That revelation, no matter how insignificant the correlation, got me thinking. In our quest to worship, whether it be corporately or alone or just with our lives in general, it is always a constant battle. I am not writing about obvious facts here so do not just check out. We are constantly bombarded by all of the stuff that we know will only lead us somewhere that we do not want to go.

This is true in something that we probably rarely think about: idolatry. So many of us know that there is a place called “God’s Best” and God wants us to live in that. But, many times it is so easy to want prosperity or to want health or whatever it may be and in asking God to give us these things we in turn make them into idols. For example, the Bible talks about money over two-thousand times. While, the Bible offers about five-hundred verses on prayer and a little less than five-hundred verses on faith. So obviously God wants us to be blessed and knowledgeable concerning money. But too many times that prosperity in the area of money or health or whatever it may be can become an idol. We pour ourselves into either gaining wealth or simply just being comfortable in our amount of money that we have and in turn end up worshiping it. “Well, we are God’s people.” “God’s people are suppose to prosper.” I am not saying that as God’s people we are not suppose to prosper. I am saying that if prosperity or health are the only things that we are in this for then we have made them idols. When it is no longer enough that God is God and he loves us and he has stored up all of our riches in heaven then it is an idol. We are no longer worshiping God because He is God but because He has something to offer us.

And sometimes I think that my posts are just too long. Probably because our lives are just too busy. So as I was thinking today I was listening to this song. I thought that it had great words. So I will share it with you.

Also I know that not everyone is a “word” person, and to those I have posted a link to the song. This part of it is about halfway through.

All the words are good. But for some reason these are the words that I “heard” today. I hope you hear them too…

I hear You say,
“My love is over. It’s underneath.
It’s inside. It’s in between.
The times you doubt Me, when you can’t feel.
The times that you question, ‘Is this for real? ‘
The times you’re broken.
The times that you mend.
The times that you hate Me, and the times that you bend.
Well, My love is over, it’s underneath.
It’s inside, it’s in between.
These times you’re healing, and when your heart breaks.
The times that you feel like you’re falling from grace.
The times you’re hurting.
The times that you heal.
The times you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.
In times of confusion, in chaos and pain.
I’m there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.
I’m there through your heartache.
I’m there in the storm.
My love I will keep you, by My pow’r alone.
I don’t care where you fall, where you have been.
I’ll never forsake you, My love never ends.
It never ends.”

Times-Tenth Avenue North

We live in a world that is always right there in front of our face. And it can be easy to let our carnal everyday lives take precedence over our spiritual lives. (Which one do we think about or tend to more?) We feed our bodies but not our spirit. This is the reason for the analogy about the pinnacle spiritual events in our lives. If we only live life in the flesh or mainly in the flesh and expect a youth camp or a Revival to get us back on track, how can we say that our hearts belong to Jesus? How can we say that our lives belong?

Matthew 6:21 and again in Luke the Bible says that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” You should not need a revival every summer to help you get your life back on track. We do not need a “Revival” but a continuous “vival.” A continuous and humble renewal of our love for our Savior.

This brings me back to the two words that I was thinking about when I began the last post: Uncomfortable and Belong. Jesus says in John 15:19 that ” If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” As Christians we are not called to feel comfortable here. I am trying to write this post, leaving a lot of loose ends. Not making everything crystal clear. (If everything is crystal clear to you up to this point I am sorry. I did a better job than I intended to.)  So that you are uncomfortable with what I am writing. So that you have questions. Questions are good. Questions like: Where are you on a scale of comfortability? Are you a 10? (Totally comfortable.)

Maybe, when we begin to feel uncomfortable we are just beginning to get somewhere. We are just beginning to find our place and belong.  But for many of us, we have not yet even reached Nazareth.

Everyday we wake up, brush our teeth (hopefully), some shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, kiss our families goodbye, and head off to our schools or vocations just in time to catch the proverbial roller coaster which we all call “life.” Sometimes it is an “up” day and sometimes it is a “down” day. But no matter how “up” or “down” our lives may be, there is one thing that we should constantly strive to keep “up:” (whatever you may want to call it, be it our faith, or our spirit man, or just our spirit). The Bible references many times to be “in” the world but not “of” the world. So from this I would make the call that we have to see that which is carnal as carnal and that which is spiritual as spiritual and deal with it accordingly. I am not saying that sometimes these two elements do not cross paths but I do not think that our carnal lives should dictate our MOTIVATION in our spiritual lives. They are one but separate.

To give you an example of what I am writing about I will make this statement: We should not have to have youth camps, or worship services, or retreats, to keep our faith alive, to keep our faith growing and moving and changing. God is not JUST at camp. I am not saying that these events were not and are not important in our lives. Because for how many of us was it a youth camp or a worship service or a retreat the point that jump started our faith and got us back on the right track? As young Christians these are the events where the relevance of God shows up in lives. As Christians we NEED these things. But as we mature in our faith, if we want to mature, these things can no longer be the pinnacle of our faith. Do not get me wrong, they are still VERY important and God still moves in these services whether young or mature in faith. But if we do nothing in the time between them, how should we expect to grow?

We can no longer live our faith out from one special service to another special service. Just barely getting by. With no MOTIVATION in between. Just barely sticking with it.

Now I am sure that after reading that you have lots of thoughts and maybe some questions. Good. Think about them.

I believe that we have to understand that the devil works in a lot of areas of our lives through one medium. Fear. Fear of the unknown is probably the biggest “type” of fear that the devil uses. We can see this all the time in our own lives as well as the lives of others. God has a new and fresh direction for your life when you come to him. But the only way that we can have it is if we lose the life that we have. But still some will not give it up because they do not KNOW what that direction will entail. This is a good example of fear producing failure and weakness.

