Grand Canyon Let’s take a picture. It involves straight-arrow aiming of the camera box but also a precisely focused lens. But whoa, a true photographer adds a whole lot more than this. Modern technology has yielded polished lenses, filters for light, color film and camera-steadying devices. All of these components are carefully selected for the perfect shot. The flash timed specifically, the moment caps. The goal; capture the image, as true-to-life as possible, but also warmth or frigidity, beauty or distaste. The professional wants us to smell and taste the scene or portrait. To observe the mere silhouette of a beautiful garden would be a sham. Much like the picture taking illustration, penetrating impressions impact our human eyes; they emerge clear, through focus and repetitive review. “Apprehension,” (grabbing) starts the process. It sets the right tools and grabs the best image. More developing, however, transfers that best image to permanent…
Tag: <span>Spiritual priorities</span>
Josh and Puddle Sometimes folks can’t focus in life, lured away toward a seductive universe, one featuring a soothing state of mental relaxation, centering problems removed. Let’s explain. People with attention deficit disorder are known to have remarkable powers of concentration without distraction, but only in the world of their chosen fantasy. Amazing. The more a person succumbs to the alluring facade, the less able they are to concentrate on other things? Interesting and telling. A person watches porn on the internet or immerses themselves in a video game, or plays excessive bingo, or whatever they give their heart to, and the real world becomes a loathsome chore. Not too hard to understand. How can the natural course of life compete with such intense and provocative views that challenge, stimulate and require some perceived risk? Likewise, some believers are distracted from fervent preaching and teaching of the Word, because they…
Wagon Wheels at Jerome Arizona 1989 What is important to us? Again, what is important to you? You might say, “Why do you ask?” and I would reply, “Because, if we know this kind of info about a person, we basically know them. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he,” so says the Bible. “Heart” thinking contrasts with “mind” thinking as “heart” displays a habit of thinking. Heart involves thoughts which have been focused upon often, believed on; enough to create a pattern in the heart/processor. Like a depository, they become our fixed and steady stuff. They got this way because they have importance to us, or otherwise they would not have stuck. So, again the question, what is important to you? Sooner or later all could find this out to a degree, if they hang out with you long enough. See, this kind of info records…
Wherein does restraint come from? For a grace person, the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, the Person, becomes my new restrictor. He is also known as the Spirit of grace in Heb 10:29. In John 13 He convicts. What does this mean? It means I can no longer use grace as a license to sin because He has the ability to make my life miserable when I do. How? Well, when The Holy Spirit, becomes grieved or quenched, He withdraws Himself, and this takes away the witness of my son-ship. He points out my failure, and encourages me to change my mind. If He is pushed to the periphery, the sense of God’s love and my security in Him also fade. Grace loses it’s practicality in my experience. If I ignore all His pleadings, He lets me reap what I have sown. See, the belittling of grace becomes a mockery…
We have a wedding in our family this weekend and I must do the ring ceremony. Oh boy! What to say? Vows? Well, regardless of my speech impediments, vows, vows, vows are commitments of a special kind. Our marrying candidates will circulate their rings amongst the congregation as the ceremony proceeds, and ask for all to have a special prayer for them. Is this for real? I asked the question also. Answer– extremely real. Why? Because vows are not lightly taken . Our society has left God out of the mix, and recreated a blend in which vows today are not so popular. As a culture, we have taught our children directly or indirectly that vows and commitments are too extreme. We have intimated that they are too hard to keep and have allowed our children to break promises left and right. How have we done this?…
So the opposers, careful and calculated, return with some smashing outside maneuvers. Another go-at-it brings up the question of natural law and Civil law. The cliches begin “so you are teaching people they don’t have to follow laws” The ‘end around’ insinuates ‘grace’ is the equivalent of anarchy. Boldly expressed, the latest maneuver messes with the mind. In the eyes of the competition, grace people always rebel against societal order. Lets think about why this is not true. In a good way, ‘control’ is an important concept here. A secret to the healed soul finds a person stepping out of a wounded soul via yielding to Holy Spirit-control. Not Law-control or self-control but Spirit-control eliminates the nonsense. In Proverbs 16:32 we see the principle of ruling our spirit. This in the Hebrew also carries the meaning “become like” our spirit. So,…
“All language has taken an oath to fail to describe Him; any attempt to do so is the height of arrogance and will always declare some kind of war” – Meister Eckhart Let’s talk logics. OK. Deductions, having reasonable presuppositions, encapsulate good logic, right? Yes. In other words, having a set of pre-supposers (things we take for granted as true); to form a protected disposition of mind, ranks high in our logical scheme, right? Yes; well maybe. What am I getting at? Many of man’s pre-disposed value-systems sophisticatedly only entertain carefully selected concepts. But where cometh these concepts? Well, any topic bringing a reaction in the emotions will soon be screened out of a person’s consciousness. What remains, become presuppositions. Some call this process narrow-minded thinking, but being temperamentally cool and in a stable mood sets the goal of the soul, right? Psychological deductions build safe pre-supposed areas, awesome if…