Spiritual Ponderings

I submit to Your authority over every part of my life. Your authority tells me to rejoice in trials and to trust in You, to rest in the truth that You are working everything together for my good, even though it may be difficult to see how that can be at the present. Your authority tells me to not worry about anything but in everything to give thanks. Thank-you! Claiming that You are my Lord means that I live by what You say, not by my own authority or the authority of religion claiming to speak in Your place. While I am not to resist Your appointed authorities here on earth or to resist an evil person, at the same time I am not to reflect their evil spirit or become contaminated by it in my own spirit. Rather I am to pass along all mistreatment, shame and evil along to You, my Savior who has earned the right on the cross to absorb all of the shame, the humiliation, the pain that any mistreatment may produce. Because I am 'in Christ' I must remember to not try to sh...

Survival instinct is based on selfishness which is the tap root that drives all worry. The logic of the survival instinct is the basis of the counterfeit system that believes that a person is ultimately and primarily responsible for themselves more than anyone else. If I don't make sure my own needs are met; if I don't provide for my own protection and necessities, then in reality there is no one else who is willing to be that responsible for me, not even God. This is the essence of the counterfeit system. From this perspective, God is an accessory at best. He is a supernatural resource which individuals can utilize to manipulate, appease or bribe to provide help or benefits when one cannot accomplish something for themselves. Because survival of the fittest is the underlying principle assumed to govern all of life and is the mantra for existence, then it is assumed that God operates on the same principle. Therefore, to get God to provide for us what we need or want we hav...

I quickly jotted down some key thoughts this morning to capture them before I go back to flush them out more thoroughly. That sometimes makes for disjointed flow in my writing but it does help me to avoid forgetting key elements that are coming to my attention. I have been thinking about some of the problems we run into as we try to share with others the amazing truths about God that some of us have embraced as of late. It began to dawn on me that some of the resistance that we encounter from others is often due more to the methods which we sometimes use to spread this gospel rather than the truth of what we are sharing in and of itself. We need to better utilize the cause and effect principle as opposed to arbitrary pronouncements to lead others to arrive at correct, life-giving conclusions. Too often we try to start by imposing our conclusions and then trying to prove them with the supporting information. When we begin with a conclusion and then attempt to support it, we...

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife's full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control ? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. (Acts 5:1-5) With many people I know, this story can have strong negative resonance. It seems to be something that might fit better into the kind of stories one would expect in the Old Testament, so when something of this nature shows up in the middle of all the early exciting stories resultin...