Human Government

Human Government

12/3/13

It has been said that humans possess an inner being that makes up the essence of a person.  I find it fitting that this portion of our lives we try to hide as much as possible from the world but somehow end up exhibiting our inner beings to anyone who is passing by at the moment.  We sometimes forget that what we say and how we act to the current situation around us informs others of what exactly is housed within our lives and this expression of ourselves can also portray the characteristics of the human government that controls our mechanical and functional belief systems within.  We are a temple and no matter what or how you believe with this fact, it does dictate how you live your life.

Everyone who reads the Bible knows that it will affect their lives in some manner.  For those of us who believe that it is the true and just Word of God understand that it is a guidebook for our lives.  For those who do not believe in the Bible and all of its content, will pick it apart to justify their physical whims concerning passages that are not human friendly and then ask posted questions with a closed heart as their reference point and then reject all possible answers that the person who was asked the question could possibly give in return.  This is not an uncommon situation that people find themselves in and while the animosity towards the Bible and its standards are ever increasing throughout the world, the Bible’s contents are still talked about on a regular basis.

I fully understand how God would use His Word to direct our lives and to teach us a thing or two about our said lives, but I have been totally blown away of how He had used a secular history book to show me things to write about.  However, when I stop and remember some of the things that I have been shown to write about it should not surprise me at all concerning this method because God uses humans and their experiences within the contents of the Bible so why should He use anything differently today.  I guess I am still learning this process of restoration and direct communication with God and as far as I can tell He has no plans to stop showing me things to write about so I should suppose that I will continue to learn new ways of His gifts for our lives.

I was reading once again in the book entitled “Black Sea” by Neal Ascherson and God showed me a couple of things concerning the Church or more specifically the Church that is inside all of us.  Now some of these concepts are known to many people but there might be a few that others might not have noticed before so hang with me for a while please.  I am honestly not trying to promote this book in any way but to be fair, it is an excellent book about the Black Sea region and a good portion of its history.  I recommend the book if anyone is interested in that area of the world.  Anyway, the couple of paragraphs that I am going to refer to deal with a small town and the church that is located within the town and the condition and uses for the building during the recent past history of the town.

The small town is named Nedvigovka and it is located in the Black Sea region of the Crimea.  The Crimea region has been a highly contested area of the world due to the fact of the usage of the Black Sea.  Many counties and nations have fought over control of this region since its location links Asia and Europe via the Bosporus which eventually leads to the Mediterranean Sea and the rest of the world. This area was part of the Silk Road route and has allowed many different cultures to be represented while the trade industry has flourished.  We also know that when the Soviets were in power this area was a resort area but still under the influence and control of Communism and everything that went along with that concept.

Most of us understand the different types of government that a country can follow and it is not even uncommon that one such government type falls and a totally different style of government takes its place.  When reading about this area and its entire political outcomes one would know that after the fall of Soviet Communism many areas in this part of the world had a lot of reconstruction and restoration processes to endure.  Many villages, towns, areas, and regions had been decimated by the Communist regime which left hundreds of thousands of people in shambles and some of these people are still in the process of recovery today. 

The majority of the population of this area was deeply rooted in the Christian faith with the Orthodox belief very strong in each person’s life.  Orthodoxy had been introduced into these regions centuries before and had remained as the central point of their lives up until the Communists came in and demanded changes take place among the area.  Communism does not advocate any form of Christianity, frowns upon those who stick to their faith and harshly deals with those who refuse to assimilate to the total communistic lifestyle and belief.  I do not have any figures to support this claim but I can almost guarantee that after the Communists moved in with their new philosophies that many Christians who refused to give up their faith simply disappeared and were never heard from again.  This is a sad portion of human history but one that we have witnessed over and over before and if we humans would figure out that this type of national government actually does exist within our personal lives, we might think differently about certain demands we make on others; just a suggestion. J

The Communists closed all of the churches that they did not deem as necessary or as a threat to their way of belief.  It is estimated that thousands of small community churches were boarded-up or razed to the ground in order to make sure that other types of information could be presented to their population.  This act is not unusual for rogue governments to do when they take over a territory or group of people and many articles and books could be written about this process, but what about on the personal level and how this concept of governmental takeover infiltrates our lives and eventually becomes the rule of law.  I am using this national governmental example initially to make my point but this process is completed every day in our own personal lives and we need to understand that what we allow into our belief system I would argue is more deadly than a governmental takeover.

As with a governmental regime so does a personal governance present itself within our lives.  Even though it may be on different levels per population the individual personal government holds just as much power as the national or world governments.  And it is this point that I want to focus on where it concerns the personal church and how things are operated.  Our personal beliefs rule our choices and often make decisions without us even stopping to think about those choices before we have the opportunity to view the entire scope of the argument.  All of us make these types of decisions and choices but do we really understand what these choices are actually doing to us on the inside?

The Bible says that we are a temple and that we should keep this in mind while we are routinely going about our business each day.  Do we blindly read this passage and dismiss what it is actually saying about our lives?  Sure we love to sing about the holy inner place of our lives and we will be the first one to condemn those who display worldly baggage but in my experiences, it is those people who need to examine what is being stored within in their temples as well because to a dying world there is not much difference other than the hypocrite factor.

One can see quite quickly what a person carries within their life and even though this is not a form of judgment our reactions and openness towards that person is affected.  We have a tendency to store stuff that we have received from the world in our hearts and we carry these things by our choice and not because we are forced.  It is these things, whether it is of a good or bad nature that the people of the world see and react to accordingly.  And if we continue to accept the trash of the world into our lives then what we will provide to others will be reflective of what we are housing.  We are a human storage shelter and we need to correctly choose what we place into our lives, for whatever we do allow inside will be manifested at some point down the road.

For those of you who have boarded up your temple because life has dealt you a hard hand, that is your own choice to allow so legally and correctly you have no authority to blame God.  You can question God about your circumstances and ask Him to show you how to make amends or restoration but it was your own personal inner government who made those choices after the act.  I know that some of these issues could be tough and one might be placed into a very difficult situation when dealing with the consequences but we must remember that it is what we have been allowing into our personal government that will predict and dictate the responses that we have towards others. In other words, it is your personal government who chooses to have abortion, after abortion after abortion as a means of freedom of choice and it is also your own personal government who chooses to take in a lady who is suffering from the effects of having an abortion.  The question then begs, which personal government example is more progressive? 

God works on an individual level, one-on-one if you choose to view it that way.  This is exactly the type of atmosphere that God desires because He understands that each of us are different and only He can help us if we allow His presence in our lives, and He also knows that if one person opens up to Him then it is very possible that another person will do the same and the pattern will continue until the national governments can change.  Don’t believe me?  Take a good look at how our national, state and local governments are being controlled and manipulated.  Forget about who is right and wrong for a moment and look at what is being pushed upon our society.  Take notes on what you find and then at some point in the near future, compile them and then read over them.  And when you complete this survey, do the same with your personal government and see exactly what your personal government has done to your temple.

Have you bashed the correct way of doing things with correctness?  Have you pushed aside the good of humanity for minding your own business?  Have you closed your blinds on your inner windows so that you can hide from what the world is offering to its inhabitants?  Are your personal temple doors nailed shut because it is cheaper to keep your interior hidden rather than clean it?  All of these issues and thousands more like them are present within each one of us and as long as we display these conditions our temples are voluntarily defiled and are no better than the boarded-up church in Nedvigovka.

