“Blowin in the Wind”

 “When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent.” Psalm 4:4

Our Lord tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). What does that mean? This statement is full of meaning and yet is subject to misunderstanding especially when you are gloomy. We not only have to redefine our notions of the word blessed, but also have to understand the puzzling phrase “poor in spirit”, that blows in the wind.

“Poor in spirit” means you recognize your poverty before God. It’s an attitude toward yourself that says you know and affirm that you haven’t lived the life to which God has called you and that you’re incapable of doing so now. 

Sometimes it takes a song to get us to meditate on God and have nothing to fear.  My objective here is to help you think about God as I did when I first heard the song, “Blowin in the Wind” by Bob Dylan. At the time my thoughts were non-spiritual, treating it as reading biblical verses in a place full of rush hour traffic, roaming around with no obedience. 

Here I was, in the midst of a bitter depressing place, Allen House, an orphanage in Cincinnati, Ohio, sitting in frustration. Sometimes we draw parallels between dated situation and the struggle we are having while in the airstream of our loving Father, screaming, “Can we find peace”?

I was experiencing a moment sensing some kind of presence – that God was near, especially in my heart and mind? Thinking, “fear of people is unnecessary if you “Trust” God. What do you Fear when you are angary?

“A fool give full vent to anger, but the wise quietly holds it back”. Proverbs29:11

Have you prayed for guidance and felt you received it?  Or have you had spiritual experiences of a different kind? To me this was the first mark of a person who walks with God.  But was the ear listening? The supervisor began to play this rock and roll song on his guitar. It was a time in my life where I was questioning everything and struggling with my anger.  Had I given up on living a happy normal life? I was in survival mode. So, the last thing I wanted was a pious experience, I thought.

I was like a restless piece of paper Chasing in the pointless of the wind, things at that time which do not have eternal significance— only chasing problems after the wind. Those youthful utterances as the chorus’s sound, vertebrate back, “just blowing in the wind.” There isn’t much more I can say about this song, except the following verse resonated in my mind even today:

Romans 10:17 says that “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” 

Yes, and how many times must a man look up

Before he can really see the sky?

Yes, and how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people, cry?

Yes, and how many deaths will it take ‘til he knows

That too many people have died? It’s in the wind

Is anger sinful? No, though it can certainly lead to sin. This prayer depicts anger springing from anxiety, which proves especially troublesome on sleepless nights. The psalm suggests that, rather than venting your worry in outbursts against others, you should examine your own heart. 

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14) Any pursuit that does not have as its aim the furtherance of God’s plan is merely chasing after the wind (1 Corinthians 10:31).

“In your anger do not sin”^: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” Ephesians 4:26 

The new man may get angry, but he does not sin. The new man knows how to let go of his wrath, thus giving opportunity to the devil. The devil’s work is to accuse and divide the family of god, and sow discord among then. When we harbor anger in our heart, we do the devils for him. We have all experienced anger at some point in our lives, and it can be a real problem. Though it starts as a harmless feeling, it can quickly grow into something dangerous that’s hard to control.

In a world where personalities materialize as big and God is often regarded as a prop on the stage of our own performance that’s, all about me. People who are poor in spirit know that they’re a small blip on the radar screen of eternity. They know God is wonderful and awe-inspiring in His holiness. They know He owes them zilch and they see that, even if viewed at their best, they’re unworthy servants who completely depend on His mercy.

Meditating on God’s awesomeness greatly affects our ability to be poor in spirit. But this Beatitude, Matthew 5:3, offers something else that should humble us: the promise of heaven. Interestingly, that’s a promise for the present. All the other blessings promised in the Beatitudes are future promises. Take a look:

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
MATTHEW 5:4-6

God wants you to speak His word to your own ears, and as you do, your faith arises, “He will restore my soul”; “He is my provider” … Learn to say what God says: in your mind, in your life, and in your world. And as you confess His word, it embeds in your heart instead of Blowing in the Wind! 

God Bless You and This Ministry!

