Embrace the Within no. 207

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living; thus anyone who belongs to God may be fully equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy (2 Ti) 3:16-17 CJB). With His Word through His Spirit, we can all fulfill His calling to be ministers for His Kingdom.

As I have continued walking in my journey, I have spent a lot of time in His Word. There is no substitute for personal study of His Word and building a personal relationship with Him through prayer and study. And that was something I didn’t take seriously before the plague. I had a survey style understanding of the Word that was rather shallow and broad. I had enough knowledge to be dangerous to myself and others BUT no application and understanding. BUT it didn’t have to be that way. That was the way I chose for it to be.

When I made the decision to change, He had a plan for that. The Bible is not an instructional manual. So approaching it as a guide from that perspective is not all that helpful. I mean I see folks treating it like a set of rules and taking pieces from here and there and then smashing them together and chucking away the rest. They seem to be doing alright with building a life that way BUT I don’t see it that way.

The Bible is wisdom literature. I need to know what is in the whole thing to understand what God wants. The Tanakh informs the prophets and inspires songs and poems and then is reflected upon in the Good News. A bunch of writers and one author giving a unified vision for understanding God and His plan. And just grabbing a piece in isolation isn’t that.

The scripture is multifaceted in teaching, convicting, correcting, and training through His Spirit. The links between all pieces come together as I read and study further. So, rather than having a shallow and broad understanding of He will take you as deep as you can go.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

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

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

People are not easy to Love no. 14

“But at once Yeshua spoke to them. ‘Courage,’ he said, ‘it is I. Stop being afraid’”(Mattityahu (Mat) 14:27). God did not create us to be afraid. He came to walk with us and redeem us from that fear. People are not easy to love because they are afraid.

The ongoing theme of my walk over the past three years is focused on eliminating fear from my life. Fear is not an easy thing to eliminate because, as creatures that abide among sin and death, fear becomes a natural reaction to sin and death. As I struggled with the fear that was all around in the plague years, I took to journaling the change I was walking and yesterday marked the anniversary of two years of publishing that struggle against fear and into physical, mental, and spiritual health through my blog.

I was tired of being afraid. And that search for a cure led me through dealing with the many problems I had with the answers I had been given. And that led to taking it upon myself to get those problems solved. Which relied on His guidance through His Word. And here I am after three years of working and two years of sharing, a man that has put His faith and trust in Him. A man that has courage because it is Him beside me, Him within me, and Him enthroned. If He is in control of everything, and I mean everything, then why am I afraid?

I was afraid because this world and the forces at play here love for me to focus on sin and death. I started this journey afraid of sin and death. The plague was coming to kill us all. The lockdowns were coming to starve us all. The government was coming to punish us all. The next election was too scary and the stakes were too high. And those were all lies. I was too worried about trying to change other people when I should have been working on changing me. And that is what started three years ago. I let Him change me.

He gave me a path to walk and the knowledge to succeed in that journey. He worked on me physically by getting me in better shape and changing my diet and getting me conditioned to fasting. He worked on me mentally by unplugging me from the influence of fear and sin. He then opened me to spiritually learning about my problems with His Word by reading through it all. Nothing combats fear like getting healthy.

The Bible is chocked full of admonishment against being afraid. Christians should not be afraid. We have the understanding that He is enthroned and He has a plan. Why are you afraid? You are afraid because you are focused on the storms of life that assault your boat with the waves and winds of sin and death. The solution is not to get rid of the waves and winds because sin and death are not going anywhere in this life. What you need is a bigger boat. As your boat of faith becomes bigger, the waves and winds are of less consequence. And the only way to make that boat any bigger is through Him by doing as He commands, “Then to everyone he said, ‘If anyone wants to come after me, let him say ‘No’ to himself, take up his execution-stake daily and keep following me. For whoever tries to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life on my account will save it’” (Luke (Luk) 9:23-24).

Sometimes the waves of sin and death seem like a never ending struggle BUT He has promised that there is a place for us devoid of those fears, “'Don’t let yourselves be disturbed. Trust in God and trust in me” (Yochanan (Jhn) 14:1) because “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Because you have known me, you will also know my Father; from now on, you do know him — in fact, you have seen him” (Yochanan (Jhn) 14:6-7). Sometimes people are not easy to love because they are afraid even though He gives us no reason to fear.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

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

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH