The Never Ending Post - Part III

Why do we try to go it alone when there are those who would help us along the way? We can seek out advice and sort out answers if we only stop and ask those who have our interests in mind and care enough to share their thoughts with us. Proverbs 24:6 states you need many counselors for victory.

Is it that you cannot win on your own? Or is it not victory unless you share it with others? Or are you just not smart enough to do it by yourself? Or is it we are to seek out others so that we learn also to seek out God? It seems the more I speak to others the less I realize I actually know myself. Some form of victory comes from being humble enough to know what you do not know.

But who to ask? I cannot believe victory comes from seeking counsel from those who are no wiser than myself. Maybe it comes form listening to people who do not always tell you what you want to hear, the wisdom of knowing in your heart what you hear is right even though you fight it in your head. (Here is an interesting sidebar. I went for my annual eye exam this past Saturday, convinced I needed a new prescription. I told the eye doctor that I felt my vision had changed quite a bit. When you have worn glasses as long as I have, you know when you have to move your head to get clear vision more than usual. The exam yielded no change of any significance, no change in prescription strength. I was puzzled, so was the eye doctor. Until I told him about the nose pad I had lost a month or so ago that I never got around to replacing. Seems the glasses were not sitting on my face quite the right way. Victory in an abundance of counselors. Duh.)

Maybe the victory comes over self, over realizing the limitations one has, which are often fogged from view by the mists of pride.

It is not enough to be smart enough to hear, you have to take that step to listen to what you heard.

Technorati Tags: The Never Ending Post, victory, counselors, wisdom

Time Will Come

When the Word of God is ignored and violated, divine judgment sooner or later is inevitable.
John F. Walvoord (from his commentary on Daniel)

I put this quote up on my Facebook status last week, and I have been thinking about it on and off ever since. I am reading this commentary as part of my seminary class, but for some reason, this sentence keeps coming around to the front of my brain, or at least to the front of my thinking.

Judgment. Inevitable judgment.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment
Hebrews 9:27(New American Standard Bible)

We are all going to die one day and face judgment as individuals, but until that day comes for each of us, will we face judgment as a nation? I look at how our society is moving forward, how far we seem, each day, to drift away from God's will and way. On the good days we seem to drift, the bad days we seem to run in the opposite direction from Him. As if running away works, it doesn't, just ask Jonah. If you do not think God punishes a nation, look at Israel in the Old Testament when the nation turned from God, look at the nations that attacked or invaded Israel. None fared well. Even when God used one nation to punish Israel, that nation didn't make out well in the long run. There is not a good long term record in defying God.

I always get concerned when people speak of America as if we are God's chosen. We are not, the nation of Israel is. And look how they got treated when they strayed from God. Not sure the average American wants to deal with that type of treatment. The more God gives a nation, the harder the judgment that seems to come against them. Something about to those who are given much, much is expected comes to mind.

There is an inevitability to God's pronouncements of judgment, after all, God is God and that is that.I wonder if we are all ready, as individuals and as a nation, for the judgment we will face. And face it we will, for the Bible says it is so.

The only way to face it is to trust Jesus as the only way to your salvation.

Then whatever comes will be tolerable in Him, and Him alone.



Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, judgment, America, Israel

Sunny Sunday afternoons are just about perfect. Who can doubt the existence of a Creator on a day like this? This is a day He has gloriously made!

Blogging at 160 characters at a time will be a challenge, I will have to limit use. More to come. Someday. Maybe. This has been a test - what do you think?

I think I may try mobile blogging again but it seems quite limiting an application. However, it might be nice to share while walking The Narrow Road.

Paths and Choices and Seasons

I read last night of a friend who decided to shut down her blog, maybe permanently. She started roughly the same time as I did, we have only met on the internet, I have enjoyed her blogging and hope she has enjoyed mine half as much.

And we are not alone in revisiting why we started to blog. I have watched as a couple of other blog friends have gone through a similar journey. Maybe there is such a thing as a two year itch in blogging.

It is interesting for me to think I went through quite a dry spell this summer and have only recently seemed to enjoy blogging on a more consistent basis. Many times I thought I was through but something kept the spark alive. So I labor on, with one less friend to read as I walk down my own road on this journey.

What keeps one doing this? I am not sure, but hopefully there is a purpose to the time spent doing this. Those of us who blog may never know the majority of people who read our posts; may never know who those posts touch, who they encourage, who they make stop and think. Every once on a while I get some affirmation, and it surprises me to think anyone is not only reading me, but actually taking in what I blog about occasionally. The tree is not always falling soundlessly in the forest.

I have been encouraged by others over the past two plus years to continue this; and I must say it feels right to continue. It feels right. There are days I am sure I will never think of another thing to blog, but it feels right.

So it comes down to paths and choices. It comes down to seasons of time and what we do during them. Hopefully we all make the right choices, walk the paths without stumbling, enjoy and adapt to the seasons in our lives. I know that as long as I follow hard after Jesus, the right choices will come to me. Because in my faith walk, that is what paths and choices come down to. Following hard after my faith in Christ, in Him alone for my eternal future.

I know my friend made the right choice to stop and at the right time, because her faith in Christ is strong, and she follows it.

So really there is not much to decide in paths and choices and seasons ahead of us if we follow His will.

And that is what I will seek to do each day as I go down The Narrow Road.

Be Real

Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.
Matthew 7:21-23 (New American Standard Bible)

While we are all standing around waiting and doing, I think there is one thing we all need to remember. Be real. You can fool others. You can fool yourself. You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time. But you can never, ever fool the Lord. He knows and always will. He knows and always did. You cannot fool someone who knew you before you were.

Authenticity is relationships is a key to a meaningful life here on earth. Authenticity in a relationship with Jesus is the key to an eternal life. As you are moving through this life, keeping a focus on the Lord and how he would have you live it is the key to a satisfying life. I know that when I am moving in His will (or at least toward His will), I am more content, more at peace with myself and my surroundings, more aware of how He is moving in my life and the lives of those I come into contact with.

If I am not doing real, He cannot give me all He wants, because I get in the way. I know I have to work hard to be real before the Lord.

Then being real with the rest becomes easy.

Technorati Tags: Jesus, God, real, authenticity