Reflection 11: What You Can Expect From Life: According to LAZINESS

12 “The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The Lord has made them both. 13 Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with bread. 14 ‘It is good for nothing,’ cries the buyer; But when he has gone his way, then he boasts. 15 There is gold and a multitude of rubies, But the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.” ~ Proverbs 20: 12-15

The Level of Laziness

It is truly amazing how many people disassociate themselves from the word, “LAZINESS”, and instead use excuses to mask their behavior with the words, “Relaxation or Freedom”. People in the Western World cling to their freedoms and in many instances forget that those freedoms are not free but binding and carry a heavy cost. We have the idea that relaxation is freedom, freedom from responsibility, freedom from work, freedom from life and reality. There is the real threat that though we all need to unwind, it becomes a habit and laziness takes root and takes over your life. Many people fall asleep in there life both personal and spiritual. The truth is if you are lazy in your personal relationships; be it with your parents, friends, siblings, relatives, spouse, children, or in your professional life; with your co-workers, boss, or your career opportunities, then your also lazy in your spiritual life with God. Ask yourself this one question and depending upon the answer you will see clearly your level of laziness, “Would you die for Jesus?”  I know… I know… many will use the argument that this is not necessary. There is no reason to lay your life down for God. But is that the truth or is it the deception? Think about it from the view point of God; He made humanity, he made the Earth, the stars, the universes, He alone made everything we know and do not yet know of, and seeing that God was this proactive to send His only son to die for you and me, then shouldn’t we return the favor and live for Him? Shouldn’t we then defend His word, His promises, and teach others to live as God would have us all live? Is it not to much to expect that we become just as proactive in spreading the, “Good News”, as He was in our salvation? See many people refuse to do the right thing out of laziness and use the excuse that it wasn’t their fault, they refuse to do simple tasks and use the excuse that it wasn’t their turn, and when the mayhem and destruction rains down they again refuse to see the signs plainly written upon the wall and go into full fledged denial and say, it wasn’t their idea to do this or that. Wouldn’t it be easier to say, “Damn, I was lazy in that instance.”?  But instead of accepting the responsibility for their part, they refuse and in that refusal is found the roots of laziness. It is easier to deny the obvious truth, because then you don’t have to take action which in many instances could become labor intensive; but yet would be the right thing to do. It is easier to fall asleep in your life and close the door and ignore the hurt and bad feelings you personally have caused rather than to keep the door open to those you love and say instead, “I am sorry for my actions. How can we fix this?” It is easier to wallow in our poverty of spirit than it is to stand up and help those around us and climb out of the denial which binds our hands and feet and profess the words of God. By opening your eyes you are also opening your heart and through this process you begin the awesome journey of destroying laziness in your life and living for God. I say to you do not be deceived and cling to your freedoms as if were gold or jewels, because the question God will ask you upon the “Day of Judgement” is extraordinarily simple, “Did you live for me or did you instead live for yourself?” 

Laziness Equals Cutting Corners

19 “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.” ~ Proverbs 15:19

I see this with my students when it comes to studying for their test; often they will take the notes but forget the notebook. I see this with my adult friends as they will talk a good game but then take no actions they had promised. It seems in both instances that the taking action is harder than the task, but the task is made out to be impossible or to stressful and so the first response is to quit before they start, or to cheat and cut corners. “Yes” the task may have been accomplished but it was not done to its fullest extent so it’s foundations therefore were laid upon sand rather than bedrock. This obvious laziness is very much like a hedge of thorns because it pricks the skin of all those who come in contact, and it often times is the cause to so much strife. It is more rewarding to to have studied then take the test confidently knowing you will pass with flying colors then it is to fret and feel defeated before and after the test. Remember that God is constantly testing us, testing our character, testing our loyalty, testing our love, and testing our fortitude by allowing certain problems to take place within our lives. God is molding us into a more perfect version of ourselves, but this process will never take root if you fall into denial and practice the art of refusal, because eventually you will have been given more than your fair share of chances and the door will close and you will pay for your sins and your many refusals. Doing things half-way is like not doing them at all. Part of your mind and spirit is in refusal to the full way, the right way, and rebellion takes over in your heart. Remember also that,  “Laziness”,  is another word for, “Slothfulness”, and slothfulness is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Laziness detracts from your efforts, keeps you prisoner, and keeps you complacent. But on the other hand those who are not lazy, who take action, who face their fears, and those who make bold moves in the name of God are counted among the wisest of the wise. Their actions are plain, easy to see, noticeable because of their fortitude, and they are seen for their strength of character, and are unshakable in their faith. These wise people are Gods righteous disciples and they hold the word of God in their hearts, minds, and soul.  God’s righteous people do not worry about the task at hand, even though it may seem impossible, they know it is not. It is an inner knowledge, (comfort), given them by their faith in God. In truth many stray from God and become lazy in their spiritual life because they claim it’s borring to go to church weekly, or they develop a disconnect with the other worshipers in that church, and they use these excuses to stop going completely. When this happens the faith they once held within God is broken and laziness takes root. But the wise and righteous fill this time with God, whether in church or on the street or in their houses alone, every moment is filled with God. Again the task of being active should envelop  every aspect of your life, it should melt seamlessly in and become singular actions that happen without thought or concentration on your part. Saint Peter did not think about his death, rather than His example of living for Jesus. The last thoughts of James, Son of Alphaeus was not of the stones being thrown that would end his life, but the fire for Christ he was lighting with his death. In every instance the disciples who died for their faith by the brutal actions of the non-believers they were preaching too was not of themselves or else they would never have gone so willingly to their deaths. In all the instances of those disciples who fell asleep in peaceful places, died after giving their entire life over to Jesus and spent every waking moment preaching the Word of God. Here is the description of “WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS” presented by Ichthus. 

Plenteousness vs Hastiness

5 “The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty lead only to want.” ~ Proverbs 21:5

Those who rush through their lives, or give bad advise hoping to manipulate others thus wasting those peoples time and energy lead only to despair and wanting. Ironically all those who are affected by these manipulators also find nothing but wanting. In part it was the act of laziness which provoked this vicious cycle of hastiness and manipulations because it would have been harder to have been diligent and followed the ways of God. I say to you those who rush through activities also rush through everything giving no thought or concern for others in all areas of their life. Some will claim that they just wanted to get it over, some will claim that it didn’t matter any way, and still others will claim the experience would not have had any other conclusion, but I tell you these claims are false before the eyes of God. These people cut corners, cheat, lie, scheme, and do not care who they hurt. To see through this deception the simple test is to ask yourself if they saved any time by their hasty actions? Was there anyone hurt by what they did or was there anyone not accounted for in their hasty plans? Odds are someone was forgotten, someone was hurt, someone was cut off. In many instances there will be many people affected indirectly and  wether they realize it or not, their time has been stolen by the lazy selfishness of another. Whereby the exact opposite of hastiness and manipulation is that of living in plenty, living within the rules given by God and always doing your do diligence. When you meet a person who carries these attributes their goals and careful thought of others is easy to see. They do not rush into action, they instead take their time to consider all outcomes and to be frank, this takes time and effort. Some of us would say that we fit safely into this category, but truth be told many do not. It takes a certain level of maturity, wisdom, and love for your fellow man to be put within this very small group of people. These people of plenty are again ruled by the laws of God, and they do what is right, not what is convenient or fun. They keep the focus on God and give God all the glory when miracles happen in their lives. They are the most happy people you could ever hope to meet because they indure regardless of the hostility of others towards them and or harshness of their environment. They convert the non-believers and are methodical in action always persevering when others say it’s impossible. The people of plenty are the jewels of God, they are His most honored and the richest in the world as their hearts are filled with perpetual happiness and love from God. In the end we all have a choice, to be filled with plenty every day for the rest of our lives or to cheat and steel, making everyone around us miserable and accomplishing only despair for ourselves and others. We can take our time and smell the roses God has for us in His garden (so to speak) or we can rush through life chopping down every opportunity that could have been that singular flower that changed your life and way of thinking for ever. You can be diligent and patient or you can be rude and hasty, the choice is yours alone to make.

Laziness is Self-Limiting

7 “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” ~ John 15:7

Many people use excuses that  blame Jesus for their own laziness. According to Dan Waldschmidt’s blog posting tilted, “Jesus Doesn’t Do Lazy”, he points out that waving religion around as an excuse to not doing what it takes to succeed is not going to get you anywhere in life. Waldschmidt plainly states, “No amount of religion or spirituality can replace good old fashioned hard work. There are a lot of excuses that we  use to justify not working as hard as we should. One of the most deceptive excuses is religion. Instead of getting back up after a failure or trying a little bit harder along the way, we use the excuse that “if it was supposed to happen it would have happened” — inferring that some Higher Being controls how hard we try or not. Which is just silly. And self-limiting.” ~ Waldschmidt, Dan (Jan.23, 2013) Found online at: http://danwaldschmidt.com/2013/01/attitude/jesus-doesnt-do-lazyWaldschmidt has a point, for the Lord helps those who helps themselves. God rewards good behavior, not bad behavior. To many people assume because they pray, (sometimes),  or  look religious to others they will be rewarded. This is not the case. Praying is an activity you should be doing anyway, religion should be a personal matter between you and God and not used to impress others. Your walk with God is a special relationship that is between you and God, and if someone asks and you share then let Gods words do all the talking. One does not need to push religion to win an argument or make appoint  rather God is way to sophisticated for his words and promises to be used in a cat-fight. We share our faith to enhance our brethren’s faith, not to force your thoughts, beliefs, and ideas upon them. Truth is that, “There’s a direct connection between how hard you work the success that you achieve. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. Hard work always gets you better results. Laziness always ends up in failure.” ~ Waldschmidt, (2013). Laziness is self-limiting because you place an artificial cap on your own efforts expecting to fail, coupled by blaming God for the failure you have placed a mark of failure upon your heart. Failure can drive many people to laziness, to blame others, to ignore the obvious truth of the lack of their own efforts. Case in point: The Listening Faithfully Blog was not a popular blog in the beginning, but over time and writing many posts there came a point when people came, read, and came back week after week. 98% of all the comments I have received over the past five years has been positive and encouraging. In this time Listening Faithfully went from last page of the Google search results to number one. There are thousands of people around the world in almost every country that has logged in and visited many of our posts. Now imagine had I stopped after a January 2010 when I only received one view, or after the entire year of 2010 where I only received 1,090 views. In that case Listening Faithfully would never have grown into the success it is today tripling those stats every single month and gaining more and more follower, readers, and friends worldwide and changing lives in the process. Now, do I boast about this success, No, rather I thank God for His kindness and grace, and tell everyone who reads this blog to thank God for all the awesome blessings He has bestowed in your lives. In this action, when the miracles happen, you are proactive enough to thank God immediately more blessing are sure to come your way. But if laziness takes root, those blessing will never come, then the blaming and finger pointing begins, and your efforts will seem to have no effect. Hard work is the key, diligence is the key, belief in your future accomplishments is the key that lazy people are missing. Don’t falling to false teaching, not looking for a shortcut, not forcing others into misery, not being lazy is also the keys to defeating laziness and banishing it from your life forever. 

 

Amen

If you liked this Reflection on LAZINESS please leave a comment. Also please “LIKE” and “SHARE” this post with others.

Brian Keith

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P.S. NEVER GIVE UP!

  

Reflection 10: What You Can Expect From Life: According to JOY

GOD OF JOY

16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” ~ Luke 10:16

Imagine if you will the light of Heaven raining down upon your face. Feel the warmth and love as it cascades through your body tingling every part of you. Let the love turn into absolute joy in your heart, mind, and soul. This is what God feels like when you meet him, this is Jesus as He stared into the eyes of His disciples and accusers all the same. Joy and love is God, and is in all of us even though we are all sinners. In this light there is only one truth, one happiness, one reason for living and it has nothing to do with our own ambitions  or selfish motives for all that in this light has died and past away. In this light God is the reason, the source, and His power and glory is yours freely because number one you accepted Him and in turn He accepts you just as you are. Imagine for a moment if everyone knew this, accepted this, and practiced this in every aspect of their lives, in how they spoke to friends, family, and strangers alike. Going farther imagine this governed our actions, in how we treated our neighbors, children, and strangers alike, doing random acts of kindness daily. The people in this world would have no need for money, carnal pleasures, or even grandiose possessions because they would have God. There would be no war, hunger, no need for lawyers, judges, Presidents, or governments because all men no matter their race or color would love one-another as they had been commanded to do by God.   Imagine a world that believed in God so much that everyone put down their wants and desires and felt love, really experienced true love, unconditional, open, free, unrestrained love and joy. In this paradise men and women would marry and never forget their love, families would never fight among themselves, and children would grow up with two parents and a village full of love. This is our God, our wondrous forgiving, patient, kind, considerate, all powerful God of Joy. This far off place in our imagination was one possibility in the beginning, one fork in the road we could have chosen but did not because of Satan. As a singular race we all have been robbed the bounty of God, we have been cheated and sold a bill of goods by Satan. This reality we live in today is from Satan’s imagination and his plotting, scheming, selfish battle with God for absolute control, dominance, and power over everything in existence. Satan wants so desperately to destroy joy, peace, tranquility, and even love that his cruelty knows no bounds, for there is no respect for creation and life within Satan. For his hate has fueled this battle or rejection of God and for Satan this is a war he will loose for he cannot conquer God, and all who believed in him will parish with him. This is the good news, the Gospel of God, for this dream we could have had we still can if we chose Him. In doing so God will rejoice in your name; He will count you as one of His many children whom was lost and now is found. God will throw a feast in your honor and your soul will be filled with such abundance like nothing else you have ever experienced in your life, for God will hold you tight to His bosom and love you for all eternity.

Our Mission of Joy

17 “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’ 18 He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’” ~ Luke 10:17-20

In Luke we find that Jesus appointed seventy-two people to go before Him with specific instructions which included, to not greet anyone on the open road, and when entering a house say, “Peace to this house”, they were to eat and drink what ever was given them, and they were to stay there not skipping from house to house.  Jesus knew he was sending these people out into the world of wolves and sin, He knew they would be rejected, and in some instances humiliated for their belief in Him. But upon their return to Him they reported with great excitement of their adventures and in truth all where turned into disciples of Jesus all spreading the word of God. Jesus however did not stop there, He has sent millions of us out into this world of wolves just as He did then, He still does to this very day. The rules have never changed, the servants of God are always blest and rewarded, and His love and grace is upon all who really commit to His will. Little by little God is transforming the face of the Earth back into this paradise lost, and will in His absolute grandest style pull all His children to Him and rejoice in their stories and experiences as Jesus had done two thousand years ago.