It is your personal government that shuts down your temple’s potential to a dying world.  This is when your personal government becomes more powerful than a national government because while national governments have people who oppose it, a personal government has 100% support of its inhabitant all the time, there are no split decisions or divided votes.

To continue the story about the little boarded-up church in Nedvigovka; after the Communist government was overtaken the people of the small town began to clean the old church building again and to begin a restoration process.  It was their change of government which initiated this restoration process and according to the paragraphs inside this book, the church now is one of the more popular and beautiful buildings within the town itself.  The author of the book writes that there are still some more renovations to be completed, but the restoration process is almost complete.

What a beautiful site that old church must be to behold.  One can only imagine the memories and hope that it brings to the people of that town.  I am glad that the old regime did not tear the church down but even if they did the new building would be as strong as ever after its rebuilding.  Our lives are the exact same way in that our own personal governments control so much of how we operate on a daily basis. This is why the Bible talks about our bodies as being a temple and how important it is for us to maintain our temples as holy as possible. Our temples are permanent and cannot be removed until we leave this earth, but what we place into our temples can be replaced, upgraded and restored.

We cannot do this restoration process alone, only the One who created us has the capability to complete this restoration process.  The Creator will not overthrow our personal government it is our choice to change our personal government so that His ways can once again flow through our lives.  It is strictly up to us to allow this process to occur, not God’s.  Our temples are precious in every way known to man and in even more ways that man cannot comprehend.  Change your human government and when you do your personal government will be free to open its doors and windows and offer to the world true life once again.

DLB

The Deigning of Christ

The Deigning of Christ

12/2/13

When we think of Christ and how He lived His life here on earth, our thoughts turn to meekness and servitude for the people that He encountered.  We know that Jesus’ mission here on earth was to bring a closure to the gap that we had created so long ago with God.  But have we thought about the time that Jesus became the heal that crushed His and our enemy and what it meant to our enemy when this event was fulfilled?  The completion of the events in the Garden of Eden and upon the cross do have relevance with each other and need to be spoken about since one could not have occurred without the other, which means that the life, death and resurrection of Christ is the crowning achievement over our enemy or in this case God’s deigning moment over His and our eternal enemy.

In the early 1900s there was a tragic event that took place that was called the Odessa Pogrom.  I am only going to reference this one event for this article but keep in mind that this type of activity occurred in 1821, 1859, 1871, 1881, and in 1886 as well; however, in keeping with human tradition the pogrom of 1905 was the largest and bloodiest of the years listed above.  For those that are not familiar with what a pogrom is, it is a process in which the methodical destruction and devastation of a people or group is completed by another group, mainly directed towards the Jewish population of an area and in this case it does refer to the Jewish population of Odessa.  The city of Odessa that I am referring to in this article is the port city that sits on the Black Sea and historically has been known as a multi-cultural city which invited many different trades to secure their financial stability throughout the ages. While this event only took place in a matter of 5 days, over 400 Jews were murdered and over 1600 Jewish businesses and other properties were either severely damaged or totally destroyed.

When familiarizing myself with this event I found that this type of activity towards the Jews was actually a precursor to what the Nazi Party did to the Jews during the mid 1930s all the way until 1945.  Many of the ways that the Jews were killed and tortured during the Odessa pogrom the Nazis continued and then progressed into massive amounts of dead bodies that they could not get rid of before the advancing allied army forced the German soldiers from their posts.  It fascinates me to see how humans can perform these types of atrocities and then future generations fail to recognize directional motives that others provide for the public and then sit back and deliberately ignore the reports when they appear. Not understanding the human mind and heart through human history and allowing such activities to re-occur, in my opinion, is just as grave of a crime as the act itself and those who did nothing should be held accountable on the same level as the guilty parties of the accused.  My fascination quickly succumbs to the darkening blinds that our enemy offers us and we in turn voluntarily place them around our spiritual eyes so that we may pass over the scene without being witness to the horrors that mankind is doling out on itself.

One specific setting that I read in the book entitled “The Black Sea” was during this 1905 Odessa pogrom and it had to do with the telling of what occurred to a Jewish interviewee concerning his father’s store.  The person who was being interviewed said that his father did not come home that night when all the violent actions of the local people were taking place.  He and his mother were worried of course but could not do anything since if they left their house then they would have put their lives in immediate danger.  After the events had calmed down, he went to where his father’s store was and saw his father outside looking at all of the damage that had been done to the store.

He reached his father and asked if he was ok and his father stated that he was physically fine but the store had been damaged greatly and viewing the damage to the front glass window it seems like it probably would be a while before the store could re-open again.  A few moments later a Cossack officer on horseback turned the corner and began to approach their positions.  The father then took a couple of steps towards the path of the horse and officer and then fell to his knees and cupped his hands to form a begging for help type of setting.  The officer continued his path and did not even look at the father who was obviously begging for help.  As the officer passed the interviewer’s father on his knees the officer deigned his cap but did not set eyes upon the father; not once did he even acknowledge that the father was there besides the fact of the action with his cap. 

I was not familiar with the term deigning so I had to look things up to find out what the word meant.  It is an interesting word that has very distinct undertones of dignity and how one feels that a certain culture is of a higher standard than another.  I found the word to be of Latin origin and could easily be referenced to racial or communal standards.  With our history and knowledge of how other cultures have portrayed the Jewish culture and then applying it to this story it is not hard for a person to arrive at the conclusion that this type of violence against the Jewish population was deemed “justified” according to the local people of Odessa.

When the Cossack officer deigned his cap to the Jewish business owner it was a physical sign to the Jewish man that the people of that area, including the military of the area, thought that the violent actions that had been taken against the Jewish community of Odessa was justified since their race and culture were a substandard form of life.  And, that there was nothing wrong with the destruction of Jewish businesses and the murder of innocent Jewish people.  The other local communities of Odessa singled out one group of people and categorized them in order to justify their actions towards someone else.  It seems like that every time a group becomes singled out for whatever reason it is that specific group that is going to bear the brunt of the other groups’ actions.  We have read about this in history and we are seeing it occur today.

So, how in the world do this event and specifically the word deigning have to relate to Jesus and His mission on earth?  It does seem rather odd to compare the two situations with one demoralizing word but continue reading and you will understand that the origins of the comparison actually begins in the Garden of Eden and then reaches its pinnacle at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.  This is another example of the relevance of the Bible in our world today and just how it ties into our lives due to the fact that we chose to do things on our own and not to obey God’s one simple command.

In Genesis we see that the choice has been made by humanity to go about things on its own and to ignore what God has put into place. So when God confronts the participants of the event He includes everyone in His laying out of the ground rules for the future of all parties involved.  An interesting portion of Genesis Chapter 3 states this: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”  Generally we refer to this as Jesus versus Satan and the events that transpire between the two Kingdoms.  While this is a true statement, with reasoning one must look at the fact that the word “crush” that is used here is a violent term.  If anything is to be crushed the form, shape, looks, stance, belief, etc of that object must have its foundations and structure totally changed by another force that has mastered it.

