(November Thought Compilation – Set 3)
Navigating Life
Thoughts while observing and shooting the North Star, Polaris – well, now that I’m going through this material again anyway, I’m remembering a line by Seneca: ‘If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.’
We’ve kept saying, and I still believe that the other side of the coin applies: ‘If one does know to which port one is sailing, every wind is favorable.’ I’ve no literal port to head to, but Polaris reminds me that you can always go North. However you’re swayed; Or, in line with what’s going on this season, however you’re rearranged, you can always look to the North; This way it jives with when we say that even setbacks are setups for future success.
In Christ is Life, and this Life is the Light of men. This same Christ who provides – no, IS our Life and our Light, as a star? He is coincidentally our Way, much as He is our Truth, and again, our Life. He is the Light within us, much as He is the Light we see.
And because we know and ARE known by the Light we head to, every wind is favorable.
I have to stop here and think, am I pushing this too far? Am I trying too hard? I wonder if ChatGPT can help me with analyzing and answering that. Is this too much of a stretch? Should I even care?
Something else I wrote in line with Polaris: I still care about what people think. At least in things that threaten me or cause me anxiety.
Thankful that even in these confusing times (where the confusion is self-induced), Christ IS Light.
#NavigatingLife #Direction #ChristIsLight #Perspective #Guidance #MinistryJourney #InnerLight
No Scrub
Speaking about what people think, and what people think we ought to be thinking:
It was a thought prevailing over me that my Mom was someone I should take care of and watch over, but our conversation last night revealed two things: (1) that my Mom is already well taken care of by the Lord, and (2) I’m blessed with her wisdom and counsel.
When I see things this way I don’t have any more bitterness towards anyone else (I.e. my brothers) and I’m reminded, that one lyric in that one TLC song is only one perspective to what it means to ‘live at home with yo momma’.
I may be seen as a Scrub, but I am a Man. A King. But the King is still the Prince to his Empress, just as he is still the Prince to his Emperor.
#Mothers #Wisdom #PerspectiveShift #LifeLessons #ParentalLove #KingsAndEmperors #Family #SelfReflections #MinistryJourney
Christ, our Refuge
And more about those powers that be, the ones that think they have a say in what we ought to be thinking:
Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD? There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You would shame the plans of the poor, but the LORD is his refuge.
Psalms 14:4-6
They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”
Psalms 82:5-7
God is OUR refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
Psalms 46:1-3
In the confusion from within and without, the message does stay the same: Those of us in Christ, we call upon the Lord, for He is our refuge.
We will not fear, they will continue to be in terror. They claim to have leverage on the facts and Truth, but they have no knowledge or understanding, for they themselves do not call upon the name of the Lord. They are in darkness.
They may go as far as to eat us up, and they would shame our plans. Yet we shall say, as the Psalmist says: “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”
In light of what we just talked about regarding speaking Christ, here we state the bad news – the humbling news, the cloud inside the silver lining: Without the Light, we shall die and fall… If only to lead them to our Light:
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Psalms 13:5-6
Christ is the Light we call upon. And because we call upon Him, because we recognize and appreciate how He is our refuge, our strength and our help, we live, and we rise. Though the external propaganda and the internal, old thoughts may have their turn in ravaging our being, the Truth remains: We are moving from glory to glory.
Though the foundations are shaken, though the mountains be moved to the heart of the sea… Let us trust in His love. Let us rejoice in His salvation.
#ChristOurRefuge #TrustInGod #FaithOverFear #GloryToGlory #LightAndDarkness #JoyOfSalvation #TruthPrevails
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see;
they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.
Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.
Psalms 135:15-18
When we talk about the work of human hands I suppose this isn’t just limited to idols of literal physical material. I suppose we ought to expand this to mindsets, memories, and ideas – and there’s another perspective to obsession. You obsess over someone meaning you make an idol of that person based on your making your limited perspective of the person as his or her entire being – just as you put anything else in all of Creation in the place where only the Creator is to stay.
These physical statues, or these mental constructs – they may have mouths indeed, but more than saying that they don’t speak, we imagine, even insist that they speak. They have eyes and ears but we daydream and imagine and even allow ourselves to be deceived, recalling or even assuming we know what they see or hear at any given moment.
Just as they are separated from reality, so we who make them are separated from reality as well.
Pastor Rhey told the Mindanao folks that you become what you believe – which is true but i add, that what you trust, you believe – and what you believe, you trust.
(from November 17, 2023)
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Ezekiel 36:25-27
And would you look at that – we can certainly trust in the Lord regarding our idols, physical or mental. In observance of this prophecy, and understanding Christ being the fulfillment, we can say that not only have we been cleansed of sin, but Christ has also cleansed us from all our idols.
How? By making us new creations through His resurrection. This implies that we have a new heart (a heart of flesh) and a new Spirit obedient to God, and our entire being is now averse to what we used to idolize.
#CleanInChrist #NewHeart #TrustInGod #FreedomFromIdols #ResurrectionPower #MindsetShift #NewCreation
313797/365000
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment