Author: vladmin

As human beings, we are built with a need for acceptance and love. Even those who say they don’t, at heart, still care and want others to care about them as well. We feel the lack of something important in our lives and try to look for the answer in the world around us.

It is a never-ending search because, no matter how much someone else professes to accept us or to love us, there is a part of them that is held back. That is because we are also born with the need to put ourselves first. It is that instinct for self-preservation that allows us to survive in a world that is often hostile and unloving.

There are some people who are born into families that are loving and giving. There are some of us who have families that have no love, no community, no sense of putting the family above themselves, even for a short time. There are some who are born into abusive families that cause pain and humiliation and a sense of failure for those who are part of it. I think most families are a little bit of all of these things.

When I was a child, my family was more balanced though there was definitely an element of physical abuse that went beyond the bounds of loving reprimands. Once my parents divorced and I lived with my mother and siblings, the dynamic of our family went from somewhat balanced to one of abuse and a lack of caring for each other.

I’ve talked previously about my abuse by my mother and how it led her to give permission to my older brother to abuse me as well. It wasn’t too far a step for him to attempt to sexually assault me as well. This started when I was when I returned from a short time I spent with my father. I recall the first time it happened. My mother went to sleep and left us up to watch television until our bedtime. My brother handed me a book and commanded me to read it out loud to him. It was a pornographic book about the incestuous relationships of a man with his mother, his sister, and even his own daughter.

I struggled to read a bit to him because I didn’t understand the physical acts that were described. I was pretty naive in those days and had not been taught about normal physical relations let alone perverted and abnormal ones.

All I knew was that I hated reading it and wanted to get away from him and so I did. Even at so young an age, I somehow understood I had to keep him at arms length. From that night forward, I placed a chair under my bedroom door. And, yes, he did attempt to enter many times. Perhaps he hoped that I would forget but I did not. I would not fall asleep until I knew that he had gone to bed.

My world turned upside down that night and from then on, I spent my waking hours trying to stay away from our apartment until I knew that my mother was home and I would be safe. It took its toll on me. I no longer cared what I looked like and started to gain weight. I didn’t care about going to school and so I didn’t. All I cared about was staying safe.

It got worse when he invited his friends over. They would get high and it was suddenly three against one. Or it would have been if I didn’t have the public library as my safe haven away from the abuse of my home. I spent many days and evenings there and the librarians were kind and accepting. I was able to continue to educate myself though the books that I read.

There came a time when my hate of my life led me to a more dire solution. I’ll talk about that at some point in the future.

This went on for almost two years. It finallyimproved when my brother moved out of the house for good. I would have been in my junior year of high school if I hadn’t stopped taking classes or even showing up for school at all.

With him gone, my desire to go to school resurfaced. I was able to work with a counselor to take classes at my own speed. I would finish many semester classes in one to two weeks. By the end of that junior year, I had caught back up and was able to attend my senior year in a regular classroom environment.

While my schooling was back on track, I was still feeling shame, self-hate and anger. You might think I would have talked to my mother during the years my brother was still at home. I actually did try but she blamed me and not him. She told me I was exaggerating and she then increased his ability to punish me, based merely by the look on my face and not my actions or words.

However, with him out of the house, I no longer felt trapped. I was afraid that he might return but I was getting older and knew that I would be able to move out at 18 if I graduated and could get a job.

In the end, that turned out to be unnecessary. My brother overdosed on heroin and passed away. His funeral was the day of my high school graduation. I remember getting the call from his friend at the emergency room. He told me that my brother was dead.

I was with my one close friend and she got her mother to take care of my little brother while I saw waiting for my family to come for me. They didn’t. As I sat for hours with my friend on the stairway, all I could think was that I was free. I never needed to fear him again. It was difficult to feign the sorrow my other family members felt when, deep down inside, I was feeling the first bit of joy I had had in many years.

A few years later, I was driving down the street and saw someone who I thought was my brother. I started shaking so bad I could barely pull over. I had to sit for about a half an hour telling myself that he was dead, he would never hurt me again and the fear that I felt was just in my mind.

I was lucky, I know. He was never successful at raping me. However, he did instill fear, shame, and hate that colored my relationships with men.

When I became a Christian, I had the mental knowledge that God loved me and that what had happened was not my fault. It took many years and many problems in my life for me to finally shed those horrible fears and hate. The self-hate was the hardest because somehow, in my mind, something about me had invited my previously loving brother to, in my mind, become what amounted to an animal.

While I am no longer in that place, I will admit that I always look askance at men and their motivations. I am always really careful about putting children in their care. I know that these days, one has to have the same concern about women. I don’t think it is wrong to feel the way I do. I never want to be an adult who looks the wrong way while a child is being abused.

I think this is something that God wants us to do. He does not want us to ignore the pleas and needs of children. He wants us to love them and care for them. He wants us to teach them what is wrong and what is right according to the Bible. We are responsible for raising godly children. We are held accountable for doing anything to harm them.

I’m glad that this is so important to God. He is now my Father and he provides all the love and care that my earthly family did not. He teaches me to live with love in my heart towards others which is something I had never learned before. Without him, I was mired in anger, shame, hate and self-loathing; with him, I am able to rise above the things of the past and soar with him to find new ways to live the way he wants me to do and to love others and myself as well.

