June 2017 – Past the Surface

Keeping Things Right

I did not realize you and I can take God inside of us and create another god. Outside of us He is still God unchanged, but inside we can make Him into something different. We cannot change Him from being Himself, but we can take Him inside of ourselves and close in around of what we have of Him changing Him into our level of thinking knowingly or unknowingly. We are brought up in the level of this world and the habit is so natural of converting things to this world’s level no matter if it is God, people and other things. When it comes to “Taking Things Inside” ourselves of God the habit is still there at work within us naturally trying to be our guide to understandings. For us to keep God as God beyond us is to constantly remind ourselves God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways just like the heavens are higher than the earth so it is with God’s ways higher than our ways (Is. 55:8, 9). “Keeping Things Right” is about how to unlock the secret of taking God inside you without the natural man changing anything about God. There are people who have kept God as God against all odds of what this world could throw at them as it has done to us.

ORIGIN

What is the origin of “Taking Things Inside” of ourselves and changing them from what they are into our version? There was an existence of the truth was the truth with no lies in sight. Everything was truthful in its complete design. The beginning of changing things within started with an angel looking at God with an envious spirit. To jump to the final outcome of this one angel changing things from the truth to his own interpretation within himself, influenced other angels with his twisted belief, convinced them to attempt a physical overthrow of God ended with all of them being cast out of heaven (Is. 14).

Our (mankind) beginning history of changing things within ourselves started with the same self-deceived angel. He approached Eve and Adam, who were one hundred percent pure in truth physically and spiritually at that time, twisted what God had said to them. God gave Adam and Eve His words, which basically was everything on the earth is theirs freely to use with the exception of one tree. This one tree had in it a mix of the knowledge of good and evil, which represented one in ALL the creations that took things inside themselves changing the truth to their own belief having once all truth and now corrupted with self evil. It did not change the reality of truth on the outside of them. It only changed the truth inside of them into a lie and a self-deception. This self-deceived angel passed his twisted words of the truth to our mother of all living, Eve, and she took his words inside herself putting them against God’s words of “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Ge. 1:17) changing them into the fruit would be good to eat for food; the fruit looks pleasing to the eyes, and the desire to gain wisdom (Ge. 3:6). She took this inside of herself changing it to her own self-deception. Adam, the first man, was not deceived (1 Tim. 2:14) by the angel’s twisted words. Adam kept God’s word as it was inside himself, but still ate of the forbidden truth. Adam kept God as God categorized inside himself and the angel in his rightful place, but Adam was willing to die with Eve.

The angel took the truth within himself and changed it on the inside, not the outside, affecting his own eternal state and other angel’s eternal state within. Eve (mother of all living) took the truth within her and changed it on the inside to a self-deception, not affecting the outside truth, activating the truth of the death penalty upon herself. Adam, Eve’s husband, took what the angel said, not being deceived, and still ate of the forbidden fruit invoking the truth of the death penalty upon all of mankind (Ro. 5:12). Everyone born unto Adam and Eve after that were born with a sin state with the death penalty on them being mixed with the knowledge of good and of evil.

MARY – KEEPING THINGS RIGHT

In a town called Nazareth of Galilee, Mary was engaged to be married to a man who was a descendant of king David named Joseph. Mary was a virgin, which means she had never been with any man. God sent an angel to speak with Mary. The angel said to Mary, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” The appearance of the angel was not the first thing that troubled Mary, but his words and wondering what does this mean. The angel spoke again to her saying, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.“. Out of all the things the angel said the first thing that stuck out in her mind was about having a baby boy and not being called the Son of the Most High, a throne like king David reigning over descendants forever, or his kingdom will never end, but giving birth to a baby boy. She said, “How will this be,” “since I am a virgin“? The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” Mary now has inside of her the words “The Holy Spirit will come on you…” (her answer), your relative that you know who is known to be unable to have children is six months pregnant, and no words from God will ever fail (Is. 55:11). Mary has the free power inside of her to take those words with a choice of not to believe, make it into something else, or to just to believe.

Mary is standing there knowing no fleshly man and no knowledge of a physical pregnancy. She took the appearing of the angel and the words that he spoke to her inside of herself pondering of what she will do with them. At this point all power is inside of her to freely choose her direction. She could write this off in her mind to be crazy thing and deny it. She could take it as it is ‘keeping these things right‘ as they are in total acceptance. Her response was “I am the Lord’s servant,” “May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Lu. 1:26-56). *** She took God’s words inside herself accepting them without changing them to meet her fleshly understanding. In taking God’s word as it is she made the choice of allowing by her faith to open her spiritual door for the Word of God to bodily form the beginning of the flesh that will house the Spirit of God inside her womb and fulfill its purpose. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (Jn 1:1, 14). Mary by you “Keeping Things Right” as God had intended bonded you and God as one without division. Mary you took God inside yourself keeping God as God believing His words from the angel. ***

Most people would have taken this and formed a religion around it for themselves deviating from the real purpose of God. We are witnesses to some people who have formed religions from taking God’s word and changing them into their level of interpretation instead of keeping God’s word as it is and “Keeping Things Right” with God. Mary took God inside, kept Him as He is, and returned her answer with equal agreement to Him to be Himself inside of her as He is, the I AM that I AM.

Wow, how do I take God inside of myself and treat Him? Do I take Him and make Him the invisible friend down at my level? Have I subconsciously changed Him into my idea of Him? Have I taken His word and formed around my thinking? Show me how to take You inside and “Keep Things Right” without changing You.

