A Life Well Lived

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: ~2 Corinthians 3:2 

I had a really weird dream a while back.  Perhaps it was the result of too much cold medicine. Or perhaps it was the result of a rather unhealthy late night snack I decided to eat.  I have no idea. However, the craziness of it did get me thinking....

The dream:
I am on a road trip with a group of people I know very well, whom I have traveled with often. The purpose of our trip is a very special event we are to attend in the town of our destination. We arrive at a nice upper scale hotel and settle in our rooms to go to sleep.  The next morning we get ready and eat breakfast.

This is where all normalcy goes out the window....

After the breakfast we are just standing around outside in the pretty weather and sunshine, doing nothing of great importance.  In fact, to my bewilderment, a friend eventually starts trying to ask me to do something, something that I keep questioning if I am understanding correctly. It appears she is wanting me to water....a little pond? or was it a ditch?  At this point in the dream I have forgotten the actual reason we are there in the first place, but I do remember that there IS a reason and it is important. I keep looking around at everyone doing their own thing, thinking, "What in the world is going on?!"

The next thing I know we are in a vehicle, headed home. At this point I start remembering why we drove the 4-5 hours in the first place, look at the lady next to me and ask, "Is [the event] cancelled?...What ARE we doing?!"  She gives me an "I have no clue" look. At this point the drivers,while still in the destination town, stop at some beautiful scenic place that, despite the fact that I am still in Arkansas (I think), looks like Arizona. They get out with their cameras, so I dig for mine too, still thinking and asking every once in a while, "Why are we here again?!...Are we REALLY going home without even going to [the event]?!...I'm so confused!...."

And that is how I woke up...very very confused. My first thought was, "what an utterly pointless dream!"  But then, as I thought more on it, I realized that some people live their lives like this dream...

There had been a purpose. And that purpose has been forgotten.

How many people have started out with a clear understanding of the purpose God has for them, and they start in that direction.  But then, something happens. Perhaps they start to forget, then they see lots of other people just standing around, and it all begins to seem normal. In my dream, our trip had a purpose.  A purpose that wasn't being fulfilled.  This agitated me, both when I was fully aware of it and when I wasn't. I believe that same feeling is present in everyone that isn't fulfilling their full purpose.

First, every individual on this earth is born with the same purpose: to worship the One who created them. The problem comes when they don't know this or they stray from it. Then, like in my dream, nothing ever seems quite right.

Think about it...if you are "rapture ready" at this moment and God hasn't taken you yet, there is a reason you're still here, and it has nothing to do with your own personal pleasure.

During my dream, at one point, I was asked to spend time doing something that would have been absolutely pointless and a waste of time.  At another point we were simply distracted by something God himself had created. Yes, He had created that beautiful scene for us to enjoy, but our timing was off.

What is the point of this trip called life, if, at the end of it, when you are facing eternity, all you feel like you've done is whatever was popular, whatever was easy, whatever brought the most praise, etc?

In John 10:10, Jesus says, "... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." 

The word abundant can be defined as "superior, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon, or more excellent."

When I looked up the meaning of the word "epistle" as used in the scripture at the beginning of this blog, it does not just define it as a "letter" as I have heard many people say, but rather as a "composition" in the form of a letter.  A composition is something into which one puts great effort and thought. A musical arrangement is known as a composition. The love expressed through the usage of this word by Paul, the writer of 2 Corinthians, doesn't even come close to expressing how much more the composition of your life is written in God's heart. 

God wants your life to be lived in full abundance and He wants you, as an epistle, to live so fully and with such purpose that the light in you shines on the darkened paths of those around you in such a way that they can't help but ask where they also may find this light.

Perhaps you are one that is on that darkened path.You feel like there is more to life, and you are searching around in darkness, tripping here, stumbling there, reaching out, knowing that somewhere there has got to be light somewhere and a better way to live this thing called life.You're searching for purpose...for meaning. That void you feel was created by the God who made you, and it can only be filled by the God who made you. No drug, no lifestyle, no person, and no amount of money can fill it.  You were created by God and you can only experience true fulfillment through God.

