The YOLO Truth

The YOLO Truth

6/17/14

Most of you may be familiar with this YOLO phrase and some of you might have used its meaning in some type of context on occasion. But have we really grasped the concept of what this popular phrase means or have we once again adopted a philosophy of casualness that will one day cause our enemy to laugh at us when we stand before God and claim ignorance about His ways?  I also find it amazing that our enemy has us blinded enough that he can actually use truthful messages about our lives and we do not even understand the relevance that these words and phrases have upon our lives.  YOLO is one of those phrases that we need to understand and live by not just laugh away as it rolls off our tongues.

You Only Live Once is the full spelling of the word YOLO.  It is a catchy word and if you ask almost any teenager or young person today what that word means they will not have to hesitate at all.  They probably will look at you funny and say to themselves “what planet are you from” as they explain the answer to you.  This is a typical act and response from the younger crowds and to be truthful when my parents asked me about terms, words and phrases when I was high school I gave them the exact same looks and responses. 

Catch phrases, acronyms and other grammatical annihilations of languages are popular among generations, groups and populations around the world.  When my family moved from Hobbs, New Mexico to Nederland, Texas I received a very unique language that I still refer to today.  The southeast portion of Texas is very populated and there are numerous schools within a short traveling distance.  Each school district was sharply defined and with this definition just living on the opposite side of a railroad could mean going to another school.  This was the case in Nederland and those people who lived on the other sides of the tracks, literally, went to our arch rival schools.

WOS, PNG, BC, WB, BCP were all acronyms for schools within our district and each student would immediately know what school a person was talking about just by using those letters.  The full meaning of events, debates, teams and even past relationships all would be emotionally stirred when a particular school was identified by its acronym.  It was a definitional term that placed each one of us into a certain mode when our ears were cast into the hearing mode.  PNG was our enemy and to this day the rivalry between Nederland and PNG are nationwide known.  There even was a History Channel special a few years back about the state of Texas that included the football games between Nederland and PNG, that is how influential things can be; even with the use of acronyms.

So what does the acronym YOLO have to with anything important?  Well, it is a term that while widely used it has become a callous word in that even though a person uses it they really do not stop and take into consideration of the meaning, capability and ability of the acronym.  The meaning is just as such, a person only lives once and that portion of the word is so very true.  While some people receive second chances in life and others are lucky to be alive the meaning of the word cannot change.  The capability of the word is just as fascinating in that this word can inspire a person to achieve certain goals that others may not consider important and the ability of the word provides the level of accomplishment when the word is completed.

There is nothing wrong with the ways that I just described for that word to be played out or used within our lives.  The concepts of the word are correct and should be remembered as such.  But what becomes dangerous about the word that it has become a social catch-all term that encourages certain behavior that actually could be detrimental to your health.  My wife would love to jump out of a perfectly good airplane with a parachute on her back.  While thousands of people have done that in the past, this boy would rather sit in a seat on a plane and land safely at my destination.  My wife also would like to dive off of a tall cliff and land into the water below, sorry but I do not trust myself when it comes to cliffs and would prefer to keep my distance from them.  Do these examples make my wife wrong?  By no means at all and in fact her beliefs could include the word YOLO when accomplishing these feats.

My wife also understands the meaning of life and that when she has the opportunities to fulfill these wishes that she can do so with God right by her side.  God knows and understands that life is an adventure and that He placed these wishes and desires into our hearts and when placed in a godly context YOLO can become an awesome life experience.  But where God is that means that His and our enemy will be as well.  Satan can use our language against us in many ways and he is not ashamed to jade our views with words or phrases that are popular at the moment, leaving out the reality of the words and phrases of course.

YOLO is a truthful statement and trying things is part of what we are supposed to do.  Excitement and adrenaline rushes were placed in our bodies for a reason and it brings out the best in our lives when used properly and in the correct settings.  Any article of excitement or adventure can be used in defining the term YOLO.  And it is our enemy’s job for us to try and do as many of them as possible whether they are good for us or not.  If he can get us to continually use this phrase and concept long enough it will become a theme within our heart and with the normal curiosity that God has placed within our hearts, can be used for other and more exciting adventures.

YOLO for drugs, alcohol, cheating, stealing etc can all be grouped into this category of YOLO; so why not try it.  I have heard of people that have shot and killed others that they had never done it before and just wanted to see what it felt like; YOLO, right?  This word is not a farfetched plan or program and if one reads the newspaper or watches the evening news it will become apparent real quick that what I am saying is true.  We are doing more and more ridiculous things trying to find satisfaction in our lives.  We are doing our best to find ways that bring us to the point of ecstasy yet comes away with a guilt free conscious even though it has caused harm to you or to someone else. It does not matter how you use this word in your life there are long term consequences if they are used in a negative way.

The year was 1967 and an important event took place that year and while my life began that year that is not the only thing that took place that year that made history.  The city of Toronto was a very proud city at that time for their hockey club had just won the Stanley Cup again.  Now if you are not a hockey fan that is ok just imagine that your team just won the sports highest trophy and you will get the sense of what I am talking about.  The city, fans and team were all going nuts and they even had a parade in downtown Toronto to show off the team and their accomplishments.  A short time later it was time for the next season to begin and the Leafs were once again back on the ice trying to win another Cup for the town.  1967 was the last year that Toronto has won the cup and they have not even come close to winning it again since.  YOLO!!

God desperately wants us to live our lives to the fullest.  He also wishes for us to keep His ways within our hearts as we walk each step of this life.  God is not a God of desperation or ups and down, even though He understands that life will throw these conditions at us that will cause us to perform desperate acts in order to cope with these variables.  The truth of the matter is that YOLO is a correct statement and that we need to be adventurous with our lives.  It is important for us to understand that if God is not the center of our lives the word YOLO will be used by our enemy to destroy our lives and culture.  If worldly desires are placed in our hearts and become rooted within then our lives are at the mercy of the corrupted and dying world.  It is known that an idea will be replaced by a certain comfort level and then that comfort level will be replaced by a belief and the progression will continue until it becomes a law within our hearts and then the communal expansion process has the authority to begin.

Our enemy is once again up to his deceptive tricks by using this word as a banner to try new and out of the box situations.  His methods of YOLO acceptance is now becoming the cry of millions of people for others to blindly accept the worldly YOLO concept of life.  God is still alive and He wants us to have this concept through the holy foundations of YOLO and to understand that even though physical harm may not be immediate the worldly view and worldly acceptance of YOLO will lead us to a spiritual death that can never be reversed.  It does not take much effort to see what that what I am saying is true and that the message of our enemy is a deadly one.  God wishes for you to accept His ways and to live by His definition of life and not the world’s.

Our enemy has done a pretty decent job in allowing this catch phrase to become just that, a catch phrase and nothing more.  Yet the truth behind this word cannot be more true and relative to our lives.  It is also easy to understand why this term has infiltrated our lives on a worldly level instead of a godly one.  Our eyes have turned away from God and His standards enough that this phrase has captured the eyes of our heart.  The meaning of the word has become a fixture in the back of our minds and therefore attainable by secondary motives which eventually become primary ones if left in that position long enough.  The reverse can be true if we once again fix our physical and spiritual eyes back on God.

For centuries the Church has painted the picture that Christians are dull and that god is boring as all get out.  This is such a lie and it is not any truth to that belief.  God is full of life and He wishes to bless you through this life and for us to live life abundantly at all times.  YOLO is a wonderful concept and it should be taken to heart, but we need to make sure that after it is in our hearts to keep it pure and away from the world so that life can truly be understood and lived the way God sees it.  Return to our true life and restore God into our hearts and we will begin to understand what YOLO really means and not the fake imitation that the world has to offer.  God does know YOLO and He wants us to live it daily.  And that is the YOLO truth.

DLB

The Order of Your Creation

The Order of Your Creation

6/16/14

The marvel at our lives and how they were organized within is simply amazing.  After so many millennia we are still studying the human body and learning new things about its existence each day.  What about the spiritual side of things and how much of the sprit do we understand and its representation within our lives?  We have found out that some medications can stabilize certain conditions that some of us suffer from, but what about the spiritual aspect of things; what affects us and why do certain things occur in the manner that they do?  We may never know every detail about our physical bodies and the same is true about the spiritual side of our lives as well, but God has dropped us gifts of wisdom that can help us to try and understand the importance of us continuing to learn about our spiritual side as well as our physical side of life.

