Some veterans
have a hard time transitioning to civilian life and they yearn to once again be
in command of men. Recently one such Marine put out a call to local veteran
organizations to rally at a county commissioner meeting in order to verbally ambush
a county commissioner. The circulated email stated, “Please work your schedule
around this meeting as it’s important for us to support each other as
veterans…” Interestingly the targeted commissioner is himself a veteran. Even
in the body of Christ denominations have been known to target one another and
go after each other. John saw a man driving out demons in the name of Jesus and
tried to stop him. “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not
against you is for you.” (Luke 9:50 NIV).
3 comments:
Of course keep in mind that a couple of chapters later Jesus said,
(Luke 11:23 KJV) He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.
I guess much of it comes down to our attitude. Either way I want to be for Him.
Grace and peace.
Pumice,
Good point. I missed putting those double-edged verses together. Yes, and for some of us attitude is so fluid.
Gail
Gail;
-----When my nephew was four years old, his grandmother, who babysat them as they grew up, disciplined him for some misdeed and sent him out of the kitchen into the other room. A few moments later he appeared in the kitchen doorway with his hands on his hips and boldly proclaimed, “A man wants to do what a man wants to do!”
-----It’s amazing sometimes how insightful a child can be without even trying to be. The Bible often exhorts us to desire righteousness, knowledge, wisdom, etc. Desire is where the heart begins. It is the bottom of the barrel of what you are, holding your ambitions and aims from spilling everywhere into a chaotic nonsense. And the mind obeys desire to set goals, make plans, and proceed accordingly.
-----At some level, everyone is trapped by their desires. This is why the Bible tells us to desire righteousness, salvation, and pure spiritual milk. But then if we are trapped by our desires, how can we choose what to desire? It is not the text of the desire which traps us. The function of desire is to trap the soul. The definition, or text, of that function, what it is, what it longs for, is up to you. But redefining desires takes patient focus and perseverance. It is done one choice at a time over great strings of many choices made in congruence with the chosen objective. By acting in accord with those chosen objectives over long periods of time, deeper and deeper desires can be set to righteousness and things well pleasing to God. It just takes self-control. There’s that fruit again.
-----The world’s desires run helter-skelter. The world rejects the things of God and the knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness into which He leads His loved ones. Turning a desire into physical reality, whether it be a new, sporty, black Mustang GT, the cute, giggly girl who’d want to go for a ride in it, or being in control of everyone around you, become sense-overcoming obsessions. Desire actually makes people stupider than mud fences far more often than you ever see mud fences. The insanity of wonton desire eventually destroys a culture by destroying the spiritual connection its people have with God one at a time, leaving desire to become even more wonton.
-----I don’t doubt that today’s children are being trained at least somewhat towards choosing and controlling their desires. But I doubt much of that training at all directs the child to train his desires upon the righteousness of God and things pleasing to Him. Our culture tells us that your desires are a deeply personal thing. Naturally people will then invest much effort in controlling others unto what they themselves want. The Bible tells us to direct our desires into the way of salvation. Spiritually we will invest much effort into controlling ourselves towards what the Lord wants, just like Pumice says, "...I want to be for Him."
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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