As humans, we are, by nature, a negative people. We always latch on to the
most negative thing first instead of the positive things. We concentrate on the
bad things of the world. When we wake up in the morning, the majority of humans
think first about all the bad things that could and will happen during that
day. And during the day, we fly towards evil and negative things instead of the
positive things in this world. See? A negative people.
Jesus, on the other hand, is the world's biggest optimist. He delights in
the truth and always does what is right. He and his angels have a party with
every soul saved and he always holds out hope for even the most difficult
human. You can be the most bull-headed mule but he won't give up on you.
And when he does write your name in the book of life, it is time for things
to start changing. As I said before, we fly to the negative things of the
world, but with Jesus living in us, now we need to start heading for the right
things in the world.
On our own strength, such a feat is impossible but with Jesus' help, all
things are possible. We can do all things with Jesus' help and right now we
should be trying to head to the positive things. Jesus enables us to do it.
But just because Jesus’ enables us to do it doesn't immediately make it easy
to do. It is still hard to do the right thing and we still have the choice to
pick the wrong thing. Just because Jesus lives in you doesn't mean that you
have lost your choice, but with Jesus in your life, you want to choose the
right thing.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
biting the hand that feeds you
Have you ever hand an animal, that while you were feeding it, munched on
your fingers? It was completely accidental, sometimes, but other times it is on
purpose. We have the same problem as humans, but instead of having an animal
bite us, it is sin.
We are sinful beings. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden we have been sinful by nature. And we feed that sin. It follows us around like a new puppy and we drop treats for our puppy by giving in to it. We give into sin and we feed it, and in the end, our little puppy is no longer a puppy.
Now our puppy is a rabid dog and it is coming back to eat us. We play with it and now it is coming to get us. It is our fault that we fed it. We let it grow and we nurtured it, but as humans, we like to pass the blame.
We pass it off to anyone, but most of the time it ends up on God. He didn't do it, but we don't like to take responsibility for our actions so we pass the blame along. So God gets blamed and even though He got rid of sin by sending Jesus to die on the cross for us, we kind of negate that fact and blame him anyway.
So, now we have sin, which we fed and is now out to get us, and we have God, who gave his son for us to get rid of sin. And what do we chose? Mostly, we choose sin.
Sin is biting the hand that feeds us but we still continue on feeding and getting bitten. God will heal and help us but we just pile on the blame. There is something not right about this picture. We get sick on purpose and then refuse the antidote.
God wants to help us but first we have to let Him. We have to stop letting sin bite us and get God to help our hands. After being bitten so much, they need it.
We are sinful beings. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden we have been sinful by nature. And we feed that sin. It follows us around like a new puppy and we drop treats for our puppy by giving in to it. We give into sin and we feed it, and in the end, our little puppy is no longer a puppy.
Now our puppy is a rabid dog and it is coming back to eat us. We play with it and now it is coming to get us. It is our fault that we fed it. We let it grow and we nurtured it, but as humans, we like to pass the blame.
We pass it off to anyone, but most of the time it ends up on God. He didn't do it, but we don't like to take responsibility for our actions so we pass the blame along. So God gets blamed and even though He got rid of sin by sending Jesus to die on the cross for us, we kind of negate that fact and blame him anyway.
So, now we have sin, which we fed and is now out to get us, and we have God, who gave his son for us to get rid of sin. And what do we chose? Mostly, we choose sin.
Sin is biting the hand that feeds us but we still continue on feeding and getting bitten. God will heal and help us but we just pile on the blame. There is something not right about this picture. We get sick on purpose and then refuse the antidote.
God wants to help us but first we have to let Him. We have to stop letting sin bite us and get God to help our hands. After being bitten so much, they need it.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Consequences and the right thing
Who really likes consequences? If you put that to a vote with 1 million
voters, the vote would be million to none, because no one likes consequences
and no one likes to get in trouble. There are consequences for everything
though. Even the good things that you do.
If you break the cookie jar by accident and you tell your mom the truth that you broke it, you might still get in trouble because you broke it. You did the right thing by telling the truth but the cookie jar was still broken.
It is the same thing as when you follow God. God might bring prosperity to you and give you all good things but he also might give you bad things. "Consider "His" servant Job."
Job was a righteous man and God blessed him because of it. He lived his life for the glory of the lord and always tried to do the right thing in His eyes. God was very pleased with him. But one day Satan came into the court of angels. He told God that Job would curse Him if he took things away from Job. God knew he wouldn't, so he let Satan do things to Job.