JOSEPH (Mary’s Husband) – KEEP THINGS RIGHT

Mary went to visit Elizabeth, her relative the angel spoke of who could not have children in the hill-side country of Judea. Mary now could see the physical confirmation and evidence bulging out from Elizabeth’s womb. Mary stayed there with Elizabeth for three months before returning home. The custom of that day placed Mary and Joseph already as husband and wife. Joseph finding out Mary was pregnant before they came together did not want to expose her to public disgrace. His integrity came from his faithfulness to the law of that day. His plan was to divorce her quietly and privately. As Joseph slept an angel entered into his dream and spoke to him saying, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” This is to what is to take place to fulfill what the Lord had said about “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”) (Is. 7:14)” – Word in flesh. Joseph woke up from the dream remembering everything clearly. Joseph now has inside himself all of these words and surroundings of the dream inside himself. He has all the power of the freedom of choice of what to do about this dream inside of him. We all can take God inside of us and make a free will choice. When Joseph woke up he agreed in oneness with the words to accept what the angel of the Lord had said unto him (Mtt. 1:18-25). Joseph took God’s words inside “Keeping Things Right” without changing them. Joseph formed a oneness with God walking and talking in the same direction of God. How many today would take their dreams from God, start their own teachings based on their personal interpretation and not Gods? Joseph just like Mary had his own encounter with God and kept God’s as it is maintaining God as God. We have the power within ourselves to be truthful or to be a lie, one with God, or divided with the devil.

Two people believed God and did not change God inside themselves making their choice to be one with God’s purpose for the saving of mankind. The baby boy of flesh was born with the Word/God inside him on the foundation of all involved accepting, believing, and acting as one. This man and this woman “Keeping Things Right” from God inside themselves brought forth the results the man-child, Lamb of God to remove the sins of the world. Wow, what could happen in our lives today if we were like Mary and Joseph taking what God gives us, not changing it, but handling it the way He meant for it to be handled? What would we bring forth in our lives and others? Jesus was born due to keeping God as God in complete oneness of the flesh, the second Adam, a life-giving Spirit for a second chance for mankind. Neil Armstrong is known for the statement “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” when he walked on the moon. Mary and Joseph took one step of faith for themselves and created a giant leap for all of mankind to be saved.

JESUS – the MAN

While we are going to take a look at Jesus to “Keep Things Right” we must see the dual nature of Jesus keeping God as God and man as man. Jesus had a man of flesh side just like us fully human in every way for the reason of becoming a merciful and faithful mediator between us serving the God side creating a doorway of atonement for our sins, suffering as we do, tempted as we are, and becoming that man who is able to help bridge us to God’s overcoming power of our temptations (Heb. 2:17). The other side to Jesus was what was said earlier about the Word was made flesh, the Word that was with God in the beginning, and the Word was God, the same (Jn 1::1, 2, 14). The fullness of God lives in him in bodily form (Col. 2:9). The two sides to Jesus is simply a fleshly man side and the Spirit side. As a man he hungered and thirst, but as God he fed the five thousand people from a few fishes and loaves of bread.

OK, now back to the man side of Jesus. Jesus was born as a baby and was nurtured as any other baby. He crawled, pulled himself up, and wobbled like any other little child. God did not alter the man side to Jesus. God did not alter the man side nor did the man side alter God. God remained as God and Jesus grew as a boy would grow. Jesus developed as we do with the questions of things as we did with our parents. Jesus had the access of his thoughts directly connected with God, but still with the human side he had the choice as Mary and Joseph did to accept God as He is or he could change it to his own path. Jesus the man side was not forced to be God’s lamb. If you and I were to really think about it putting ourselves in the growing up of Jesus with God inside of us showing us things I personally would believe it would be so glorious, pure, and true I would want nothing else but God. If God gave you words inside that would heal a broken heart, mend a troubled mind, and clear up a confused soul would you not jump at the chance to see their faces shine with a glow of freedom from their bondage?

Jesus the man took God inside and kept Him as Him with no alteration just like Mary and Joseph did. Once you start seeing taking God inside yourself and “Keeping Things Right” as God intended them you will see others throughout the Bible and in life today blessed with the after effect results. Jesus the man side kept his relationship with God in a oneness agreement that God could freely walk, talk, and work through him as Himself. A perfect union was formed with man and God accepting each other on the inside and the outside. They became as one both man and God with no difference in seeing the Father you see Jesus and seeing Jesus you see the Father.

Jesus went to the desert without food for forty days and nights. The man side was hungry, but the devil went after the spirit side to get the man to change God to the man’s own earthly desires. The devil always goes after your inside thinking. The devil came to him putting his twisted words inside of Jesus to get him to become one with him. The devil knowing his flesh was hungry picked on that saying; if you are the son of God turn these stones into bread (use God’s power for yourself, feed your flesh insinuation). Jesus took those twisted half truth words inside having all power to make a choice of his flesh or listening to God’s Spirit. What came out of Jesus mouth in reply was a oneness with God that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The devil is like alright what about this, if you be the son of God, high up on this pinnacle God said if you jump the angels have charge over you to catch you before your feet hits the ground. Jesus, the man, looking around from the high altitude taking in the twisted and corrupt words of the devil had the free will choice to test God if he wanted to, but the words that came out of his mouth were locking his relationship in obeying God that you are not to tempt the Lord your God. The devil wanted God’s own words to be taken inside and used as man sees fit on how to use them and not as God meant for them to be.

The last temptation of this forty days and nights was on a high mountain with the view of all the rich kingdoms of the earth. The devil put the words into Jesus ears of; if you will worship me I will give you all these kingdoms and the riches of them. Jesus the man had the words from the devil inside of him to become a wealthy man of this earth and all he had to do was to worship the devil. This is a crossroad standing in front of Jesus the man to be or not to be. He has the power to keep God as God or go the path of the devil changing God inside his own thinking and losing his own way. Jesus spoke in oneness with God that it is written ‘Worship the Lord you God, and serve him only’ (Mtt. 4).

We lost our path when Eve and Adam did not keep God as God believing Him at His Word. All the people born after them had the dominating fight of changing God inside themselves, but Jesus re-opened the path of “Keeping Things Right” to all those born after him to win the fight of “Keeping Things Right” with God. Today, right now, you can have the ‘Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world’ (1 Jn. 4:4).

