People want to feel needed.
I have never met anybody that did not desire to be needed by someone else. I am not sure why this is... I don't know if it's because God looked at Adam and found that it wasn't good for him to be alone... Or if we're in some way wanting to fill the role of Holy Spirit...
Anyway, whether right or wrong, whether people need me or I need people, I DO know that people need God. It's a desperate need that cannot be replaced by any other relationship. It's un-solvable except through God Himself. We cannot take the place of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside someone's soul.
I DO know that we're called to be in relationships with other people. Not for our own satisfaction, but in order to obey God by loving the person unconditionally. Loving them the way Christ loves us.
I'm not talking JUST about husband/wife relationships. I have nothing of any value to offer to someone about that type of relationship, having never been in one myself. I don't pretend to imagine I can offer council or advice to a person in that sort of relationship that would be of any worth.
I can see what God says and translate it to the best of my ability. God tells us to love people, and to submit to Him. In Philippians Paul says that we are to look, "not only to our own needs, but to the needs of others" and to "esteem others as better than ourselves..."
I don't think we should try to "make people need us" I think we are to selflessly love them, pointing them to Christ and His insurmountable love. I don't really think people need people. They need God. They need us to be an expression of God's love. I don't really need people. I need God's love in my life.
I don't mean that I don't want people to have relationships with. I think life would be meaningless without other people. Here I'm confusing myself... When I say "I don't need people" that's not entirely true. We do need people... just not in the way we THINK we need people.
We need people to be accountable to, we need people to fellowship with, in order to grow and mature in Christ. But that's not how we feel. That overwhelming feeling of "needing someone" is our soul crying out for the Holy Spirt of God. In fact, the times we seem to NOT want people around, when we try to draw away and hide, that's when we actually NEED people. We need them to draw us closer to God.
Our need of people is just part of our bigger need of God.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
What a Man Can Do and What a Man Can't Do...
Those famous words of Captain Jack Sparrow come to my mind as I wrestle with some questions of my own.
See... William Turner had a loathing disgust of pirates, a complete intollerance. He couldn't bare to face the possibility that perhaps his own father, his flesh and blood, had been a pirate, that he, William Turner, had Pirate blood running in his veins. Basically, Jack Sparrow told him he could either accept it, or he could not. But it didn't change the facts and that he'd one day have to face them.
The Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not upon thy own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall make thy paths straight."
We have two options: Trust in the Lord, or don't trust in the Lord. The choice is ours. But whatever we decide to do, doesn't change the facts. The Lord God above knows the beginning and the end, what is best for us and what will cause destruction. He asks us to put our trust in Him so that in the end, we will be safe with Him for all eternity. The alternative to that is a life in damnation, away from Him: Hell.
Whether we decide to trust in Him or not, doesn't change the fact that He is still Lord High God. It only changes our fate in eternity.
Even as Christians who have made the choice to be saved, which implies a trust in the Lord, we still have to make this decision throughout our Christain lives. We'll keep coming to a point where God is telling us something maybe we don't want to hear and, again, we must decide, "Can I trust God? Or can I not?"
Now, we don't ever have to make this decision with no information. God is a faithful God and has been such througout all the ages. If we cannot look over our past and see His faithfulness to us, over and over again, well then we can look in the Bible, look at the history books, look at the first settlers in America, the Revolutionary war... the list goes on.
We have the tools to make an informed decision. But the question is not complicated. Will I trust God, or will I not?
See... William Turner had a loathing disgust of pirates, a complete intollerance. He couldn't bare to face the possibility that perhaps his own father, his flesh and blood, had been a pirate, that he, William Turner, had Pirate blood running in his veins. Basically, Jack Sparrow told him he could either accept it, or he could not. But it didn't change the facts and that he'd one day have to face them.
The Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not upon thy own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall make thy paths straight."
We have two options: Trust in the Lord, or don't trust in the Lord. The choice is ours. But whatever we decide to do, doesn't change the facts. The Lord God above knows the beginning and the end, what is best for us and what will cause destruction. He asks us to put our trust in Him so that in the end, we will be safe with Him for all eternity. The alternative to that is a life in damnation, away from Him: Hell.