The Expectation of Joy

12 “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” ~ Isaiah 55:12

What we can expect from life according to joy is much like what Isaiah described, for when your heart is filled with the Holy Spirit nothing is to big, nothing is to hard, nothing is impossible, and your heart sings the songs of laminations to God the Father. In turn everyone and thing who crosses your path also fills with your love and joy, this in-turn creates a spontaneous reaction of harmonious singing within every fiber and adam in every organism which was blest enough to be present when you passed by. Think for a second how many people you see and meet in your lifetime, and who talk with you, or who really get to know you. In each of these instances you are presented with the opportunity to bring joy into the other persons life. How effective is this joy when this opportunity is embraced, is recognized for what it is, and is celebrated and freely given to everyone. Sadly all to often we allow our life to get in the way. We allow our anger, frustration, hatred, ambition, selfishness, and even monthly, weekly, daily mood-swings determine our level of joy and the spreading of Gods joy to others. When we do this we act in a childish manner, not fully grown in the ways of God, and thus we are left in our squaller. In all my life that I have known and loved God I can honestly say that He has never left me or let me down in any way shape or form. I have been presented with many chances to make things right and in many of these instances I have failed, but I never blamed God, rather I have done the opposite. In each moment of failure I have asked God to forgive me and to make me better and more useful and to help me learn and grow in His will. I accepted what He allows or does not allow in my life, because the people I have impacted with God’s Joy out weighs the many failures of my own efforts. Time tested and proven is the will of God, is His promise, is His forgiveness, is His joy. I have found more success in this life when I have accepted this one basic truth, share God’s joy and He rewards this with His unending love. It is a radical shift within our mind that has to take place because of how we as carnal sinners are wired from birth, but if we alter our mind we can unlock Gods power, truth, might, and His joy, in essence we unlock His promised bounty. Again, I have found more success when I allow God’s joy to radiate through me and into others. I have inspired more people by sharing with them God’s message, His promise, His love. It is true what is said about the force of action, (for ever action there is a reaction), if given freely it is of God, if forced it is not of God.

The Difference Between Joy ans Sorrow

15 “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. 16 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” ~ Psalm 89:15-16

To often people mistake the sounds of joy to be something other than what it truly is. Just a few of us hear it and recognize it when it comes along. To often do we replace this sound of joy in our minds to comfort us, to console us when we have done bad to others. We lie to ourselves when the true sounds of joy ar replaced in our lives, and it is very obvious the problem but the solution eludes us because the stain of the lie is so great and we are so fearful the effort to fix the problems have become like climbing Mount Everest, it becomes to tiresome: to heavy to bare.  Those people are easy to spot in a crowd for they talk a good talk, but refuse to walk the walk, they do not sing the joyful songs of God in their hearts and they do  not seek Gods countenance. Likewise, these people do not rejoice in the things that bring joy to others and to God, instead they hide from it. In all its totality righteousness is not within them because they do not know God. There is a stark difference between these people and those of us who call ourselves Christians and actually practice our faith daily. What makes a person of faith loyal to God is His joy that we experience with each good deed privately done for others, with each loving act randomly done for a stranger, in every kind word that inspires others to be better than they currently are, and in the awesome love given freely to Gods children who are so full of joy its contagious. In everyone of these things joy is at the root, it exalts God, and it is righteous.

A perfect example of what I am talking about can be found in my own life’s experiences here in California. The kind of person I am is known by what I do and say to other people who are around me; as this general rule holds true for everyone of us in this life. I choose to help others, I choose to teach, I choose to write, and I choose to share the message of God’s word for no monetary reward, as I do not earn money for this blog, or any other writing I do that are published online or in print. It is true I have published a book that costs money to buy it, but the money earned goes back into all my activities that help the children I teach at school, so there is no real impact on my financial gains, instead its a write off as donations.  In my professional life I earn money for my efforts but it is so far below the national average it really cannot be called a pay-check. In addition to this my ex-wife has chosen to steal from my little amount in my bank account, she has chosen to force me into poverty as the Family Court System is mandated  by California law to enforce  child-support, by way of reducing my time to the point I would owe money where before I would not have based upon the timeshared agreed upon in 2003, (even though we had previously chosen not to partake in this and to support our child by giving her an education and food, clothes, and presents, ect. on our own custodial time), thus decreasing the little I earn by 50% of my total earnings. Yet in comparison she earns over $100,000.00 a year, thus her actions are ones taken by a person who does not know God. Her actions does not bring joy to our daughter, nor anyone involved except for herself. I write this to show how cruel people are and how money has corrupted their eternal soul. I would rather live in poverty, suffer daily without food or a shower, I would rather live in a hole in the earth than to bring such suffering to another human-being, to be so unfair to my fellow man. I do not see my daughter because my ex-wife has chosen to move her 800 miles away, and has placed in her heart all the wrong things, involving her in all the court action, forcing her to say the most cruel and hurtful things which do not honor anyone other than herself. All of this was done for monetary gain on behalf of my ex-wife, as she took advantage of California State Law. No court in the land will stop her, no one on this earth could bring an end to this suffering but her, and she refuses to do so. I do not write this to bring shame or to make anyone feel guilty, rather I write this as an example of how people have chosen to believe in the ways of Satan, in the lie he spread that made man sin and to separate us from our God. I am not the only one by far who has suffered in these ways, and I will unfortunately not be the last. There is sin and corruption in our laws, in our courts, in our hearts which make such things possible. It is important to call everyone out into the light of God to make it visible before the world to end it before it harms others. Forgiveness can be granted if only the wounds would be left to heal, if only my child would be allowed to have that time given by the Courts, that ironically the courts themselves refuse to enforce. Forgiveness can be granted if only a sincere apology could be given in its stead. But forgiveness starts with the one who committed the affliction, and it is between them and God first. Therefore, I say to you these things bring no joy, only pain, and is abomination in the eyes of God. Remember I said to you that true Christians bring joy to others selflessly, true people of God bring joy to those who are in pain, mercy to those who cannot help themselves, and they do not ask for monetary reward for doing the work of God. Everyday I get up I try to help others and this is my true mission with or without money being earned because God always provides and I will not lie that this has been a hard path to follow. But my God is so great that He shows me everyday that He is with me because I chose Him, and there is nothing more joyful to God than one of his lost sheep coming home for good.  In truth I hope all those who suffer in these ways and for those who seek this manner to force the other biological parent into poverty that the light of God be shown to you to both give you mercy, to help you forgive, to force your heart to sing the laminations of God so as the pain is lifted forever from your collective hearts for your children’s sake.  Again, we fool our selves and commit such depravity and hurt upon our children when we as adults act like children and do things in such a selfish way. I say to you all… STOP IT! Allow God’s joy to penetrate your heart, mind, and soul: do His will and your life and relationships will be forever altered into what God originally intended them to be. 

The Joy of Jesus

11″These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” ~ John 15:11

Remember Jesus loved us so much that He willingly died upon the cross for our sins. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to accomplish salvation. In this is the ultimate message of joy, which is linked to love. To truly love another person is to also find joy in them, joy in their actions, joy in their thoughts, joy in their very presence. God finds joy in everyone last human being in this manner and thus loves us more than our own hearts could every possibly understand or comprehend. In it’s totality God is Love, He is Joy, He is all that we truly need. With this truth know it is not hard then to understand why God wanted a paradise full of joy for us, he wanted mankind to live in peace and harmony. God wanted something that man could never attain on his own and our world would be so much more blest with His bounty ever present, His love raining down upon our faces, His joy filling our hearts, His peace upon our souls. God’s promise can be granted by choosing Him, believing in HIm, by trusting in His wisdom, love, joy, peace, and mercy. Jesus left our world better than when he found it, He lived, so we could also live, He did so we would not have too, He rose so we could be with Him forever. 

THE CHALLENGE

To spread joy is to spread hope and love to everyone and in this we are commanded to freely give these things to others on behalf of God. Therefore I challenge you spend every day of the rest of your life doing spontaneous acts of kindness that bring joy to others. It doesn’t have to cost you money, but it does have to bring joy to a stranger. As Jesus once said what good is it to be kind to those you know, where is the good in that? So you must do something for a complete stranger which brings joy to their heart. It could be something as simple as listening to them, helping them across the road, buying them dinner, or even opening the door for them. Remember it must be random and it must be joyful and you must not boast about what you have done because this act of kindness is between you and God. 

Amen

If you liked this Reflection on JOY please leave a comment. Also please “LIKE” and “SHARE” this post with others.

Brian Keith

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God Bless,

Brian Keith

P.S. NEVER GIVE UP!

Reflection 9: What You Can Expect From Life: According to HONESTY

11 “‘Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another.” ~ Leviticus 19:11

Honesty 

When confronted with this word, I think deep down inside we all want to be honest, but yet we are still very much intimidated by it. Honesty carries with it some very rigorous implications, like a two edged sword that could just as easily cut the wielder as the opponent. As imperfect human-beings this word, “HONESTY” scares us just a little because we all know this is the ideal we sinners can never live up too. For the majority of people however, this ideal is very much ever-present in our minds, hearts, and souls as it is the one aspiration which can revolutionize how we think, feel, and operate on a daily basis and again that notion is a bit scary. So, with this firmly stated and excepted as the truth, no one is perfect, thus when we reflect upon this word there should be no one who takes offense of the remainder of this blog. Rather when reading the contents I ask that you reflect deeply upon your own life and experiences and ask yourself how honest have you truly been to your loved ones, friends, and of course yourself? How honest have you been with God? Also as a disclaimer I want everyone to know I am not perfect and I too struggle with  this word everyday. But it also should be known that when we are not honest we are breaking a covenant with God, as mentioned above, God did ordain it to be so for all mankind to be honest with each other, to not steal lie, or deceive. Because when we are not honest with one another then we separate ourselves just that much more from Him. We destroy what should have been and allow an abomination to take its place.


35 “You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume.” ~Leviticus 19:35

It’s interesting that God chose the word, “INJUSTICE”, when warning us about our sense of judgement. I feel He saw our civilization coming and knew we would be a people of great laws, and even greater hypocrisy and corruption within those laws. I think He knew we could not live up to the ideal He set forth so we would try and replace His perfect laws with ones of our own, ones less perfect in nature more befitting mankind. Laws riddled with loopholes that would allow Judges from all branches of our Justice System to skip happily through rules they feel strongly about but while ignoring the words “Shall Do”, ignoring the laws in-favor of making a point or changing how people perceive specific guidelines and policies. I think God saw our lawyers who argue their cases based upon lies and misdirection, never caring who they hurt but instead whether or not they win their case. Justice goes hand in hand with ethics, but our civilization too is so far removed from this our most honest of men sit and let immoral people change the definitions of words like, “Marriage” to include two people of the same sex, which again is clearly an abomination to God. I am still waiting for people to protest scenes in our T.V. shows who have snuck in under the radar that depict two men kissing, or two women making out. For these perverse things our children are being desensitized too and will someday be voting adults. This is how perversion is first spread and rots out the core of a nation. The older I get the more my students become accepting and down right argumentative to what it means to them to be married, what it means to not have pre-marital sex, and even more shocking how they feel violence is acceptable behavior when someone disagrees with them. But, this of course is the final result of our long lived policies of stripping our public schools from saying prayers in their classrooms, prohibiting our children to engage in their faith on public property and to keep our children from having pride in our country by abolishing the national anthem in school for the fear it might hurt a specific groups sensibilities. It’s interesting how far we have slid since those policies where adopted over thirty years ago, and I must now stand up and forewarn you all that God will turn His back on us as surely as we have turned our backs on Him. Our judgments on issues of morality are the cause to our grief as a country, because they are filled with injustice of both measure, weight, and volume. The days of honesty in Government is over, honesty in our courts is over, honesty in our media has become a thing of the past as well.

17 “Therefore you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am theLord your God.” ~ Leviticus 25:17

Ironically, the injustice in our country is primarily a symptom of our rotting souls as we seek to oppress instead of find common ground and common respect. Our fear of God sadly too has become a thing of the past as to many of our evangelists preach about a loving, tender, forgiving God that is no-longer vengeful, no longer judgmental, or temperamental as found in the Old Testament. To many feel what was then does not apply to us today, thus removing ourselves from under the harder aspects of what God really expects from us as His people. At this juncture I would like to point out the only being that which was the same a million years ago is still unchanged and perfect. Therefore, God is unchanged since the beginning and His views, wants, desires, hopes, and aspirations for mankind is also unchanged. We have become spiritually soft and I would hazard a guess this is because no one or collective group of thousands or tens of thousands of people all in unison have not heard from God lately. To even admit you hear God’s voice in your heart and mind in today’s world is looked at as strange. But, yet two men or women kissing each other isn’t strange? This perversion is truly the hallmark of the days Jesus predicted would come. Oppression is found in every avenue of our great society from how we oppress men’s and fathers rights, to how we oppress other people from other countries when their land holds something of value we prize and want to control it based upon the, “Holy Grail”,  of excuses called “National Security”. We oppress people with our hypocritical view of the 1%ers  to how we tax those who can no-longer pay taxes nor catchup in what they owe because of the meager wages they earn. Again, we have forgotten honesty, integrity, and hard-work and have replaced it with a dollar sign and loophole in the tax code called shelters. Who would have ever thought our money would need a shelter?

HONESTY VRS THE FALSE BALANCE

11 “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.” ~ Proverbs 11:1

All the above indeed has caused a false balance, one so greatly exacerbated that our very economic system will implode its just a matter of when. Largely this problem of economics is based upon a decision made when our country was still very young and it was made through weakness of the President of the time and Greed from the banking institutions. This of course of which I speak gave rise to the modern money system we enjoy today, one based upon credit and interest. A system we force feed the rest of the world and yet we are surprised upon the eve of its failure of why the world hates us? I say what a short memory we have and what a wonderful ability to spin the truth we have developed. A false balance created through lies, manipulation, and dishonest behavior. As with our nation so too many people around the world have fallen into this greed and sin as their personal lives spin out of control spiraling downward from the lavish  spending and while spouting aloud that this looming doom will never happen, turning a blind eye to the obvious as well as turning a blind eye to God. Simple truth is when we as mortals feel we are more powerful than the most powerful being in existence. When we examine this in full detail it  seems to me to be something seriously wrong with how we view ourselves, and how unbalanced we have as people, as well as, a nation have we become.