Philippians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

There are altogether too many people who represent themselves as experts in one or many subjects yet who are not experts at all. They simply say things that others want to hear. Since their audience is already on board with what they have to say, no one will question them no matter how illogical their statements may be. That is, except for those who think differently. Those individuals are ridiculed, made fun of, or simply dismissed as being too dim to understand the wonderful concept that is being put forth.

This is a day when knowledge seems less important. It is, in part, because our schools have focused on social issues instead of teaching students how to think for themselves. Those of us who are older or have been taught by their families the true meanings of right and wrong, seem out of step with the rest of the world.

There are those who are still brave enough to confront false information. I don’t know for how long that will continue. If you step too far out in correcting popular thought, you run the risk of being threatened and having your family hounded or even risk losing your life.

I don’t know how things have gotten so far out of control. I stopped paying attention a few years ago and then, this last year, I opened my eyes up once again. I was shocked to see how rapidly mankind is descending into chaos. How we can applaud the taking of a baby’s life (by its mother) and yet condemn those, because of their religion, that try to help people and raise them from poverty into sustainable life.

Our priorities are skewed. We aren’t truly looking out for one another anymore, that is, if we ever really did so. I think we did. I know that my country went to war to help other countries from being put under the boot of tyranny. The brave soldiers who lost their lives did so to help those who could not help themselves.

Even in our own history, so many young men (and some women) risked their lives to stop slavery. They saw the evil of trying to say that one person can own another and were willing to, and did for many, put their lives on the line.

So, I’m inclined to think that people have, in the past, helped one another and loved those that they didn’t know. They were willing to put their own needs aside and give to those who had even less.

How often does that happen today? There’s at least one individual (on Youtube) who runs around giving money to others. While I applaud the action, the reason behind it is probably not love, it is probably to get “subbies” and “clicks” which means money to the individual. How much, I don’t know. However, it is enough to make me think that their motives are not altruistic.

There are still individuals and churches who do things for others without expecting anything in return. The churches ask their congregants to join in and find the joy of giving (of time and/or resources.) There is so much more joy in giving than in receiving. Though I must admit those who are desperately in need do need to receive more than they give.

I recently talked to someone who told me that they were in too much pain to go out and spend time helping others. I suggested perhaps financial assistance. They told me, rightfully, that because of their physical problems, their finances were tremendously strained. I acknowledged the difficulty of their position and then suggested something that all of us can and should do for others. Pray for them and, if you are able to do so, share with them the love, sacrifice and saving power of Jesus Christ.

There is no reason why we Christ-followers cannot do those things. We are always so hesitant to talk to others and, please, if you say to someone you will pray for them, do it. Don’t talk the talk. You need to walk the walk.

My husband and I find time to pray for people without telling them at all. It isn’t necessary to tell them to hold them up to God and ask him to give them peace, health, even a job. There is no request for something which is good, that God will not listen to. He doesn’t always answer the way we want him to but he does listen and his answer is what is truly needed.

This brings me back to my beginning paragraph. Many Christ-followers are not aware of what the Bible tells us about being a Christian and doing what God has asked us to do. As an overall church, we are lacking in knowledge about the things that we profess to be the greatest and most important part of our lives. Still, many of us hold ourselves out as experts in our religion.

It behooves us to study. We need to read our Bibles. We should find a Bible believing church that truly follows Christ. If we find a problem in our church, take it to the head pastor to solve.

I’ve done so recently. I questioned our pastor (who is Biblical scholar) about a sermon and made a suggestion. I was given an answer of sorts but it may be that I didn’t make clear what my question was really or, perhaps, I need to dwell on his answer and ask God to make it clearer to me. In many ways, it was enough that the pastor did respond and, more importantly, that I got past my reluctance (even some fear) to approach him. In the past, I’ve had the opposite reaction from a pastor of another church.

So, we have to be bolder and, at the same time, we have to become educated in God’s word. The world may consider you ignorant, crazy or stupid. I don’t care what the world thinks about me in this matter. I know that I will one day stand before Jesus on Judgement day. On that day, I don’t want my fear of what others thought of me to have detered me from following Jesus commandment to share his love to others and to spread the good news of salvation throughout the entire world.

2 Timothy 3:10-17

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings — what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Where are we heading? The condition of the world is getting worse rather than better. It seems like an apocalypse, of some sort, is in the making. For many, day-to-day life is terrifying. Will they still have their jobs at the end of the day? Will their closest relationship still exist? Will their loved ones still care enough about them to check on them every once in a while? Are they alone in their fear of this mass of confusion?

Those are just the personal issues. For most of us, that is all that we dare explore. Looking at the larger problems in the world is simply beyond us. It is a chore in exhausting and futile effort. We can make some changes in our small circle but the larger changes seem to be for someone else.

I can understand that completely. I stopped watching the news over ten years ago. I found that seeing the events unfolding depressed me, angered me or left me trying to figure out what I could do to make a change. I always came up empty. I was just one person and the problems were too many.

Instead, I tried to focus on helping others in ways that I could do. For a while, that made me feel better about myself until others started speculating about me and my motives.

They were probably right to do so. Not for the reasons they thought but for the reasons that I knew of. I knew that, while my essential motive was to help others, I also found a type of vain glory in myself for doing so.

