If he had quit, like most people would do, this never would have happened.
Power Beyond Ourselves
What can stand against a plan of God? What insufficiencies that resist correction in a person, for example, can continue in unrighteousness when caught up in the path of God’s power?
Nothing can stand in opposition to God. Like an avalanche, He pushes aside opposition, scattering the unrighteous and picking up those destined to cooperate with Him, even if they aren’t yet yielded to God. He transports them.
We try to move on God’s path to the best of our abilities, but we can do only so much. We are often too slow, or too delayed in development for the timing of His plan. Rather than miss out then, He scoops us up into something beyond us, something much more powerful than ourselves, and moves within us to the completion He’s after, while simultaneously moving our changing selves along His mission. Much like an aircraft could be built while…
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Learning About People
“When people show you who they are, believe them.” … When a person let’s you know … they say, “I told you I was unkind. So now why are you angry?” – Maya Angelou
I suppose Maya Angelou’s question is a rhetorical one, but I’m going to answer it anyway, because God knows I’ve spent countless hours over decades trying to understand how twisted relationships happen.
“Why don’t you believe them the first time they show you, or tell you, who they are?”
Because…
- You very much want them to be better than they are at any given point in time.
- You are optimistic they can be.
- You are committed to the relationship, and don’t give up on your commitments that easily.
- You aren’t ready to give up on what could be, if only some crucial corrections are made.
- You know this person can be good, you’ve seen them act the part with ease when they’re around people they want to impress.
- You hold onto hope that they may one day choose to be that good person behind closed doors, too — they may never again turn cruel or abusive when alone with you.
- With a particular type of person who diminishes you insidiously and subtly, you hope they will choose to be fair to you one day, instead of provoking under the radar.
- You hope each time will be the last time they slander, mock, or shame you in front of people, giving you no chance to react or set the record straight.
- Or the last time they slander, mock, or shame you in private, then immediately dismiss you, giving you no chance to react and set the record straight.
- Or the last time you hear they have slandered, mocked, or shamed you behind your back, again … giving you no chance to react and set the record straight.
- If only they stopped playing innocent, while knowingly leaving you with shitty options:
- Take it in order to de-escalate them.
- Grovel to stave off their rage and revenge.
- Remain silent as you are wrongfully accused in front of people, denying yourself a voice and self-worth.
- Or react and appear the aggressor to people who have no context for what is playing out in front of them.
- With another type of “fine-upstanding-public-image-person”: they may eventually feel shame that they are the opposite of their finely-tuned act. If they are smart enough to craft such a persona, they should be smart enough to want to be on the inside what they portray on the outside.
THERE IS A POINT though, with some people, when …
- You are pushed to your limit.
- You know you’ll be selling your own soul if you continue on with them.
- The trend of their behavior toward you isn’t improving, it is in fact worsening.
- You are certain the person has dug in their heels and has no intention of considering the good of the relationship. They do not want to give up their ways: their selfishness, deceitfulness, usury and abusiveness, or their ugly methods of disarming or manipulating you. They value their tactics, they prefer their ways.
- They don’t mind at all if you end up destroyed in varied little, or very big ways.
- They will not change in time. They will certainly delay or prevent you from a good life if you continue in their trap, their sick dynamic.
- They have never, and you are certain they will never, be accountable for their ways.
THAT IS THE MOMENT you know you must …
- Withdraw your trust.
- Limit the relationship.
- Remark your boundaries.
- And in some cases … WALK.
It’s after all that “living and learning” that you look back and think … “Why didn’t I believe them the first time they showed me and told me who they were?” …
You didn’t know. You simply didn’t know.
But NEXT TIME …
- You will be vigilant.
- You will be discerning.
- You will not prematurely and naively trust.
- You will be a wise manager of your own life.
- You will know to keep the optimal distance.
- You will never again submit and commit your life to a liar, a thief, a scoundrel, a user and abuser, a manipulator, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a conman, a Cruella de Vil …
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Galatians 6:7. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Job 34:30. That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared.
Psalm 7…15 He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making. 16 His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.
Travel Light
Imagine a TSA checkpoint at an airport. What if the qualification of passing from our current status to the one we are meant to be in is that we must shed some luggage? — only those who are traveling light can pass through. Would we do it, or would we stay behind, unwilling to comply? What if it was God who defined those terms, and the requirements were personalized?