Whether we decide to trust in Him or not, doesn't change the fact that He is still Lord High God. It only changes our fate in eternity.
Even as Christians who have made the choice to be saved, which implies a trust in the Lord, we still have to make this decision throughout our Christain lives. We'll keep coming to a point where God is telling us something maybe we don't want to hear and, again, we must decide, "Can I trust God? Or can I not?"
Now, we don't ever have to make this decision with no information. God is a faithful God and has been such througout all the ages. If we cannot look over our past and see His faithfulness to us, over and over again, well then we can look in the Bible, look at the history books, look at the first settlers in America, the Revolutionary war... the list goes on.
We have the tools to make an informed decision. But the question is not complicated. Will I trust God, or will I not?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Bringing Into Captivity...
Another great verse I've known all my life!
"Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brining into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (IICorinthians 10:5)
What struck me as new with this verse was the phrase, "Casting down imaginations... that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God..."
We're supposed to bring our thought-life into captivity for God. Our imaginations, even, are supposed to bring glory to God! If they don't we must cast them where they belong, away from us.
I never thought about my imagination being a sinful tool of Satan before. Of course it makes sense, I just never thought of it in so many words.
We have knowledge of God, we know His character through His dealings with the Israelites in the Old Testament, and through Christ in the New Testament. God created us to bring glory to Him and to honor Him in all we do. If our thoughts are not honoring to Him, eventually everything we say and do will be governed by those thoughts.
I have a very active imagination. But my imagination is only that. It isn't truth or fact, it's IMAGINATIONS. If I'm imagining something that flies in the face of Godly wisdom, why should I let it become an active part of my thoughts, provoking my spirit and physical self to act in sin against Christ?
Brining my thoughts into captivity has always seemed very vague to me. How are you REALLY supposed to control every thought? Well, you can't control every thought you have. But you can shout at it and put it where it belongs. If I have a thought that is wrong, I can scream in my head at it, "YOU ARE NOT OF GOD!!" I can then replace that thought with a Bible verse that IS of God.
I think that's really the key: filling your mind and heart with things of God. If you have fifty verses of TRUTH in your heart, ready at will to quote, think of the arsenal you are carrying against thoughts that aren't of God! When what I put in my mind is mostly God's truth, I find I have fewer thoughts that need to be yelled at.
Paul's eptistle to the Philippians is a great blue-print for controlling thoughts. Paul lays out what are Godly things to think about. If that is the "screen" we use to examine every thought... well, I know I'll be casting aside a LOT of random thoughts that seem to just fly into my head.
Back to my imagination. Some thoughts are more than thoughts... the thoughts, "I am being abused, I shouldn't have to put up with this!" or "This person is a horrible person and I shouldn't have to deal with them anymore!" are more than just random thoughts that flew in unwilled. Those are my imagination telling me something that isn't true. If I act upon them, I am acting on an imagination exalting itself as higher than God.
God tells me that His creation, in it's entirety, is precious to Him. That means that the person I find intollerable is someone He loves and cherishes. If He loves and cherishes them, that means I'm supposed to as well. If I act on my imagination and treat them as contemptable, then I'm sinning. I'm allowing my thoughts to exalt themselves over the knowledge of God.
Not all imaginations are that easy to spot as being against God. That is why I must always be on my guard. If I allow even the smallest thought that isn't Godly into my imaginations, or my thought-life, eventually they will grow and produce fruit. Fruit that is not godly.
It's much easier to nip somthing in the bud rather than to let it grow into a great big bush that needs to be uprooted. The more control I give my imagination, the more likely I am to let an ungodly thought take hold of me and guide me, taking root in my mind and governing the rest of my thoughts, and eventually my words and actions.
I should govern myself not by my imagination, but by the Truth I replace my own thoughts or beliefs with.
"Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brining into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (IICorinthians 10:5)
What struck me as new with this verse was the phrase, "Casting down imaginations... that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God..."
