Spiritual Ponderings

When I mourn and feel pain for something that I give up for Jesus, that pain reveals a sympathy in my flesh for something that is preventing me from being fully loyal to Him. In effect I am sympathizing with the enemy of my best Friend. But how do I feel when someone who claims to love me still has sympathy for someone who only wants to hurt me and sabotage my relationships with those I love? That is why God insisted that Aaron not mourn when two of his sons died from their acts of rebellion against God. To mourn is to sympathize and sympathy for an enemy is disloyalty to a friend. A problem arises in this arena when one is trying to obey the convictions of the Spirit to let go of something that has very strong emotional attachments but has not taken the time to cultivate counteracting replacement attachments with God's heart. They are not using one magnetic attraction as a means of repelling the other magnetic attraction. If you have played around with magnets you will ...

It is generally viewed as being quite selfish to come to the Christian life with an attitude of “what's in it for me”. This is sometimes met with quick reprimands using Jesus' admonitions about getting focused on what God wants or serving other people's needs and other such things designed to induce a sense of shame and guilt for ever slipping into such a base way of thinking. But as I think about it this morning I am not so sure that God may not have designed us to operate from this motive at least to some degree. As I contemplate many of the teachings of Jesus there seems to be a common thread of making offers to us to offset whatever it is God is asking us to give up in order to enjoy them. Even the example of Jesus Himself in going to the cross seems clearly to involve a desire to secure what was in it for Him as a means of bolstering His heart to endure that horrendous experience. ...Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set ...

Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. (Matthew 25:27) Options for use of the money: Ask for a loan for the same amount as the money you have using the money itself as collateral. Then take the double amount and buy something that has good promise of increase. Give the money to a loan company so that they have money to loan others and owe you some of the interest. Doing nothing with the money but protect it. Spend the money on yourself with little thought of the consequences. Look for some project that needs investment money, study that project for its viability and the integrity of the people involved and then invest in a high return idea. This implies that the higher the return potential that the risk is equally higher of losing your investment. Look for very safe investments that typically have lower returns than the high risk investments that may leave you hanging out to dry. L...