I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
I woke up this morning with this paragraph in my mind: My allegiance is to the living Jesus who captured my heart and filled me with love for Him and for all people. He now lives inside me to lead, guide, and empower me from within so that I can no longer obey my own desires, feelings, and opinions, but follow, obey, and adore Him instead.
People in Western society are openly proclaiming their commitment to the dominance of their human desires and declaring them to be proper and righteous. They’re telling us that our desires are our reality and our identity and that they should be obeyed without guilt or shame. Human feelings, opinions, and desires are being exalted above the obvious reality of common sense and physiology. People are being encouraged to follow their desires instead of reason and logic, and to even demand that other people call them by pronouns that they have chosen to match their desires. Western society is even beginning to label Bible verses like 1 Peter 4:1-3 as “hate speech.”
No matter what feelings, opinions, or desires you personally are obeying instead of obeying the risen Jesus, you’re “living in sin.” You may say that He is your Lord, but if you are not obeying Him from your heart in both words and actions, your claim to be a disciple is skewed. Jesus calls us to self-denial–to resist and to die to our desires and to follow His instead. Any desire that leads you to disobey the will of God and put your will above His is sin. Christians are called to ignore the world (Western society and all other human based cultures) and be led by the Spirit, not by our feelings, desires, or opinions.
It’s easy to point out other people’s rebellion against God, while ignoring our own rebellion. “If My people who are called by My name will . . . turn from their wicked ways . . .” Anything that we think, believe, say, or do that is disobedient to God’s will is a “wicked way” and “an evil human desire.” “Search my heart, O God . . .”
When self-consciousness crowds out your joy, focusing on being kind and encouraging other people can restore it.When we’re free from self-consciousness childlike silliness and playfulness come easily. Stuffy seriousness is a sign of self-focus.
Self-consciousness is a cage that keeps people from connecting heart-to-heart with other people.If you let yourself get lost in an enjoyable task or a purpose, self-consciousness will vaporize in a peaceful sunrise.
The knack of self-delusion’s a basic human characteristic. It takes a courageous, honest, and humble search for truth to overcome itOur self-colored glasses distort our perceptions of reality. The source of much of the offense, anger, and divisiveness in the world is self-consciousness.
When we focus on competing with others, we’re easily captured by self-consciousness. When we focus on serving others, we’re free.
Self-focus causes human desires to often be distorted, deceptive, and detached from reality. Years of self-focus have caused many adults forget how to have spontaneous fun–to be lighthearted–to act silly and simply enjoy the moment.
Some people are so afraid of playfulness, they feel the only way they can experience is thru alcohol or drugs. I’m so grateful that the living Jesus freed me from bondage to self-consciousness and restored childlike innocence and playfulness to my life.
Playful, innocent funniness is refreshing and helps people lighten up and connect heart-to-heart.Kind and joyful silliness soothes the soul, even in the most serious situations. Lighten up and spread some joy today.
Self-focus is the greatest enemy of happiness. Much greatness is a mere illusion that a person presents to the world. True greatness is inner character, not outward characterization.
There are all sorts of ways to sort people into categories. Skin color is dumbest.
Live in awe! Refuse to take the offramp of over analysis that causes people to exit from the daily wonder and glory of being alive.
Living in this amazing world, awe should be awedinary. We should be continually in a state of wonder and amazement!
Religious conjecture holds little interest for me. I prefer to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”If your heart’s not awedible, able to be often awed by the living God, there’s a good chance that you’re spiritually dead.
Awe can never be awe-bligatory. It flows spontaneously from a heart that stays open to wonder.Attempts to explain God with Xs and Os, often X-out awe and cause human hearts to be spiritually hard and coldly analytical.
Christianity has focused too much on theology (the study of God) while mostly ignoring training in theos-awe (the awe of God).You may think you understand God but if you’re unwilling to live under full submission to His presence, you’re deceiving yourself.
I think modern Christianity sneezed and said, Awe shoo! It seems to have chased away the glorious wonder that occurs when we experience Jesus.When awe exits a Christian’s heart, he leaves his first love for Jesus and becomes lukewarm.
Too many sermons are aweless words. When church becomes aweless, it soon becomes aimless.
If church doesn’t cause you to actively marvel at the majesty of God, it’s not doing its job.Without an ongoing sense of mysticism and awe, Christianity is easily overcome by both sin-icism and cynicism.
