If I could change modern day society I would change the hate and greed that has taken over society. I think they are the biggest challenges we face. I know that it seem impossible, and there is definitely no quick fix.
This change would have to begin on multiple levels, personal, cultural, institutional, and systemic.
Hate and greed begin in the human heart. Hate and greed have to be fed. We would need to stop feeding it. Changing the narrative in media and culture. And reform the systems that reward greed and division which begins with economic reform, political accountability and the big media responsibility. All while investing in communities and connection.
I for one am tired of the governmental experiment that is being used against us and had been used against for many years.
The Bible tells us grace is free. If grace is free, shouldn’t holiness be free also? Why should I have to exert effort to live a disciplined, righteous life? Why won’t God just give me sinless behavior, with no self-control required?
The problem is passive transformation. There are some things we struggle with that we will never be able to have self-control over. We can only surrender it to God. At least not in this life.
The reason Reality is we were not put on this earth to be passive. The key to overcoming is to rise above the temptation we have no self-control over. Not struggle or resist but to let go and give it to God. Maybe if we’re struggling it is proof that we’re doing something wrong, or we are trying too hard.
We all tend to look for a short cut of a cheat sheet, especially when it comes to doing the hard things. I would love to progress in my life without exerting any effort. Throw up my feet, put on the music, and let the changing begin. “Jesus take the wheel.”
Sadly, this is not how it works. The Bible gives us exhortations to resist temptation, die to sin, deny self, fight the good fight, and strive for godliness. In the Greek translation the meaning of strive is purposeful struggle.
In a Billy Graham sermon in 1957, he likened a believer to a boxer who masters his own body and practices self-restraint. All through the New Testament we can read words that describes what a believer’s life should be like, fight, wrestle, run, work, suffer, endure, resist, agonize, and persevere. This doesn’t sound like being passive to me. They describe a way to live a disciplined life.
So many churches equate spirituality with passivity. But that is not Biblical. Many people will have to reset their expectations. Being a follower of Jesus isn’t a pleasure cruise toward holiness. It takes pushing our bodies and learning that progress can feel like pain.
Our reluctance can be a smokescreen, a way of avoiding the humbling, hard work of seeking to change.
Holiness encompasses both Justification which is legal standing to being declared righteous and sanctification which is practical outward of that righteousness in daily life.
Justification is God’s declaration that believers are righteous through faith in Jesus’s atoning sacrifice. And sanctification is the ongoing process of being transformed into holiness.
Holiness is being set apart for God’s purposes and reflecting His character. It’s important to understand that holiness is not just a one-time event but a lifelong journey of growth and transformation,
We want to say we are saved by grace and not by anything we’ve done. So its easy to want to carry this truth over and apply it to sanctification. When we do that, we assume sanctification should happen like salvation: instantaneously and without effort. But in our attempt to protect one biblical truth, we distort another.
We can end up believing sanctification is passive in which God transforms us unilaterally. And it ends up hampering our spiritual progress. We become stalled out circa simple lack of effort. It becomes something Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace,” an unbiblical view of the gospel that embraces Jesus’s message but refuses the hard work of following Him. This devalues grace and ends up crippling our spiritual growth. But by striving for holiness, we honor the gift of grace.
What goes on between our ears causes us more problems than we sometimes realize. Too often we let our thoughts get out of control. We fuel a wildfire of fear and anxiety and burn up our lives in the process.
If we don’t learn how to control our thoughts, we end up in a desolate mental wasteland without hope. We also end up on an emotional roller coaster that we don’t need to be riding.
One of the ways our thoughts get out of control is by believing the lies Satan tells us. They can sneak into our thoughts in the way we talk to ourselves, or believe words someone else says to us. It’s easy for our perspective to get colored by the false things we believe, they hold us back and keep us bound.
The lies we believe steal our joy no matter what situation we find ourselves in. My circumstances began when I was a child. The lies were drilled into my brain daily. I was trained to believe the lies, because that’s all I knew. Lies leave us feeling insecure and defeated, and unable to carry out our purpose.
The reality is that we can only stop listening to the lies when we replace them with the truth -God’s truth.
It takes work. I had to retrain my brain to get where I am today.
