Matthew 12:22

I have never experienced the horror of watching my family being pulled into the streets and hacked to death. I've never felt the sorrow from seeing one of my sisters being brutally raped. I look at my life and I realize that the truth that Christ spoke of is so evident in my own life.

The thorns, they choke me. The laptop, the car, the bigger paycheck. I can feel their bloodletting grasp growing tighter and tighter. I pray and seek for the sake of appeasing my skin instead of my God. I find myself complaining to the Lord because of a bad day.

A bad day is realizing I could not find food, and now my family must starve. A bad day is having to bury a son or daughter because the evil deeds of men have reaped yet another life in this world. A bad day is not what so many of us have ever experienced.

I am a worthless man compared to those heroes who, day by day, suffer for the faith. I am no one. My dreams are for fame and vanity, God have mercy on me.

I've heard it said that He, our Great God, does not choose those who are capable, only those who are available and He makes them capable.

For what it's worth Lord, here I am.

Pearls

It is with unceasing passion that God, in all His glory, forged the bodies and souls of man kind. God set Adam into the realm of life with purpose. He was to care for all that God created.

Adam fell. Instead of finding himself caring for creation, he found himself existing simply to survive. He, by the sweat of his brow, broke up the land. By toil he made a way for his family. It was never meant to be so.

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.

When we choose to sin, when we walk in the fallen nature, we find our purpose for being is less than what God had intended. Ask any junkie if what he is can compare to what he hoped to become.

Our lives are the pearls that God has given us. What we choose to do with them is up to us. Remember that in the end, we will be held accountable for where we have invested our pearl. Whether in the stomachs of pigs or perhaps we took it and did with the pearl that which is glorifying to the heart of God.

Look at the parable of the talents. One man hid his talent, his pearl. Was God pleased to see that the talent was as He had left it? His answer was in fierce action against the man.

The Master is returning, live lives of greatness.

Wholeness in progress

What is it to live? To really live?
Are we to pretend that simple survival is anything compared to real life?
Life is wholeness.

So why can't we as people embrace it?

The answer is simple, to know who we are, and walk in the fullness there of, we must first see our selves as we truly are.

Is it any wonder that He says "I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE?" (John 14:6)


But truth is simply a perception, a relative factor in ones existence as an individual on this journey of life.

Truly?

Or is it an unfaltering foundation which all that is rests upon? That foundation is living, that foundation is breathing, that foundation is Christ. There is an absolute truth, He is Jesus.
If we are to know who we are, we must first know who He is!
Through Him, we shall know ourselves.
Through Him, we shall live.

This internal struggle

Life is a journey, a process. There is so much in this world that can crush me if it weren't for the impossibly strong arms of Christ holding on to my very being. Life for me has been a struggle. A game of tug of war with God on one side and the desires that war against Him on the other. I, with with all that I am, wish that it was as simple as flipping a switch and my decisions and actions would be holy.

"Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Genesis 4:6.

Cain was a person who tried to short cut the way to God's heart. To have the best for himself and, at the same time, to have the best for God. I am guilty of this sin. I try to short cut my way to God's heart. When He desires a spotless lamb, I offer him vegetables. I keep the best for me and assume that what I choose to give God, is what God will be grateful to receive.

Cain killed Abel in hopes of removing the standard, removing the example. If Abel was no longer in the picture, how could God compare Cain to anyone but himself. How many Abels have I killed in my way of compromise.

My prayer is simple, to be Abel. That I will be a person who will offer the best. That, apart from compromise, I will give my all! Of all that I can give, God desires and accepts only the best.

Life is a process. "Learn to do good." (Isaiah 1:19).