27 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” ~ Proverbs 3:27

Again “HONESTY” is the ability to recognize the truth, to tell the truth even when it is not in ones best interest, and it is our obligation as believers to keep our brethren from lying, cheating, and stealing from others. But the sin which is greater than the total sum is when a person in their own heart and mind willfully ignores the truth, ignores honesty, and withholds an honest man his due. In this any victory is hollow, any triumph is rendered meaningless, and all effort to that end have thus become futile. When we are given the opportunity to tell the truth and we ignore that obligation we then are turning our backs on what God wants, we thus change the circumstances to fit our own personal wants, stopping what was supposed to come into fruition and instead allowing an abomination. Everyone of us is guilty of everything thus far mentioned, but some of us more so than others. It is a hard reality when we wake and see ourselves in such a stark light, but nevertheless something we all must eventually do if we want God’s grace to shine upon us.

8 “Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues with injustice.” ~ Proverbs 16:8

Profit over righteousness? This has become the true question. Who should we be loyal to? Which master will be more forgiving in the end? Which side should we be on in these days of such turmoil? Jesus professed there would be such days where we would be blinded to what was real, man would sircome to evil and nations would crumble and fall because of their greed. The depiction of the end by John of Patmos is truly horrifying to say the least, but how much more bizarre and alarming was it to the disciples when Jesus spoke of those days. In fact Jesus was more in line with the idea that even the smallest amount of righteousness was better than none. It’s funny how people of those times mirrored those of us today who still clammer and bicker about who should or should not, ignoring that it would be righteous to find peace and accomplish the task together for the benefit of all. Both time periods are largely incased in vast greed, and the pursuit of happiness and truth through money and possessions  again something Jesus emphatically instructed not to do. I would hazard a guess that Jesus was talking to them and us and our children, and all people until His glorious return.

THE CHALLENGE OF HONESTY

9 “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 andhave put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” ~ Colossians 3:9-10

Therefore, in what has been thus written a collection of mankind’s collective sins against God. Here before everyone of us is the sin of dishonesty and the challenge to reverse or at least atone for our ignorance. For God has so declared for all mankind to be honest, to not lie, to not steal, to not manipulate, and  to never pervert the truth in anyway. God commanded us  to not bare falsely against thy neighbor  and to love one another as you love yourself. The challenge before all of us as sinners is to change and be more honest with God, with ourselves, and with our loved ones. To cast off our old sinful ways, and cling to our new more incorruptible selves. The challenge of honesty is real, it is ever present, it does not ever go away, and it above all it is absolutely, brutally honest. As I have stated before, a lie is a lie and will always be a lie, but the truth is the most honest things we could ever possess in this life. It is the ideal we should all strive for, we should all help each other stay devoted too, and it is that goal we can taste but never truly own.

Amen

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Brian Keith

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Reflection 8: What You Can Expect From Life: According to GUILT

14 “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.” ~ Hebrew 12:12-17

WHAT IS GUILT?

The definition of guilt according to the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary is: “1: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty; broadly : guilty conduct. 2 a : the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously, b : feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy : self-reproach. 3: a feeling of culpability for offenses.” (found on line:http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guilt)

Taking form the non-biblical view first guilt is the knowledge that you have committed some grievous act against another person and your conscience will not let you alone, it eats away at you and these emotions drag you down and weigh heavily upon you. Mans law assigns guilt, and then attempts to punish the guilty which it often fails miserably at doing. But the feelings of culpability is the true and right punishment for the guilty, and it is through this method which proves to be more superior than that of any law of man. Therefore, true guilt is not the realm of man, but that of God. No one on earth has the knowledge and truth and perfect wisdom to know exactly  how much guilt to assign nor could they ever assign the proper punishment, but God can because He alone see’s your heart. Thus, from here on we shall talk about true guilt in its purest form, that of spiritual punishment.

TRUE GUILT

Some people don’t really feel guilt right away, then others are so incased in it they can hardly breath. The difference in these two types of people; who feel guilt and those who seemingly do not is simply a consequence  of the life they have lead, but surely I tell you everyone at some level feels God’s love as surely as they feel His scorn. God assigns the proper amount of guilt, and He alone can take it away. God is the perfect judge, and He is perfect in all of His judgements. Because of this those who are closer to God feel the guilt in a different way than that of a non-believer. A Godly person allows the guilt to bring them closer to God and to repent instantly, where as the non-believer allows the guilt to push them farther away from God, sinks further into the hole they themselves created and cannot climb out of and ultimately will did a sinner unforgiven and convicted of their transgressions with no hope of redemption. The unbeliever though it might not seem to affect them, will suffer greater than any believer, including Jesus who died for our sins. Satan through his masterful tongue lead one third of all the angels into sin, and is solely responsible for separating the unbelievers from God as well. So, in the purest form guilt is the wall that we all hit when we have sinned against God, and if not dealt with it will dispose of you. Guilt can be hell on earth, it can be debilitating, it can destroy relationships, and cause strife between husbands and wives, mothers from her children and fathers from their children, it separates and conquers like a well seasoned army unleashed without equal, and will kill the person it has infected if they do not repent and remain Godless. So you might ask why did God create such a formitable  method of punishment? Simple, because God did not want man to be separated and He wanted man to walk with Him as His children, not be filled with pride and thus stubborn like Satan. But like everything else Satan uses guilt to beat you over the head, to remind you of how much of a sinner you are, he wears you down with it, shakes you with it, and he convicts you of all your guilt unjustly even after God has forgiven you. Though, ironically the worst case of guilt is not felt by any mortal, but yet by that of Satan himself, for he is now locked into this struggle with God knowing that he has sinned greater than any being in existence and thus, it is through guilt Satan strives so hard to eliminate God, and separate and divide the children of God. It is through Satan’s guilt do we make war against our brethren, do we harbor ill feelings for those who have wronged us, it is through Satan’s guilt that we sin, and it is through guilt that God assigns that which can if allowed bring us closer to God, because God still loves us, still forgives us, and we are still His alone.

GUILT FREE

9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” ~ 1John 1:9

It is promised in almost every book of the Bible that God will forgive us our sins, yet so many people don’t believe in that, thus their faith has abandoned them. In this these people blame God of their circumstances and blame God for not intervening when it is their own fault due to lack of faith.  These people are hypocrites and say they love God, but do not practice what they preach, thus they act within the same manner as Satan, as they assign guilt upon others and give no mercy, even when God has given His divine forgiveness and mercy. These people do these things because like Satan they have been found guilty by God and thus refuse to seek His forgiveness instead they bolt and run away consumed with guilt, letting it fester and take root, in the end they through their own guilt become bitter and seek to make other bitter as well. In saying this I first want to remind everyone that guilt is given by God in the perfect amount for the sin you have committed against Him. Secondly, you cannot escape it and therefore it makes no sense to run and hide, but rather ask for God’s forgiveness. When you ask God of His forgiveness then He upholds all of His promises and will give it remembering your sin no more.

12 “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” ~ Hebrew 8:12

Therefore, if God forgives you there is no man who can condemn you, there is no other guilt which your soul can be held accountable for and within the eyes of God you have been washed clean. The trap so many of us fall into is that part of us knows we have been forgiven, but the lies of Satan are so strong our hearts are still heavy. The flip side to this is we have asked God and do not feel any better, and  the lies of Satan are so powerful we allow his guilt to penetrate our hearts and thus we become miserable within it. But in either case, know that God will do what he has promised, for forgiveness and mercy is His specialty. Only God can forgive sin, only God has promised forgiveness and mercy, and has delivered it through Jesus Christ, only God has the power to absolve your sin and forgive your guilt, for when He does this then you are truly guilt free.

  12 “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” ~ Psalm 103:12

So with these truths what do you do if someone refuses to forgive you of the sin you committed against them even when God has forgiven you? Truly I say to you people can be cruel, people can be mean. If your brethren harbors ill for you then their sin is rife with God, for God has commanded all of us to be as Jesus and forgive. God has commanded us all to be merciful to each other, to love one-another, to be understand, patient, and kind. There simply is no room in Heaven for lack of forgiveness, for spitefulness  for cruelty of any kind, and there is no room in God’s heart for these sins. If they refuse to forgive you, then they are not of God. More to the point as human beings the only true thing you can do is to try and never give up, never walk away, and fill your heart with forgiveness for their hardness of heart. (The only time this does not apply is if your sin was of such a destructive nature, i.e. sexual molestation, murder, mental or physical ect., where by your very presence is destructive to the other person who you wish to forgive you. In this God may have forgiven you, but victims of certain crimes have been placed in such turmoil that true forgiveness may take many years to achieve and its best to leave your request in Gods hands.)  In specific cases where children have become estranged to one of their parents because of the nature of a divorce  there may be hard feelings, especially if the child was forced to choose one parent over the other,. The parent who is left without anything goes through an-array of emotions which starts with guilt and ends with empathy. The loss of a child in this manner is worse than loosing them to death, because there is no closure, no burial,  no manner in-which to say goodbye, and no absolution, no means of contact, no hope for a relationship which is ingrained into our every fiber of our beings by God, and it goes against the very nature of parenthood. There is only long suffering and for the weak of heart many end this agonizing pain with the absolute sin, that of suicide. The hatred which envelops a parent to rip the child away from an ex-spouse is child abuse, it is self serving as the aim is to make the parents life easier by not having to deal with the unwanted ex-spouse. It is supremely selfish and it is not of God and it boggles my mind why the courts allow this behavior, why they enable this behavior. In manny case the lawyers insight it, and the courts go along with it and the children suffer because of it. So in this case the child must try harder to make a mends, to stand up and be strong and fight to have that relationship which one parent has sought to destroy, and in to many cases children fail to do this because they do not have the life experience to understand nor comprehend what is going on in the first place. Instead the children internalize it, they become racked with guilt, and begin to believe the situation is their fault, and thus act harshly without wisdom, or common sense ending up doing more harm than good, which causes more guilt. As this situation is protracted by the court without fairness which is often the case, then the parent who is asked to sacrifice everything and left with nothing is in the end completely and utterly destroyed. Guilt in this belongs to the parent who cause this to happen, because they planned and executed it and the guilt is also upon the court for allowing it for in-sighting it, guilt is upon the lawyers who ushered in this destruction through their warped sense of justice, and in the end guilt of having this blood upon the hands of the guilty cannot be of God but that of Satan. I write about this in order to bring attention to the situations that millions of men and thier children are being subjected to through Parental Alienation, and we as Godly people cannot allow our courts to have such over arching power as to allow one parent absolute domination in a child’s life, because again this is child abuse!

GUILT vs. FORGIVENESS

7 “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” ~ Isaiah 55:7

Children forgive your parents, parents forgive your children, husbands pardon your wives, wives pardon your husbands. If you are at war with your brethren end it for it is unGodly, leave the wickedness behind and move into the mindset of God for your own sake! Love and be loved freely. This I say to you, for this is the only right path as you move forward within your walk with God. Never give into the lies of Satan who will attempt to convinced you that you are guilty even after God has forgiven you. Never become the slave to guilt which is so easily prevented by asking God to forgive you. Never walk away from your father who Loves you more than any one could, for it was He who granted you life, who is molding you into a better person,  and who send His only son so that you may be saved. God’s love is greater than your guilty heart, greater than your guilty conscience, even greater than your sin.

  17 “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a  new creature: old things are past away; behold, all things have become new!” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

Amen

If you liked this Reflection on HONESTY please leave a comment. Also please LIKE and SHARE this post with others.

Brian Keith

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EMAIL: listeningfaithfullyblog@gmail.com

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While  at our Online store powered by AMAZN.com please consider being one the 20 special supporters of Listening Faithfully and purchase a Kindle Fire today. One Kindle Fire supports one child for this Summers Technology Team Course at Ascension Catholic School.  Become a supporter of inner city literacy today!

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Reflection 7: What You Can Expect From Life: According to Gossip

13 “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.”

~ Psalm 34:13

“He said”, “She said”, “They said”, “No one said that!”, “Everyone was saying…!”, “Hey, don’t tell him but…!”

There is nothing anymore disgusting to the Lords ears and heart than that of  GOSSIP!  There is no other form of speech which is more misleading, and it is so on purpose with malicious intent or else it would not be called GOSSIP!  This is the idle chatter in the break-room, or between friends over the phone, or housewives as they sip tea in the afternoon. It is an action that demands a reaction, and the small pebble  thrown into the lake does not cause a small ripple, but a tsunami of destruction once it lands upon the ears of its target. It is an action mostly done in secret under the veil of good intent or innocent fun that could in the hands of the wrong people destroy the life of the one whom is being spoken about – behind their back. Key word here is “behind-ones-back”, (adverb: deceitfully: Synonyms; covertly, secretly, sneakily, sub-rose, surreptitiously), and it is all these things, (though you might want to argue the point out of guilt for being caught), because as children we all taught through watching our parents that this thing called GOSSIP is rude and  therefore we don’t speak about peoples’ private business to others. Well, perhaps in todays day-and-age we have become more sophisticated and have become masters at keeping it out of view. On the other hand had we done what our grandparents thought when dealing with conflict when problems arise by taking it to that person privately. But this takes to much courage and honesty  to confront them. “YES!”, to say your peace to their face and not behind their back is less fun indeed! This one word; or more to the point this one “action”; that which is especially troublesome because it goes against everything the Bible teaches, for it was an “action” thought about before being perpetrated  which gives away the fact that there was a choice to take part at some point that was made whether indirectly or directly. A small choice that which carries with it such harm, a small action that reveals a much deeper plot, for there had to have been a plan set into motion, a road map followed, and the fault in character exploited to carry it out, indeed a choice was give, received  and made. For I tell you there is no worse a crime in the eyes of God than this idle chatter disguised as innocent behavior, one seen from afar coming. All while in your heart knowing it to be wrong, but instead of subverting the notion the choice to do it anyway; ignoring the repercussions at someone-else’s expense!  For I say to you, “GOSSIP”, is not harmless chatter, but yet the Devils tool to separate and divide, it is an evil tool to isolate people from the crowd, and it is a vile way to conduct business of any-kind!  Gossip is evil and if you think for one moment you can contain it then you my friend are sadly mistaken!

