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.
True love cares enough about every human being to treat them with kindness and respect. Regardless of the political climate, Jesus commands His followers to love each other and even love their enemies. Why don’t we?
God cared so intensely about humanity that He gave His all to rescue people from pride, rebellion, and self-destruction so that whosoever will continually trust in, rely on, and depend on the presence of the living Jesus — on His death to atone for their sins, on His blood to cleans them, on His resurrection to embolden them, and on His Spirit to daily live in and through them — will be rescued, redeemed, healed, adopted, made new, empowered, and given intimate and never ending access to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (John 3:16)
Avoid deception reception! Before you accept and believe something to be true hesitate and wait long enough to thoroughly investigate and evaluate it. Celebrate truth; dissipate lies. Refuse to fluctuate between the two. Never allow hate on your plate! Don’t believe something because you read it on a computer, a phone, or a tablet. Seek truth.
I don’t trust in, rely on, and depend on Jesus because I read something about Him but because He lives and works powerfully within me throughout each day. He wants to do the same within you.
You can’t stop a thought from flying through your mind, but you can prevent it from roosting, cawing, and squawking in your head. A key to mental health is to quickly shoo away negative, painful, tormenting, and destructive thoughts. If you want to be happy conquer your mind and force it to think healthy, uplifting, peaceful, pure, and joyous thoughts.
An uncontrolled mind is a nest for deception. It freely welcomes and embraces distorted thoughts without intently examining them to see if they are true. (1 John 1:4)
Fear thoughts will make you scared. They will also make you self-focused, irrational, and unkind. Refuse to give fear thoughts any room in your mind. (1 John 4:18) Replace them with love thoughts. (Matthew 5:44)
Angry thoughts will keep you angry. They will keep you far away from inner peace. However, if you will begin to regularly and consistently pray God’s blessing on everybody you are angry at, your anger thoughts will gradually be replaced by compassionate thoughts. (Luke 6:28) That is called forgiveness. (Matthew 6:14)
Guilty thoughts are warnings from your conscience that you are in the wrong. To get rid of guilty thoughts turn away from whatever is causing them (Matthew 4:17) and ask God to forgive you. (Psalm 51:1)
You can’t control your circumstances, but you can control your thoughts. Will you? (2 Corinthians 10:5) Self-control begins when you take control of your thoughts. (Philippians 4:8)
Unhealthy thinking prevents people from experiencing thriving mental health and ongoing inner peace. (Romans 12:2) You are responsible for the thoughts that you allow to linger and lodge in your mind. You are the only person, place, or thing that can fill your mind with healthy thoughts.
Instead of allowing your thoughts to be random and uncontrolled ask God the Holy Spirit to help you take control of them and align them to God the Father’s will. (Galatians 5:22-23) Let the risen Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, work deep inside of you (Colossians 1:27) to train and empower you to have and maintain true mental health. (2 Timothy 1:7)
I want to prosper in contentment and inner peace. The Bible says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6) The treasure I pursue isn’t silver or gold. (Acts 3:6) It’s to surrender my life to Jesus and let Him give me His perspective on everything. I want to constantly allow Christ to train and empower me to be content and at peace regardless of my circumstances. (Philippians 4:11-12)
I seek to be free from the love of money and content with what I have. (Hebrews 13:5) “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and pursuit of the wind.” Ecclesiastes 4:6)
The Bible says it is better to have a little bit of stuff and have high moral character than it is to have a lot of stuff and disobey your conscience. (Psalm 37:16) It says, “Better is a poor man who walks with integrity than a rich man whose ways are perverse.” (Proverbs 28:6) Jesus warned His disciples to guard themselves against greed and plainly told them that life isn’t about how much stuff you accumulate. (Luke 12:15)
The key to contentment isn’t seeking more and more stuff. It doesn’t take much stuff to be content. The Bible tells us that if we have food and clothing, we can be content. (1 Timothy 6:8) Jesus told His disciples to trust God for what they eat and what they wear and to not worry or be overly concerned about it. (Matthew 6:25-34)
Christ’s peace is beyond human understanding. (Philippians 4:6-7) You can’t figure it out with your mind. You receive it by staying intimately surrendered to and connected heart-to-heart with the risen Jesus. (John 15:4) Inner peace is produced by God the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
You can’t earn contentment or produce it by yourself, but you can cultivate it by continually creating an inner environment conducive to its growth. (John 1:23) Jesus wants His followers to have His peace. (John 14:27) His peace is found by continually casting down anxiety from your mind and bringing your every thought captive to His will. (2 Corinthians 10:4)
Jesus said that some people are like seeds planted in a patch of thorns. “They hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Still others are like the seeds sown on good soil. They hear the word, receive it, and produce a crop—thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:18-20) Do you continually cultivate your heart and make it good soil for the inner prosperity of Christ’s glorious contentment by weeding your heart, pulling out the thorn bushes, and bringing every single thought captive to Jesus?
