God's Road Signs

Persue short term goals with God.
You never know where you will end up
If you focus too much on the end result of where God wants you
Your tunnel vision will keep you from seeing what's on the side of the road.
...
The pit stops of life are where we actually learn from God
& the end result is our reward
Don't mix up your priorities
Learning from God through doing the small stuff
Is more important than getting the big stuff

I have found that doing the small stuff given to me from God
Has been much more enriching than the actual reward I thought I wanted
& the journey through the small stuff
Allows me to rest and reboot my tired body
While keeping me alert to others and not just my own travel plans

The small stuff gets us ready
They prepare us for what is to come
You cannot pop from point A to point B
Instead you need to travel, in some form, from one to the other

Some people journey long before reaching the person God intends them to be
Feet tired and unrested before finding their place and job in Him
The hardest journey prepares us for the hardest jobs
That's not to say, of course
That a short journey can not be a hard one

Some people have a jump to make
That is completed with help of the Holy Spirit
To go from one place to the other in a very short time
Because God needed them to be ready
So he prepared them for the near future

But still, there is the jump
It didn't just happen
& it wouldn't of happened, either way
If these people didn't glance away from their end goal
To get a glimpse at God's perfect goal

Sitting on the sidelines
Waiting to be discovered
Like a treasure in the desert
Waiting to be uncovered

Besides,
How will you ever reach any end goal,
That end reward,
If you don't look away & to the side for God's road signs?

Adorning Godly Ornaments Of Life

   I don't know about y'all but I love to wear jewelry. It doesn't matter if it's real or costume, I love it all. But there is something special about getting to wear the real stuff. The gems with the diamonds. Now don't get me wrong, I have very few expensive pieces and I wear them sparingly but when I do wear or "adorn" them, one can tell they are real.

   If you were to set my real piece of jewelry next to a piece of my costume jewelry it would be easy to tell which one is the real deal. If I put the real piece next to one that had crystals instead of diamonds or a non-precious metal for the chain it wouldn't take much more than a close look at the stones to see which were real or by putting the chain in nitric acid to see which holds up and proves its weight in gold.

   Much like proving whether jewelry is real the same goes for proving whether people are really Christians and actual followers of Christ. Much like I have stated three different types of jewelry,...costume, immatation jewelry, and real jewelry, there is three different types of people, non-believers, those who say they are believers but are not, and believers. Lets look into how the ornaments of life we "adorn" will help us prove real amongst the wolves in sheep clothing.

   The unbelievers are easy to tell apart from believers because they either state it outright or their lifestyle and decisions prove thus. 

   It's the ungodly that say the are children of God that can be hard to tell the difference between because often times they mimic the actions of the godly.

They hide themselves within the church, sometimes even becoming so hidden they become leaders in the church. Judas is a good example of someone in the Bible being a deceiver and pretending to be a follower of Christ, being put in a position as one of the 12 apostles, even trusted so much he was made treasure, only to be shown as the liar he was. But the Lord gives us a manual to go by so we can spot the differences and discern the real from the fake.

   Differences can be easy to spot, like a malicious gossip, as well as difficult to see, like someone teaching slight but important differences in doctrine. So we must be well versed in Gods word so that we will not be fooled.

   The biggest issue we have in the church is that we have worldly believers creep into the church and start changing the teachings of God. Wanting to make things that are not okay, okay and perverting the Word to benifit themselves or their cause.

   A great way to prove a child of God from a child of the world is to test their lifestyles. Lifestyles they openly or secretly live and impress on others.

   An example of this would be when someone says it's okay to have an affair on your spouse because your unhappy in your marriage or because your spouse is cheating too or it's okay to go out to the bars every weekend and get soused while you flirt with everyone there and your children are being cared for by someone else, or as long as you go to church on Sunday what you do during the week is forgiven.