It is a hotly debated setting when humans come to terms with differences in how the earth was created, how old it is and who actually created the earth.  These arguments will continue to present themselves for decades to come and will probably provide some very interesting conclusions.  But what about the spiritual aspect of our lives and the overall order in which God made us.  Has anyone ever thought about why our human bodies were made first and then our spirits placed into our lives next?  There is a specific reason that God chose this order and the implications of this order of creation are actually our saving grace and the gateway to which our restoration in God is made possible.

Most of us understand that there are laws present in our world that are in place because people have chosen to try trickery, thievery and other heinous choices that they have enacted upon some part of society.  While some of these laws prove to be inconclusive and downright ridiculous others stem from real crimes and eventually provide a foundation for our society to which we can live in relative peace.  We also understand that these laws are made by humans and if challenged long enough can be overthrown, amended or even wiped off the record books if pressed long enough.  So, why is it so hard for us to believe that there are certain spiritual laws that are in place that were established by the one Creator who cannot be wrong, unjust or faulty in His establishment of His side of the issues?  If we place God upon the same plane that our finite and faulty bodies rely upon then we as the human race have no hope for our existence after we draw our last breath, and if there is a higher authority, and there most definitely is, then He must have His ways that are far superior to ours yet available enough that we can understand them if we try and figure them out.  And this is one of those instances that play right into this pattern.

We in our human forms may never fully understand the entire implications of the spirit realm.  I know that even our spiritual forms cannot fully understand God and everything that He represents to creation itself.  Yet at some point in the past there was a created spiritual being that made the choice to defy this truth and be better than the one who created Him, or at least an equal.  I can understand this process since humans tend to try and overthrow governments, ships, corporations etc, but it is difficult for me to understand why the selfish will of an eternal being try and accomplish the impossible.  So this is the defining point of this article in that a spiritual being tried to become at least an equal to the almighty and all powerful creator of everything.  This means that there was peace throughout all existence until this specific event and choice took place for there would not be any reason for anything other than peace to exist.

I have written about many things that occurred in the Garden of Eden that have to deal with the already established fight between God’s Kingdom and Satan’s kingdom.  This article is going to be more specific on the order in which God created mankind and how He created us in a specific way so that His Word stayed true and that Satan would have no legal claim to a restored life that had already been set in stone through his own actions.  Yet at the same time provided a way that you and I would have a chance to redeem our lives through His methods of our creation.  And through this specific order would cause our enemy and God’s enemy to writhe in anger and prove that God is still far smarter than His enemy could ever be.

In Genesis 2:7 the order in which God created man is specifically given.  The verse states that the shape of the human being was formed from the ground and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.  This description goes opposite to how God had previously created living beings, more specifically the spirit beings called angels.  God cannot breathe into something that is not already present, or that would be the logical way to assume things, correct?  This verse states that our physical bodies were molded from the ground and then God placed His spirit within our lives which transformed us from an anteaters delight to a living person.  This verse does not mention that God breathed into us His life as He was forming our bodies it says that He formed us which is a past tense verb usage.  Why is this order so important?  It all goes into the completeness of God and the process of restoration that He knew that we would need in the future.

God is the creator of every living thing that has been, is now and that will ever be on this planet.  That means that He is also the creator of those objects and beings that our physical eyes cannot readily see as well.  There are no recorded earthly beings that God created before Adam which means that the beings that God created before Adam must have been spiritual beings and on that plane of creation.  We know that Lucifer existed previously before he was eternally changed to Satan.  This also means that if God created spiritual beings first than that would be His line of legal succession if challenges ever arose within the ranks.  For all that was known was the spiritual side of things.  Wouldn’t you think that Satan would have devised some sort of plan to provide himself a scapegoat in which to “redeem” himself back into the ranks?  One has to believe this as accurate because when we humans mess things up that is exactly what we try and do.

Let us take a look at an enemy and what type of steps that an enemy of ours would take to gather all of the information that he / she would need in order to complete the odyssey against our lives.  In every case of war it is imperative that each side that may participate in such battles be aware of what the other side’s capabilities are.  It would be totally disastrous for an opponent not to study their potential opposition because if they do not then it is almost a guarantee that the one who did not study for the battles would surely be defeated.

We have an excellent example of this during World War II after the German army was basically in full retreat.  It was winter 1944 and Hitler planned a huge counter offensive that if executed correctly would literally split the Allied lines in half and he would be able to drive his restored armies back to the English Channel, fully nullifying the advances of the Allied army up to that day.  Careful planning had to be taken in order for this plan to work and even though both sides knew that the war was basically over, this was one last ditch effort to win the war for Germany.  The Battle of the Ardennes was lost to the Axis powers and it was just a few short months later that WWII was over.  Yet this battle had to take place in order for the Axis powers to be honest with everyone that was playing on their side.  All efforts had to be calculated and executed before certain illusions could be wiped away from certain eyes.

It is a guarantee that Satan is a defeated enemy of God.  However, Satan understands that he has the authority to wreak havoc upon our lives and he will stop at nothing to ensure victory over your eternal life and in order for that to occur, he has no option to watch every little step God and His angels take when it comes to their missions for the humans.  This means that his selfish ways and means had a very keen interest on the creation of mankind, even though God was proving to him that only He could create a true living being with purpose and meaning.  What an infuriating and humiliating act that would be.

This feeling would be compounded in the fact that with this newly created being and the order in which it was formed could not change your eternal status.  In other words, by your own selfish desires, your selfish wishes were literally created right in front of your very eyes.  Satan did not have a clue about how to properly create another being yet it must have been his ultimate desire since that task would have been the one single process that would have elevated him to equality status with God.  Satan figured that if God could create another living being that He would do so in the spiritual manner first and then do something else in accordance with His perfection characteristics.  Yet God formed the body from the ground first then placed His spirit within mankind, thus automatically derailing the spiritual and legal obligations that Satan wanted so desperately to witness come to life.

It was this process of forming our bodies from the ground first that is so important because if God would have breathed His spirit into place first, Satan would have the legal authority to challenge God for his place back into His perfect ranks.  Satan understood that at that present moment he had no alternative but to accept his choices as final but if he could have created or has God create something in the same manner, he options would be open to his previous status.  Does this plan seem outrageous to you or does it seem like something a human might try to do in order to get a position back or to derail a boss’ decision about something you did previously.  If a person understands that what God sets into motion cannot be changed, it must play out according to His standards.  It is through our choice that things get messed up, just as it did through Lucifer’s choices so why would Satan fry and find a way around the decision of God?  Satan also knew that since the order of creation did not go according to his immediate plan he had to come up with another one so that he could take revenge upon God, and now he had another method by which to try and accomplish this task, but little did he know that he was playing right into the perfect will of God once again.

If God had chosen to reverse the process and create our spirits first then there would be no redemption process possible for our lives, thus giving Satan his authority back to the previous status in heaven.  God would have been proven a liar and a fraud and Satan could have had legal grounds to usurp God’s divine role as master creator of everything.  But God was by far more intelligent than His enemies and the plans to which they wished to unfold.  In creating us flesh first, it provided the perfect gift for all of humanity and that is the choice to accept God as real and as our one and only savior through His perfect, divine and eternal plan for our spiritual beings.  It also provides us with the perfect example of just what place our choices play in our lives.  The importance of each one of our choices has the ability to affect not only our lives but our future as well and even those who are around us as well.

This specific order also instills into our lives that each and one of us are here for a specific reason.  Our reason for living is to prove to God’s enemy that we understand what life means and how specific and important we are to God’s perfect plan for creation itself.  This means that each one of us has a specific area of expertise that we harbor that advances God’s perfect plan for all of creation.  This also means that we have the choice of accepting this plan for our lives or not to accept it and live our own lives as we see fit.  Yes, God will allow us to live in this manner but we need to know that our ways are deadly and faulty and will lead to utter destruction, just as our enemy wishes.  This knowledge concerning this setting in Garden is alone enough to wish every person the choice of death by our enemy after their creation and it makes perfect sense of why that choice is so highly contested today.