If you will allow God to give you His word like a seed inside the garden of your mind, heart, and soul with you “Keeping Things Right” the good soil inside you will bring forth life and life more abundantly with a balance to life that can only be found in God. This is why Jesus the man asked, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” (Jn. 14:10). When you are being good soil for the seed of the Father as your source the devil cannot steal from you like the wayside of a road, destroy your faith like weak roots over a rock, or choke you out with the cares of this world like thorns wrapped around your throat, but a rich garden full of fresh life-giving to all who encounter you. Jesus said, “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Jn. 6:63. He kept God as God listening to His Spirit making alive all things within himself and those that hear him. Jesus the man-made the choice to allow the Spirit of God to quicken things to himself knowing his flesh with bring forth nothing within itself (Jn. 6:63).

The Bible, history, and this present day “Keeping Things Right” with God as God will cause all other things to be added unto you as they should be in the oneness plan of your life here on earth. May you never be the same on what you do with the things given to you on the inside of your house of flesh.

Taking Things Inside

Inside yourself is a very important world of its own. It is a place that needs to be guarded and protected daily by you. You have taken things inside yourself from the day you were born to this very moment that you are reading these words. These words are inside of you, now. I am recognized as the source of these words. You have them inside you to do with them as you wish. You have all power on how things go on inside yourself. You can take them and change them into whatever you desire, but changing them is changing me as I am into your version. This is where a cloud of confusion can set in by our own thinking. If you keep these words the same as they are you are keeping me as the same as I am. You are not changing who I am. As an example if you wrote, “I am a nice person” and I took your words and repeated them with ‘you are a nice person only when you are asleep‘ I just implied that you are not a nice person when awake and if there were any niceness to you it would be only when you are asleep. This is “Taking Things Inside” and doing with them as we please whether keeping as is or changing it.

Depending on what stage in life you are you could be taking your mom, dad, brother, sister and other people inside yourself determining what to do with them. You have automatically put them into categories whether good, bad, or mixed irregardless of reality or personal choice. In school you have taken in your teachers, classmates, coaches, and principals into your inside world classifying them as you see fit in your own eyes. In relationships of boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, live-ins, or ex-relationships they all have been taken inside yourself and possibly unknown to them placed in a judged category. Have you taken things inside yourself keeping them the truth as it is with all sides to the story known or have you made a decision out of your own power that you wanted to make about these things? This is a difficult thing keeping things the truth as they are and not allowing other things to influence them into an altered seemingly truth. How you handle “Taking Things Inside” yourself will determine if they will cause internal blindness, deafness, poisonous or healthy to you personally.

See, we all take things into ourselves and do with them as we wish, automatically conscientiously or unconsciously. If you think about this deeply it can be a scary thing. Scary in the sense we take things inside ourselves and pass judgment on them making them our interpretation of what is truth when in reality it could be the opposite of our thinking. The potential of becoming our own worse enemy could be our greatest downfall. The changes made could create a lie. An example: what if you pick someone who you just don’t like their looks, take their appearance inside yourself before getting to know them, passing a judgment of them of being something bad, and then passing onto others this interpretation of yours. This is where peer pressure can begin on a person that in the end you may find out their background is filled with terrible things they have endured alone or their outward appearance is far from their true inward spirit. The bad part is you have changed them inside yourself starting a self-deception and passing on that judgment to others. Self deception is one of the worse things that can happen to anyone. This was just one side of the many “Taking Things Inside” ourselves based solely on someone’s outward appearance. What about other things we take in and change them?

Words are read and heard daily? This is really cool and scary at the same time. You are taking in these words typed before you, which I am hoping for an outcome of a blessing for you. A word can be said with different tones creating different meanings of the same word. A word spoken can have a soft kind sound to it or it can have a hard cold sound to it. We speak with words that have a laughter about them. We speak words with the sound of anger, sarcasm, jealousy, love, joy, questioning, and disbelief. We take these words inside of ourselves with other multiple aspects of it thinking over them with a conclusion of what we think the meaning of them could be. The question is can we take things inside ourselves as they are without changing them to our own and maintaining them as they are meant to be? Can we take in a person’s appearance and the words they speak keeping them in the right category that they fit in?

We are a world within ourselves with all the complications that goes with it. We are all born as baby worlds educated by older worlds sending their signals of influence all around us until we reach an age of accountability of our own independent understanding and perception. As you have gotten older you have probably met people who the saying, “It is your world and I just live in it” fit their behavior. This statement implies that person believes this entire world revolves around them and the rest of us are to do what they want. The unchanging reality is this world does as it pleases with us or without us. You and I know people who are just like this in taking into themselves and making things out to be for them and them only. Lying to ourselves makes us a blind person within that have fleshly eyes that see that do not perceive and a deaf person within that have fleshly ears that hear that do not understand. What we do with the things that we take inside of our spirit world determines if we see and hear truthfully. The bad part is being under self-deception. There is no cure if there is a complete denial and refusal locked in place inside a person.

The quote ‘We are our own worst enemy‘ implying that inside ourselves is a more fierce battle than what is outside of us. We take words that we hear, things we see, and the feelings we get rolling them around inside until a conclusion we believe is true. How many times have you believed the words you were hearing to mean one thing, but in the end was truly something else? We call this a misunderstanding or a lie that was formed from taking the words inside ourselves and determining on our own the interpretation. How many times have we seen something and believed it to be for sure the meaning of only one thing to only find out later it was only half the story? We are taking more than ever in the history of mankind things into ourselves because of technology. We see and read more with all the social media on our phones, tablets, TV screens, and other mobile devices that did not exist in the past. There is an invisible tsunami of things flowing into us daily wave after wave storming our insides with demands to see things their way no matter if it is the truth or not.