It takes a humble heart to truly be a good sport. Social and business connections are fine, but heart-to-heart connections are better. Jesus wants to connect with people heart-to-heart, not just as a brief encounter but as a daily lifestyle. He wants to train us open our heart more and more to Him and to other people every day.
The body of Christ is about heart connection, not about merely about hearing a talk about religious information once a week. If you don’t humbly open your heart to other Christ-followers, (James 5:16) you might be attending the same meeting, but you haven’t truly assembled yourselves together. (Hebrews 10:25)
The Bible instructs us to meet together in a way that facilitates us opening up to one another and trains us to literally trust in, depend on, and rely on the risen Jesus when we gather. It says that when we come together each one is free to share something in the meeting (1 Corinthians 14:26) If Christians would obey that Scripture, we would be much more effective at opening up our heart to each other and to the risen Jesus.
When you’ve been trained to live with an open heart, you’re no longer concerned about people’s opinions of you. You are not bound by what the Bible calls “the fear of man.” (Proverbs 29:25) Jesus wants all of His followers to have that kind of freedom. (John 8:36) Do you? Whoever literally trusts in, relies on, and depends on the presence and promptings of the risen Lord instead of on religious programs will begin to feel safe to open up his heart. (Proverbs 29:25)
Let your pain point you to Jesus. Let your disappointments direct you to His presence. Let Jesus continually direct you from within and demonstrate His glory through your daily life.
In the USA one side likes to call people “haters” and the other side likes to call people “idiots.” I prefer to call people friends. Ok, American Christians. Dare to obey Christ’s command to love your enemies. Here is a first step: Republican Christians send some nice flowers and a kind note to a Democrat you know. Democrat Christians send some nice flowers and a kind note to a Republican you know. Jesus said: “If you love Me keep my commandments.” Do you love Jesus?
Regardless of the political climate, Jesus commands His followers to love each other and even to love their enemies. Why is enemy love so rare?
Everyone on planet earth can live a better life and it doesn’t take winning the lottery to do so. All it takes is humbly turning away from and setting aside our thoughts, words, attitudes, and actions that are harming us and holding us back. A vital key to a better life is true repentance. Real repentance reveals, renounces, and rejects sin from your heart and life so that you can catch God’s heart-warming, joy releasing, life restoring, healing inner fire.
To catch God’s inner fire that glows with the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and let it soften and purify your heart, (Malachi 3:3) refuse to hide your sins. (James 5:16) Humbly confess and renounce them. (Proverbs 28:13-14)
Catch God’s fire today! (Matthew 3;11) Refuse to hold back (1 Thessalonians 5:19) His leading, (Romans 8:14) His convicting and His working deep inside of you. (Philippians 2:13) Let God’s presence and power (1 Corinthians 4:20) continually flow (John 7:38-39) from within you. (Colossians 1:27)
Pride blocks God’s power from freely flowing and effectively working in your life. (Proverbs 11:2) Humility releases it. (1 Peter 5:5) Are you humbly living in the light of true repentance every time you fall into any sin?
Concealed sin congeals and thickens until in controls your life. It’s essential that we walk in the light. (1 John 1:6-8) If we confess our sins God will forgive us and cleanse us. (1 John 1:9) Confessing sin isn’t a one-time thing. Train yourself to quickly repent (Matthew 4:17) and to ask for and receive God’s forgiveness every time you sin in thought, word, attitude, or action.
In the USA one side likes to call people “haters” and the other side likes to call people “idiots.” I prefer to call people friends.