This is a turning point in the war between the two kingdoms since the humans are now in play and are still the focal point of both kingdoms.  At the same time, these proceedings set the tone for all future altercations between the two kingdoms and this tone has not changed in any manner ever since.  Our enemy has had the privilege of using this anger and torture against mankind ever since this event took place in the garden, plus he has allowed our emotions and our human thoughts to be used against other people as well. As I have mentioned many times before, human history is filled with all sorts of ingenious ways and methods for humans to torture, maim and kill other humans.  Therefore, if the human is the center battling point of the two kingdoms and that the sides have been allowed to form against one another, then the One who said that a human would crush the enemy of the human will be of a violent nature because if violence is of the common core of the battle for humanity then that is the way that God must win the hearts of the human over the ways of the world.

So, where does Jesus fit into all of this you ask?  Well, it is kind of interesting but one should not have too hard of a time understanding it, but probably most of us have not thought about the reality of it before.  All of us would agree that Jesus is the meekest and humblest man that ever has walked on the earth.  We also would agree that even with this type of demeanor, He demonstrated at times anger towards those who defiled the Temple from the activities that should have been ongoing there.  It is not unknown that Jesus faced violent people and forces every day, take for example the possessed person or when the news reached Jesus about the beheading of John.  All of these things about Jesus and what He experienced are true, so the result of the consequences of the garden scene He witnessed.

This means that when God set into motion the conditions of humanity, everyone would have to experience this test at some point in their lives.  Jesus, being a human was not exempt from this experience so why would our lives be any different than what He experienced? Jesus’ life represented everything that is good and gave us a perfect example of how we should live our lives towards others.  This is easily accepted by many believers and nonbelievers throughout history but we are forgetting one aspect of His life that represents the most crucial for our spiritual survival.  There is no doubt that there were people who had the same philosophy of deigning when Jesus was alive and walking the earth, as do humans have that same spirit manifesting through their lives today.

Now, if God has set something in motion and Jesus was the one who came to close the gap that separated humanity from God, along with performing great miracles, teaching the ways of forgiveness and repentance, then this is a true example of Him defeating what has already been established on this earth.  But when God sets something into motion and uses specific words in setting them into motion, which means that the final act must include the pinnacle of battles.  Naturally Satan would use his investments and pour them into the fight against humanity while God would use His investments and continue to push back the darkness through His Son that walked on the earth.

Throughout Church history there have been many who place the Jews as the ones responsible for the Death of Jesus.  While this may be true in certain terms the mission of Jesus was actually being fulfilled and it does not really matter who set Jesus u for His death.   What many of us forget is that Jesus was born to die.  His mission was to die.  His entire presence on this earth and His ministry was for Him to die and if anyone doubts this claim then you are in deep trouble because God ordained it while He was laying out the consequences for man’s choices in the Garden of Eden.  God has a purpose for everything that He does.  It may not fit into your plans or ideas but His plans are perfect and complete in every way, a function that we humans have difficulty in conceiving.  It was not Jesus’ human life that was the pinnacle of His ministry.  It was not the miracles that he performed that completed God’s plan for our enemy.  It was the death and resurrection of Jesus that fulfilled the crushing blow to Satan and his dominion that God had in mind as the deigning moment in human history.

It is not just a physical aspect that Jesus died as a human being; everyone dies.  Yes, God recognized and approved that His only Son should die and it actually made God proud that this event occurred.  Why?  Yes, God hurt that His Son hung on a cross, was beaten beyond human recognition, betrayed by His peers, mocked and ridiculed and spat upon.  But God understood that these things had to be in order due to the fact of the progression that man had come from the garden’s sin and it had to be manifested to our enemy and for the entire world that the only way to God was through this pathway.

It is difficult for us to comprehend this action of sacrifice but as soon as Jesus dropped His head in death our enemy was reminded once again that he had no of what was about to happen.  I can imagine that his mind began to tremble a bit as soon as the earthquake occurred and the veil to the temple began to tear.  Satan knew at this point that God was actually in control of this situation, and the revelation of what occurred next would shake the spiritual world wide open.  The direct communication lines from God to man was once again opened as it was in the initial days of the Garden of Eden.  Satan knew exactly what the veil inside the Temple meant and he also realized exactly what it meant when the veil ripped from top to bottom.

Satan also understood exactly that God had completed His mission, through His Son, to inform every spiritual being and spiritual force that this was His party and that His plan of restoration had been initiated and completed.  This act of death and resurrection b Jesus in no way shows anything but obedience and love for humanity.  The act that god allows might seem cruel on the physical side of things but when one understands that the spiritual side of our lives are directly affected by this event, we can see that it was the greatest progression of love that any form of creation can obtain.  While the life, death and resurrection of Jesus means everything to us today as Christians, it also serves as the spiritual deigning of God towards his former wanna be in that he has no choice but to accept certain and crushing defeat.

Is this a haughty attitude that God displays?  It can be construed as such and is by billions of people around the world.  But we must understand that God has a plan for each of our lives and in order for God to allow this plan to flow through our lives we must have the knowledge that there is a war going on for our eternal being.  God could not claim victory over death if He did not choose the plan that He had for His son.  Even though God knows and our enemy knows that there is no power comparison between the two entities that if He did not display this type of control and command of the situation our enemy would have grounds to claim that God was a liar.  Haughty?  I do not think so. I do believe that God had everything set into motion hundreds, thousands or billions of years in the past and I also believe that while He was placing the beginnings of the universe into place you and I were on His mind.

Our enemy does not deserve to even have access to God’s perfect creation, yet we allowed this access by our own choice.  Our enemy hates us with an eternal hatred and will try everything to destroy our lives with little or no effort what-so-ever.  God has proven Himself time and time again throughout history that He loves us so much and even though we continue to thumb our noses in the air towards Him, He has promised to love us no matter what.  God is a proving God and He proved Himself while His Son was dying on the cross.  He proved Himself to our enemy that he holds no place in our lives and that he does not even deserve the attention of us as we pass by him.  This act of love is the deigning of God through Christ to our enemy and it is a message that everyone needs to understand about what actually took place that day in Jerusalem and it was all to signify to us that we are so much better than what our enemy portrays us as and that we as God’s creation do not even have to even tip our hats to his presence.

DLB

The Appeasement Plan

The Appeasement Plan

11/27/13

It is obvious that the majority of humans do not like surprises especially when it comes to major events that adversely affect their lives. Even though mankind has the capability of being mobile and fending off the aggressive natural circumstances, we still like to have a stable balance in our world so that our settings do not change much.  The true character of how humans react is then set into motion when these life changing events occur.  However, how comfortable do we have to get before we totally lose our edge in preparing for such an event? And will we ever regain this edge and ability to purge the darkness with the light of truth before the darkness strikes?

It has been noted throughout history that the people that live within the school district, city, state, nation, realm, etc that their actions reflect what they have been taught.  As with many other issues one can flip through a textbook and read about how the people conducted their daily business and the reader can get a general idea of what that society has taught the people.  These general standards of education were put in place and have been accepted as the norm throughout this country’s school systems, and have provided whoever desires to learn, a basic level of education that has the ability to get them by in life.  But what happens to the system if these standards are lower or directed in such a manner that the minds of the students are not challenged?  This represents an appeasement process that miscalculates the ability to seek out the heart of learning and focus it on subsidizing the student during their prime.

