SKEWED DENIAL

           There’s a guy at work that wears a tee shirt every once in a while that says in medium sized block letters “Deny Everything”. Curiously enough, today wore the tee shirt & also happened to have a fairly sizable crucifix dangling from around his neck. I started to think about that phrase … DENY EVERYTHING. It’s a relative phrase. It will mean something different to each individual person. Being a believer in Christ I tend to at least try to look at things from a Godly perspective. Then I look at it from what I would consider to be the opposite perspective.

          Scripture talks about denial. We are to deny ourselves illicit sexual desires, evil thoughts, ungodly behavior, to name a few. We are to deny ourselves anything that would replace God’s importance in our lives. Mainly because nothing or no one else can do for us what God can do.

          The world looks at it from a purely carnal perspective. Deny yourself nothing, especially that which makes you feel good and doesn’t harm anyone else. Deny the existence of God, who is either strict, judgmental and harsh in his treatment of men or a loving Father who winks at our indiscretions and lets us be. I’m afraid they got all that from those who proclaim to be Christians, but live like anything but one. We need to display Christ to them … the real Christ, not the one we feel would guilt them into heaven all the while helping push them on to hell. We need to stop preaching at the non-believers and listen to their questions and concerns. Pray for them. Show them the unconditional love of God.  Don’t deny them the joy of knowing sins forgiven. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing. rlkeller    

Word for the Day

Thoughts From a Random Mind

THE ULTIMATE

Defined…

“the finest or most superior of its kind”

“the highest; most desirable”

“the extreme; perfection; the last word”

          As a means of marketing their product companies will talk them up with grandiose words like: great, the greatest, the extreme, the best, the ultimate and so on. But are these items really what we are told they are or is it nothing more than a sales pitch. The true ULTIMATE is Almighty God for he delivers the goods. No matter what superlatives people use, the greatest of any one thing pales in comparison to God. A creation can never be greater than its Creator. That would mean it had to have come first and/or was responsible in some way for creating the Creator. Not possible.  I’m not saying it is wrong to use such superlatives to describe something; I’m just saying we must never lose sight of the fact that God is the ultimate. He is the ultimate healer, the ultimate provider, the ultimate comforter, the ultimate defender. No one can top the Lord. He is superior in every way to anyone or anything placed up against him as a means of comparison. He loved us before we knew him, unconditionally. He arranged the death of his own Son to pay for something we could never pay for ourselves … our sin. There’s no one this side of heaven who can save us from our sin. God alone. He is the only Ultimate that matters. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing! rlkeller

HAVING QUIET CONFIDENCE

Psalm 62:1-2 … “I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. He alone is my 

rock and my salvation, my fortress 

where I will never be shaken.”

            King David wrote this Psalm at a time when his third son, Absalom, was plotting to take over the crown by nefarious means. Though David wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, he is called “the apple of his (God’s) eye” (Psalm 17:8) and “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). As a side note, we can see that we do not have to be perfect to be loved and cherished by God. Due to Christ’s blood sacrifice for our sins we are expected to allow that event to change the trajectory of our lives. God’s love is without conditions.

            David provides evidence that we can cling to our Lord during trials and embrace him during our peaceful times with a quiet confidence that he is not only with us, but capable of leading us thru any situation we may face. David was in dire straits at this time in his life. He was an ineffectual father to his children, never taking the time to raise them in the ways of the Lord. Therefore Absalom, immature and impetuous, sought to take over the throne of his father.

            In spite of the threats to his life, David’s confidence rested in the hands of God. He knew that when he was resting in God’s strength nothing could shake him. We can have that same quiet confidence. The Lord watches over us just as he did David.  We simply need to draw near to him and allow him to speak to speak to us. Over time we will cultivate that peace that passes all understanding along with an assurance that God never fails to impart his wisdom and direction to those who seek it. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

Resource: www.biblegateway.com; The Life Application Study Bible.

HUMILITY NEGATES SELFISHNESS

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

                                                                                                         Philippians 2:3-4

            True humility is treating others with respect and common courtesy. It is making their concerns our concerns by elevating them above our own concerns. Church’s will not fail if its’ congregations would follow that simple rule; treating others the way Christ has and continues to treat us.  Never say and/or do things just to make a good impression for our faith can really only be seen when we act it out. Talk is cheap becoming meaningless when it isn’t followed by actions. Christ is our example. This is why I constantly mention the importance of imitating Christ in our daily lives. Don’t think it’s easy, because it absolutely is not. We have natural tendencies and inclinations that drive us at times. Like a car that is misaligned and keeps veering to the right, we must constantly be aware of things that cause us to drift into the other lane.

            It should be easy to tend to the needs of others because God has our back and will never let us hang out to dry, so to speak. The Lord never fails or forsakes his family (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5) therefore since he’s covering us it leaves us free to minister to the needs of others. Using wisdom and discernment as a means of knowing who to help and who not to help, we become as wise and shrewd as a snake while being as innocent and harmless as a dove (Matthew 10:16). 