It is clear that if God would have created us spirit first it would have been a flawed creation and one that was used in a selfish manner as well.  But God chose to create us in such a manner that each and every one of us would have the opportunity to know Him and to choose His ways over the ways of the world.  Yes, even the order in which our lives were created matters to God and in truth it matters to our enemy as well.  With the events that shortly transpired next in the Garden, Satan won his battle over our physical destinies, but it is strictly due to God’s superior ways of creating us that provide us with the opportunity to choose God and live for eternity in His presence.

DLB

Eternal

Eternal

6/12/14

How long is eternity?  Can the human mind even contemplate such a length of time?  This is a basic concept that we have about God and His eternal status but do we grasp the meaning of such a term and the implications that it has?  If we do then we will have a foundational concept of Kingdom and the basic understanding of why these two warring kingdoms can never mix.  And how does this eternal status come into play with human creation and restoration, especially when all of these works come together in the eternal restoration of God’s ultimate creation, the answer lies within the meaning of the word eternal.

Once again I find myself being led to the book of Genesis with the setting being the Garden of Eden.  As I have mentioned many times I have believed that once a person, like me, read the part about the creation setting they could then continue with reading and then focus on other “more important” things such as Kingdom, life and freedom of choice, etc.  But what I find most humbling is that God continues to bring me back to the beginning of His Word and then shows me more concepts of His Word and the life that brings together so much of the scriptures.  I also have to sit in wonder and think of the many ridiculous reasons of why I did not see these things before, and then also contemplate why God has chosen me to share them with you.  I guess God is exercising His own created mechanism of choice through me.

About four years ago God dropped a concept into my heart that was kind of unusual, yet I had heard about this concept for most of my life.  The term that God placed into my heart is eternal and that eternity knows no time.  Now, at this time in my life God had been waking me up on certain occasions and when my eyes opened my spirit would instantly become troubled.  I had no idea of what was going on or about to occur, but very soon afterwards something would transpire in the world that would draw world attention.  One can imagine that this would be very frightening to me and everyone that knew what was transpiring in my life.  I had no idea of why God would all of a sudden change gears and give me a phrase to think about when I was already familiar with it.  Boy, it took a while but a few years later God opened my spiritual eyes and revealed what it was that He meant by eternal, all the while preparing me to hear His voice to share His character with those who do not know Him.

What I am about to say may seem like a ridiculous statement but I will explain it in detail as the subject of this article.  God dropped into my heart that eternity knows no time.  Now, when you read that statement one will automatically go “duh”.  But let us think about this statement for a moment and one will understand that it is one of the key foundations of Kingdom; which is another “duh” statement, right?  And just what does this statement have to do with humans and restoration?  Spirit is eternal and if Satan is a spirit then the choices he made, makes, or will make are etched in his stone for eternity.  So if a choice coming from a spirit being is eternal that means that our choices are eternal as well, since we have the Spirit of God within us.  Puts things into a whole different light doesn’t it. 

If something knows no time that means that time is non-existent to that object.  We know that God is eternal and we know that all of the angels, Satan and his demons are eternal and that they have a defined sentence already in place.  We can grasp this concept without too many problems but when we take a closer look as to what these defined sentences are and how those sentences came into place we will see just how defined the Kingdom lines really are.  First of all we must understand that God, Satan, and every angel are spirit in nature and that is their foundational makeup.  And since it is their foundation, then that means that spirit is their first and foremost living condition that knows no time.  With me so far?

Secondly we must understand that even the spirit world has a choice.  Satan was not always called Satan and long before humans were created, Lucifer was present in heaven.  Lucifer was a very powerful angel and in charge of many activities in heaven.  Yet it is written that Lucifer wanted more, so much more that he wanted to be like God and to be on equal terms as God.  So, this states that a spirit can think and want things, which means that a spirit can have a choice.  This is evidence that God created choice into spirit beings that are eternal in nature.  So, if a choice is made to which goes against God’s laws then that eternal and no time being will have to live with its choice for eternity.  Remember this concept while you are reading.

We know that when God sets something into motion He will allow that action to run its full course.  So isn’t possible that since Lucifer wanted to be like God and as powerful as God and to complete the actions that God would allow Satan to make his choice to try and create as God would?  This act by God would follow the completeness of God and His fullness of His authority over every created thing; it is a logical finite process so it should be logical in the infinite as well since both represent God and His completeness.  If one remembers the old Frankenstein movies where the created being overcomes the desires of the creator and then tries to kill the creator comes to mind when trying to understand the process between God and Satan. 

When we pick up Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden it is not too much into the passages when the serpent appears and begins his relationship with Eve.  The creation of the human has already occurred and it will not be too much longer until God, Adam and Eve and the serpent have a general meeting to lay out the terms of the consequences of the choices that each one of them played in breaking God’s command.  Now, why would Satan actually commit such an act after he had already been sentenced to a lifetime of separation from God?  Why would God allow him even to have access to the earth, the humans and to play any role in the human’s development in life as we know it?  Why didn’t Satan pick on the cows, sheep or goats to harass?  Or why didn’t he transform himself into another gorgeous human being to tempt Eve?  It is through his eternal sentence that brings us the answer since humans are the only ones that have an eternal spirit which has the same choices that Satan had at one time.

Lucifer made an eternal choice and since he did not know what a human was when he made this permanent choice his plans were made relevant to what he was already familiar with.  The creation of mankind was a direct slap in the face to Satan and proved to be the perfect target for his revenge against God and His “permanent” ways of creation.  The standard of knowing no time was foremost in Satan’s life and it is something that he cannot change and when Satan witnessed how God created the human and the manner in which He did so, this gave more fuel to his fire to seek revenge.  Being second best is a pain, don’t you think?  We all want to finish number one and win every title that we begin to seek.  The old sayings that ending in a tie is like kissing your sister or getting into the finals and then lose really put our ambitions into perspective when it comes to accepting second place.  How many wars have been lost and the losing country still having severe issues with the victorious country or region that fester for generations?  Place this anger on an eternal level and one can begin to understand just how much Satan wants and wanted revenge, which places into perspective once again the importance of spirit and its eternal and lengthy meaning.

The majority of us does not stop and realize what roles the choices we make play through our lives.  For the most part our choices are minor and can be reversed with little or no consequences, but what happens when a choice comes along that we have to make that might affect our lives for eternity?  We must remember that the entire job of our enemy is to separate us from God eternally just as he is separated.  Where Satan is a spirit and has made his eternal choice he too wishes for us to make the same choice that he did so long ago.  Satan longs to place it within our hearts that making choices is our right and that we deserve the best of everything, all based upon the world’s standards of course.  To the immediate eye this would seem logical and easy to follow; which when we draw this conclusion our enemy has us right where he wants us and the doors are wide open for him to show us the pathway of the world.  This brings up another thought that I will deal with in my next article and that is why we still have an opportunity to make changes in our choices and ways while Satan does not have that opportunity even though both Satan and humans are creations of God. 

Think for a moment the importance of a choice and how a small and simple choice on a specific matter could grow into a large and complicated mess after that choice is made.  If a choice has no eternal bearing or importance do you believe that our enemy would use our choices to harden our hearts towards God or towards others?  A simple disagreement about a single issue could lead to a long lasting anger situation with a close friend which could lead to some tragic event; it seems farfetched but read the news or watch the news, it occurs every day around the world.  Our enemy wants nothing more to lessen the reality and importance of the choices that we face.  If this lessening can progress long enough within our hearts it will become an inner law of ours which will spiritually blind us to the eternal issues that one day will present themselves in a full manner.

As most of you know, right now there is a huge battle over a couple of human issues.  These are not regional issues but global ones that have been presented into each home and at any given point in time people are expected to make a choice about how they feel concerning these issues.  We all know that if you choose to ignore these issues or not have an opinion about them you are labeled and placed within the same category as those who oppose them.  What implications do these choices have upon our lives?  Here on earth, not much just a little trash talk from those who differ from your thoughts, but what will happen in a few weeks or months when those progressive issues become reality in your community or advance into laws?  What choices will you make then and how will it be looked upon from an eternal standpoint? 

