The Yoke is Easy

The Yoke is Easy

3/31/15

The phrase that introduces this letter is one of the more popular verses within the unlimited truths of the Bible.  It represents everything that Jesus stood for when concerning the Kingdom of God and it also accurately describes His mission as to why He was sent to God’s people.  This simple phrase also explains to us exactly what types of battles are ongoing for our lives and how important it is for us to understand this unseen turmoil.  Jesus’ life on earth was no game and it was no picnic yet for some reason the Church has turned it into one.  The Church cannot afford to project a half truths about Jesus, and in order to fully complete this presentation of the Kingdom, its principles must be known through this extraordinary phrase that Jesus used.

Most of us know that the phrase that I am referring to is from Matthew 11:30.  All of us look to this passage and phrase as one of truth and one that gives us hope, and rightly so.  This passage is one of the more powerful statements that Christ made while He was on the earth and we need to ensure that we understand its complete meaning.  Does everyone know that this statement actually makes the statement that Jesus is of a divine bloodline and human at the same time?  For a person to make this kind of statement they either are truly nuts or they must be created from another source other than the human bloodline.  Then the question that is raised is if we believe that Jesus is a divine being or is He in fact insane.  See, no human person can guarantee anything except one, death.  Even our own country’s Constitution states ‘the pursuit of happiness” it does not guarantee it.  The only thing that human can guarantee is death, for not one of us shall escape this finality.

One of the more difficult truths about Jesus is that He is fully God and fully human.  It is hard for our minds to fathom this type of concept sine all we know is how to be human.  With Jesus being in this form it defines the relationship between God and man and how close mankind was to God during their tenure in the Garden of Eden.  And it is through this beginning that we must understand of how much damage we did when we chose to break away from this unity.  Jesus lived a pure and holy life while He was on this earth and it was not His mission to marry, or to “preserve” His bloodline nor was there any part of Him that desired to be political.  His mission on this planet was to provide humanity the only way that we can have a restored relationship with God and in order for Him to achieve this fact He had to live the life of a sacrifice.  It is through this act of life that brings into play the reason as to why His yoke is easy and His burden is light, for He was in total freedom from the world’s oppression.

When placing oneself into this position they must have specific knowledge of their surroundings and know exactly what is occurring within their surroundings as well as to the specific reason that they are present.  They must know that their presence is different and set apart from all others in order to set an example for everyone to choose their place with this person.  We have witnessed many humans try and make some sort of similar claim as this before and have failed miserably.  Anytime a human / human existence tries to make such a high standing claim they seem to fall under the pressures of the world.  Their intentions may have been excellent, but their humanly and flawed follow through is doomed to succumb under the world’s weight.  It is through this pressure of the world (its yoke) that Jesus uses to inform us that things are different in Him and it is ok to be separated from the world through Him.

Jesus’ claim concerning His yoke is another bold move coming from a human being.  However, Jesus’ creation and birth into this world is quite different from you and I in that His father is a divine one and not of human blood, which means that Jesus stands far above any other created being that has walked on this planet.  And it is through this holy and divine status that allows Him to make this claim about His yoke being easy.  I wish everyone would believe in this miracle of creation and it is the mission of the Church to proclaim this truth to as many people around the world as possible.  The Church has had mixed reviews concerning her history and follow through concerning her mission and now with more groups watering down Jesus’ life and meaning for being on this earth, it seems like the present and future reviews may be worse than ever.  That is why the Church needs to stop and realize her position in Christ and take a hard look at what His true meaning is and what He actually represents to her and to the world.

A yoke is an instrument that ties things together and allows the things that are tied together to move in a single direction.  My one and only time to have looked at a yoke was very memorable to me.  Being a young squirt I thought that I was the strongest young man alive and the owner of that yoke asked me and another boy to carry it over to the corral I boldly said that I could do it alone.  After he finished laughing at me he pointed to where the yoke was at and said good luck.  I went over to the yoke and realized, without picking it up, that it was very large and would be heavy since there were metal rings and frame around the wood.  Did I ever feel stupid, and when I turned around to ask for help the owner was still grinning about the situation.

It took two of us to carry that thing from point A to point B which was about 40 yards and it was solid wood with old heavy, solid metal in bedded into the wood as well.  The two of us carried the yoke on our shoulders and carefully and slowly made our way to the corral.  I remember the solid weight that it placed on my shoulder as we were moving it to its temporary resting place.  The owner brought two cows to the corral while we were fumbling around with the yoke.  As we reached the corral, we dropped the yoke on the ground and then shut the gate after the cows arrived.  It did not take too long for the owner to get the cows in place which by then I was in learning mode and stood there watching.

The owner then picked up the yoke by himself and placed it on the necks around the cows.  The cows did not move much but one could tell that they knew that their conditions had changed with the looks in their eyes and their body movements.  It did not take him long to hook them up to the yoke and soon it was time for them to go to work in the “small garden” as the man put it.  I remember that all it took was just a tug on the reins and the cows began to move simultaneously and steadily together in the direction to which the owner wanted them.  I felt kind of stupid at that moment because I had proven myself to be inadequate about how the yoke worked, how heavy it was and the true meaning of what the yoke did to the animals that it was placed around.  The owner of the farm did not scold me or belittle me at all but he did take the opportunity to teach me a few things about the yoke and its designed function. 

It was the owner of the yoke that knew what he was doing when it came to having someone, or in this case more than one person, carry the yoke to another spot.  He evidently had watched our previous movements while we were doing the other chores that day and had drawn a pretty accurate conclusion of how many of the three of us it would take to carry the thing. Being the citified boy that I was I had no clue about my abilities on a farm so of course my pride rebuffed him; with that two of us carried the load across the path.  Which as I look back at that time and remember how heavy that thing was it kind of baffles me as to why Jesus said this about His yoke, but as my memory continues I remember the owner of the farm just easily picking it up and placing it where it needed to go.

In short I did not trust the owner to guide me correctly when it came to the yoke.  I thought that my strength alone could handle the situation and that I could prove him wrong.  It did not take me long to realize that I was the one who did not know what he was talking about and that the owner of the yoke did.  How many times have we stated the exact same thing about God when it comes to His ways and the ways of our Savior?  I know that I have doubted countless times throughout my life and have even cast doubts into other people’s walks at times in my past.  If we are honest with ourselves we must contend that we all have played out to be terrible examples of Christ at times in our lives, but it is through those times that Christ’s yoke and the meaning of His yoke comes into light.  And if we do not understand its full Kingdom meaning, we will totally miss what Jesus was referring to when He used this phrase.

If Jesus represented the world it would be easier, on human terms, to understand what He was meaning.  But Jesus does not represent the world He only represents the way of restoration between God and mankind.  Even though Jesus was human He was also divine and it is here that His yoke is defined.  God understood what it meant to be bound up by the world and what sin did to our lives, does to our lives and how it spiritually separates to us from God.  We were created to walk and talk freely with God without any divisions and since our fall we have not been at this level.  God had to establish a plan of restoration in order for us to understand our need for Him.  In Old Testament Scriptures this process was through the blood sacrifice of animals and in the New Testament Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for everyone who chooses to accept Him.  This sacrifice of purity and divinity represents His yoke and it binds us to God through Christ, and totally separates us from the world through His blood.

The yoke that Jesus was referring to was Him and what was in store for His life and what His creation, life, death and resurrection means for our eternal existence.  Jesus can claim to have a yoke that is easy, unlike that physical yoke that the owner placed upon the cows for Jesus’ yoke represents a unity with Him separate from the world.  The world cannot offer anything else but death and that is a heavy price to have placed on anyone’s life.  But Jesus offers eternal life and a true freedom from death that takes all of the weight of the world (sin) away from us and moves us in one direction towards the Father.

When the cows were placed in the yoke they had no option but to go where the person driving the team wanted them to go.  Of course they could fight and resist if they wanted, but nothing would get done and eventually they would hurt themselves.  They had no choice but to do what the owner wanted, so their lives were in his hands totally.  To some this seems so cruel and is a punishment for being a cow but if we stop and think about things for a moment we can see how it also fits into our lives as well. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans proudly displayed heir deities every day of their lives and some of these cultures even did their best to try and say that they themselves were deities, representing both the gods and man through their human features; all were proven incorrect thus defining their worldly yokes instead.

