Was watching Star Wars Episode 1 the other night, just minding my own business, when all of a sudden Yoda says this cryptic statement, and God starts to talk to me through it. Here's what he said-- " Fear is the path to the dark side, because fear leads to anger, and anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering."
WHOA.
Preach it Yoda. This is what I've been trying to say for quite some time now. WE'VE GOT TO STOP BEING AFRAID OF GOD. Because if you are, it will cause you to be angry at Him. Whether you think about it conciously or not. And how can you possibly be in love with someone you are afraid of?? And since faith works through love, THEN HOW CAN YOUR FAITH WORK WHEN YOU ARE BEING AFRAID OF HIM??
Respect, yes, honor, yes, aknowledgement that He is God, and the Creator of ALL things and therefore the one in charge, the Head Honcho, The One who knows what's best for you, and is worth trusting, and follwing, yes YES YES. But fear? NO. Emphatically and desperately NO!
Anger always follows fear. If you are living in fear of God, you will be angry at Him, and your faith will have a BIG FAT HOLE in it. One which the devil will be able to exploit to his advantage.
You must understand that God loves you... Infinitely, deeply, passionately, and truly. Forever. And you MUST live your life from this foundation. What is the one thing that the Bible says never fails?? Love. YOU may fail, those around you may fail, but love never fails. And God is love.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Repent
So I was thinking today about how many times in the Bible God is telling us to , "Repent! Repent!!" I mean, the old testament is almost nothing but that. (Which, by the way, brings up another good point--namely, the purpose of the law being to show that we can't live that way, underneath it, because God kept having to tell them to repent over and over and over again!) But nevertheless, back to my original point. The Bible is full of calls to repentance. Especially in the old testament, but throughout the new testament as well. Repent, repent, repent. Almost gets kind of scary, doesn't it? NO!! And here's why not!
Was also thinking today about how most PEOPLE respond to seeing someone else doing something obviously wrong or evil. How you and I respond to the people we see doing bad things in the world around us. How I respond, when I see someone doing something that I know is wrong, to hurt somebody else, or themselves. We, as human beings usually respond with such anger that it's amazing. We, I want to usually go over and stop them, and sometimes the ways that I think of using to stop them are not very nice. There's the key.
None of us think twice about the ways we respond to the evil we see around us in the world, however much damage we may inflict upon the person who's doing the bad thing; verbally, mentally, or even physically. None of us think twice about feeling justified in our feelings of rage, anger, and vengeance. In fact, we even tend to think that we are on God's good side when we are feeling those ways, because this person/people are obviously so freaking wrong and evil. In short, you and I and the rest of the human race feel good about about smashing evil people, and destroying them.
But God doesn't. God never crushes them between His fingers in righteous anger and indignation. He doesn't just automatically snuff out anybody who he sees is doing wrong. Which He most certainly could at any given time, as we all know. All He does is tell them to CHANGE!
I hope that just sank into you like it just did for me. We think nothing of our own evil desires to hurt and destroy people (all in the name of righteousness), all the while living comfortably in one another's company, not fearing each other, and all the while living in fear of God who has no desire to destroy anyone. PROVEN by the fact that none of us are destroyed on a daily basis, but are only continuously, out of love, told to CHANGE.
What in the world are we thinking?? How flipping backwards can one race of beings be?? God we need help.
And to be fair, and completely accurate, God did decide at a couple of places in the old testament to just wipe out everybody. Namely, the flood, that killed everybody. But when He was done doing that, He said this, apparently feeling bad about the whole thing--"I will never again curse the ground for man's sake...nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done."
Constant calls to repentance are a sign of His love and mercy, not His anger.
Was also thinking today about how most PEOPLE respond to seeing someone else doing something obviously wrong or evil. How you and I respond to the people we see doing bad things in the world around us. How I respond, when I see someone doing something that I know is wrong, to hurt somebody else, or themselves. We, as human beings usually respond with such anger that it's amazing. We, I want to usually go over and stop them, and sometimes the ways that I think of using to stop them are not very nice. There's the key.
None of us think twice about the ways we respond to the evil we see around us in the world, however much damage we may inflict upon the person who's doing the bad thing; verbally, mentally, or even physically. None of us think twice about feeling justified in our feelings of rage, anger, and vengeance. In fact, we even tend to think that we are on God's good side when we are feeling those ways, because this person/people are obviously so freaking wrong and evil. In short, you and I and the rest of the human race feel good about about smashing evil people, and destroying them.
But God doesn't. God never crushes them between His fingers in righteous anger and indignation. He doesn't just automatically snuff out anybody who he sees is doing wrong. Which He most certainly could at any given time, as we all know. All He does is tell them to CHANGE!
I hope that just sank into you like it just did for me. We think nothing of our own evil desires to hurt and destroy people (all in the name of righteousness), all the while living comfortably in one another's company, not fearing each other, and all the while living in fear of God who has no desire to destroy anyone. PROVEN by the fact that none of us are destroyed on a daily basis, but are only continuously, out of love, told to CHANGE.
What in the world are we thinking?? How flipping backwards can one race of beings be?? God we need help.
And to be fair, and completely accurate, God did decide at a couple of places in the old testament to just wipe out everybody. Namely, the flood, that killed everybody. But when He was done doing that, He said this, apparently feeling bad about the whole thing--"I will never again curse the ground for man's sake...nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done."
Constant calls to repentance are a sign of His love and mercy, not His anger.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)