Saturday, July 3, 2010

Clarity In The Midst Of Chaos

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand under it. [1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV]

It has been widely taught that this verse is referring to being delivered from sin, and this is indeed true. However, what is so misunderstood is the kind of sin. For unless you can honestly say that you are now perfect in all of your own ways, it should be all too painfully clear that you have not been delivered from all sin, but if you still want to have faith in our Heavenly Father’s mercy and grace, then there is all of the proof that you should need to accept that you are being delivered from disbelief, which is the unpardonable sin.

Nonetheless, it is not enough to cling to such an immature way of looking at your relationship with our Heavenly Father. Well, at least not in the case of more than are willing to believe it. For that is good enough for some, but for many, our Heavenly Father wants so much—even to truly have a very close and personal relationship with them.

A good example of that happened when I became devastated over someone I cared about deeply diving back into the familiar confines of the darkness of spiritual ignorance after daring to walk around in the Light of our Heavenly Father’s absolute Truth for a few days. For I took that as a personal rejection—both by the individual and our Heavenly Father. For if I was good enough, I would be allowed to experience the joy of having fellowship with someone else who was getting to truly know Him.

Yeah, I know that sounds plumb ridiculous. After all, there are millions of professing Christians within a hundred miles of where I live—not to mention all of the ones I could connect with worldwide over the Internet, but if you had any idea just how different it has been made for me after the change, you would understand just how isolated I feel most of the time.

No, that doesn’t sound right. For having a very close and personal relationship with the Lord God Almighty Himself most certainly is sufficient, but I still long for someone on my level to talk to during times when I am unsure of my own sanity.

Anyway, after letting me get tossed about by the stormy seas of doubt and regret for a lot longer than I like, He said, “It’s not about you,” and it was all over. Granted, I was still sad about the decision my friend had made, all of the feelings of being punished stopped immediately, most thankfully.

Ironically, it was about our Heavenly Father still speaking to us that was at the heart of the matter with my friend. For he was raised to believe that this stopped when the canon of our Heavenly Father’s Holy Bible was completed. In fact, what he was taught went even further by making it abundantly clear that anything that was not specifically mentioned in the Bible was taboo. An example of that is not allowing musical instruments to be played during a church service because of there being no mention of such in the New Testament. Yet, after a few rounds of discussion, he conceded that he did believe that our Heavenly Father really was speaking directly to me, and he hoped that he would be allowed and enabled to also hear Him clearly soon. Around a week later, he went back to rejecting everything that I had been given to say about it.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear." The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 'An enemy did this,' he replied. The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' " [Matthew 13:1-30 NIV]

Be assured that I hope my wayward friend will come to humbly accept that he has been deceived all of this time about our Heavenly Father no longer speaking directly to us, and I hope that you will also want to be able to truly hear His voice if you haven’t been allowed and enabled to already. For you will come to know and understand things that you never thought possible—with the most important of these things being truly having a very close and personal relationship with the One who created you to spend all of eternity with Him in His Kingdom of Heaven as an heir to all that is His in glory.

A more detailed explanation of what our Heavenly Father wants as many as will to know and understand about this can be found in [Chapter XI], [Chapter XII] and [Chapter XIII] of [Bittersweet Refinements]. I hope it proves fruitful, and if it doesn’t happen now, may it happen later.

Please Also Visit: [FishHawk Droppings]

10 comments:

  1. "It's not about you" is a lesson that is sometimes hard to swallow.

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  2. Thanks for stopping by again, my dear Ann!!! Yes, that is indeed true, and what makes it even harder is all of the "stuff" about self-esteem that we are constantly being bombarded with--even from the Christian community. For there is nothing good about any of us apart from our Heavenly Father, and none of us would exist in the first-place unless He wanted us to. Of course, that does make us all very special, but it is only after we are willing to truly humble ourselves before our Creator that we can start to realize just how special we truly are. On the other hand, "old-tyme religion" dictates that we cannot have as much in Him as He wants us to have while we are still in this world, and far too many have been far too willing to believe that this is indeed true. Be assured that where our Heavenly Father wants us to be in Him is in the middle of those two opposing positions, and the key to understanding just where that is can only be found in Him, which requires truly hearing His voice. No, none of this is as complicated as I am probably making it sound, and if you will try to pay close attention to your thoughts, I am quite sure that He will explain it in a way that is much easier to understand.

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  3. It's hard when it comes to temptations - sometimes we know what the temptations are and sometimes we are blindsighted them.

    sandie

    Happy 4th.

