Titus 3:5 "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit"
Good morning Liberty Church!
God bless you on your walk of faith.
Live well. Live good.
But also, feel well. Feel peace within. With inner peace, everyday is a lot easier. We can take on more when we have peace within.
It's a busy life out there. Remember to slow down from time to time, and just listen to God. Admire the beauty of nature. Don't forget, life is tough, but it's also beautiful. It's fun. It's right. It's true. It's God given.
I was out walking, out here in the woods of Wisconsin. Let me tell you, for some Wisconsinites it might get old, the beauty of these forests, but not for me. There is always some new beauty waiting around every corner. I can't help but admire the craftsmanship of this creation. It's beauty is powerful. It's kind of a form of walking meditation in and of itself. I like to just go for long walks, but always at night, or right at sunset. That's the best. I'll listen to far away music and imagine things inside my mind. And it's good just to get away for a while. I can literally get lost if I go too fast. Let me encourage you to slow down sometimes. Admire the moment. And thank God, the creator, for that moment.
You know with all the problems in the world I just need to slow down sometimes. It's easy in activism to get lost in all the negatives going on.
But our focus determines our reality.
Let me tell you, nothing in the world can make you feel anything. Every time I see something or learn something or read something in the news, it is my decision how I choose to react to it. It really is. I don't have to feel awful when I learn some terrible new truth.
It really comes down to acceptance. And heres where a lot of people get clogged up... just because I choose to accept something as reality does not mean I'm saying it's right or true. I can accept something is real without also saying it's ok.
This is a hard teaching, but everything that is going on in the world at this very moment is exactly how God wanted it to be, right now. That doesn't mean we sit idly by and let it continue that way. But we don't need to feel intense heart ache over these schemes and scams going on. All the corruption is there because that's how it's suppose to be at this moment. But we can let it convict us to get to work at changing it.
Pain and heart ache doesn't need to be our motivator when we work to change the world. Love can be our motivator, love for the world. Pain and heart ache are ultimately self defeating. After watching an episode of Alex Jones I often feel helpless. That's not how an activist ought to feel. An activist ought to remember that he or she has a big God who is on their side.
The cool thing is we've already won, no matter what they do. Our savior Jesus Christ won this battle over 2,000 years ago. How awesome is that?
And maybe as we work for better in the world we do feel helpless over some huge issue. Well, that's fine. We've failed for a long time to unleash our greatest weapon against the enemy. That weapon is prayer.
Someone once told me that answer to almost every question is prayer.
If you see an injustice and feel helpless, pray for that cause, or pray for that person. Pray hard, and pray ernestly. If you see a corrupt leader doing wrong, pray for that person. This does two things. The first thing it does is sends a request to our heavenly Father. And often if we pray hard enough and we're also trusting in God, that prayer will be answered. And something powerful will happen. Sometimes it doesn't, but that's ok. The second thing it does, is it gives us peace. As we pray for people and situations and places, our peace on the entire issue grows exponentially.
I learned recently that if I have a resentment against someone or something or some group, the best way to clear our that resentment is to pray. I pray for them continously, and eventually that resentment just disappears.
It seems so simple doesn't it? But it really really works.
As those working for betterment in the world, as the body of Christ, I think we can often get caught up in the big and huge issues, and totally miss day to day opportunities to help people on an individual basis. If you see someone around work or at the store who is hurting, offer that person some encouragement. The little things we do throughout the day can affect our entire community. Good deeds have a powerful ripple effect. If we can start to look to the people closest to us, and reach out to them and love and care for them, those are like ripples in the pond of the community. Pretty soon the people we help are helping others, and those people are helping their friends and family. Eventually we see an entire city lifting each other up, and loving doing good. And as a result those big issues are now facing more and more people who care about doing the right thing.
God is cool like that. God is awesome like that. When we set that example of doing right, and being warriors of Christ, marines of truth, soldiers of righteousness, that example is more powerful than anything we could say. People see us happy and helping, and they want that too.
Bigger and bigger it gets, until we have an entire nation serving God, and loving one another.
God bless you all, and have a wonderful week of peace, truth, and compassion.