Lord, help us when people of various perspectives only want to hear and believe their own point of view. That leads to great confusion and deception on all sides. How we in the USA need to lay down our defensiveness and self-righteousness and to listen with humility and compassion to one another.
I found a book that goes against my human nature. It says many things that I don’t want to hear. It tells me to do kind and compassionate things that I don’t want to do like “Love your enemies.”. Yet I still want to read it every day. It’s the Bible.
Here is how the Bible says to obey Christ’s commandment to love your enemies. (Matthew 5:43-45) These Bible commands are seldom preached about and rarely obeyed because they go strongly against our human nature.
*) Think kind thoughts about your enemies and speak kindly to them and about them. (Ephesians 4:15). *) Frequently pray for God to bless your enemies. (Luke 6:38) *) Remember that love is shown by actions, not by feelings. (John 14:15) *) Be patient and kind with your enemies. (1 Corinthians 13:4) *) Do good to your enemy expecting nothing in return. (Luke 6:35) *) Don’t celebrate when your enemy has problems. (Proverbs 24:17) *) If you find something that belongs to your enemy return it to him. (Exodus 23:4-5) *) When your enemies are hurting, comfort and help them. (Proverbs 25:21) *) When your enemy hurts you, don’t retaliate or take revenge. (Romans 12:19) *) Don’t insult those who insult you. (1 Peter 3:9) *) Quickly and frequently forgive your enemies. (Matthew 18:22) *) If your enemy slaps you, turn the other cheek. (Matthew 5:39-42)
The Bible says there are two ways to serve the Lord: “the new way of the Spirit” and “the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:6) Let God the Holy Spirit direct you throughout each day. (John 16:13) Continually savor and absorb the words of the Bible (Joshua 1:8) and let it align your heart with and keep you obedient to the Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21) which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
Can you think of someone who is wise in his own eyes? The Bible describes a person like that by using a word that I don’t like to use. Therefore, I checked with 22 different translations to find one that uses a word that I like better, but all 22 use the word “fool.”
The New King James Version says: “Do you see a person wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12) Humm. It’s best not to put your trust and hope in a person who boast about his own wisdom. Self-righteousness is a great sin. Instead of drawing people to Jesus with love and compassion, it proudly pushes people away from Him.
Contrary to popular opinion accusation, blame, and revenge are not the wisest or most effective ways to deal with your enemies. The Bible has a better more effective technique. Jesus said to love, bless, and pray for your enemies. (Matthew 5:44) The book of Proverbs says to give your enemy food and drink. (Proverbs 25:21-22) Paul said to not take revenge but to overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)
Do present day American Christians believe the Bible enough to do all of that? I don’t see much enemy loving, blessing, and feeding going on in the USA or on social media. Perhaps it is time to do what the Bible says and not just to hear talks about it.
God’s high calling for all Christians is to seek, embrace, and live by Christ’s perspective instead of by our own point of view and traditions. To do that we have to be willing to die to our own thoughts, feelings, desires, and opinions and then follow and obey the risen Jesus instead of following and obeying our own traditions and belief system.
Jesus isn’t religious and He isn’t political. Read the Gospels and you will see that the religious people pressured the political people to torture and execute Jesus, but He rose above them both. Now Jesus is alive and present today to call His followers away from religiosity and politics and into radical, self-denying, Spirit-led obedience to Him.
Don’t worry. “Worglee!” Train your brain to hope, to love your enemies, and to be happy.
The way to make America great Isn’t to hate And demonize Democrats and Undocumented Immigrants, Or any person. It’s to spread God’s love To everyone Even your enemies!
God’s kingdom is at hand (Matthew 3:2) but you can’t see it because it comes without observation. (Luke 17:20) That’s because the kingdom–the inner government of God–is within and among (Luke 17:21) the people who truly follow and obey the risen Jesus throughout each day. Don’t just attend or visit a church to hear a weekly talk about God. Live in His kingdom by faithfully surrendering your all to His will. Allow Him to lead and direct you by His Spirit in all that you think, say, and do. (Romans 8:14)
Let the Lord build His inner government in your heart, in your behavior, and in your house! (Psalm 127:1) Instead of trying to occasionally squeeze Jesus into your busy life, allow Him to continually build you into His will. Rather than trying to figure the Bible out, let God use the Bible to straighten you out. Set aside your plans and abide in the ongoing awareness of Jesus’ presence.
