My firstborn got out my laptop this morning and was going to pull up the daily devotional for himself and his siblings, which we use from Biblestudyplanet.com. I skimmed it, as I always do first, because I simply skip some altogether, and I realized the main point was that eternal life is a free gift. That much is true, but it didn't stop there. The dad in the story declared that all you must do is believe eternal life is a free gift and accept it.
Really? Anyone who simply believes eternal life is a free gift can accept that free gift? So, regardless of how a person lives his or her life, that person will live on paradise earth with the rest of us forever?! It wouldn't be a paradise. What would be the point of creating us with earthly bodies in the first place, when our Creator could have simply cloned himself numerous more times, just as he did with his first son (who also later lived in an earth body to prove himself). If God could asexually reproduce himself one time, why should we think he couldn't have done it many times over? He could have! He can! But he later came to realize that would be evil, because he realized that some do not desire to live under his authority. He had created beings rebel. So that is the reason why we're in earthly bodies in the first place, so we can be given choice. And if that choice is to live in an evil way toward others, changing that person into a perfect spiritual being is a force to live forever against that person's will. That person would not want to serve God and so to make that person perfect would be forcefully making that person someone he or she does not want to be.
Those in the Protesting Catholic groups who are part of the horrid Christianity religion (and not all, but most of them) go straight from the meaning of Passover (sacrifice for our sins) to the meaning of Pentecost (receiving the begettal of the God Spirit), totally skipping over the meaning of the feast and holy days between—Unleavened Bread (repenting and ridding one self's life of sin).
Today is Pentecost, and it's an awesome day! It pictures persons being conceived with the God Spirit, which helps them walk on the right path and comforts them through life's trials. It also guarantees that those persons will be reborn as spiritual-bodied children of God at the Anointed's return to this planet to set up the Kingdom of God, so long as the begotten child does not abort at some point in this life due to horrid malnutrition (exposure to bad things and lack of exposure to good persons, good writings, etc.) or to extreme injury from which he or she does not attempt to recover (like the death of a child or other loved one, loss of limbs, etc.).
But the Spirit is only given to those who have demonstrated obedience and the desire to get the needed help to continue (Acts 5:32; 2:38).
You cannot cut out the step between the Passover sacrifice and the Pentecost spiritual gift. There is a prerequisite before the Spirit-begettal that is the free ticket to eternal life. You must repent!
The reason eternal life is "free" is because all have sinned and come short of what Holy Father expects. Salvation, the Anointed Firstborn (called by most "Jesus Christ" or by some "Yeshua Messiah") showed the expectation. He's the glory of God, the glory-child. We've all come short of that. So the reason eternal life is free is because the two holy ones chose to save us, regardless of our sin, if and only if we repent and live a lifestyle of righteousness. That means striving to do our best. That means for men to strive to be like Salvation, and for women that means to strive to be worthy of having been his wife. In stricter terms, it means we all should try to be a perfect glory-child, knowing we won't reach that perfection in our carnal bodies, but in our hearts that is who we are and so how we strive to get our brains and bodies to work to follow.
Praise our Great Father and our Beloved Lord Salvation for this wonderful holy day and for all it means, but don't forget that the meaning of the Unleavened Bread feast also represents an attitude that should be ongoing in our lives, and the gift of Pentecost is not possible for those who skip the meaning of Unleavened Bread.
Showing posts with label repent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label repent. Show all posts
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
In the Blink of an Eye... (More Passover Meditation)
...your life can end. In the blink of an eye, you could die. It happens all the time. One moment you're alive, the next moment you're dead. I even watched my second-born son die before my very eyes eight and a half years ago. You don't imagine your child dying before you. One moment he was breathing, the next moment he was white as a sheet, and I couldn't bring him back. No amount of breathing for him or screaming at him did the trick.