It is the job of our enemy to blind us from the eternal truth and get us to believe that our choices have no effect on our spirituality or our eternal future.  A choice does not have feelings only the human that has to deal with the consequences inherits those.  Satan’s choice was eternal and through his example we must understand that the choices that we make each day shape our eternal lives and it is imperative that we follow God’s Word directly within our hearts and to keep it within the confines of our spirit.  There are two kingdoms at war for a reason and it all centers around you.  I cannot stress enough the importance of the ability that we have to make a choice and how important it is to make the godly choices within our lives.  Yes, the world will scream and holler at you and yes, you may be placed within a certain category but if we make the right choices then our eternal lives will be forever secure within God’s love and protection, no matter what comes your way.

It seems like Satan had the prime targets in his sights for this proving ground that would give him the opportunity to say to God, that like I your next creation will choose to abandon your ways as well.  But there is a catch to this setting and it is Satan’s job to ensure that we do not understand it and it has to do with Kingdom boundaries and how they function through spiritual laws.  Not laws that bind people, but laws that separate, permanently separate God’s ways and Satan’s.  Since God is eternal and His laws are spiritual that means that His laws are eternal as well and since He is God and cannot change His ways that means He can NEVER break them in any way, shape or form.  In short, this means that since Lucifer, a created spiritual being made by a holy spirit, chose to wish for something else and through these choices his life is permanently changed forever and under no circumstances can he have another opportunity to change his choices. 

With this realization of how important and how eternal our choices are, we cannot make any further choices without understanding God’s Word as much as possible.  It is also imperative to understand and to know exactly what is transpiring within our world and the direction that it is travelling.  If we do not follow these two examples we as a people, as a community, as a nation and as a Church are doomed to fall into the blinded category that all of humanity has accepted as the norm and lose our own eternal existence without knowing the freedom through God that was so preciously and graciously given to us by a loving Creator.  Our enemy will lull us to sleep when it comes to the choices that we are presented with and through these choices, simple ones or complex could determine our eternal future; it did for our enemy so why would you expect him to act any differently?

DLB

A True Example

A True Example

5/26/14

A common question that a non-believer will ask a believer is why God would ever allow His only Son to be executed for people that He did not even know.  It is a logical question and sometimes very difficult to explain to those who have little or no understanding about the Bible.  There some examples that can be used but the majority of them do not place the reason why on a personal or human level.  God has changed this and has provided a very unusual and unique example for us to think about.  Bear with me this is coming from a very weird angle but it is the truth and will help to understand things a bit better about this explanation.

I am going to write this article in a little bit different context than my previous ones.  The examples that I am going to be using will be vague at first but as the article progresses the explanations will make sense.  There is a human element to this article one that I thought I would not ever use as an example from God, but here it goes and hold on tight because this will be interesting to you.  At the end of the article I will explain in detail of whom I am referring to and hopefully the reader will take into consideration everything that God is trying to say to us about the reasons that God had to allow this tragic event to occur.

There was a man who was born in the 19^th century who came from a normal and common family.  No special honors or titles had been placed upon his name nor had any special privileges been tied to his career. This man presented himself to his country as an everyday common kid who wished to serve his country in the military.  Because of his education and status he applied for the officer corps and after a lengthy process was accepted into the ranks of the officer school.  He considered it to be a great honor and a blessing that his application was accepted and that he would now be able to fulfill his young boy’s dream.

As time passed by his enthusiasm began to show to his commanders and his popularity within the ranks increased on a steady basis.  He was well liked by his peers and almost every soldier that served with him respected his toughness and leadership no matter what the situation held.  He was soon promoted and this ignited a fire from within his soul to make sure that he would do nothing to hinder his rise to the top of his work related ladder.  His military and flying ambitions had been on display for everyone to see and when his commanders took notice of his talents, promotions and respect flooded his life with routine ecstasy.

Love came calling to this fine officer right before a huge change occurred within the world.  His relationship with this lady gave way to a beautiful daughter whom he called his little mouse.  On a sad note, the relationship ended but the daughter remained close to the family even right up till the day her father died.  The huge event that occurred was World War I and he was called away to battle and fought bravely for his country.  He represented his country well and served his men with dignity and respect and in turn his men shoed the same for him even though by the time the war was over he had lost everything.  Promotions came regularly during the war and his rise in rank reflected his mentality on the war, his humanity towards the innocent civilians that had been caught in an awful mess, the enemy that he encountered on a daily basis and for his men that bravely followed him into each battle.  He was highly decorated and recognized as a valuable member of the army that he so proudly served.

After the war ended times began to change and some disturbances began to rise within the country that concerned him.  He did not like them but understood that the direction that the country was taking would eventually lead to another war.  He did not know, however just how much of a destructive war the second one would prove to be nor did he ever expect his outcome of that war.  In between the two wars he had finally met the lady of his life and this time married her.  The union produced a son and he added the title of proud father to the long list of achievements that he had already been cited.  His daughter was still in the picture but because of certain circumstances she played on the sidelines of the family, leaning in to see what was happening as often as she could.

The dream that this man had for his family illuminated and resonated each time he put on his uniform and he thought continuously that one day the dreams that his leaders promised would actually come true for his family.  As time passed his rank increased a couple of more steps and his leadership skills promoted themselves right along with his rank.  He became a very well known person within the country and his achievements were well publicized at every turn.  Yet in the back of his mind he knew that things would turn for the worse and that he would be called upon once again to defend his country.

This thought of war eventually did occur and his beloved country was once again plunged into the worst of humanity.  He saw many horrors as the war progressed and it seemed to him that even though his promotions continued to rise, would not end soon enough.  The love for his country heavily outweighed the war yet he continued to fight on without rocking the political boat.  Because of his newly established high rank he was allowed to leave his command on a regular basis to visit his family which he thoroughly enjoyed.  He served as an excellent role model for his son and even though the nasty war raged he did his best to make sure his son stayed out of the political side of the war.

The war began to take a turn and some signs began to emerge that things were not going to end very well for his country.  Politics continually reared its ugly head and the thickness of the stench of this side of the war began to produce an uncontrolled smell within the entire military command.  His popular name had been tossed around as a future leader within the government and his strong background provided added assurance that this status would be forthcoming after all hostilities ended.  On his reunions with his family he loved to see the development of his son and the ideas that he had for his life.  This general loved to sit and ponder about the future of his son and everything that he could achieve in his future.  However, these ideas and dreams all came crashing down one day and his life now had to forcefully take a drastic turn.

Meanwhile his family continued their simple lifestyle and living without fear as much as possible.  War news arrived in the papers and on the radio daily and were always filled with joyous news from the front, but even the son of this man understood that war could not go on with the smell of roses in a continual pattern.  In truth the war was taking its toll upon the country and the enemy began to make huge strides against the army and the pushing back of the homeland’s greatest fighting machine became obvious to the entire world.  Eventually the doubts and worries crept into the minds and hearts of every citizen including the wife, daughter and son of this famous and newly promoted general.  What would become of the family if the war was lost was a common unspoken question that every person had running through their minds.

After the war had ended the son continued his education and eventually became a prominent lawyer.  He was a gifted and talented man who had the same knack for bringing people together in time of crisis that his father proved to the world many times.  Even though he had fond memories of his family when he was young the emptiness that incurred after the death of his father continued to haunt him.  There were many questions as to why his father had left so suddenly and why his mother cried continually for months afterwards.  The son clung to the words of encouragement that his father spoke to him on a regular basis and those exercises in mental toughness with compassion came in handy so many times through his adult career.

The son continued on in life and tediously built himself a reputable name to add to the tarnished family name that preceded him.  He had thoughts of running for public office and filed the necessary documents to include his name on the ballot.  He knew that his resident city was facing hard times and he believed that his ideas and leadership could turn the city around and make it prosperous again.  The war had been over for quite some time now but the devastating effects still had its grip around his part of the country.  Low and behold he won the election on the second ballot and he was soon instilled as the mayor of that city.