The world also has a yoke and it is automatically placed around our necks as soon as we are conceived.  The question that we must ask ourselves is this: do we actually know that the world presents this type of yoke?  If we do not recognize this then we have not been told about God and His love for us or we have totally and willingly blinded ourselves from this truth.  In this frame of mind one would not really understand the difference between Jesus’ yoke and the yoke of the world and thus would deem both as equal.  It is the job or our enemy to make sure that we do not understand the true meaning of Jesus’ yoke and what it gives us.  It is also our enemy’s job for us not to accept Jesus’ yoke for when we do it unites God and mankind once again so that we can forward God’s Kingdom through the blood of Christ.

Another question to ask ourselves: why would Jesus deem His yoke to be easy?  Others have placed this claim into existence and why would He claim to be someone different and have “better” answers than all of the rest?  It is here where the modern day Church is beginning to gray a bit and it is filtering within her walls and it will prove to be a huge stumbling block for the Church.  It is at this point when we must recognize the Bible as the true and authentic Word of God or do we not recognize this and say that it is serious words to live by but not mandatory.  If you do not place the Bible as the authentic Word of God then you justify that Jesus was just a common man who did good yet was unjustly murdered for nothing.  It would also place the words in this passage into the same category as Confucius, Buddha, Mohammad, and any other person that tried to establish her or himself above the human / human conception level; therefore, placing Jesus as a liar and a thief of person’s time, all the while teaching others how to change their world.  It also can be placed into the category of not understanding the true meaning of the phrase and at the same time not knowing who Jesus is.

If one recognizes the Bible as the authentic and true Word of God, then they must consider every object within the context of those words as truth and that there is both a spiritual and physical meaning to everything that is represented.  God has created us both in spirit and in the flesh so that means everything that we know has a spiritual aspect as well.  It is common knowledge that while Jesus was on the earth He was in physical form.  Jesus also used terminology, parables and other types of examples to explain things to the people around Him.  Jesus understood that the world revolves around the flesh and that His Father revolves through the Spirit and by using these types of known terms and phrases the people had a better chance of comprehending that there was a far more important aspect of life than the physical.

If one places this knowledge into place with the Spirit, then they will have a concept of why Jesus used this phrase and had the complete authority to do so.  He knew that His mission on earth was not to be just a physical one that it had just as much a spiritual aspect as well.  The phrase itself deems Him as divine and spiritual because Jesus uses the word “my” in the phrase. “My” is a very specific word and it is of singular and possessive content.  Through the authenticity of God’s Word this sheds a great deal of light on Jesus and further proves that He is the only way to God and that He is the only way to have restoration with God.  All other ways taught by mankind are false and will cause a great deal of disappointment to those who follow them. Jesus is the only way to free ourselves from this world and its death yoke that burdens us.  Jesus’ yoke is of divine nature and pure and refreshing, one to savor in peace and tranquility all coming from the origins of life, God.

It is such a relief to know that God has everything under His eyes and that if we dive deep into His Word He will give us the knowledge and the insight that every human is looking for.  The only thing we need to give up is our selfishness and allow God to take over once again.  Church, we have long been overdue for this type of action within our hearts.  Our focus has been on the world and not on God and if we do not change we shall not be recognizable to God but only to the world.  It is through God’s Son that He provides us with the connection between the spirit and the physical and it is through the example of the yoke that Jesus declares His divinity and way to the Father.  Thank the Lord that there is only One way for restoration.  Jesus paid it all for us and even though I let Him down many times, I am so thankful that He loves me enough to continue His restoration process within my life.  I cannot believe that Jesus would have ever made this concept known to mankind unless He had a passion that is a fire and that He wishes nothing but complete purity from His Bride.

DLB

Underestimation

Underestimation

3/28/15

In any aspect of war it is essential that all commanders never underestimate the enemy that they are about to face or are currently facing.  If such commanders do not recognize the full potential of their enemy it is a guarantee that a great number of their forces or maybe even all of their forces will be destroyed.  It is the same when we are addressing our spiritual enemy as well and it is eternally important that we follow the same habits as military commanders in obtaining as much information about our enemy as possible.  If we ignore the enemy and refuse to study their activities and ways there is no way that we can effectively defend ourselves when time to defend our existence.  This applies to both the physical military aspects of our defensive systems and to our spiritual defenses as well.

Many of you know that I am an avid military history buff and I have had the great privilege to read many books, watch some military reels of film and poured over many military documents over the past few decades.  While I am not a military historian by any means I have been educated enough to understand a few things about combat tactics and the use of the defensive system in order to strengthen the offensive capabilities of the military at the same time.  None of this learning process has been easy for me and it takes many hours at a time in order to provide a logical and explainable reference so that it can be relayed to the appropriate leaders for implementation.  It does not matter what the studies will be used for and some of them may not be used for the particular mission at hand but having the knowledge concerning the mission and the enemy, a military tactician can be one of the most powerful advisors that any military unit has within their ranks.

Each day that we wake up it seems like there is a new conflict that has risen during the night.  Many of these small conflicts do not make the big time news channels for they are deemed not important enough to mention.  I understand this thought process for if we did continue to address these individual conflicts there would not be any time to discuss anything else that occurred around the world.  But someone setting behind a desk somewhere in that studio must know more information about that small conflict and what it could mean to other conflicts around it or if it could eventually explode into a large scale war.  In either way it is important not to forget or to seep under the rug this small conflict because of the potential it may have for the future of that country, region or nation.

I am currently reading a book about the conflict in Rwanda and how a long term ethnic challenge turned into a huge genocide of a rival.  It also deals with how ineffective the overall personnel that were in charge of orders for the mission did not understand or flat ignored the potential of escalation of the conflict even though the boots on the ground were begging for changes.  The commanders on the field were both enraged and heartbroken with the channels and the responses that they had to endure in order to receive the words “no” and “do nothing” time and time again.  It was this lack of action and distance knowledge that portrayed ineffective leadership to both the soldiers on the ground and to the participants of the actual fighting.  When the dust finally cleared there were soldiers that were killed along with approximately 800,000 people slaughtered, not to mention a nation forever torn apart with the accolades of death as its legacy.

I understand that this process was not a new procedure in Rwanda and that the country’s history had been tumultuous for a continuous period of time.  Some even argue that the genocide was inevitable and that it was just a matter of time before the cork blew from the bottle.  In any case, we have had countless examples throughout history that should have guided us a bit further in how humans react to tense situations especially when ethnic cultures are involved.  Even the earliest secular histories paint tragic pictures of peoples trying their best to annihilate or to enslave other races for just as many useless reasons as examples.  Haven’t we been around on this planet long enough that we can figure things out a little bit more before severe and brutal tactics are needed or used?  

It is evident that our schools are not teaching history as they should nor are they placing emphasis enough on history classes and what we learn from our own pasts.  I have stated many times that history was not my most favorite subject during high school and in the beginning years of my college days, I had no interest in the subject either.  But as I have embraced this subject I have realized that history has enabled me to understand how important life is and how further we can deal with hard topics if we know how others reacted to similar situations earlier on the timeline.  No, one has to contend that the situations are not identical but the identical part of that past situation is the human and humans are very predictable, unless you have no clue about how, where and when they came from.  And when we do not understand them in this manner, it is then that our underestimation of others, and potential enemies, arises.

I usually do not get physically political in the articles and the reason is that God is not physically political, He wishes for the individual heart and if we fully give our heart to Him, then there is no reason to be physically political.  Anyway, a few years back now our current national executive person made a statement concerning a rising opponent in the Middle East.  The statement was in reference to a group of people that had ideas of taking over a large chunk of land and creating another Islamic Caliphate, or essentially a new Islamic State.  The personal subject of this paragraph made a statement that basically said that this group was of no concern and that it was a junior team and really should not be of any concern to the world.  How wrong those words have become and while many regions are now engaged in fighting this group their recruits and advancements might have slowed but are still presenting a viable force to opposing armies.