The lie: I will never be good enough had to be replaced with I am good enough because the Holy Spirit empowers me. “I am God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which prepared beforehand that I should walk I them” (Ephesians 2:10.
The lie: I am worthless had to be replaced with I am God’s treasured possession. “The Lord has chosen you to be His treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 14:2).
The lie: I am ugly inside and outside had to replaced with I am God’s masterpiece. For I am God’s masterpiece. He has created me anew in Christ Jesus, so I can do the good things He planned for me long ago” (Ephesians 2:10 NIV).
The lie: Everyone will reject me had to be replaced with I have been chosen. “He chose me before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).
The lie: I will never be happy had to be replaced with my joy comes from the Lord. “The Lord has done great things for me and I am filled with joy” (Psalm 126:3). “The joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
Every time a lie would come into my mind I learned to replace it with God’s truth. I would write it down where I could see it and learn it. After a while, I began to reframe my mindset and my life began to change for the better.
While Satan cannot read our thoughts before we have them, he can use his knowledge of human nature, and our past behaviors to suggest thoughts and influence our decisions. He can exploit our weaknesses and insecurities or sinful tendencies to steer us toward choices that align with his desires rather than God’s.
We can protect ourselves from Satan’s influence by strengthening our faith and learning God’s promises in His Word.
I tend to listen to worship music at work and home. Pretty much I listen to music every where I go when given the chance.
It keeps me motivated and creates a positive and uplifting environment for me as I work. It reminds to who I am truly working for -God. If my work and my attitude does not please Him I definitely need to up my game and do better.
It boosts my attitude and my morale during the day.
I believe God has a plan for each of our lives, a divine destiny He wants us to reach. But, our journey to this destiny is rarely a straight path. It’s like a drive with a destination in mind, we sometimes encounter detours that slow us down or redirect us. They can be God’s way of preparing us for the destiny He has for us.
We see this in the Bible when Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness. It was a detour that equipped him for the monumental task of leading the Israelites out of Egypt, or Paul on his three-year detour in the desert, where God prepared him for his mission. They were detours that were part of God’s plan.
Just like Moses and Paul, our detours are designed to develop and refine our character, and to equip us with the skills and faith needed for our ultimate purpose. While we may be eager to reach our destination, it’s crucial to embrace these detours. We need to trust that God is at work in our lives to shape us for our destiny He has prepared.
These are opportunities for growth and development that allow God to refine our character and equip us for the future.
The accounts of Moses, and Paul are a few examples that demonstrate that detours are a common part of the spiritual journey. They are essential for our preparation for ultimate success.
The detours in our lives may seem like delays when we experience them they are part of God’s perfect timing. Trusting Him requires faith and patience, knowing that He is working all things together for our good and for His glory (Romans 8:28).
Detours teach us patience, perseverance, and reliance on Him. Qualities that are essential for fulfilling our purpose in life.
Embracing this journey, including the detours is crucial for our spiritual growth. By accepting and learning from these experiences, we can align ourselves with God’s plan and prepare ourselves for our destiny God has in store for us.
In the Bible, we see that God we know has a pattern of disrupting the lives and activities of sinful people. He disrupted Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden after they sinned in Genesis 3:1-4. He quarantined Noah and his family in the Ark and then disrupted the world by sending a universal flood in Genesis 3:1-24. He confused the language of those building the Tower of Babel, disrupting them and scattering them geographically. He disrupted Egypt by sending them severe plagues, the destroyed the nation in Exodus 5:1-14. There are many more.
God’s greatest disruption so far happened when He sent His own Son into a hostile world, into Satan’s hostile kingdom of darkness, to be the light of the world and go provide salvation to those enslaved by sin in John 1:5-9, 3:19-21, Galatians 51. Jesus declared “I am the light of the world, he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” -John 8:12.
When Jesus shared His divine viewpoint with others, on several occasions disruptions happened because of Him (John 7:43, 9:16, 10:19). As a result of His teachings we learn that many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him (John 6:66).
Jesus said Luke 12:51 “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.” When Jesus told His apostles to go into the world, they obeyed His words and became men who upset the world (Acts 17:6). Followers are called to “be diligent to preserve unity of the Spirit in the bond if peace.” but never at the price of God’s will or at the price of His truth.