I’ve stopped that. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to do what is important to God and not what I deem important, even if it is something to help other individuals.

There are things we are called to do and things that we simply want to do. Trying to figure out the difference is not easy. It takes a lot of prayer and miss-steps. The great thing about God is that he is patient. He waits for us to get back on course when we have stepped out on our own.

Still, some days I wish there was more that I can do. For instance, I wanted to help at my local church. I can’t go to the sanctuary because of health reasons, so I thought helping the online ministry would be a good fit.

Here’s the rub. I’ve volunteered more than once. Certainly, one could even say, one time too many. While I have been told that someone would get back to me, no one ever has. At first, it was a little bit hurtful but I took it to God in prayer.

Once again, I found that I was trying to do what I wanted and not necessarily what God wanted. Maybe I can help at my church or maybe I am to be helped by them. Who knows? I know that I can still email with words of encouragement or questions to the pastoral team. That is enough for now. If there is something for me to do, then God will open the door. At this point, though, I’m done volunteering and will wait patiently.

That doesn’t mean I won’t do other things, just not those things that I thought I would and should do. I somehow think that what I will be called to do next will be something that surprises me and makes me ponder how in the world I can get it accomplished.

If we are called to do only what we are good at, then we can congratulate ourselves on the results of the work we have accomplished. If, on the other hand, we are called to something new, different and even difficult, then we will know that God is the one working through us and we are his hands and feet.

I’ve always been fearful of telling others about Jesus and his saving power. Even so, I’ve done so. I don’t know with what success, if any, but I know that I feel that God is with me at those times. I don’t need to know anything more than that.

A lot of Christians have problems sharing about their faith. It’s really important for us to do so. There are people in our lives that we think are Christians but who may be what I call, cultural Christians.

Their family went to church (at least sometimes) and they celebrated Christmas and Easter. They prayed to God at Thanksgiving. They may have even attended church as adults, maybe even every Sunday. They might be on worship teams, leadership teams, etc. Just serving at the church doesn’t mean that they have experienced the saving power of Jesus Christ.

When I talk to other Christians, at some point these days, I try to ask when they became a Christ-follower. I’ve found that born-again Christians can point to a time in their lives when they came to the end of themselves, surrendered to God and asked Jesus to save them.

The individuals who make my cultural Christian antenna go up are those who say that they have always been a Christian and that their parents were, too.

It’s easier to share Jesus with someone who has always denied him than to share with someone who believes themselves saved because they are from a long term Christian family. They are not as open to hearing that there is more than they have experienced so far. They certainly don’t want their Christianity questioned and maybe for good reason. They like living the way they do and don’t want to upset the boat. It is not easy to acknowledge that you are a sinner when what you want to be thought of is a “good Christian”.

Still, this is not a small thing to let pass by. This is their eternal soul that is at question. I wonder how we will answer to God about those we didn’t speak to when we had the opportunity. Perhaps we are the only person they will ever meet who can explain the love of Jesus to them.

Remember, there will be many who cry out that they knew Jesus and still, they will be excluded. See, knowing Jesus isn’t enough. Satan knows Jesus. All of the demons know who Jesus is. So, if you know someone who knows Jesus but may not be born-again into his kingdom, it is important to talk to them about salvation. It won’t be easy and it may take a delicate touch.

I’ll be honest, my first step is going to be to email our pastor and ask him to preach on this subject. Even if it doesn’t touch the individuals I am concerned about, it will help others. It will also give me a starting point for future discussions with those that I do know.

I may not be able to change the world but I can work with God to make changes of importance in my own life. I can reach out to others by telling them about those changes and hope that this will help them see where they need to trust in God and make changes, too.

I would like to say that we can all make small changes and the world will change too. It will somewhat but, according to the Bible, we are on a collision course with history. The end was known by God from the beginning and he has told us how it will end. Sadly, that means this world will be brought to the utter brink of disaster. So far so, that if God doesn’t step in, we will entirely destroy all life.

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

We have been discussing worship at our church. There are all kinds of worship, including the songs we sing before each sermon. Our pastor pointed out that a week from this past Sunday, we could all get together and talk about the contents of his message… and not remember much about it at all. He suggested that a discussion would mention that he talked about the Bible. Yes, and we would be sure that he mentioned God. And certainly, there was talk about Jesus. Yes, of course, Jesus. That it was a really great sermon!

While we might not remember much of the sermon, the songs of worship would stick with us much longer.

My husband and I talked about this with some other church members and, sure enough, we didn’t remember much about the sermon but we all remembered what the pastor said we might remember. Though it had nothing to do with Christianity in and of itself, I think that that part of this particular sermon will stick with us all for a long, long time.

What it did spark off was a discussion of the type of musical worship we had each grown up with and had experienced as adults. For a number of the individuals, they had had very regimented times of song. Mostly old-fashioned hymns. Some of the individuals said there were times in the worship when they would stand and then sit down. Then repeat.

Others, like myself as a child, simply sang old hymns and had choirs and, perhaps, an organist. There were hymn books in the seat backs in front of the pews. Oh yes, there were hard wood pews and not cushioned seats.

For one individual, his only experience had been with our current church. He loves the music and it was a big part of what drew his interest in Christianity. For another, the change was so drastic from the regimented churches of her prior years, that she, too, was drawn to the church.