The statement made by this person has many meanings but there are two that really stand above the others.  First of all the statement means that this person did not fully understand the capability, resources, organization and foundational drive that these people had in order to draw attention of world leaders.  It does not matter how small of a group of people are for when they come together with a common goal their potential is enormous and could eventually control a huge nation or belief that engulfs the entire land.  It is at this time that the gates have been opened and it is imperative that they be controlled and then shut as quickly as possible, this has not occurred from this person nor from other similar people in that particular region. So, the fight rages on and we play catch-up to a recognizable force that has the world stopped for an unknown amount of time.  I know that it is impossible to fully know about every little detail about every group in existence, but cross the lines and reach out to those who know a bit more than you instead of assuming you have everything under control and hidden from others.

Secondly, it brings up an argument about the religious aspect of the factions involved.  Many years ago the person who made this statement was in a country making a speech that was broadcast around the world.  It was in this statement that he made comments in reference that Christians did not know their Bible.  After much anger and harsh words from many, the events died down and for the most part have been ignored but we must remember them for what this person said was and still is correct.  Many Christians do not know the Bible and what God’s Word really means to our lives and to the lives of everyone that walk this planet.  What this person does not realize is that he also does not understand what Islam represents either and the potential that both religions have in the world.  Is he a Muslim or not, is irrelevant for it is his lack of understanding on all aspects that should be concerning, including the authority to lead during these times of command.

Christians, do not believe that you are off the hook here!  We are just as guilty as this person is in not knowing and understanding what our historical reference means.  Many of us state that we take the word of god literally, and we should.  But evidently we have not believed this statement because there are now denominations that admit they do not believe the Bible literally but just take it seriously.  This is where we do not grasp the fact that the Bible is about humans and how their lives are represented by the relationship they have with God, or lack thereof.  Yes the Word of God has laws and directives that we should know and understand but it is through the relationship that those people had with God that put those laws and directives into place, not a dictatorial God who wishes to control our lives.  It is through this biblical and historical point that we have the opportunity to end life as we know it or to live in unimaginable bounty through the blessings of God.

As a society we have now begun to remove God from our personal and societal lives.  This aggressive approach to self reliance is all in the name of progression of humanity all the while advancing this agenda through the gifts that God has provided.  We fail to see that everything that we have God has created, whether it has been through a physical creation or through our individual ideas for life.  From how we raise cattle to the surgical instruments that we use for removing cancer and everything else in-between, God has given us those items; strictly for our benefit.

So, now the craze is to delete God from our lives and to rely upon our own faults as our foundation.  We are once again purposefully ignoring our own history and refuse to go to our history classes on the belief that we know everything we need to know about our enemies.  As long as we continue to develop this idea and concepts and continue to cultivate this selfish desire for life, we will increasingly render ourselves defenseless against our enemies, both physically and spiritually.  Am I saying that everyone should become a “history nerd”, not at all but at least grasp the ideas that humans have a past and that everyone uses their pasts to direct their present and future.  We can only change the course of our failures by reading our pasts and this truth cannot be emphasized enough when it comes to the Bible.

When we reject the truth about the Bible we place ourselves in a vulnerable position.  I have been in a minister’s family for 47 years now and I must admit that God has showed me more things about His Word, our creation and humanity in the past 2 ½ years than all of readings of the Bible combined.  I finally submitted myself to understanding what the Bible meant for my life and in turn God opened my spirit up to another realm that He is using for the advancement His Kingdom.  I admit that as long as I continued to read the Bible with a closed mind about humanity, I had no real opportunity to understand what really occurred during the lives of everyone that is mentioned within the pages of God’s Word.  But when I allowed God to infiltrate my life the words jumped out off the pages and their meanings became so clear to me.  That life is what God desires to place into each one of our hearts so that He may effectively communicate with His greatest treasures.

But as long as we continue to purposefully blind ourselves through blind and limited biblical reading and understanding we shall continue to underestimate not only our lives and the potential that we have but our enemy, both physical and spiritual, as well.  One of the common excuses we have today is that we only use portions of the Bible to make a point or to use as an advantage during an argument with others.  This too is a correct statement and to do this is a very dangerous and debilitating process.  Then why don’t we use the entire Bible as a foundational history lesson in which to guide us through our daily steps?  What are we afraid of? If we are to do this then we must dive deep into every aspect of God’s Word, and not just what we want to hear.

God’s love…..God’s love….OHHHHH God’s love.  This is a huge item right at the moment with those who disagree with one another.  Their argument is that we should always love each other no matter what the other person’s circumstances are.  This is a correct statement and every Christian should practice this act.  However, and this is a large HOWEVER, that both sides tend to ignore, and that is in order to receive the benefits of God’s love we must keep and obey His laws AS they were written and not humanly jaded or humanly altered to suit our own pleasures.  It is this type of act that facilitates our ignorance of God’s Word and how to fend off our enemy.  It is also a means as to how our enemy drives larger wedges between God’s children in order to keep them from realizing their true capacity for life; all the while our enemy laughs at us and skips away with a huge smile on his face.  Our eternal enemy is unseen to our physical eyes but his presence surrounds us with every physical step we take.  If one does not understand the true Word of God, Satan’s presence blends into our everyday settings and thus our eternal enemy has graduated into an underestimation which shall prove eternally deadly at some point in our lives.

What is the bottom line to this topic?  In order to completely understand our lives we must place our hearts into the entire Word of God.  Not for a few moments but for a second by second filling so that not only will we know how to live in true freedom but also complete the work that the Church needs to do.  Also, by placing our hearts into the Bible, and we lose our selfish fetishes and wants, God will transform our hearts into a wealth of godly knowledge that will help someone that you encounter.  If we allow this second by second living within the Word of God we shall never be in a position that underestimates our enemy and we will know what to expect from him at all times.  Underestimating ANY enemy is deadly and in our eternal status underestimating our eternal enemy just one millimeter can cost us a great deal, not just for a few months but for eternity.  It is time we turn our hearts back to God and restore ourselves in His ways through His holy and LITERAL Word.  God loves each and one of us but for us to know what true freedom in life is we must return back to God and refresh His ways in our hearts.

DLB

Dwelling Place

Dwelling Place

3/25/15

We can always refer to this title as the place where our hearts are at or the place where we live and make our home.  All of these short definitions would be accurate in describing this term and the importance of having such a place to return to for sanctuary. It saddens me to believe that many homes are subject to violence, hatred, turmoil and strife while just next door the perfect reign protrudes from every inch.  God has a dwelling place as well and while mankind has done its best to push God from this dwelling place, He continues to try and find ways back into this place, because He understands what eternal separation means.

Over the almost five decades of my life I have had the privilege to live in many parts of this country.  My parents were full time ministers and ones that heard the call of God every day.  This meant that sometimes we would stay put for a few years and other times it means a short stay and then off somewhere else.  I can understand how many people would not adapt to that type of living too well but I really did not have too much concern about it, I always trusted my parents and had the security and belief in that they knew what they were doing.  Little did I know that it was God directing our lives and not so much my parents which when I look back on it now I have so much more pride and security about their ministry and the protections of God over our lives and the lives that my parents ministered to.

With all of these moves to different locations one can imagine that I lived in many houses and that assumption would be very accurate.  Some of the houses were parsonages, some rentals and others my parents bought and then sold.  Off the top of my head I cannot remember too many houses that I did not like; I cannot say that about some of the places that we lived in (Hobbs, NM) but I knew that we were there for a reason and I happily accepted that and went on my way.  Not at one time did I ever not feel safe when I walked through the doors of the houses that we dwelled in, nor did I ever feel strife that I felt as I walked some of the streets of those cities.  My house was just that, my house and it was a place that served as my foundation, my beginnings to the day and my endings of the night.  I received every type of instruction, guidance and living standards that I ever could imagine and needed.  Was it always simple and easy?  No, as the parent / child scenario played out there was some times of question, but nothing ever to the point where destruction of the household was considered.

I look back on the times when I lived at home while I was growing up and I have nothing but positive and fond memories and those memories are still present each time I walk into my parents’ home today.  The houses and dwelling places that I knew as a child still follow me today and I try my best to keep those same standards in my current dwelling place as well.  I guess the secret to those memories is that mom and dad always kept God first in their lives, both in their duties concerning the church and their duties at home.  Most of us do not think about God and His dwelling place, for we automatically think about heaven and how He is supposed to be there at all times, but in all honesty heaven is not where God desires to be.  Yes, God is happy in heave and He lives there in all of His glory, truth and splendor but that is not where His heart is at and where His heart desires to live and to dwell.  Many denominations place the important dwelling place of God within the confines of heaven, but this is not the case, God desires to dwell with His people and within their hearts because that living space defines His purpose for our creation and represents His perfect ambitions for His life and for ours.

