Gender: Female
Status: Divorced
Age: 41
Sign: Virgo
State: Illinois
Country: US
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Thursday, August 27, 2009
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Current mood:  blessed Category: Religion and Philosophy
During Jesus’ time, and afterward, people…human beings…just like
you…like me...young people, old people, people your parents age. People
your grandparents age, children and babies too, were being killed. For
a lot of reasons that had nothing to do with anything. It was just
because someone didn’t agree with their way of life. Because someone
didn't want someone else to live too close to them. Because someone
didn't want them to have what they had.
The proof that we here in 2009 do not hold a monopoly on senseless and
sadistic crime can be found right in the Bible, in accounts of the
trials Israel faced, in the punishment our Lord endured for our sakes,
and in the persecution the apostles faced as they went about spreading
His Gospel. And yet for many this witness does not register as matters
which affect their own lives. Most view it as mere history - some even
wonder if and how such fantastic stories can be true.
But I ask you to open your manner of consideration for just a moment. I
ask you to put yourself there in Jesus' place, to experience for a
short while what He went through, and why what He did was such a
tremendous difference from how people then and now think of and regard
their fellow humans. Hopefully, it will bring a clearer understanding
that this sacrifice simply could not have been carried out by a mere
human. That it absolutely took a Being of Divinity to pay this price.
And why we who love Him can not help but to tell anyone who will listen
that He did it for them too.
You and your family are sitting at home, watching t.v…maybe you just
finished dinner…sitting there thinking about that homework you still
need to finish, or how the people at your job don’t have half the sense
God gave an ant, or that girl or that boy with the cute…eyes.
And all of a sudden a troop of soldiers busts in through the front
door, shoots one person…anyone…just the one closest to the leader. Then
he hits another one as he stomps into the room where you are, waving
his bow and arrow and telling you all to hold still or be killed. Then
they take you away and you spend a couple of weeks in a dark, wet,
smelly, insect and rat infested little room at the back bottom corner
of some fort-dungeon…or in the hills with nothing but the bars between
you and the cold, or heat. Your accommodations are a stone floor. On
the way there, they've taunted and teased you, telling you you're going
to die, and how you’re going to die. And your next meal is nothing
except the utter absolute scraps off of someone else’s plate all cooked
together to heat it up before they bring it to you three hours later…
And after you’ve had all this happen, not to mention the
picking on you and beating on you just cause you’re there…after all of
this, the next day you’re finally taken in front of a group of people
who don’t care what you did or whether you did it or not, they only
want to see you die. Nothing you say to them matters, none of their
questions and accusations make any sense at all. But the message is
very clear - they want you dead.
Now here in America, we've become quite spoiled to the idea of
'Justice' and having our 'Rights'. So if we find ourselves afoul of the
law, we expect to face whomever is accusing us of whatever we were
supposed to have done.
But for the sake of this little story, all of the 'rights' we demand and never truly get...don't exist.
But ok, at last...finally you are brought before a judge, and get to see that the person who’s standing there accusing you.
And he or she says you owe them some money. A lot of it. A LOT.
And you don’t have the foggiest idea of what they are talking about, or even who they are…
But before you even really know what happened, you’ve been found guilty
by the people who want to see you dead. And The Law says that because
this debt that you owe is so big you couldn’t pay it off in FIVE
lifetimes…even if in all of them you were as rich as the guy who came
up with the Web…the only way to make the payment is with your life. So
you’ve got to die.
Not in forty years, not in a few months, not in the morning. But Today. Immediately.
And now they are telling you that they plan to hurt you some more
before they kill you in the worst most painful way possible. They’ll
stand you out in the desert, tied to a post, to wait to die from the
sun and the cold and the animals who are going to realize right quick
that you’re helpless, with a guard who’s supposed to kill you if you
somehow escape.
Or let’s say they are going beat you to death with weapons that are
going to rip the skin from your body. Or nail you to a cross and hang
you up until you suffocate or drown on your on inner liquid.
Or all of the above.
And now, let’s say that someone comes along and puts a stop to it. Tells whoever is in charge to let you go.
He pays the debt that you’re accused of making…then takes you away and takes the pain away. Frees you.
Each and every one of us were BORN owing that money.
Christ, in his offering of himself, walked into the jail and paid off the debt… He set us Free.