Others were used to quieter, acoustic songs that set the moment for receiving the word. Louder music was a bit jarring and is taking some getting used to.

My husband had extremely regimented services when he was a child. They were handed schedules of what was going to happen and at what time. The songs they were to sing were listed on a board inside of the sanctuary. When he met me and starting attending the style of church I was used to, the change was like night and day.

I became a Christian during the latter part of the Jesus freak movement of the 1960-1970’s. Church was, quite often, held on the beaches of Southern California. The music was provided by individuals who had guitars and brought them with them. Baptisms were held in the Pacific Ocean. The services did not conform to any time or subject. The worship was joyous with loud singing and no one leading.

Over the years, my churches became a little more restrained and certainly, more polished. They were held in sanctuaries (though sometimes in the basement of another church) and the worship started to have a set group of musicians and a worship leader who chose the songs we were to sing.

I’ve attended all kinds of churches over the years. Everything from very staid services where I felt out of place to services with choirs swinging and swaying and congregants singing and dancing up and down the aisles.

While I was certainly a little more inhibited than the latter, I felt more at home in those churches. No one was paying attention to what I wore and how I sang and how I danced (not that I danced out loud but I was doing it inside.) It was as if, in the midst of it all, the only one watching was God himself. I would think about David and how he danced with all his heart and soul in the roadway in front of the Ark of Covenant. Even though his own wife was ashamed of him, God was not. God was pleased with him. With all of David’s issues and problems (of which there were many), God said David was a man after His own heart.

Our current church has a much more rehearsed time of song worship. The musicians are excellent and the worship time has the look and feel of a concert at times instead of being a part of a church service. There is nothing wrong with that, it is just different from what I am used to. I’m enjoying it a lot via live stream and could only wish that the words to the songs stayed together with the singing a bit better so I could sing along more easily.

In the end, the important part of worship is pouring ones heart out to God. You are singing from your soul, no matter who wrote the words of the song you are singing. If you stand stock still, or half-raise your arms, or maybe hold them above your head, perhaps even move your legs or not, it doesn’t matter. God knows what is in your heart.

Worshiping God, when done with your whole heart and in truth and in spirit, gives God great joy. Our pastor says that God is watching and is even sometimes dancing in joy over each of us. I like to think that that is especially true during the worship portions of church services.

So next week, though I may struggle a bit trying to remember the sermon, I think that I will remember much of the worship portion of the day. I hope you do, too. You might even try to remember the sermon, too. I’m sure that the Bible, God and Jesus will be a big part of it.

Psalms 96

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it.

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.

Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

This week, a fellow Christian managed to do something that nothing this sinful world has been able to do to me since I became a Christ-follower. She made me feel less than rather than equal to her and to everyone else in our Bible study. Without going into details, I’ll just say that she sees me in my current condition as what I am not rather than what I am.

After spending time with her this week, I felt bad. I wasn’t sure why. The morning after we spoke in our discussion group, I realized that she saw me as handicapped. She pointed out the others in our group as capable of doing XYZ. She carefully avoided including me in the group, though honestly, there was nothing about the tasks that were beyond me either physically or mentally. Unfortunately, this was just the latest in a series of comments she has made to diminish me.

My guess is, that as a nurse for many decades, she has come to see individuals with health issues by what they can’t do. I’ve even heard that nurses and doctors begin to refer to patients by their conditions and not by their names.

I’m hoping that the problem with her is just her profession and not something personal. I don’t believe it is personal but, regardless of the reasons, it still made me feel bad. For the first time in my life, I began to see myself as what I was not. To think of all the things that I could not do. To view myself as a handicapped individual in need of help to get anything accomplished.

I had a couple of terrible days and then, this morning, I realized that she had it all wrong. The areas where I am a little more challenged don’t define me. They are the areas which will cause me to work harder at what I can do and to look for new things and new ways that I can express myself and, more importantly, to help others.

It wasn’t brilliance on my own part that led me to this understanding. Instead, God, through the Holy Spirit, reassured me that God does not make mistakes. We are just who we were always meant to be and are here to do the work that God set out for us before he even created the universe.

God doesn’t look for the most brilliant, the most gifted or the best looking or even the individuals with the most wealth. Actually, it is the reverse. God is looking for ordinary folk or those who society sees as less than ordinary to do his work.

There are some with brilliance, gifts, good looks and wealth that are also called but those are in the minority. He is looking for the low so that they can raise Jesus high above themselves. This will prove to this sinful and dying world that God can do miraculous things with those of us who are Christ-followers and who are doing what God has called them to do.

When someone has all the gifts, then others will look at them and say, they are doing XYZ because of their own efforts and not anything else. However, when those of us who are viewed as someone challenged or less important or even simply ordinary folk, do something extraordinary, the world has to sit up and take notice. They have to question how it is possible that someone so low can do something so important.

There is only one answer and it is one that the world does not want to see or hear of. God uses the lowly of his followers to do his work, so that the world cannot say it is by the individuals own power. At their cores, they have to acknowledge that a higher power is in control. When the individual in question gives glory to God for the work he is doing through them, then the world cannot hide from the truth any longer.

So, while it is sad that a fellow Christian has so little understanding of how God works with his followers, it was a wonderful lesson for me in what miracles God has been working in me and, hopefully, through me as well.