The following is a small portion of my Passover night entry in my prayer journal, the entries of which are to my Eternal Father God and also for my Lord Salvation the Anointed Firstborn:
I was getting the kids ready for bed at the beginning of the evening of Passover, and my husband (currently agnostic) left to go get ice, just about a ten- to twelve-minute drive from here. A good while had passed, and he sent me a message to say he was ok, that there had been a wreck. He had been on his way back, and he'd noticed a pole down and the line across the road. Then he saw the crashed vehicle. He was the first on the scene of the accident, quickly followed by a young guy and gal, the latter of which turned out to be a friend of the victim. My Love and the younger guy searched for the driver. The one guy looked in the demolished vehicle. At that time my husband heard the victim. He was making a horrible "snoring" noise at a quick rate and was totally unresponsive. Nathan was sure he was witnessing the man dying. He was lacerated all over, and it appeared by his position that his arm(s) and neck and vertebrae were broken. He'd been ejected at least ninety feet from the vehicle. Nathan instructed the younger guy to not attempt to move the victim, and he left to drive down the road to get cell service so that he could call 911. Before he got in the truck, though, the girl who had stayed at their vehicle asked whether her friend was going to be ok. He told her he was in trouble and needed immediate help, so she broke down. When he got back, another couple had stopped who also knew the victim. A different girl asked my husband whether he was alive, and he could said that he was breathing, but it wasn't good, so then she broke down.
This was all a very traumatic ordeal. Nathan came home pale and distraught. Thankfully, though, this story has a good ending. He found out the next day which hospital the man was in and called to check on him. The injuries were considered "moderate." Amazingly his head did not receive any injuries. The nurse said it was a miracle. He had a broken vertebrae and something else (I think that one arm was broken) and then cuts all over, none of them major. He'd only finally come to a few minutes before Nathan called and was informed of where he was and that he'd been in an accident. His terrible breathing had been as I suspected, due to the traumatic nature of what had happened to him.
His accident was almost certainly due to folly, driving too fast on that potentially very dangerous road. Thankfully the fellow will live to be given the opportunity to change, to make sure he's driving safely and to urge others to do so. My husband is also apt to drive too fast much of the time, and this helped him to realize what can happen. He said he'd resolved to slow down on these roads.
Unfortunately for the aforementioned squirrel whose life ended abruptly by electrocution, he or she will not get a chance to change its ways and not run down the electrical lines anymore. Sometimes the same goes for people. Sometimes an act of folly will be the last thing a person does in this life.
There were a couple different things that triggered meditation from these events, one of them being that our Lord's friends must have reacted in much the same way as those frightened girls of the vehicle accident victim, when the Lord's friends heard of his plight and saw him beat and then later staked/nailed to wood to hang. I could imagine their cries and hysteria, and it caused me to be grieved, too, as if I was really there.
But more so I meditated on the fact that we do not know when our last moment of life in this body will be. We do not know when we will draw our last breath. And when we die, do we want to die with hope and expectation or with dread and fear of the second death? Christ is our Passover Lamb who has made it possible for us to escape the second death! But it's not a guarantee for all. That is what links the message of the Passover to the message of Unleavened Bread. We must repent of our sin—transgression of the Ten Commandments—if we want to be spared the second death in the lake of fire. Christ was sacrificed, but the prerequisite to being begotten by the Royal Sperm—the God Spirit—is repentance! We must make the choice to obey the Law (Acts 5:32; 2:38), and then we will receive the Helper, which is God's very own spirit DNA. But we must keep ourselves pure so as not to corrupt the gestation and spontaneously abort, or we will not make it to our birthday at Christ's next coming.
We need to carefully examine ourselves each Passover and Unleavened Bread week and note which areas need work in our lives. We also need to watch other brethren and spend more time with those who are zealous and strong in their walk and be more cautious about others, because "a little leaven can leaven the whole lump" (1 Cor. 5:6; Gal. 5:9). I've observed very well over the years that you become like the company you keep, so we should be diligent to keep the right company. I prefer to keep my closest friends as ones who value truth the most, are not lukewarm, who will set a good example for me, and who will reveal my errors (which doesn't always require them saying anything; sometimes it just takes seeing that they're doing it right, and I'm not). I also want to make sure that I'm a good friend and keeping my friends on the right track.
Younger siblings, by nature, mimic and follow the older ones, regardless of whether the older one(s) are doing what is right or wrong. Since we are fallen, though, it does not come natural to us to follow our Lord Brother the Righteous Firstborn. We must make a voluntary choice to do so, and then we must choose wise siblings in the Royal Family to imitate. When things are working the way they should, you are imitating them, and they are imitating you, and you keep each other on the right path that way.