What is one of the first questions that “pops” into a person’s head giving the previous statement?  How can I say that and does the Bible say anything about it?  I can make a statement like that because God said it to me and that He showed me what to say about that statement and yes, the Bible does say something about it and fitting enough it is right at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis.  All through chapters 2 & 3 God continually is referred to being with mankind in the Garden of Eden.

First, God establishes the relationship He will have with mankind by creating man in a specific manner and a unique order that will give mankind an opportunity to be restored if they ever go astray and try to do things on their own; which we all know what occurred a short time down the road.  Secondly, God made mankind in a way that would allow Him to be with His creation and for His creation to have the ability to understand what God desired from mankind.  Thirdly, God instilled with us a desire to have a relationship with God on a personal and individual level at all times and on a direct or eye-to-eye level, not from a distance.  Fourthly, God understood that there was an enemy present about that would seek to end this direct conflict due to the hatred of God through his (Satan’s) own personal choices.  All of which God tried to show mankind of these facts and mankind chose to believe and enact his own ways instead.

Our enemy knows about this relationship status and the potential that it has for our lives.  Our enemy’s life is already played out and his fate is sealed but our lives have the opportunity to repent and to restore that first and true relationship with God, on that eye-to-eye and direct level and it is this type of relationship that our enemy seeks to permanently cut forever.  How eager is our enemy to separate us from God?  Satan still has access to our lives but he can only act upon this access through a chain yet the potential is still there.  He succeeded in breaching this hedge in the Garden of Eden and death soon followed.

After Adam and Eve ate of the fruit God had no choice but to conduct certain disciplinary actions against all parties involved. Human changes were extraordinary for up until that point mankind knew no pain, agony, disappointment, etc, etc.  For Satan it really did not matter much because his fate was already sealed yet even the serpent that he inhabited for the occasion faced great changes as well.  Everyone and everything involved changed that day including the ground and how it produced its life.  God is an all encompassing God, so when He must deal with things, everything involved must be dealt with accordingly, nothing left out.

Adam and Eve were immediately cast from the Garden of Eden and told to make refuge elsewhere.  Can you imagine what was going through their minds during this time, especially when they took that first step outside of the confines of the Garden and turned to see and feel the flaming sword behind them?  This was unprecedented in human history and this action was all due to the fact of a certain choice that had been made a short time previous.  The eternal gravity of the situation must have been enormous, for God during all of His talks with Adam and Eve must have shared about the enemy and what he stood for and how he was after them.  Even Job stated that God would not strike humanity for an unknown sin; boy does this belief ring true in today’s society!

Time continued to play out in Adam and Eve’s life and they made a life for themselves and fulfilled God’s command of reproducing the earth.  Many things must have been learned at that time by Adam and Eve but the result of their sin continued to follow them and the development of that sin eventually took its toll on one of their sons.  As brothers go, we all know that some type of rivalry must have been staked between them, it is a given.  It sets forth the first example of what would later become the division between Isaac and Ishmael and the continued embattlement between those two brothers today.  Arguments eventually led to further aggravation and when the time came for sacrifice the heat was turned up and blood was shed, but not for the true sacrifice but out of anger; this was point “B” in the relationship between Cain and Abel, one that our society is about to reach as well. 

How better of an example to be presented when at one time there was a perfect relationship between Creator and creation and then after tragic events the result of an imperfect human relationship led up to an end point in human existence.  No death was understood when God was in complete control in their lives and when they decided to give that up for selfish desires, the end point would be reached in the youngest son being murdered by his brother.  This is the reason why separation from God is so dangerous for mankind because if it happens once, the door is open for it to occur over and over again, especially when you deal in spiritual numbers.

It is the state of separation from God that our enemy knows and continually wishes for.  He knows that if he can get under our skin enough that he can weave his “magic” into our lives.  It was not an immediate event with Eve for it took time for her curiosity to be manifested outwardly enough for the serpent (Satan) to strike.  God understands how important the relationship between Him and mankind needs to be.  This is true since He knows the spiritual heart and motives of His enemy and God also knows that His enemy / our enemy shall never change his motives either, which serves as the perfect reason as to why God shall NEVER change His ways; ever.

From the moment God created mankind He has placed within us the ability to reverse the process of separation that is between God and us.  The process of restoration is presented all throughout the Bible and has deep roots within our personal lives as well.  It is well known that when physical relationships “go south” tremendous hurt and pain run rampant through every aspect of our existence, lasting for generations or even longer.  The thoughts and actions that we tend to pursue against the other party can be upright vicious and turn people against future relationships by these attacks.  The same vengeful tactics are used in the spiritual realm against our lives as well.

It is evident that our enemy hates us enough to completely end our relationship with God.  His choices created his finality and it is now his “job” to create the exact same eternal separation that he created.  I find it so ironic that Lucifer was so bent upon creating things that through his actions the only thing he created was his own eternal separation; is that the epitome of the definition of choice or what?  Now, if our lives just included the physical side of things Satan would not have any motive to separate us from God’s true dwelling place.  It is the eternal spirit that God placed within in us that Satan desires to separate from God.  Our spirit is what connects us to God and it is what He desires to have between His creation, this is His dwelling place, the temple, us.

When God is allowed to dwell in His “natural environment” He is the happiest and the most content for He knows that He is in direct communication with His prized creation.  On the other hand when God is pushed away from this environment, His heart aches for His creation to return and automatically begins trying to reestablish the connection.  God represents the stability within the eternal connection through His inability to change; it is our responsibility to correct measures when the eternal connection is in trouble.

It is this gap created by our own choices and it is through this gap that Satan uses in order to further our separation from God. God has established way in order for us to restore this gap and thus His dwelling place within our lives and this restoration option is also our choice to obtain.  In Old Testament Scriptures the way that God required was to have humans sacrifice an animal by shedding of the blood and then offering up the blood as a symbol of our need for restoration.  In the New Testament Scriptures God miraculously and eternally supplied the last sacrifice so that this process would be available for everyone who wished to restore themselves with their Creator.  The blood and the shedding of blood represent our eternal status and through the simple acceptance of Christ into our lives provide us not only with a covering in the eyes of God but also restores His dwelling place within our lives.

There is nothing God desires more than to be in the same dwelling place as His children.  In order for this to occur we must forsake all of the worldly standards and return to the Creator’s ways.  First of all it is imperative that we understand that God cannot change His ways.  Secondly, we must concede that as long as we continue to place the world in front of God we are at high risk for the gap between God and mankind to increase.  Our enemy shall always do his “job” by furthering and widening this gap and to confirm that we never spiritually connect with God again.  Satan was displaced from his dwelling place with God, so why should this method come as a surprise to anyone.  God dwelling place is within our lives and that is where He wishes to be.  If we choose the world we will continually find ourselves wanting knowledge and finding emptiness but if we choose God and His ways our lives will come alive in an individual manner that will shine throughout the world as a beacon of hope and trust.

DLB

Ashes

Ashes

3/24/15

Anyone who has ever witnessed a fire until its completion will testify of how intense the heat and flames are of that fire.  The end results of such fires bring a permanent substance that is messy and useless but still signifies of the previous event in a way that brings finality at the same time.  Ashes do not render much service for the future on a constructional basis but they do serve as a continual reminder of something that stands in the history of our minds and experiences.  Many times we look at ashes and remember the tragedy that struck such emotional responses at the time of the fire, but should be the entire memories that reconcile our thoughts and beliefs of godly, personal and societal living.

Not too many people like to recount their personal memories of fire, nor would the majority of people enjoy spending time watching their lives literally go up in smoke while standing and watching a fire destroy a close personal item.  After the fire has been extinguished and safe to enter the burned area, walking through the ashes is many times more painful than watching those memories being actively destroyed.  The finality of ash sends a permanent shockwave through our internal lives and realization that complete and final loss has occurred.