“Unusual Logic”

Folks, do you assume you recognize what Christianity is all about? But then are your assumptions based on unusual logic accurate? Logic is math with ideas instead of numbers. It is a way of identifying the relationships between ideas. So, "Is God logical?" To interpret this question. One is to ask whether or not belief in God or the idea of God is logical. The other is to ask if God Himself is a logical being. The answer to both is, “A hard Yes, God is logical,” for similar reasons.

Logic is one of the natural laws God put into place at the creation of the universe. First and foremost, God acts in a logical way: He plans, communicates, discusses, and acts. God even speaks of “reasoning” with human beings (Isaiah 1:18). He distinguishes between truth and untruth, a core aspect of basic logic (John 7:18). God does not always act in ways human beings would desire, but this does not mean His actions are “illogical. “God created mankind with a mind and the ability to reason. Being a creation of God, logic is a good thing which, when used properly, can point us toward God. Unfortunately, it is easy to use logic incorrectly without empathy.

If you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures-then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God”.  Proverbs 2:3-5

Society will tell you that you should always make logical decisions. All decisions should be based on fact, on reason, on thinking, but not on emotion, they argue. I don’t completely disagree. But sometimes logic is only part of the equation. 

Once during a bible study, the question was asked,” DO ALL RELIGIONS LEAD TO GOD”?

Well now, thinking about the logic of this question, I thought,” Can I go into a phone booth and dial any phone number and get home? No, there’s only one number that’ll get me home. I could be sincere, but I could be sincerely wrong. The truth is, all roads don’t lead to Rome and all religions don’t lead to God”. You see, it all depends on which direction you take. Jesus said this: 

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). I’m betting my life on the fact that He was right because I ‘Trust’ Jesus and he knows more about it than I do.

 I thought to myself how could I view this only, logically, and see the truth plainly without clouding the issue with religious jargon or rules; without the heart being involved? The truth is, most people are not going to be significantly influenced by just logic to believe something contrary to their convictions. Usually, sentiment trumps logic. And, although neither Jesus nor the apostles were strangers to logic, it was not their primary tool.

Do you look at things with the Heart as well with logic”! What do you mean? The answer to the magnitude of the role of the heart in our decision making is this. Massive. It is a big role in our decisions, whether we want them to or not.  Where are those thoughts coming from? I mean where are those actions coming from? Well, they are coming out of the abundance of the heart. 

So, my assumption from this is not that we hold back our minds at the door when we enter the community of wisdom, like: Oh, logic doesn’t matter here, I have some emotions to deal with. No, that is not where I am going. But that we recognize that every result, the ones that God reveals to us by his word; every decision are an intricate response of heart, hand and the spirit of the mind. And that is okay. Because it seems to be a lot of concern that if emotions are involved that might mess things up. We are to be renewed in both. When Peter says to be "ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15), he didn’t mean to start with pure reasoning, for the existence of God. He meant to be ready with the story of our own relationship with God and the Biblical hope that has as its foundation faith in God.

The logic faculties are not perfect and the heart filled faculties are not perfect. And neither is useless. When the mind has done what it can do in discerning the pros and the cons of a situation that is when the heart comes in. That is what you should do as an example, weighs, the pros and cons of job possibilities and by all means spouse, who you are going to marry and so on, weighing the possibilities with your mind as the psalmist says, however, “Delight yourself in the Lord and the Lord will give you the desires of your heart.” 

But equally convincing is the "firsthand evidence" of the Christian life. We are “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14); the darkness may not like the light, but it cannot deny its existence. “In your Christian modeling show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us” (Titus 2:7-8). 

So, when you have done all the logic weighing you can; renew your mind deeply that is centered on delighting in God, therefore, those desires that go up, they are not unimportant. They should be paid attention to as they accord with God’s will committing our hearts to God: 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Truly our God is an awesome God...unchanging, eternal, unlimited in power, in majesty, in knowledge, in wisdom, in love, in mercy, and in holiness. May God help us to honor Him using both logic and the heart with dependence and trust in Him through the next “crisis” or decision we face, for He is a “very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). 