What about you? Have you come close to death before or have been close to someone who has unexpectedly died or nearly died? Did it cause you to re-examine your life?
You do not know when you will die! You can be healthy and full of life one moment and be out of the game the next. You can be rich one year and poor the next. You can walk on two legs one day and be sitting in the hospital with no legs the next. You could see one hour and be blind the next. We should be thankful for all that we've got and be diligent to make the best of what we've got when we've got it. We must repent and stay on the path of righteousness while we can.
In the blink of an eye, your life can end. Do not wait until it's too late.
The following is a small portion of my Passover night entry in my prayer journal, the entries of which are to my Eternal Father God and also for my Lord Salvation the Anointed Firstborn:
I also thought about how quickly our lives can end. I had told the kids that, in the afternoon before this Passover night, because a squirrel had been electrocuted. That explains why the previous morning or two mornings before, there was a loud boom, followed immediately by the electricity flashing off and back on. Then later Nathan went to get ice, and he came across that terrible wreck. Again, it's a reminder that your life could end just that suddenly, or at least be changed drastically in that instant.
I was getting the kids ready for bed at the beginning of the evening of Passover, and my husband (currently agnostic) left to go get ice, just about a ten- to twelve-minute drive from here. A good while had passed, and he sent me a message to say he was ok, that there had been a wreck. He had been on his way back, and he'd noticed a pole down and the line across the road. Then he saw the crashed vehicle. He was the first on the scene of the accident, quickly followed by a young guy and gal, the latter of which turned out to be a friend of the victim. My Love and the younger guy searched for the driver. The one guy looked in the demolished vehicle. At that time my husband heard the victim. He was making a horrible "snoring" noise at a quick rate and was totally unresponsive. Nathan was sure he was witnessing the man dying. He was lacerated all over, and it appeared by his position that his arm(s) and neck and vertebrae were broken. He'd been ejected at least ninety feet from the vehicle. Nathan instructed the younger guy to not attempt to move the victim, and he left to drive down the road to get cell service so that he could call 911. Before he got in the truck, though, the girl who had stayed at their vehicle asked whether her friend was going to be ok. He told her he was in trouble and needed immediate help, so she broke down. When he got back, another couple had stopped who also knew the victim. A different girl asked my husband whether he was alive, and he could said that he was breathing, but it wasn't good, so then she broke down.
This was all a very traumatic ordeal. Nathan came home pale and distraught. Thankfully, though, this story has a good ending. He found out the next day which hospital the man was in and called to check on him. The injuries were considered "moderate." Amazingly his head did not receive any injuries. The nurse said it was a miracle. He had a broken vertebrae and something else (I think that one arm was broken) and then cuts all over, none of them major. He'd only finally come to a few minutes before Nathan called and was informed of where he was and that he'd been in an accident. His terrible breathing had been as I suspected, due to the traumatic nature of what had happened to him.
His accident was almost certainly due to folly, driving too fast on that potentially very dangerous road. Thankfully the fellow will live to be given the opportunity to change, to make sure he's driving safely and to urge others to do so. My husband is also apt to drive too fast much of the time, and this helped him to realize what can happen. He said he'd resolved to slow down on these roads.
Unfortunately for the aforementioned squirrel whose life ended abruptly by electrocution, he or she will not get a chance to change its ways and not run down the electrical lines anymore. Sometimes the same goes for people. Sometimes an act of folly will be the last thing a person does in this life.
There were a couple different things that triggered meditation from these events, one of them being that our Lord's friends must have reacted in much the same way as those frightened girls of the vehicle accident victim, when the Lord's friends heard of his plight and saw him beat and then later staked/nailed to wood to hang. I could imagine their cries and hysteria, and it caused me to be grieved, too, as if I was really there.
But more so I meditated on the fact that we do not know when our last moment of life in this body will be. We do not know when we will draw our last breath. And when we die, do we want to die with hope and expectation or with dread and fear of the second death? Christ is our Passover Lamb who has made it possible for us to escape the second death! But it's not a guarantee for all. That is what links the message of the Passover to the message of Unleavened Bread. We must repent of our sin—transgression of the Ten Commandments—if we want to be spared the second death in the lake of fire. Christ was sacrificed, but the prerequisite to being begotten by the Royal Sperm—the God Spirit—is repentance! We must make the choice to obey the Law (Acts 5:32; 2:38), and then we will receive the Helper, which is God's very own spirit DNA. But we must keep ourselves pure so as not to corrupt the gestation and spontaneously abort, or we will not make it to our birthday at Christ's next coming.