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  4. Quote:
    "After all, there are millions of professing Christians within a hundred miles of where I live."

    There may be millions of "Self-Professing Christians" - within a hundred miles of where you live - but how many real ones are there? I'm just saying: "If 76 percent of the 300 million Americans is truly Christian [as they claim] then why is America such a: violent, criminalized, socialized, drug addicted, suicidal, and financial mess?" Are these Christian traits? Or, could it be that someone is lying - perhaps, even, a great many someones?

    And, if you are a "True Christian," then what sort of real fellowship can you get from them? I'd rather talk to an honestly, and openly, wicked man - then very dangerous liars. At least, you know where you truly stand with them.

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  5. Who is Adullamite? And why do you keep asking me about him, sorry if I'm missing something?

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  6. some of us refuse to step down from the top (wink*wink) until we realize we are floating along with everyone else. only thing is the smart ones know What's Helping Them Float. so many christians are rolling along like the world is a safe place, without the thought of those who are here strictly to cause discord. then there are those who are on point against those who disrupt and gently guide them back into the fold - (hint) with a Blog Post.

    God Bless Ya Buddy, Hellos to Mrs FishHawk

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  7. Thanks for stopping by again, my dear Sandie!!! One of the most misunderstood (and hardest to accept) things is that we are meant to fall into temptation at times. For this is all part of the apparent unfairness of this world {Romans 8:18-21}, but we would do well to never "assume" that this is always the case. For we often do bring more hardships down upon ourselves than is absolutely necessary to accomplish our Heavenly Father's purposes, and if we would ask Him, He is always most willing to explain what is going on {James 1:5-8}. Now, this is not to say that He will always give a full and complete explanation, but what He will provide will be enough to sustain our faith. Of course, of what good is this unto those who do not want to hear it?

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  8. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Francis!!! I have been looking for someone to talk to about what I have been given to say by our Heavenly Father since all of this first started in 1993, and I am yet to find one. Oh, I have found some who act interested at first, but then they go away--without even making a true effort to help me see the error of my ways. For I have to be either in the right or the wrong, and if I am in the wrong, who can honestly say that they are being led by the love of Christ when they will not at least try to help me. After all, am I not worth saving?

    Yes, it sounds utterly ridiculous to wonder if I might be the only one at this time, but in all fairness, our Heavenly Father has not sent anyone around who has responded as they should. Besides, it has happened before with Noah and the Prophet Jeremiah. So, if our Heavenly Father was willing to kill everyone in the world at that time but Noah and his family, and the challenge He gave Jeremiah to find just one person in all of Jerusalem who truly sought His face went without him finding any, how can we be so sure that an entire generation or two are not woefully lost--despite their open professions of faith?

    No, this is not to say that billions upon billions are surely headed straight to Hell at this time. For our Heavenly Father has revealed to me that what I have been given to say is not meant for all, but it is meant for more than want to hear it. For very soon after He started making Himself real to me, He told me that the hardness of far too many hearts was exceedingly great, and the number given to those who do not want to truly know and understand what He actually says is absolutely true is 99.3%. In all fairness, I do not know if that number refers to all alive today or just those who are given the opportunity to hear what He has given me to say, but it is a devastating number, regardless.

    If I remember right, you either are or were a truck-driver. Therefore, you might find at least some of The Crackerhead Chronicles interesting. For it is an abbreviated account of my life so far, and I was allowed and enabled to go for almost 3 millions miles in a big truck before I got too sick to do it any longer. It is the first book in line on FishHawk Droppings, and in the last two crumbs (chapters), I start talking about our Heavenly Father making Himself real to me. The rest of the books are meant to build upon what was started there.

    http://fishhawkdroppings.blogspot.com/

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  9. Thanks for stopping by again, my dear Ryan!!! Adullamite is a Scot who has become a dear friend of mine--despite being a cantankerous old coot in every sense I can think of. I have given you the URL to his main blog before, but I suppose you missed it. Here it is again:

    http://adullamite.blogspot.com/

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  10. Thanks for stopping by again, my dear BadGal!!! Be assured that I have felt more like a Spiritual crash-test dummy than any sort of conquering hero of the faith most of my "born-again" life.

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Since the Blogger spam filter has been found sorely lacking lately, I will start moderating comments. Be assured that I am only interested in deleting spam. So, if you feel a need to take me to task over something—even anonymously, go ahead and let 'er rip, and I will publish it as soon as I can.