THE GOSSIP LIBRARY

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16 “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour; I am the Lord.” ~ Leviticus 19:16

A simple play on words with the word “GOSSIP”: For it sounds like SURIP, running thick and hot, so sweet and delightful, thus it is slow and deadly for if swallow whole or gobbled up instead of  SIPED and over time savoring the taste, thus to much your stomach will ache. It is one of the greatest temptations known to man-kind, one that which many fall into, and many become addicted too. Evidence of this is found in the first two links above in the pervious paragraph of websites that which at their very core is based upon spreading rumors and falsehoods, causing mischief in such a sublime way that we take it for granted and easily dismiss the evil veiled within. Evidence of the acceptances of GOSSIP in our modern lives is found in our magazines which peddle stories like, “ELVIS IS STILL ALIVE”, or “Emily Maynard; FURIOUS OVER JEF’S TELL-ALL.” More sicking than ever is the Kardashian Sisters take over of US Weekly as they, “DEFEND THEIR MEN”, when there is so many stories of these three destroying countless mens lives and fooling the public all for the sake of money!  How much does Kim make? “CLICK HERE!”  Well according to, Wetpaint Entertainment Staff, who wrote in an online article this past  February, “The über-driven reality queen makes an estimated $40,000 per episode of the Kardashian spin-offs.”  Wetpaint also reported, “E! recently revealed that Ms. Kardashian rakes in a whopping $5.45 million a year. According to The Daily Beast, which dubbed her the highest-earning reality TV star, Kim took in $6 million in 2010. And that, they point out, is a conservative estimate.”  In this reporting of Kim’s earnings do we find the key or give away and is the shining example I have thus far warned you about when describing the allure of GOSSIP! For in the very last quote from Wetpaint’s article; How Much Money Does Kim Kardashian Make?”, that which was published in the online Magazine appropriately named, “THE KARDASHIANS”,  is the word, “Estimate”! They use this word for legal purposes, but in truth they also use it because they don’t know so in truth they are “GUESSING!”  Here’s some food-for-thought; wouldn’t it be more ethical to write something that was going to be absorbed by the masses that which was proven to be the truth? “Oh…I forgot”, the truth doesn’t sell well in the realm of  “Reality-TV”, which in and of itself is an oxymoron! Why write about something common, something provable when speculation is more palatable? The other question which might make you think is,”Why does WETPAINT,E!,US WEEKLY, or any other T.V show or MAgazine care so much about how much Kim Kardashian or her sisters make or what they do?”  Simply put, they care because you care, the masses, the sheep being lead to the slaughter care, and that kind of mischief sells articles! Kim and her sisters are just as guilty of the crime of sensationalism; which,” is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers” (“Issue Area: Sensationalism.” Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting). So the money is found in the numbers, and in droves does so many people eat this useless noise up, sipping on it as if it was honey, waiting for the next weekly broadcast of the rich and famous, as these magazines peddle the promise of a moments escape form a perceived boring life lived in the boring areas of our country known to everyone as the “suburban sprawl.” The concept of a boring life is what they sell to you through broadcasting a famous persons fabulous life as they burn through money as if it was water! “Man… what I would do with all that money or fame…”, this illusion is their empire built from your back!  It is you the readers and watchers of this garbage that allow the lavish life style of people like Kim as Hollywood pebbles the lives of the famous, attention getters, and setters, before you calling it real when in fact what they do is for the numbers, and in reality they all, everyone of them have sold their soul and become slave to their viewers because of the numbers.

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For I say to you people, wake-up from your GOSSIP DRUG! Here before you are people whom most of the population will never truly meet or know and who’s lives are no better than the ones we, (the common people),  are forced to live. It is all to easy to dismiss the veiled  implication of GOSSIP columnists, and their talebearing, but evil is evil no matter the form! For I say to you, if you are faithfully to God, the only news you need is that which comes from God Himself, and His news is the most righteous and most high in all the world! For it is not talebearing, but truth telling!

I personally challenge Kim and her sisters, which I have no bias against, nor ill will, but to do for them as I do for everyone and that is to set straight the ways of God, spreading His will to your heart through the telling of truth; that if they indeed want to make a difference then help those in need. I say to you I would love to see Kim feeding the homeless, shooting her show in the gutters of America and spend her money building households of love than to spend it on a fake marriage and rapid retreat to the man she had left only now to defend. I invite her to come to my school in Los Angeles, it’s just a short hop on her private plane if she was in New York, or a limousine ride form her home in L.A. All my kids would love to meet her, support a couple a hundred beautiful children’s education for a year or two, for this would be just a drop in the bucket for her GOSSIP EMPIRE and go to prove me wrong. I hope that she does for her own sake. 

We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” ~ 1 John 4:6


The origin of GOSSIP; is roughly 3,500 years old, according to Ben Widdicombe, online columnist for Time Magazine, as he wrote, “according to the author Roger Wilkes. ‘Cuneiform tablets dating from 1500 B.C. chronicle a Mesopotamian mayor having an affair with a married woman,’ he wrote in a 2002 book, ‘Scandal: A Scurrilous History of Gossip.'” In retrospect I find his article very well written. The awesome thing about his article is found within the title, “Poparazzi | A History of Gossip”, a title which is clearly attention getting, not just to a readers eyes, but to that of the search engines of our modern web, or better known as S.E.O., and he clearly states this as his first order of business. So we can deduce from this that we are not dealing with a new phenomena rather an old evil, and I hazard to guess the notion of telling-tall-tales to grab peoples attention goes farther back than just a messly 3,500 years. In our modern era “GOSSIP” is forever linked with the word, “POPARAZZI”, which has only both furthered the down slide of the word GOSSIP, but has also sensationalized it.  Thus, propagating a veil practice of snippy articles and scandalous pictures which go to fuel the imagination for the soul purpose to make money.

5 “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” ~ James 3:5-6

As James did not mince words neither have I in this harsh reflection of mans actions, but for the sake of a few to profit. My harsh words and disposition is not to be taken as a means to make famous the very message I write or to rank high in SEO web searches, but again to inform and to explain the evil that which is among us. The very evil which uses our tongue to cause mischief, destruction, and the very flame of hell it’s self. I would thus be remis if I took calmed my words and did not teach what is the message found in the Bible. For James so rightfully pointed out that,

3 “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.” ~ James 3:1-2

For indeed not all of us was given the same talents, an yet we all stumble and fall. We all have hardships and in the eyes of God we are all the same, His children. But to the teachers, I must confess the sin of talebearing is a mortal mistake, thus I bring to you the truth of the matter. In this way too isn’t the famous the story’s they teach through their examples so sensationalized a form of teaching, and if so then the gossip they spread is their undoing. For the things of this world is not forever, and it all will pass away. 

20 “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. 21 As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. 22 The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.” ~ Proverbs 26:20-22

Is it not also true that if teachers stop teaching the flame of imagination is extinguished from their students hearts. It is not the distraction of things are the attentions of those less in knowledge taken with no hope of reproach, no way to thus defend their weaker state of mind? What a state of disrepute and disrepair have thus we fallen so far? What then do they learn or glean from life with no more will to learn but rather a lackluster manner of viewing the world they inhabit through the glow of those who do not represent the truth, rather a fantasy.  I tell you now, no teacher has the right to extinguish this flame from their students hearts nor stand idly by and say or do nothing while ever watching their beloved children sink into an endless quagmire of sin. Nor does any origination, corporation, or GOSSIP Empire have the right to misslead our children with their illusions and promises of a momentary escape upon such fanciful lies! To these people I write; our children are watching! Be mindful of the things that which you love to spread, for our children, your children are watching! But it is also true that those who are talebearers love to spin mischief, spreading it upon the wind, allowing it to fall upon the masses like rain drops from a gentle storm. But it is also true that in the same manner is pestilence spread and  from this does sickness take root, and from that does the multitude die; withering away in the tale winds which blow from an unknown decease, liken to GOSSIP! Be weary I say to you, for God is watching! For these illusions of grandeur and fake pretenses are the sum of mans total sin. There will be no mercy given to those who spread rumors, and tall tales, there is no place in Heaven for those who weave lies for the sake of personal gain, and for those who love to watch a persons life sink into the flames of hell due to untruths and the bearing of false witness.  The greatest of examples in this GOSSIP SIN is non-other than Lucifer himself, the most beautiful, the morning star turned the great tempter, first angel turned master of SIN, turned into Satan, the great devil despised by God and by the world!

Amen

If you liked this Reflection on HONESTY please leave a comment. Also please LIKE and SHARE this post with others.

Brian Keith

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Reflection 6: What You Can Expect From Life: According to Faith; pt 6

20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” ~ Matthew 17:20

Faith in most of our minds is this mystical,  magical, and even almost other worldly supernatural power that only certain people have in abundance. We read about awesome acts of  faith helping the condemned to survive when anyone else would have perished. We find stories of people who thank God for their recovery claiming it was their faith that pulled them through and we feel they are out of our league.  We in our minds dismiss these people and their stories because we feel that, “we the normal person” is not somehow worthy of this high honor bestowed on just a select few. Well, the truth is that “Yes”, there are some of us who hold onto faith in every aspects of their lives and “Yes”, faith is ingrained into their DNA. “YES”, miracles do happen to some of us because of their faith in God but, “NO!” they are not magically blessed and the rest of humanity is less fortunate.  The truth is God gave all of us the power to believe, and it is this power which we must surrender too in order to have true faith in God. Faith equals trust, trust equals belief, and like a circle bending back upon itself belief equals love. Because “Love” is “God” and those who love God also trust God, again, we find that this equals faith which equals trust. People who choose to live their lives in this manner exhibit characteristics that scare the rest of us because they seemingly have something that we don’t.  People of faith seem to possess absolute resolve in all the trials and tribulations that is placed in their way on a daily basis and seem to handle it better with more fortitude and with greater grace than the normal person could ever muster. But this I tell you is also an illusion, because even though we see something on the out side, the pain and turmoil still has its grip on the inside. We all have the same weakness that which is sin. We all sin, we all fall to sin in our daily lives, it’s just that some of us handle sin better because of their faith, because they trust in God for his promise of forgiveness of their sins. If there was anything which took root in the Roman world after the death and resurrection of Jesus it would have to be this one simple fact that more Romans needed faith in something more real than what they where being offered and Christianity gave them this anchor as it still does for all of us today.  So the simple fact is as Jesus had stated so brilliantly, faith is so powerful because it is show in your actions trust in the word of God. This builds belief in God and in that there is nothing which you cannot do or accomplish even move mountains.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

How many times have you been told to, “Have Faith.” ? What does this really mean? I had one of my students tell me flat out when I told him to have faith, “Why should we have faith?” Obviously this was coming from frustration, but I assured him it will all work in the end. Did it? “Yes! it did.” It always works out in the end. God makes sure things that go wrong in our lives according to us, He can and will fix. But how do we have faith when we don’t know the plan? This and so many other questions rest assured will be the road block to your faith if you let it. But, if you don’t and you let go and let God then your faith is multiplied by infinity and with that kind of faith there is nothing you cannot do.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8

Faith is a journey, it is a real hand-in-hand walk with our creator. It is the constant listening, or listening faithfully in faith that we all share in common as we only have one God. No one can ignore the sin in our heart as surely as we cannot ignore the path we are all called to take, the journey called faith in God.

My faith journey has been one built up over forty years of  constant reading and asking questions to clergy and people I loved and respected. I finally came face-to-face with all my sin and troubles which had broken me to the point I could n’t stand myself and it was then I saw the clearest I saw the path and heard, really heard God calling my name to walk hand-in-hand with him. I had to hit the bottom of the barrel to find God, to find His mercy, His love, and His devotion that He so freely had given to me which had been before me for ever in plan view. It was that I simply could not see past myself, I was blind with pride, drunk with lust of this world I could not see God. I will not lie, my faith journey has been the hardest journey I have ever had to endure.  I have been tested in every way, shape, and form, every obstacle has been planted with deep roots in front of me, it seems that once I over come the obstacle another is already in the first ones place. Each new test become harder to beat, testing me in new more uncomfortable ways always forcing me to step outside my comfort zone and think outside of the box. But in all these trials and tribulations God has allowed to happen in my life, I have never wavered and in my faith has become stronger and stronger just like Jesus promised. “HAVE FAITH.” Is more than just a saying that makes most people cringe with fear and anxiety, it is the calling card of love sent straight to you from God himself. It is a commandment for the faithful to uphold, always and forever. The best part about it is I know I am never alone in my trials and tribulations that life beats me down with. Because I am on this journey, I am assured that God is with me, right beside me, holding my hand through every part especially the worst parts always giving me strength and resolve.

Without faith there is no hope, and without hope their is only depression and despair. You can expect to fail for sure with that formula. Added to that you are not pleasing God. The actions of those who feel no hope is to rob others of their hope, to pull others down into their sorrow and pity.  All of which is against God and against what He has commanded. God does not reward bad behavior, but rather there is hope in the reward of trust and love He holds for us for he gave his only son.

The one question that always comes to my mind at Easter is really when you thinking about it, when you remember the love of God; His grace that He so freely gives to all man kind is simple in retrospect, “How much more faith in God did Jesus exhibit in His last hour here on Earth as He suffered and died on the cross? How much more faith did Jesus demonstrate than anyone of us in any hour of trouble we face in comparison to being crucified ” Jesus’s stated mission according to the four Gospels of the New Testament was that He had to die for our sins. Jesus had told the Pharisees that He would be seated at the right hand of God. Clearly this was the reward for sacrificing himself for all mankind? But what if Jesus had misplaced His faith in God, what then? Certainly Jesus had thought this in the garden as he prayed before His arrest. Surely Satan had tempted Jesus with this doubt in the Desert. Had it not been for Jesus’s resurrection on the third day we all would be left without faith, without hope, without the trust in God we all so desperately need. We know Jesus was who he said He was, His father is God, and we know beyond doubt the power of Faith by His example and obedience which “Yes” pleased God immensely. Jesus’s faith in God was absolute, unwavering, and never ending. It is this we celebrate at Easter, and it is this truly gives man hope, faith, and love.

“And Jesus answered saith unto them, ‘Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in hid heart , but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”  Mark 11:22-23

Happy Easter Everyone.

Amen

If you liked this Reflection on FAITH please leave a comment. Also please LIKE and SHARE this post with others.

Brian Keith

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Reflection 5: What You Can Expect From Life: According to Enemies; pt 5

71 “That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he swore to our father Abraham, 74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, 75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” ~ Luke 1:71-75

In my humble estimation there is truly no proper reason to have any enemies nor for anyone to be enemies of another brother or sister in the Lord. There is no justification for war between family members, friends, distant relatives, nor between other people from other religions or countries. Honestly, I cannot come up with any justification for war period and neither can you if you reflect upon the horror war brings to all who is involved in this nasty business! Here is the problem with mankind, and I mean no disrespect for womankind or kid-kind, but the human race as a whole has ignored God again! It is through our arrogance we allow other nations to become bitter enemies, it is through the lust of power countries go to war, and it is through our stupidity we take weapons and kill other people and then justify our actions by devaluing human life! This is also the case within our interpersonal relationships with whoever we don’t like, we devalue them with words instead of weapons and we depose their importance to gain favor with the powers that be, again a nasty business! We allow greed to fester until it brings us to war, we allow lust to bring us to war, we allow envy to bring us to war, we allow anger to bring us to war, and we allow pride to take us to war! (For a complete understanding of these sins click the following link: Listening Faithfully: The Sin Series Kindle edition). More to the point: God commanded us to never kill another human being period! God commanded us to never do anything which will bring-about the sins mentioned above by instructing all of humanity to always love thy God with all thy heart, mind, and soul. Yet most of us think God’s love not strong enough, or good enough, nor righteous enough thus we strike out on our own. We afflict horrible pain upon those we love and then justify our actions so we can get a good nights sleep instead of taking responsibility for the mess we have created!

