Saturday, November 28, 2015

Darkness Hates the Light!

If someone we know is not walking in the light, then they cannot walk along with us. We can attempt to bring them into the light with the gospel, but if they refuse, then we can no longer walk along with them. Usually they will leave us, because darkness wants to hide from light.
 
John 3:19 ""This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil."

Wicked people flee the light, while hiding ...from it. Notice that pubs and bars are always dark, the windows are blocked so no one can see in or out. Those who desire to hide from God and God's people will go where it is dark. 
 
Unbelievers have a sense of conviction in the presence of believers, they think we make them uncomfortable, little do they know that it is the Light of Christ within us that brings conviction to their soul. When they run from us they are really running from Christ.
 
I believe this is the reason most often unbelievers will accuse us of something that is not true, they must find a reason why they are so uncomfortable, without realizing it is Christ Who exposes their heart.

John 3:20 ""For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."

Trips to Heaven and Back?

Next time someone claims to have been to heaven and back after dying this verse in 1 Timothy might be one to produce the evidence that no one goes to heaven temporarily. Paul the apostle had a vision, but he did not die, go to heaven and come back from the dead.
1 Timothy 6:16
"He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen."

Submission to God Brings Submission to Others


When a person cannot submit to others around them, it is not likely these same people will submit to an unseen God.

 
Submission is a state of mind driven by kindness, love and a spirit of service..

 
When someone only helps others when it can be seen by the world, then they are probably pretenders, not wanting to bother to help someone when it has no glory for them.

 
Matthew 6:1 ""Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven."

Friday, November 27, 2015

Jealousy A Relationship Killer

Psalm 69:3-5
"I Endure Scorn for Your Sake
…3I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; My eyes fail while I wait for my God. 4Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies; What I did not steal, I then have to restore. 5O God, it is You who knows my folly, And my wrongs are not hidden from You.…"

 
There are many I have met who are enduring hardness from extended family and from the culture around them, for no apparent reason. Sometimes we are living our lives in a normal and rational fashion, then someone comes along who snaps at us or argues with us when we merely express our opinion or desire. 
 
When we encounter this contention we might go home completely baffled as to what happened, even searching our hearts to see if we did anything wrong. After much contemplation we come to the conclusion that there didn't seem to be a logical or sensible reason for what occurred. 
 
Notice when we are in the company of empathetic kind people, we never walk away feeling anything but uplifted. However with certain people we always walk away feeling like we had been run over by a Mack truck. Even when no one was openly angry there was an aura of sadness or trepidation present that left us with a strong inclination to flee when given an opportunity. Once we leave the peace comes back and we can relax.
 
When this happens rarely with someone, we tend to think one of us was having a difficult day and allowed feelings to dominate the visit. When we are with someone and every encounter feels strained and unnatural, as though someone is guardedly aloof to hide themselves, while in a superior stance, then we are most likely experiencing a self absorbed narcissist.
 
I remember an encounter one day with a neighbor many years ago. She had a chopping block in her kitchen that I liked, what a good idea I thought, a little more working space in the center of my kitchen would make a big difference. After all we had six children to feed, meals were large often. 
 
I spoke to my husband about getting a chopping block expecting to get one like the neighbors, it was not expensive, so I thought our budget would handle it. I brought an ad to my husband to show him they were on sale, but he wanted to go to the store and see other styles that were available. When we got to the store he liked one that had a drawer for knives and some other things that would be convenient for us so we purchased that one, I was happy because it was better than I expected to get. 
 
One day my neighbor came over to visit, saw the block, immediately her face turned red, she proclaimed that she was jealous because it was better than hers. I would have been happy with one like hers, but my husband wanted the better one. I had no desire to have anything better than someone else, but my neighbor took offense as though I had done something wrong. The face of jealousy often reveals itself in this way, sadly people become jealous over far less, even when what they have is better than ours.
 
This same neighbor lady invited us to a holiday party, she had a wonderful casserole that all of us enjoyed and praised her about it. Several of us asked her for the recipe so that we could make it for our families. The neighbor told us that she would be happy to give us the recipe but that she always left out one ingredient so that she was the only one with the real recipe. Later she asked for a recipe from a friend in my presence, the friend gave her the recipe to her casserole, the neighbor asked her if she left anything out, to make sure she got the entire recipe. Notice that she felt alright about leaving out an ingredient for her recipe but would not accept anyone else doing it to her. 
 