Most of you remember the movie called “Remember the Titans.”  This was an excellent movie on many accounts but basically was football and the race issue.  However, there was one scene in the movie that I found very interesting and the issue that was addressed is an issue that we are now beginning to see the result when students are not challenged.  All of you should know by now I do not have a racial bone in my body.  My parents taught me to treat everyone equally and accept them for who they are and to show them Jesus through my actions and not through the world standards.  The scene that I want to describe to you occurs when one of the white football coaches plays a bit of favoritism for some and not on the others.

It becomes clear that the white football coach is tough and that he understands the game of football very well.  He is however very uncomfortable with having to coach black players and to follow their movements on and off the field simply because he does not wish to upset the general population of the town.  The coach is very well known and respected and from the dialog in the movie one can gather that he has not been too kind to the black community on a regular basis.  A couple of his players that are white obviously are not giving their best and this coach pulls them aside and just reams them a new one.  Now, for anyone who has played the game of football understands that this setting is not uncommon and all of us have been yelled at for not giving it our 100% best on every play.

Within a few plays later it is obvious that some of the black players are not giving it their best either and this same coach pulls them aside and gently talks to them and ten lets them continue to play accordingly.  It is soon evident that the remaining players on the team pick this difference up and once again tensions rise on the practice field.  Later that day the two coaches are having a conversation with each other and the issue of treating everyone equal makes it rounds.  The head coach mentions to the assistant that his actions are damaging the future of the black players and that for them to be accepted in the world they must have the knowledge of how the world is going to treat them. The head coach stressed that if you do not treat everyone of the players equal that you are crippling the ones who you pull along and only harm not only on the playing field but also in their life as well.

Treating any person differently no matter what the setting may be harms them if the rules are not followed the same.  People are smart and they will figure things out when these types of occurrences present themselves.  It has always been a human way of trying to get away with things when that person does not want to deal with an issue.  It does not matter if the issue arises during a football game, at work or when a life threatening choice must be made, if the person has not been adequately trained in dealing with the hard times ability for that person to adjust diminishes greatly.

Appeasing the mind is a dangerous quality that one can offer to any person and it allows that person to fake their way into society.  There is no doubt that people will face some sort of trials in their life and it imperative that we have the know-how of how to deal with these circumstances.  It is not an “if” we have problems for it is only a matter of time until we do experience them.  How can a person be ready for life if they have not been prepared to face the trials and tribulations that life is going to hand them?  It is a must that we make sure that our children know how to think for them and to have the mental stability to adjust to what deals them.  Is a test accurate enough to honestly provide a person with the knowledge of expectancy for the future if the questions for the test are spelled out before the student begins the class?

When I was in my junior year in high school I was at a fairly decent academic school.  It was a large Texas high school and for the most part had high expectations for every student.  Texas as most of you know is a very fanatic state when it comes to football.  Football is its signature sport and it is expected that every high school football team do well each year.  The football programs for the schools draw in a very large sum of money for the district and are considered to be the defining sport of that school and how the year is going to be defined in each sporting category.  In other words, if the football team has a losing season then no matter well the basketball program does it will be compared to the football team for that year; they could even win a state title and be considered second class.  There are many people who disagree with this concept but it is in place and until things change, this attitude and belief will remain.  However, no matter how good of a team a school might have they were still graduating players that could not even balance a checkbook or even write a complete sentence and it was bringing national attention to the state.  So, something had to be done with the standards and a new plan was put into place; starting with the teachers.

The teachers of my high school had regular meetings, so when the first meeting of the second semester rolled around none of the students paid much attention to it.  But when the teachers came out of the meeting and went to their classrooms us students immediately knew something was wrong just by the look on their faces.  The teachers did not say much about things at first and the rumors began to fly around the school that some of the teachers were getting fired for various reasons.  Even though we had no clue what was said in the meeting our minds ran with many ideas concerning the matter.  Within a few hours the truth began to emerge and we understood that beginning next year the teachers were required to take an aptitude test in order to prove that they were competent to continue teaching. Seemed fair to us since they were the ones that continually gave us tests; right?

The remaining portion of the year was tense between the students and teachers but for the most part everything seemed to be normal.  The rumors about the tests and how difficult they were going to be flowed though the rank and file of the teachers worse than what the students could have done concerning a normal teenage issue.  As the school year ended all the students were joyous that another year had passed and that another year closer to graduation was at hand.  For me, the next year would be my senior year and I was looking forward to all of the “privileges” that this status posed.

The summer flew by and school was upon us once again and it was time for the teachers to find out when their test was going to be administered to them.  The tension did not quell over the summer and it was ever present on day one of the new school year.  When we asked the teachers about their summer the majority of tem stated that the main activity for the summer was to study for a test in which they had no idea what was going to be over but to us students this concept was not too difficult to comprehend since we dealt with it almost every week.  Soon after the beginning of school the teachers found out when the “D Day” was to happen as they put it.  It was going to be during Christmas break. 

As the time approached for the teachers testing to occur many of the teachers just simply stopped verbally communicating with each other and concentrated on teaching the subjects that they had been doing for quite some time.  Everyone in the school could feel the tension and it was reflected in many ways as time crept closer to the testing day.  Christmas break was upon us and the students were once again excited to be away from the responsibilities that school had over us.  As the last day before the break came I remember one of my teachers being so worried about the test that he actually said that he did not expect to be back after Christmas break and he even told us that it had been a pleasure to have the opportunity to teach us some things about life before we grew up.  Most of us blew this statement off but at the same time we did hear from reliable sources that the test would determine if teachers kept their jobs or not.

When school returned in January we all were wondering which teachers would still be with us and it soon became a joke amongst all of the student body.  When we walked into the school we went to our first period classrooms and waited for our teachers to show up.  And what do you know, every one of our teachers came back to work on that Monday morning and every one of them had a story to tell about their testing experience.  The common theme for each teacher was that they had no idea of what to study for since nothing was directly relayed to them concerning the contents of the test.  As it turned out, the test consisted of one question in which the teacher had to answer by using complete sentence structure and in the form of two paragraphs.  That was the entire test.

However, as the laughter died down the teachers made another statement concerning what they had learned over the past year.  Most of them, after they got over their anger, understood that the entire process made them better in that it allowed them to reacquaint themselves with how to give and to take a test and that it had reminded them of how to use their brains in order to figure something out that they had learned a long time ago.  They also mentioned that they were lucky to have the school teachers that they did when they were in high school and that they would not have traded those years for anything.  To be honest the methods of how the teachers gave tests for my remaining year changed over that Christmas break and on those lines I truly believe that the change in philosophy from the teachers helped me down the road.

The human mind expects to be challenged in many ways and in reality thrives on this type of situation.  However, if the mind is not trained to overcome adverse conditions then it shall not understand how to figure a way out of things when times become tough.  I have mentioned a few times of some of my younger colleagues who I have asked general history questions in which they have no idea about as their response.  My own daughters have trouble breaking down a sentence and diagramming a sentence, which even though my grammar skills are not the best I do know how to use a direct object and where to put it if necessary.  Yet our testing skills for the state are well within the national expectancy rate.  This represents many flaws in a system that is designed to teach and to bring interaction with students and teachers in order to expand the young minds so that they can advance our society down the road.

Society is also seeing this non caring attitude penetrating the streets with the rise in the number of crimes against innocent people. Communication levels between individuals is also under fire because the younger generations do not even know how to verbally talk with anyone yet they know how they can get pregnant and curse at a teacher for telling them to sit down in class.  There is a reason that the Bible addresses this topic by stating if you spare the rod on a child you will soon find out the results of this failure.  Now, that does not mean that ANY human has the authority to beat a child or any other person but a stern discipline will cause the person to think about what occurred and that they should not repeat it.

