Voice of the Introverts

It seems some folk have the impression that they can continually ignore God and they will continue to be ok. That when all is said and done, God is a God of love and so we will all wind up in a “better” place. That, friends, is not the complete truth. God is a God of love, but there is more to the story than that.

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings:”

Philippians 2:14

I know I find myself complaining about a lot of things. More often than not I am complaining without even realizing that I am complaining! Did you know that in the Old Testament, God put more people to death for complaining than any other sin in the Old Testament! We are constantly complaining. The weather is too cold, it is too hot. We are too short, or too tall, too many freckles, our nose is too big, our feet are too small. My food is not just right, send it back to the cook. You are not treating me properly, I demand to speak to the manager. Lucy Van Pelt said it this way, “All I want is my fair share. All I want is what is coming to me!”

Have you noticed, as a Christian, that you can talk about God all you want, but if you try to talk about Jesus people start getting uncomfortable? That is because people can make a god out of anything and when you are talking about God they are picturing their little gods in their minds and everything is all rosy and utopian, we are all joining hands, we are the world type nonsense. But if you bring up Jesus that is putting Christianity on that very narrow path that Christ talked about and then we might have to live by Christ’s methods and actually live a life that honors the Father – at that point we can no longer live the way we really would like to and it brings us down man, it brings us down!

In my house we often talk about our will.  We have even personified our will, and we just call him Will.  We discuss how often our flesh wants us to do things that we shouldn’t, but that Will can help us do the things we don’t want to do.  We either have a weak will or a strong will.  A child with a weak will has not been trained to rise above and do what should be done.  He tends to do what he wants instead of doing what he knows he should.  In our society we often confuse strong will for weak will.  A child who throws a fit and wants everything his way is often called the strong willed child.  This is not a true way of describing that behavior.  A child who can rise to the challenge of denying self, and can instead of pacifying his fleshly lusts, can turn from his desires to do what is right is a strong willed child.  We as parents should cultivate the will of the child by teaching them to do the things they know they ought to do on a daily basis.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Philippians 4:13

This is going to disappoint some people but this verse, at least in the flagrant way people take this out of context in today’s society, this ain’t necessarily so!

Just because some mega-bucks TV evangelist tells you that you are so good that God will hand you a big purse every time you need it, does not make it true. 

Don’t we all just love new things? Say, for instance, a new car. We get in the car and the smell is even new. Then, over time, the car gets dirty, it has to go in for repairs and we get apathetic with it. Anything new is the same way; we are looking forward to this new purchase, but after we get it the newness wears off and it gets old and familiar – we get tired of it and apathetic toward it.

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear…”      2 Timothy 1:7a

Have you noticed how everyone is living in fear lately. I am talking Christians too! How is that possible? I think it is because we are living too much in and too close to the world (I mean the world system/culture).

There are seven different types of churches listed in the book of The Revelation. They are represented by seven different areas in the major areas in the world at the time of writing. They are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The Holy Spirit thru Paul writes of churches that are in good standing, how that these churches are are living what they teach and doing good works for Christ, spreading the Gospel. There are churches that are trying to walk right and there are churches that are churches in name only, not going after the things of God. The Spirit is giving accolades where they are due, but also reprimanding where it is necessary. The Spirit gives some good, some bad, about each represented church, and then gets to the church at Laodicea! My, oh my!

Here are the facts.  Lil’ Nas X, a homosexual rapper, decided to make a shoe filled with a drop of human blood and red dye to look like it was filled with human blood.  The shoe also had the #666 and Luke 10:18 written on the side. A pentagram charm dangles from the side. Only 666 of these shoes were made, and they sold out in under one minute.    

Once you can follow a good example it is more likely you can be a good example. The question is, what do you feel is being a good example? Is it being nice, being kind, being generous? That is not what Christ was interested in while he was on the earth, and it is not what he is interested in today. In the following scriptures, Christ was talking to the heads of the synagogue (the religious leaders of the time).