After “Taking Things Inside” there is an action we act upon based on our inside world of interpretation. What have we done with those things that we have taken inside ourselves? How many words have we spoken wrongfully knowing only half the story? How many physical actions have we taken only to find out later we took them out on the wrong thing or person? It all lies within on what we do with the things that enter into us. The internal process is something under our complete control once we graduate to our own accountability. It is very embarrassing to be out there in front of others being totally wrong and they know it all because of our changing things on the inside of ourselves. Being right has a better feeling every time.

ORIGIN

What is the origin of taking things inside of ourselves and changing them from what they are into our version? There was an existence of the truth was the truth with no lies in sight. Everything was truthful in its complete design. The beginning of changing things within started with an angel looking at God with an envious spirit. To jump to the final outcome of this one angel changing things from the truth to his own interpretation within himself, influenced other angels with his twisted belief, convinced them to attempt a physical overthrow of God ended with all of them being cast out of heaven (Is. 14).

Our (mankind) beginning history of changing things within ourselves started with the same self-deceived angel. He approached Eve and Adam, who were one hundred percent pure in truth physically and spiritually at that time, twisted what God had said to them. God gave Adam and Eve His words, which basically was everything on the earth is theirs freely to use with the exception of one tree. This one tree had in it a mix of the knowledge of good and evil, which represented one in ALL the creations that took things inside themselves changing the truth to their own belief having once all truth and now corrupted with self evil. It did not change the reality of the outside of themselves truth. It only changed the truth inside of them into a lie and a self-deception. This self-deceived angel passed his twisted words of the truth to our mother of all living, Eve, and she took his words inside herself putting them against God’s words of “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Ge. 1:17) changing them into the fruit would be good to eat for food, the fruit looks pleasing to the eyes, and the desire to gain wisdom (Ge. 3:6). She took this inside of herself changing it to her own self-deception. Adam, the first man, was not deceived (1 Tim. 2:14) by the angel’s twisted words. Adam kept God’s word as it was inside himself, but still ate of the forbidden truth. Adam kept God as God categorized inside himself and the angel in his rightful place, but Adam was willing to die with Eve.

The angel took the truth within himself and changed it on the inside, not the outside, affecting his own eternal state and other angel’s eternal state within. Eve (mother of all living) took the truth within herself and changed it on the inside to a self-deception, not affecting the outside truth, activating the truth of the death penalty upon herself. Adam, Eve’s husband, took what the angel said, not being deceived, and still ate of the forbidden fruit invoking the truth of the death penalty upon all of mankind (Ro. 5:12). Everyone born unto Adam and Eve after that were born with a sin state with the death penalty on them being mixed with the knowledge of good and of evil.

This is why you and I “Taking Things Inside” ourselves face what is the reality of truth and doing with it within ourselves as we please changing it or not changing it. I know you can look into your memory finding times you were deceived like Eve and times you were not deceived like Adam doing with it whatever you determined within yourself. We have inside of us the voice of evil and the voice of good to change or not change (that is the question). The dominating voice that tries to gain total control of us is our flesh and the fallen angels. There are some people we know they totally listen to the voice of evil, some people who listen to the voice of good, and some people who mix both of them.

All people are “Taking Things Inside” themselves and doing with them as they please. I don’t want to make the mistake Adam and Eve did. They took it in and doomed their souls. Lucifer, the angel doomed himself eternally because he refused the truth of things and changed them for his own purpose. We have in our recent years of history of leaders persuading others into giving themselves, their children, their finances, and even their lives to them because of their words. They have bought land, built compounds, worshiped comets, and moved to other countries based on taking their words inside themselves with unquestionable belief. There is a prophecy of a time when people will not put up with truth, but instead will gather around them people who will suit their own desires and be told things what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (2 Tim. 4:3).

I see in our news and people around us almost every day people twisting things for their own purpose, which we all know there is a day of reckoning, what goes around comes around, you reap what you sow, and karma comes back to bite you. The power is within all of us to take things inside of ourselves keeping them the way they are on the outside or changing them to something else inside. People will take things inside themselves and speak outwardly evil is good and good is evil; that darkness is light and light is darkness; that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. There is a warning just like Adam and Eve upon people who take things inside trying to change the truth by their own fleshly wisdom and think themselves to smarter than all others (Is. 5:20, 21).

I cannot speak for you, but would it not be nice if people could take you for you? I am happy for you if you have had no problem with anyone taking you to be something else other than what you are or anything you have said to be something else other than what you really meant to say. All of this causes me the desire to see with perception and hear with understanding clearly inside to what things really are and keep them in that category without changing them to suit me with a twist of a little deception. The price can be too high to pay with the soul.

Travel the road of questions and wanting to know until you reach the final truth of truth of what you seek. There should be no fear of questions if it is of the truth. Frustration, aggravation, and its a mystery flaring up because of your questions for truth and wanting to know are signs of either Eve’s changing of truth inside or Adam’s knowing the truth, but in denial of the truth. This is why when I became a follower of Jesus Christ, being saved from the world of terrible sin that I was in, I have no fear of questions or wanting to know. If He is God and His word is true then there should be no question(s) or wanting to know to cause frustration, aggravation, and writing it off as no one is to know it is a mystery type of excuse because the God I have come to know desires to give us understanding and wisdom (Ja. 1:5). He wants you to take things inside and have His help once again like in the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve fell. He wants to help guide you into all truth allowing you the chance to make the right decision inside yourself keeping the truth the truth (Jn. 16:13).

You have all power inside yourself to think as you please and no power to change the outside of yourself truth. We are all worlds within ourselves communicating to other walking worlds around us big and small. Your spirit inside your body is your world. You can take in things like Eve and convert them to suit your thinking, as Adam know the truth and deny it, or like Jesus keep God as God, His Word His Word, and the I Am that I Am.