We're supposed to bring our thought-life into captivity for God. Our imaginations, even, are supposed to bring glory to God! If they don't we must cast them where they belong, away from us.
I never thought about my imagination being a sinful tool of Satan before. Of course it makes sense, I just never thought of it in so many words.
We have knowledge of God, we know His character through His dealings with the Israelites in the Old Testament, and through Christ in the New Testament. God created us to bring glory to Him and to honor Him in all we do. If our thoughts are not honoring to Him, eventually everything we say and do will be governed by those thoughts.
I have a very active imagination. But my imagination is only that. It isn't truth or fact, it's IMAGINATIONS. If I'm imagining something that flies in the face of Godly wisdom, why should I let it become an active part of my thoughts, provoking my spirit and physical self to act in sin against Christ?
Brining my thoughts into captivity has always seemed very vague to me. How are you REALLY supposed to control every thought? Well, you can't control every thought you have. But you can shout at it and put it where it belongs. If I have a thought that is wrong, I can scream in my head at it, "YOU ARE NOT OF GOD!!" I can then replace that thought with a Bible verse that IS of God.
I think that's really the key: filling your mind and heart with things of God. If you have fifty verses of TRUTH in your heart, ready at will to quote, think of the arsenal you are carrying against thoughts that aren't of God! When what I put in my mind is mostly God's truth, I find I have fewer thoughts that need to be yelled at.
Paul's eptistle to the Philippians is a great blue-print for controlling thoughts. Paul lays out what are Godly things to think about. If that is the "screen" we use to examine every thought... well, I know I'll be casting aside a LOT of random thoughts that seem to just fly into my head.
Back to my imagination. Some thoughts are more than thoughts... the thoughts, "I am being abused, I shouldn't have to put up with this!" or "This person is a horrible person and I shouldn't have to deal with them anymore!" are more than just random thoughts that flew in unwilled. Those are my imagination telling me something that isn't true. If I act upon them, I am acting on an imagination exalting itself as higher than God.
God tells me that His creation, in it's entirety, is precious to Him. That means that the person I find intollerable is someone He loves and cherishes. If He loves and cherishes them, that means I'm supposed to as well. If I act on my imagination and treat them as contemptable, then I'm sinning. I'm allowing my thoughts to exalt themselves over the knowledge of God.
Not all imaginations are that easy to spot as being against God. That is why I must always be on my guard. If I allow even the smallest thought that isn't Godly into my imaginations, or my thought-life, eventually they will grow and produce fruit. Fruit that is not godly.
It's much easier to nip somthing in the bud rather than to let it grow into a great big bush that needs to be uprooted. The more control I give my imagination, the more likely I am to let an ungodly thought take hold of me and guide me, taking root in my mind and governing the rest of my thoughts, and eventually my words and actions.
I should govern myself not by my imagination, but by the Truth I replace my own thoughts or beliefs with.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
But Be Ye Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Mind
I came across an amazing verse that I've always known today. "I beseech you therefore bretheren, by God's mercies, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:1-2)
Like I mentioned, this verse is not new to me; I've heard it as long as I've been a church-goer - nearly 24 years. But today the phrase, "be ye transformed by the renewing of youm mind" really captivated me. Am I a transformed person?
I know that my soul has been transformed, that I am saved and will go to heaven when I die. But is the outside of me, the personality that I share with others around me, the essence of Lela, a transformed being?
Can people look at me and know that there is something different about me? Or do I just look and act and speak like any un-born-again heathen?
The thought that I may appear no different from non-believers really bothers me. The Bible clearly says that people should look at a Christian and immediately see a difference in their character, in their essence.
There is a song, "And they'll know we are Christians by our love." Is that what transformation is? Am I a loving person?
It's really easy to love the people who are close to me. The people I know. The people who are like me. But do I exude the love of Christ, making Christ's love available and accessable, through me, to anyone and everyone who comes into contact with me?
I think that should be my goal.
Like I mentioned, this verse is not new to me; I've heard it as long as I've been a church-goer - nearly 24 years. But today the phrase, "be ye transformed by the renewing of youm mind" really captivated me. Am I a transformed person?