I am not handicapped, I am not less than, I am not incapable. I am a child of God and, in his sight at least, I am beautiful and wonderful and exactly as he planned I would be at this time and at this place in my life.

If you feel like you are not up to the standards of the world, be assured that Jesus loves you and wants you just as you are at this very moment. He doesn’t expect you to be better or to somehow work yourself up to his level. Simply put, that will never happen.

We are sinners and he is perfect. He doesn’t expect perfection. He didn’t die for perfect people. He died for sinners. It was his willing sacrifice of his life and his triumphant resurrection, which provides a way for sinners to receive salvation, a pardon for their sins and eternal life one day.

The sacrifice has already been made. All that is left is for you to receive the gift of it, to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior and to ask him for his help in living your life the way he wants you to do so.

When you do that and you ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, you will begin to do the work you were born into this world to do.

Don’t let any person in this world try to define you. Only your creator, God, can do so. Jesus made you as you are and he loves you more than his own life.

1 Corinthians 1:26-30

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

As Christians, we are aware that God is made of three distinct persons in one: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s easy to relate to a father and or to a son but not it’s not as easy to relate to God’s Spirit. We all have had or known fathers. We have had or known sons.

A spirit is something else completely. Adam and Eve knew the Holy Spirit. He was the breath of life that God breathed into their beings. When they sinned, their connection to God, through the Holy Spirit, was severed. On that day, their spiritual life died, just as God had warned them would happen if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Holy Spirit left them and they could no longer talk with God as they previously had done.

The Holy Spirit did not completely leave mankind. He surfaced to fill individuals throughout the Old Testament. However, he didn’t dwell in their beings as he had in the Garden of Eden. He filled individuals from time to time so that they could take on and complete tasks that God had for them to do that they could not have done with the the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus died for our sins, he provided a way for mankind to be forgiven and to have eternal life. He also sent a Comforter to us once he (Jesus) went to be with the Father. That Comforter is the Holy Spirit.

When an individual accepts Jesus as their savior, the Holy Spirit sets the seal of salvation upon them and comes to live in their heart. He is the one that is the still, quiet voice that tells us what we should do and, more importantly, what we should not do when we are tempted or even as we are doing wrong in the eyes of God.

The Holy Spirit is powerful. In the Bible, he is described as a powerful, rushing wind, a dove coming down from heaven and even as a flame above the heads of those who received him on the day of Pentecost.

Having the Holy Spirit live in us is not the same as being filled with his power. Christians can ask and should ask to be filled by the Holy Spirit.

This is not something that God does for no reason. It’s not just a happy, happy feeling for Christians. The Holy Spirit fills us to do the work that God is asking us to do, just like in the Old Testament.

The difference is, that all Christians can ask for this filling rather than a few select individuals that God has ordained to do a particular work. Just be aware that in doing so, you are to open yourself up to what God wants you to do.

It is God’s power that will fill you. It is his thoughts and tasks that you will be asked to do. It may be that he will use your past, your skills and/or your future to get the work done that he wants you to do.

Give yourself over to him and be willing to make the sacrifices that he asks of you. In asking for the filling of the Holy Spirit, also ask for God to open the path that he wants you to follow and to give you the tasks you are to do.

He will not ask you to do something you are not capable of doing with his assistance. You may need to educate yourself in certain areas and he will open the way for that to happen.

We are all here for a purpose. We are all unique and have been placed in this time and place for a reason. The Body of Christ (the church of Christ-followers) has need of every single one of us. There is something for you to do that no one else can do the same way.

The Holy Spirit will guide you to that task. He will provide you with the spiritual guidance (from revelation from God or from another Christian) to complete that which you were made for and the reason why you exist.

When you start living for God and doing the work that he wants you to do, you will start to live a life of joy and fulfillment. No matter what the outer circumstances in your life are whether good or bad, you will have the joy of the Lord in your heart. I can’t think of anything more we can ask of God during our brief existence on this planet.

John 14:16-17

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

We use the word love so frivolously these days. I love this, I love that, I love it!, I really, really love it! I love it so much. Because of its overuse, the word has lost its true meaning. We say we love something when we mean, I like it or I want it or, simply, I enjoy it.

Whatever “it” is, we really don’t love it. Love is special. It is something that should only be used to describe your feelings for another living being. Whether it is a person or even a pet, love is an emotion that calls to another being.

You can’t really love a book. You can’t really love your fancy new blender. You certainly can’t love your (fill-in-the-blank) new diet. You like them, appreciate them, or whatever but you do not love them. Until those items or ways of life are capable of loving you back, then love is the wrong word to describe the depth of your feelings for them.

I don’t know when we started to shift the meaning of the word. I know that I have be guilty of using love in a way that is incorrect. Certainly, I have said I love a book or an author. In recent years, I’ve made a conscious effort to pull myself back from the improper use of the word.

While I have been struggling to correct my thoughts and words, I have seen that the world, as a whole, is spiraling deeper and deeper into making the word love essentially meaningless. In conversation with each other, it has been bad enough; however, it’s misuse in social media has made the loss of meaning exponential. I love it with emjois of hearts or smiling faces blowing hearts can be seen everywhere in posts and, especially, in comments.

It is sad that this is happening but it is not completely unexpected. The ruler of this world, for a time, is Satan. He wants us to try to find love in the wrong places. He doesn’t want us to look deeper. He wants love to mean nothing.

