Let's Get Naked. (Renewing your Mind)

Let's get naked. Okay, okay, get your mind out of the gutter people. I'm not talking about physically taking our clothes off. I'm talking about spiritually stripping down. Taking away all those facades & masks that we've worn for so long. I'm talking about shedding all that unnecessary garbage that we've taken on throughout our life without even knowing that we're packing it on. After a while the weight of the world gets heavy and by then, most of us think it's just too hard to start over or too much trouble to try to do better, well, I'm here to tell you my friend, it's not too late. It starts with a thought. It's that simple. You have to strip down and get rid of all those negative thoughts that have hounded you your whole life. And instead, meditate on the good things, things that are possible with God. With all the "gloom & doom" surrounding us on a daily basis, it's no wonder that we get discouraged and sink further into a depressed life. Wake up People! Get off the depression meds, and get into God's word! It WILL heal you! God says things much better than I do, so let's go to the word to get some clarification.

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, FIX YOUR ATTENTION ON GOD. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (this excerpt is taken from The Message, Romans 12:1-2) I couldn't have said it better myself! What this is saying is that you need to saturate yourself in the Word, the Presence of God Himself. To saturate yourself in God, is to be in a state of maximum impregnation. If you will seek after God, He will impregnate you with His Word. A complete infiltration of His Holy Spirit will penetrate through your being and God will birth something out of you.

Paul, puts it this way. "You yourselves are a case study of what He does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of Him, giving Him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving Himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, WHOLE and HOLY in his presence. You don't walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message." Wow, Paul, you hit the nail on the head. At one time or another, we all have turned our backs on God, maybe not intentionally, but sometimes by neglect or just plain living life, any old way we want to and not asking God what His will is for our life. But GOD. I'm gonna say that again, BUT GOD. God put our lives together, complete restoration is what God wants for us, He will make our lives WHOLE, with nothing missing and, He made us Holy in His presence. We have been justified. People, do you know what that means? It's good news! It means that we qualify, we are qualified to take ownership of our adoption. We are His children, we have received the genetic qualities by transmission from our Father. God's Way is not a matter of mere talk; it's an empowered life.

This is nothing new, but until you grasp it, and really get a hold of it, it will be preached until the return of Christ. The same word from 2000 years ago is still good for today, this is what Paul said to the people of Corinth, but if you will, take a minute to meditate on this word and you will know that it is just as good for today as it was then. He said this, " Think Straight. Awaken to the holiness of life. No more playing fast and loose with resurrection facts. Ignorance of God is a luxury you can't afford in times like these." (1 Corinthians 15:34) "The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you're thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he's thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don't have to rely on the world's guesses and opinions. We didn't learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we're passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way." (1 Corinthians 2:10-13)

I love it where he says "Awaken to the Holy Life!" We as a body have been asleep and sluggish too long! I'm preaching to myself here too people, so don't get all "holier than thou" on me now! We need to strip down the barriers and break the walls that have kept us in the dark for so long. Start chipping away at the false training and teaching that we have been force fed our whole lives, and start conditioning ourselves for what God has in store for us. We need to cultivate our hearts with labors of love by caring about what God's plan is for our life. In other words, we need to begin the process of renewing our minds to become spiritually fit by a regimen of daily "feeding" on the word of God. And continually casting down negativity and thinking on the good things of God and daily expecting Miraculous results.

Bankrupt Without Love.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies. First Corinthians Chapter Thirteen, The Message

Pursuit of Truth

In my pursuit of truth, I asked God, "If I find the truth, what am I to do with it?" This same question was asked by a prophet named Habakkuk. God answered him in the same way he answered me. Like me, Habakkuk was on a journey, a quest, for the true nature of the things of God. The concept of Habakkuk's journal of his & God's relationship is trying to grow from a faith of perplexity and doubt to the height of absolute trust in God. The prophet Habakkuk's name comes from the Hebrew word "khavak" meaning "embrace". I believe that his life was meant to embrace God and His Truth. Read on to find out God's answer to Habakkuk's question. "What's God going to say to my questions? I'm braced for the worst. I'll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I'll wait to see what God says, how he'll answer my complaint." And then God answered: "Write this, Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision, this message is a witness pointing to what's coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time." This excerpt is from the Message, Habakkuk Two Verses One through Three.





God tells the prophet to write, write what you see, what you hear, what you experience with God, to write it in big block letters so that others can see the truth as well. My purpose in writing this blog is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening. And if we're confident that he's listening, we know that what we've asked for is as good as ours. First John Five Verses Thirteen through Fifteen