Behind Sufferings

Have you ever wondered or asked why was your life so filled with pains and sorrows? Has the ‘Why, me Lord?‘, ‘If it’s not one thing it’s another‘, or ‘Will it ever end?‘ ever crossed your mind or been spoken from your lips? Have you ever come to the place you thought you were destined to live the majority of your life with troublesome situations with only teasing moments of good times? Does it seem like the ones that come looking for you are misery, negativity, trouble, and frustration?

As children the bad things we experienced caused us to store them away and categorize them forming a wall of defense for future encounters. The lies we believed and the suffering from them will never leave our memories or hearts. The bad relationships that caused the tears to flow and the heart to ache will not be forgotten. The betrayals will always be a haunting sight when that memory resurfaces in our minds. Our inward defense pops up holding them at a distance or they overtake us with the emotions all over again. The majority of the time most people fight them off or avoid them not wanting to go through it again. Troubles and misery for most of us is something we don’t want to keep company with.

As time goes by some will face getting tired and weary battling thoughts of they do not want to go home, go to work, or be around people because they become use to always something unpleasant occurring. A constant of some form of suffering is something not all people experience. There are those in life you meet that seem to have the silver spoon in their mouth. Their luck is always blessing them in money, jobs, promotions, and relationships. Their path always seems to be the smoothest while yours is full of debris, holes, and obstacles. They always get the girl or the guy while you are completely ignored. You may have accepted that each step you take will be with the expectation of what problem is next.

There is a side to suffering very few ever see. If it happens to you the void is filled with understanding and perception to the total effect of that bad event. There is a void if it happens to others there is no true experience knowledge inside of you, but only the outward observance and the guess at the pain of suffering. If the majority of things fall right into place and the minority of things fall apart for you this reading will be difficult to wrap your mind and heart around with complete understanding. If the majority of your life is filled with troubles, problems, and never quite lining up for your life you will connect with this reading.

I have heard the song “Blessed” that has the words of “Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops…healing comes through tears…sleepless nights…trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise…“, but never really digging into it. The song “Thy Will” has words like “…I may never understand that my broken heart is a part of your plan…All I’ve got is hurt…But this don’t feel good right now…It’s hard to count it all joy…” , again not really going past the surface of the words. The song “Trust in You” says, “Letting go of every single dream…I try to win this war I confess, my hands are weary, I need Your rest…” is another hearing with nothing past the surface to understanding what is behind the words.

Troubles will try to drive you, negativity will try to push you, problems will try to beat you, sorrows will try to crush you, betrayal will try to stab you, lies will try to slap you all of which is an attempt to surround you with darkness and defeat. We know the fight will be there when we wake up and remain until we sleep with possible nightmares even there.

The paths in this life that I was drove down, pushed into, beaten with, betrayed into, slapped, blindsided, and crushed with caused me to reach out to someone I was completely ignoring. As you can tell I have made God my best friend, but just because He is my best friend does not make me instantly smart and smooth life. We are the ones still learning every day. It does not matter what you affiliate yourself with or title yourself because you are not automatically perfect because of the connection. When I took my first step towards God I was not instantly a saint. Each day, each step, each word, and every action was learning to be better than what I was before.

As I was talking to my best friend He dropped a thought in my mind that I had never considered before. This is one way He guides us by showing us a thought path for us to follow Him to the end of understanding. At this moment I was pondering the troubles we all face daily and the different levels. This is when He dropped an image of a father sitting about two feet apart from his child that was weeping. The father looked at the child with eyes filled with the look of please scoot closer to me and I will wrap my arms around you and cover you with my love that changes not. Why doesn’t the father scoot over and force his arms around the child, I wondered. Some of us want to handle things are own way. Forced comfort is not one hundred percent effective being one-sided as compared to freely choosing the comfort and the two agree as one.

A son took his inheritance and spent it with wild living all the while he could not be helped until he freely and willingly chose to commit himself to his father (Lu. 15:11-24). We all have set our sights on something in this life whether it was a person we wanted in our life or a certain thing we wanted to be and went after it with all of our might. The not getting the girl or guy we wanted, the not getting the certain thing we wanted, the not becoming what we wanted to become, and the other things that did not end well there may have been a reason behind them. The son wanted to live life spending money and partying not realizing there was an ending and a beginning to something different he had not considered. The happy days of parties and money turned into no one really cared about him with no money in his pockets. Misery, loneliness, and being poor were now his only friends. I see the father sitting close to the child wishing they would allow him to comfort them, but it was up to them. Here the son is in a muddy hog pen slopping the hogs to make some money and having nothing to eat hungered for the hogs food. ‘Why, me Lord?‘ could be going through his mind sitting there desolate. Behind his trouble was a father wanting the chance to help a son to live and learn the right things in life.

What if troubles in this life had God behind them waiting on you to seek Him? What if behind the sorrows you are facing God was waiting on you to cry and be comforted with Him? What if a sickness had God standing there waiting on you to seek Him, meet Him and trust Him? What if your hunger and thirst God was there waiting on you to ask Him, seek Him, and knock at His door?

This is a time to stop, stand there, and really look around yourself. We are in a day that there are all kinds of avenues we can choose to follow. Could it be the different troubles we are having has God waiting on us to choose Him? There are more sides to this life than eating and drinking the pleasures of this world. There are more important things in this life than being recognized by our fellow-man. There are better positions to attain in this life than the leaders of this world. There is a status to reach inside yourself that is far greater than the things of this world.

Your pushing for financial status quo may never be reached being constantly blocked by troubles of this world. Your troubles may be God standing behind them waiting on you just to lean on Him, acknowledging Him, and trust Him to guide your paths (Prov. 3:5, 6). I know it may be hard to believe, but there is a down side to being well off. It is nearly impossible for a rich person to enter into heaven as it is for a camel to crawl through a low gate to a city, eye of a needle (Mtt. 19:24). Your troubles could be the thing keeping you close to God making it easier for you to humbly enter into heaven. This reading may hurt because you would love to have less of a financial burden on your shoulders, but that weight may be what keeps you awake to praying to God.