I shake my head in wonder but am thankful that I am trying to change my ways. There is a reason that I try to save this special word for special times for special people.

You see, love is not something that any being other than humans feel at such a deep level. Pets can care for you but certainly not at the level that you care for them back. Why do we humans have this special capacity?

It is really simple, you see, we were created in love. The first thing that we knew was the love of our Creator and our love for him back.

We were created to love God and to love one another. Our sinful nature has stepped in and destroyed our capacity to really feel love at the deepest level.

We still struggle to find true love. We look here and there. We may try to find it in people. We may try to find it in things. Where ever we look, if it isn’t towards God, we will never find deep and abiding love. We will search and search but we are doomed, ultimately, to search forever.

The way that people are using love and the things that they worship are like the idols of old. They are false gods, celebrities, or idols we have made with our own hands. In any of these situations, we are putting our love, hope and trust in something that will certainly fail us.

There is only one source of true love in this entire universe. The Creator who made us still loves us. He loves so deeply and so truly that he sent his own Son to die for us to save us from the deserved punishment for our sins.

Jesus is the son of God. He willingly came to this earth to live and die out of love for all people. Not just some. Not just the ones who go to church or do good deeds. He came for the sinner. That means he came for me. That means he also came for you.

It is after I met Jesus that I started to learn about true love. I will admit that even after I acknowledged him as my savior, I continued to think of love for others in the wrong ways.

It’s been a slow learning process and will be one that I will work on until the day that I die and meet Jesus face to face for the first time. It is on that day that I will finally understand true love. I will see it in his face and in the scars that he still carries to this day.

If you have not yet met Jesus, he is there waiting for you. His love will be that true love you have spent your life looking for. He loves you just as you are. You don’t have to be perfect or good for him to love you. You don’t have to do good works to be able to call on him to save you.

All you have to do is open your heart and receive his love, his salvation and his redemption of your life. Once you have accepted him and received his forgiveness, ask for his help so you can start living your life as he would have you do.

The next time you use the word “love” be sure you are using it properly so it doesn’t completely lose its meaning in your life.

1 John 4:7-10

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

I wonder how many things it would take to fill up a person’s heart. Is there such a number? Is there a level of things to be had? What would it take for each of us to become happy?

We live in a day of over-consumption. Most of us who don’t live in poverty, live in a state of accumulation. It is in our nature to want to get more and more, as if we can buy our way to contentment.

No one is more guilty of this than I. I have become an expert at tracking down and buying the “collection” of items that are part of a series. I may have started out wanting only one thing but then I become filled with a desire to buy all of the other things that surround it. Even if I don’t really care for the vast majority of those items. Somehow, I can’t envision having the one I really want and enjoying it fully without also obtaining the others.

I believe we have learned much of this desire for acquisition from advertising. I read a book in an English class, once upon a time and a long time ago, that dealt with the age of mass advertising. According to the premise of that book, it started with the World Fairs. The fairs were a way of bringing items to the attention of the masses who attended the fair.

It worked but only in a limited way. While many people attended the fairs, in the large scheme of things, only a few of the vast population were included in that number.

There were magazines, of course, but not everyone bought one. Radio, too, but it was difficult to capture the attention of most without a visual aid. It wasn’t until the advent of television that manufacturers and others could bring their products to the attention of the masses.

Once television showed up and the shows were free, once you paid for your TV and bought an antenna, the advertisers had a way into most homes. Boy, oh boy, did they ever have a field day once that happened.

I was born in an era when most everyone had television though ours was in black and white until I was an adult. I grew up with ads and commercials without realizing that I was being indoctrinated into a consumer mentality.

Children wanted the toys they saw. Housewives wanted the appliances and furniture. Men wanted all the electronics and latest gadgets. In short, everyone started wanting something that they would never have considered relevant for their lives previously.

That’s not to say that the desire to accumulate and get more and more was sparked by ads, merely that it was focused on items and driven forward week to week.

While the ads focus us on what we want to buy, we are already creatures who want to get more and more. The moment we get something new and the novelty wears off, we are back, once again, looking for something else. The things we thought could make us happy, ultimately, do the opposite.

If, on the other hand, we purchase something that we need, like a refrigerator or washer, a baby crib or such, those can bring satisfaction because of their usefulness. Still, not happiness or a fulfillment of our spirits.

It is when we go beyond the actual needs of our lives and look to some “thing” that will bring us joy that we are doomed to failure, remorse, and even deep-seated self-hatred.

We can never buy our way to happiness. There is no item or accumulation of items that fill will our souls and make us feel complete. We can bury ourselves until we are considered a hoarder or a collector. We can spend our whole lives in search of, and even finding all that there is to find. No matter, there is never enough to satisfy our souls.

Pursuing wealth is the same. Money is just another thing. It is even more insidious than mere possessions because the love of money and what it can buy or influence is the root of all kinds of evil.

We are empty and nothing we can do by ourselves is ever going to fix it. There is only one way to become whole and, by doing so, become happy with the life that we have been given. It does take an effort on our part but only as a receiver and a believer.

Jesus came to earth to provide a way for us to have our spirits made whole. Until we accept his gift, with our spirits cracked and broken, anything we try to fill our souls with will never work.