I know that my soul has been transformed, that I am saved and will go to heaven when I die. But is the outside of me, the personality that I share with others around me, the essence of Lela, a transformed being?
Can people look at me and know that there is something different about me? Or do I just look and act and speak like any un-born-again heathen?
The thought that I may appear no different from non-believers really bothers me. The Bible clearly says that people should look at a Christian and immediately see a difference in their character, in their essence.
There is a song, "And they'll know we are Christians by our love." Is that what transformation is? Am I a loving person?
It's really easy to love the people who are close to me. The people I know. The people who are like me. But do I exude the love of Christ, making Christ's love available and accessable, through me, to anyone and everyone who comes into contact with me?
I think that should be my goal.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Well, yesterday I made a big step (for me) by closing out my facebook and myspace accounts... I only wish I'd thought to transfer over all my written blogs on myspace before I closed the account... Ah well. Big steps are often very similar to ripping a band-aid off and if it's done all at once without giving yourself too much time to think about it, sometimes it's a lot easier to follow through with it.
I guess I should explain a little about my decision. I have a lot of freinds, of both sexes. I used to believe that having friends of the opposite sex was natural, even a good thing. While I don't believe that having acquaintences of the opposite sex can even be avoided, my thoughts towards having/maintaining friendships with them have altered. I still don't believe it's exactly inherrantly EVIL to have friendships with boys, but I think it opens the door to a whole bunch of things better avoided.
What really turned the tide for me was when I was reading a book by Debi Pearl with a friend, titled, "Preparing to be a Helpmeet." One of the verses she quotes several times, rather as a theme, throughout the book, is that one from Proverbs 31, "...She does him good and not evil all the days of her life." As Debi talked about what a godly girl looks like as she's preparing to be a good wife to a husband one day, I couldn't help but think about things in my life that might not make me such a good candidate for the type of husband I want to marry.
I started thinking about my future husband and what I'd want for my wife if I were him. I thought about how I'd want my husband to interact with other women. I guess God really hit me on the head with my "friendships" with other guys. I had been pondering the question even before reading the book, but just felt like there was nothing I could do about it. How can you tell someone who you've been treating as a good friend for a long time, "sorry, I just can't be friends with you anymore, see you never!"???
Well if you have a personality like mine, you almost can't. So I just felt stuck. I almost felt like I'd have to settle for less in a husband so that he would be fine with all my "friend" relationships. As I was reading the book, it just kept coming back to me that I didn't want to have to settle. But how could I possibly fix my situation? I finally decided that I HAD to do SOMETHING.
All I could think about was my facebook account. How easy it made private conversations with just anyone who came along. I didn't want to go to each and every individual and tell them pointblank goodbye. However, closing out my account was fairly easy. It was universal - I wasn't singling anyone out.
Why is having friendships with guys such a big deal to me? Think about any guy you've ever liked. How did it feel knowing that he had tons of friends that happened to be women? It's even worse for women, I think, to have friends with guys because women are programmed by God to be responders. Think about Eve, in the garden. It wasn't Adam who bought the snake's charm and grabbed the apple. It was tender-hearted, compulsive Eve. We girls are all a lot like her. Generally, we have a more understanding, trusting nature.
While this doesn't make it evil to be freinds with a guy, it makes it dangerous territory. We tend to give our hearts away long before men do. We may not even realize that's what we're doing. But if we want a guy who belongs to nobody but us, we must likewise belong to nobody but him. Maintaining friendships with guys before and after marrying my husband will probably make him feel like he's just a piece of my life, fitting in with all the other pieces that are just as, or more, important than him.
God says that my husband will be my head. That's a very important thing to understand. It doesn't mean I'm going to marry some tyrant who will lord over me all the days of our lives together. It means that I will need to submit to him as the leader of our family, it means that I should defer my absolute will to his, knowing that he is following God and leading our family toward godliness.