“Come now, let us reason together,”    says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,    they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18

God Bless You And This Ministry!

“Arrogance, Wears Thin”

The “me first” attitude ends up in self-destruction but when we surrender to God, all of our needs will be met.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:3-5

Let me ask you a question, when was the last time you felt down”?” You just feel life is not all it should be during this time with the virus, with that discouragement that comes upon us. You might be feeling right now, those days and periods where nothing goes right. When you feel like just relinquishing or kicking your dog, ignoring your responsibilities. 

The question is which way is up when you are feeling down? Do you decide to give up? OR do you determine to get up on your own energy or do you look for a lift up from God? You see in one sense this is a crazy way to think about it. We all have what I call a hitchhiker heart, we are all in a need of a lift. You see some of us try to lift ourselves by our own bootstraps’. This might work for a time but in the end, we need something more than that We are desperate for something greater than that. When we feel a weight in our hearts, we need a lift, one that only God can give. Giving up only makes things worst. And determination on our own to get up will eventually wear thin. 

You ever watch in the Olympics those weight lifter that hoist literally hundreds and hundreds of pounds. You look at them and you can see the strain of just doing that for only a few moments. They couldn’t live their life doing that. We got some weights on our heart from doing that. You might be able to lift it seemly for a few moments but then you have to drop it. Who is strong enough to shoulder the burdens of our hearts? God is, God is. So, you might be thinking, why doesn’t he lift the weight that’s on my heart right now that’s been on my heart lately? 

Here are some simple directions from God about how he lifts the weight on our heart. How he lifts us up as his people. Now, before you think he has not done it lets look at the directions what he tells us to do in our everyday lives. First let’s look at how God lifts us out. First you ask him to lift you out then you ask him to lift you up. TO be lifted up you first have to be lifted out of some things in life. There’s something powerful about the atmosphere we all live in. It either can brings us down or lifts us up. 

The simple truth is until you begin to trust God to lift you up out of certain situations your heart will never be lifted up. You see there are certain things in this world that drag us down. In fact, before that even more honestly you must confront this Truth, “think about what about us that drags us down”?  There’s something about this world that drags us down and in us that drags us down. When I/you admit that putting that honestly in front of us I’m ready for God to lift me up. 

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”. James 4:1-3

These verses in James are about all the things you desire a recipe for warfare a battle with god a battle within which addresses jealousy, pride, judgment, and boasting—and he warns us of the damaging effects of these poisons. Praying with no answers? Filled with selfish pride. I want what I want. When you live your life chasing things you want. the strangest things begin to happen. You begin to feel down, and you begin to fight that. If we are honest with ourselves most of our discouragement we can peep within and realize it is because of these selfish desires in our lives. He tells us that we need a humble heart and urges us to focus on responding to God by trusting him with what he’s doing in our own lives, one day at a time. 

You see if I want God to lift me up, I must admit three things about myself: 

·      I have desires that I battle within

·      Secondly, I have to admit I do not ask God

·      And when I do ask, I ask selfishly and follow my own ways

And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’”. Matthew 18:2-4 One quality of children is that they are dependent on others for their well-being. God’s children should share that quality of depending on their loving Heavenly Father for everything they need.

There is no magic formula to make us spiritual giants overnight, no mystical prayer to pray three times a day to mature us, build our faith, and make us towers of strength and confidence. There is only the Bible, the single source of power that will change our lives from the inside out. But it takes effort, diligent, everyday effort, to know the God who controls everything. If we drink deeply of His Word and let it fill our minds and hearts, the sovereignty of God will become clear to us, and we will rejoice in it because we will know intimately and trust completely the God who controls all things for His perfect purpose.

Talk to God and just admit. Prayer: I am selfish. Help me admit this, God where is my life being overwhelmed or controlled by selfish desires right now. We want something! So badly you are going to get it, by knowing how to trust you lord, and there is only one way to know God—through His Word. We need help! Help me to see it so we can set it aside and follow you instead. I ask this father in Jesus name Amen.

