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The Voices we listen to….

Aug5

Decided to repost this blog from January 18, 2023. Why? Because it’s relevant to what is threatening individuals as well as our country today.

Watching my country rushing headlong into chaos is disturbing. Maybe a bit scary? Add noticing how the church, individual Christians; not organizations, travels a path so compromising it can hardly be recognized as Christian, is even more disturbing. Something needs to change, right? But where do we start? We start by identifying our inner voices. (There’s more than one, you know. Thoughts are the threshold into our minds. 

Examine this with me:

First, we entertain a thought. That thought will generate certain related feelings. Those feelings will then fashion and shape our behavior.   Psychologists say that if behavior is to be changed, then the flow must be interrupted, either at the initial thought or at the feeling point.

So, it’s all about the voice we listen to. 

Let’s start with those in the world who follow a voice devoid of God’s input.

People following such a voice, embrace actions void of clear boundaries of right and wrong. Our culture tells these individuals, that to be true too oneself is the path to follow. Even if that means rejecting what use to be true, or if it means we must redefine truth, or reconstruct truth. 

Therefore, the thoughts swimming around in these individuals’ heads is their guiding voice. Initially, it probably is quite heady to throw off everything that has encumbered them (in their opinion) and do whatever they want whenever they want. If they desire to call wrong right then they give themselves the freedom to do so. They are their own boss (god?) now. Horribly, their freedom is a false freedom. They think they are liberated but when reality dawns they find themselves in a bondage defined by the enemy of their soul. And for some, it’s too late!

Now let’s consider those who would call themselves Christian-like. 

The voices swimming around in their heads are often contradictory. There’s the voice from today’s culture, the voice of self, and the voice of right and wrong. (The source of right and wrong thoughts may or may not be influenced by God’s truth). Therefore, which ever voice they give most attention to speaks the loudest, and is the one they follow. The problem here is that they would not be able to tell you for sure if they were true believers of God. They don’t know God’s truth well enough to say for sure. 

For instance, say they are facing a choice about an action they desire to take. They run it by the world and the world says go for it. They run it by their self-centered desires and there seems to be some hesitancy. Why? Because the voice of right and wrong says, “This is wrong.” Then self gets on the microphone and says, “Look, maybe this use to be wrong, but times change. There are extenuating circumstances now. Besides, if I’m going to be true to myself, then I should do this.” So the voice of right and wrong grows undistinguishable and is no longer the guiding voice. However, though all but buried, the voice of right and wrong has not been silenced completely, if they are truly God’s child. My concern here is for those who are being deceived by the wrong voice!

So what about the voice of those who identify as Christians?

Guess what, we hear three voices as well. We call it, the voice of God, the voice of our flesh, and the voice of the world. The difference is that while God’s spirit is the prevailing voice in a believer’s mind, the voice of our flesh, and the world are in constant competition with God’s voice. Therefore, by connecting daily with God through prayer and His word, we keep the microphone of God’s voice turned up, drowning out the deceptive and destructive voices of the world and self-centered thinkings.

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The Resurrection and then what?

Mar27

 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 1:18-20

As Christians, we have available to us the ability to access the very same power that raised Christ from the dead according to the above verse. The power to live in this world at this time, with all of the discrediting of God and His word, would necessarily need to be powerful to counter the abundance of lies thrown at us daily.

Our enemy, Satan, is the main force behind the libelous suggestions bombarding us daily that undermine our faith and threaten our spiritual growth. He has whispered lies into our ears that we shouldn’t take God, Christ, the Holy Spirit too seriously. His message is, we will be denied the pleasures in life that make us happy. He has convinced us that all we really need to do is to be a good person, and/or attend church ever so often. It isn’t really necessary to do much praying or reading of our Bibles.

For you see, the main thrust of Satan’s plan is to keep us ignorant of the truths of Scripture. For not only will a little exposure to God’s word, expose the enemy’s tactics, but it will also illuminate all the riches available to us as Christians.

Consider the above verse’s mentioning of the riches of resurrection power! That same power God exercised when restoring life to Jesus, is also ours to access. It’s the power we need to bring the thoughts Satan tries to plant in our mind under God’s control. It’s the power we need to keep the heavy handiness of the enemy from destroying us. It’s the power we need to recognize the temptations the enemy would bring to bear upon us and to resist those temptations. It’s the power we need to choose the right path. It’s the power we need that will expose the enemy’s lies.

So after accepting Christ as our Savior, taking to heart his sacrifice on our behalf, the next step is to learn about this Resurrection power. It will be a growing thing. Like practicing how to use a weapon. The more we learn about how to use it and practice using it, the more skilled we become. We become less vulnerable to the enemy’s tricks.

This is what comes after accepting personally Jesus’s death and resurrection.