Christians have forgotten How to meditate On God's splendor. We've forgotten How to demonstrate The awesome presence Of the living Jesus. We've forgotten To remember that: The body of Christ Doesn't function Organizationally But relationally. All the members Are supposed to Listen to Jesus, The living Head, So that we all can do What Christ Tells us to. (Search: Beyond Church Ekklesia.)
A vacuum cleaner salesman can’t show you his demonstration if someone talks over him and you ignore him. Neither can Jesus. The body of Christ is supposed to demonstrate the living Jesus to the world!
It’s alive, not contrived! The body of Christ is organic, not organizational. The body of Christ is relationship, not ritual–family, not religious forms–people united heart to heart, not programs! As people let the living Jesus daily rule inside them, they discover that they have a powerful connection with each other.
The living Jesus is the only Head of the body of Christ. All people who belong to Him are members of His body. They belong to the kingdom of God and are called to be led by the Spirit, not by their own desire. Though they may differ in their maturity levels, all who have been adopted into the family of God have the same status.
Christians have looked too low for guidance. We have looked to churches and preachers, instead of to the living, resurrected Jesus. Words spoken head to head are frequently misunderstood, but those spoken heart to heart bring caring connection. Let Jesus speak to your heart!
There is only one group of Jesus-followers, the body of Christ, whose members are called out of all nations, to obey to Him. It’s an invisible, yet indivisible group. As church split into thousands of independent groups, it rejected “the ministry of reconciliation”–Jesus’ call to be peacemakers. (Unless the living Jesus is submitted to and obeyed as the literal Head of the body of Christ, Christians will remain divided.)
Too often Christians are required to be seen in church, but not allowed to be heard in church. Testimonies are seldom allowed.
Idols aren’t just stone. Religious organizations can also be idols when they distract our focus from the risen Jesus. However, when you’re aware of the presence of the living Jesus, prayer is as easy as breathing.
Jesus could have said, "Don't tread on Me!" He could have called Angels to overthrow Rome And the religious leaders Who wanted Him dead. Instead He was led away, To die on the cross For you and for me. Today hear Him say, "Follow Me," And walk in His way.
We humans tend to only behave as well as we feel like we need to in order to avoid getting caught. Bad people get upset when good behavior is expected from them.
If you behave badly, yet claim to be a good person, perhaps you need a new self-assessment. An effective fight against wrongdoing begins within by resisting, exposing, and overcoming the evil inside us.
As humans we feel a moral need to attempt to justify our bad behavior, so we make excuses and/or blame other people. It’s much easier to call a bad behavior good, than it is to change it.
Almost all people believe that there are bad behaviors. However, we tend to think that they are done by other people and not by us. Bad role models never justify bad behavior.
Bad behavior causes guilt and eventually creates bad consequences. If we had the courage to recognize, admit, and stop our bad behaviors, we’d see great improvements in our life.
Behavior is the most accurate indicator of a person’s beliefs. Any cruel action is bad behavior. Any kind action is good behavior.
Bad thoughts welcome negative emotions and lead to bad behaviors. When we ignore our conscience, we gravitate into bad behavior.
Bad behavior comes naturally. Good behavior requires rules, laws, and even supernatural assistance. This can help motivate us toward good behavior: As human beings we need to overcome our blindness to many of the obvious reasons we have to be happy.
No individual or group has a monopoly on bad behavior. The Bible says, “All have sinned.”
We humans are mess makers. Often we need a savior from our own behavior. It’s hard to see the living Jesus thru institutional eyes. It’s impossible to comprehend God, but thru the living Jesus we can continually experience Him.
Be cruelty-free,
No human harmed,
None mistreated,
No one hated,
Kindness for all.
Have a hate-free heart. It’s one of life’s greatest blessings!
Hate should never be defined as disagreement. We can disagree with kindness, compassion, and love.
Hate has a lousy track record. It overrides reason, casts out compassion, causes violence, kills kindness, and ruins relationships.
The history of hate is mostly hidden. That’s because it hurts national pride to face it.
Weak people often feel a need to hate, so that they can blame someone for their emotional pain. A fearless person doesn’t hate. Hate is a sign of fear. People who aren’t courageous enough to forgive stay stuck in hate.
Hate is cowardice. It allows fear to cast out compassion and create a negative attitude toward certain people. Every time you open the gate to hate, your heart shuts down.
Jesus gives us another option for dealing with our foes. We can love our enemies. We don’t have to hate them.
To mistreat people, either verbally or physically, is to vandalize the image of God. For a practical guide to overcoming hate, search for my book: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind. Thank you.
Hate wants to harm.
Compassion wants to heal.
Reason analyzes.
Apathy ignores.
Hate is a great weight,
A hefty load,
Hardening every heart
That carries it.
What a world it would be, If we were all cruelty-free!
Feelings are like plants. Some are fit for consumption and some aren’t. It’s important to know the difference. Like waves, as emotions roll inside us, we can choose to ride them or we can wave them on.
Hazardous emotions aren’t good for your environment. They can be handled with caution and disposed of safely. Emotional health is true wealth.
If you can reject manipulation by people trying to force you to obey them, then you can reject compulsive thoughts and feelings. Emotions are controllable. It’s not easy, but we can learn to manage them–to turn them on or to turn them off. Life can be a blender creating a soothing, emotional smoothie, or a dicer, chopping up our inner peace, depending on how we run it.
You can’t hold two conflicting emotions at the same moment. If you lock into one, it locks the other out. Choose positive emotions. If you lock into negative emotions, they will lock you down, but if you pick up positive emotions they will lift you up.