When a fire begins the heat is weak and slow to develop, as is the flames of said fire.  As any person that operates a grill or stove and they will tell you that when you turn on the instrument it takes time for all of the settings to reach temperature.  The same goes for a fire in that when it is young its potential energy is gaining and the fire itself is at its peak for extinguishing but when a non controlled fire has started, it is already at its peak potential before help arrives.  It is at this point when the fire is the most destructive for it has used up its ignition points and is now readily consuming the organic materials within the burning substance to reach this peak.  It is also at this point when the organic fuel is consumed a lasting residue appears in the form of what we call ash.

Ashes are the result of a fire when it is done with using up all of the energy and fuel of the substance that it was burning.  There is not much use for ashes for there are no usable contents that remain after the fire has left that area for another place to continue.  It does not matter if a fire remains small and contained within a boundary, after the fire has used up all of its sources the ashes that remain can serve no organic purpose any longer.  Even if there are numerous materials and fuel sources within the burning structure, the fire will burn use all possible sources before it dies out, unless help gets there before total damage results.

Anyone remember back in the early 1980s when a relatively unknown and previously dormant volcano erupted in the state of Washington?  This mountain was and still is named as Mount St Helens and it is still producing earthquakes and soft rumblings decades after it erupted.  Up until the day of its eruption there had been significant warnings of an eruption but hardly anyone took them seriously and on that eventful day the skies turned black and the earth shook violently and the top of the mountain exploded thousands of feet into the air and to one side and the result of that explosion created an ash cloud and molten rock cloud that traveled thousands of miles in many directions.

After Mount St Helens calmed down the results of the explosion became known and while only a few people lost their lives that day many other life forms were completely destroyed.  Literally, millions of trees and miles of landscape were totally burned to the ground, with many rivers being contaminated with poison molten rock and sulfur gases streaming down from the mountain site.  Log jams in the rivers created havoc for people trying to reach where known human activity was before the eruption.  Most living creatures could not breathe the air because of the chemicals, smoke and ash still falling from the atmosphere and resulted in countless numbers of animals to lose their lives.

It was a result of this huge explosion and fire that caused the damage in and around the western region of the nation.  It affected the area for years and in some areas destroyed back then, teams of researchers are still gathering information about that site today and piecing together that puzzle.  If one goes to this national park and forest they can still see some of the permanent scars that the volcano created and if one uses modern equipment they can see the slow rising bulge within the crater of this mountain, another sign that one day this volcano can repeat its actions and bring more havoc to the area.

There is not much that humanity can do to prevent this type of activity from occurring.  However, we can understand the warning signs enough to change our habits concerning this volcano and try our best to limit our permanent inhabitance of the area.  Yes the setting is scenic and beautiful to walk and hike through.  Yes it an area that is quite peaceful and tranquil even though it has a graphic history.  It is important that we take all of these historical features and put them into perspective and choose wisely and accordingly.  While physical fires could be the result of what is predicted for this society and other world societies may not be accurate, but some type of fire shall occur that will produce just as much ash as a real fire would produce.  Real fire may accompany this other type of fire but I do know that whichever fire comes about, ash will be produced and shall dictate our destruction, recovery and restoration.

Again during this time frame in the early 1980s my family and I were living in a small town north of Houston, Texas when another small yet graphic tragedy occurred.  While this incident never made national news and it never even reached regional news but the news of this tragedy did reach one family and our community and it made its mark as the ashes came into being.  The accident occurred late one night to a friend of mine was supposed to be in bed asleep but had left her house and went out with some acquaintances.  Little did she know that this would be the last time she left her house and that she would be in a terrible accident and burned alive.  The news struck the family hard, as it would any family, but even though this particular family knew of God they literally fell apart and sunk deeper into their troubles and is still feeling the effects of that single tragedy long ago.

God recently shared with us an article concerning the devastating times of Job and how his world came crashing to the ground in a series of terrible events.  One of the more fascinating passages of this story is when Job looked at all of his personal destruction and walked into the burned ashes and sat down in the middle of them.  With his wife begging him to curse God and die, Job instead lifted up his eyes unto God and gave thanks for everything that God had given him and that he understood that if God could give things to people that He could take them away as well.  This man had literally lost everything with the exception of his wife.  He even had nasty health problems that caused him great pain yet he worshiped God and did not curse God for any bit of these allowances.  This is the last of the three good examples that this article gives about how fire destroyed certain structures and left ashes in its place.  It does not matter what the structure is, the structure is the subject of the burning and what remains afterwards.

The question remains is how would you react in times such as these.  How would our town act if a tornado ripped through its downtown as it did in Joplin, Missouri a few years ago?  How would our nation regroup and truly figure out as to why things of this type of “fire” occurred?  Would we even understand exactly what transpired or would we write it off and dismiss it on a human level?  The personal aspect of the fire would be just that, individual.  I have been witness to a couple of hurricanes and have felt the ground shake under my feet when earthquakes occurred.  The current town that I live in has been spared from any major disasters so far, but the day is not over and anything could occur before I leave this building.

That leads me to our nation and to the society that we currently observe.  I do not believe it would be too hard to arrive at the answer to the question I posed in the paragraph above when it comes to our nation and western society.  What amazes me is that when these terrible events occur, we stand in shock and in total disbelief because of what happened, as if to say “how dare they attack us in this manner”.  It is at this point that we can be assured that society and its living conditions have no clue about why things of this sort occur, and to what the origins of those acts really come.

Our society has become so anti God that we are continually pushing Him out of our existence and it is through this process that a great catastrophe will occur.  When humans voluntarily tell God that “they can handle things” God allows them to do so. However, what humanity forgets is that God has placed protective coverings around all of His people and if we voluntarily remove them, our enemy will have no restraints when he decides to attack.  It is through these attacks and lack of protection that will define our fire and measure our ashes afterwards. 

We have deleted God from our daily lives so much that we do not feel the need to fear Him.  We refuse to listen to His warnings and to adhere to His ways, making up our own selfish laws that give up “more control” over God and the lands that He has given us.  But this time the focus is on the remnants of our societies after the damage has been done and how we will react towards the ashes.  As it stands now and with our reactions towards the past problems, I do not feel like we will truly understand what the ashes mean and the reasons as to why they were created.

Will it take us centuries to understand what has occurred or will we get our hearts back into line with God’s laws and allow our restoration to be easier than harder?  When we make choices it then becomes our responsibility to live up to those choices and suffer the consequences or to imbibe in the blessings that each choice brings.  When we separate ourselves from God we take His presence and knowledge out of the picture and then replace it with human understanding.  This selfish setting places us at a disadvantage because we leave out the eternal and accept only the physical.  If allowed long enough this thinking will eventually phase out the enemy and therefore justify everything natural as being true and factual; just as Eve did when she made the choice to falsify God’s Law and then eat of the fruit.

Eve probably had no idea of the physical and eternal consequences of her and Adam’s actions that day.  And as a society we have no idea what our consequences (ashes) shall be either.  God has given us some great examples of how humans handle disastrous situations in this article.  I wish that I could say that we would take the road that Job did and have the heart that understands why things occurred, but from what description the Bible gives about humanity when things fall apart, I do not believe too many people will take His warnings factually.

This article is not all bad news there is some excellent news to be shared.  The ashes that we will be witnessing can be avoided!!  All we have to do is to turn our hearts back to God and allow Him to again be the center of our lives.  Everyone in the world wants peace, happiness and prosperity but all of those experiences come from God and if we tune Him out of our lives, so will those blessings.  It is a simple choice that we have and we still have a few moments to change our status but unless we make this change, we will begin to see the ashes fall from the sky in quick manner. 

God loves His children in ways and manners that our human minds and hearts cannot fathom.  His love for us is overwhelming if we study its presence.  But in order for us to receive and to know His love we must, we must obey His laws and His Word. We cannot continue to indulge ourselves in worldly practices and believe that all will remain a box of chocolates.  Our lives shall change according to our choices and the ashes may rain down upon our societies for months, years, decades or even centuries.  But it will all be due to the choices that we have made and how long it takes us to figure out that God is the Creator of everything and not humans.