In order to do that:
You need to stay Close to Jesus Both night and day. He is the way, The truth, the life. Listen to what He has to say And then obey. Discipleship Behaves that way.
There is one thing that I do daily for at least five reasons: fun, inspiration, encouragement, hope, and strength. I devour a very special book. It’s actually a collection of 66 books written by around 40 different authors during a period of 1,500 years. It’s the Bible and you can also read it for those reasons and many more.
Don’t read the Bible like a textbook. Approach it as you would a love letter. Abide with it. Read the Bible really, really well by applying your heart to what it says. (Proverbs 23:12) Savor and absorb it day and night. (Joshua 1:8) Then it will become an inner well of wisdom and revelation (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) that will release rivers of glorious (2 Corinthians 3:18) living water within you. (John 7:38-39)
Here is how to apply your heart to the Bible’s wisdom. Daily allow the Bible to comfort you, encourage you, exhort you, challenge you, convict you of sin, call you to repentance, introduce you to humility, give you courage, direct you, disciple you, awe you with God the Father and the depth of His love, train you to follow and obey the risen Jesus who is God the Son, and fine tune your heart and your life to God the Holy Spirit.
A weekly dose of dished out religion is weak, but being a daily Bible absorbing disciple of Christ is dynamic! Attending a Sunday service provided for religious consumers is a far cry from daily following and obeying the risen Jesus. When you read the Bible let go and let God the Holy Spirit freely flow within you.
One thing to understand is that true understanding requires humility. Pride prevents and distorts true understanding.
Self-focus will keep you from humbling yourself. (1 Peter 5:6) That’s why Jesus taught self-denial, daily cross bearing, and obedience to Him. (Luke 9:23)
Instead of merely trying to figure life out with human wisdom and logic, (1 Corinthians 3:18-20) true humility asks for, receives, and relies on divine wisdom, (James 1:5) and supernatural revelation directly from God the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:10) Humility sets aside self-focus and self-will (Luke 9:23) in order to be taught, led, and directed by the still small voice (1 Kings 19:12) of the Holy Spirit. (John 14:26) The only way to love your neighbor, the way you love yourself, (Mark 12:31) is to set aside the pride of self-focus and focus instead on your neighbor the same way Jesus humbled Himself and washed His disciples’ feet. (John 13:3-5)
Church attendance isn’t the goal of biblical Christianity. (Luke 9:23) When church became a mere provider of religious services to passive spectators instead of a gathering of Spirit-led Christ-followers, it got off track. The goal of Christianity is humble surrender and obedience to the living resurrected Jesus.
Assembling together with the body of Christ (Hebrews 10:24-26) requires openhearted vulnerability (James 5:16) and humble submission to one another. (Ephesians 5:21) It’s so much more than merely sitting together through a church service as passive sermon hearers. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Churches present Christians with two scenarios. Either attend an institutional church, or you will be self-led, deceived, and in rebellion. That’s a totally false dichotomy.
There is a third option. Be Spirit-led. (Romans 8:14) To assume that a Christian who doesn’t regularly attend a programmed church is in some way distanced from God is a superficial judgment.
The body of Christ isn’t found only in church buildings and human controlled services. It’s everywhere Christians are. The body of Christ is manifest any time Christians gather and connect heart-to-heart as they are led by God the Holy Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit wasn’t truly present to lead us, we would need to rely on religious institutions and professional Christians. But that’s not the case. God the Holy Spirit is very active in this world speaking to Christ followers and seeking to teach, direct, and prompt them from within.
The real danger for Christians isn’t a lack of church attendance. It’s quenching, ignoring, and/or disobeying the Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) It’s neglecting to assemble together to be led by the Spirit.
That kind of gathering doesn’t require a church building or a professional leader. It can happen anytime and anywhere that Christians begin to encourage one another, (1 Thessalonians 5:11) teach one another, (Colossians 3:16) and bear one another’s burdens. (Galatians 6:2) Let God the Spirit guide you to His assemblies throughout each day. (John 16:13-15)
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Fill Your Mind and Your Heart With Hope 