Once we accept his gift of pardon of our sins, our spirit is made new and whole again. It is at that point that we become fitting and whole vessels to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He has been sent to each of us as Christ-followers. Jesus sent him to provide us comfort and guidance until Jesus himself returns for us once again.

The Holy Spirit is there speaking to you if you will listen. To be honest, Christians (including me) can ignore his guidance and go back to trying to purchase and accumulate happiness.

It’s time to acknowledge that that mindset is a sin. It is not what God wants us to do. Rather than getting more and more for ourselves, God wants us to be givers. He wants us to share and help one another. It’s important, though, to offer the proper assistance and not just to give what seems okay. If too much of the wrong items are given, the receiver can become complacent and expectant of being given more and more. They can even become scornful and hateful towards those who are giving.

So, living a life in which generosity is second nature, something that you do without thinking, is the right way to live. Don’t do it blindly but, instead, ask God through the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom in what you are to give. If you are giving the right way, God will reward you and provide what you need to continue your life of generosity. This doesn’t mean riches or prosperity, it means that God will provide what he believe you need.

Some give money, some give time. Others give items that they have made while others teach knowledge. Something we can all do is give our thoughts and prayers for others. We may not have money to give but we can always pray. The ultimate in giving is to spread the good news of the saving power of Christ Jesus.

Finally, if we change from accumulators into givers, we will find much more joy in this journey that we call our lifetime.

Luke 6:38

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

What can we be thinking of when we do some of the things that we do that we should not do at all? Why is that we, as a people, can be so hurtful, mean and petty? We are always looking for faults and for flaws in others. If we come across something admirable in someone, while we may express our admiration, there is some small part of us that is envious and wishes that we were the ones garnering attention.

I’ve had moments where I have put myself above everyone else. At those times, I consider that what I want to do and how I want to do it is more important than what anyone else thinks would be best. It’s as if I believe that I am always right and that everyone else is always wrong.

These episodes rarely end well. It is better to seek the help and advice of others who have more experience than you do than to disregard them. Even when you are considered an “expert” in a field, there is always something new or different to learn from others. There’s much to the saying, old dog, new tricks.

When we stop trying to learn from others and even stop asking for their help on occasion, that is when we, as individuals stop growing. When we stop growing, we then start stagnating and eventually declining.

I’ve been involved with a hobby for more years than I like to think of. I have recently been surprised at innovations that I somehow missed. I have found others who have different ways of working with the hobby that, having learned, now make my life easier. I’m enjoying the hobby more and have found that it is as if I’ve been reawakened from a dark sleep where I only did as I did before without thinking about it.

I wish I could remember this lesson every day and in all situations. I need to admit that I am not the expert that I think I am (by any stretch of the imagination.) However, I do have thoughts and experiences to share along with others. Together we are stronger than we are apart.

That is not to say that every move we make has to be by consensus. Some things are our decision alone to make. It is a matter of learning which decisions and projects are best left to our own selves and which ones can benefit from the experiences of others.

Spiritually, we are also in a state of decline. Our spirits have been broken and are simply no longer alive. This is an area where we must choose on our own and, while others can give valuable insight and experiences, what we do with our spiritual life is ultimately up to each of us.

I remember that my mother began seeking a spiritual life when I was a young teenager. She looked this way and that but studiously avoided any form of true Christianity. She took my younger brother and me along with her as she went from temples to self-realization centers as she looked to find her way.

She had grown up in a “Christian” home. That isn’t to say that anyone there was a Christ-follower (though they may have been.) She just thought she was a Christian because of the holidays they celebrated and the church that she went to. She had never had an encounter with Jesus on a one-to-one basis.

So, when she went looking, she decided Christianity was out of bounds as it had never offered her what she needed. I recall her even trying hypnosis. She became involved, to a degree, with the occult. She had me read her books and articles as she sat in the evenings after work.

I hated it with a passion. While I was not a Christian (though perhaps I was after an encounter with Jesus when I was five years old), I knew in my heart that Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit were the truth. I knew that the things she was following were wrong and broken. When I tried to talk to her and to object to what she was doing, she would silence me and punish me for speaking up.

I’m still glad that I did so. I am also very sorry she made my little brother a part of it, though. I think it may be one reason why he has struggled with Christianity as an adult.

It was her way and she would not accept anyone else’s thoughts or feelings. Jeanne Dixon and Edgar Caycee, yes, I’ve read them all. The Prophet, the Mormon bible and just about anything else you can think of from the 1970s.

My next older sister had become a Christ-follower in her teens. She had lived a wilder life than I at that point and was ready to see that she needed a savior. She would come to our house and tell each of us about Jesus. Even though we would tell her we were not interested, she still persisted when others may have stopped.

In hindsight, I understand that it was because she loved us so much. This was in spite of the fact that we were not very loving back to her. I recall her taking me to a church which I enjoyed but because of all the false teaching and places my mother had taken me, I was reluctant to ever go again. I was afraid something false and strange would happen that would shake my belief that Christianity was true.

When I finally had my emotional and spiritual breakdown, it was my sister’s words about Jesus that made me look to him for his help. I had known him as God but did not know anything real about salvation. She had pointed the way and stepped back. It was her assistance that gave me the information that I needed but it was my own choice and decision to make.