We need to carefully examine ourselves each Passover and Unleavened Bread week and note which areas need work in our lives. We also need to watch other brethren and spend more time with those who are zealous and strong in their walk and be more cautious about others, because "a little leaven can leaven the whole lump" (1 Cor. 5:6; Gal. 5:9). I've observed very well over the years that you become like the company you keep, so we should be diligent to keep the right company. I prefer to keep my closest friends as ones who value truth the most, are not lukewarm, who will set a good example for me, and who will reveal my errors (which doesn't always require them saying anything; sometimes it just takes seeing that they're doing it right, and I'm not). I also want to make sure that I'm a good friend and keeping my friends on the right track.
Younger siblings, by nature, mimic and follow the older ones, regardless of whether the older one(s) are doing what is right or wrong. Since we are fallen, though, it does not come natural to us to follow our Lord Brother the Righteous Firstborn. We must make a voluntary choice to do so, and then we must choose wise siblings in the Royal Family to imitate. When things are working the way they should, you are imitating them, and they are imitating you, and you keep each other on the right path that way.
What about you? Have you come close to death before or have been close to someone who has unexpectedly died or nearly died? Did it cause you to re-examine your life?
You do not know when you will die! You can be healthy and full of life one moment and be out of the game the next. You can be rich one year and poor the next. You can walk on two legs one day and be sitting in the hospital with no legs the next. You could see one hour and be blind the next. We should be thankful for all that we've got and be diligent to make the best of what we've got when we've got it. We must repent and stay on the path of righteousness while we can.
In the blink of an eye, your life can end. Do not wait until it's too late.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
By Grace We Are Saved, Not by Works: A Lesson to My Son
This week when the children and I went to the market, my seven-year-old firstborn son exhibited behavior with which I was displeased. He is usually my superstar helper when we go to the market. I had to repeatedly remind him to do his responsibilities as he should and to not fool around.
I told him after we left that I was going to give a bad report on him to his daddy. It's close to an hour's drive back home, and when we were about twenty minutes away from home, Will said, "Momma, if a person does bad works, and then if he does more good works, does that [cancel out] the bad works?"
I knew why he asked. He had been sitting back there formulating a plan to get out of the probability of being punished by his father. He wondered whether he could get home and do all sorts of good works to get me on his good side, and then I would just cancel out his bad works with the good works of which he would have more, and so then he'd be saved from punishment.
I responded to his question, "No, sweetie, it doesn't work that way. That would be salvation by works. A person cannot be saved from punishment for bad works by doing more good works than he did bad. Salvation from punishment can only come from grace."
I continued, "However, a person who does not stop his bad works and start doing good works won't receive that grace, but the fact remains that he did bad works. Think of it this way. Say I go out and murder someone. I say to the judges that I am sorry, and I'll now do only good works. I'll do the good works of not killing anyone else and will do all manner of other good works. But, not killing other people doesn't and cannot make up for the person I did kill. Only if the people who were hurt by that person's death gave me pardon, gave me grace can I be saved from punishment. But people don't give grace to a murderer who feels no remorse and clearly has the mindset of murdering again."
Will said, "I need grace! Momma, will you please give me grace and not tell Daddy?"
I told him that I knew he was usually well-behaved and that he needed to make sure it didn't happen again; next week when we go to the market, he'd better act the right way. I added that he also needed to make sure he walked the path of righteousness for the remainder of the day, to the time his daddy would get home. I ended by telling him that I forgave him and that I wouldn't bring charges against him to his daddy.
Well, much to my disappointment, Will let his own will get out of control for the rest of the day. He can be so wonderful, but that day was not one of those days. I told him he'd be getting a bad report. I did give his daddy a bad report, and it included the market details. The promised grace was no longer valid, because he had fallen from grace.
