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Embrace the Within

Focusing inward to create the abundant life God wants.

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  • Nov 20, 2023
  • 3 min read

“For you fashioned my inmost being, 

you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

I thank you because I am awesomely made, wonderfully; 

your works are wonders — I know this very well” (Tehillim (Psa) 139:13-14).

You are awesomely made. You are wonderfully made. Too often we like to take on the negativity of the world around us. We like to think we are a failure. We like to think we are unloveable. We like to think that we are beyond hope. And that simply is just not true. Too often a Christian mindset can take on the idea that we are unworthy of God’s love. BUT He made us awesomely and wonderfully to be with Him. That was the way things started in the beginning, “So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. God blessed them: God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.’ Then God said, ‘Here! Throughout the whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit. And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as food every kind of green plant.’ And that is how it was. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day” (B'resheet (Gen) 1:27-31). You are good because that was how He made you.

Seeing ourselves as something else is the deception of sin. God created us in His image to do His work. He made us to be stewards of His creation. And when we fall out of alignment with His love, that is when the seeds of doubt and unworthiness start to bloom. Sin is a poison that separates us from Him. Sin takes so many different forms BUT sin is not loving God. And the best way we can love God is to fulfill the purpose He has created us to fulfill, “‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ This is the greatest and most important mitzvah . And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’ All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot” (Mattityahu (Mat) 22:37-40). Loving God and loving your neighbor begin with loving yourself. When we love our neighbor as much as ourself, we are showing God love. We are aligning ourselves with the purpose for which we were created. The world is a beautiful place created by God. The world is a good place that is out of alignment. Getting ourselves aligned with our purpose helps us better see the beauty and goodness in both ourselves and in the world. God does not make mistakes. God has a purpose. God is greater than sin.

Serve His Kingdom by serving one another in love.

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

  • Nov 14, 2023
  • 3 min read

“For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love. For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’; but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other! What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism” (Galatians (Gal) 5:13-18). Run your lives by the Spirit. Sounds so simple yet it proves daily to not be so. As a Christian, I supposedly have the Spirit dwelling inside of me. So, it should be really easy to let the Spirit direct and guide me. Sounds really easy BUT how many times do I daily hear the Spirit and ignore it? How many times do I daily fight with the Spirit when it leads me to act? 

A lot of folks have an easy and comfortable walk with the Lord. I don’t. I am stubborn and intelligent and want my own way based on just wanting my way. Sometimes being stubborn is in direct opposition to what I know works. I have often seen that I don’t know what I am doing, yet I still choose to do things that bring death into the world. Jesus first warns in the Sermon on the Mount against speaking death when He says, “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Do not murder,’ and that anyone who commits murder will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who nurses anger against his brother will be subject to judgment; that whoever calls his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing!’ will be brought before the Sanhedrin ; that whoever says, ‘Fool!’ incurs the penalty of burning in the fire of Gei-Hinnom’”(Mattityahu (Mat) 5:21-22)! I have the ability to murder with my tongue, with my actions, and with my thoughts every day. BUT I also have the choice to speak life, act life, and think life through the Spirit, “The activity of the righteous is for life; the income of the wicked is for sin” (Mishlei (Pro) 10:16).

So what is going to win today? Am I going to let the fleshly desires of being stubborn and knowing better for myself win out when I already know that I don’t know better and that I should listen to Him? Or am I going to let the Spirit direct my heart, my tongue, my feet, and my mind? And am I going to refocus on Him as I walk throughout the day? Too often devotions are once a day and that is all. Too often we pray once a day and we are done. One prayer covers the day, the week, the month, or the year. That is a horrible relationship model. If I really need God as much as I profess then I need to be talking to Him a lot more than I am. And I talk to Him a lot. BUT it is never enough if I want to know Him better.

Serve His Kingdom by serving one another in love.

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

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