Restoration comes with pain of its own but this pain comes through a purifying fire and not a destructive fire.  God’s fire comes from His heart and will seek out every impurity that we harbor in order to bring us closer to His will.  The destructive fires have no respecter of structures and will seek out fuel in order to consume as much as possible to stay “alive”, leaving nothing but ashes in its path.  I have no idea what structures our enemy will choose to burn in our society, they may be physical in stature or they may be economic in structure or financial through losses, or a combination of all, but I do know that whatever the fire maybe we can skip this portion and remove ourselves from becoming ash.  Two kingdoms and two fires, which one will we choose?

DLB

Fixation

Fixation

3/21/15

One of the more common genres of movies is the horror flick.  There are billions of dollars that are spent every year trying to produce the best and scariest movie and there are even more billions that are spent by people going to watch such entertainment.  We all remember the first scary movie that we watched and how we were a little bit jumpy for a period of time afterwards, but eventually we got used to those types of movies and they no longer bothered us.  So why would our eternal enemy be presented any differently?  We all know that horror movies are not real and so we must allocate those same images to Satan himself in order to understand him, right?  Not so according to the appearance of the morning star!

When I was a kid I remember the first horror show that I watched and to one’s amazement it was not actually your typical horror movie, it was a Christian film about the second coming of Christ and how people were going to be left behind.  The movie was very popular in the 70s and early 80s and it even produced a couple of sequels which did well in many arenas.  I understand the reasoning of these types of movies and to be honest I also understand the concepts behind the true and “accepted” horror flicks.  I remember that the movie I watched scared me to no end and even though I tried my best to push the scenes from my head they continued to haunt me.

Over time I began to realize that God was trying to get me to see some things about my life and that I needed to have a change in my life.  Yeah I was young at the time but the setting of that film was so pronounced in my mind and the message that it drove into my heart has stuck with me until this very day.  I still remember that movie and its content, and while the times have changed dramatically the concepts of the movie still remain subject to every person walking this planet.  In the movie there were many people that had no idea of what occurred, many others understood but did not know why they were left and others knew but did not care.  In each case everyone made their choice and stood by their choices and the results came full circle and hit them hard.  It does not matter if the message of that movie was fulfilled in the 1970s or will be fulfilled tomorrow or in the year of 2090, we must know that it all depends upon our choices.

Even though I know that horror movies are not real and pose no threat to my household, I still know of the doors that they open and the potential that they carry into my spirit.  To this day I really do not like this type of movie and in my house they are not welcome.  I know that I cannot control what occurs at my girls’ friends houses but they have been taught of the possible spiritual repercussions and torment that these movies bring and while I hope and pray that they choose not to view them, it is still their choice.  Looking back at my first “horror” movie it is a wonderful movie and it did the job that it was supposed to by grabbing my heart and showing me the truth about what might happen after Christ returns to take His Bride away.

Most people know that Satan has had two names and yet it is a point that many people might not understand and the importance of this change is what is of concern.  We must also not forget that Satan is a spiritual being and has an eternal life; and because of his choices he cannot change his eternal status no matter how much he wishes or might wish to change it.  His hatred of God and everything that God has ever done continually radiates through every aspect of his actions and if he can convince God’s personalized creations that He is wrong or to doubt God’s existence, then Satan has done his job to perfection and he has those people right where he wants them.   It was through this choice of wanting to be better than God that cost Satan his name, Lucifer, his name’s true meaning, and his place in God’s kingdom.  No other action caused this process and fall, it was the patterns of choice that did the duty and began his process of destruction and revenge on God’s creations.

Lucifer was the name of Satan long before he made his decision to fall from his place in heaven.  Lucifer was created as a beautiful creature and was the most radiant angel, over the spiritual music of the heavens and if something ever happened to God, which is SHALL NEVER occur, would be in line to take over all the eternal duties of everything ever created.  This was the status of Lucifer and how powerful he was, all due to the generosity and pleasure from God.  Yet, Satan wanted more and this wanting caused him to deal harshly with the ideas and laws of God.  This thought process soon became a desire and a few scheming plans must have begun to take shape within the presence of Satan. 

It was through this process that things began to change in Lucifer’s spiritual heart, yet while this was ongoing I find something very intriguing here and that is this fact.  God is all knowing and at the “time” that Lucifer began his scheming against God, God knew what was transpiring and still gave Lucifer an opportunity to rethink things before he actually made the act that gave God no choice but to act against him.  While this was the example of a characteristic of God, it is the fact that Lucifer believed that his thoughts and schemes were not being monitored by God somehow, or that he believed that due to his status in heaven God must not have been paying too much attention directly towards him.  What an eternal choice to make.  The fascinating portion of this act is this, it is through this very same action of Lucifer’s that he uses on humans in order to get them to turn from God.  Of course Satan leaves out the eternity portion of things but his ability to deter our placement in God within our hearts sets into motion his plan for our eternal destruction.

As the Bible states Lucifer was a beautiful creature and one that shone greatly with a spiritual and magnificent light.  The word Lucifer means a bright and beautiful morning star that shines bright at all times.  Yes, bright and beautiful are words that are used in the actual meaning of his name.  His name is defined through his descriptive features.  Stop and think about that definition for a moment and hopefully one will make the connection between his name and his stature.  He was the greatest of the created being in heaven, he was at his pinnacle, the top of his game and it was at this time that the definition of his name took over his life and thoughts.  And it was also at this time that he fell, and he fell eternally hard.  Yet God did not change his appearance even after his fall from heaven, with one exception.

In the Garden of Eden setting God had made the perfect living space.  Everything that creation needed for existence was there in the confines of that garden.  It was beautiful and nothing was out of its place.  God had thought of everything and then turned it over to Adam and Eve to live in, to nurture and to protect.  That last sentence brings up a huge issue but I am not going to deal with it in this article, just going to let you think about it for a while.  It was at this time that Satan began to watch the patterns of the humans and at some point he made his first appearance.  With Adam and Eve being human they had all of the physical features that we have today, including the emotions of happiness and fear.  So, if Satan appeared to Eve in a grotesque manner with big pointed teeth and pointy ears and drooling all over the place, do you really think that Eve would have stood around and listened to what he had to say to her?

It would be logical to believe that if Satan had anything but a beautiful appearance that both Adam and Eve would have turned and ran away as fast as they could and would have told God exactly what had occurred.  I see a pattern here, one that Lucifer followed while he was still placed in heaven.  When Satan began appearing to Eve she must have had some personal thoughts about his presence and his “looks”.  I am not suggesting anything abnormal or sexual but ones that found a common ground and a reason to meet as friends.  Evidently the relationship that developed between Even and Satan was not of a great concern to Adam for it never has given any indication that there was any division between Adam and Eve over it.  So this suggests that Satan had a calming effect on Eve and was not hideous in appearance by any tune.

So if Satan’s appearance did not change even to the human eye, hat makes him so different that we can recognize the evil that he spreads?  There is no red colored skin and pointed tail to mark his appearance and no pitch fork to threaten our lives, so what gives?  What makes him so dangerous?  We must remember two things here and the first is that Satan is an eternal being and secondly that his eternal spirit was the thing that changed which means that his true intentions will be seen through his eyes, remember the eyes are the windows to our souls saying?  It really comes into play here and it is the one specific detail that needs to be understood and noticed in order to know that he is our enemy and not our friend.

Want an explanation as to why the world believes it needs to be beautiful all the time; there you go.  We as a world have glorified ourselves in the belief that we are beautiful in such a physical manner that it automatically takes tangible precedence over our spiritual aspects.  We make snide comments about those who we deem lower in beauty and snub out the ones that differ in appearance.  We fail to see that in this “beautiful” realm that we have incorporated that it actually serves as the foundation for many racial divisions that accurse our societies.  Satan has used his created beauty and has established that physical pride into our own lives and we have totally missed it.  It is not through hi actual beauty that has initiated this action, only his outward appearance that we have followed.  It is his coal black eyes of hate that we have failed to look at that defines his true nature.  How ironic it would be if we would realize that in order to recognize this false beauty, it would take the same eyes to understand the true dark manner of the beautiful created one that we define other humans.