God Bless You and This Ministry!

“Discouraged”

 “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God” Ephesians 2:19

Imagine yourself a child, feeling abandon on the streets of the projects within the inner city. Your parents are on the brink of divorce/separation. Your mom is diagnosed with critical cancer disease. While she is being treated temporarily you are left to fend for yourself in an orphanage so you aren’t a burden to other relatives. You want to scream but you can’t speak because of the noise of ethnic chants. So, you are left to defend oneself every day from the mental blows of intolerance. While on this path you adapt with harshness and run head first so that you may obtain the prize of being, “Discouraged” and Fear!

As many as 30,000 orphans found themselves in that comparable dilemma in 1850. They slept in alleys, huddling for warmth in boxes or metal drums To survive, the boys mostly stole, caught rats to eat, or rummaged in garbage cans. Girls sometimes worked as “robbers in a panel house” for prostitutes, slipping their tiny hands through camouflaged openings in the walls to lift a watch or wallet from a preoccupied customer.

Immigrants were flooding New York City then, and no one had the time or money to look after the orphans-no one, that is, except Charles Loring Brace, a 26-year old minister. Horrified by their plight, he organized a unique solution, the Orphan Train. The idea was simple: pack hundreds of orphans on a train heading west and announce to towns along the way that anyone could claim a new son or daughter when the Orphan Train chugged through.

The Orphan Train was so successful by the time the last one steamed west in 1929, 100,000 children had found new homes and new lives, some became governors, one served as a United States congressman, and another was a U.S Supreme Court justice.

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will”

Ephesians 1:11

As you run aimlessly an inordinate length of time. Remember, for the Discouraged, our lives in light of our identity in Christ are filled with a heavenly Father, a large, loving family, and the understanding that we are citizens of another kingdom and not of this earth.

Though all Christians share similarities in their story races, the Lord gives each of us a unique race to run. And not everyone’s weights are the same. The news above provides a vivid parable of the message of Ephesians. To capture Paul’s enthusiasm in the book, imagine one more stage in your life as a street kid. You have learned to survive and fight off undesirable echoes. But one day, someone takes you and puts you on a train jammed with hundreds of other foreign-speaking hooligan kids. It’s 1961 you are in a prejudice situation where you are treated with so many detrimental categories of race noise that makes you hard-hitting, intense and often impossible to love self; while lugging around that Faithless stuff of intolerance 

"There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

 Ephesians 4:4-6

My questions for you today are:” Who are you? Who do you belong to? And what is your purpose?”

But one day, someone choses you and quietly explains that you are now part of their family, our child, by grace you have been saved, blessed, redeemed, a new creation, united to Him, forgiven, have hope, no longer slaves to sin and with belief marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; the pledge of our inheritance. To the praise of his glory. If you feel discouraged or wonder if God really cares or question whether the Christian life is worth the effort, read Ephesians. 

You will no longer feel like an abandoned soul orphan, Paul describes the “riches of Christ” available to all and points to us, God’s adopted children, as his sparkling “Exhibit A” in all the universe. Everything they have is yours to use and enjoy. At long last, by some miracle, you have a family, “the family of God” and a home- what a home! Ephesians contains staggering inspirations. Paul wants us to seize “the breadth, length, height and depth” of the love of Christ. Be activated to express that love, with not one low, grief-stricken note that sneaks in with fearing God as judge; we have the great privilege of coming to Him as our Father!

We are made alive with Him (Ephesians 2:5) we are conformed to His image (Romans 8:29) we are free from condemnation and walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1) and we are part of the body of Christ with other believers(Romans 12:5) The believer now possesses a new heart(Ezekiel 11:19) and has been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1:3).

We might wonder why we so often do not live in the manner described, even though we have given our lives to Christ and are sure of our salvation. This is because our new natures are residing in our old fleshly bodies, and these two are at war with one another. The old nature is dead, but the new nature still has to battle the old “tent” in which it dwells. 