A person that has it all together in money, power, relationships, and material things is something we observe from the outside wishing the luxuries would be ours. We live from pay check to pay check barely meeting the needs of our families. We have the pressure of paying our bills on time. We have no power of influence to use for ourselves. Our relationships are filled with arguing, negativity, misunderstandings, and seem like constant turmoil. Our material things come from hand-me-downs, neighbors, and the cheapest things we can afford. We are constantly sacrificing our time for all other things, but ourselves. Reality tells you they will always be there. Could it be behind all these things we know will always be there sits a Father close to us waiting on us daily to turn to Him for help in carrying our loads in life keeping us close to Him to the day He reaches up and removes that burden with the words to us to enter in my good and faithful child?

If you or I were rich, wealthy, and increase with goods would we even think of our heavenly Father? Would it even dawn on us that day in the hospital bed dying beyond the ability of the doctors all our riches, wealth, and increase of goods could not stop death either? Would it cross our minds anything and everything we physically have in this world someone else will take it over and do with it as they please? The comfort and false peace we would live daily would meet a harsh reality when it comes to the things of our heart. Rich people often seek for the treasures of real friends, real relationships, and real things for their spirit because they have not been pushed as we have in daily life.

The ‘need of nothing‘ spirit and attitude robs us of the things that matter and will last for an eternity. The ‘need of nothing‘ spirit plays and sings to us songs of temporary lies of happiness and false peace. The ‘need of nothing‘ spirit dances before us wooing us into a vision of parties with no tomorrows. The ‘need of nothing‘ spirit drives us to credit debts beyond the truth of our financial means. The ‘need of nothing‘ spirit places glasses over our eyes with false lenses of paradise on the inside and the outside is black as night. The ‘need of nothing‘ spirit brags to con us on our outward appearances avoiding the looking on the inside of our hearts. The ‘need of nothing‘ spirit of this world would have us to believe lots of money, lots of clothes, lots of vehicles, lots of homes/cabins, and lots of good times is the answer to true happiness. What the ‘need of nothing‘ spirit does not tell us the good things of this world puts us to sleep, blinding us from the miserable, nakedness of our wretched soul, and the difficulty of entering heaven after this life (Rich man and Lazarus, Lu. 16:19-31).

My troubles are to keep me praying fresh living prayers. The bombardments of negativity are supposed to keep me seeking God’s positiveness. My on-edge of poorness should keep me humble and mindful for my need of God. My misery should make me run into the arms of God for the comfort of a better tomorrow. My naive acceptance of lies and deceptions should drive me to desiring the truth from God. My shame should cause me to desire to be clothed and covered by God.

None of us enjoy suffering, sorrows, losses, breakups, betrayals, negativity, and other kinds of stresses in this world. I don’t like the thoughts that my tomorrows will have troubles waiting for me to arrive. If I know the Father is standing there with that trouble ready with His grace in hand I want to find Him and freely choose His sufficient help in time of my need. If I know the Father is going to take the sour lemons that life hands me. I want to look past the present suffering and find Him to allow Him to convert it with His power into making me a better person.

Paul was suffering in his flesh with tormenting pain. He asked God to take away this pain three times (2 Cor. 12:7, 8). It never occurred to me suffering, negativity, pain, and sorrow may be putting or keeping something in its right place for the preserving of the status of my soul. We all have different things in our lives that will so easily cause us to fall and sin (Heb. 12:1). Behind our problems could be a reason for to keep us in check. It sounds awful, I know. I would rather be alive to God than to allow the ‘need of nothing‘ spirit deceiving me like the rich man waking up in hell for eternity. God told Paul the reason behind his suffering and tormenting pains of the flesh was for to keep him humble and the spirit of conceit would not deceive him into losing his own soul. This temporary suffering of the body was a time for him to keep his spirit fresh in prayer and fellowship with the Father sitting right next to him for His grace is sufficient and His power makes perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

Problems, troubles, negativity, sorrows, and all other pains of this life could be God wanting you to call on Him, to meet you, admit you are not God, to look for Him, to trust Him, and to believe Him in keeping your soul safe from the ‘need of nothing‘ spirit. After God told Paul the reason behind the suffering Paul said, “…I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:10).

TROUBLES AN OPPORTUNITY?

Naaman – 2 Kings 5:1-15 God wanted Naaman and others to know, meet, and see

Pharaoh – Exodus 7-11 God wanted Pharaoh to admit He was God and to Obey?

Balaam – Numbers 22:4-33 God wanted Balaam to believe Him and Listen?

Blindness – John 9:1-41 God wanted understanding to be seen as true sight?

Our daily battles with pain, sorrows, sufferings, negativity, and other stressful aggravations are not against flesh and blood that we can physically see, but by the spirit of rulers, authorities, powers of darkness, and spiritual forces of evil (Eph. 6:12) that we cannot see, but by our side if we look for Him is God waiting with grace sufficient enough and power to perfect our weakness to be called upon. May be He just wants us to be close to Him as much as possible until we are safely home.

Where Can I Go

“Where Can I Go” has so many different sides to it. You can be suffering physical pain with a despairing cry inside of “Where Can I Go?” You can be going through a relationship breakup with tears inside all the while you have this sinking feeling of “Where Can I Go?” You can be faced with all the voices and the words they piled upon you pushing you to be something that you just need time to sort things out with the pressure of “Where Can I Go?” A dead-end is a place where there are no other options that could cause you to think “Where Can I Go“.

HAVE YOUR EVER EXPERIENCED

Walking along a path in the woods passing by different sizes and types of trees with various heights of vegetation on each side reaching from your ankles to your knees and you come to a place where you can go no further and your mind is busy looking for the answer to “Where Can I Go?“.