It is the eyes of Satan that have changed and that define what his true intentions for your life really are.  It is not his beauty that matters nor is it his smoothly spoken words of encouragement and physical pleasure that are of any concern of his, it is your spiritual demise that he is concerned with and he shall do anything within his chained power to make this goal a reality.  Even in the Garden of Eden Satan did not desire to have a true relationship with Eve, his goal was to mesmerize her with his stunning appearance long enough to get her to doubt God and His authority over all creation, including her and Adam.  She must have not truly looked deep into his eyes long enough to see what was actually fueling his spirit, with all of the anger and hatred for her and that her existence alone was enough to enrage humanity for eternity. 

It was the physical captivation that he presented that overtook her thoughts and when the time was ripe, he struck out against her and the she was haunted forever through her own choice.  I am not saying that Eve was weak in any way, nor am I saying that she did not or was not able to make a rational or sound choice on her own, for the Bible does say her mind was active and knowledgeable with what God said, she just chose to add some things to His Word, and it was this action (choice) that Satan knew his plan was ready to be sprung.  It is through this example that God makes His case about truly knowing who our enemy is and what his true motives are.  It also gives us an example to what measures he will use in order to fool us yet at the same time reassure us that what we are doing is not wrong or does not go against God’s Word and laws.

Girls, when a boy comes to you and tells you that you are pretty, believe him but do not give him access to your body as a reward.  Guys when a girl thinks you are cute accept those words, but do not use those words to take advantage of the situation and abuse her body against God.  It is the job of our enemy to lie to a person well and long enough to have them compromise their standards for his purpose.  Then if this plan works, the doors are wide open for him to initiate any other divisive plot against you.  Am I saying that every person who tells you these things are bad, no but as one who has been tricked a few times I understand now that it only caused pain, suffering and heartache and most importantly division from God in my life.  They say that beauty only runs skin deep and it is true, both on the physical and spiritual aspects of life.

It is of dire importance that e understand this “beautiful” detail about our enemy.  He shall not stop at anything in order to separate you from God.  That is his one and only goal for the short amount of time that he has left on this earth.  We must have enough knowledge about our enemy to recognize this detail and the only way to obtain this knowledge is to know how to look into his eyes.  See, Satan cannot read your mind but if you look directly into his eyes and know what is in his eyes, he then will understand that you know his game which means that you have been talking directly with God and that you know exactly what to look for when the enemy makes his appearance.  It takes strict determination not to be swayed away from God and as long as we are focused upon the deep confines of Satan’s eyes and not be taken by them, we will know what his diabolical plans are for not only our own life but for the lives of all humanity.

It is sad to see that the modern Church has looked into the eyes of our enemy and have failed to stick with the truth about what is in his eyes.  We have become captivated with his lies that we have weakened our stance concerning his motives.  The Church has become focused upon growth of a building and its appearance instead of knowing the truth behind its corresponding growth.  The world’s population is continually increasing so it would be “natural” that church populations will grow as well, but as the world’s spiritual depravity grows it is painfully evident that the Church’s is following in this pattern as well, which ultimately means that her focus is NOT on God but on the acceptance of worldly standards.  How can I, a medical technologist make such a claim as this?  These words I share come not from me but from God.  God shares these words of knowledge with me and I am an obedient servant that records them in the personal manner that God gave to me; that is why I do this. 

God is calling out to His children that times are about to change and that the Church needs to get her head out of the clouds and reject the presence of the world in her life.  Over the past few years we have continually heard about the Arab Spring and renewal that it has brought to the Muslim communities.  It is time that we need to renew our hearts back to God and to seek His ways once again.  The Church needs to understand that our enemy is just that, OUR ENEMY!  He is NOT our friend and since we have allowed his presence to be all around us, we need to take the opportunity now to look into his eyes and see what his true plans are for our lives. 

If we really complete this act, it will become apparent that we need to shake this fixation of his “beautiful” ways from our lives and to completely separate ourselves from his accompaniment.  God created each one of us to be beautiful, that is of no question but it is through the physical perversion of this fact that is a major key that Satan uses against us.  God asks you to look into our enemy’s eyes and see his true motives.  God also asks you to look into His eyes and notice the difference.  God has given us the capacity to make this choice and God desires to give us eternal rest and peace while our enemy offers no eternal…..anything, for he has nothing to offer except eternal separation and gnashing of teeth.  Yes, you are created in the image of God and have His eternal spirit within us.  Each one of us is beautiful beyond measure but it is not limited to the physical side of our lives.  Our enemy uses this physical aspect to define our thinking and perverts it into becoming first in our judgmental stability.  It is a “great” tool that he uses in order to obtain his goal and it has devastating effects on our lives at the same time.

It is true that we cannot determine who our enemy is unless we have the willingness to look into his eyes and see for ourselves his true motives.  First we must be willing to recognize that we have an enemy and not to be blind to the fact of what is truth and what is not.  We as a society have lost this aspect and the Church is quickly following suit.  Secondly we need to understand that we cannot look at our enemy’s outward appearance and immediately accept that he is not evil.  Thirdly, we need to understand that our enemy is all around us and that it is not hard for us to look into his eyes to see the true motives.  And fourthly we need to then take a step back and tell him to leave our land for our land and our lives belongs to God alone.  If we take these steps God guarantees that He shall restore our land to its full potential and that includes our personal lives as well.  But if we choose to allow our enemy to infiltrate our society and personal lives, we will remove God’s hedge of protection from our lives and give free reign of our enemy’s destructive notions both spiritual and physical upon our lives; a setting that is not pleasant to think about.  The eyes have it folks and we need to begin looking in the correct place NOW!

DLB

The Blood

The Blood

3/17/15

If we did not have blood coursing through our bodies we would not live very long.  Blood is the key component of our existence that is needed in order for our bodies to function and if we do not have this blood our lives would cease to exist.  Through medical advancements we have learned that we can actually live and function without certain parts of our body, but if we have no blood in our veins and arteries we simply die.  Without blood none of our organs can receive the necessary vitamins, oxygen, water, iron, phosphorus and other vital nutrients for our survival.  So if our blood is that important to our physical bodies why would it be any different in our eternal salvation?  We cannot survive without blood, there is no option other than this statement and there is no other option than the sacrificial lamb that was slain for our eternal lives and restoration between God and man than His blood either.

When I was in high school I went to one of the job fairs that the local businesses put on, it really was not much of a choice since the fair was presented at our school that particular year.  Anyway, I was walking through the displays and ran across one from the hospital.  One of the small booths had a few pictures of some round objects that looked familiar to me, they were red blood cells.  The medical field was not a new concept to me since my mother studied to be a nurse when I was very young and she had kept all of her nursing books which I thoroughly enjoyed to read.  As I stood in front of the laboratory’s display board, a man came up to me and asked if I was interested in the medical field and when I replied with a “yes, sir” he then asked if I might be interested in considering the laboratory as a more specific choice.  That question and my ensuing answer got me started on a career in the laboratory that I am proud to say has lasted almost 30 years now.

As my time in the laboratory has tenured, the knowledge of the components within our bodies has increased tremendously.  As time has progressed, I have learned many things about the main study project within the lab, blood.  There are so many components of a red blood cell and a white blood cell that it would take me years to try and explain everything that each of those two have on their cell surfaces and each one of their functions.  We continually learn more and more about these cells and just how important they are to the human body.  Over the years of studying the cells and how they operate within the confines of the bone marrow and circulation it has become evidently clear to me that blood is the defining and foundational component that we have to ensure life as we know it.

Without blood we literally cannot survive.  I know that is a pretty powerful statement but it is true for if we did not have blood none of our organs could function properly.  It is the blood that provides all of our nutrients to our vital organs and it is through the blood and its penetrating membranes that provide all of the necessary fluids to our organs.  Without these vital fluids and nutrients our heart would not have the capacity to beat and provide the necessary pressure in order for us to maintain consciousness.  Nor would our brains have enough sugar to enable our neurons to fire adequately to have coordinated muscle and nerve movements.  Our stomachs would cease to digest food and our gallbladder and liver stop providing bile that is needed for proper digestion and clotting.  All life within our bodies would cease to exist and we would not be able to take one breath of life; all would not exist.