But now, if we’ve got our hard heads set on staying…we can’t say later on that He wasn’t there.
The physical pain, and the emotional torment, and the bondage of
Spirit, that is everyday life here in this place. The Enemy’s World.
And the Enemy has got some of us so fooled that we think we want to be here, waiting for his next attack with the eagerness of somebody waiting for their numbers to come up in the lottery!
Some of us act like we enjoy the pain and the torture, rather than want
to escape from it, because we sit there in it when the Way out is right
there. How many of you, if where you’re sitting right now burst into
flames, would sit there?
All we have to do is get up and walk out of the Door. Walk out of
worrying - about whether she told anybody what you told her. About
whether he’s going to start some mess today. Whether mom and dad are
going to find out what happened that day you did what you did. Whether
you’re going to be able to make it one more day in what you’re dealing
with, when so you’re so afraid inside that you’ve forgotten what you were afraid of so now you’re afraid of everything and all you want to do is runaway
Christ is right there. All you have to do is call him, tell him you believe he can set you free, then follow him to safety.
But ok now, to follow him, of course, means going where he goes and
doing as he does, or risk getting caught again and thrown back into
where you were. Which brings me back to my point…finally right?
Christians…young or old, must live by a Code.
We are not supposed to want to be like the Others. Those who
don’t Know. Those who don’t, and won’t, get it. Those who are going to
die (and some of them are), without a chance of getting away from what
the Enemy has for them after the Saints leave…and he is going to be
mad. We don’t want to stay here for that, do we? No of course not. Who
would want to give somebody another chance to do what they did to hurt
us, when we know that’s what’s going to happen?
Besides, to even want to be like Them, whatever they are,
whoever they are, whatever they have or say or do…when they are not of
the One who has freed you...to turn to desiring what they offer when
there is One who can give you everything and has Promised to bring you
to him after you’ve enjoyed it and then… then…give you more...
The greatest…most special, most lasting of whatever you have ever
imagined and some more…and let you keep it Forever. And you get come
and live with Him, where He Is. Where you don’t have to think about
hunger. Where there will be nothing to be sad about. Nothing to fear.
Nothing to worry about at all.
To even want to fix your heart on this place, where there
is pain and greed and hate and two-faced-ness and conniving and taking
and stealing and murder and using and abusiveness…and knowing that it
is not going to get any better…to even want to, even a little bit, is a slap in His face - and how would you react if somebody slapped your face?
Exactly. How can we waste our time worrying over these trivial matters?
Yes, you have to survive. Yes, you want to work and eat and enjoy and
appreciate all of those wonderful things that God has Blessed us with.
But when you get too proud of what you think you’ve done…when you begin
to focus your emotions and reasonings and desires on getting it or
keeping it or having it or drawing other people with you to enjoy
it…that’s when you’ve turned what you focus on into an idol. You’ve
placed it above God. So it becomes a means of destruction. And because
God Loves us and doesn’t want us to lose the Life He has Promised us,
that thing has to be removed.
We feel like we’re being punished, but at times these things are moved
aside, broken down, taken out of the Way, for our own benefit…because
we refuse to see that it isn’t doing us any good. Because we refuse to Listen.
But the beauty of it all is that we can have the Salvation God in his
Love arranged for us, even before we did what we did, and no matter
what we’ve been doing. No matter where we’ve been, or with who, or
when. Yesterday or an hour ago or twenty years ago or eighty years ago.
And we can have it right now, and keep it no matter what else we don’t
have, no matter what anybody says or does or thinks or wants or doesn’t
want, or whether they care.
God gave it to you. And He wants you to have it. He Knows, and He
cares, and He Loves you and you don’t have to do anything except love
him back by believing in his love, and staying loyal to his love by
loving everyone else he Created in His Image like he created you.
And you stop worrying about things that will go away by themselves,
like everything here does…and just Listen to God when He tells you how
to have and get and keep and Be everything that He wants for your life…
then you don’t have to worry about anything, or anyone.
God has got you.
He wants you to reach back and grab as many others as you can hold, and hold on to them like he’s holding on to you so we can all get out of here before…well, you know.
Selah
Min. LP Johnson
Circle of Light - Ministries United
COME JOIN THE CIRCLE!
http://ministriesunited.ning.com
11:22 PM
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