His aspirations of becoming a leader were now fulfilled and his popularity soared even greater than one could imagine.  His words were considered good as gold and the people fell in line with his ideas and dreams for the city.  The backing was tremendous and the city began to turn around and growth showed its bullish head once again.  Even though the country was still experiencing hard times within, his city became one of the stalwarts of a capitalistic society and stood as a beacon for everyone in the region to see.  When the time came for his re-election he received a higher percentage of votes than his first term which signaled that the people were excited about his ideas and direction even though the country was still in pieces.

With all of his success and triumphs one would think that this son of a popular general had it easy and everything was cake on a platter.  But there were skeletons in his closet and even though those skeletons were held against him in some ways his success was accredited to his father and the son never forgot where his abilities came from.  The story has a tragic twist in the middle of it that has not been shared with you as of now but it is a part of the story that will make clear of the importance of the decisions of the heart for a family.  Understand that I am not making excuses for what the father did or the choice that he made.  I also pray that I or you ever have to be put into the position that the father was and have to make such a drastic decision as he was commanded to complete.

I write you this article today because the son of this great father just passed away earlier this month.  His story is a remarkable one in that his upbringing and early life was riddled in controversy.  The son’s name is Manfred Rommel and this man left the earth on 7 November 2013.  Manfred Rommel was the very popular Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Germany from 1974 till 1996.  His tenure as mayor was one of the longest in the history of Stuttgart and his presence within that city utterly transformed the city into a thriving metropolis once again.  He lived as a free man, did as much as possible to make sure that Germany was reunified once again and that as many wounds were healed as possible due to the horrors that a ruthless dictator imposed upon a good portion of the world.  But there is a point to his life to which all of this might not have occurred and it stemmed back during World War II.

Some of you might now recognize this man and who he was, especially his last name.  His father was a highly decorated Nazi general and carried the name of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.  FM Rommel was one of Hitler’s top generals and military advisors during World War II.  Rommel fought many campaigns for his leader and for his country and was very popular within his ranks and within the communities in which he served and lived.  Yet this popularity and outstanding leadership could not contain his leader from assuming that he was involved in a coup against his reign.  The idea of such eventually led Hitler to demand an ultimatum and gave the choice to FM Rommel of private suicide or public humiliation through a monkey trial that would have surly given his family a attenuated reputation.

After careful consideration FM Rommel made the decision to take his own life and to allow his family to live in relative peace for the remainder of their days, even with a tarnished record.  A short side note here in that this decision was made due in part that FM Rommel and Hitler still believed that Germany would prevail in the war against the world; however, one must really contemplate if Rommel had already saw the writing on the wall concerning this issue.  Anyway, FM Rommel took his own life and his family was allowed to live in relatively peaceful conditions and survive the war.  The question remains, what if FM Rommel had not chosen to bite into that cyanide pill and chosen to live and face trial?  The finality of this person’s choice proved to be a fantastic result for the German people and serves as a prime example of life for humanity in general.

The biblical example that I am choosing to use is that of Moses.  While many of us have read the story of Moses and understand some of his life experiences we might not have realized just how “flawed” Moses was and if we place it into present day terminology we might be shocked to comprehend just how extraordinary Moses was and why God chose him to lead His people from captivity.  Then we can do something that many people do not allow themselves to complete and that is to understand that the stories contained within the Bible are about humans and their lives and how they lived them.  And, through the decisions that those people made, their lives played out a written diary and many people were affected by their decisions.  The most important part of those stories is that they deal with humans and if you are reading this article that means that you are a human as well.  Which means that through your own personal story and choices people can live their lives and make decisions that could eventually change a nation’s heart.

From early on in Moses’ life he was not welcome.  Being hastily wrapped in a blanket, put inside a woven basket and placed in one of the world’s largest rivers only to be found later by another person is not the prime example of a person who will have a glorious or fulfilling life.  If a mother would do this action today she would be labeled as an outrageous person and then publically humiliated by a public trial.  Yet Moses was found by who God wanted to find him for if someone else had snatched him from the river, the future of Israel would have been totally different. 

As we read in scripture we know that Moses had lived a decent and powerful life.  He played with the royalty of Egypt and was clothed in many splendorous clothes.  He was given titles and slept on the finest sheets and beds that were available to the empire.  But Moses also understood that he was not from these people from whom he lived with and as the truth came out the definition of his life took hold, which did not automatically produce a peaceful contingency but aggravated a personal and spiritual war that would reignite a war that continues through today.

If we think about the direct connection that Moses had with Pharaoh and the links to the realm of the Egyptian Kingdom, the fate of Israel might have been different.  If we ponder this setting we will understand that God knew exactly what needed to be completed in order for someone to have enough clout to come and go into the chambers of the leader of the world’s greatest empire of that day.  There was a specific reason that God chose Moses and the way that he spoke to Pharaoh, directed the mission from Egypt and then followed God in the ways that He showed Moses.  All of these issues, problems, glories, defeats and victories were solely responsible by Moses’ command through the divine instruction and allowance of God.  It is clear that Moses had a specific purpose in life even though he doubted it many times, raising proof through his physical impediments as an excuse to argue with God.

God did not choose Moses because he came from a royal bloodline.  God did not use Abraham because he came from a well known family, nor did God choose David because he was the mightiest warrior that was available.  God chose each one of these men because of the potential that each one of them had through the deepness of the hearts and the willingness to obey and to do what was right.  The recent historical example I gave God allowed to restore a city that had been devastated by a wretched war through a man who understood what it meant to live a free and godly life.  None of these men lived perfect lives and each one of them made grievous mistakes while they drew breath, but each one of them also did their best to serve humanity and God to the best of their ability and to serve as a true example of what forgiveness, hope and restoration was meant to be.

What would you think if God decided to show up in the bushes of your back yard and then began to speak prophetically about the next steps that you were going to be dealing with in your life?  Would you walk up a mountain and receive some laws for the people that you were leading?  Would you even be willing to believe that you could lead that many people?  All of this for a man could not carry a tune nor complete a sentence without getting tongue tied.  Really, God?  What about if God wanted you to spread the good news to your neighbors, even if they went to another church?  Think about this for a while and one would automatically draw the conclusion that God was nuts.  Hey, what Bible degree did Moses have anyway?

What about your life?  What do you believe that it has the capability of becoming for humanity and God?  If we conduct a thorough and honest investigation of our entire life, we will surly come to the conclusion that we have done many things wrong and do not deserve anything but punishment for the ways we lived.  Yet for some odd and un-definable reason God sees fit to use us for His purpose in order to reach other people.  I understand how difficult it must be to believe such a statement as I just made.  I too doubt my existence and purpose at times but for whatever reasons God still pushes me along my road of life and placing notes of encouragement, love and restoration onto little pieces of paper that I create.  I in turn then finish the messages that God has for others in an article form, which still blows my mind when I look back and read them.  All of these articles coming from a person who absolutely hated to write for decades of his life.  I cannot explain this, but I know it is real and I know it is for a greater purpose.

Time and time again God has used the obscurity of a simple person to get His message across to a dying world.  Bums, losers, slugs and goof balls define His perfect plan for humanity.  Yes, God loves each and every one of us and He will use anyone willing to listen to His call but it is still beyond belief that He would use a no body to come across to the world.  I guess that is why it is almost impossible for a majority of the world to deny that God could create a human son for a specific amount of time in order to provide the divine and perfect permanent sacrifice in order to restore our relationship with Him.

Stop and look at your life and examine what it shall tell the world and how our future history could learn from our lives.  Read history, read the Bible and one will understand why the majority of humans are of simplistic nature.  Relate to others and understand what they are feeling or going through.  For you see, when it all comes crashing down it will not matter what political affiliation one is associated with nor will it of any importance that you are a Catholic or Protestant.  The only thing that will matter is if you know God and what He has shown you about life and how to handle the hard issues through His guidance and love.  As long as we choose to live our own lives and beg for humanity to control our thoughts and emotions, we shall never see how to survive when times fall around us.  For all we will know how to do is to react with angry and empty words about our immediate surroundings, which in turn will result in our physical deaths which have followed right along with our spiritual deaths that went before us.