When a mind is challenged with a problem it will always bring about the best out of the person at that moment.  Also, it will stick into that person’s mind and will provide an answer when that person’s grandchild is facing a similar situation.  Now this can work in both directions if society allows it in such that if society promotes laziness then that is exactly what our minds will be trained for when attacks come; the opposite is true as well.  Whatever the mind is trained for that is what it will portray in the future towards others and we need to bear this in mind as we sit down and think about the adventures that we are about to endure.

God understands life for He is the one that created life.  He also understands that our minds need to be challenged in order for them to stay current with life.  The ways that we trend towards God also understands will keep us in the dark when challenges are not dealt with accordingly and appropriately.  God designed us to be defined by our challenges and not by our everyday routines that we mundanely complete.  Do we fancy this type of challenged society or have we become a welfare oriented state of mind when it comes to coping with the hardness of life, that is the question that all of us have to answer.

We need to understand that many people will not stand up to the challenges of the world and to complete these challenges for the best interests of the world.  If one watches the news and reads the blogs and websites they will see a pattern that has been rising for a while now that should shed some light on which direction we are heading in.  The time is now for us to stop and to expand our mind’s capacity and realize that the paths that we are choosing are creating destruction all around us.  Out of necessity for our lives and future we need to wake up and realize that our society needs to have God in the center and not having Him sit on the sidelines of our surroundings.

As I look back into history and read about the troubled times of our past, I cannot but wonder how those people survived all of the catastrophes that were presented to them.  The numerous wars and disease outbreaks alone could have brought civilization down to the ground yet the minds of that time found a way to stretch their methods of thinking in such a manner as to keep the societies functioning and productive amongst the trying times.  I am so thankful that I was not born during those times in human history but even with that selfish thought of mine I applaud the people who lived during those times because they had the mindset to find a way to get things done and to survive another day.

As a believer and studier of God’s Word I have ran across some of the most bizarre human experiences that one can imagine.  But while these stories are hard to contemplate based upon modern standards, I can believe the content because of how humans adapt to their surroundings when pushed into service.  There is one portion of the Bible that I had confusion over for a very long time but those passages are becoming clearer to me as each day passes.  For some reason humans cannot seem to figure out how to control each other and allow one person to rise up and take over the world, which leads to a bunch more fun and exciting things.  To me, this description sounds like the minds of civilization have been so condensed that they no longer can function outside of the box so to speak.  And for a long time I could not understand this philosophy that is written about but with the current events of today I now understand the meaning of the beginning of the birthing pains and how the one ruler will come into play since the dividing lines are so wide that only anger and infighting can be produced. 

It seems to me that we as humanity continue to search for our testing skills based upon the known and not the true unknown.  Life deals its cards through the unknown and it is important that we articulate this concept to our children, grandchildren and for anyone else who will drop the dividing lines that we have established and listen to what our history is telling us.  God is alive and He understands everything that we are going to be facing.  Yes, there shall be tough times ahead; I cannot tell you when because I do not know.  Yes, many people will fall apart due to these changes; how many and to what degree I do not know but based upon our mental stability now, it will not be pretty. Yes, governments and nations will disappear and wars will rage; how many I do not know but it is coming.  All of this had been told to us through the words of the Bible, just read it and keep in mind that it is talking about humans and their activities.

I agree with many people that we should expand our thinking about how we are doing things.  I disagree with them on the premise that secular methods and current views need to replace the valued and storied standards that we have had lived with ever since this country was established.  I believe that right at this moment that there is enough people in this country who have a fighting spirit to rise up and defend our country if needed, but if this should happen it better hurry up because those numbers are decreasing by the day.  The sharpness of the mind is being whittled away at breakneck speed and our enemy loves every minute of it.  God is calling us to wake up and to shape up before the predicted events of humanity begin.  The process of torment and pain can be delayed if we only turn back to Him and allow God to change our hearts.  It is easy as that.

So the question remains if society will be allowed to continue its appeasement process of our lives.  The results will be clear no matter which answer is given to that question.  The choice is strictly up to us and whichever way we decided our fate is in our hands.  Let us use our “authority” of choice to boot the “right” of choice out the door.  Let us make the correct choice for our future and get off our butts and dig into the greatest history book that has ever been written.  God loves you and wishes nothing but peace, love, joy and prosperity in our lives.  But in order for this to occur we need to have sharp minds and hearts when the tests come along.  It is also guaranteed that if we are not prepared the opposite will be true in that we will totally destroy ourselves due to the lack of Godly understanding.

DLB

Taking Steps

Taking Steps

11/25/13

The most common method of human mobility is walking.  We may be able to drive a car or ride in a plane to travel great distances, but the method of human movement still relies on the individual personally moving in order to achieve our destination.  The Bible makes reference too many scenes where people are walking and moving from one area to another and it is important for us to look beyond this commonality that all of us share and to understand a little known detail about humans and God.  There is a common tie that is present within God’s plan for our lives and the movements of man and it might seem a bit odd but one will see the connection by the end of this article.

We all know that there was no such thing as cars, buses, planes or any other mechanized vehicles during the ancient times.  It is hard for us to even imagine that the automobile was not even mass produced until the early 1900s and it is even more difficult to imagine us not having any type of modern transportation system in place.  Yet there was a long period of human history where these advances were not present and the only way for man to get anywhere was to use the back of an animal or just to walk from place to place. 

There is nothing wrong with walking in fact it is the best type of exercise that a human can do for ourselves and even though it takes a bit longer to reach our destination we should try it more often.  I find it kind of interesting that walking was the first steps that man took in the mobility processes and how our ideas and concepts of mobility gradually changed and grew from this movement.  The progressive mind and heart that God gave us has accomplished many wonders within our lives and I am anxiously awaiting the next big advance that we will have to offer.  However, if we stop and think about the procedures of walking we can learn a great deal about progression and how we can get from one point of our lives to another point.

A few weeks ago I wrote a series of articles that addressed the progress of our ways and how they related to the processes from a beginning point to a final result.  I touched on a couple of subjects that included our methods of progression and how that even though it is a normal process to advance our ways of living, these ways can become very destructive to humanity if we do not keep them in check.  Man likes to have it both ways as the saying goes and mankind believes that when we accept these views and ideas that everyone will be able to live closer together and better humanity at the same time.  What we leave out is boundaries when this type of belief occurs and those who do not view the situation alike will be considered outcasts and eventually persecuted in some manner.  Humans have an infamous reputation for this and if you do not believe me or have not heard of this before, I ask you to read any portion of history and you will find plenty of examples.

When a person reads the Bible there are many questions that come to our minds.  I know that when I began to read the Bible there were many questions that I had concerning the people and what occurred to them.  I did not at that time ask how and why the people got themselves into the messes and blesses that they incurred, nor did I ask how they arrived at the places that they had these instances occur to them.  I knew that they had walked or rode to these places, but did not go any further in my investigation of actually what was transpiring at that time. As I continued my digging and listening to God, I began to understand some things about walking and taking steps and I have been confounded in realizing that these steps were relevant in the ancient times and are just as relevant to our lives today.