You are out with family and friends at a shopping mall, ball game, concert, and any other large crowd you may remember. You and those with you are completely surrounded by other people. As you are moving along a separation occurs whether it was from others walking faster than you or the pressing crowd separates you. You are standing there in a pressing crowd of people wondering where those you know have gone. You cannot see them or hear them. Your realize you are alone with a crowd of people completely around you. You think “Where Can I Go” with no sound in reply as your mind is totally blank.

Out on the bike you are riding along enjoying the freedom to ride. You get an exploring spirit turning down this way and that way as the wind blows past your face. The rolling along on your bike has a mesmerizing feeling as you continue to explore. You make another turn to see what is down this way finding a dead-end with like an ocean wave of a disappointing feeling rolling in upon you. You realize you have been going forward all this time with no turning back or back tracking. At this dead-end you are looking with searching eyes of “Where Can I Go” because right beside that thought is “I don’t want to go back, I want to keep going forward, I have come this far“.

Driving your vehicle in the direction you think will end up going where you are trying to reach only to find out that this road you just tried ends up being a cul-de-sac or a dead-end. “Where Can I Go” now to get back on the right route to my destination is all that your mind is searching. Sitting in your vehicle trying to get somewhere with no answer to “Where Can I Go” is a bad feeling especially if it is a dependency and really important to be there situation.

Relationships from boyfriend/girlfriend, going steady, engaged to be married, and marriage are deep-rooted in our hearts, minds, and even some our souls. We bond with another person in such a way that we have concluded they complete us. They are the answer to you physically and spiritually. When the sour, bitterness, anger, lack of understanding, confusion, jealousy, envy enters between you and them the “Where Can I Go” painfully takes over your entire system with division leaving you in darkness of what seems to an engulfing abyss of emotions. This is one of the hardest times in life facing the breakups, the deceptions, and the betrayals leaving the aftermath of “Where Can I Go” weighing you down.

Some have set out on a quest in life journeying for answers longing for satisfaction. A strong desire of ‘I want to know‘ and ‘I want to understand‘, and ‘I want to see with my own eyes‘ embeds itself deep into their spirit causing a daily hunger and thirst. The days come and go increasing into weeks, months, and then years without finding that satisfying answer. Along life’s journey you accumulate fragments that are alright with you, but they don’t fit together in a wholesome way only to come close to feeding the hunger inside. The “Where Can I Go” drives some into a place they wake up doing a morning routine, work a routine shift, and go home to the routine evening waiting for the cycle to repeat while the hunger and thirst sleeps inside their shell. You are physically moving every day, speaking words in correct response to those you encounter, and doing the functions expected of you all the while you are an empty shell because there is no completion to the inside you no one sees.

PASSAGE OF TIME

Passage of time is something we all face. Time is controlled by no one in this life. Time is constantly in motion going forward. Each second leaves the present and goes into the past. The seconds of our life piles up into minutes. Minutes quickly add together forming into hours. The days, weeks, months, and years from where we stand looking back have moved on to a place we can never change. Our memory only goes back into the past so far and then its a place ‘I don’t remember‘ anymore.

As little children we looked up to the towering people around us. They pick us up with such ease and power that our eyes would light up with excitement. We would watch these people of giants come and go on a daily basis. Sometimes they would bring back food, drinks, clothing, shoes, and other things. Our looking up to them with time becomes a shorter distance. They were not as far away in heights was they were before. Time was ticking by as an unnoticed growth in our body was occurring beneath our own nose while the curiosity of our minds was busy on a quest of life. The accumulation of experiences started to pile up in our storage rooms of life. We were slowly entering into their world were the other giant adults gathered.

We have our childhood memories, teenage memories, young adult memories, and adult memories to call upon anytime for the moments we faced that coming to a dead in life wondering “Where Can I Go” from here. The bad pranks, heart breaks of relationships, the lies, the highs, and the lows coming down upon us like the four seasons. We did not realize the shell of doing the morning routine, work routine, and evening routine we saw in the adults of our childhood days had crept in upon us putting our hunger and thirst to sleep inside us. We became them as they were us once upon a time.

We all have got into the boat of life from the shores of infancy riding towards the waves of time. As we watch ourselves getting farther from the shore of our beginnings. We turn around in this boat of time seeing the horizon not realizing the rut of daily routines were physically being done while our spirit sleeps the sleep of death. We have gone through the storms of being tossed around, the rain pouring down on us, warm sunshine, and the quiet calm times of life. We wake inside the boat being moved by the ocean currents and winds of time beyond our control finding ourselves changing from the little child into the adults around us. We were the children at the shore and now we are the adult captains of our own ships in the ocean of life wondering “Where Can I Go” to fill this empty void. Where did time go?

Simon was a little boy watching his father Jonah happily come home and sadly leave for work every day. When Simon grew older he could go with his dad to work learning his father’s trade and skills. He and his brother would watch as time altered their dad into an aging man. They would step up into their dad’s place as time aged them into young strong adults. Something was missing though their morning routine, their working routine, and their evening routine ran smoothly. They had that feeling there was something more to life than being the physical shells repeating the same functions over and over each day.

As you read this can you see yourself waking up doing a certain physical thing each time, going to work with the like same functions for the same results, and going home with the mind-set of getting things done for the next round? Are you walking and talking with the set parameters of what is considered a normal response keeping people around you pacified? Your spirit is hungry and thirsty while your outward shell is maintaining a sustainable life. What life is being sustained here? Your physical body is aging. You know the truth is no one can stop the body from aging no matter how many products you buy. The shell that holds your spirit will one day stop doing the routines of daily functions, but your spirit is the storehouse of all the things done in your lifetime. Your spirit is a living book that you and others write onto the pages of your eternal life.