It's quite simple: If you're walking in darkness, turn toward the light. 

Let Him heal you. Let Him restore you. Let Him direct you.

(If you would like to know more about beginning a relationship with Christ, feel free to contact me!)

Complacency - Condition #1

Complacency - "self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies"
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

I believe the church of today's greatest enemy is a spirit of complacency. It's like a sickness trying to suck the life out of saints, affecting individuals in two different ways: One in causing them to gradually drift further and further from God, while not even realizing it. The second, if they aren't drifting, in causing them to be content with whatever state or condition they are in, instead of continuing to move closer to God and whatever calling He might have for their life.

Revelation 3:15-17 says:

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Many of my close friends and myself have been blessed to have been raised in The Church by godly parents, having a sheltered home life. In most ways, this is a blessing, but in one way, if one isn't careful, it can be a curse. When people have not been brought up around something, or came face to face with a certain issue before, they might tend to think they are immune to being tempted by it. Examples of this could be drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, lying, perverse language, etc (aka: any sin).

I don't believe most sincere Christians consciously conspire to commit a sin; I believe most of them are right smack in the middle of it or have already done it, when they realize what has happened. Most true Christian's greatest failure is not the committing of a sin, but the allowance of complacency into their hearts. The definition above refers to complacency involving an "unwareness of actual dangers and deficiencies". A Christian who has lived his or her life faithfully and rarely fallen is apt to look at a verse like Proverbs 4:15 and think it's a good verse, but not one they need to worry about too much. I mean, after all, don't they live a good and holy life? Temptation rarely comes their way anyway....

.....And gradually the guards start coming down. This is when the devil smiles and begins planning.

When a Christian begins to think this way, he does to himself what God did to Job; he takes down his own hedge. This is a very dangerous way to live. And, according to Revelation 3:15-17, God is not at all ok with this.

A few months back I was helping babysit my twin niece and nephew; at the time they were only about 10 months old. As I was watching them stand, holding onto the coffee table for balance, one of them reached over to the other and grabbed the other's hair...for absolutely no reason. The other in turn wacked the perpetrator on the head. 10 months old. Can't walk; hardly can talk---but that sinful nature is already evident. Don't get me wrong; I personally think they are angels..But God says that we are all born sinners. (Psalms 51:5)

Having been born sinners we must NEVER let our own hedge down. satan will grasp at any opportunity to catch us with our guard down. And sometimes it's not satan, it's man's own carnality, but satan is given the credit as a way of bypassing personal fault.

In my opinion, the root cause of complacency is no doubt usually pride and/ or ignorance. Pride, as in thinking one is above and personally stronger than any situation one may face, and ignorance, as in not using prudence in deciphering whether one should even place oneself in said situation in the first place. Separately these are dangerous, but together, they can make for a very deadly combination.

This said, no matter how close a Christian may feel to God, how many hours a day they pray, how many souls they've won, how many solos they've sung, etc..., they must never allow themselves to think they are above reproach. Plan ahead, if you know sin will be present or possible, "Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." Don't go to that party, have that conversation, be alone with that person, go in that store, watch that movie, listen to that song,...the list could go on forever. But also, in case you find yourself in a situation that you can't get out of, you need to have decided ahead of time how you are going to face it in a godly manner, and make a promise to God that that's exactly what you'll do.

I Corinthians 9:27:

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

James 5:12 says:

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation

II Peter 3:17:

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness

Psalms 73:2-3, 17:

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked....Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

If you have read all this and are thinking "That's great...but what if it would have done me more good too have read this (insert whatever amount of time) ago, before I found myself in such and such situation?" Well, a friend and I read a quote recently and decided that we liked it very much: "Mistakes are lessons that you need to learn."...ok, now read it again, but slowly. I know, you were probably expecting something more deep, but still, this statement is so true. If you make a mistake: repent, learn from it, & don't do it again. If you learn the lesson well the first time, you might well become an even better person because of it.

Guard your thoughts, they become words. Guard your words, they become actions. Guard your actions, they form habits. Guard your habits, they form your character. Guard your character, it determines where you spend your destiny.

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