the "deeper" life

im convinced that the so called deeper life of a christian is really no more than this....being humble enough to shut up about the deeper life and just live it out with grace and longsuffering.

so there you have it, the deeper life youve been seeking so desperately is right in front of you....now do you really want it?

i just cut out all the religious verbage and saved you a bunch of time and money you would have spent on the "deep" things of christianity

growth

If you pay attention you can determine if someone is honestly interested in your personal growth. The difference between people that encourage you to think critically and people that just want you to think like them is that: people that want to teach you HOW to think can accept disagreement and conflict. People that want to teach you WHAT to think can't handle disagreement. When there is no agreement there is no peace with those kind of people. What we should be looking for are people that encourage us to think for ourselves not think like them.
You can disagree with me if you're at least using your head and thinking critically, but if you call me an idiot because I disagree with you for logical reasons....all you really want from me is for me to agree with you. So what kind of argument do you have then? You don't have an argument, you have an opinion....and it happens to be one I disagree with :)

synchronicity

Lately I've really been learning a lot of things about myself that were previously undiscovered and some things that had been forgotten or not very well understood. With that being said it really got my attention when a necklace I've had for at least 10 years broke tonight. I found it terribly synchronus that in the midst of my growing and shedding of old patterns, mindsets and habits that something I've held onto for so long would come apart on me. Another thing rather interesting is that it didn't actually break, it just came undone and fell apart right off my neck without even touching it. The fishing string I had used to re-string it just came undone. All this will probably mean nothing to most people but I've been reading The Road Less Traveled and the section on Grace with conversations about serendipity, and the way God's grace can come to us showing us something in order for us to grow has made me more aware of just what happened to my necklace.
Let it suffice to say that I think there are many things that happen in our lives that we miss unless we are listening and aware of God's involvement in our lives, things meant to help us along the narrow road.

"..forgetting those things that are behind.."

"therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new."

"..but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."

I don't know anything

I don't know what to think anymore. I met someone that really shook up my world. It's a serious shock to the system to be shown things about yourself you never noticed before, and I thought I was pretty self-aware. I don't know how other people do it. Putting themselves out there time after time only to be hurt again and again. Part of me thinks this is real life though. I actually stepped out into the land of the living and got outside of the little world in my head. I've spent so much time alone I struggle with effectively communicating with someone on a level that doesn't involve me trying to be some kind of example. The sharing of a life is very foreign to me. It's now up to me to grow, to heal, to learn, put God first more than I have in a decade or better.
I don't know what happened to an old post of mine where I said "A life lived for yourself, no matter how grand, is a life wasted." but I think of that a lot now. One thing I realized after writing that last line is that I've had a fatalistic view of my life. It's up to me if I want to die alone, "fate" hasn't decided for me. I can choose to grow, to learn to love more completely and less selfishly.

In terms of Wild at Heart; at an age when I should have already been a cowboy, a warrior and becoming a lover, I'm a 31 year old cowboy that has never had a battle to fight or a beauty to rescue. But I don't want to be a cowboy forever. I'm searching for that purpose/battle to fight(the warrior) for and hoping for a beauty to rescue(the lover). One thing, I'm realizing more than ever, it really is up to ME. I can sit back and think it's all out of my hands and this is my "fate" or I can get off my ass and seek God and let Him move in my life like I never have before.

GOD HELP ME

fair? continued and expanded

Some things I was thinking about that (to me) related to my comments in "fair?" had to do a little more with the law in relation to our rule of law and the law concerning the old testament.

I've been getting much more understanding about what the Bible means when it tells us that the law was given to show us our hearts. I knew the words forever and I knew the explanation you were supposed to give to people, but they were just words with no real understanding, only the simple understanding of "this is what it says, this is what I've been told".
What I see in America is our tendency toward more and more laws. Now I know many arguments will be made that we need those laws because we continue to have people finding more and more ways around them and just plain breaking laws. But what I seem to find is that the more laws we make the more we end up breaking. There's no such thing as commonsense anymore, because we can sue McDonalds for our own bumbling the hot coffee in our lap. We continue to make more laws because people refuse to be responsible for their actions. They want laws to tell them what they can and can't do. But those people are the same stubborn, foolish people that will ignore the commonsense in their heart and heads, and will continue to do so until they have no freedom and eventually, no will left. The government becomes their everything, it makes all their decisions and directs all their efforts-effectively subduing, crushing their own will.

