Also, Inventory pt5
Really quick, before I go any further. We’ve had to cancel our Thursday Men’s Fellowships twice in a row – the first time was for personal reasons of our host, and the second time, yesterday, was because of the weather.
Now, I did cancel the meetings but I didn’t hold back on sharing some Scripture for them to meditate on… and, the thing is, I should have been meditating on it too.
So yeah, before I go any further, I’d like to quickly cover and share my thoughts on what I had others meditate on for last week, and this week.
October 10, 2024
Setting an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.1 Timothy 4:12
• In which of these areas do you find it most challenging to set a good example?
- Folks who know me personally know that I have the greatest challenge in setting an example in speech. I mean, under controllable circumstances, I’m able to at least get a compounded point across… but, more than that, I’m able to keep my speech ‘clean’, if you know what I mean. I still swear a lot, but I think that I’ve least gotten ‘better’, the more I’ve relied on Christ and His word.
- I suppose I could also be open about how it’s a challenge for me to be ‘pure’, at least according to how the world expects people, much more ministers, to be ‘pure’. I mean, I’ve already disqualified myself in a whole bunch of people’s books, because of the swearing – how much more if my thoughts were recorded, right?
- So, sure, these are my challenges, But I’d like to indicate that I’m only so confident in sharing all this that could compromise me, here, because they aren’t challenges that don’t have solutions. As mentioned earlier, if anything these challenges drive me to rely on Christ and His Word all the more.
• How can young men earn respect despite their age?
- Quick answer to this is to look towards their wise elders for examples in speech and conduct. And they’ll know a ‘wise elder’ by way of the love they demonstrate beyond words, the faith they project in their decisions and plans, and the purity that they show through their actions and reactions.
- A young man who acknowledges the love of Christ as seen through His elders, and so reflects the same love to others, automatically, naturally gains security; Respect is only a byproduct of this cycle of love.
• What does it mean to be an example in each of these areas in today’s world?
- One must decide to speak in a manner which he is confident in, versus easily giving in to how the world insists that he speaks. But on the other hand, he shouldn’t be alienating the words of the world, but should acknowledge them, and react and respond with grace.
- A man must make the active decision to respect himself, to respect those in his level, those older than him, those younger than him, women, orphans and the oppressed. It’s a daunting task on its own, but one easily faced and handled by way of recognizing and appreciating Christ’s own conduct towards us.
- Finally, we love as Christ loves us. We move in the faith that Christ has authored and will finish in us, and as discussed in previous writings, we strive towards purity and sanctification, knowing that Christ has already perfected us for all time by one sacrifice.
Whoops. That was from the second Thursday of the month, when I actually did discuss all of this with the men, face to face. Oh well.
October 17, 2024
Choosing to serve the Lord
14 “Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua 24:14-15
• What does it mean to “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”?
- It means to make an intentional choice to receive Christ and to live, and move, and have your being in Him.
• How can a man’s choice to serve the Lord impact his household?
- What a man believes not merely impacts him personally, but it impacts his household the same way. A man ministers to himself by choosing to serve the Lord above anyone or anything else, and the benefits of such a decision would naturally follow – or, for the sake of this question, these benefits are not only seen, but certainly felt by those in the same household.
• What are some competing “gods” in our society that we might be tempted to serve?
- We are our own gods until we realize the goodness and greatness of God. We’re primarily our own fallen gods, who then fall for the other ‘gods’ of this world, which are quickly portrayed by Christian media, in such examples as the seven deadly sins: Pride, Lust, Ego, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, and Wrath.
October 24, 2024
The blessings of a man who fears the Lord
Psalm 128
Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the LORD
A SONG OF ASCENTS.
1 Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways!
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD.
5 The LORD bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!
6 May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel!
• What does it mean to “fear the Lord” in this context?
- Even if it isn’t in this context, I believe that the ‘fear of the Lord’ is not a terror of Him, but a respectful awe of Him. To fear the Lord is to believe in the Lord, and to believe in the Lord is to acknowledge, respect and revere that He is who He says He is.