I know most people from church culture would say, “Of course, to love God is to obey God, I always do.” But what people say and what people do are often very different. I have traveled many miles, so to speak, with people who claimed God as their priority, and commander and King, but witnessed them unwilling to leave behind their massive pile of luggage at the TSA checkpoint. Had they only left it, as asked and encouraged, they could have…
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Think Right
God designed us to have free will. We are not meant to be puppets or pawns, not even of God who we have abandoned ourselves to. We are free to think and believe as we decide. Faith is ours to choose and ours to maintain.
Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. Genesis 15:6.
Believe or not believe. Keep faith alive or allow it to slowly drift away or be suddenly destroyed by explosive life circumstances. Soar above crises through confidence in the God who saves you, or be dragged to death through them.
God’s design is to implement his will on Earth through our faith. If we don’t remember that and stay diligent to determine to do it, we risk surrendering our lives to despair and evil.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6.
If we fail to do the thing that is our responsibility to do in this partnership with God, which is to choose to believe as God is and says no matter the circumstances, we opt out of lives called to overcome evil with good.
For we walk by faith and not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7.
We must settle on belief in our God, who declared, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.
We must make the choice to believe in his character, will, ways, words, directions, and intentions for us, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, for the remainder of our lives. We must do that in order to enforce and maintain the victory that Christ already won for us at Calvary.
We must not give up, as our acquiescence to despair could be mere moments before our victories. We must do all we know to do to not be destroyed for lack of knowledge. We must choose faith in our good God again and again and again, for as long as we take our breaths in the land of the living.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5
13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:13-14 (NASB)
Solid Rock of Truth
The current division of America is known around the world. The vote for the presidency this week only confirmed it. It won’t evaporate with a change in leadership because what divides us resides within our hearts and minds.
We look at the same statement, event, or set of circumstances, and take away a vastly different view of it. One person sees a small black and white animal and calls it a cat; another calls the same animal a skunk. Neither can understand how the other can be so wrong.
We are baffled by this state of tunnel-visioned polarization. I have been intrigued since it reared its ugly head well before our last election. Many times per week, for over four years, I’ve read articles and listened to people, trying to find the elusive cause. I’ve observed, pondered, and asked God for understanding.
In the end, I realize there are many…
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What’s It All About?
This gallery contains 4 photos.
Originally posted on Cindi Gale:
What is the purpose of his death and resurrection? It’s not only about Easter Sunday, it is the gift that keeps on giving. He did it for us to be his. For us to be adopted, to be heirs to his throne, heirs of his kingdom. Not just in heaven one…
Surely I Am With You Always, To the Very End of the Age
Matthew 28(NIV)
Jesus Has Risen
28 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into…
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Think Like A Winner
It’s easy to say, “Don’t be afraid” of the global Covid-19 spread. It’s more difficult to maintain a state of trust when its effects have reached your life. Parents are scrambling to find daycare with school closures. People have lost their sole sources of incomes while their work places are closed or staffing significantly reduced. Life savings invested in businesses or in stocks are reducing by the hour.
And these things are just a few of the peripheral effects of the Coronavirus. The fear is real for people who have no health insurance; with compromised, chronic health issues; who care for children or adults with those issues; or are older adults. We know the virus is directly more threatening to those demographics.
It’s not that I haven’t been impacted personally, because I have. I empathise with those who are experiencing fear, but I have not felt it myself. I think…
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What Power Is This?
Easter Sunday is less than three weeks away. What is represents was never meant to be a one-day observation, but the gift that keeps on giving.
What was the purpose of Jesus’s death and resurrection? He did it for us to be his. For us to be adopted, to be heirs to his throne, heirs of his kingdom.
Not just in heaven one day, but on Earth as well. Now. Know the truth of it. Know the power of it.
The power of his resurrection. It is power to heal, to create, to know, to understand. Not all things, as only God does, but as much as he is willing to trust us with. As much as we are willing to pursue and become consecrated for. As much as we stay determined to believe in, regardless the delays and events transpiring that appear contrary to who he is.
Do we…
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Cindi Gale 