35 “One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” ~ Matthew 22:35-39

If you love God in this way, if you value God in this way, and if you understand the will of God in this way then war becomes obsolete. No one who truly loves God would harm another human being. Thus, it is through sin we fall to the level of animals and fight amongst ourselves and kill, rape, pillage, murder, and take life. Though abortion is generally not classified under this topic of war, it is also against God and it is a grievous sin. Alcoholism also may not be directly classified under this topic, it is however related in the aspect of the eternal separation from God and from family as one’s life is lived outside of acceptance of others, and is always one of many methods people have used to deal with war and the justification of their sinful actions. Again, this too is a grievous sin against God.  In this way written in black and white we can see how war is directly apposed to love and if you know anything about love then you will be forced to acknowledge God is love. Who can stand against the love of and grace of God and then still advocate killing people for anyone of these sins? This is the moral question Jesus himself asked those who had entrapped then wanting to stone to death a woman by the name of Mary.

2 “At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?
11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” ~ John 8:2-11

firstandgreatest2

Here is the root of the problem, we test God. We of little faith presume we have the authority to test God! We mere mortals assume we have the righteousness to trap God in our own sin! Again no disrespect, but who are you to test our living God? We all do it daily, we give God choices always with a selfish intent and then expect God to grant those wishes and prayers. Tell me if this doesn’t sound selfish to you;

“Dear God, if you allow me to win the lottery I will be forever grateful.”

Or “Dear God you only have to prove you’re there by giving me a new car.”

Don’t laugh, I have heard those prayers being whispered by people who were supposed to be devout followers in church. Most of our prayers are not just selfish, but also insulting. So with prayers like these God has to filter through he truly is merciful for not giving up on us. For a moment put yourself in God’s place listening to all those prayers then tell me you wouldn’t within the first few seconds resolve to condemn all of humanity? Yet our God does not, instead he loves us more each and every passing day. If God can then forgive us then why can we not forgive our brothers and sisters of the human race? Within that context war is also the result of intolerance, the lack of a loving heart, and worse of all the bravado of our own sinful human egos which places our spirit in the mindset of war.

The very idea of having enemies was addressed at least a hundred different times in the bible; Jesus himself addressed it multiple times and was extremely clear of how we are to resolve these matters in scripture;

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” ~ Matthew 5:38-39

“When someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek, too. When someone takes your coat from you, let them have your shirt as well. Give to everyone who asks. And if someone robs you, don’t demand your property back.” ~ The Lost Gospel Q, Q15.

Lets’ think this through for a second. Isn’t these two passages talking about conflict? Couldn’t we apply them to our everyday lives, and if so couldn’t our nation’s foreign policies reflect these two passages in the spirit Jesus was commanding us to adhere too? If this then is true then it is also true it takes great effort to make those changes, and it is easier to ignore God by ignoring these simple commands. Thus, war and conflict on every level is also a direct result in our laziness to properly follow God, yet we expect God to be there for us whenever we call. Simply put we are all hypocrites within our expectations, wants, desires, and we thus are also slaves to sin because of our laziness and slothfulness in our misplaced demands upon God. In this light if indeed all of humanity is thus guilty of all the above then God is even more merciful and His love is even more powerful than anything we could have ever imagined. This also explains why we have enemies, because we in our stupidity rebel against this perfect love and we make ourselves God’s enemy just as Satan has done. Logically speaking, if we continue to challenge God with war and violence against our enemies then what can we truly expect form Him? Perhaps a review of the old testament will shed some light;

47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.” ~ Deuteronomy 28:42-48

I simply ask, “Is this not the case in our modern lives today? Isn’t this curse still upon us?” We only have to look at the economy, the greed within it, the interest every nation is enslaved too, and in this there is no retribution but a yoke of iron that has indeed been placed upon all our necks from cradle to the grave! This is but one example of the iron yoke at work, there is still hundreds if not thousands of more examples you only only have to look for them.

As a matter of principle it is never right to offer such condemnation without offering some sign of hope and or to suggest an answer to fix the problem I have thus laid out before you today. In doing so I will speak with a tone that is stark in contrast of these appalling conditions we all find ourselves with being morally bankrupt while again turning to scripture for the answer.

“Treat people as you would like them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you do good only to those who do good to you, what merit is there in that? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what reward is there in that? Even sinners lend to sinners. Instead, love your enemies and do good, expecting nothing in return. You will have a great reward, and you will be children of your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on the bad and the good. He sends rain to fall on both the just and the unjust.” ~ The Lost Gospel Q, Q16

Our Lord and Savior offered these words of wisdom up after he had given us the example of how to deal with strife and how to deal with our enemies. His ultimate command on this issue is to always face our enemies with love, kindness, respect, and compassion. This is in stark contrast to our current actions in all levels of our lives, though we have been told to love we have chosen war every time. Indeed, we are very much like those first Israelites who escaped Egypt and was made to wonder in the desert for forty years. Of these people Moses brought with him God called them a stiff-necked people;

33 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.’” ~ Exodus 33:1-3

Of these people’s children Jesus commanded;

“Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.” ~ The Lost Gospel Q, Q17

In all of these passages where Jesus spoke that can be found in the bible on the topic of “enemies” He always confronts it with forgiveness and love. Jesus saw the way to peace was found in treating everyone as you would have them treat you. There is always a common respect extended and with in this respect there is found love, kindness, forgiveness, and a profound understanding of the human condition. As I had written in my very first blog posting back in 2009, “God’s Desire for Man” (Relationship Series), we all want to be part of a group, we all long for love and acceptance. This is simply the reason so many wars have been fought and so many people have died. God simply loves you and accepts you for who you are and He alone has the power to remake you into a more perfect person through repentance and the forgiveness of sins. It is only through His love can we all find that utopian world of perpetual peace, and it is this which Jesus talked so masterfully about the Kingdom of God. For in that Kingdom there is no enemy to fight, there is no sickness that kills, there is no suffering because of our ignorance and intolerance because there simply is no sin. For in the Kingdom of God we feast with God as his beloved children.

Pray With Me:

1 “Hear my cry, O God;

   listen to my prayer.

2 From the ends of the earth I call to you,

   I call as my heart grows faint;

   lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

3 For you have been my refuge,

   a strong tower against the foe.

4 I long to dwell in your tent forever

   and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

5 For you, God, have heard my vows;

   you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

6 Increase the days of the king’s life,

   his years for many generations.

7 May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever;

   appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.

8 Then I will ever sing in praise of your name

   and fulfill my vows day after day.” ~ Psalm 61

Let us all fulfill our vows we have made upon our baptism, may we have the faith and courage to sing these vows to God in the Highest day after day until we meet Him in heaven. My we have the wisdom to forge peace with our enemies and become stronger for having done so.

Amen

If you liked this Reflection on ENEMIES please leave a comment. Also please LIKE and SHARE this post with others.

Brian Keith

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ANNOUNCES TO THE COMMUNITY OF FOLLOWER, FRIENDS, AND SUBSCRIBERS;

In the spirit of charity and from the necessity to provide  for all of Gods children, together in this mission,  Listening Faithfully has teamed up with a wonderful charitable organization in East Texas whose name reflects their good works, “God’s Hand Ups” and their work  is accomplished by a Godly motivation to help every children throughout their community. I am honored to have them as good friends in the Lord.  I can testify before you all today, that my good friend who is a founding member of this charitable group  has truly been tested in the manner described here in this blog posting and who has consistently passed this test of giving and working for the benefit of all in her community. I introduce you all to Tonia Allen, who currently has a wonderful new campaign in raising money for children in need. Please visit her donation site:  “GOD’S HAND UPS NOT HAND OUTS ”  and please be very charitable.

Someone once told me that compassion was not simple. They believed compassion was huge. Compassion is SO simple as it is an act of kindness from one to another. It is only huge when it becomes over thought. God’s Hand Ups was founded by the vision of a 17 year old junior in high school who believed the world could be saved–“one person at a time.” ~ Tonia Allen, Gods Hands Up, 2013. 

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It is also my great pleasure to announce to all that God’s Hand Ups Not Hand Outs has now become an official Non-Profit Ministry. From a house to a non-profit ministry in the matter of a few months of operation. God has truly bless this East Texas Group of beautiful caring parents and followers of God. It is truly through His Devine Love that such things are possible.

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ANNOUNCING LISTENING FAITHFULLY ORIGINAL BOOKS!

Author Brian Keith, writer and publisher of Listening Faithfully Blog offers to you his first e-book: 

Listening Faithfully: The Sin Series  (Nov 28, 2012)

Taken from the most successful and popular series of postings on Listening Faithfully Blog in 2009-10, then edited and repackaged for your reading enjoyment, Brian has put together a comprehensive chronicle of sin!  With a massive amount of research and based upon Biblical Scripture each chapter reveals the shocking and revolutionary message of our Lord, while describing how each type of sin can destroy your life if left unchecked. It is a must read for-everyone to avoid the penalty of spiritual death.

Now available in the Listening Faithfully Store powered by Amazon.com! Start reading the Sin Series today in under a minute!

God Bless,

Brian Keith
Founder of Listening Faithfully

Listening Faithfully: The Sin Series   (NOW ON SALE IN EBOOK, INSTANTLY DOWNLOADABLE FORMAT FOR $9.19)

 

 

Reflection 4: What You Can Expect From Life: According to Death; pt 4

“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death.” ~ Proverbs 14:32

Death is summed up with one word, separation.  We are separated from God through sin, and it is this sin which Christ had to die on the cross in order to pay our sin debt in full for all of humanity. This is the most pragmatic of all the types of death we as human beings can experience, that being a physical death. This topic of death is a complicated one and is diverse in its nature, it holds permeant consequences and is to many people it is a topic which scares but also fascinates us.  So the real question is what can we expect from life according to death? To completely immerse ourselves within this topic in an attempt to answer this question we need to first understand there are categories of death, or better put categories of separation; some good and some bad; but  in all each category the wicked will die without hope and the righteous will have hope in their death and resurrection in Christ Jesus because again our sin debt  has been paid in full, that is the good news of our Saviour.

In life we experience different types of spiritual separation not all lead directly to a swift physical death; as was the case with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Neither then is all spiritual nor physical separations evil as was the case with Job, who won favor with God by never turning away from his faith in God when tested. Satan introduced to both Adam and Job great toil, pain, suffering, he separated both mortal men from God through testing them. This is exactly what Satan does to everyone of us and has done to all who has ever lived or will ever live. Some of these tests mold us into better people, others condemn us for all time.

Consequently, the categories of death can be best described as “Death According to the Mind”, (which are divided into two separate sub-categories and will be the main topic of this posting), “Death According the Spirit”, (Again having two sub-categories, the first dealing with true repentance and the other dealing with blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God ), and that of, “Death According to the Flesh”, (Which is the physical death we all must someday face.)  As mentioned above this first main category has two sub-categories that henge on mortal suffering that does not lead necessarily to a physical death but one that includes the death or loss of self identity and impeeds self actualization, this then is called, “Death of Self”. The apposing sub-category then is one where we have found our spiritual center, and have grown close to God and have allowed Him to mold us into a better person as advocated by John the Baptist and Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, this then is called, “Death unto Self.” Nonetheless, both sub-categories impact our future after we have passed and await judgement by God. Equally important to note the second main category, “Death According the Spirit” deals explicitly to our moral center drilling down to our very core revealing who we truly are. It is very much a “Good vrs. Evil” scenario with no gray area in between. On one hand we can be forgiven and on the other we can never be redeemed and risk eternal damnation or spiritual obliteration.

Sub-Category One: “Death of Self”

The first separation, “Death of Self”,  refers to  a death in character, a life changing event which forever changes who we are as a human being, a drastic change from who we once were or was intended to be. Most notably this kind of separation from our true self is one that is the most painful and is caused by evil of the highest order. Because we are naturally separated from God through sin at birth we are opened up to a greater amount of suffering in our lives. These types of sufferings come from a variety of life experiences that mainly derive from the relationships we have with others. To be more specific, “Death of Self”, occurs when a person is entangled in a suffocating relationship where by one person becomes poisonous to the other. The individual being poisoned will begin to do things that (he/she) would not otherwise do in order to save or preserve  the relationship. These attempts involve such efforts as to  make unrealistic sacrifices for the sole purpose of make the poisonous person happy. These sacrifices will eventually lead to resentment, anger, and if not stopped can mentally harm the target person and in that event will forever change the dynamics of the relationship as the victim will continue to undergo an unhealthy metamorphous that can not be reversed. Such targets who undergo these stresses and unjustifiable sacrifices are no longer who they once where as they risk loosing themselves in the constant struggle over power, control, and grapple with their self-identity, all while trying desperately to understand the “why” of each preceding event that just drags them further in and closer to absolute destruction as a person with a separate identity and belief structure.Each choice they are thus forced into making is without the benefit of all the facts therefore each decision is  a flawed one with repercussions that are equally devastating to their ego, and self identity. The person who has been suffocated will eventually become numb to all other emotions, be them good or bad, as their perspective shifts from one of light (equating to hope), to that of darkness, (equating to hopelessness and helplessness), for they live day-to-day in a tourcherous cycle without mercy, and absent of any promise of ever finding a way out. The victim in this instance could be living next door to blood-relatives and never reach-out for help as in their mind they have been conditioned to believe a twisted scenario they would never under any other circumstances would have subscribed too, but because of this desperate need placed into their hearts by the poisonous person the vicim cannot imagine life with them and indeed this become a very sick reality one without end. Some of these people I have personally known have committed suicide and others have walled themselves off from life so completely they refuse to let anyone else in for fear of being hurt or their secrets being discovered, which is a sham response that is programed into them by all the manipulations they have undergone.  The saddest part of  this is there will come a point where the pain and sacrifices are to much to for them to digest, and they disconnect not just from the manipulator but from life in general as the struggle is just to great. In this process of disconnecting they simply given up, they allow the very life they had once held so dear to be slowly be sucked away from them. The other sad reality is the ability to ever trust another human-being ever again is completely smashed, with that having another relationships becomes impossible as the overwhelming fear of being treated like this again is so powerful its simply easier to deal with life complete separated from everyone and everything. If the victim does eventually, (years later), venture out then they do so with great inhibition as their new program constantly tells them they where at fault, they made the last relationship fail, they where not good enough, and no one else will love them or accept them. In the worst case scenario the ego has undergone such a beating that the victim’s self esteem is so repressed that when others do accept them the contradiction in their mind brings them unbearable pain and complete disbelief as again their new belief pattern has been altered and so in their mind they perceive these new people and the attention they are receiving as an inherent lie and outside the framework of being trusted. Unfortunately the damage done within the process of this needless death of self and absences of socialization will take many, many years to undo if ever, and at best these victims might trust one family member, might reach-out to one friend they risk everything on, but never to the same degree they would have otherwise.