- When we say He is who He says He is, we could not help but think of just how great, how glorious, how good and how gracious He is – and it is, quite frankly, much more than we could ever take in with our limited senses!
• How does fearing the Lord impact our work, family, and community life?
- When we fear the Lord, again, we’re acknowledging and receiving the truth of how great, how glorious, how good and how gracious He is – condensing it further, we see and take in His goodness and His greatness, and how they come together. I believe His greatness leads us to humility, and His goodness leads us to gratefulness and thankfulness.
- It is with this humility that we move in our workplace and/or in our studies. We react to whatever happens to us with humility.
- It’s this gratefulness that impacts our attitude with our family and friends, our acquaintances, and even our enemies. We are moved to act from this thankfulness.
• What are some blessings you’ve experienced from walking in God’s ways?
- There’s peace that goes beyond understanding, revelations that would have otherwise stayed hidden… and really, just confidence that even in the worst that can happen, I enjoy Christ, the best thing that has ever happened to me.
- They aren’t blessings as the world insists – not by any means – but they’re REAL blessings in my book!
Okay, sorry, but did I also mention that I do have Bible discussions with the worship team as well? I have been up-to-date with them, save for what’s discussed today, which I’m preparing and sharing here first:
October 24, 2024
Worship as a living sacrifice
For the sake of our English-resistant friends in discussion, I share the following:
Kaya nga, mga kapatid, alang-alang sa masaganang habag ng Diyos sa atin, ako’y nakikiusap na ialay ninyo ang inyong sarili bilang isang handog na buháy, banal at kalugud-lugod sa Diyos. Ito ang karapat-dapat na pagsamba ninyo sa Diyos. Huwag kayong makiayon sa takbo ng mundong ito. Mag-iba kayo sa pamamagitan ng pagbabago ng inyong pag-iisip upang maunawaan ninyo ang kalooban ng Diyos; kung ano ang mabuti, kalugud-lugod at ganap na kalooban niya.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.Romans 12:1-2
• How is our entire life an act of worship?
- I’d probably rephrase this and say life IS an act of worship. We keep saying it – every beat of our hearts is a worship song, and every breath we take is a worship service on its own. And how can I say this? It’s because every single second we exist in this dark, sinful, fallen world is a second that we also spend in the presence of our eternal, infinite Father.
- From another viewpoint, we can quote David Foster Wallace, who says the following: “Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.”
- So, yeah, it’s pretty dark – but did you catch what he said about if we worship ‘some sort of god’? – it’s that, unlike anything else in creation, we will not be ‘eaten alive’.
- But here’s the thing – it’s just Jesus Christ out of all those he mentioned that was willing to be ‘eaten’, as in the bread of life – whoever eats of Him will never hunger. Something to think about!
• What does it mean to be transformed by the renewing of our mind?
- If we want some sort of transformation in our lives, it begins with how we transform our minds – or, rather, it starts with the renewing of our mind, or the way we think. We change the way we think, we change the way we live, we change our lives.
• How can our worship services encourage “living sacrifices”?
- We can certainly do this by way of telling them upfront that worship isn’t just limited to singing or dancing. We tell them what we said a while back – that our lives THEMSELVES are a continuous act of worship. We remind them that we are temples of the Holy Spirit.
I’ve been burning through words like it’s crazy these past few days, and I’m just happy – that is, I’m thankful for divine intervention, and in this case a gentle nudge by the Holy Spirit, for me, before anything, to establish:
Why in the world am I doing this when I could be doing other things?
I could – actually, a good part of me says that I SHOULD – be working on establishing some sort of income source. I COULD just be working on this coming Sunday’s message.
I guess you can say that from one point of view, I’m playing a HUGE game of catch-up here… working on and hopefully eventually finishing writing series I’ve imposed on myself ever since as early as the start of this year (or, hell, even last year), not to say that I’ve finished them, but really to see what’s there to ‘extract’ from all the writing, in terms of insights or stuff.