What I think the Old Testament shows us is that the law can't change our hearts. It was only meant to show us the condition of them. God was trying to show us the problem isn't just in our actions, and we can't just regulate our actions with an abudance of laws. We have to get to the root, to the heart that determines the actions, which is something laws can't reach. All of this gives me a great appreciation of God's intention of/for our liberty, and what it really means to be free. Who is the better citizen, the man that obeys the law because it is the law, or for fear of reprisal or the man who obeys the law from his heart, not because he is made to (the law) but because he wants to. God wants us to see His goodness and choose His ways over ours because we WANT to, not because we HAVE to (the law). And it is only when we recognize His goodness, His love, that we even begin to WANT to choose His ways over ours. Until we come to that point individually, that we see Him for who He is, we will struggle with choosing His ways over ours. But even then, it's not over. Everyday we have to deny our own selfish desires and choose His ways. It's a battle, because freedom is a battle. So part of the victory comes from our focus, if we keep Him before us we can press on toward the upward call of Christ.

wow, I am all over the map, but let me know what you think

fair?

I've been thinking over the years about fairness and now the newly added emphasis on it. First off, I haven't personally talked to anyone that genuinely felt like the simplistic approach of taking from the rich to give to the poor was the right thing to do, (of course most of us at one time or another find an appeal in that passing thought) I apparently know people that know better, but it's stuff I've been thinking about nonetheless.
I have to ask, even though most people have a disdain for the rich, even for those just better off than us, I ask -- how fair is it to the affluent that our government take their money and give it to someone else? It seems that part of our instinct is to think it is fair, at least for the the one receiving, and we seem to think that is what is important. But thank God that He doesn't view us that way. God is concerned with the poor AND the rich.I don't think God is interested in making things "fair", but God IS just. Being just puts everyone on an individual basis with God. Everyone is responsible for themselves and their actions. Being fair always pits one person against another, whether it is by need, or lack or excess. With God being just - it is only between you and Him. It's not you against anyone else, or anyone against you.
How amazing is it that Jesus never took the wealth of the rich to give it to the poor. Instead He asked them to GIVE to the poor and needy. You see it comes down to much more than things, it comes down to matters of the heart. That is where God is most interested, our actions flow from what is in our heart. So those are my thoughts for now, maybe I'll add to them as I continue to think about it.
My note's musical accompaniment: "The Whore's Trophy II" by Symphony In Peril

God, liberty, socialism and the law

My mind is just being melted lately by so many similarities I'm finding in my comparisons of things like liberty, capitalism, the law and socialism.
I've often commented to my friends that we have to be careful on just how much we try to make laws out of our Christian beliefs. It's true we need to defend the defenseless, help the helpless, and love our neighbors, all of which Jesus said to do. But there are times when I think we can try to make laws that overstep the purpose of the gospel. When we try to make all the commandments of Jesus into laws we ruin exactly what God is trying accomplish, we become Pharisees and Saducees, people that are only concerned about the law and not about the heart. It's also what I see a lot of in socialism. Socialism has a lot of good social principles, spreading the wealth, supplies, and work to those that need it. It would seem like a good idea to take from someone who seems to have more than they need (deserve, in other people's eyes) and give it to the less fortunate. But think about it, when you make him, by law, give it away he is more inclined to be bitter toward the law and find ways around it, thus hardening his heart.
But when a man out of his heart gives cheerfully to those less fortunate, he seems more inclined to give, and will often give above what-had he been obliged by law-to give, and his heart is close to the heart of God.
Don't get me wrong capitalism isn't perfect, but what I see in it is God's gift of freedom. I see a metaphore of Him letting us choose to do the right things, and not being held by excessive law that would overburden even the most able. You see, the law is never satisfied, none of us can ever fulfill the law. There are those that would seek to cheat the law, those that would seek to abuse the law. But when there is liberty....freedom, it is on each one of us in a much more personal way (I think). Of course we have cheaters and abusers in capitalism, but in order for socialism to work the government has to become more and more and more in charge of every part of our lives. Every little thing has to be overseen by the gov. which means we would all be drowning in more and more laws and regulations. America has unfortunately been headed this direction for some time, and it saddens me.
Proper capitalism allowed to work the way it was meant to corrects itself with much less intervention of law than socialism. Why we have the problem of greed in America is not because of capitalism, it is because of the condition of our hearts, something that socialism cannot correct, something that the law cannot correct, it is only God that can correct our hearts.
Wow, He is blowing my mind, and I'm such a selfish servant.
I know I make a lot of generalizations, and analogies but try to follow that along and see if you see some of the same things.
Let me know what you think if you like.

The beauty and the danger in capitalism is the same as the liberty that God gives us. We can use it for great things or for terribly selfish things.

*A comment on taking from those better off to give to those less fortunate*--This is really only "fair" to those that are less fortunate (or swindlers, or abusers of goodwill), what about those that work hard for what they have and have been successful? Is it the government's job to take what he has earned and give it to someone else, what reward does he get for his hard work, a penalty from the government-the taking of his prosperity. Or rather, should it be up to the churches to instill in that man a sense of helping out his brother voluntarily, something that has repercussions of a positive nature that far exceed the effects of the government just taking his money from him because of how much he earned.