I do not have much to give to the world but what I have to offer is a person that can turn your life around in every aspect known to you.  Stop and see what God is doing around you and how He is trying His best to grasp your attention.  God shall never force you to accept His ways, choosing God shall always be your choice.  Restoration is a tough process but it one that will cleanse you of all the worldly garbage that has attached itself to you and set you free from that burden.  Choose God’s plan and you shall not be disappointed in any way, shape or fashion, but it will be a great experience to share with others down the road.  Each one of us serves as God’s true example of life and His love for all mankind.  Each one of our lives was created for us to think about who God is and what He wants for our lives.  And it is God’s plan for our lives that dwells within us and it is very important that we recognize this truth.

DLB

Death Sentence

Death Sentence

5/1/14

It is hard for anyone to imagine having a guaranteed death sentence placed upon their heads.  And it is almost impossible for us to understand our actions even warranting such a penalty, yet the majority of humanity has this bull’s eye on our lives in which we readily ignore.  Both our physical and spiritual lives have this target on our hearts with one being a guarantee and the other being a choice.  It seems ironic that one usually adheres to the other but I guess this is why the enemy works so diligently in maintaining our ignorance when it comes to this realization, in which knowledge of both sides is so important.

Not many people would argue the fact that when this country was in the initial stages of its creation and development it faced some very difficult choices.  The men and women who lived during this time frame came into contact with their governors on a daily basis.  Their lives were continually monitored and their movements, speeches and meetings carefully documented for the leaders to be to read.  For many people during that time almost every movement was noticed and then immediately reported to the enemy, just to ensure that all activity was noted and recorded for future purposes. 

During the American Revolution the leaders of our country actually met in several different locations in order to preserve their secrecy and general well being.  This required very little knowledge concerning their whereabouts simply because they had a price tag on their heads and if anyone of them would have been caught, deportation back to England, trial, and a guaranteed death sentence awaited them.  The actions by these men and women took a great deal of guts in order to maintain their wits enough to establish basic guidelines in order for a country to be born. 

Beginning in 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers were forced to continually move around due to the choice that they had made to break away from British rule.  Adjournments followed by reconvening sessions dotted the landscape from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Trenton, New Jersey with a stop in New York City towards the end of 1785.  Yes, for almost 9 years the people involved in our country’s freedom were literally on the run, all the while trying their best to forge a new nation and to hold together a flimsy confederation of states that could fall apart at any moment.  What courage it took for these brave people to stand up for what they believed in and would even give their lives for nothing less than liberty.

In colonial America, many people who were living under this type of secretive societal conditions they were becoming distorted with and wanted to cease.  Animosity began to rise and steadily formed an opinion of subversion that took to the hearts of almost every citizen. Yet, the question of how to resolve these questions grew weary upon many and some even waned away after a few months had past. Others decided to stick with living under those limiting conditions and support the government that was at hand, but some still decided to stick it out with their convictions and adhere to the new way of thinking and believing.  It was not until the creation of the Continental Congress that the people of this land had a voice to those who wanted to maintain their complete control over them, which led to many people being detained and even imprisoned because they stood up for their independence.  A literal death sentence was placed upon these people due to the “rebellious” nature of their activities.  The future of this great nation was being drawn up by those who wished to serve life in such a manner like no other had ever before and were willing to give up everything to achieve this truth.

On the other side of the block we have the ruling party and they had a completely different view of how things would be run.  They saw these issues as rebellious and seditious and called for its immediate halting, and were not aghast when their subjects refused.  The ruling party took further steps to reign in these troublemakers by sending in the army and navy in order to “instill” peace back into the ranks of the colonists.  One step led to another step and it was not too much longer that violence erupted between the two sides which demanded further steps and more tensions across both lands.

The men that were in charge of the ruling party are not in question here since they define the established authority and set the stage for the events that occur on their home field.  It is the men and women who are doing their best to break away from this authority who are going to take center stage and be counted for, by the ruling authority, through their actions.  The King of England reveled in adversity towards the colonists for these actions and he saw them as a direct threat to his realm and image.  It is the people in this country’s colonial times that we compare ourselves, or should compare ourselves in order for us to understand who actually has the true dominion of our land and our lives and make the choice to serve the king of this world or the one who created us.   These people were determined to keep what they believed were theirs and had no intentions of abandoning their investments quite readily.  The battle lines were now drawn and war would be the final say.

After the colonists had made their intentions known to the King of England, the king in response issued his own proclamation to the rebellious people of the colonies.  His proclamation effectively guaranteed a conflict that could not and would not be settled until every rebel was destroyed.  The King of England believed that he had total control over every portion of the colonists’ lives and which guaranteed him absolute power over them which was not to be argued against.  It was through the acts of the newly formed Continental Congress and through this Proclamation of Rebellion by the King of England that set into motion the events of the next few years.  As did the physical king of England made this statement of war the king of this world has made the exact same proclamation against us.

It is through the statement that God makes in Genesis that initiates this rebellion against the king of the world, even though it was not in practice when God made it.  God was giving us dominion over this land that initiates this command and the choice so that His laws, through us would be magnified forever.  It is our presence on this earth and the authority we have that disturbs our true enemy and it is important that we understand how vital it is for us to recognize what this word dominion means to our lives.  In other words, each life represents an authority to do God’s will throughout the earth and from this authority drives our enemy to rid us of life by all means possible.

When the founding fathers of this country came over to start a new life they had a purpose and plan in mind.  It may not have been the perfect plan of all time and many of their planning proved naught but most stuck with their decision and made a life for them whatever storms came their way.  As time continued their single colony struggled but grew proportionally and with this painful stint in place welcomed new faces into the crowd so that life may continue.  Britain still had full control over these people yet they were an ocean apart and had more freedom to live out their lives.  After a while longer the colonists began to realize that more and more of their freedoms were being subjugated and threatened which made them stick out like a sore thumb to England; with anger soon to set in.

The biblical story of David comes to mind when illustrating the spiritual side of our existence.  This example is not about his reign but about the time before he took the throne, when another king sat on Israel’s throne.  Saul was in power and knew that he was basically in dire straits since he had continually disobeyed God’s wishes.  Yet while Saul was being told that his actions were no longer being blessed by God, he began a campaign against David instead of trying to make things right in God’s eyes.  Saul placed a death sentence on David’s head and through the death of David his guaranteed placement upon the throne would be secure.

For quite some time David lived on the run, living in horrendous conditions while people were out looking for him so that they could end his life.  David never had a physical moment of peace yet he understood that there was a calling upon his life and that God would ultimately protect him if death ever stared directly at him.  Both participants knew what the stakes were and what could become of the other and while one heart was pure and running the other was wrought with anger because of the embarrassment that had accompanied his reign.

Let us look at both of these examples and take some notes about how each story concluded.  Saul continued his rage against God and David and eventually it consumed him so completely that it was obvious that his decision making was not of sound mind.  Saul and his sons died in battle, with Saul taking his own life even when the enemy would not.  The American Revolution ended in similar fashion with a bunch of hand-picked soldiers taking down the world’s most powerful leader.  In both cases, God’s will was ordained and the human dignity and selfish desire was defeated.

It is through this same selfish desires and human dignity that we are blindly allowing our enemy to overtake our lives.  We have placed our selfish desires and our human rights first in our lives and have left the One who gave us these privileges to rot for Himself.  We have lost the decency to fight for what we have and to understand what it took to achieve our current status in life.  When we allow this type of behavior to rule our hearts we have no alternative but to follow a blind course of existence.  We intentionally wrap ourselves in our lusts and forge ahead in the name of love, all the while believing that we have justly managed our lives into a god-like status.  What we have failed to realize is that our enemy has encircled us through our own enticements and is ready to deal a fatal blow to our worldly perseverance.

We also cordially accept that we have all the answers for our lives and once again ignore the obvious fault lines that we are walking over.  We do not see that our enemy is just that, our enemy.  He does not care what our standards may be, for if they are high enough that only means that we will fall further and harder when the moment of truth becomes reality.  We do not see the bull’s-eye that is located on our hearts nor do we understand what this target means.  It represents a death sentence, just as our founding fathers had and as David had.  Our intentions have become so obscure that we do not even recognize the truth or the impending disasters that we are voluntarily motioning towards.