I’m mining for revelations, towards direction. And believe me, something is telling me that I can just feed all of this into and AI and see what it has to say… wait. For the record, I HAVE utilized AI, and it’s helped me, but I’m still insisting on doing this grunt work – besides, I don’t think Claude and ChatGPT have something to get out of their chest… but I certainly do.
Yeah, one reason why I’m insisting on playing this masochistic game of writing a whole lot more than I expect to write within such a small amount of time, is because I wouldn’t be able to settle down until I DO get it all out of my chest. Out of my brain.
I can’t explain it, or at least, let me try – In all the typing, and all the posting, there seem to be some thoughts that can easily be said to come up at random that would otherwise stay dormant or hidden. And I seem to like bringing myself to a point of mental exhaustion, where I’m not thinking about anything as much as I’m used to… and for some reason, that’s where the ‘primo’ revelations come it.
(I ask you, does ANY of this make any sense?)
I’m reminding myself now – I’m doing this for the smaller particles of dust to be rinsed out, so all that’s left is clear water. I’m doing this to let the water flow through the sifting pan, so I could take the small flakes of precious gold. It’s a mental gold-panning.
More than the gold money I know I need, I’m prioritizing mental jewelry in this critical season, so I’m naturally flowing, free from tension in the days and weeks to come, and in the divine appointments and the opportunities that I’m thinking are coming… I’m prioritizing clarity and direction, in face of upcoming events that won’t just be shaking the world, shaking my mind in the future, but are literally shaking my house, even right now.
And with all that in mind, here’s something from October 4 that I just had to write down.
I think the difference between now and back then, that December 2011, was that I was too focused on getting good pictures while I was in Colorado during winter… I wanted to enjoy, I wanted to take those good pictures, I wanted both, but I ended up with nothing.
Sounds familiar to another recent post I made in X:
October 17 was a night that featured a beautiful supermoon. I was thankful to have the opportunity to shoot that, sure, but I found myself waking up and getting out of bed without feeling groggy the next day, at 5:30 in the morning. I take a quick look outside and I see that the supermoon was still out, and was just waiting to be shot.
Long story short, I wanted to take both the sun rising AND the moon setting, I thought too much about it and ended up shooting no moonset, no decent sunrise, just whatever that was – and there was a lot of dust on my sensor, to boot.
My point in all this, thank you, is that I’m not about to take this time thinking too much about what I’m going to be getting from all of the writing.
And there, just there, I just clarified with myself that it’s not the flakes of gold that I’m looking for – No, in this season, with all this blasted writing, you know what I really want? I just want to freaking flow, man.
In all that’s going on from within, and all that’s happening in the present… I just want to flow.
In all that we’re expecting to happen in the next few days, the next month, the end of the year, and next year… I just want to not merely run to, but move with the waters.
In all that’s happened in the past, and in all the disasters, the regrets and the victories I have yet to appreciate… I just want to be in that state of mind where peace truly transcends and goes beyond understanding.
Why am I doing all this, when I could be doing better things? I just want to flow with my Creator, my Father, my Savior – Trusting Him and committing all things to Him before anything else, by way of just dumping everything out of my head into these posts.
I’m sick of the overthinking. I’m so sick of being out of timing. I’m sick and tired of being anxious, then frustrated. I’m sick of planning, only to find out I’m preparing to be disappointed.
I want to flow, and stay in this flow. Forever.
So with all that said, well, this didn’t turn out ‘really quick’ as I started this article off with. We’ve covered a lot of ground here, and if you’re still reading all this, for the life of me, I don’t know why you are, but thanks anyway.
May you find the clarity and peace we all need in all this confusion and anxiety.
May all of us in the Body of Christ shine divine light in this great darkness, as the Light and Life are alive in us.
May our God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) be glorified in all this.
Until the next post, God bless you abundantly, completely, absolutely. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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