Our relationship with our Holy Father and with our Lord Brother, Salvation, is no different. We are saved by grace, because we have all sinned, and the Perfect Firstborn, Salvation, sacrificed for us. Big Brother took the blame for our wrongdoings. He took the punishment from Father. The punishment did not belong to him. Salvation did no wrong in Father's eyes. He was Father's Perfect Firstborn, playing a life out in human flesh without sin. Salvation is Number 1 in Father's eyes, his most beloved Son. None of us will ever come close to comparing, and certainly no number of good works is going to cancel out any bad works. ONE bad work, ONE sin, and we come SHORT of God's glory, and Salvation, the Firstborn, is Father's glory. We should all bow the knee to Salvation, because he's EARNED his right to be Father's Top Son. None of us have EARNED anything...but death. We all have at least ONE sin. Salvation had NO sin. We had better all bow to Salvation and do our best to be like him, and he'll give a good word to Father. Father will see that we are trying to be like Salvation, though knowing we'll never be as good as Salvation, and honor Salvation before Father.
That is how we get GRACE. We have to have the heart of wanting to do everything right and trying to walk on the path of righteousness the way our Elder Brother Salvation did. If we are not even trying to obey Father's household law the way Salvation did and do not care or only care about some commandments but not others, then we shall not get grace from Father.
It's interesting to me that most of those who call themselves "Christian" shout to those who keep Father's commandments and do not play the whore in Father's household but keep themselves as a virgin in his Royal Household, "We're not saved by works! We're saved by grace." Well, those of us who keep Father's commandments are not seeking to be saved by works. We are seeking to be saved by grace. We truly were remorseful that we had broken Father's commandments--all ten of them--and we turned to good works. No matter how many times we don't steal, it won't make up for the time(s) we have stolen. No matter how much we do not murder, it won't make up for the times we did (even in heart). We're not saved by works. But, we know we're not going to get covered by that promised grace through Salvation before Father's throne if we do not change our ways.
If Will acts up at the market next week, he'll really be in trouble, because it is known that he can conduct himself properly and make me very proud, and so if he does not even try to do what is right and instead acts out of line--off the right path--he won't receive grace. It'll be even worse. It's pretty bad when someone gives a transgressor grace, and then he goes back to the evil deeds he had claimed to be remorseful for and turn away from.
So, those saved by grace won't be those who shout loudly to Father's righteous sons that they're "saved by grace, not by works," but those saved by grace will be the ones who sought grace and then stopped breaking the commandments. Most of those "saved by grace" shouters agree that one should not murder, steal, commit adultery, lie, etc. It's mostly the fourth commandment with which they hate. They prefer to fornicate--to play the harlot in Father's Royal House--by keeping pagan-originated holidays, like the weekly "Sunday" first day of the week and the annual holiday feasts of Easter and Christmas, etc. They do not want to walk as Salvation did, keeping the commanded holy days of Father that outline our plan of salvation. Father and Salvation are not pleased that those who claim to be in their Household do not keep Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and 8th Day. This reveals the true Salvation, the true Christ.
Oh, how I LOVE the TRUTH...how I love and meditate daily in Father's royal law. I aim to please him daily. I cry when I fail miserably to compare to my Brother Salvation. Oh, but I then THANK Father for his grace and Salvation for his name, because he is my Salvation. I have FAITH that I am under the loving GRACE of my Holy Father, because I invite him to search my heart so that he knows I love him and aim to please him and follow Salvation's footsteps and because I honor Salvation as the rightful TOP HEIR and am just thankful that I even am called worthy enough through grace to co-inherit my Father's possessions.
PRAISE you, Father, Most High, and my Beloved Lord Salvation. Blessed are you both by those in your Royal Household who LOVE and SERVE you in SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
Amen!
I told him after we left that I was going to give a bad report on him to his daddy. It's close to an hour's drive back home, and when we were about twenty minutes away from home, Will said, "Momma, if a person does bad works, and then if he does more good works, does that [cancel out] the bad works?"
I knew why he asked. He had been sitting back there formulating a plan to get out of the probability of being punished by his father. He wondered whether he could get home and do all sorts of good works to get me on his good side, and then I would just cancel out his bad works with the good works of which he would have more, and so then he'd be saved from punishment.
I responded to his question, "No, sweetie, it doesn't work that way. That would be salvation by works. A person cannot be saved from punishment for bad works by doing more good works than he did bad. Salvation from punishment can only come from grace."
