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Embrace the Within

Focusing inward to create the abundant life God wants.

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  • Sep 28, 2022
  • 3 min read

"The more the soul is conformable to Christ, the more confident it will be of its interest in Christ."

  • Thomas Brooks

Not only am I a hypocrite which is nothing to own in today’s society. I am a few other things that are usually misunderstood in today’s society. The two main misunderstandings I face in my life are the facts that I am a Christian and I am an anarchist. The secular hypocrisy that exists in being a Christian was the focus of my writing yesterday. I gave up the old way of doing things with myself as the center of attention. I gave up focusing on putting self first and put YHWH first in my life through the sacrifice of His son. Anarchism is equally misunderstood today. And the two paths are integral to my daily journey.

Without anarchism and voluntaryism, I don’t know if I would be a Christian today. The path of physical and mental health and liberty were very important to starting my path to Christ. A lot of folks find Christ first and then change their lives. I was well into changing my life when I rediscovered the importance of spiritual health and became truly Christian. I was raised in a Christian house and raised in a Christian church BUT I don’t really know if what I was doing within that family and within that church was really Christian. I was surrounded by all the right influences and all the right teaching BUT I never really internalized the message. I could put on the outward appearance of doing Christian things BUT the motivation wasn’t internal. The motivation for me was always external back then.

And I think that external motivation can be enough for a lot of people. That external motivation can keep a lot of people from sin. And I never want to downplay the importance of external motivation to changing people BUT, personally, I wasn’t going to be happy with a life run by external motivations.

I ran my life for decades on external motivations. And then things started to change and the questions led to more complex questions and the answers the world was providing failed to pass the sniff test. And then the road to liberty started for me about a decade ago. Through that journey of questioning and unlearning and more questioning, I started to discover that I was going to have to make some tough choices about personal responsibility and self ownership. So, I had to start taking those things seriously and nothing sped up that process like March 2020.

Now I am internally motivated not for my self BUT for a better relationship with YHWH. I have to take personal responsibility for my relationship with Him. I can’t outsource my freedom and I definitely can’t outsource my faith. I have to take self ownership in the choices that I need to make in order to have a right relationship with YHWH. And that means the self ownership to understand that I give up my own ownership of my self to Him. Because everything I have, everything I am, and everything that will ever be in my life is because of Him. And being a Christian and an anarchist motivated through personally wanting to be free in Christ is my full time commitment. It takes a change in routine, a change in thought, a change in practice that is going to get weird looks from the world and confusion about what all these things mean. BUT it also leads to some really wonderful conversations with folks you have known for decades and folks you only just met.

So, embrace the labels the world wants to place on you. Own them and let them empower your walk rather than see them as an obstacle. The world talks about each other just as much as they talk about us. Let them. You get to make the better choices. You get to make the right choices because YHWH leads the way. Own your choices and own your life. Not my way BUT YHWH.

Peace to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

  • Sep 27, 2022
  • 3 min read

“One great concern I have is that many of today’s Christians are not taking the Word of God seriously. For whatever reason, the Scriptures do not have authority in the Christian’s life in the way that is necessary for him or her to live a life to the glory of God."

-A.W. Tozer

"If we are going to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must start by taking the Bible seriously."

-A. W. Tozer

I spent a lot of time over the past three decades talking about hypocrisy in those that profess Christianity. I spent those three decades ridiculing folks for their beliefs. I spent a lot of those three decades waiting for someone to step up to get silenced and made to look foolish. And I spent all of that time letting those people actually win.

I let the hypocrites beat me. I let the hypocrites steal my joy. I let the hypocrites get in the way of a relationship with YHWH. I did that.

There are a lot of hypocrites in the world and no less inside of churches. BUT someone else's hypocrisy is not going to obstruct my walk. I am going to strive to not be a hindrance. I am going to strive to help.

And that is what has come as a shock to many folks in my life since my change in heart, mind, and spirit. It is quite confusing to folks that not very long ago I was a sinner mocking the Word and the Truth. It’s not confusing for me. I have seen my journey. I have watched the path that this all took as I walked into getting healthy. I never saw this ahead of me BUT now, looking back, it all makes perfect sense. This is the only way that it could possibly have worked for me.

So, maybe I am the biggest hypocrite of them all since I walked away from a life where I was trying to figure it all out with no success. Maybe I am the biggest hypocrite of them all for turning my back on the world and embracing the love of YHWH through Christ. Maybe I am the biggest hypocrite in the world for walking a path that makes me happy and full of grace. And if I am the biggest hypocrite, then that is a fact I will embrace with all that is within me. I will embrace that description because I know peace through grace.

I never thought I cared what other people thought about my life, my choices, my decisions BUT I probably cared a lot more than I thought. You probably care a lot more than you think as well. BUT, YHWH doesn’t care what people think. He doesn’t have to worry about peer pressure because He has no peers. And walking in alignment with His Truth has led to a smaller group of peers to whom I need concern myself. And if they think I am a hypocrite for my change then that is another story. BUT if the world thinks I am a hypocrite, then that does not concern me any longer. We all have a decision to make about our life and that decision is placed well in the writings of Joshua, “If it is unacceptable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”(Joshua 24:15 AMP).

Peace to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

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