The question of “Where Can I Go” will happen for the physical things of this life, but the most important part for this question should be for the non-physical things of this life. We will face the dead-end roads and the bad relationships of this life with physical tears, pains of the heart, and disappointments. Our body will do what needs to be done to sustain itself in this life, but more so our spirit that will keep things beyond the sustainment of this world is far more important. Our physical shell takes into itself the daily routines to continually function, but our spirit on the inside stores the thoughts and actions of those deeds forever (Ps. 40:7, Heb. 10:7).

Our is spirit is an eternal recording device along with the personality it chooses to be. There is a need to ask “Where Can I Go” to help my spirit because the body will return to the dust of the earth releasing the spirit within for its book to be read for the purpose of deciding the location it will stay forever (Eccl. 12:7). Our born physical fleshly body from infancy to childhood to a teenager, a young adult, adulthood, and to the aging elder years is going to release our spirit one day. Just like time that you, I and no one else can control our body will have to let go of our spirit releasing it totally. After this there will be no “Where Can I Go” because the ability to change has left from the temporary physical state of what is being written into the completely finished writing final eternal state. In our body second chances exist after leaving our body there is no more chances.

You and I are in the place where the question of “Where Can I Go” is still an option. We are still inside this time zone to change direction when there is no more roads. After your body and my body gives up to a physical death leaving this time zone our spirit drivers of those bodies go into the place that time and changing directions is no more. What our spirit has recorded is final at this point. Years ago I caught parts of a movie called “Final Fantasy: Spirits Within” (2001) though the majority of it is made up there are parts of a spirit leaving a body that is very real. Also, another interesting movie years ago was “Ghost” (1990), which again mostly made up, but the part of the character at first wanting revenge from the spirit side witnessing the final judgments of another spirit changed him from wanting to see any other spirit sent to the bad place in their final judgment. We will leave these bodies whether we like it or not, but “Where Can I Go” needs to be answered now because we do not know the day nor the hour it is time for us to leave this world. Once we are gone it cannot be changed. We have left our temporary state and have entered our eternal state.

While we are in this physical shell doing our morning routines, work routines, and evening routines there is a chance to answer for our spirit the question of “Where Can I Go” and give the body of this world a life to record good things into our spirit all the way up to the final departure. Every day we are exchanging our life in place of things accountable to us at the end of time.

Simon and his brother knew there were more to this life than their repeated sustaining routines for their families and their physical bodies. One day in the middle of their work routine a man walking by the sea called out to them while they were doing their jobs as fishermen and said to them “Come, follow me and I will send you out to fish for people.” (Mark 1:16-17). Out of curiosity it would not hurt them to take a break to see for themselves and understand what he was talking about. They completely understood how to fish for fish because their physical shells could probably do it in their sleep, but going out fishing for people was a different direction than what they were accustom. They were testing the question of “Where Can I Go” when they started following Jesus.

The answer to ‘there is more to this life‘ than the mundane routines and “Where Can I Go” came quickly after following Jesus. He took them into a church and began teaching. His teachings were not like the other teachers. They too were like shells of routine in their teachings going through the motions. Jesus was not a shell of dried up routine teaching he had authority rising up out of his mouth, which stirred up an evil spirit from the no time zone side (spirit realm). The evil spirit using the fleshly voice of a man who had given up on this life asked Jesus what he wanted with him, have you come to destroy me, and he knew he was the Holy One of God. Simon and the other people could see Jesus and this man talking to each other, but they could not see the controlling evil spirit. When Jesus said to the evil spirit to be quiet and come out of him Simon and the people saw the physical shell of a man become violent, shrieking loudly, and then going calm. Everyone was amazed at the spoken power this man had over the evil spirit. Now, Simon following out of curiosity and wanting to find the answer to “Where Can I Go” for the things more to this life just saw the man who said to him from the shores he would send him out to fish for people command an evil spirit. (Mark 1:21-27).

If you and I were Simon or his brother and witnessed this would you not be curious to see the end of this road? Is this person for real or not? Would you not want to watch and listen before completely accepting him as for real or finding out if he was fake to reject and go home to the morning, work, and evening routine? They know “Where Can I Go” is to follow this man for he offers things no other person has ever offered.

There are so many events that happened to Simon and his brother Andrew it would be too much in this one reading to cover. I will quickly touch on a few more. Jesus asked Simon, known as Peter, who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus told Peter the source of his understanding, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” again the spirit realm (Mtt. 16:16-19) Simon Peter now has a physical shell that is alive inside to where he should go for the answers in life tapping into the rivers of living water flowing inside his spirit. He is no longer a shell of sustaining routine of not knowing “Where Can I Go“. Another time people were leaving Jesus because his words were to hard for them to accept. Jesus turns to Simon Peter asking him did he want to leave also? Simon Peter answered, ‘You have the words of eternal life. Lord, to whom shall we go? You are the Holy One of God.‘ (Jn. 6:68, 69). Simon had found the total answer to “Where Can I Go” satisfying his soul.

You wake up each day starting your morning routine, do your work routine, and return to the evening routine as another day of time passes aging your body closer to shutting down date while your spirit records your words and actions onto eternal pages written of your life. This is an extremely sobering statement of life. All the people in the world far away or right by your side cannot fill this empty room made for God only. Your body has a time limit on it that no one can control, but you can control what is going into your spirit for all eternity.

If you could store things to be preserved eternally what would they be? The things we store eternally in our spirit will be judged by our eternal Father of its worthiness to be allowed or not into His kingdom. Simon Peter found what completely satisfies his soul and God. Simon came to understand of being born again of water and of spirit (Acts 2:38) gave him a place to go to fill his life with faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love was more productive to this life and the life to come (2 Pe. 1:5-15). His body was a tent temporarily housing his spirit that will one day leave it to search no more for the answer of “Where Can I Go“.

2 Cor. 5:1-11 “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.” NIV.