Hard Bits

There are areas of the Christ-like life that are not all that hard for me to do (I will think of one in a minute here... well... lets move on... I will get back to this in a minute).  Then there are those that require a slight bit of effort.  Depending on the situation... ahhh... here is one that can be easy, I knew there was an easy one (I think it may be to early to really think)... -don't commit murder- (most of the time anyway, sometimes a little harder, there has been A time or two when I wanted to get very violent towards someone and it was an option I really entertained... like when a guy came at me with a shovel... I also did put my foot through a pickup topper one time because I was so angery.  Don't worry... it wasn't my topper).  Okay back to the topic at hand... a moderate one... ohhh!  I just got another easy one, for me anyway - not to worry about tomorrow- I can handle this one a vast majority of the time maybe even 99+% of the time, a real yawner, no problem...  oh yeah, moderately hard - love your neighbor as yourself, which is closely related to the thought "what credit is it to you to love those that love you".  This one may vary depending how big your sphere of neighbor goes or who qualifies for your list of  being neighbor.  (To ease your wondering and wandering mind, I didn't hurt my foot on the topper.)  Now for a little bit of a harder one (at least for me, I think we all have weaknesses that vary, so one that is easier for me to live out may be harder for you) It comes out of 1Cor 6 and verse 7.  Here Paul is talking about law suits, but it goes along with 1Cor 13 that "love bears all things",  he wrote "Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?".  It is keeping a right attitude and forgiving even though you may never bring the incident up to the other person.  Lets say, someone does or says something wrong to you, my inclination is to avoid withdraw myself from them, internally and/or externally (I think it is a natural self preservation reaction... just staying away from danger).  There are people that we or in this instance I have to deal with that makes forgiving and completely moving on an absolutely necessary thing, like someone you deal with at work constantly or even a spouse (whether they ever know of the offense or not). Then there are those that you go through the same process of forgiveness, but they are "toxic".  They are the type that can "go off" at anytime. (BTW <by the way> the topper was on the ground and not on the pickup.  Although I can physically do a lot, kung fuishness is not one of them.)  This is one area that I am dealing with.  Do I keep my distance to avoid conflict or withdraw only when I see the timer ticking down to avoid the explosion? Or am I required to stay and always work through the coming conflict?  Do I stay away so the explosion goes off with me not there and it is then not my problem?  Do I keep myself back and keep just a less than casual relationship with them?  Again this is one I am working through.  (The topper had been left by the previous owner, so technically it was mine to do as I wanted to and at the time it was a lawn ornament.)  What is it that makes things hard?  Probably the number one issue would be the level of your flesh at the moment.  What to do for the hard bits?  Call on the grace of God!  "Father, HELP! I need your ability NOW!...I take yours and give you mine (see I'll give you $100 U.S. for your $100 of Monopoly money blog).   In the end, with a big hole in it,  the topper was removed and the grass grew better, don't worry about this incident...I was wearing boots at the time and probably happened 20 years ago.... and God has dealt with that anger issue, Hiii YAAAAA!

Just try me...

Psalms 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
Examine = investigate
Prove=assay, to test like silver and gold to determine the purity level
try= cast, melt, purge away
reins and heart=mind and soul, every bit of me
What David is expressing is for God to do a complete and thorough examination and anything that does not meet up with His standard (Jesus) is to be burned away in a hot fire so that there would be no flaw within himself..  In this day of self worth and if someone were to criticize a flaw it is viewed as an attack on your very self.  You are made special and you are valuable (look at the price paid for you)  I am not in my last few posts and I think one more to come trying to advocate everyone to become exactly like each other but instead lets just get the shovels and sometimes picks (depending on how thick and hard it is) and get the manure out of the stalls.  You and I are being watched more than we know.  I know this may upset a few people  but each one of us has ares that can use some tweaking or even complete destruction (are you ready for the shocking part?) even.............(can I say it) even........me.  I had an incident the other morning in a Lowes parking lot. A man came from the side cutting across the parking rows without looking back to see if anyone (in particular me)was there.
Now this is something I practice when the lot is empty (often early in the morning) but I usually go slower and check a bit more than he did.  He came very close to hitting me and I laid on my horn pretty good (which he did need and deserve).  He parked his truck at one end and I proceeded to park closer to the middle to the other end .  I noticed that he was walking my way as I approached the store.  I got a little concerned but kept going as he was a smaller guy.  As he got near he said, "You didn't have to lay on your horn at me as much as you did."  I was a little shocked... even though there was a slight admission to his guilt he was criticizing my hornmanship.  I remained quiet while I quickly analyzed this...God quietly said "He is right"... "But he cut me off!"...  By this time we were entering the store... I lightly put my hand on the back of his shoulder and said "Your right"  and then we parted going our separate ways.  What was God doing? Grabbing another shovel full or two and cleaning out. Was he wrong in his driving? YES.  Was I right to honk? YES.  Was my attitude right?  No.  This incident was no big deal, but it made an adjustmnet in an attitude that was developed or developing within me.  Three days later an SUV tried to t-bone me (to hit a vehicle on the side with the front of their vehicle) within 50 feet of the last incident.  My reaction?... To swerve and no horn (not even a polite honk).   I was protected and today that is good enough for me.