The way that we direct ourselves can only be attributed to one thing and that everything that we do and represent is made from a choice.  It is our choice to be led by the world and to ignore the warning signs that we passively look at as we whiz by them.  It is our choice not to understand human history and to grasp the concept that if we do not learn from our past we are doomed to repeat it sometime down the road.  The same laws hold true in our spiritual lives as well and the death sentence on this level is far greater than the physical for our physical will eventually give out but our spiritual life will live for eternity, but the question of where he / she shall live is strictly your choice.

It is through the principles of this divine law that drives our enemy to destroy our presence on this earth.  Through this law we have the authority to work the miracles of God each and every second of our life and it is the duty of our enemy to make sure that we doubt this ability or take it away from as many of our fellow men and women as possible.  Through this law the life that we know is a testament to God’s authority over His enemy so it is of the utmost priority that our enemy wipe out what has already been established as the truth; which means your specific life.

So, in reality we do have a death sentence on each one of our heads and it is important that we understand that our enemy does not care how he completes this task, he just needs to get it done.  The enemy uses the world to accomplish his deathly goal.  The British placed a death sentence on every one of the people that participated in the American Revolution and it was clear that they had no chance of a pardon if ever caught.  David found himself in the same predicament and even though the territory that he and Saul shared was small, Saul never accomplished his goal of destroying David.  In both examples God miraculously came through and His will was completed.  Just it is with your life for as Saul, David, everyone who participated in the American Revolution passed away so will you one day.  When that day comes, what will your choice have been for your future?

DLB

Theft of Human Artwork

Theft of Human Artwork

4/26/14

No matter what others may say, all of us will leave some type of mark on the world when our physical lives have ended.  It does not matter if we are rich, famous or just another everyday “Joe or Jane” who graces the same hallway for years upon end, this fact remains true.  Each one of us represents an individual piece to this puzzle called life and each of us plays an equal part in its fitting and completion.  It is very important for us to understand that we cannot complete these vital roles in the world if we allow ourselves to be taken apart bit by bit.  That is why it is also imperative that we understand that we must not allow our enemy to trick us into involuntarily or voluntarily giving up our lives for the common good of the world.  We are unique in every way imaginable and it through this uniqueness that God uses to be a light unto the world, not for us to allow the world to take it away from us.

For as long as I can remember I have dedicated my mind, heart, and soul to the medical field.  I have ignored many other areas of the human’s interests and basically focused my entire being to healing people.  However, the things that I have been taught over the past few years is that each person is an individual piece of artwork that can never be duplicated and while I admit that not every painting, drawing or portrait catches the inner portions of my heart and soul, I must acknowledge that God is showing me things about the individual that gives me a better understanding of why we can be classified as artwork and also how we are voluntarily allowing our lives (artwork) to be whisked away and destroyed in a systematic manner.  I must acknowledge that if God has a specific plan for each one of our lives this means that each person is an individual and unique piece of art that may appeal to one group of people yet not so much to another.  But this is where the beauty of this fact arises, in that since there are billions of us walking on this earth the potential for someone affecting another person or group of people is far greater than with only a select few people.  However it is imperative that we understand that no matter how we view each work of art that all of us have a responsibility to “sell” ourselves to a dying world.

Ever travel down the same path over and over?  We call ourselves seeing everything that can possibly be noticed on our repeated path but at some point you realize something different?  I was walking down one of the hallways in the hospital a while back and I noticed that there was a painting on the wall that had been taken down.  This particular painting had been present on the wall ever since we had reopened the building for the additional hospital services.  This hallway is located in the building that I work in and I pass through this hallway at least twenty times throughout my work day.  I cannot specifically state that I noticed this specific painting each time I made my way down the hall but I can say that the day I noticed the painting missing.  There was an empty space present and it did not take me too long to figure out that a painting was missing.  I am not going to say that it was stolen or that it has been placed into another portion of the building but it did bring into my heart a perfect example of one’s identity being lifted from its proper place.  Whichever the case may have transpired the work of art is missing from its intended place and the original placement is bare without its individual work.

Paintings and art work have drawn the fiercest critics and at the same time brought the preeminent competitors for centuries.  Anyone who knows a thing or two about the art world understands that each painting or drawing portrays a story, usually one that the artist is trying to convey about her or himself.  Whether a painting represents a portion of the artist’s life, a picture of one of their lovers or tries to convey the serene setting of a spring day the price of the art and the dedication that it took to create the painted image always makes the work priceless to the one who completed the work.  It does not matter if the entire public views the work as a masterpiece or not, the creator artist knows that the finished work is a masterstroke of genuine beauty.  It also does not matter what one says about the creation the master will stand by the work until the day comes that the subject of that beauty lives no more.  Then comes the true testament of the artwork for even though the subject of the painting is gone the frame and the portrait itself shall always remain.

When a person views a piece of art they may draw their own conclusions about the worth of the piece.  I understand this concept because some of the works of art that don our halls are nicely priced and when I look at them, then notice the price I politely and quietly continue my journey down the hall.  On this side of the coin it is hard for me to understand why a piece of artwork values for so much money, but this example of my lack of knowledge is exactly what I wish to convey to those who do not understand this side of our lives.  The artwork is not always worth much in monetary terms but the sentimental value of the piece cannot be measured in terms of value since the importance of the artwork is a cornerstone of the person’s existence. 

The artwork defines this person and it is a portion of their lives that they look at on a daily basis for remembrance, guidance and love of life.  It has a deep meaning in which if taken cannot be substituted for and surely cannot be replaced with another gratuitous replica.  This artwork can only be described as you, and individual masterpiece that is made up of ideas, concerns, emotions, and feelings of all types which are wrapped up into one complete person.  And we need each part of our lives to be intact in order to function as a human being so that we can defend ourselves when we are attacked or to love completely when that one person comes along in our lives that sweeps us off our feet and it also allows us to discern when the times are true and when they are false.

As I have alluded to in the above paragraphs, you are an individual that has no equal.  Just as a single piece of artwork, each person that has had the opportunity to understand life represents this type of perfect construction.  Since I am comparing a human being to a priceless work of art, this means that all of the surrounding circumstances of our lives should account for something as well.  Ever heard of an art heist?  If a person or group of thieves values a physical work of art enough to steal it, the potential monetary value of such works could bring literally millions to certain markets around with world.  So, why wouldn’t one believe that your life be just as important stolen also?  There have been numerous books, movies, short stories and music written and composed about this topic, which in itself has attracted many millions of dollars.  I guess this means that there are plenty of people out in the world that wish to steal your inner and outer portions of your artwork which would effectively tarnish your portrait as well; and that is exactly what our eternal enemy wishes to accomplish in our lives.  

Some of you might remember that I am a huge World War II buff and that I cannot get enough information about any topic on the subject.  It has amazed me of how many different areas of WWII there are which do not include the actual blood and guts of combat that is usually discussed in books or viewed on television series.  It was few years ago that I had finally grasped the notion that art played a huge role in the Nazi regime and that they actually fancied the artwork of other nations and plotted ways to obtain these priceless works of art even before the war broke out.  When a person completes a painting or other work of art it comes from their heart but when a person who is driven by greed or lust looks upon this pure work of art, it only wants one thing and hat is to take it from its rightful place.  This is exactly what the Nazi party did with tens of thousands of art treasures and even today there are still thousands of art collections that are unaccounted for because of this type of thievery.

I had read a few articles on how the Nazis had taken some pictures and other works of art from Jewish houses, businesses and communities when they deported them to their new “work” environments, and when these people were taken from their homes and other living environments they were instructed to leave the majority of their belongings in place and that these items would be there when they returned from their newly found work.  These acts continued to baffle me that these people did not intimately question the fact that they were being loaded up into large trucks by the hundreds and that they could not understand what actually was occurring to their lives.  These people actually believed what the soldiers or other agents told them about their belongings and about their immediate living situations so they allowed themselves to be taken away from their possessions.  The Jews were actually being led away from their possessions to go to another place of residence while the ones who “showed” them to their new places of residence stole every bit of valuable possessions from their homes, villas and communities.

