People are Not Easy to Love no. 38

“From that time on, Yeshua began proclaiming, ‘Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near’” (Mattityahu (Mat) 4:17)! Folks always want someone else to change. They may need their neighbor to change or a stranger to change. BUT there is always someone else’s ideas or actions that need to change for folks to get the world they want. And that is the way my life was going for a long time. I had the solution and everyone else needed to figure it all out. That is no way to live and not very Christian. Living a life where everyone else needs to constantly change for you to have the kind of life you want to live, being a victim of the world around you at all times, is not a good idea.

Some folks even want to change God. A lot of biblical stories are all about folks wanting God to change. A lot of our prayers are even asking for God to change. Folks are living a life where they are the victim of God.

Even before I started walking this path with Christ, I could see the truth in biblical teachings. We don’t hurt people. We don’t take their things. We should be charitable. We should love our neighbor. We should help our community. We should help the victimized. We didn’t need any government to do these things. In Galatians Paul lists the gifts of the spirit and how we should act as Christians, “But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (5:22-23 AMP). These are outward signs that we are doing and living the way that God intended.

Have you noticed that it is alright to assault the beliefs of Christians? It even seems like a game any more for folks. That is because Christians can have their beliefs assaulted. We can stand the attack because we have the Truth and the Word to support our lives. We have the ability to either live the fruits or discard the fruits. We can live an example that shows that we are Christ’s or we can choose to falter and fall. We can be a beacon to the broken and the depressed and the lost and the hurting and the folks that are looking for help. Or we can be the stereotypical holier than thou church goer. We get to choose how we act and not how others act. We get to choose change.

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

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

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

Embrace the Within no. 218

“After proclaiming the Good News in that city and making many people into talmidim , they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the talmidim , encouraging them to remain true to the faith, and reminding them that it is through many hardships that we must enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts of Emissaries of Yeshua (Act) 14:21-22). Strength, encouragement, truth, and faith despite hardships are essential in Kingdom work.

I haven’t sat down and written in a few days. Some of that is circumstance in being out of town with unreliable internet service BUT most is my fault that it has been nearly a week without writing. It was nice to sit down and see this scripture from Acts looking at me today because it is a reminder of the strength, encouragement, truth, and faith I need in my journey. There will be hardships and temptations and snares and traps and struggles BUT through Jesus I can find His strength. As we walk together as His Church, we encourage each other with His Truth. My faith will grow as I rely on His strength in fellowship and communion with Him and His Church. These are my steps for aligning myself with His Way and His Kingdom.

“For he will conceal me in his shelter

on the day of trouble,

he will hide me in the folds of his tent,

he will set me high on a rock.

Then my head will be lifted up

above my surrounding foes,

and I will offer in his tent

sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing, sing praises to Adonai.

Listen, Adonai, to my voice when I cry;

show favor to me; and answer me.

‘My heart said of you, ‘Seek my face.’’

Your face, Adonai, I will seek.

Do not hide your face from me,

don’t turn your servant away in anger.

You are my help; don’t abandon me;

don’t leave me, God my savior” (Tehillim (Psa) 27:5-9).

I have been waiting on Him. I am not quite certain if there is another way He wants me to walk BUT I know I am waiting and listening to hear what He has to say. He has led me this far in this journey and I have nowhere else to go except where He leads. So, I am going to patiently seek “His face” as the days and weeks continue. I know that He will provide the path and will lead me where I need to go. BUT I need to wait on His time while working on what He has for me today.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

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

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH