Living in Christ

  In your mind, what do you believe is the right thing to do for the Lord?  Let me ask this question in a different way:  As believers in Jesus, are we supposed to be passive in our witnessing to the Lord, or are we supposed to be aggressive in standing up for righteousness?  As I look out at my world I see many believers going about their own business while the rest of the world cries out for help.  I see the children living just doors down from us, abused and assaulted while we turn a blind eye assuming that it is none of our business, until it is too late.  I see government leaders making a mockery out of truth and justice while we go on along believing that as long as it doesn't directly affect me I don't have to be concerned with it.  I see many things happening in our world that we could make a difference in, if we would answer the call to go.  But, sadly, many of us remain in our pews unwilling to get involved because we are afraid of what getting involved might cost us.

  What is is that you seek?  Is it a new job?  Is it peace and harmony?  Maybe it is a healing that you are in need of?  In any case, we as human being are seeking many things.  Life happens, things change, circumstances capture our attention and we become entrenched in emotions and thoughts.  We pray for God to give us, to deliver us, to promote us, or to protect us.  In any case, it is quiet amazing how simple the Word of our Lord is, and how complicated we make it.  Consider: "If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isaiah 1:19-20 NIV.   Through out the Bible, there are many promises that God has made.  Some of those promises have been fulfilled, and there are still promises that man is waiting on.  Still, the promises exist!   God will never, ever break a promise.  In fact, if you search the Scriptures you would notice that in ever

  You know, there is a lot of the world around us to enjoy.  But there is also a lot of world around us that we should be mindful of not enjoying.  One of the most important functions of our bodies is that of sight.  Sight can be a wonderful thing for us to enjoy.  Looking all the splendor and glory of our God around us, seeing loved ones and friends, exploring all the "sights" around us.  But there is another part to sight that we should be mindful of, that of our wants and desires. "Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you." Proverbs 4:25 TNIV.   Much can be said about where we focus our lives, especially for those of us in the faith.  Last post I talked about our heart, or inner self.  Continuing on that we look at one of the ways we bring about change to our heart, whether good or bad.  One of the Ten Commandments given to Moses from God deals with this:  Exodus chapter 20 verse 17 we read, "You shall not covet your neighbor&

  A few weeks ago, my own pastor did a teaching on guarding our hearts.  He did an outstanding job and opened my eyes to some new truths about myself, but, I just couldn't put out of my mind the teaching.  So, I started searching and asking God questions.  What would the world look like if everyone started to pay attention to what we fill ourselves up on?  You know, 25 years ago, you would never have heard of children taking guns to school to kill others just because they were teased, but you hear that all the time know.  Why is that?   Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." NIV   The Bible has a lot to say to us about the condition of our heart.  Not the flesh heart that we know, but the heart that is the real us.  The heart that the Bible reefers to is who we are.  It is what makes us operate in our world.  Many of us have spent years filling our hearts with things that most of us would not wish upon others, and most o