I continued, "However, a person who does not stop his bad works and start doing good works won't receive that grace, but the fact remains that he did bad works. Think of it this way. Say I go out and murder someone. I say to the judges that I am sorry, and I'll now do only good works. I'll do the good works of not killing anyone else and will do all manner of other good works. But, not killing other people doesn't and cannot make up for the person I did kill. Only if the people who were hurt by that person's death gave me pardon, gave me grace can I be saved from punishment. But people don't give grace to a murderer who feels no remorse and clearly has the mindset of murdering again."
Will said, "I need grace! Momma, will you please give me grace and not tell Daddy?"
I told him that I knew he was usually well-behaved and that he needed to make sure it didn't happen again; next week when we go to the market, he'd better act the right way. I added that he also needed to make sure he walked the path of righteousness for the remainder of the day, to the time his daddy would get home. I ended by telling him that I forgave him and that I wouldn't bring charges against him to his daddy.
Well, much to my disappointment, Will let his own will get out of control for the rest of the day. He can be so wonderful, but that day was not one of those days. I told him he'd be getting a bad report. I did give his daddy a bad report, and it included the market details. The promised grace was no longer valid, because he had fallen from grace.
Our relationship with our Holy Father and with our Lord Brother, Salvation, is no different. We are saved by grace, because we have all sinned, and the Perfect Firstborn, Salvation, sacrificed for us. Big Brother took the blame for our wrongdoings. He took the punishment from Father. The punishment did not belong to him. Salvation did no wrong in Father's eyes. He was Father's Perfect Firstborn, playing a life out in human flesh without sin. Salvation is Number 1 in Father's eyes, his most beloved Son. None of us will ever come close to comparing, and certainly no number of good works is going to cancel out any bad works. ONE bad work, ONE sin, and we come SHORT of God's glory, and Salvation, the Firstborn, is Father's glory. We should all bow the knee to Salvation, because he's EARNED his right to be Father's Top Son. None of us have EARNED anything...but death. We all have at least ONE sin. Salvation had NO sin. We had better all bow to Salvation and do our best to be like him, and he'll give a good word to Father. Father will see that we are trying to be like Salvation, though knowing we'll never be as good as Salvation, and honor Salvation before Father.
That is how we get GRACE. We have to have the heart of wanting to do everything right and trying to walk on the path of righteousness the way our Elder Brother Salvation did. If we are not even trying to obey Father's household law the way Salvation did and do not care or only care about some commandments but not others, then we shall not get grace from Father.
It's interesting to me that most of those who call themselves "Christian" shout to those who keep Father's commandments and do not play the whore in Father's household but keep themselves as a virgin in his Royal Household, "We're not saved by works! We're saved by grace." Well, those of us who keep Father's commandments are not seeking to be saved by works. We are seeking to be saved by grace. We truly were remorseful that we had broken Father's commandments--all ten of them--and we turned to good works. No matter how many times we don't steal, it won't make up for the time(s) we have stolen. No matter how much we do not murder, it won't make up for the times we did (even in heart). We're not saved by works. But, we know we're not going to get covered by that promised grace through Salvation before Father's throne if we do not change our ways.
If Will acts up at the market next week, he'll really be in trouble, because it is known that he can conduct himself properly and make me very proud, and so if he does not even try to do what is right and instead acts out of line--off the right path--he won't receive grace. It'll be even worse. It's pretty bad when someone gives a transgressor grace, and then he goes back to the evil deeds he had claimed to be remorseful for and turn away from.
So, those saved by grace won't be those who shout loudly to Father's righteous sons that they're "saved by grace, not by works," but those saved by grace will be the ones who sought grace and then stopped breaking the commandments. Most of those "saved by grace" shouters agree that one should not murder, steal, commit adultery, lie, etc. It's mostly the fourth commandment with which they hate. They prefer to fornicate--to play the harlot in Father's Royal House--by keeping pagan-originated holidays, like the weekly "Sunday" first day of the week and the annual holiday feasts of Easter and Christmas, etc. They do not want to walk as Salvation did, keeping the commanded holy days of Father that outline our plan of salvation. Father and Salvation are not pleased that those who claim to be in their Household do not keep Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and 8th Day. This reveals the true Salvation, the true Christ.