   Now the Bible doesn't state that  having a sitter or drinking alcohol is wrong but what it does state is that we should be at home with our children and that being a drunkered is wrong. Why? Because it impairs your judgement. We are called to be sensible in our thoughts, words, and deeds and while drunk a person tends to do or say what they shouldn't and often times will regret. & God calls us to be with our children so that we are rasing them, in Him. Now I am not saying one cannot go out for a night on the town occasionally either. Instead, I am stating that our outings should be kept to a level that still allows us to put our children first. But a worldly person would try to convince you otherwise, because society says it is okay.

   These examples and others like it cause some Christians to go astray into certain sinful lifestyles they wouldn't have done originally. They creep into our church like the shade does as the sun starts to slowly go down and rub off onto the less seasoned, the slothed in faith, those who don't know the doctrine, & even those who do but are at a vulnerable place in their life.

   Those who do know the Word and detest those who lead others astray must stand out against them so that those they are trying to lead astray will turn to them & they can lead them to God before they turn to sin.

   The Word of God is written on flesh; Our Hearts. We must adorn in! By having God in our hearts we become different in the way we think,  speak and live. We become hyper aware of our actions and how they please or dishonor God. The same goes for the way speak and hold ourselves. Someone who doesn't believe in God should be able to look at you and know something is different about you and they want whatever it is. When they see you and make the discovery that you are who you are because of God and His glory, they will want to come to know this God you speak of. We should bring people to God by the way we "adorn" our lifestyles and our words.

   Many people decorate or "adorn" lampshades with ribbons that hold crystals or mirrors on them in an effort to let out more light in the room. We need to do just that. By mirroring how God says to live our lives. We should be so decorated and pleasing in actions, motives, words, thoughts, etc., that we set a room on fire for the Lord because of the amount of light shining from us.

When this happens not only will we bring others to Christ; but we we will also either push away the decievers or convert them as well.

   Yes! The Word of God is written on our flesh. It is inscribed in our hearts as our names are on His hands. Let us wear the jewels of life that were once diamonds in the rough. Worldy unhappy lifestyles, words, thoughts, everything that He turned around and made better for us to show His glory. That glory, is what we wear & how we can stand out and be the light He wants us to be, to help guide the lost, out of darkness and into Him.

Sons of Thunder

I often times get ahead of myself in thought, word, and deeds. I need to remember although God gave me a voice and permission to use it for Him, I must make sure that I am speaking for Him and not myself, that my words are pleasing to His ears, and that my actions following what I speak are pleasing to Him.

The following is a great example of two familiar apostles of Jesus' that had the loud voices & the passion for Christ but sometimes got ahead of themselves. So much so, He nicknamed them the "sons of thunder".

John 15:13

No one has greater love than to give up one's life for one's friend.-James

Boanerges

Sons of thunder

James son of Zebedee and his brother John.

Lets follow suit and never think timidly about Jesus again.

Let us be forthright about preaching the word and like fisherman calling out to each other over the waves we should shout praises to our Lord over crowds. Lets shake the world for God. Let us not be silenced. Let us worship so loudly that everything in hell is bending at the knee to the One and only God.

Let us not be as useless as thunder with no sight of lightening. How then can people see reason for our hollering? We will look like fools. Let us be the thunder that is followed by an act. Finishing our loud rumbling with lightening instead of those who thunder but never follow up with actions. When the disciples state they won't deny Jesus, with voices loud in assurance, only to have their fire fizzle out by lack of action during the arrest & crucifixion a passerby would never know real love for Christ and someone who was in their lives might have questioned their faith.

With our actions should be wisdom in Christ.

Much like James and John we often speak before we think and get ahead of ourselves by our own self-inflated egos.

When James and John asked Jesus if they should command fire to come down from heaven and consume this village for not receiving Him, He rebuked them saying, "you do not know which manner of spirit you are of. The son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them". Luke 9:51-56 N(KJV)

We must watch our thunder and our lightening and make sure our deeds create life, & love, ending in rebirth in Christ instead of ruin and death of faith. We are to be good examples and stewards in Christ. Bringing forth hope. Let us know the nature of ourselves. Let us show love for our savior Jesus Christ by giving our old selves to death and our new lives to Him so that His will may be accomplished through our thunderous preaching and love and our deeds that bring our words full circle. There is no greater responsibility.