I know that for many millennia not much has been known about the blood but the importance of its existence and adequate level within our bodies has been studied quite extensively.  With this knowledge of blood and its components it should not be too hard to understand why God placed within our bodies when He created them.  The entire circulatory system is an amazing organ which fascinates the smartest minds and it is an anomaly that one still cannot fully explain.  Yet it empowers our bodies on second by second basis thus creating and giving life as we know it.

Yet, there are problems that arise from the blood and for these deathly origins we are still trying to figure out many things.  Over my years working in the laboratory I have come across many people who have had many diseases that have been born from the blood and I have witnessed many of these people suffer greatly because of this process.  I am a diabetic and while I am lucky enough to be able to control my sugar levels with diet and exercise not everyone who has this condition can offer the same response.  But I do know that while I have this condition it is my blood cells that I still require to live and if I did not have these red cells floating around inside my veins, my sugar levels really would not be much of a concern to me.

A few weeks back one of the popular TV stars was asked a question concerning God.  This actor is a staunch atheist and has no real thoughts about changing his mind either.  The person giving the interview asked him a question concerning God and it had to do with this: if God were real in your mind, what would you ask Him?  The person’s response was with a question of: how dare you, how dare you create children with cancer?  Not many people hear about this interview and I understand why, but it provides us with a vital clue as to how people view God and His fantastic creation called the human body.  God did not create us in any type of faulty manner, He created a perfect and beautiful running instrument that was designed to run eternally, even the most brilliant scientists of today still wonder why our bodies break down, for they really shouldn’t.  So it is fitting that since our bodies do break down that there should be a connection still that is present within our lives that can connect us to God when needed.

We can live without an eye or our spleen and we can even have a heart transplant if one is needed and available.  Most of our body parts can now be successfully replaced and can extend our faulty lives by years and sometimes decades, but we all have one thing in common and that is this: if we do not have enough blood in our systems we can have the finest organs ever genetically constructed but they will not mean one thing if we do not have the blood to fill them and make them perform as they should.  The organs will lay waste and will not be worth a plug nickel to anyone without blood, so why wouldn’t God choose this part of life to use as the savior to for our lives.  We all know God is Spirit and He placed His Spirit within our lives so this means that in order for Him to use blood as His defining “life” point, then He must have something in place to start with, so no spiritual additions can be argued later.  However, once a person begins to lose blood it needs to be replaced and this replacement process can become a continual infusion.  While the glucose and kidney function tests may remain normal, the blood levels continue to drop and the person presents into another metabolic setting, one that usually results in a permanent procurement.

Now, when reading the Bible one must contend that those events were real and that they actually took place and if one understands this basic concept it is easier to relate to the people in the Bible because they were just as human as you and I are.  They shared the same vital statistics as we do and cover many of the same questions and hardships that we do as well.  So why would their “innards” be any different than ours?  It is evident that blood was a part of their lives and that they understood the importance of blood and what it meant to their existence.  Did they understand what Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia was and what it did to the body?  I doubt it but they did know how important blood was and the corresponding significance of its presence was.  The knowledge of the importance of blood must have been the topic of some discussion between God and Adam and Eve and it must have followed with their sons as well, for if it had not, how would they have known about blood and its significance?

This was evident in the story of Cain and Abel and the example of their sacrifices to God.  Both men understood what had occurred with their parents and their past living space and they both knew that atonement had to be accounted for when it came to repentance and how to achieve this passing over of judgment.  Abel was acutely aware of what blood meant and used it fervently in his sacrifice to God who had no problems accepting this holy yet imperfect gift for Abel’s sins.  Cain on the other hand did not choose to offer blood but fruits of his work and nothing on a personal and intimate level and as we all know his sacrifice was not accepted by God.  The importance of blood and the shedding of blood in order to provide the necessary sacrifice set the standard for man and the relationship with God.  No other offering would be acceptable.  God provided a pure and holy covenant that He can never break and we offer up blood in return to which we cannot live without. 

This example proves that God is not just serious about His commitment to us but He has established an eternal covenant with an impossible and immeasurable reciprocation required upon our part.  I cannot believe that God would establish anything less than a perfect and eternal offering to “the table”.  And I cannot believe that He would accept anything less from our side of “the table” either.  God understands that we chose to lose His perfect created status for us and to make things acceptable to Him, He provided us with the “perfect” way for us to show our need for Him.  This concept of shedding of blood must have had many minds running during the times in the Bible and since they were human there must have been plenty of doubters, just look at Cain.

There is no way that I can explain as to why God chose this element to represent the one item within our bodies that He would recognize as acceptable.  I do know that all throughout the Bible blood is the symbol that God recognizes and that our enemy recognizes as the one identifying source of covering.  From the early days of the Old Testament to the Exodus of Israel and including the crucifixion of Christ blood has been the one source of covering for countless numbers of people.  And up until this date, it is the only acceptable offering that God has recognized as pure enough to obtain His mercies and forgiveness.  Once again Abraham was prepared to offer up his own son as the sacrifice that had been asked by God but God had another plan even though Abraham had to persevere a huge test until that final moment.  Abraham was ready to shed his own son’s blood in order to keep the covenant that had been promised by God, but the purification process was instead through a ram.

God was consistent throughout the Bible in how we can “purify” ourselves by the usage of blood.  God also made it very clear that there was only one way possible for this purification process to be completed.  While God did not require human sacrifice to obtain this holy and divine covering He did require our hearts to understand and to recognize the reasons why blood was the necessary component that completed this process.  Blood represents the single organ within our lives that provides the necessary ingredients that gives us life and it is through this blood covering that allows us to have direct access to God.

There is no way that our lives can be changed from this sinful state.  We chose to have this eternal placement put upon our lives and it is through the mercy of God that He has provided a way for us to seek and to obtain covering for this fact.  God views all life precious and has from the moment of life’s creation.  God makes each life very distinct and treats each life with the utmost of respect, for every life that has ever been created He loves.  God understands that there is a separation between Him and humanity and that separation cannot be closed due to the sin that inhabits our life.  If one recognizes this separation, then it will become clear that God is consistent in His ways and when one method is mentioned in the Old Testament that same method He shall follow from that point onwards.

It is not difficult to follow God’s patterns.  Even though He is a personality that our human minds cannot ever totally comprehend, He puts things into motion that we can understand.  God is not a God of variances or variables He is consistent all the time and can never change His ways or thinking.  Humans tend to place our standards upon other humans which make mistakes, lie, cheat steal and kill in order to deal with problems.  And now there is a growing number of people who wish to place God into this same category, which they 9the humans) can do this all they want but one day they will find out that God does not change and that He cannot change.  God chose the blood for a specific reason and He shall never change this element as the standard of covering and restoration.

When someone refers to someone else as being related then they accept the fact, whether good or bad, that they are blood.  My grandfather always viewed people and family from the standpoint of whether or not they were “blood or not”.  Not that he would treat anyone any differently but it was the recognition that set blood from non blood.  God is the same way in the fact that if you receive the blood over your life then you are made clean and whole.  This was the concept that the Old Testament procedures followed and it was through this sacrifice that their sins were forgiven and their lives covered.  But over time this heart service became a drill and monotonous

We may never fully understand what each blood cell might be able to do within our body.  Technology is advancing each day but we still have so many unanswered questions concerning the blood.  I know that through our study and repeated testing we have found out countless facts about blood and through these means researchers will inch closer to the full knowledge of what blood truly does.  I have the utmost confidence the same holds true if we continue to study God’s Word and what it really means to our lives, both physical and spiritual.  The more we study and comprehend the blood of Christ and what it serves in our lives the more we will want to ensure that we are covered by it. 

Blood was the center piece in Old Testament sacrifices and the meaning of the shedding of blood should have kept humanities spiritual fires burning, but like us today those fires burnt out and we began to do things our own way.  God sent messengers to tell the people what was going on within their hearts, yet the people still ignored the warnings.  When Christ walked the earth He preached and taught the exact same words and still the people did not understand His teachings.  How much more love can One give than offering His own Son up to serve as the final sacrifice and opening up of the relationship between God and man again.  There is only one way that mankind can return to God’s presence and relationship and that is through the blood of Christ.  It is this covered bridge that we will either ignore or walk under.  It is a gift of simple means, chose Christ or not to chose Christ.  Is blood that important?  You bet your eternal life it is.

DLB