Job was a good man and he was righteous. He walked in the Lord and did right in His eyes. Bad things happened to him though because he was being tested. He cried out to the Lord but he did not curse him. God gave Job consequences even though he was good.
Consequences are not always bad things though. Like in the story of Joseph. After he was sent to prison because of Potiphar's wife, he was still good and God blessed him. Going to jail was a consequence for something he didn't do but it was also a blessing because he eventually became the second in command for the whole kingdom.
No one likes consequences, especially if you didn't do anything wrong. Some people might be sorry that they did the right thing because of the consequences that followed, like Joseph. But is it really worth it? Why not try to change things for the better?
You will always end up in bad situations so you might as well learn from them instead of being sore about them. Two people can go through the exact same thing, but it doesn't mean that they both will come out the same way.
If you break the cookie jar by accident and you tell your mom the truth that you broke it, you might still get in trouble because you broke it. You did the right thing by telling the truth but the cookie jar was still broken.
It is the same thing as when you follow God. God might bring prosperity to you and give you all good things but he also might give you bad things. "Consider "His" servant Job."
Job was a righteous man and God blessed him because of it. He lived his life for the glory of the lord and always tried to do the right thing in His eyes. God was very pleased with him. But one day Satan came into the court of angels. He told God that Job would curse Him if he took things away from Job. God knew he wouldn't, so he let Satan do things to Job.
Job was a good man and he was righteous. He walked in the Lord and did right in His eyes. Bad things happened to him though because he was being tested. He cried out to the Lord but he did not curse him. God gave Job consequences even though he was good.
Consequences are not always bad things though. Like in the story of Joseph. After he was sent to prison because of Potiphar's wife, he was still good and God blessed him. Going to jail was a consequence for something he didn't do but it was also a blessing because he eventually became the second in command for the whole kingdom.
No one likes consequences, especially if you didn't do anything wrong. Some people might be sorry that they did the right thing because of the consequences that followed, like Joseph. But is it really worth it? Why not try to change things for the better?
You will always end up in bad situations so you might as well learn from them instead of being sore about them. Two people can go through the exact same thing, but it doesn't mean that they both will come out the same way.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Reputations: Good or bad?
Lots of opinions in the world are based on reputations. Our opinions connect
and reflect the different reputations that some people might have. A reputation
can define a person but it can also bring others to believe something that is
not true about that person.
For example: if there was this person and they were the nicest person on the planet but they have a reputation that says they steal, the majority of the people will not hang around them or be nice to them or pay any attention to the person because they have the reputation of being a thief. They could not be a thief but if their reputation is that of a thief, they will be seen as a thief.
That is one thing about reputations though. They are usually based on the truth of our characters. If you have a reputation of being nice and kind and gentle it is because you are nice and kind and gentle. There are some reputations which are false but the majority of the time they are based on the truth.
That is another thing. Let me ask you a question. What kind of reputation do you have? What kind of reputation do you want to have? Does it reflect your character? If so, is there something that you want to change about you and change your reputation?
God wants us to have a good reputation. One which says us to be kind and gentle and compassionate and caring. God wants us to help people and to put others before ourselves. He did that for us. He put us before himself and before his son. He gave the life of his son for us.
He wants us to have a good reputation and he wants us to reflect his light into this dark world. Our reputations are how this world sees us, so why not want to have a good one?
For example: if there was this person and they were the nicest person on the planet but they have a reputation that says they steal, the majority of the people will not hang around them or be nice to them or pay any attention to the person because they have the reputation of being a thief. They could not be a thief but if their reputation is that of a thief, they will be seen as a thief.
That is one thing about reputations though. They are usually based on the truth of our characters. If you have a reputation of being nice and kind and gentle it is because you are nice and kind and gentle. There are some reputations which are false but the majority of the time they are based on the truth.
That is another thing. Let me ask you a question. What kind of reputation do you have? What kind of reputation do you want to have? Does it reflect your character? If so, is there something that you want to change about you and change your reputation?
God wants us to have a good reputation. One which says us to be kind and gentle and compassionate and caring. God wants us to help people and to put others before ourselves. He did that for us. He put us before himself and before his son. He gave the life of his son for us.
He wants us to have a good reputation and he wants us to reflect his light into this dark world. Our reputations are how this world sees us, so why not want to have a good one?
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