Examples of the poisonous personalities that will do this to a target person fall into several categories all their own, some are very benign and others are very toxic.  One category is people who suffer from certain types of mental illness toping this short list is those who suffer from type 1 & 2 Bipolar disorder, and those who suffer from Narcissistic behavioral disorders as they are masters of manipulation and pathological liars. I do not suggest that these people are any-more , or hold a greater amount of evil tendencies than the typical “sane” person, but I do acknowledge that if you are involved with a person be it a family member, child, or spouse who suffer from these illness your life can quickly become enveloped by them and if you are not careful they will begin to suffocate every ounce of life from various manipulations to control the relationship and it is never logic based, which is the chosen method to wear the target person out.  These personality types will commit the most hurtful as well as harmful acts against those they have targeted which range from withholding love,(Narcissistic Trait), to a higher degree of selfishness resulting in the “creation of”, (in the sense conflict was none existent prior), an ever increasing degree of conflict within marriages by the practice of separating paternal parents from their children, (Parental Alienation Syndrome), to the personality that destroys the one thing their victim loves the most in order to control them all while feeling no remorse for having done so, (Sociopathic trait), just to name a few. All these actions from the poisonous personality are focused on division and separation, thus causing the perfect environment for “Death of Self” to occur in their chosen target. Again, people who have died in this manner often times walk away with some mental disorders that was caused by such treatment by these varying poisonous personalities. Example of such illness are, Anxiety disorderPanic disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress disorder, Acute Stress disorder, Generalized Anxiety disorder, Major Depressive disorder, Dysthymic disorder, and a host of  Personality disorders. (For a full listing of definitions of all disorders listed please visit; The New International Standard Medical & Health Encyclopedia.)

Again, a person who is filled with such venom given them by  type 1 & 2 Bipolar disorder, and those who suffer from Narcissistic behavioral disorders and Sociopathic disorders are not inherently evil, but their acts if left unchecked will eventually lead them into deeper and deeper sinful and seemingly inhuman manifestations that will cause those they target to be sucked in only for those innocent unsuspecting victims to suffer a protracted  “Death of Self”.

In instances where children are in contact with such personality types their development is either halted or slowed and the child will live with a heightened since of fear, anxiety, and will develop a plethora of personality disorders due to the lack of proper socialization most normal children experience, thus these child  undergo a death in character that forever alters who they were supposed to become, destroying their characters, and overwhelming their nature since of order and stability as a human being, disrupting their lives to the point they no longer remember ever having any peace, love, whipping clean all memories of fun and encouragement and leaving behind a shell of a person who will grow to become more conflicted and confused and will live without hope dead unto the world! Despite the mental disorders that the venomous person holds and thus causes the act of “Death of Self” to happen in the first place,  be them adults or children they themselves have sinned greatly against our Father in heaven for they have become prideful, arrogant, selfish, lacking in morality, and their hearts so hardened they fall easily into sin and thus will fall like King Nebuchadnezzar for it is written;

18 “Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. 19 Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. 20 But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. 21 He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.” ~ Daniel 5:18-21

Likewise, those who suffer from mental illness and seek out the Lord will be saved and will be healed as it has repeatedly been  illustrated in scripture;

24 “News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures,and the paralyzed; and he healed them.” ~ Matthew 4:24

For our Lord Jesus heals everyone of their illnesses and forgives all who seek him out while proclaiming that “nothing is impossible for one who believes.” ~ Mark 9:23

Note: The failure to properly recognize such depravity which leads people to sin with such repute from the stand point of man’s legatees and current court structure is what plagues our since of justice from truly being realized. In other words if Judges and lawyers, social workers, therapists, and psychologists who work for our family courts do not stop to realize the personality types they are dealing with and do not commit to basing their judgements off of issues of morality; then their actions will cause, (and have caused),  a systemic entitlement and enablement susceptible to manipulation of the current laws. Furthermore, this manipulation and pressure does not serve anyones best interest especially our children’s  and thus, is in fact such a server sinful act that those who perpetrate it for the sack of money, power, and / or self glorification will be damned to hell for eternity for it is written;

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! ~ Matthew 18:6-7 

Sub-Category Two: “Death unto Self”

Likewise, in contrast the “Death of Self”, to that of the “Death unto Self” is found in that the first forces a mental change in personality preventing a person to grow naturally into who they where meant to be, verse a growth in spirituality and a oneness with God. This second form of death was advocated by Jesus who in his many teachings outlined a path to Heaven, where as “Death of Self”,  is a path to greater separation,greater darkness, and greater despair. Examples of “Death unto Self” is littered throughout the Bible, for God wants to be in your heart, He wants a relationship with you, He desires to mold you into a better version of yourself. God inspires your soul, he feeds your needs through love, mercy, understanding, patiences, and virtue. God is the supreme master of all things in creation and He alone is the master of death though resurrection. If you give your life over to God, believe in Him alone, live as He commands you to live, then you will be called one of His children, belonging to God the Father, thus in this instance you have died to your old ways of living, and you are a new person in Christ Jesus.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” ~2 Corinthians 5:17

This is thus a cause for a celebration, as the old is gone, and the new has come! John the Baptist also advocated this through His ministry of baptizing with water as found in The Gospel According to Mark, Luke, and Matthew:

4 “And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” ~ Mark 1:4-5

2 “during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” ~ Luke 3:2-3

1 “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”

4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” ~ Matthew 3:1-6

Indeed, both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ understood and talked similarly about the condition of the spirit and the requirement of to repent all sin. The acknowledgement of this was to be baptitised with water. In this sense of the word, a person has died unto their sinful ways and suffered, “Death unto Self”, one of the most positive ways for us to die because we become forgiven of our sins, and thus become closer to God in the process, open to His divine will and prosperity. Only then can we truly begin to live and to understand His goodness in all things in life, be filled with hope and love and His mercy daily.

“But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16

In short within these first two forms of separation we find that we are being separated permanently form two separate things, with the first we are being separated from God and our true self, and in the second we are being separated from sin and our old sinful life.

Category Three: “Death According to the Spirit”

As stated above, this third category affects your future life after death known as, “Death According to the Spirit”. Again there are two sub-categories which are parallel with both holding permanent consequences, and both is based upon your action while alive in the physical world. The first sub-category according to the Holy Spirit is known as the, “Repentant Heart”, a sinner redeemed, a person who has been baptized in the Holy Spirit of God.

“That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” ~ John 3:15

Signs of such a person are found in in many aspects of (his/her) life, starting with the acceptance of God the Father. In doing so the repentant person will cease to sin, or make great efforts to ending their sinful ways. This requires a strong will to turn your back on the flesh and the many desires found there in and to commit to a life of Christ. This commitment according to the Holy Spirit is a carefully orchestrated, planned, purposeful attempt to changing old sinful habits. Because your body becomes the temple which God now resides the need to protect your heart, your faith, is now linked to protecting your soul in every aspect of your life. Old concerns fall away one by one as your trust and faith grow in Christ. One of the most exciting changes affecting your immortal spirit is found in the first major change after accepting Jesus as your savior, that being the ability to confess all your sins, not just the sins that brought you immense trouble, pain, anxiety, heart break, and despair, but the ability to confess all your sins. I liken this to the notion that Gods knows everyone of your sins anyway, you can’t hide it, you can’t run away from Him, and the more you try the farther away from God you get. Therefore, the days of holding secrets and flying under the radar is over, for good. This will be an obvious shift in your heart that others will most certainly pickup on and may even start asking you about.

The next exciting shift in your thinking and wholeness of spirit is found in the idea that as a repentant person, (child of God), you will find the strength that had been given to you by God to face the pain that your many sins had caused the various people in your life that you love, that you care about, that you may have worked with, or had known briefly before sinning against them, or someone you had dated or married. The Holy Spirit  will move you, require you to take part in what is called the “invitation to forgive”. This is when you can no longer deal with your sin and your heart burns to be forgiven by everyone you have sinned against, thus you invite them in and you make a sincere attempt at making amends, because many times people will not come to you rather they will burn in their hearts quietly.

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. 18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be lost in heaven.” ~ Matthew 18: 15-18

By opening the door you allow others to come in and share with you all their bottled up intense emotions, some may harbor anger, resentment, deep hurt,unfathomable sorrow, and unabated disappointment in your previous actions. But as a repentant person your conviction within your heart will give you the strength to offer no excuses or shift blame. In reality you chose to sin against them and the Holy Spirit will require you to take full responsibility for that behavior.

Consequently, these actions of confessing and being convicted in your heart is how your faith becomes stronger. Throughout this process you realize there is no way you could ever hope to pay back what you have taken by your sin, and this one realization is where you sin and your spirit part company as your forgiveness will be assured by our Lord Jesus Christ. The real trick, if there is one is remaining accountable t others, to yourself, to God. Always being quick to ask for forgiveness when you have offended someone or when you have incidentally  sinned against them. This one action releases you of the fear of conviction, releases you of the grips of sin, this again builds your faith, you love, your ability to forgive others when they have sinned against you. You spirit become clean, and ready for God, ready for that final mortal death we all must endure.

In contrast to the “Repentant Heart”, the act of, “Blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God”, is without doubt the one sure way to force God to condemn you into eternal damnation. In terms of death, this is the absolute separation from God. This is the absolute denial that God is your father, to speak with contempt about God, or to be resoundingly irreverent. Blasphemy is slander and libel directed at God. Moreover, God is so gracious that He is willing to forgive you of this sin unless you blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

 31 “And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” ~ Matthew 12:31-32

The sin in and of itself is committed in two stages, the first being putting the Lord to the test;

7 “Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” ~ Matthew 4:7

Putting God to the test is like putting your parents to the test when you where no older than just being able to walk and talk in comparison. It is not appropriate because it is deeply insulting that you, a mortal being could ever possible have the full knowledge to question the authority  of God if Lucifer could not be as great as God then who are you to even try? I often refer to the idea that can we create the universe? Can we create planets? Can we save ourselves and do enough good works that we can put ourselves into heaven? To think we can is simply the denial of our own limitations. So to hear others make outrageous claims as to know the mind of God and to predict the time He will return when Jesus himself did not know the time or the place, but only the Father knows is blasphemy in and of itself. To state false doctrine and lead others into sin is also putting the Lord God to the test, and I say unto you this is not advisable as it will lead to eternal damnation.

The second stage is to sin against the Holy Spirit, or rather denying the miracles the Holy Spirit worked through Jesus Christ and then also attributing these miracles done by Jesus to the power of Satan. This idea of placing Satan on-par with Christ is offensive enough, but then to deny Jesus worked these miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit is blasphemy. It suggests that Christ was Satan incarnate, and not God incarnate, it is the removal of good and replacing it with evil. It is that classic argument between absolutes, between (Good vrs Evil).  To defile the power of God, to reject God, to ignore the slender of God, to separate yourself from God, all on purpose is putting the Lord God to the test. It is indeed taking the very word of God and then depositing it with repute.

28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” ~ Matthew 10:28

Death According to the Flesh”

The final death which was caused by sin, is the  “Death According to the Flesh”.  Within this final category we find that God had cursed man to not have eternal life, but rather have a defined number of possible years that he may live her on earth. Jesus examines this final death as simply going to sleep;

11 “After he had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.’ 12 His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.’ 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.” ~ John 11:11-13

Jesus also refers to going away to prepare a place for us in His fathers house;

14 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” ~ John 14:1-3

Jesus also refers to death in the power given to him by God and that those who have died will hear His voice;

26 “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” ~ John 5:26-29

According to Jesus death is merely falling asleep, there is no pain, no more suffering, no worry, no memory of past failures or sins. The body is unconscious and so the logic that follows concerning death is it is like being asleep with any dream.

 5 “For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.” ~ Ecclesiastes 9:5

All suffering ends, and eternal rest begins in the physical narrative. Some have equated this form of death as a gateway which will either lead us to heaven or to hell depending upon how you lived your mortal life, thus, this final category is also a temporary death death.

25 “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.'” ~ John 11:25

This idea of being resurrected after you have been dead, no matter the length of time nor the condition of the body when Jesus comes back to fulfill His word has often puzzled many people. How is this to happen? How is it even possible? Simply put How was it possible for Jesus to live after His death? If this was possible for God, the truly there is nothing impossible for Him. Death is necessary in order to complete the curse God placed upon us starting with Adam and Eve, but hence forth from this death we will be raised up and for those who believe and who submit to His everlasting Glory shall have immortally in an incorruptible body just like our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our final death is not our last defeat, but through Jesus Christ we will have our final victory, which is the resurrection after death.

50 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ 55 “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” ~  1 Corinthians 15:50-58

Amen

If you liked this Reflection on DEATH please leave a comment. Also please LIKE and SHARE this post with others.

Brian Keith

Your invited to stay in contact with me!

EMAIL: listeningfaithfullyblog@gmail.com

Facebook 

HELP SUPPORT LISTENING FAITHFULLY BLOG BY MAKING ALL YOUR ONLINE PURCHASES THROUGH OUR WEB STORE!  CLICK HERE.  As a special token of appreciation please accept a free downloadable gift from me to you: FREE BIBLE

While  at our Online store powered by AMAZN.com please consider being one the 20 special supporters of Listening Faithfully and purchase a Kindle Fire today. One Kindle Fire supports one child for this Summers Technology Team Course at Ascension Catholic School.  Become a supporter of inner city literacy today!