Tales from the woods

On a different hunting trip to the U.P. of Michigan, than the previously discussed excursion (this time with my two "other brothers", Jon and Dave), we found ourselves a bit bored...  Being bored on a hunting trip is a dangerous thing.  Boredom often requires several elements, when combined can produce an undesirable effect that can impact the course of mankind.  The main ingredients of boredom on an hunting trip are: extra time, cold weather, sharply pointed weapons, bad food and no bagged game (any of which by themselves is not good for the average person but being the quality person that I am ,<we are> the pressure built to effect even me ...<us>).  After one morning of successfully freezing my feet and rear end off and downing a less than adequate breakfast (to restore the frozen bits) I retired to catch up on the missed sleep from the night before during which it had snowed and my small tent was worse than cold.  Upon waking from my nap I decided to take some target practice, as up to that point I had nothing of note to shoot at,  I had passed up shots at several June Bugs (hopelessly lost due to the cold) and the occasional snowflake (basically because I was concerned that the release of the bowstring would snap my frozen fingers off).  By the time I woke up and decided to take some target practice the sun was shining and warming up the air to a balmy10 degrees.  My stirring had apparently woke up Jon and Dave who were also trying to recover (apparently the screaming of others moving frost bitten limbs causes sleeplessness)  and seeing me demonstrate my accurately placed shots at a clump of grass they decided to try and show me up.  Unable to match my marksmanship, as my target would often change clumps according to where my arrow had landed, Dave grew increasingly agitated.  He decided, in his elderly wisdom, to add an equalizer to maybe get back some of his machismo.  He proposed to shoot the arrow upwards to see who could get the closest to the target that was 30-40 yards in front of us.  It was a wonderful twist (with the added benefit of learning to shoot accurately over trees and other hunters to get at the deer) with the arrow almost disappearing before coming back down.  Our accuracy was quickly improving as we shot, so to keep it competitive Dave would move the target closer, 5-10 yards at a time (which would enable us to shoot those wily deer, which would often stand behind a tree in an obvious infraction of true sportsmanship). As the target got closer our ability to follow the arrow near its apex diminished.  On one almost fatal shot Dave lost sight of his arrow... we panicked and scattered, obviously we all still had frozen limbs because there was also no lack of screaming... only to find the arrow about 20 feet behind where we were shooting from!  Needless to say we quit practicing and left that shot for use under real and ideal circumstances (fewer people around and equipped with our army helmets).
A lot of us live lives as close to sinning that we can get... losing our temper repetitively, demanding our own ways, looking at and "considering" the opposite sex, letting our thoughts wander and so on and so on....
"What, I need to change and go in the opposite direction?"...  "You mean I need to live a life of blessing and caring for others instead of cursing them? You don't understand... they are jerks!"
Why do we try to keep as many of our bad habits and attitudes as we can and still get into heaven? Living a life with God is one of change and it is not on His part.  Selfishness is at the center of the old man, keeping your habits and attitudes is an act of selfishness to keep the old man ways.  Blindly shooting and hoping you make it is a surefire way to lose your life... the wrong way!

Getting down to the nitty gritty

Toe stepping time...  Being a christian is not going to church services,  it is not "praying",  reading the Word on a regular basis or even saying "the prayer".   It is the invitation to have God actually come into your life and you partaking His life and Him partaking yours.  There will be change and probably a lot of it.  The longer you claim to be a christian (a little Christ, or Christ like one) the more smooth your "edges" and actions and reactions  should become.  To put it more simple for you all to understand...  if you claim to be a believer and are acting like a bitch and either have not changed out of that mindset or have not pleaded with God to change you or or at a minimum asked Him to show you when you are, so you can apologize to those you were a "B" to, or at least gone to someone close that you can trust, like a spouse and say  "Okay I recognize my short comings and need help.  When I get that way, say the word 'lavender' ." (and may I add. when they say 'lavender' don't take it out on them),  I don't believe that you can be a true believer  (because you are not changing or morphing into the image of Jesus).  You are are still sitting in your poopy pants, sucking on your thumb and looking ridiculous.
Here is a good (really its bad) one,  ever been around someone that gets mad or bitchy for not having things their own way and then in a matter of minutes start talking about Jesus?  Later they complain about how hard you are and wonder why you haven't gotten saved and/or become like them?  You are not required to be perfect in the flesh but transitioning toward perfection  and accepting correction is.  We all have our faults, you may be lazy, obnoxious, bossy, irritable, a perfectionist and expecting everyone else to be just like you, you may demanding and expecting everyone to behave up to your standards and there is more... ( you may be manifesting every sin of the flesh but a true believer will be changing and accepting change.) Are you in the process or still in your diaper not wanting change? I heard recently that our elected office holders are like diapers... if we don't change them frequently, they tend to stink.  If you aren't changed regularly your witness (or representation of God) will stink too.

IMPORTANT ADDENDUM
If you think that I am pointing this at you, you are right! Although this is not "at" any one individual, it is toward everyone!   I have heard a recent stat that showed that 80% of the youth in the "church" never come back and/or some find other religions that "meet their needs".  I believe that there are two things going on...
First, there is the hypocrisy that you and I portray for them (as shown above), without the proper repentance toward God and man (people really can look past our faults if we can be real enough to admit them), because we have not truly met the Master (with the meeting comes change.  See also the prior post on meeting angels).  Secondly, we give them the history and info about God, but not the reality of relationship or lead them to have their own meeting with Him.  DO NOT BE THE STUMBLING BLOCK THAT KEEPS OTHERS OUT OF THE KINGDOM.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE IN THIS LIFETIME.  (No, I did not accidentally hit the cap lock....) I AM SHOUTING!!!