When we are in Christ, “we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Romans 8:37) and can rejoice in our Savior, who makes all things possible (Philippians 4:13). In Christ we are loved, forgiven, and secure. In Christ we are adopted, justified, redeemed, reconciled, and chosen. In Christ we are victorious, filled with joy and peace, and granted true meaning in life. What a wonderful Savior is Christ!

God Bless You and This Ministry!

'Today or tomorrow, “it is the Lord’s will”

 During our in-house shelter, I’ve been sitting with hand on chin looking out the window a lot, I call this my Einstein moment, ha ha. Einstein would say “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” His curiosity and childlike wonderment led him to explore problems and concepts that most other people didn’t notice or care about.

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 We do not like to talk about topics on, “death”. In fact, we try to avoid the subject as much as possible. But in recent weeks there has been an emphasis on death due to the Coronavirus. We are told that death is natural and we must be prepared to deal with it. What is the meaning of death? How can Christian faith help us relate to those who are dying? We cannot “practice” dying, but it is important that we be prepared for death, in the spirit of Psalm 90:

“So, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom

People die because of what is called the” original sin” the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God had warned the first couple that transgressing His law would result in their death (Genesis 2:17) and that is what happened. “The wages of sin are death” (Romans 6:23a). So "Do we have an appointed time of death?"

The Bible tells us that “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). So, yes, God knows exactly when, where, and how we will die. God knows absolutely everything about us (Psalm 139:1-6). So, does this mean our fate is sealed? Does this mean we have absolutely no control over when we will die? The answer is both yes and no, depending on the perspective.

The answer is "yes" from God’s perspective because God is all-seeing—He knows everything and knows exactly when, where, and how we will die. Nothing we can do will change what God already knows will happen. The answer is "no" from our perspective because we do have an impact on when, where, and how we die. Obviously, a person who commits suicide causes his own death. A person who commits suicide would have lived longer had he not committed suicide. Similarly, a person who dies because of a foolish decision (e.g., drug use, lung cancer from smoking, heart attack due to a lifetime of extremely unhealthy eating and little exercise), “expedites” his or hers’s own death.

Prayer can help us assess ourselves realistically and use our time more effectively. It can also preserve us from overestimating such things as worldly success, happiness, how are we going to pay our bills and youth. By learning to die, we are learning to live. Nothing can better prepare us for death than a life lived in response to the gospel. There are a number of things we can do on a regular basis to prepare ourselves for death, as well as for life. Among them are these:

·      Use every moment, hour, and day wisely and be of help to those who are dying

·      Allow time for work, planning, conversation, bible reflection, play, rest, and sleep

·      The New Testament clearly affirms that death is not the end. Those who believe already share in a life that is eternal

·      Forgive others and ask them to forgive us

·      Give thanks for each day God gives us

·      Be reminded of the hope of the resurrection in Christ and the promise of eternal life for those who believe in Jesus Christ

How does this affect our lives practically? We are to live each day for God. 

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31). Therefore, we owe it to our neighbors to lovingly share with them the good news of the gospel. God’s love is evidenced in us as we communicate this precious gospel and love others as we have been loved. So, call, text a friend today!

James 4:13-15 teaches us, “Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'” We are to make wise decisions about how we live our lives and how we take care of ourselves. And ultimately, we trust God that He is absolute and in control of all things.

I Sing Your Praise All the Day Long, through the follow prayer:

Come, Lord, and cover us with the night Spread Your grace over us as you assured us You would do. Your promises are more than all the stars in the sky; Your mercy is deeper than the night. Lord, it will be cold. The night comes with its breath of death. Night comes, the end comes, but Jesus Christ comes also. Lord, we wait for Him day and night. Jesus is truly the Friend who sticks closer than a brother, and blessed are those who have Him as their Friend

In Jesus Christ, Amen

African Prayer, Fritz Pawelzik

God Bless You and This Ministry!