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________________________________________________________________________________

ANNOUNCES TO THE COMMUNITY OF FOLLOWER, FRIENDS, AND SUBSCRIBERS;

In the spirit of charity and from the necessity to provide  for all of Gods children, together in this mission,  Listening Faithfully has teamed up with a wonderful charitable organization in East Texas whose name reflects their good works, “God’s Hand Ups” and their work  is accomplished by a Godly motivation to help every children throughout their community. I am honored to have them as good friends in the Lord.  I can testify before you all today, that my good friend who is a founding member of this charitable group  has truly been tested in the manner described here in this blog posting and who has consistently passed this test of giving and working for the benefit of all in her community. I introduce you all to Tonia Allen, who currently has a wonderful new campaign in raising money for children in need. Please visit her donation site:  “GOD’S HAND UPS NOT HAND OUTS ”  and please be very charitable.

“Someone once told me that compassion was not simple. They believed compassion was huge. Compassion is SO simple as it is an act of kindness from one to another. It is only huge when it becomes over thought. God’s Hand Ups was founded by the vision of a 17 year old junior in high school who believed the world could be saved–“one person at a time.” ~ Tonia Allen, Gods Hands Up, 2013.

280103_1359355052.6129_________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________

ANNOUNCING LISTENING FAITHFULLY ORIGINAL BOOKS!

Author Brian Keith, writer and publisher of Listening Faithfully Blog offers to you his first e-book:

Listening Faithfully: The Sin Series  (Nov 28, 2012)

Taken from the most successful and popular series of postings on Listening Faithfully Blog in 2009-10, then edited and repackaged for your reading enjoyment, Brian has put together a comprehensive chronicle of sin!  With a massive amount of research and based upon Biblical Scripture each chapter reveals the shocking and revolutionary message of our Lord, while describing how each type of sin can destroy your life if left unchecked. It is a must read for-everyone to avoid the penalty of spiritual death.

Now available in the Listening Faithfully Store powered by Amazon.com! Start reading the Sin Series today in under a minute!

God Bless,

Brian Keith
Founder of Listening Faithfully Listening Faithfully: The Sin Series   (NOW ON SALE IN EBOOK, INSTANTLY DOWNLOADABLE FORMAT FOR $9.19)

 

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Reflection 3: What You Can Expect From Life: According to Charity; pt 3

38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” ~ Luke 6:38, NIV  Read in Kindle Cloud Reader For Free!

Back in July, 2011 I wrote about Charity in the Virtues Series of  blog postings, I described it from the point of view typically thought of in the, “final degree”, (if you will), most accepted in our world today. I wrote;

“Charity is more than benevolent giving; rather it is also, limitless, unconditional, it is filled with an open hearted-acceptance, and overwhelming need to do for others, much like God has done for us. Charity in short is loving, kind, and patient. It cannot be expressed out of envy, boastfulness, pride, rudeness, and it is never self-serving. Charity works outside of the spectrum of anger, of keeping records of wrong doings, as it is more powerful when applied through understanding and sympathy toward our fellow men and women who have less than we do. But the real miracle behind charity is found in the ideal giving of those who seem to have everything. The best example of this is a rich man who has everything but piece of mind, who constantly seeks for solace for actions done in order to become rich; to remain rich, and /or in some other matter not related to finances but of relationships, ect. The act of forgiving this person or the offering of kind words which completely changes their way of thinking and or believing for the better can be charity as it lifts them from the bondage of guilt. I offer this example because I have known rich people that on the outside they seem happy, but on the inside they are dying, unfulfilled, left wanting for the words and the love of God.  Mind you this doesn’t have to be a rich person either; anyone could find themselves seeking God in this manner” (Keith, Brian, 2011, Virtues of Charity.)

In the 2011 post I was more concerned in expressing the virtuous act of charity, or the end result. But today I want to focus on the process we all must undertake to become charitable as it relates to the, “first degree”, (so-to-speak), and thus what we can expect from life in accordance to undergoing the path to charity.

Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke 6:38 is talking about how God measures our charity, for the word, “measure” is repeated three times, (which is of holy significance), which is a pattern constantly repeated throughout the Old Testament in accordance to the Hebrews in measuring all kinds of things including actual measurements of distance, sacrificial responsibilities within months and years. God applied such a holy significance on the number three that to truly understand the many layers and levels Jesus was applying to his words one would have to have been intimately familiar with old testament teachings and the belief system of the Hebrews that had later became the Jewish standard that Jesus was dealing with when he used the word “measure”. To help in understanding the symbolic nature of the usage of the number three a study was conducted by  Richard D. Patterson, titled; “The Use Of Three In The Bible”.  Thus, when Jesus used the word,”measure” three times then he was eluding to this deeper understanding of the process one must undergo when deciding or contemplating how to react to the poor, how to give, what the reward will actually be, and how it will be delivered. Jesus is talking about a process of how justice is to be dispensed, how we should perceive our role in this life and what we can expect from God when we give from the right perspective.

So what is the right perspective? Charity again is an unnatural act, the laws of nature are such that only the strong survive, and the weak parish. Thus, the perspective of Jews doctrine and later the philosophy of Christian teaching, most certainly the delivery of Jesus as in how he spoke, the words he used, the manner he carried himself, to the miracles he performed, and then the brutal way he was killed by the Romans are in its totality contradictory to the laws of natures. His death then must have re-enforced the laws of nature in that the weak die under the foot of the mighty; but the message he gave again in contrast was also not natural, it was a hard message to grasp because it forces us to feel a plethora of emotions that make us uncomfortable with our selves, with world, with our relationships, with our careers, and with God. But it is through the pain of change do we begin to contemplate a different path, one absent of brutality, one more forgiving and tolerant, one more kind and filled with the of love of God.

1 “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.” Psalm 41:1-2, NIV Read in Kindle Cloud Reader For Free!

Notice the act of Charity first must come from a place of pain, which then begins to change us, and within that change transforms our perception of the world we live in. All this is sparked from an action that forces us to think, to consider, to contemplate a different reality than what nature has thus far provided. In this alternate reality then, Jesus proposes for us to walk in his likeness. God Himself commanded us to treat each other in a more peaceable manner. Indeed the process God has placed humanity is a three step process which is derived of love, resulting in charity. Think about how different the world would be if we did not harbor ill will for our enemies, how different would life be if everyone was charitable to each other, freely giving to each other what we need, helping those who have less than. For in contemplating that reality today was met by the same resistance with equal force of the message Jesus taught two thousand years ago. As race, we are collectively being taught that nature does not have to be as harsh as we first perceived it to be. We can be kind, loving, and charitable with one another just as Jesus had first commanded. In retrospect its just one more step to being molded into a better version of ourselves, one closer to God, closer to righteousness. We are truly blessed in our contemplation about how to best respond to the poor. The Lord does deliver those who first have the spark of charity in their heart.

I had told one of my students many years ago in response to a question about why we need to give to those “strangers” on the street begging for food, “that to see and do nothing is just as wrong as doing something for the wrong reasons. We are convicted with the same measure we judge others with. We will receive in the same measure we give.”  In that through the process of thinking, we place ourselves in the other persons shoes, we begin to think and to feel what it is like to go without, the pain of not having, and thus through that process do we come to the realization of what the right course of action should  undoubtedly be. Because if we submit ourselves to the out dated laws of nature, that “stranger” would be stamped out without remorse, without any thought, and the human being that his soul represents would be smitted for all time. So yes, the Lord does preserve him, and keep him alive through the charity of others who can sympathize and rationalize the harshness of his reality.

With all this said, the process of thinking and being moved into an uncomfortable place has also moved mankind in some regard farther away from God, as our belief systems are impacted by our modern culture and our modern thought. We have changed and replaced words in scripture to make us feel better about what we do not want to do, what is required of us in order to recognize the truth of scripture. We have in some instances softened the message of Jesus because it brings to bare that hard to grip idea of how to become more like Him, again what is required, (i.e. sacrifice),  by all of us in the act of being charitable,  an example of this is found in the following two versions of the same text;

17 “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” ~ Proverbs 19:17, KJV   Read in Kindle Cloud Reader For Free!

17 “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.” ~ Proverbs 19:17, NIV   Read in Kindle Cloud Reader For Free!

Over time the way we think about scripture reveals how we as a people have changed in our relationship with God. We tend to stop fearing God and this leads us to change harsher words found in scripture with ones less harsh, less intrusive, less invasive, less critical, less judging, and less demanding stripping away all since of obligation to our fellow man as depicted here with the usurping of the word “pity” with “kind”. I argue we must feel “pity” for those in our lives closed to charity, for those who are poorer, we must feel this emotion of “pity” first before our contemplations of what to do about this obvious need that surounds us daily can fully manifest itself into our hearts and minds, before we can truly be “kind”. It is Gods way of molding us into a better person, moving us into action in ways we never thought possible. It is His action of inducing discomfort that shapes our sensibilities and gives us a new path with new values that allow us to be charitable, because in stark reflection of mankind we are not naturally charitable nor naturally kind. It is this which separates us from all other creatures in creation, it is this ability that makes us redeemable before God, and thus led God to send his only son in the greatest act of charity known to all creation. So it is those harsher perspectives of ages past that is closer to the real message of God, it is the meaning behind the word “pity” that tells a different story about what is required to become charitable, and the action as depicted in the word “kind” that is a completely different path from hence we have started and which leads to a different conclusion within our hearts and minds. Therefore, we must first feel the emotion of pity before we can allow ourselves to mature enough in the spirit to take action and to be kind, and through that process we are in the spirit and truly being blessed because we have acted upon a volume of preset emotional triggers God had put into place that moved and molded us into the act of charity. Thus, both versions of Proverbs are necessary to understand within the right context as it relates to the true definition of charity and the process we must first go through.

13 “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” ~ Luke 14:13-14, NIV   Read in Kindle Cloud Reader For Free!

Charity in its totality is an extreme form of humanism, it is a campaign against greed. But, to those who have plenty it is an even harder concept to master as who do you know that in throwing a banquet purposefully finds poor people, destitute people, homeless people, in order to share this feast? How many of them if they did so, would feel good about a “strangers” roaming their house and mingling with their guests? How many rich people do you know have invited you regular person, poor in comparison to them to their banquet? My favorite one-liner to people who would say in response to these questions, “But that just is not expected from us!”, is, “Isn’t that what Jesus did?” Then I hit them with, “Who did Jesus hang out with?”

See our Lord meant every word he uttered. I like to believe that he underwent a long dress rehearsal before being born to Mary and Joseph. I think Jesus knew instinctively what to say and how to say that would make people resist His radical concepts. For Jesus not just preached His message He lived His message. Thus, because we are also called to live in like manner to Jesus as humanely possible  I would love to see our President hold a huge dinner with an un-godly amount of food, then fly people from all over the United Stats, and Africa, Asia, and Mexico to take part in this feast. Because that is what Jesus would do. I say that because we are the wealthiest nation with the most plentiful of resources and yet we have such poverty, some of us live in the most impoverished of situations. Likewise, no matter how bad off some of us Americans have it there are people from all over the world who have it ten times more harsh, more impoverished. I say to you, that would be a righteous response, that would be an awesome act of charitable giving ever on behalf of our richest sector of our population. But in saying this, how many of those in our upper class would be tempted to charge these poor people something for attending? Again this reimbursement mentality is not just in our upper class but permeates throughout all classes of our society, it reaches down and destroys family, forcing many of us parents into poverty even though we work. We are being forced into slavery by paying double what any other person would only be required to pay once. Indeed our nation is sick, as is most of the worlds population, and it is that reality many people do not want to hear. So they change the wording of scripture, distance themselves from God, so there isn’t this big perception of obligation, and so we can live comfortable lives being charitable on our own terms, not on Gods terms.  To this I can only say, How much more blessed would we all be if we just gave into to Christ, Jesus, and submitted to His perfect ideal of charity.

33 “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” ~ Luke 12:33, NIV   Read in Kindle Cloud Reader For Free!

The concept of selling everything was also a teaching that the people of Jesus’s time just completely resisted. In that time as like to this time people were and are very materialistic judging wealth by what you own, not by how much you have given to others. Think about the standard we for thousands of years have lived by, accumulate stuff, call it yours, show it off, brag about what you have taken from others, and then at your death your family becomes vultures and pick your estate apart as if you had never lived. No put that into contrast to what Jesus required, sell your possess, create treasures in heaven that cannot be stolen or that does not rust. Give to the poor in this life so your next life will be bless with a permanent  abundance. The obvious problem is greed, we are as we were a “Now Society” we are a “ME” orientated race, thick headed people. Personally I don’t want the unhappiness of being extremely wealthy, but I do want to have enough to share with all those I love and those who need me to share with them. I would like to build a permeant source of income that could be used to help millions rather than one or two lucky enough to be int he right place at the right time. That too isn’t how God works. In general societies work best when everyone shares resources, no one is above the law, no one has more or less than the other. The closer to that ideal we can get the better we all will be.

21 “It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor, but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.” ~ Proverbs 14:21, NIV   Read in Kindle Cloud Reader For Free!

Again we see this hard to grasp ideology of living without greed. Charity by its very nature is the exact opposite of greed, and thus the more greedy you are the less likely you are to be able to accept the whole notion of being charitable, and when the opportunities in life arise where by God is testing you to be charitable then the less like you are to passing this test. Sadly I have seen many people fail this test of Gods, and it had nothing to do with money, or possessions, but everything to do with attitude and disposition. I have bared witness to people that I deeply loved fall into this mindset of oneness, singular thinking which dictates there can only be one path, one person, one important set of philosophy and belief.  Normally these people fall into depression because they locked out hope, love, caring, compassion, forgiveness, and year they by nature are not charitable even when it would be within their best interest, they cling to a desperate ideology of greed, mired in full blown selfishness.

9 “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor.” ~ Psalm 112:9, NIV

Again the exact opposite of greed is charity. In this life you can expect to be given many chances to be charitable, you will confronted by hundreds if not thousands of people asking you, pulling at you, begging you to show them charity, but in faith know that God is the judge of all you do and he alone knows your heart. He alone knows if you truly where contemplating or not about an act of charity. God alone knows your mind and in some regards is rooting for you, encouraging you to scatter gifts in every direction, giving to the poor, not just in your monetary wealth but also in your time, in your heart. True charity is born from that uncomfortable feeling of pity, then guilt, which moves you to contemplation and action.

13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:13, NIV   Read in Kindle Cloud Reader For Free!

Faith in God is equal to your heart trusting in His path, accepting His ideal which is uncomfortable in many terms, but this faith you build within God gives you hope, and in turn this hope builds up in you a love of charity. A deep longing to always be a helper to others as God is a helper unto you.

Amen

If you liked this Reflection on CHARITY please leave a comment. Also please LIKE and SHARE this post with others.