It took a while before God showed me the correlation of this type of activity and how it is relevant to our individual lives today.  While the Holocaust and slavery of the Jewish people proved to be a horrific event in human history that type of holocaust is currently ongoing in our lives today.  We have allowed this type of thievery to take place in our lives in the name of freedom, choice, and rights.  We have placed so much emphasis on ourselves and what we personally want in life that we have forgotten what the laws of the world really stand for.  It is these laws that we are bowing ourselves down to and voluntarily giving up our inner ink that we need to paint our artwork.  The world does not care about our lives nor does it wish to help us out in any way.  It will take from us our inner strength and give us heartache and pain in return for our precious inner paint.

We read almost every day that somewhere in our country a house, group of houses, local store or like in our nearby town that a bank was robbed.  These acts of theft are so common now that many of them do not make the daily or evening news and they must be placed on one of the back pages of the local or city newspaper.  Why is a theft of another person’s property become so unimportant and not worthy of front page headlines?  It is because the world must indulge itself on stealing just enough from humans that we do not realize it until it is too late to recover what is lost.  In other words, a small portion of the paint needed for our personal portrait has been taken from the human, so small a one that we do not realize that it is gone until we need it for something.  See, our lives are alive and in constant design and if we allow our enemy to continually take from our lives, then we shall never know or understand what our portrait can represent to others.

I remember a story about when I lived in Salinas, California.  I was only in the third grade but I did kind of know what was going on around me.  I remember that I received a bike as a gift for some occasion.  I loved that bike it got me around the neighborhood faster than I could ever have walked and it was great to ride along the sidewalks with my friends.  Salinas was not the best of places back in the 70s and to be honest I do not know about now either.  However, my parents at that time always told me not to leave my toys, books, or in this case my bike out where someone could take it if I were to be called away for some reason.  Well, one time I was riding around the neighborhood and my parents asked me to go somewhere with them for a few minutes.  I said that I needed to put my bike up but they said it would be fine right up next to the garage, so I left it there.

We were not gone very long but when we returned my bike was gone and it was nowhere to be found.  We looked for it for hours and did not even see a trace of it.  I was devastated about my loss and my parents felt terrible.  Circumstances happened and someone stole my bike and I knew that my parents and I would not ever make that mistake again.  I do not hold my parents in contempt for any reason and that is not part of the topic of the article, the theft of the bike is and how even though the object of importance is in close proximity to you the object can still be stolen without warning.

We have seen many movies and documentaries about people who run drugs throughout the world.  We have also witnessed standoff between police and burglars and you can throw in bank robbers into that mix.  We sit in amazement to watch a person or people defend their actions after they have demanded another person’s possessions or after the act of theft has occurred.  I myself sat fascinated one day as I watched a man repeatedly shoot at police officers after he had attempted to rob a bank in a certain community.  The event did not end until the man ran out of ammunition and was changing firearms when the police had no other option than to end this man’s life.  Think about this setting for a moment and try and understand that when our enemy approaches us this is exactly what he is trying to accomplish.  He cares nothing about you or what your surroundings offer, all he wants is for you to be destroyed and taken out of this world before you can complete your perfect portrait and present it to the world.

The person or people who take things from you are willing to fight for their actions.  When you try and claim your own belongings they will threaten you and even kill you if necessary.  A small town Mexican mayor found this out a couple of a while back when she was beaten to death in what is considered to be a drug related case in which she stood up for her beliefs against drugs being ran through her community.  The enemy will stand up for themselves when the wronged person actually tries to correct the situation.  But why were these people allowed to control the situation and take things from her and the community that they were operating within?  I do not know many details about this woman’s life but I wonder if her portrait was completed according to her inner ink and what God had for her life before she met Him face to face?  What permanent legacy did she leave for her family and community?  This is why it is so important that we understand that we are unique for a reason and it is for this reason alone that our enemy will take our inner ink and paints.

Now to the point of this article and that would be you and I.  Our enemy has stolen many aspects of our lives and we have not stopped long enough to realize what is actually missing from our inner beings.  Pieces of your life have been taken from you without you even knowing that you were even considered being a target.  We have allowed our lives to become so busy and distracted that we have forgotten to turn our alarms on when we are going about our business.  It is ironic because we have devoted so much attention to our outer bodies that we have totally ignored our enemy walking into our hearts and robbing us blind of what actually defines our lives.  All of these things have been taken because we have not read about our enemy and what he wishes to accomplish and one of the main things he wishes to accomplish is to steal your life away from you and rendering you torn apart.  He does not care about how much he takes from you nor does he care about how you will feel afterwards all he wants is what God has given you as a life and as a human being.  We are a living portrait, artwork if you wish to describe it, that God has created and each one of us has a specific purpose for our design.

All of these pieces that our enemy has taken from you, we have allowed to be voluntarily stolen and he has no intentions of returning them to you.  In fact he will fight you with all his might when you realize what is actually been taken.  This is a hard situation to go through for all of us realize that at some point in our lives we stop and look around and realize just what we have lost due to our lack of understanding of our enemy.  For many of us, we never have understood who our enemy was for we have not believed in his existence.  This is the perfect setup for the human being because if one does not believe in an enemy then he has legal and free will to our lives and he will take full advantage of this fatal misunderstanding.  Our enemy does not care anything about you.  He is only out to destroy you from the inside out since he knows that your body is already doomed the only thing that is eternal is your spirit and that is what he steals from on a continual basis.

In every case that I am aware of, including mine, each person has stated in their own words that they feel like they have been violated or feel dirty in some manner.  Their privacy has been invaded and probably many other descriptions could be used.  It is then that the realization that someone has taken a part of them that now cannot be truly replaced.  I also understand that even if the items that have been stolen are recovered many of the people that have been robbed do not want them back due to the dirty feeling that the get when they look at the items.  This too can be related to the things that have been stolen from our inner lives.  This feeling that we have is a prime example that God is a complete God and that when He formed us He understood our potential and the service that we could provide to the world.  It is this completeness of God that our enemy seeks out and tries to wipe out from our life.

Here is a truth that we all need to understand.  If we continue to allow our enemy to take from us what is not his and then continue to deny that his presence exists, then we must realize that once a part of our unique artwork is stolen from us we cannot get that portion back.  It is gone forever and will never be a part of more than our thoughts and wishes.  Everything that God designed us to be is stored within our lives and while we might not totally understand all of its capacities within our lives, it is there and in God’s timing He will show each one of us why He placed that ink or paint within our lives.  But if we continue to deny His presence and the presence about our enemy our lives will be ripped apart by the choices that we make and the allowances of thievery that we voluntarily give forth.

However, there is a process in which those stolen pieces of artwork can be restored into our lives once again.  They are our pieces of artwork that only one person can provide us with.  God understands our lives and He knows the exact damage that we have allowed to occur within our lives.  God is a complete God and He knows exactly where we are at, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Only God can restore the ink, paint and tools that we need to complete our personal portrait.  If we try to accomplish this work we shall fail every time and end up hurting ourselves even more, for we cannot place nor replace the necessities that are required for our personal painting.  Yes, God installs these within our lives and even if we allow our enemy to take them from us God can replace them in the proper order that we need to begin our masterpiece once again.  Some of these paints and inks might be a little different and the may be the same, but whatever way God chooses to replace them know that each instrument of your portrait is specifically selected and spiritually made for you and you alone.

We now need to stop and look at our inner beings, our spirit, to see what damage has been allowed to occur and then once we have assessed the damage we do not need to be ashamed of our mistakes but we do need to understand what has taken place and what actually has been lost and when this realization occurs, we cannot help but feel these emotions.  God has not left us while we were being robbed, He allowed us to make the choices concerning our lives on our own.  He has not left us and He shall never leave us.  He stands ready to restore what has been lost as long as we come to Him with an honest and open heart.  It is a learning process and the restoration will not be completed overnight but I can guarantee that once you accept the process you will feel the repairs that are ongoing within our life and it will not be too long until you see your inner paints at work once again.

DLB