Hello Friends,<\/p>\n
On this week\u2019s delay\u2026 The Wii made me do it. Complete and total distraction. Anyhow, I\u2019ve got our Wii online now. If any ya\u2019ll got a Wii too, let me know and let\u2019s hook up sometime.<\/p>\n
So did you all notice how you reacted to circumstances over the past week? Did you observe the inner you and what it was telling you and\/ or commenting to you about so and so? I hope you did. This may seem like a silly thing to do or an \u201cI already know about that so I don\u2019t need to do it\u201d exercise, but understanding what it going on inside your mind is absolutely necessary to \u201cTake stock\u201d, as it were, of your spiritual condition.<\/p>\n
The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 13:5,
\nTest yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!<\/p>\n
Why Jim???<\/p>\n
Remember Adam (not Reynolds) and Eve in the Garden of Eden? (Review the 12\/29\/2008 message if you need to.) Remember they disobeyed God\u2019s command not to eat the fruit of a certain tree. And remember I suggested they became spiritually alienated from God at that time\u2026 thanks to sin.<\/p>\n
Well, the reason why we examine ourselves is to see if WE are alienated from God or not. You know the old saying\u2026 Won\u2019t seek the cure if there\u2019s not a problem. And sin is a problem\u2026. A huge problem. But just look at how we are apathetic towards everyday sins. Thinking back to your \u201cfruit\u201d over the past couple of weeks\u2026 were you apathetic to your sins? I know I was for a couple of days. (And God chastised me for it too.) That apathy has a source\u2026<\/p>\n
Genesis 3:13 [Post fruit eating] Then the Lord God said to the woman (Eve), \u201cWhat is this you have done?\u201d And the woman said, \u201cThe serpent (Satan) deceived me, and I ate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aha! The Specter is revealed! Do you like the Rolling Stones? They sang a song about Satan:<\/p>\n
Pleased to meet you
\nHope you guess my name
\nBut what\u2019s puzzling you
\nIs the nature of my game<\/p>\n
And the nature of his game is still what Eve described\u2026 deception. And the pattern of the fruit you bear is a tell-tale sign of whether you are deceived as Eve was or not.<\/p>\n
Matthew 7:17-20 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their
\nfruits.<\/p>\n
Satan tricks people into thinking they\u2019re good trees bearing good fruits. I know this from 30 some years of experience! I was deceived on the state of my faith until just a couple of years ago. Check this out:<\/p>\n
1970s Went to occasional Sunday school class
\n1983 Got baptized after taking Eucharist class at All Saints\u2019
\n1984 Helped as VBS aid during Summer
\n1985 Go to Linton Hall Catholic Military school, recite Lord\u2019s Prayer\/ Rosery
\n1987 Answer altar call at Stryper Concert
\n1989 Get \u201cSlain by the Spirit\u201d and \u201cGift of Tongues\u201d in DR
\n1990s Yadda Yadda Yadda
\n2005 Rebaptized \u201cThe Real Way\u201d a la full body submersion in outdoor setting
\n2006 Realized I was a bad tree, one day to be cut down and thrown into the fire<\/p>\n
So you see? It can happen to the best of us, ;)! Satan is the master deceiver.<\/p>\n
Now our dear ancestors Adam and Eve were originally told to multiply and subdue the earth\u2026 Be kinda like keepers of the earth, (Genesis 1:28). God made the earth (And it is still His), but He gave control (dominion) of the earth originally to Adam and Eve. When Satan came along and tricked them, their disobedience was also a forfeiture of their rule of God\u2019s earth. Guess who received it then and has the rule now?<\/p>\n
1st John 5:19 \u2026 the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.<\/p>\n
So Satan has a hold on the system, the machine, the prevailing attitudes of the world. He\u2019s got a big hold on religion too. His control is sooo massive and all encompassing that it can be hard to\u00a0know which way is up.<\/p>\n
I vividly recall a conversation I had with Mark Reiter (roughly 15 years ago) about the effects of the McDonald\u2019s Happy Meal promos\u2026 sucking kids into ungodly worldviews at a young age. After all my waxing eloquent he quipped, \u201cIt\u2019s all evil Jim, everything is evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Satan\u2019s grip and trickery, God in His mercy gives us the truth revealed in His word, the Bible:<\/p>\n
John 14:6 Jesus said to him (Thomas the disciple), \u201cI am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father (God) but through Me.<\/p>\n
How\u2019s that for political correctness? How\u2019s that for black and white? As I like to say, \u201cThem\u2019s fightin\u2019 words!\u201d If Jesus says that, then anything else, by default, is from Ye Olde Dragon. Is this why people say, \u201cIgnorance is bliss\u201d?<\/p>\n
As people who participated in a youth group seeking a more uplifting environment and meaning, we need to actively continue to uplift our souls by first examining ourselves. Having grown older does not make this moot does it? Nay, it does not, but all the more so.<\/p>\n
God loves us too much to leave us ignorant of our natural (inherited) spiritual condition. Let\u2019s jump from the familiar story of Adam and Eve and Satan in the Garden of Eden and fast forward to Moses and the 10 Commandments. They\u2019re very helpful to us\u2026 they can teach us what we may have forgotten about ourselves\u2026<\/p>\n
But first, any people out there want to give their take on the 10 Commandments?<\/p>\n
Peace,
\nJim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello Friends, On this week\u2019s delay\u2026 The Wii made me do it. Complete and total distraction. Anyhow, I\u2019ve got our Wii online now. If any ya\u2019ll got a Wii too, let me know and let\u2019s hook up sometime. So did you all notice how you reacted to circumstances over the past week? Did you observe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13,39,40,38],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","tag-gospel","tag-self-examiniation","tag-soul-searching","tag-spiritual-discernment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}