“Energy follows thought ”
These three words were my take-away from three days of leadership training. Not that everything else wasn’t good information is was just more of the same from previous training events. I probably even heard these three words in training before but it never struck me the way they did that day.
What a simple rule for Christians.
When we take stock of what occupies our thoughts we will likely find an inventory of passions, fears, interests and distractions. These thoughts are the ones that determine what we do. A necessity of being human
But, when we consider what consume our thoughts we will discover our idols. The idols that consumes our energy will guide who we are not just what we do. Here we will find the birthplace of addiction and depression unless we allow our energy to be guided by love for God.
Make quick count of the things we humans tend to idolize: ourselves, people, family, food, things, abilities, money…all of which are destined to fail us in a temporal world. No wonder we are a depressed society. When our idols fail our energy also fails.
“Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Jesus of Nazareth ( Matthew 22:37)
When we allow our thoughts to be consumed with the love of God and love for God our energy will never fail.
Shalom
I’ve been to war.
Not a figurative war, which many people have experienced within their unique circumstance, but a real war where bullets fly both ways and mortars and rockets explode with the intent of ending lives. My war experience, of course, is no longer unusual as the United States continues adding to the longest period of conflict in our history. I understand the damage a war can do.
Private, figurative wars, the ones without bullets, have been raging for centuries and are just as spiritually damaging as the real wars are physically damaging. Spiritual wars are waged in our minds as we deal with the loss of loved ones, the breaking of a heart through shattered marriages, the breaking of promises and vows, the loss of stability financial or emotional. The lists go on and undoubtedly will touch everyone who will read this paragraph. The private wars have touched my family and me through suicide, cancer, divorce, death…
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”, according to a Chinese proverb. How true! People sometimes hesitate to start long journeys of all kinds because they perceive the difficulties they may encounter along the way. I have also noticed that people who do make journeys love to tell of their experiences and may have some photos to enhance their story. Some of my friends have visited many countries, I have only been to one other than my own. Some of my friend’s trips have cost them quite a bit of money. There is a journey that all will make and that is the one into eternity. No one will be able to say that journey is one they won’t make. We all will, unless Jesus returns first. If one believes God’s Word, the journey will end in heaven or hell. The price of the ticket is vastly different for each destination. The price to hell costs nothing and a person can purchase the ticket by doing absolutely nothing. Satan will take care of the ticket and be one’s personal conductor. The price of the heavenly ticket is awesome. That ticket cost God His only begotten Son. Your ticket is paid in full – the blood of Jesus on a Roman cross.
“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” Matthew 20:28
A Glimpse of Eternity
By Lou David Allen
Stars floating on an endless celestial sea,
A glimpse of eternity.
Arching rainbows in the clouds, gifts from Divinity,
A glimpse of eternity.
Mary, bouncing her baby on a knee,
A glimpse of eternity.
Romans planting crosses high on a hill for all to see,
A glimpse of eternity.
Picture God in your mind…
If you’re like most of the people I’ve asked, you probably thought of some combination of a man in a gray beard floating on a throne in the clouds or a scowling judge glaring down from his judgment bench. Both are totally wrong. God has a presence in the world today, and how we see Him will determines how we see ourselves and how we see others.
Before we can establish how to see God today we need to explore how he was seen in the past. Bible accounts paint a picture of a God who made himself visibly present; initially for His benefit an eventually for ours.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day….” (Gen 3:8 NIV). I love to imagine what it was like in the garden of God when He physically walked among and enjoyed the beauty of his creation. To think about enjoying the presence of my creator in the unsurpassed beauty of his newly created earth is overwhelming to me.
In the garden that day Adam and Eve could not be found because they were hiding from God. They knew they had disobeyed and were ashamed of themselves and their appearance. This was the moment that separated us from God, but also set into motion a plan to redeem his creation and reestablish the perfection of His dwelling place. From that moment on God manifested Himself in various forms.
Listen to an audio presentation on this topic here
On May 29th, my darling little granddaughter, Sierra died. She fought a most heinous form of cancer for eighteen months. She died bravely, the way I want to when it’s my turn. I was with her at one o’clock in the morning when she breathed her last. Those eighteen months would take a volume to chronicle which I will never do. But, through all the hours of weeping and happiness, yes, happiness, there is something that I learned that is on my heart to share. Maybe it will help you, I hope so.
People usually deal with dying and death, particularly a tragic one, in pretty much the same way. They believe that no matter the severity of the illness, prayer will more than likely change the outcome. Their core belief is that God will interdict on behalf of the sick person and heal them. Modern medicine does what was impossible only a short time ago, people live who would have died then. These medical marvels are a gift from God.
But what about those who are not healed? And no matter how many, how long or how fervent the prayers, they die. When this happens some will blame God for “taking” their loved one. How could an all knowing, all powerful God let theirs die and let another live? It’s a puzzle that begins to eat at the very center of the believer’s heart. Well meaning friends might say, “If we had only had more faith”, or some other horrific statement, the sick one would have been made well. This is a satanic phrase and even though well intended strikes terror deep into the soul. How guilty would you be if your loved one died because you “didn’t have enough faith?” Yes, we should have faith, enough to move a mountain, as Jesus said, but this faith is not for physical mountains, but spiritual ones.