            It’s easy to be selfish in any given situation, especially since we are prone to it. But it’s when we perform an act of charity in the name of the Lord that we experience the joy and satisfaction of blessing someone else with no strings attached. That is what makes heads turn, but that isn’t the sole reason we should be doing it. We are seeking to expand the kingdom that others might know and enjoy the salvation that we have found. We are free from sin and death and wish, as God does, that none would perish but have eternal live (2 Peter 3:9). Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

Resource: www.biblegateway.com; The Life Application Study Bible.

AVOID INFIGHTING

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” – Philippians 1:27

          The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi cautioning them to find their joy in Christ and him alone. He encouraged the brethren to be united in the faith and not allow infighting to drag them down. He wrote this letter from prison, the least joyful place I can think of. Yet his strong faith carried him through his trials as he represented Christ with his life. We must understand that while joy can be found aside from Christ, it is fleeting. It evaporates quickly at the introduction of the next situation that confronts us. Our emotions get the best of us if we allow them to, but a person well grounded in their faith and trust in God will keep their emotions under control when necessary and face each day with an inner joy that can defeat anything the enemy might attempt to inflict upon us.

          The enemy of our soul works hard to disrupt the workings of the Lord’s church. The presence of disruptive individuals in the church can become divisive if it is allowed to exist and flourish. Too many people want things to go the way THEY think it should go, no matter what direction the Pastor is trying to lead the congregation. We must pray diligently for the will of God to manifest itself in our churches. He WILL purge his church of the disruptive individuals when the time is right. Pray for a purging and expect it to come. Disruptive people become disgruntled at some point when they feel they are not having any effect on things where they are and will move on to another congregation. No church is perfect and no individual is perfect either so if you attended the perfect church it would become flawed as soon as you came thru the doors. Without Christ in our lives we don't stand a chance of being what we ought to be in God.

          Don’t allow others to effect your inner joy. Lead with your faith and be a united front with the brethren. Hatred, jealousy, strife, to name just a few, should find no place among congregations. It is ungodly behavior and is not indicative of Christ’s influence that is supposed to be upon us. If we are striving to think, speak and act like Christ in wisdom, mercy and love, then there will be no room for ungodly behavior. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

Resource: www.biblegateway.com; The Life Application Study Bible.

            

WORDS TO LIVE BY

"The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them;                            

he delivers them from all their troubles."                     Psalm 34:17

Thoughts From a Random Mind

THE MEANING OF THE CROSS    

          When a local pastor was asked why his church didn’t have any crosses displayed anywhere his response was that they didn’t preach death there, but rather life. If you take the cross out of the conversation you destroy the message. Whether it’s a man’s life and death or Christ’s, life and death are intrinsic parts of any conversation related to Almighty God. We all live and we all die, biblical examples not withstanding (Enoch and Elijah were simply taken away and didn’t die; Genesis 5:24 & 2 Kings 2:11).

          Without death there is no life. In the spiritual realm the death we speak of is Christ’s. Without his death on a wooden cross there would be no redemption, no forgiveness, no payment rendered to pay for our sin. Someone has to pay for it, for that is how God’s system of eternal measures works. Blood is the chip used to buy back a man’s soul. Without the cross the story ends abruptly. Remove it from the scene and then what would be next? The blood? … surely not. No blood, no salvation. And that’s not to mention the iconic nature of the cross itself. It is universally recognized as a religious symbol. Without it your church could be anything from a business office to a racket ball club. Death must take place so that mankind can live on after their own demise.

          rThe cross was the brutal, humiliating way the Romans used to torture and kill criminals. The cross was the means of the day and Christ willingly with all joy allowed himself to be whipped and nailed to that cross. We must never neutralize that part of the story. It should mean everything to the believer. Without a death on the cross there is no need for a Resurrection Day / Easter celebration. If Christ didn’t die then there is no need for him to be raised. Never lose sight of the cross. It is one of the lynch pins of our faith. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing! rlkeller

PROPER NOURISHMENT

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” – Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV

           It interests me that the illustration used here is one of a tree planted by the water. Those who tap into the vast array of resources available from the Lord are like planted trees. According to Jeremiah, the trees aren’t planted just anywhere, they are planted by a fresh source of nourishment … life giving water.

           A tree that is planted by a body of water will not shrivel and dry up in the parching heat of the sun. It will draw the life giving nourishment in thru its root system. We nourish our spirit man by drawing wisdom and guidance from the spiritual resources that are liberally provided by our Lord. We have nothing to fear because God is with us continuously. As long as we remain focused on him and not our circumstances we will have the best chance of remaining at peace.

          A tree that remains tapped into its source of nourishment will always bear good fruit. So we who remain continuously tapped into OUR source of spiritual nourishment will cultivate and utilize the good fruit of the Spirit*. Stay tapped into the one true source of truth and allow yourself to flourish in the things of God. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

Resource: The Life Application Study Bible.

* Galatians 5:22-23 New International Version (NIV) - “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,  forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”