It was a few years later that my mother accepted Jesus. She still had some odd thoughts and beliefs that didn’t ring true. I guess, in the end, we all bring our baggage to God. He is the one that causes us to shift through our thoughts and to discard the false and keep to the truth.

It is an on-going task. It is one that will last my entire life. I still struggle with what I know and think to be true versus what God has stated as truth. When the two don’t match up, even when it is hard, I need to discard my own ways and try to live as he wants me to live.

It isn’t that we are supposed to all be the same. In fact, God states that we are unique. He tells us that he crafted us while we were in our mother’s womb. We are here at a time and place that he has set for us so that we can do the unique thing that we were made to do.

Imagine that, we are so special to God that he knows how many hairs we have on our heads. He knows every thought and feeling that we have. He wants us to find the area in life in which he has especially gifted us and to live our life in a way that is guided by him.

At the same time and as we grow in our unique ways, looking to others who have a solid basis in Christ for advice in spiritual matters, is so helpful. We are here to help one another as well as to love them.

While I’ve found that accepting or asking for help is sometimes difficult and that being admonished is never easy, it is with the help of other Christians that I continue to grow into the person God wants me to be.

Romans 12:3-8

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Some days it seems like it is simply too hard to even get up from my bed. I want to snuggle back down under the covers and sleep the day away. On those days,the effort of living seems to be too much for me to handle.

It isn’t my illness that causes my feelings. This is something that I have struggled with for many years, perhaps my whole life. Most days and times I bounce right up and greet the day happily with a real sense of purpose and even on some days I have a plan of what I want to accomplish.

It is the difficult days that come to my mind more easily. I think that most people suffer with the same sort of issue. I’ve found that, for me, those types of days follow times when I have given up on something in my life. Times when I have felt like a failure. When something I thought I should do, I can either no longer do or don’t have the will to keep going after some sort of setback.

This is definitely true about times when I have had an exercise plan. I recall a period of time when I would run on my treadmill for at least 30 minutes a day. I did this for quite a few months. It was long enough for it to become a habit (30 days) and even subconscious habit (90 days).

I caught a cold and wasn’t up to it for about a week. I tried one day and couldn’t got for more than ten minutes without becoming horribly winded. That was it for me. I stopped and never restarted again. It seems like dialing back and starting over at a lower pace and a smaller amount of time was unacceptable to my mind. It felt like I was a failure and, having failed ,I was ready to move on.

The truth is, I wasn’t a failure. I just needed to start over. When I first started, I probably walked for 15 minutes and gradually built up to a run for a longer time. I simply needed to go back to my beginning and start over again. But I didn’t. I paid the price for not running at all in weakness and weight gain but I still would not start over again.

All I could do is remember the past and, it seemed, the future I expected was somehow beyond my reach. The present was something that I didn’t want think about much less to comprehend. I wanted to be back where I was even though it was impossible to wake up one morning and run for 30 minutes. With each passing day, the effort and time it would take to get stronger again grew harder and longer. I didn’t want to confront where I was. I didn’t want to acknowledge my new normal. I kept thinking that somehow I would magically be back where I started before I caught my cold.

I think we all have problems with seeing the truth of where we are. Sometimes it is because the past was so much better. Other times it is because the present is so difficult and hard because our past was so awful.

It is this feeling of wanting do-overs that has spawned a whole genre of books, movies and television shows. We want time travel to fix the evils of the past so we can have a brighter future. Amusingly enough, even the shows and books generally show that changes to the past result in worse and sometimes, catastrophic, changes to the present and the future.

There is no time machine for us. Whatever it is, the past is the past. It is gone and cannot be regained and done over. We need to learn to leave the past behind us and look to a future.

The problem is that we, as people, are part of the reason that life is so difficult. Whether it was by your own hands or by those around you, the bad or evil feelings of the past are the work of man. On our own, our future will continue to spiral downward. We will start something new and stop at failure over and over again. Because we are doomed to this in a fallen world that is broken beyond repair.

Is there any way to fix this and to have a better and brighter future? There is really only one way. There is God’s way. He is sinless and perfect. He is the brighter future. However, we are broken in spirit and cannot communicate with him as we are.

We need to have our spiritual life repaired and renewed. It is broken and dead because of sin. We are unable to stop sinning and also to atone for the sins that we have already committed. The price of sin is death and we are all guilty.

The only way to reach God is through Jesus. He came and lived a sinless life and died in our place. His blood and death atone for our sins. When you accept him as your savior and as the Son of God, your spirit is renewed and is broken no longer. You can communicate with God the Father directly. You can worship him, talk with him, ask him for help and guidance.

With God’s help, you can look to a brighter future. It won’t necessarily be happy and lovely and wonderful as man judges. However, it will be just the place that God wants you to be. It will be where you can do your work to further his kingdom and show the world that Jesus is its savior.

When that happens, you will begin to find joy in your present circumstances even if they are the same as they were before. Your hope of the future is in heaven and not on this earth. Nothing that the world or man can do to you will ever change that.

Put the past behind you, accept Jesus as your savior. Ask God to set your steps on the path he wants you to tread. Also, ask the Holy Spirit to be the voice in your heart to guide you on your daily walk. You can find your happiness and purpose, the reason to get out of bed every day (though it is okay to sleep in from time to time!) Look to the future with Jesus at your side and stop living in the failures of the past.

Philippians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.