Don't Be Too Smart

Don't be smart in a good way. What I find so easy to do is think up or reference or hint or hear interesting truths about God, convincing ideas that get me going and I share them with people. That can be very good...but then...

"We put our common sense on the throne and then attach God's name to it." ~Oswald Chambers

Those truths can become common sense, and we begin to uplift the good ideas that happen to coincide with Jesus' teachings and things that he might say. However, that common sense and those inspirational ideas become the idol and they get in the way of worshiping God. If they cannot simply be a step, a reinforcement to be pocketed but not dwelt upon, then they are most likely going to become a sort of god, or at least making God become his moral standards rather than what he is: the ultimate, perfect and holy being who created those standards to keep us in our place.

"In essence, Jesus says, 'Continue steadily on with what I have told you to do, and I will guard your life. If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from My deliverance.' Even the most devout among us become atheistic in this regard--we do not believe Him." ~Oswald Chambers again

Piscatorem piscis amare potest?

“The demons that make a person afraid are the hardest to cast out.” ~The Bronze Bow (book)

As a sort of epilogue to or follow-up of last week's blog...

Sometimes people can't see past the thing that blocks their view. Jesus asks us to not only see past those demons however, but to love those who might represent the demons we face in our own lives.

 

"'Daniel,' he [Jesus] said, 'I would have you follow me.'
'Master!....I will fight for you to the end!'

'My loyal friend,' he said, 'I would ask something much harder than that. Would you love for me to the end?'" ~The Bronze Bow (book)

Piscatorem piscis amare potest? Can the fish love the fisherman? Indeed it can. Does that mean it has to like it? Nope. You can dislike the sin, just not the sinner. Love the sinner (yourself included) for the life they have been given and the potential they have.

Open up your moat today!

De Profundis

I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. ~John 14:27

When you get into that pit, those ugly depths of self-torment and utter despair when life seems pointless and love has abandoned you, there aren't too many options for getting out again. Eventually we always do, whether it is because of a friend/someone who comes life, satisfying our depression with worldly pleasures, or seeking out a higher power to walk the road of life alongside us. It is impossible for anyone to journey through life without those low points when God might as well be a golden idol to spit upon, so to get out of that is no small thing. It takes faith and just a bit of theurgy. Theugry is the working of a divine or supernatural agency in human affairs.

Just let it go; there's always someone there to catch you!

From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help. Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. I am counting on the LORD; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word. I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn. O Israel, hope in the LORD; for with the LORD there is unfailing love and an overflowing supply of salvation. He himself will free Israel from every kind of sin. ~Psalm 130

Isolato

 

  

Isolato, according to Mr. Dictionary, is a person spiritually isolated from society. As Christians, it can be one of the most difficult things to find a niche where we will not be affected by the things other people so easily give into. This is essential, however, to living according to God's plan and being in-the-know with him 24/7.

Be encouraged, because God can find a home in the frailest of hearts. Simply dedicate your whole life to him, live in the word, work hard at not giving in to temptations of the flesh, and then sit back and watch him do his work in you!

Apologetic Few

This is a section from The Apology: The Mission of Socrates - The Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel" (24b). "Apology" here has its earlier meaning (now usually expressed by the word "apologia") of speaking in defense of a cause or of one's beliefs or actions (from the Ancient Greek ἀπολογία).

"Death is one of two things. Either it is annihilation, and the dead have no consciousness of anything; or, as we are told, it is really a change: a migration of the soul from this place to another. Now if there is no consciousness but only a dreamless sleep, death must be a marvelous gain. I suppose that if anyone were told to pick out the night on which he slept so soundly as not even to dream, and then to compare it with all the other nights and days of his life, and then were told to say, after due consideration, how many better and happier days and nights than this he had spent in the course of his life--well, I think that the Great King himself, to say nothing of any private person, would find these days and nights easy to count in comparison with the rest. If death is like this, then, I call it gain; because the whole of time, if you look at it in this way, can be regarded as no more than one single night. If on the other hand death is a removal from here to some other place, and if what we are told is true, that all the dead are there, what greater blessing could there be than this, gentlemen?"

Verisimilitude of Life

The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. ~John 16:9

The world sees a different truth than the one Jesus offers. The truth of the world is to live a good life; keep it simple. Sin is only a part of that complacency.

Just because it looks nice...

So how are we to know what's truth comparative to worldly morals? When things are so deceiving, they will sometimes look like something good when the real purpose behind it is to capture and tame its victims. The answer is simple. Nothing is too complex that you can't simply pray about it, ask God to guide you in the decision and then make the right choice about it. God wouldn't lead you somewhere deceiving, so just trust in your feet belonging to Him, live in Him 24/7, and you won't go wrong. 

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. ~John 8:32

Land Ho!

No, that doesn't mean I am dying (well, I guess it does...) but that I can see where I am going!

I am a vessel. God is my Craftsman; Jesus, my Captain. I fly the flag of Love and sail the oceans of affliction. There are 6-billion islands to stop at on the way to my Maker's kingdom, so I'd better get started! God is in control, so there is nothing to shy away from. Frightening and disheartening things are basically the foundation of this sinful world, so they will be inevitable sights along the way. However, they have no ability to stop us if we have a mind to keep God closer-to-heart than anything else we might encounter.

"God does not simply roll the dice to decide the fate of man, he picks up the die and places it wherever he likes." ~Yours Truly

That is to say he knows just what goes on with us and won't simply be whimsically helping us as he feels up to it. God always has a reason; we as human simply make up excuses for his lack of insight when things seem to go wrong and stay wrong. They really only go wrong though when we let them affect us. Think of it instead as a lack of wind, a temporary block in the road that will be overcome in time. That way, we can continue past our personal troubles and reach out with God's comforting hand to those who can't get over it themselves.

I now have the book "Maritide", which that quote above is from, up for download here.

"Lots are cast into the lap, but they are disposed of by the Lord." ~Proverbs 16:33