Christianity without ongoing awe, wonder, amazement, inspiration, and astonishment, has drifted from its source.Unless people are willing to have their spiritual cataracts removed, Christianity is little more than religious lectures.
The complexity of Christ and His work is beyond human comprehension and explanation. Although I can understand Him, He makes my heart soar with joy and fills me with an astounding awareness of His presence.
Olive oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. When you let the Spirit lead you throughout the day, you’ll awe-live.
Spiritually awed Christ-followers don’t need a religious ventilator to teach them about Jesus. They experience Him daily.
If you will persist
To strongly resist
Negative thoughts
And assist
Positive thoughts,
You'll be happier.
The thoughts, feelings, and desires that you choose to let stream in your heart, will sweep you along to their final destination.I choose to stream peace, not hostility; joy, not misery; hope, not discouragement; love, not hate; trust, not worry; mercy, not bitterness.
Your mind and your heart are streaming devices. The thought and feeling channels you stream will grow ever stronger within you.The stream of desire and the stream of conscience flow in different directions–one toward guilt; the other toward inner peace.
The human heart has access to streaming services that offer both the demonic and the divine. We get to choose our channels.When God’s Spirit is streaming through human hearts, faces shine with a glorious radiance and eyes often flow with tender tears.I love streaming the living Jesus in my heart and binge-watching His presence in my life.
Jesus made a bridge that enables us to escape and cross over the stony stream of self-focus and plunge into the river of His Spirit.Let Jesus overflow your briny quagmire of thoughts, feelings, and desires, and free you to flow with Him.
Spiritually invigorated Christ-followers don’t need to rely on religious ventilators to teach them about baby-steps with Jesus. They experience Him daily and continually stream His presence.
Let yourself freely float with the inner flow of God’s Spirit. Then Jesus can lead you with the joy and wonder of His presence.When you need Jesus to lead your life, all you have to do is stream His presence–stream, stream, stream– and He’ll do the rest!
War awful-betizes everything it touches. This simple awful-bet can reduce the appetite for war. Let all politicians, soldiers, and ordinary citizens memorize it and wear it as a badge.
War spells disaster. It unleashes demons that drive people to destroy each other with merciless brutality.By putting people under the spell of the war alphabet, war transforms humans into cruel zombies that blindly follow orders to kill.
Jesus made reparations To atone For the wrong I’ve done And to attune My heart to God. Now, filled with awe, I walk along with Him Enjoying His presence As He directs, empowers, And comforts me Throughout the day.
Guilt-free living requires more than merely masking our sin.
Desire Is like A fire. You can Enflame it. Or you can Tame it.
Having desires In no way requires That you obey them And get stuck In their briars.
Desires aren’t trustworthy. They can be true or deceptive, good or bad, right or wrong. They need discernment, not blind obedience.
Desires aren’t prison bars. They are enticements that can be accepted or rejected. When we’re led by our desires, we frequently walk into the trap of self-deception.If we were more conscious of our conscience and less focused on our desires, we could avoid a lot of evil.
If you’ve ever rejected a desire once, you can reject it twice. If twice, then there’s no limit on how often you can reject it.Every time we allow desires and feelings to direct us away from truth, we lay down our freedom and embrace bondage.
Earthworms were designed to be happy in an environment of dirt and darkness. People weren’t.
When kindness Is embraced, Hostility Is displaced.
I would define see as: having light enter the eye and project an image on the retina that is then communicated to the brain by the optic nerve. I’ve never had the image of Jesus projected on my retina, but His image is continually projected on my heart so that I behold the Lamb of God, not as an image in my brain, but as ultimate reality.
I am often undone by the presence of Jesus as I sense Him both around me and within me. I’m continually looking unto Jesus as the author and editor of my faith and longing for His working in me to grow ever stronger, until I no longer block Him but fully surrender to His will.
When you boast
You need humility
When you feel busted
You need to be boosted.You don't need
Another Sunday message
From a mere man.
You need to hear
The inner Messenger:
Christ in you,
The hope of glory.I fill my mind and heart
With booster thoughts
That lift me up
And make me smile.You're surrounded by
Elephants inspiring the room,
Bountiful blessings
Waiting to
Give you a boost.Moral boosters
Are better
Than moral busters.
Google:
Elephants Inspiring the Room.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 