Oh, how I LOVE the TRUTH...how I love and meditate daily in Father's royal law. I aim to please him daily. I cry when I fail miserably to compare to my Brother Salvation. Oh, but I then THANK Father for his grace and Salvation for his name, because he is my Salvation. I have FAITH that I am under the loving GRACE of my Holy Father, because I invite him to search my heart so that he knows I love him and aim to please him and follow Salvation's footsteps and because I honor Salvation as the rightful TOP HEIR and am just thankful that I even am called worthy enough through grace to co-inherit my Father's possessions.
PRAISE you, Father, Most High, and my Beloved Lord Salvation. Blessed are you both by those in your Royal Household who LOVE and SERVE you in SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
Amen!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Humility
I will pick back up on family, genetics, and overcoming familial sins in a few days. Today, I want to talk about humility. This is not something that comes naturally to a person, and it's even more unnatural for it to come easily for someone such as myself.
There are many people who are never or seldom honored. Some of these people are deserving of honor but simply never receive it. I can honestly say I don't know how that feels. I've been honored throughout my whole life. Sure, I've had my share of dishonor (usually it's been deserved, though), and I've had a lot of rough spots in life. But, overall I think I've had things go well for me, and I've been honored by many.
I've been put on a pedestal (exalted) by others all my life. I'm certainly not complaining, but I've realized more and more as of late that this is a potential obstacle to deep humility. It's not an impossibility. It just makes it more difficult. When a person has been praised all his or her days for things in many facets of life, it's very easy to become proud and self-exalting. I've hated this in other people, but it's not been until recently that I've dropped my head in deep shame, because I've seen it in myself. To borrow the apostle Paul words, "O[h], wretched [woman] that I am!" (Rom. 7:24a)
The grief I feel over this is tremendous. I do not want to be this way.
God only deserves the exaltation and praise. He deserves ALL the thanks, because I am nothing alone. And without His Spirit, I would be destined to be ashes, forgotten forever. Everything that I am has been given by God's grace. And He's given me much. We've all heard the phrase "count your blessings," but I feel that I cannot count mine, because they are too numerous to be specified.
Two months ago, I said to a dear brother of mine, "I'm in a very humble position right now, b/c honestly, I could have done nearly anything I wanted, and it's very difficult, sometimes, not to get a big head about it. " (Speaking of being a mother in a society of career moms, and I gave that up, even though I had all my college paid with scholarships.)
He said, "Oh, I know the Lord has blessed you with many talents."
And right now, I am in shock, because I had to go hunt down that email to find the quotes, and I continued reading, and I do not remember reading before what came after that. I must have accidentally gone over it. Maybe I just didn't read it carefully. Whatever the case may be, it's no coincidence that I was led to write this and had to look that up again.
I have meditated on what I'd said for the last two months, and at some point after writing what I did, it dawned on me:
*I have been blessed to have the many opportunities I have been given in my life, because I have learned and experienced from them, and I can use these things to teach others and bring them to the truth.
*I can still do most everything I could have done professionally with a degree to further worldly affairs, except I won't be given money for my labors and will not get worldly praise. Instead, though, I can use my abilities and do what I like to do to educate others and to further God's Kingdom and to bless and help others. When I realized this, I was elated. I'd rather use my abilities for God's Kingdom and for fellow humankind in this way. This was almost a total cure. And after reading now what, for some unknown reason, I didn't read two months ago that my brother wrote, this is confirmed for me.
I don't deserve anything I've been given any more than the next fellow. God is the potter, and we are the clay. I don't have any reason to be proud or self-exalting. It sickens me that I've seen this in others and not in myself. For anyone reading this who has seen any sinful pride in me, please forgive me of the poison I gave off.
The more we are given and the more with which we are blessed, the more is expected of us, and the more humble we should be (Matt. 24:45-51; 14-30; Luke 12:42-48).
But he that knew not, and did commit thins worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more (Luke 12:48).
Of the numerous times I've read over those scriptures, it's not sunk in as deeply as it has over the past several weeks. It has spoken deeply to ME. And now I deeply repent and correct myself.
Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth...Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 41:4; 42:6).
My job today is to find someone to honor in some way who deserves to be but probably has not been. I want to bring joy to someone's life today in this way. My Father, please reveal to me whom I should honor today.