Taking a step in any direction takes energy from the human.  A person cannot move without expending some type of energy that has been produced from within their body.  This type of energy is active energy and will be used up as soon as its lifespan is completed and then more energy is required and then used up.  This cycle continues until the movements cease either by stopping or by reaching the destination that the person desires.  In either case, energy is constantly used in order for the human being to take a step and it does not matter what the steps are to be used.  Now, if we do not have the energy to take this step or the one after the first, then we have a problem with our inner systems and we need to see a physician.  This means that each step that we take or desire to take is important for our daily activities and we need to make sure that we are capable of continuing this stepping process.

The Israelites are a great example of people taking steps for a long period of time and really not travelling too much in one direction.  They used a bunch of energy during those forty years wandering around in the desert, and for many of them they never understood why it took them so long to reach their destination.  It is estimated that there might have been over a million people in this group of wanderers and to orchestrate a group of this size took a bunch of guts and strength.  But what many of the Israelites did not understand is why God allowed them to spend so much time instead of ending their heated torment quickly.  God had specific reasons for this prolonged moving and it was because He wanted His people to understand not only were they free from their captors but that they were being freed from their captivity as well.

Our personal walking in this life proceeds in the same direction and can have similar results if we do not recognize the path that we are taking.  We as humans love to try and make things work on our own, even taking weeks or even years away from our life “trying to find it.”  Unless you allow God to intervene within your life you shall never find the true meaning of your life or find only a portion of what God had intended for you.  Take for instance David, the King of Israel and the one who brought Israel into nationhood and formal recognition within the nations of his time.  Look at the steps that he had to endure before he became king and then compare them to the steps that he took afterwards.  If one looks at these two portions of his life very different circumstances are present and both sets of footprints are clearly visible.  How many lifelong steps did he have to take before he finally understood what God was trying to free him from?  And an important question that we can only try and figure out is when that answer came to David concerning his footsteps and the direction that he was walking.

Each day of our lives represents another footstep that we will take.  There are decisions that we need to make on this same time basis, and some of us have to make choices even quicker for various reasons.  What direction are we actually travelling in and how will it affect our lives tomorrow or in the year?  Do we even notice that our footsteps are being watched?  Do we even contemplate about the decisions that our children will make based upon the decisions of our day?  Every breath that we take is subject to eyes and it is important for us to get our eyes off of our selfish steps and to make sure that we are taking the right steps in the best direction possible.

Humans enter into the desert without even knowing where they are or where they are about to encounter.  The progression of mankind is a normal feature and one that is one of the most important concepts that we need to heed on a second by second basis.  And if man unknowingly enters into a desert without true guidance then they have no one to blame but others; oops I meant themselves.  The desert is a dry heat just as an oven is and even though it may not be as hot as humid heat the prolonged effects on the body will complete the baking process just as easily, all the while we continue to take one more step in the same direction.

God has a plan for each one of us and it does not include self.  God will allow a person to choose self, but those footsteps will drain so much energy from you and you will reap absolutely nothing for your efforts.  It is allowing God to intervene in our lives that causes us to have the energy to make another step in the right direction, a direction that we can be used for everyone and not just our own ambitions.  And while we are letting God take over our innards He will transform our lives enough so that we can recognize just how much of the self we have inside and then we can begin to understand the difference between God’s steps and our steps.

Whether a person knows or accepts this next statement is a personal choice, but God has already set into motion your life and it is strictly up to you to take those steps in life.  It is totally up to you to surrender your own will and give all of your cares and worries to God.  He is perfectly fine with allowing you to choose your own direction, it shall break His heart to see this occur but He has no choice in the matter.  See, God has to allow us to make these choices and for Him to be a just and righteous King, He has no choice but to follow His own stance from the beginning of human history.  There are paths that we take every day and since God created our hearts He understands exactly what we need in order to survive each step.  Yet, He shall not force His will upon us and even those hard core atheists who eventually find God and accept Him as their Savior make that choice to serve God.  It is always our choice to voluntarily take the desert route or the route that God shows us.

Please, please understand that the Bible is full of people and their stories. The Bible is about humans and the choices that they make whether they be Godly ones or not and the realization that each choice that they make will have a directional result along with that choice.  The Bible is filled with personal tragedies and so in secular human history and on the other hand both sources are also filled with wondrous events that embrace the good of mankind.  Each one of us will take steps and for those who believe that standing still and not moving in life is a good thing, well it is actually a step in the wrong direction.  God intends for us to move and while we are keeping our movements one step at a time, He wants us to have our spirits still and listening for Him to send out directions so our steps can be fewer in number.  See, the Israelites did not have to spend forty years wandering in the desert their journey could have been so much shorter if they would have had a pure heart and understood why they were there in the first place.  I guess this truly defines the picture of going your own way or going God’s.

Once we allow God to take hold of our lives our steps become totally different and we are engaged into another direction and environment.  Our direction becomes towards others and not towards ourselves.  It is a progression that frees us from the inside out and cannot be satisfied that has anything to do with self.  Life becomes alive again and our true meaning in life will be evident though our freedom.  But if we choose to ignore our creator and all of His ways our lives will be filled with emptiness in our freedom and all of the choices that we make will sink into the inner dark abyss of our selfishness.  God loves each and every one of us and it His desire for us to understand that we need to be set free from our captors and that after our freedom our steps need to be guided by His path so that we may be truly free from our captivity.

DLB

Communion is Restoration

Communion is Restoration

11/23/13

Communion is a way of life for everyone who attends church.  Though the doctrinal procedures of communion differ in length and content the basic concepts are adherently installed into one beautiful process.  Communion represents the cornerstone of Christian beliefs and will always be the key to understanding what the life, death, and resurrection of Christ means to our lives.  But have we considered the ties that the articles that we use in communion to how they relate in the relationship between God and man?  It is an interesting concept and one that up until now I had never thought about, but it brings this remembrance of Christ more to life now that I understand its deeper meaning.

Many of us who are familiar with communion understand the importance of its symbolism.  Communion is one of the more important commands and remembrance things that Christians do as a testament to the life, death and resurrection of Christ.  Communion is a solemn occasion where one needs to reflect how Christ gave His life for our chance to have a restored relationship with God the Father.  Much has been debated, speculated and even argued about how to conduct the procedures for this command of Jesus and in some instances one has to be a member of that church to even participate, leaving out the true meaning of the unconditional restoration process that Christ gave to us as He ascended into heaven.

The Last Supper is one of the more famous passages in the New Testament.  It is cited many times throughout the year and is used on many occasions including weddings.  Communion should be one of the focal points in all of humanity since it represents the one true way that mankind can redeem itself from all of the dirt that we have obtained in our lives.  It is a unique form of worship and submission that only God could dream about and to fulfill with His son being the centerpiece of the entire process.

The question has been raised concerning the act of blood sacrifice and why its results stopped even though the procedure continued after Jesus was crucified.  It is a logical question and one that is easily explained but can be kind of hard to understand if one does not understand the meaning of both sides of the story.  Generally speaking the altar and blood sacrifice was the means that man asked God for forgiveness of their sins.  By sacrificing the animal and shedding of its life giving blood, man acknowledged to God that he understood that there would be no way that he / she could ever recognize true life in the current state of death that they had chosen to create.  It was the act of shedding the blood and giving the life of the animal that proved to God that man was serious enough about his own living condition that he would give something that was pure in order to redeem himself from a perfect and holy creator.  God created all living things which include animals.  So, you have an item that God created and that man grew and nurtured and then was willing to give it up to a being that was perfect in every way possible, seems kind of unique doesn’t it?  Also, sacrifices were done at a specific time of the year and not in random at all, there was a separation still present for it was not yet time for complete relationship.