And if I'm supposed to do good and not evil ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE, that means before marriage. It means I should act as though I have a husband right now. In fact, I do. I will almost certainly get married some day. That means that I have a husband right now! I'm just not married to him yet. But that doesn't mean I can't act just as circumspectly now as if he were courting me.
I don't want there to be anything in my life to make my future husband wary of committing to me. I don't want ANYTHING to cause him to wonder if I'm really his or not. I want my husband to admire my life, previously and presently. I don't want anything to make him think I'm not circumspect. I don't want him to think I'm a worldly girl who comports herself in such a way as to make herself attractive, or seem available, to ungodly men.
I guess I should explain a little about my decision. I have a lot of freinds, of both sexes. I used to believe that having friends of the opposite sex was natural, even a good thing. While I don't believe that having acquaintences of the opposite sex can even be avoided, my thoughts towards having/maintaining friendships with them have altered. I still don't believe it's exactly inherrantly EVIL to have friendships with boys, but I think it opens the door to a whole bunch of things better avoided.
What really turned the tide for me was when I was reading a book by Debi Pearl with a friend, titled, "Preparing to be a Helpmeet." One of the verses she quotes several times, rather as a theme, throughout the book, is that one from Proverbs 31, "...She does him good and not evil all the days of her life." As Debi talked about what a godly girl looks like as she's preparing to be a good wife to a husband one day, I couldn't help but think about things in my life that might not make me such a good candidate for the type of husband I want to marry.
I started thinking about my future husband and what I'd want for my wife if I were him. I thought about how I'd want my husband to interact with other women. I guess God really hit me on the head with my "friendships" with other guys. I had been pondering the question even before reading the book, but just felt like there was nothing I could do about it. How can you tell someone who you've been treating as a good friend for a long time, "sorry, I just can't be friends with you anymore, see you never!"???
Well if you have a personality like mine, you almost can't. So I just felt stuck. I almost felt like I'd have to settle for less in a husband so that he would be fine with all my "friend" relationships. As I was reading the book, it just kept coming back to me that I didn't want to have to settle. But how could I possibly fix my situation? I finally decided that I HAD to do SOMETHING.
All I could think about was my facebook account. How easy it made private conversations with just anyone who came along. I didn't want to go to each and every individual and tell them pointblank goodbye. However, closing out my account was fairly easy. It was universal - I wasn't singling anyone out.
Why is having friendships with guys such a big deal to me? Think about any guy you've ever liked. How did it feel knowing that he had tons of friends that happened to be women? It's even worse for women, I think, to have friends with guys because women are programmed by God to be responders. Think about Eve, in the garden. It wasn't Adam who bought the snake's charm and grabbed the apple. It was tender-hearted, compulsive Eve. We girls are all a lot like her. Generally, we have a more understanding, trusting nature.
While this doesn't make it evil to be freinds with a guy, it makes it dangerous territory. We tend to give our hearts away long before men do. We may not even realize that's what we're doing. But if we want a guy who belongs to nobody but us, we must likewise belong to nobody but him. Maintaining friendships with guys before and after marrying my husband will probably make him feel like he's just a piece of my life, fitting in with all the other pieces that are just as, or more, important than him.
God says that my husband will be my head. That's a very important thing to understand. It doesn't mean I'm going to marry some tyrant who will lord over me all the days of our lives together. It means that I will need to submit to him as the leader of our family, it means that I should defer my absolute will to his, knowing that he is following God and leading our family toward godliness.
And if I'm supposed to do good and not evil ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE, that means before marriage. It means I should act as though I have a husband right now. In fact, I do. I will almost certainly get married some day. That means that I have a husband right now! I'm just not married to him yet. But that doesn't mean I can't act just as circumspectly now as if he were courting me.
I don't want there to be anything in my life to make my future husband wary of committing to me. I don't want ANYTHING to cause him to wonder if I'm really his or not. I want my husband to admire my life, previously and presently. I don't want anything to make him think I'm not circumspect. I don't want him to think I'm a worldly girl who comports herself in such a way as to make herself attractive, or seem available, to ungodly men.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)