But, faith overcomes fear. Even when you feel afraid, if you step out in faith, you will be able to conquer the fear. Satan uses fear, we conquer it with faith.

Faith is a force that must be released.  The Bible says that we are supposed to go from faith to more faith to more faith(Romans 1:17 Amp). Faith grows when you use the faith you have and you see the faithfulness of God and you then take another step in faith and another step and you keep on stepping out in faith until you just LIVE by faith.

God dosen’t want us to just have faith for ONLY this circumstance and that circumstance, but he wants us to LIVE by faith. You do not have to let the devil run your life.  If you believe that the devil is under your feet, then you can believe that you have authority over him(Luke 10:19). This does not mean that we can necessarily stop him from coming against us, but we do have the authority to keep a good attitude. Attitude is almost always everything when our circumstances get tough. Belief produces attitude, attitude: (produces) behavior.”

Not all things are good but all things can work together for good(Romans 8:28). So many times when we get attacked we lay down the purpose for our life and place all of our time and energy in fighting with the devil. Sometimes to a certain degree we have to ignore the devil and keep doing what God has called you to do. Madness, jealousy, envy, hate none of those things will help you. The only thing that will help you is keeping a good attitude, continuing to pray, continuing to love God. Keep going on with the purpose that God has for your life. If all things work out for good, God will give you a better job than the one that you lost(or whatever your circumstance may be). But if you have a bad attitude because you have a bad situation then it can go from bad to worse to worse to worse to worse. Keep a good attitude.

It is also so important that YOU know who God is. It is not good enough to know a preacher who knows who God is or a friend who knows or have a husband or a wife who knows who God is. No! YOU have to know who God is. YOU have to have personal faith in the living God that YOU believe lives on the inside of YOU. You have to know his word. You cannot have a relationship with God through somebody else. Authority as a believer does not give us free reign to do whatever we want to do. It means we have the authority to bring heaven to earth, as believers, through our prayer life(Matthew 16:18-19).

Take approximately 6.7 BILLION people are living on planet earth, and 3.5 MILLION viewpoints just on Christianity alone. That means that technically only 191 people would have the same view on Christianity! Now I understand that this mode of thinking is a little skewed because not everyone even knows of Christianity and not all of the 3.5 million is actually a “viewpoint,” but it does put into context what this generation is up against.

A WHOLE LOTTA GARBAGE! We have so many free flowing ideas and areas of information that are constantly bombarding this generation of people. And as the media outlets grow and technology advances, it will only get harder for people to discern the good from the bad. The truth is that so many people, young and old, have no idea what to believe or even where to begin. So most just throw up their hands and tell themselves that they don’t care. But they have to care!  We as a people, as a body of believers, as the church, have to rise up as a generation with ONE truth. An absolute truth. Jesus.  And if this way of thinking is too cliché  for you then maybe you need to rethink your so regenerate heart.  Matthew 13:15. Because I think sometimes these matters are not matters of something being cliché, but rather matters of someone having a calloused heart. (But that is another matter and a matter which is between you and God).

The prompt for this post was a timely message by Pastor Rick Morrow, preached last night, concerning deception. It really got me thinking about this subject and how important it is that we are not deceived in our scavenging for the truth amid all of the garbage. Whether you think so or not, we are a people that have been made (and are) thirsty. We WANT to know all that we can. Society today has changed so much in just the last ten years. More people are going to college and spending more time learning than ever before but with no guidelines on discerning truth from crap. They are drinking from the toilet.

We have to do as 1 John 4:1-2 says and test the spirits. Test everything. The word of God is truth and if you are a Christian then you believe that. Test the books you read and the shows you watch and the news you hear. Start with this post. Stop drinking from the toilet!

Many of us go through life with not a clue as to what we are supposed to be doing. We just “go where the wind blows us.” But yet, I do believe that we all have some idea of what we should be doing. Though minute of an inkling as it may be. The problem is that we just can’t get over our own self.

Many times we spend our life in a constant state of procrastination. We tell ourselves that we cannot do what God wants us to do yet because we have to get through school or get married first or have kids or get rich! Then and only then will we be able to truly focus on doing God’s will for our life!  We are constantly putting god’s plan for our life off, waiting for a more convenient time. We think that God has to work on our time. If we do not know what God wants us to do by lunch, then He will just have to wait until tomorrow because the rest of the days’ schedule is full.

But then it wouldn’t be God’s will would it? It would be our will. Our prerogative. Our priorities. Our life with which to do whatever we will. Once we realize that our time and God’s time are totally different things, then and only then can we begin to understand what His will is. It is God’s schedule first and then our schedule.

Matthew 6:33, I believe is the key to understanding. It says, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well.”  We have to understand that God’s will is not some distant, inconceivable idea we are suppose to question for the rest of our lives and if we get it wrong we will be smitten by the almighty smitter.  If in everything that we do we seek the kingdom of God first, we will be doing that which lines up with His will. We will have a hope and a purpose and will walk in the victory of that.

This can be your life. This can be the victory in your Christian walk. It is not by your might, or power, but by the will of God.

If any of you have ever read the book “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis (if you haven’t I would recommend it) then you might know this somewhat famous part that I believe is ONE way of looking at our wandering:

“The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing that you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think that love of humanity in general was safe, but it is not. If you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials ‘for the sake of humanity,’ and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man.”

Galatians 5:25-26 : Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.