We need to be the lights of the world, and this means learning God’s Word and interjecting His truth in daily discussions and activities. We are not supposed to be neutral. I love what Jesus tells us in Luke 10:5. “Into whatever house you enter, first say, peace be on this house. If the son of peace is there, your peace will rest on him, but if not, it will return to you.”
Those of us who walk with God, and can teach His Word will disrupt Satan’s plan in the world. There will be people who do not want to hear the truth. In Luke 9:5 Jesus tells us, “As many as font receive you, when you depart from the city, shake off even the dust from your feet for testimony against them.” To me this means don’t let their not listening to you affect my faith in God.
In the end, God will cause more disruptions when He removes true followers of Jesus. The great judgments upon the earth will happen, the seven seals torn. The final judgment will come.
There will be no further disruptions in our eternal state. Until then I will praise God for His disruptions.
The Holy Spirit is God’s power and presence that is active in the lives of His followers. He is what transforms our lives, filled with love, and helps us resist sin. He acts as a guide, teacher, and comforter, and helps us understand God’s truth and to live according to His will.
There are key aspects of what the Holy Spirit does:
Transformation
The Holy Spirit empowers Jesus’s followers to overcome weaknesses and reflect Jesus’s character.
Guidance and Teaching
The Holy Spirit guides us to God’s truths and helps us understand God’s Word, and convicts us of sin.
Empowerment for Service
He equips Jesus’s followers with spiritual gifts and empowers us for service in the body of Christ Jesus and in the world.
Comfort and Help
He serves as a comforter and helper and offers support and guidance in times of need.
Witnessing
The Holy Spirit empowers Jesus’s followers to share our stories that brought them closer to God. And demonstrating God’s love.
Connection with God
He helps us stay connected to Jesus and guarantees God’s promises.
Without the Holy Spirit, there is no awareness of sin. And no repentance and turning towards God for forgiveness of sin.
When a person hears from God it is often through the Holy Spirit who acts as a divine messenger.
My favorite food choices are making Palacsinta which are Hungarian crepes. It has a sweet, lemony cottage cheese filling with a fruit, sauce usually raspberry.
I also enjoy making Navajo Indian fry bread, although it’s a little time consuming. I get people asking me to take it because I use the authentic way that I learned how to make it.
What is holding fast to God? How do you hold fast to someone you can’t see or touch?
When we read through the Bible and look at the people of God, there a few that stand out. Some because they held fast to God, and some because they didn’t.
Pretty much everyone had heard the accounts of David and Goliath, Samson and Noah, and maybe even Jonah, but they missed Hezekiah.
He is not one who jumps to mind as particularly remarkable, but scripture reveals something very impressive about him.
2 Kings 18:5-7 tells us, “he trusted in the Lord, the God os Israel, is that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following Him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him, whenever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.
Hezekiah was one of a kind among the kings of Israel. Among all of the kings godly and ungodly, he is singled out for this lifestyle.
Its important that we hold fast to God. Hold fast literally means to hold your position, or fix your gaze and not lose sight of. This means that our attention and our actions need to be fixed on God.
We need to obey His instruction, which is the next logical step if our gaze and heart are locked on God.
I remember telling my pastor “I didn’t think I was strong enough to get through these trying times.” He said to me “I needed to trust God and stay in prayer. But trusting God is hard. He asks done pretty big things from those who follow Him.
Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, David defeated a giant with pebbles, Peter walked on water, and His own Son hung on a cross.
We have to trust Him no matter where He leads us. His love and grace will be enough. It might be hard, and downright painful. But it will also be worth it.
So, if the storms in my life, toss e around a bit, I will not wander from Him when they do. I will stay tightly secured to Him, the world may get my attention, but it cannot woome from His hold. I decided long ago that I would not let satan win -I will not give in.
The Bible tells us that where ever Hezekiah went out, he prospered because God was with him. And then it noted that he would not serve the king of Assyria. This means ho would worship God only, and would not now to an earthly authority that threatened him.
To me this means I need to make sure I don’t have other idols that rule my affections. I need to put God first in my life. This also means I will get to enjoy the benefits of holding fast to God. It might not be earthly riches, but they will be heavenly.
From Pity to Praise 