past people in which a certain society has admired for some reason.  We find these monuments in every historical city and continue to find more of them on a weekly basis.  A statue is a tribute, a landmark that reminds us that the statue of the person once meant a great deal to that area.  But when we look at a statue do we still consider that immortalized figure important enough to live how they deemed their society to be or like their lives played out?  It is easy for us to walk by a statue or figurine and look at it with a cold heart since the person represented in the statue is not around to physically remind us about their existence.  I contend that the Church has allowed this cold activity to infiltrate her heart when it comes to Jesus.

A fair warning to those who do not like controversy or things said about their beliefs or denominations.  This article is going to deal with a hard topic but it is a topic that is relevant for today and it is also a topic that we have embraced as the Church; this topic is an abomination to God and everything that He has provided for us and it is time we take notice of this act within our lives and restore the meaning back to the heart to which it belongs.

The religious icon has always been an important figure within every church setting.  In almost every denomination there are certain figures that are represented either as windows, as figurines in the foyers, or as pictures hanging from a wall.  There is nothing wrong with this act of remembrance and in fact it is vital that we have these reminders so that we never forget what the Church had to go through in its early years.  These icons are also important for us to keep their lives close to our hearts so that we may represent everything that they stood for as well. 

I am not here to destroy the practice of having icons within the confines of the church.  However, I am here to establish exactly what they mean in and to our lives and to what extent that these icons play and have within our hearts.  It is the heart that matters to God and it is the heart that keeps us alive in every way possible.  There have been thousands of books written and published concerning the lives of the saints, the birth and growth of the Church and the many different icons that are represented within the architecture in many of the church buildings around the world.  There is nothing wrong with these articles and books being published and I am sure that great meaning filled each page as it was written, but what have we allowed these icons to become in our lives, this is the question that we must answer.

One must consider what a person thinks when they look upon a specific icon or figurine of a person that has meant something to those in the past.  In the past few years Russia has completed some remodeling of their own to include the tearing down of some of their past leaders statues.  The statues of Lenin and Stalin have been widely publicized as cranes are hauling their huge appearances away that have stood in a particular spot for decades.  A citizen of Russia must have conflicting emotions when they witness such a sight because of the memories that they have of that person or what they have been taught concerning that person and their reign.

The modern statues of these people mean something entirely different to those that are alive now than to those that were alive back when these leaders were alive and well.  If you ask the older generation that were alive back during their reigns, they will have personal experiences that physically and emotionally tie them to these leaders but when one asks the younger generations about these rulers, their answers will be totally different and based upon a different plane since they did not have direct contact with the Communist leaders of Russia.

Some of the portions of the answers that would be provided by both age groups of people will be consistent and similar in definition, this is a given since humans are involved.  But the life experiences of the older generations would differ in that a personal account can accurately be given about the people depicted in the statues.  Their stories would come from the heart and would reflect the conditions in which they responded to these leaders.  The younger generations would not have these experiences and their responses to the questions would come from other people’s words or what they have read in books or articles.  Is there a difference in these answers even if both groups provide roughly the same conclusions about these statues?

The next example that I am going to use is of a large and popular statue of Jesus that is present overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro.  It is a magnificent statue in which it depicts Jesus standing tall on top of a mountain with His hands stretched out as if they are protecting the city at all times.  I have included a picture of the statue that I am using as a demonstration of what it looks like and just how majestic it really can be when looked upon.  The picture also shows many people that have made the journey up to the statue and are walking around its base.  Yet, even though there are many people there it seems like they are going on about their business and not really paying much attention to the statue.

The statue stands above the large city and given the fact that Brazil is one of the larger Catholic nations one would guess that the statue has great meaning to those who gaze upon its appearance.  Anyone remember what even occurs around February?  It represents an upcoming season, and it is celebrated every year and is also very popular in our country as well.  It is Mardi Gras a week long party that occurs every year before the season of Lent.  Rio is considered the Mecca or Jerusalem for this yearly event and it is the ultimate experience if one wishes to attend this gathering.  The city of Rio has a large crime rate and it also has one of the largest prostitution rates in the world, and we cannot leave out that Brazil and Rio house one of the transvestite communities on the globe.  Yet the city looks up at this glorious statue every day and believes that it is under the protective arms of Jesus all the while sinning at any and every opportunity that comes their way. 

Humans believe that we can do anything we wish against the laws of God and still believe that we are within His graceful arms of protection.  This is the point that I am trying to make in this article, God and Jesus have become like statues to our hearts and at the same time have slammed our heart’s doors to them.  We have even dead bolted our doors shut so that no one can enter for fear of being told that they are wrong.  It takes a bold stroke of selfishness and pride to complete a daily sinful routine and then look up towards God and smile for the blessings that He has bestowed upon our lives. 

This type of living and belief is a prime example of idolatry.  The sole purpose of an idol is to gain approval of one side of the present circumstance.  It does not matter what side a person is trying to approve of or for them to be approved by the idol either, the ultimate goal is to gain the necessary access to its benefits whenever one wishes without having to dedicate themselves or to believe that certain consequences may abound later.  This is when an item becomes a statue within our lives and the truth of its function is then dismissed, many times without us even knowing when this act occurred.

This action by our hearts proves that God is a loving and just God since the majority of us would have stricken these people off the face of the earth for their gross disobedience.  But God is different from us in that He allows us to make a choice and then go with the flow for a while and then if He needs to, make corrections.  This is an amazing opportunity that we have to make our own mistakes and then correct them in a Godly manner before God has to step in and do things Himself.  So, why do we continue this practice when we have no idea when our time of leniency has been exhausted?

There are many examples of such behavior throughout history.  I do not even have to bring up Biblical references for this topic but one can look through the Bible and see those accounts as well.  We humans tend to be quick in making a commitment to God and then falling by the wayside after a certain amount of time.  Many reasons cause this to occur and each reason has its own roots.  We must realize that we need God in our lives every second of every day in order to survive this world.  We also need to understand that we cannot live without God in our hearts as well and that just looking up towards a statue and remembering that the figure is there is not enough to protect us for eternity.

If we continually have God in our hearts and deep within our spirits then we will have no desire or need to look upon these statues and icons for guidance, remorse, or protection.  Yes, these icons and statues are very important to the Christian faith and I have no problems with them being present but it is when they become the focus of our hearts that they become useless and in placed in comparison to Christmas decorations at another person’s work establishment.

I can guarantee you that if a person keeps Jesus close to their heart and holds tight to His laws and promises that when these people look upon icons within the churches they will feel even more closer to God than ever before because the true meaning of the icons and their lives are now a part of our physical and current life.  WE should never worship these icons or statues for they are only symbols and could easily fix our eyes upon them and then they would replace God in our hearts and then automatically lose sight of God within our hearts as well.

Allow God to fill your hearts with the love that Jesus’ hands have to offer.  God is in the loving business and in the restoration business and that is why He sent His son to die for us so that we may once again have a connection with God.  A word of warning to those who refuse to listen and to heed the words of God, rest assured that one day God will allow us to encounter devastating actions in order to bring us back to His laws.  God does not wish to see us suffer any turmoil but He will allow us to go through things if we continue in our ways of sin.  God is waiting for us to turn our hearts back to Him and to learn of His ways once more.  God loves us for He is our Father and He holds the plans of every person that has ever been alive, those that are alive and those that will be alive.

Let us take our eyes off of the statues and icons and replace these items with God into our hearts.  Restore your faith and trust in God so that when we have the opportunity to look upon these items of beauty we can have the comfort of knowing that as God was in control of that icon’s life He lives and resides within our life just the same.

DLB