Keep this in mind as we fast forward to the time of Christ and the Last Supper passage in the Bible.  The disciples went up to Jesus and asked Him what was going to happen and where Passover was going to be held.  The place for the Last Supper had already been chosen and all of the normal procedures followed just as it was many times before.  However, God had something else in mind for this time and even though the disciples had no clue what was about to happen, Jesus fully understood what was going to transpire and it was to be the culmination of His life for our restoration, yet the ancient procedures still had to be followed in order for perfect placement and fulfillment in God’s orderly manner. 

Jesus makes an unusual statement in that after they had eaten He took the bread and broke it and said to the disciples that it was His body that was going to be broken.  Then Jesus took the cup and told them to drink the wine for it will represent His blood that would be shed for all mankind.  To Christians this is a beautiful symbol of Christ’s life, death and resurrection and everything that His death means for our eternal salvation and restoration with God.  God had the perfect plan in store for His son that would define the way that our relationship had been with God way back before sin entered into the world and through Jesus and the articles of Communion, God gave us another correlation and confirmation that Jesus is the only way that this could happen.

Going back to the sacrificial era, we notice that mankind is represented by the high priest or if you wish to think on a personal level, Abraham.  It was God who created man and it was Abraham who created Isaac.  The process was in sequence as a future symbol that God had a plan for man’s redemption and restoration yet it was not time for this new process to take place, so the sacrificing continued. The innocent and pure animal was used in the sacrificial setting in the Old Testament.  Once again God created the animal from nothing and man nurtured the animal and kept it as pure as possible up until the time for sacrificing.  This too was a pattern that was chosen by God in order for the perfect bridge to be formed so that we may have life everlasting.  It might seem that I am completing some circles right at the moment but make no mistake that each of these items fit perfectly into what God is sharing.

Jesus took bread which was a customary item at this time of the year.  The bread itself came from the wheat that grew in the field.  A farmer had to take care of that wheat and nurture it until it was ready for harvesting.  The farmer did not create the wheat plant, God did. Yet man had to grow the wheat and then harvest it so that it could be used for food.  There is a process that it takes to make bread and this process includes time, for bread cannot make itself.  The bread itself was made by the hands of the human from a plant that was created by God.  The same process occurred with the sacrificial animal as it did with the bread, which brings me to the wine.

Where does wine come from?  It comes from grapes.  Wine is a product of grapes and even though it comes from a natural source it must be processed before it can be consumed.  Who created the grapes?  God did.  Man takes the grapes and grows them each year and then processes them into wine, jelly, juice etc, but in this case we are going to stick to the wine idea.  Wine takes time to process which takes months to complete and cannot happen overnight.  Steps have to be initiated and completed before the wine is ready to drink.  Wine is a purified drink and is safe to drink without having the unknown effects of contamination.

So we now have some specific examples that were used in the sacrificial process and in the Communion process that are connected.  Do I believe that this is a coincidence?  NO WAY!!!  Remember, for everything that God does He has a divine purpose and a flawless plan that is alive and the topic for this article is another example of how God works in everything.  One final question to answer and the pieces will be connected.  That question is how does Jesus fit into all of this lineage and symbolism?

In the beginning of man’s history God and man had a pretty good relationship.  Both parties walked with each other every day and held some pretty detailed conversations I suppose.  But when man decided to separate himself from our Creator, a division occurred that could not be brought back together by any methods that man had to offer.  All parties understood this so God began the restoration process. Restoration does not come over night and it does not come at a low price so man had to understand that it would take a while before this division could be mended. 

God made man perfect in every way possible so our “roots” in origin come from a pure and holy foundation; sound familiar?  When man decided to leave God’s ways, God still wanted a relationship with man and this began the sacrificial process to teach man that a way was possible.  The process used a creation of God by a sinful being to complete the connection of two spiritual realms.  This sacrifice has to be of pure nature and would never be used again after the process was completed; a total sacrifice of that life was required.

He process continued until God choose Mary to complete the restoration process between God and man.  God became the father of Jesus which represented a holy blood line given to a human which then served as the perfect birth process for the one that would be considered the bridge that crosses the separation gap.  Jesus was the perfect created being that combined both the holy and the human which completes the same process that has been demonstrated with the sacrificial process, and the bread and wine process.  Jesus was created by God and born and raised by Mary a human.  This is the perfect example that God has a purpose and plan for each and every one of our lives no matter what your circumstances are or might be.  If there had been any doubt that God does care about us and is not in existence, this article proves that God is alive, He is everywhere and that He has a perfect, fulfilling and complete plan ongoing in each person’s life.

It is stated in the Bible that God loves us and even knew us before we were conceived in our mother’s body.  It is evident that God’s plan for our lives was already in development before the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.  As humans we do not fully comprehend His timing but we need to make sure that we trust God well enough to follow what He has in store for our lives.  It takes both God and man to make the universe work properly and it takes God and man working together to provide our lives with everything we need in order to survive.  In all matters, both great and small from the creation to the ends of the world, God must be present in our lives in order for us to have the true meaning of life.  We need to stop and take a closer look at what God has provided for our lives and to make sure that everyone in the world knows this truth.

DLB

Your Worth

Your Worth

11/22/13

Ever get the feeling that your life has no meaning to it?  All of us have had that thought run across our minds sometime during our tenure on earth.  Ever wonder if someone would show up at your funeral when you leave this physical life?  These questions and many more similar to them pose many different beliefs about how people would react after we are gone.  These settings are the ones that our enemy uses against us in order to make sure that we do not issue our real authority and meaning to the world.  When these doubts come into our minds we need to remember that we do have a purpose in life and that as long as we sit there and do nothing, our true nature for our existence cannot be fulfilled.

There is not a day that goes by in our lives that we feel inadequate or inferior to others in some certain way.  We humans have this complex that needs to be fed every once-in-a-while to reassure us of our status and place in the world.  There are a great number of causes for these feelings to present themselves and when they do we can always count on the world to make sure we feel each and every pain possible while we are being attacked.  There are also days that these feelings seem overwhelming to our lives and the outlook becomes dim or even un-seeable; the light has been shut off at the end of the tunnel if you wish to put it in those words.

This is usually when we cower down and go sit in some hollow and quiet place within ourselves and mope for a while until we look around and see that the surroundings have improved a little.  But in reality when we have these feelings that is the time that we need not to cower but to be aggressive and prove to ourselves and our enemy that we are better and stronger than what the world can throw at us.  If we allow the world to defeat us in any way our motions as a functioning unit will eventually cease and then the feelings of unimportance will grow into a dynamic dysfunctional state that one may never recover.  This is why it is of the utmost importance that we recognize and realize our potential that each and every one of us has within our lives.

As many of you know I am an avid soccer fan.  I have played the sport since I was in junior high, followed the various leagues around the world and even coached a few games in the absence of the head coach of a team.  When I was young soccer was not the most popular sport in this nation so being able to watch matches outside of the country was nearly impossible, and no one would even dream about getting to watch a match as it was occurring; this was due to the technological level of the world along with the fact that soccer was not that popular so the effort would not have been extensive to promote such an event.