Inside of you, anger and laughter both can’t prevail. When you clearly see the funny, the mad will turn tail and leave.
Emotional motion can be good or bad. Let positive emotions move you, while courageously resisting negative ones. Peace of mind harbors positive emotions; anxiety welcomes negative ones.
Emotional servitude is bondage. We can learn to serve honesty, kindness, and righteousness, rather than our feelings. To believe that emotions can’t be controlled is to give away your freedom and become their prisoner.
People who advocate accepting all your emotions, seem to resist their tender, caring emotions that tend to produce public tears. However, if people can learn to resist tender emotions that they see as embarrassing, they can learn to resist negative emotions as well.
We’re often told that it’s not good to suppress your feelings, but then we’re prescribed drugs to do that very thing. That’s a contradiction!
Thoughts, feelings, and desires will all lie to you. It’s best to fact check before you believe and/or follow them.
Amusement brings pleasure to the emotions, but musing brings insight to the mind. A good “aha” is priceless!
Natural selection, Letting your feelings Flow without your direction, Is a dereliction.
Emotional health isn’t a heart empty of emotional activity, but one that cultivates helpful emotions while resisting harmful ones. Negative emotions are warning signs that something is off in your thinking.
Without inner energy, we give in to negative feelings, desires, and thoughts. We need a daily inspirational charge!
Negative emotions aren’t just a waste of energy. They also tend to produce harmful consequences.
When appreciated, valued, and treated with consistent kindness, it’s rare for people to respond with hostility. Instead they tend to respond with positive emotions.
Your feelings
Are sometimes untrue
And if you’re not careful,
They will trick you.
Christ in you Continually make Him welcome. Listen to and obey Him. Spend your time with Him. Fully surrender to Him who is The hope of glory
Life is a round trip visit to planet earth on a tourist visa. The living Jesus helps us make the most of our stay.
The word church ties Christianity to an organizational format. However, Jesus said that God wants to be worshipped “in spirit and in truth.”
A person’s life begins with its first beginning. Your sperm won the right to unite with your egg and get you started.
A superficial lifestyle focuses on style, but ignores substance. Superficial answers to life’s questions are deceptive. They make us think that we know more than we do.
Like lukewarm, watered down tea, superficiality isn’t very satisfying. Superficiality ≠ reality. Superficiality often creates a lot of surface tension, but openness with compassionate listening, heals relationships.
Sometimes we need to take a deep breath and sometimes we need to have a deep thought. In both it’s beauty and it’s furiosity, nature can raise us beyond superficiality.
A causality of superficiality is that we trade meaning and purpose for comfort and acceptance. Dare to step outside of your superficial zone. We need superheroes, not superficial ones!
Saying, “I’m fine,” when your not, replaces reality with superficiality. It takes a lot more courage to be sincere than it does to be superficial.
Superficial Christianity is artificial. The real deal sets your heart on fire! You’ll never find yourself in superficiality. Dare to exercise courageous spirituality in a search for reality.
When we make things official, we tend to make them superficial. Notice what institutionalization does to Christianity. A comfortable, superficial Christianity misses out on the incredible reality of daily hearing and obeying the living Jesus.
Political freedom is superficial if you’re a prisoner of your desires, emotions, and thoughts. Racism is superficiality mixed with hostility. As we go beyond the superficial and proclaim the equality of human rights, we need to recognize that no one believes in the equality of human behaviors.
What ya call it You can't make people Work for you Without any pay. They won't stay. Unless you use cruelty And abuse them every day, They'll just run away. History called that slavery. Today we say Human trafficking. Learn more here.
To stay healthy, humans reject spoiled food. We can also make life better by rejecting rotten emotions.
Make happiness happen. Deescalate the negative emotions that you feel. Escalate your positive ones.
There’s no reason we can’t decide how we want to feel and then begin to engineer those emotions. That is emotion management–cultivating the feelings that enhance your life.
Uncontrolled emotion is commotion. Negative emotions are often warnings of self-mismanagement.
Emotions follow evaluation and/or perspective. Change your evaluation and/or change your perspective and your feelings about a situation will change.
Thoughts and emotions can be resisted. They only become “yours” when you accept them and “own” them.
Holding on to paralyzing emotions will keep you stuck in motionlessness–feeling the same negativity and torment day after day. Unfortunately, our culture trains us to resist our tender and compassionate feelings but to express our irritable and angry ones.
All feelings are not equal; some will lift you up and others knock you down. Choose wisely which ones to accept and which to resist. One way to overcome negative feelings is to welcome, pursue, and cultivate positive emotions.
Open your heart and mind to good and helpful influences. Close them to bad and harmful ones. When you’re being led by feelings, they’re manipulating you and keeping you from being free. Be led by wisdom instead.
With your freedom of choice, you can choose to disobey any thoughts, feelings, or desires that try to compel you against your will. In all your choosing, choose freedom from compulsion–to not be controlled by your feelings or desires. Make the choice to embrace the best emotions and to reject the ones that try to enslave you or pull you down. It’s not easy, but bad feelings can be resisted and overcome.
Feelings can’t require your obedience. You have the right of resistance. If you can use medication to fight negative feelings, you can also choose to resist them with will power.
You are not your feelings. You are the person who can either accept or resist the feelings that try to rise up within you.
Crying can be helpful as you seek to cultivate healing emotions. I reveals that your heart isn’t hard–that it can still grow, feel, and heal.