Edited to add: And yes, I know mothering is not a humbling job in the sense of the real dictionary definition. It's the most important job as a woman, and I have said so myself before, but from the world's view and the pressure felt by the world, it is humbling. Mothers who choose to rear their children themselves are made to feel low, even though it should be the opposite. I was corrected on this point in the aforementioned email, but I didn't mean that I myself think it is a low job to have. ;-) I know better, because I live it every day. So, all you fellow mothers know what I mean.
There are many people who are never or seldom honored. Some of these people are deserving of honor but simply never receive it. I can honestly say I don't know how that feels. I've been honored throughout my whole life. Sure, I've had my share of dishonor (usually it's been deserved, though), and I've had a lot of rough spots in life. But, overall I think I've had things go well for me, and I've been honored by many.
I've been put on a pedestal (exalted) by others all my life. I'm certainly not complaining, but I've realized more and more as of late that this is a potential obstacle to deep humility. It's not an impossibility. It just makes it more difficult. When a person has been praised all his or her days for things in many facets of life, it's very easy to become proud and self-exalting. I've hated this in other people, but it's not been until recently that I've dropped my head in deep shame, because I've seen it in myself. To borrow the apostle Paul words, "O[h], wretched [woman] that I am!" (Rom. 7:24a)
The grief I feel over this is tremendous. I do not want to be this way.
God only deserves the exaltation and praise. He deserves ALL the thanks, because I am nothing alone. And without His Spirit, I would be destined to be ashes, forgotten forever. Everything that I am has been given by God's grace. And He's given me much. We've all heard the phrase "count your blessings," but I feel that I cannot count mine, because they are too numerous to be specified.
Two months ago, I said to a dear brother of mine, "I'm in a very humble position right now, b/c honestly, I could have done nearly anything I wanted, and it's very difficult, sometimes, not to get a big head about it. " (Speaking of being a mother in a society of career moms, and I gave that up, even though I had all my college paid with scholarships.)
He said, "Oh, I know the Lord has blessed you with many talents."
And right now, I am in shock, because I had to go hunt down that email to find the quotes, and I continued reading, and I do not remember reading before what came after that. I must have accidentally gone over it. Maybe I just didn't read it carefully. Whatever the case may be, it's no coincidence that I was led to write this and had to look that up again.
I have meditated on what I'd said for the last two months, and at some point after writing what I did, it dawned on me:
*I have been blessed to have the many opportunities I have been given in my life, because I have learned and experienced from them, and I can use these things to teach others and bring them to the truth.
*I can still do most everything I could have done professionally with a degree to further worldly affairs, except I won't be given money for my labors and will not get worldly praise. Instead, though, I can use my abilities and do what I like to do to educate others and to further God's Kingdom and to bless and help others. When I realized this, I was elated. I'd rather use my abilities for God's Kingdom and for fellow humankind in this way. This was almost a total cure. And after reading now what, for some unknown reason, I didn't read two months ago that my brother wrote, this is confirmed for me.
I don't deserve anything I've been given any more than the next fellow. God is the potter, and we are the clay. I don't have any reason to be proud or self-exalting. It sickens me that I've seen this in others and not in myself. For anyone reading this who has seen any sinful pride in me, please forgive me of the poison I gave off.
The more we are given and the more with which we are blessed, the more is expected of us, and the more humble we should be (Matt. 24:45-51; 14-30; Luke 12:42-48).
But he that knew not, and did commit thins worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more (Luke 12:48).
Of the numerous times I've read over those scriptures, it's not sunk in as deeply as it has over the past several weeks. It has spoken deeply to ME. And now I deeply repent and correct myself.
Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth...Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 41:4; 42:6).
My job today is to find someone to honor in some way who deserves to be but probably has not been. I want to bring joy to someone's life today in this way. My Father, please reveal to me whom I should honor today.
Edited to add: And yes, I know mothering is not a humbling job in the sense of the real dictionary definition. It's the most important job as a woman, and I have said so myself before, but from the world's view and the pressure felt by the world, it is humbling. Mothers who choose to rear their children themselves are made to feel low, even though it should be the opposite. I was corrected on this point in the aforementioned email, but I didn't mean that I myself think it is a low job to have. ;-) I know better, because I live it every day. So, all you fellow mothers know what I mean.
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