Brian Keith

Your invited to stay in contact with me!

EMAIL: listeningfaithfullyblog@gmail.com

Facebook 

HELP SUPPORT LISTENING FAITHFULLY BLOG BY MAKING ALL YOUR ONLINE PURCHASES THROUGH OUR WEB STORE!  CLICK HERE.  As a special token of appreciation please accept a free downloadable gift from me to you: FREE BIBLE

While  at our Online store powered by AMAZN.com please consider being one the 20 special supporters of Listening Faithfully and purchase a Kindle Fire today. One Kindle Fire supports one child for this Summers Technology Team Course at Ascension Catholic School.  Become a supporter of inner city literacy today!

If your into marketing like I am then you need to generate leads period. So for visiting Listening Faithfully please click the following link and get your very own FREE LEADS GENERATING SYSTEM FOR FREE   – FOREVER TODAY! Click Here to claim your free FREE LEADS GENERATING SYSTEM! 

God Bless,

Brian Keith

________________________________________________________________________________

ANNOUNCES TO THE COMMUNITY OF FOLLOWER, FRIENDS, AND SUBSCRIBERS;

In the spirit of charity and from the necessity to provide  for all of Gods children, together in this mission,  Listening Faithfully has teamed up with a wonderful charitable organization in East Texas whose name reflects their good works, “God’s Hand Ups” and their work  is accomplished by a Godly motivation to help every children throughout their community. I am honored to have them as good friends in the Lord.  I can testify before you all today, that my good friend who is a founding member of this charitable group  has truly been tested in the manner described here in this blog posting and who has consistently passed this test of giving and working for the benefit of all in her community. I introduce you all to Tonia Allen, who currently has a wonderful new campaign in raising money for children in need. Please visit her donation site:  “GOD’S HAND UPS NOT HAND OUTS ”  and please be very charitable.

Someone once told me that compassion was not simple. They believed compassion was huge. Compassion is SO simple as it is an act of kindness from one to another. It is only huge when it becomes over thought. God’s Hand Ups was founded by the vision of a 17 year old junior in high school who believed the world could be saved–“one person at a time.” ~ Tonia Allen, Gods Hands Up, 2013. 

280103_1359355052.6129_________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________

ANNOUNCING LISTENING FAITHFULLY ORIGINAL BOOKS!

Author Brian Keith, writer and publisher of Listening Faithfully Blog offers to you his first e-book: 

Listening Faithfully: The Sin Series  (Nov 28, 2012)

Taken from the most successful and popular series of postings on Listening Faithfully Blog in 2009-10, then edited and repackaged for your reading enjoyment, Brian has put together a comprehensive chronicle of sin!  With a massive amount of research and based upon Biblical Scripture each chapter reveals the shocking and revolutionary message of our Lord, while describing how each type of sin can destroy your life if left unchecked. It is a must read for-everyone to avoid the penalty of spiritual death.  

Now available in the Listening Faithfully Store powered by Amazon.com! Start reading the Sin Series today in under a minute!

God Bless,

Brian Keith
Founder of Listening Faithfully

Listening Faithfully: The Sin Series   (NOW ON SALE IN EBOOK, INSTANTLY DOWNLOADABLE FORMAT FOR $9.19)

 

Reflection 2: What You Can Expect From Life: According to Belief; pt 2

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” ~ John 3:16

It is a hard concept for some to come to grips with the idea of “GOD”. The idea of a singular “GOD” that is so powerful, so perfect that He would even want to count us as His children. It makes no sense logically speaking that the “GOD” of the Bible would hang in there and forgive each and every collective sin, striking covenant after covenant, until finally having to hand over His only son. It is a very hard concept to believe in because we would not have treated ourselves with such grace, so why would “GOD” love us so much? I think a bigger question is why would God continue to love us after the sacrifice of His Son and seeing the brutality of it, a death befitting a common criminal. “GOD” is such a hard concept to believe in that some refer to Him as a fantasy no different than all the sci-fi shows and fantasy novels that fill the movie-houses and books-shelves of popular culture of today. In this light “GOD” is regarded as nothing more than a story to explain our beginnings  no more important than filler until we arrive at some sort of scientific imperial truth. The argument these people use is based upon the lack of  change in the human story over the past two thousand years, the lack of evidence that proves Jesus was really a person, the lack of evidence that surrounds other Bible tales like the events chronicled in Genesis,Exodus, Job, Isaiah, Daniel, Jonah, and a host of other Old Testament stories that didn’t make it into the Bible. These arguments however do not stop at the Old Testament, but continue throughout the remainder of the Holy Bible as our one “GOD” seems to have undergone a metamorphosis from start to finish. The biggest argument I have personally heard is if our sin debt is paid in full why then are we still so completely filled with sin and destruction on every level of being? With these ideas permeating throughout our world it is not surprising there are some who do not believe or even entertain God or the Bible, but I ask all who do not believe; “At what cost will this lack of faith and belief in God cost you in the end?”

This question as a youth is what drove me to first research God, to study God, to understand the cost of disbelief. In part the very idea of “GOD” and His perfect love is what gave me my center balance and my ability to live through unforgiving situations, it is this belief centered life I was given by our singular God that constantly reaffirms my belief in Him daily and every-time I actively seek him out. In retrospect, I was more afraid of missing out on the greatest, most powerful, spiritual, loving being known to mankind as; “GOD”, that I put away all notions of a Godless Universe, because after all who made everything I see, feel, touch, experience, love, and who is it that feeds me when I am hungry, forgives me when I have sinned. The hole I had in my soul was so vast and empty it drove me to my current conceptualized belief  I hold today. It was through many hours in deep contemplation, research,reflections, conversations, and life experience which brought me to understand the God of our Bible, of our world, and of our universe. With all these collective influences I came to the point of simply handing over all control of my life  to God, doing His will, allowing Him to mold me into a more perfect person, the person He wants me to be. I was filled and still am with His Holy Spirit, I feel His  forgiveness, His love, His mercy, I see His miracles in my life, and I know without a doubt He will always be there no matter what, even after my mortal death. In short I was more afraid of not being forgiven for my sins and transgressions and having to live with them for an eternity absent of God. So I find it next to impossible to teach others about the Bible, and the power of belief without referring to my own past infantile thinking about religion and of humanistic spirituality. Therefore, in no short order this post will delve into a very grey area for most of you, and all I ask is that you read and confirm what I have written here in order that it build your fabric of belief so as to fill all the gabs and holes, to make you stronger in your faith, to bring you closer to God, and to hopefully steer you away from false doctrine which is so plentiful in our modern world. With that said I will be asking a lot of logical questions that I hope you ask of yourselves in doing your research into the Bible, questions that will if applied guide you and help you conduct the best possible research on the subject matter of God and in your growing belief in Him.

Question 1: Concerning Everlasting Life; “According to John is it here or in Heaven we will live forever?”

Because the spirit of God is so vast anything is possible. But the idea of living forever has been with mankind from the start, the wanting to live forever has been the catalyst that is found behind many great fantasy stories in our popular culture. The requirements found in the Bible are somewhat different than what is found in many non-fiction stories that have been told for centuries, interestingly the bond in all stories dealing with immortality include obtaining to some-degree a potion, spell, or magic that can transform a mortal body into a non-mortal body. The best evidence in this cultural idea is found in John 20:15-17; and again later in John 20:28-29 which reads;

Events After Jesus’s Resurrection:

15 “Jesus said to her, ‘Women, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, ‘Sir, if You have carried Him away , tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to Him, ‘Rabboni!’ (which is to say, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” ~John 20:15-17 

In this passage we, the reader, are to believe that Jesus arose three days after His death and talked with Mary. He was unrecognizable to her, which in and of itself is a stretch of what writers and story tellers call the, “Suspension of Dis-Belief”. This then is made the focus when Jesus call’s out to Mary and then she saw Him for who He really was. This event in faith is one of the most powerful indicators that something out of the norm happened to the mortal body of Jesus, and that something was so unexpected that Mary had not conceived of looking and finding anything other than a dead Jesus, not a living one. Even though He told all His disciples of what would happen three days after His own death.

Question 2: “Why then were they not looking for a living Jesus?”

The crushing reality for those who witnessed the brutality of the Romans in their onslaught against Jesus and then to see His mortal suffering and death drove into their minds that no one could have survived the punishment Jesus had suffered. This fact also leeds us to believe in the notion Jesus really died on the cross just as it had been told. The scene was so gruesome and Jesus’s body so mangled that there would have been no possible chance for resurrection. The feelings of  hopelessness, grief, guilt, and fear was so well chronicled that even if Jesus’s followers had believed they still would have been taken by surprise, and as the Bible tells us the disciples did not believe in Mary’s words, in fact they where cruel to her in their response. This then brings in to question Mary’s state-of-mind when the tomb was empty, in that her grief overshadowed her faith and made her cry real genuine tears. This part of the story is believable to anyone who has lost a loved one. This is a human response, one filled with love, and panic as she inquired to the whereabouts of the body of Jesus, not recognizing Him for who He really was, again ignoring the obvious out of grief. We can extrapolate from this text that Jesus died, and arose in a transformed body, a spiritual one, an immortal one, not unlike the body He presented to three of His disciples, Peters, James, and John during the transfiguration of  Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8Mark 9:28-36 and ten again refereed to in 2Peter 1: 16-18. Going back to mans longing to be immortal the Bible is a clear foundation for later stories we have build up over time. Each fantasy being larger and more fanciful than the one before it. We have more details to non-fiction characters like Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The world of J.R.R. Tolkien, and The tales of Narnia than we do for the resurrection of Christ. The Bible goes into no detail to how Jesus defeated death, rather it plainly states that He did defeat death just as He said that He would. In fact much of the story had already been written thousands of years before Christ such is found in,  Psalm 2:7,Psalm 16:9-11Psalm 22:14-25Psalm 30:29Psalm 40:13Psalm 110:1Psalm 118:21-24Isaiah 53:9-12Hosea 5:156:3, and Zechariah 12:10,and so on.  This drives scientists crazy, and with them all others who are lacking in faith. Because the Bible tells us nothing of the, “How Factor”, of Christ’s resurrection and because of this missing peace of the puzzle there have been countless hours spent looking at physical evidence such as the Shroud of Turin, and other important artifacts from that time period. But because our God is so mighty in knowledge and perfect in His execution Jesus gave us something even more powerful than proof, He even said it aloud to Thomas;

27 “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach you hand here, and put in into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and My God!’ 29 Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” ~ John 20:28-29

The act of believing transcends factual evidence, as proven by non-fiction stories that after a time people begin to believe in them. What is interesting in this human behavior is we have the power to believe in events that have happened but are so unexplainable and unbelievable to others that some how we are forced to make a leap of faith. But Jesus gave us the power to believe without seeing, because His life was prophesied about, then in The Acts of the Apostles his story was spread and eventually replaced the many Gods of Rome. We know this to be true because of many writings found in Acts such as,  Acts 2:22-363:13-184:10-12335:29-3210:37-4313:27-3717:2330-3223:624:14-1625:1926:68; etc. Again the Influence of Christ was written about in other books of the Bible such as, Romans 1:3-46:391 Corinthians 15:1-582 Corinthians 4:10-14Galatians 2:20Ephesians 1:19-23;Philippians 2:5-11Colossians 2:121 Thessalonians 1:104:141 Timothy 3:162 Timothy 2:8-11Hebrews 13:20; and 1 Peter 1:21; etc.

In truth this is the true story behind the non-believing, unrepentant, and lost Christian who struggles in their faith, that is the real story, the human story behind the Bible tales of Moses, and King David, and plethora of others who struggled in their belief. But, at some point they and we had to stop questioning and simply believe in a world where mortal and immortal collide. Our hearts long for it, we chase after it, and to some extent we fight against the power of belief. Mary did when looking for a dead Jesus, the disciples did in not believing her, Thomas when they all told Him of the resurrected Christ, Paul did in His persecution of Christians, and we all do before we meet Jesus face to face in our hearts. We may have based our fanciful stories of immortal beings from Greek authors, but the Bible stories share their truth in their telling from an spectacular reality; from an unknown, “How Factor”,  of man, to the immortality of God. We gain our immortality through the belief in Him, and thus to answer question 1 we will live and reign forever with Christ in Heaven. We will be with Him wherever He is as God created us all in His image and will recreate us in His resurrected likeness. Unlike many fantasy stories that have no shred of proof, there is proof to Jesus. His immortality was not achieved by some elaborate mystical spell that no one could repeat, but rather in the belief in God, though His perfect love, through the belief in the Holy Spirit, and in the belief in His mission to save mankind; all of which give us the promise and power to believe that there is nothing God cannot do. Likewise, our immortality is secured by our faith and belief in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, as we too live, die, and will live forever in His glory.

10 “They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’” ~ Acts 1:10-11

Truth in the power of belief is all we have in this world, the feeling deep in out heart is all we have to know that God is with us. It in reality is the tuning into the heart, into morality, to hold the covenant with Jesus Christ as the most important aspect of ones life. The Holy Bible offers us a wonderful chance to look into the world of belief from Gods point of view, from Jesus’s point of view, from all the Saints and Prophets vantage point. We are all called to believe without seeing, and to ask for forgiveness through Jesus Christ who has paid our sin debt in full, for Hell itself has been over thrown by Jesus for you and me and everyone living and dead. To some regard I look at my life since understanding these most basic tenants of belief and can truly see all the small miracles in my life God has placed there. My life is no longer aimless, and without direction, rather I can see clearly the path He wishes for me to travel. It is this assurance I offer to you now by reviewing the “human” Jesus, the “scared” Mary, the “vulnerable” disciples, for it is this aspect of our belief that is the corner stone to Jesus transcending from mortal to God through His resurrection. A tantalizing peace of the puzzle is simply over looked in telling this story, Jesus was the only one of His age that could bring people back from the dead, they were not in their spiritual bodies, but still fully flesh and blood. When Jesus died their was no one to bring Him back, but yet His arose. The Disciples could not have this because they where hiding, and the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them, so this “How Factor” rests with God. The tomb was filled with Angels, indeed it was the Angels that rolled back the heavy stone to His tomb. The Bible describes the Roman guards that were placed there by the Pharisees  bore witness to these events. The proof we all seek is in the scripture, but the power of belief is in your heart.

43 “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever in Him shall receive remission of sins.” ~ Acts 10:43

Challenge Question: If we use this power of believe in every aspect of our lives, how would it impact our thinking, feeling, and emotions selves, would our lives be better or worse for having done so? 

Amen

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Brian Keith

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Brian Keith

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 

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