As time passed the country’s interests have peaked more and with the internet and everything that it can generate, I now can watch almost any soccer match that I wish and even choose which country’s league to watch as well.  A couple of years ago I located a website that kept the scores from the leagues around the world and it updates itself every two minutes, so even though I am watching one game I can flip over and get updates whenever I want from the other matches that are being played at the same time, kind of like what American football has now as well.

As I was scrolling this website I came across a match that I really did not recognize any of the teams that were playing.  I stopped and took a careful look at them and then switched to a new window and typed in one of the team’s names.  It pulled up the information page and began to read about the team.  It was a reserve team for one of the larger teams in a league.  So I switched back to the scoring page and looked at the teams again to see what the score was and how much time was left in the match.  I then noticed something that I had not seen before on this page and it was the word “OSBOLETE” in capital letters next to the names of the two teams playing.

I laughed at this site at first and then thought to myself that this was a humiliating statement.  Even though I had never heard of these two teams before and I had no idea of why the website had put this word next to these team’s names, I knew that if any member of these teams of any of their family members saw this they might not take it too kindly.  I know that my junior high, high school, and state all star team scores never made the front page of a major newspaper but even at my lowly league level our match was never deemed “obsolete.” This simple word and circumstance can be demoralizing to a person, team or nation if it is continually portrayed to them as such and it is a great example of how words can and do hurt if we allow them to be released into any direction.

Our house is a nice house and our family enjoys its setting quite nicely.  We have plenty of space to live in yet not too much extra room for additional items.  Our house has two bathrooms in it and serves our needs with no complaints.  The upstairs bathroom is where all of us take our showers and baths on a daily basis and we have finally obtained a routine that everyone has the opportunity to take a hot shower or bath when they wish.  For the last few days I have noticed that one of my daughters had dropped a dime on the floor.  Of course being a teenager they would not dare pick it up without being to do so, so the dime was left in its spot.

Each morning as I performed my daily routine in the bathroom I noticed that no one had picked up that dime and even though it was not in anyone’s way it was still lying in the exact same spot that it was when it landed.  I continued to watch this dime not move for three straight days, until this morning when I had completed my bathroom duties I picked up that dime and took it and placed it into my change pile so it can be used.  As I completed this task God showed me a couple of things about our lives and how we perceive them according to the world’s standards and according to His standards.  I had no idea that a while back that a soccer scoring website and a fallen dime would have any connection to our lives, but both represent a Godly concept that many of us often forget.

God has created within our lives a unique ability in that we have the opportunity to make things happen.  It does not matter what we make happen or think about doing in our lives, the potential for us to create an idea or to place that idea into motion and make our lives better is a direct object of Kingdom principles and how our lives were made to operate.  If we choose to sit around and not do what our talents have authorized us to do then we become like the dime that is just lying around on the floor and not serving what it was created to do. Each of us have a talent, gift or special function that has been created within us and we need to understand that our lives have this purpose and if we do not engage this purpose we are actually destroying our life from within our core.

The world is not going to pick you up, dust you off and place you into the perfect setting so that you can function at your utmost potential. The world is going to allow you to lay there on the floor and get trampled on or ignored, which is the job of the world.  We cannot afford to lie around as this dime did, for we are not fulfilling our destiny that we have been created for.  It is evident that we have lost our desire to be productive because we have become lazy due to the fact that we have been lying around for so long that we have forgotten what it means to have any worth.  If that dime had any way of communicating with us I could guarantee that it would be screaming out for someone to use it as it was designed.

There is not one person ever created that is obsolete.  Each person has a potential to develop into the best human being who ever walked the face of the earth.  There will be billions of people who never make it on the front pages of the newspapers or in the market headlines, but look at the majority of those people and one has to ask themselves would I really want that lifestyle anyway?  A person does not have to be popular in order to fulfill their mission and talents in life.  Those soccer players whose match was deemed obsolete had a goal during that 90 minutes of play and that was to do their best for the club that they were representing.  I did not recognize who that team was and I had no clue of who those players were but even though their names were not immediately recognized by the world, they had talent enough to play for that team and one never knows who might be watching that match and report a player or two to another manager.

Those players recognized that they loved the sport enough to play at a common level division and to see what happens during that match day.  Life is the exact same way in that we must participate at the level that we are on each day so that we may fulfill our potential that all of us have inside.  I am not talking about drawing lines that serve as a boundary for what we can do and who we can believe in, I am setting an example for myself and the capabilities that I have; that is what I am referring to in this article.  For a long time we have allowed many detours to appear in our lives that have stopped our progress as a nation and as individuals.  We have limited ourselves with how we think and what we want enough to end our status as the greatest nation on earth.

If our personal and physical lives are in this shape and manner, just imagine what our inner or spiritual life is reflecting.  We continually see our country’s population become lazier by the week.  The common “man” does not even get out of their pajamas any more.  There is a huge difference between the poor and the lazy and even Jesus addressed this issue by saying that a country will always have the poor, yet He mentioned nothing about the lazy; that is until He was overturning the tables in the Temple!  Yes, I went there and I shall continue to go there until God shows me different.

There are many of us who have been blessed enough to have the capability to invest some of our hard earned money into the stock market.  While I am not going to dwell on this issue much the same concept applies to our lives as the stock market.  One has to provide a steady input to receive back gains from your efforts.  If one does not put any initiative into life then do not expect to receive anything back in return and if one dares to have any different opinion of this philosophy where their standard of living is concerned, they are far less than poor, they are the definition of being lazy.

The Church is now flirting with this lazy standard of living because of what she has allowed into the confines of her heart.  It is ok to accept the hurting and the sinners of the world.  Why?  Because you are one of these people and the Church accepted you, right?  You have been taught to be a living and thriving church which has allowed you to see your potential yet you lie there accepting all of the benefits and do nothing.  You have purposefully accepted your destiny as being a lazy church.  If you want a good example of what the Church will be going through, then watch the news every night or read the papers because this is exactly what she will be experiencing very shortly.

God calls us as individuals to live a fulfilled life, in every aspect that we can conjure up.  Yet we see humans squandering their lives each second.  Doesn’t this break your heart to witness?  The youth of today hold gadgets in their hands and have a deeper and more meaningful relationship with that instrument than they do their friends or family.  We have allowed this vampirism to suck the life and willingness to thrive right out of us and we are rapidly becoming zombies to life as we know it (I have heard that somewhere before).  God is calling for us to return back to Him so that He can restore His life back into our inner beings.

We were not made to sit around and do nothing.  Being alive and active is part of our dominion that we have inside us and it is our duty to make sure that we exercise this dominion to the world.  God loves us and it is His desire that we live abundantly and have prosperity no matter which area we choose to be accompanied.  Your life has meaning and we cannot afford to listen to what the world has to offer us concerning this matter.  The world’s standards are based upon a lie and if we accept this lie then we are doomed to sit there on the floor as that dime, and to be honest we deserve nothing more than that option if we choose to stay in that condition.  But God can use us and He does every day even if we do not realize it but in order for us to accept this concept we must return to Him and allow His love to shine through our lives once again.  This concept applies to both on the personal level and on the Church level and if we complete this life giving activity within our hearts, the nations will soon follow as well.

DLB