The face of selfishness is not logical, fair or reciprocal. Maintaining a relationships long term with someone who has to always be special and better is nearly an impossibility. 
 
Not matter what the narc does, we must maintain our integrity, never repaying evil for evil, nor is it productive to try to teach the narc a lesson, it only enrages them causing more problems than we would have had if we had merely removed ourselves without a word.
 
The hardest lesson I have had to learn is that I am not responsible to teach everyone lessons, only those who are open, honest and willing to learn. When we realize someone is vengeful and angry when we attempt to help them learn, then it is time to move on.
 
All of us have things to learn and all of us have things to teach, it takes wisdom from God to discern who will learn and who can teach us. 
 
Proverbs 13:20 "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed."
 
Proverbs 26:4-5 "4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
Or you will also be like him. 5 Answer a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes."
 
The wise thing to do in the case of the jealous person, is to never respond to the unkind statements and in the future never share with them anything we get that is a blessing. It will be difficult to grow or even maintain a friendship based on competition. Friendships must be based on mutual respect and concern for one another.
 
Proverbs 14:30 "A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones."
 
Proverbs 27:4 "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?"
 
Song of Solomon "8:6 Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which has a most vehement flame."
 
Romans 13:13 "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying."
 
1 Corinthians 3:3 "For you are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men?"
 
1 Corinthians 13:4 "Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity braggs not itself, is not puffed up,"
 
Philippians 2:3 "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."
 
James 3:14 "But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth."
 
James 3:15 "This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish."
 
James 3:16 "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Our Private Side?

Our private side is often the side we hide, the public only sees our abridged version, our best side.
Makes me wonder about Donald Trump's private side, if someone will act the way he does in public perhaps his private life is much worse. He is on his third wife, that might be a clue. We tend to show our best side in public, if that is his best side I fear what his private side is like, you know.....the real Trump!
 
Either what you see is what you get, which is very rare, or he is even worse in private. Almost no one has only one true side they show others, everyone has an edited side they show the public, their church group or the shop keeper, the mail man and others to maintain a persona that makes people like us.

Trump the Class Clown

Can anyone answer this question?

Is it possible that Trump made a bet with someone that he would be able to be as outrageous and bombastic as possible as long as he said what the conservatives wanted to hear and they would still vote for him?

He keeps lampooning everyone in mocking terms, even a disabled reporter, as though it is perfectly natural and acceptable. While I have been enjoying the show as I never have before, laughing until my sides ached at times at Trumps cartoony antics, I cannot figure out for the life of me why anyone would take him seriously.

He is a clown, very entertaining clown at a times, when a little levity helps to deter us from all the ugly in the world. Do we really want a president like that, who lacks all sense of decorum and graciousness?

Perhaps YOU will be the next to be mocked by Trump! LOL

Are We Hid Behind the Holy Spirit?

"True Faith always produces good works, good works never produce faith" Hal Lindsey
 
Those who are attempting to be good by doing good deeds are merely showing their desire to be elevated in the eyes of others, their motives are fleshly. 
 
Those who are led by the Holy Spirit will not seek to do a good work, they will be led by God to obey Him, the glory will go to God. The good works will be present, but not because they are trying to be good, but rather a natural and consistent outpouring of Spiritual blessing.
 
James 2:14-26
"14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."
 
Those who love the Lord and do good works never feel a need to talk about it, they just live it. Those who feel a need to discuss their good deeds are often being led by their desire to be praised for what they have done. Those who do their good deeds in the Spirit, never feel a need to express it to others, they are satisfied with obedient to Christ while letting Him have the glory.
 
Matthew 6:2 ""So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full."

Matthew 6:5 ""When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full."
 
Our walk with the Lord is so satisfying to us that the praise of men is not necessary. I don't know who said this, but it makes sense to me from a Biblical perspective, here is the quote;
 
"One of the elements of holiness is the absence of self awareness."
 
Good works done to impress others or to feel superior always produces more pride, the more we indulge in this form of bragging, the more arrogant we become. 
 
True faith that produces good deeds in the Spirit, always brings the glory to God. We need to learn to be "hid behind the Holy Spirit.