Posts Tagged ‘consequences’

The Wilderness

// May 12th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // My Life, My Thoughts

So many people are having “wilderness” experiences it has almost become a fad in christianity!   It seems every day I hear of some person or other describing their own “wilderness”.  It is not so much that I doubt, far be it from me to judge someones personal experience; however, my tendency is to purposely avoid whatever “The Herd” is doing.  Call me an Individualist, or whatever, but I have often avoided running off a cliff with “the herd” by steering clear of religious fads.  It does get tiring though, always questioning whether something is real or fabricated, whether I am really feeling something or caving in to peer pressure.  Like right now.

I am having a hard time lately… my well intentioned segment here “Diary of a Deadbeat Dad” suffered a serious hemorrhage of comments and spun out of control. While I would love to repost the entire segment of posts, I struggle with frustrations, and worry that others would misunderstand my motives.  The entire segment was originally meant to communicate the struggles of a daddy that has absoloutely no idea how to communicate with his son.  My hope was that this would encourage other daddys to start a journal or something similar.. just to get out the frustration and pain.  To my shame,  The entire segment became an out and out war zone and all I could do was remove the posts.  Soon after removing the posts, I received paperwork from my ex-wife’s lawyer providing me an affidavit to surrender my parental rights.  It could not have been a darker time for me… I talked with my son several times about the consequences of signing the affidavit. Each time he assured me that he understood and that he still wanted me to sign the document.  I went before my Father God so many times for guidance, and every time he delivered what I needed.  Ultimately the document was signed,  and I have voluntarily given up my legal rights to my son.

You may judge me… but I have learned it is a small thing to be judged by men. Not to say that such an action does not carry a heavy price, the price is greater than many can imagine and the consequences could be incalculable. But hard choices are hard for a reason, and ultimately we discover that God is greater than our choices.  I can say that it is my strongest desire to run away and hide, or do the “wilderness getaway vacation” I would like nothing better than to go eat worms right now… but with the “wilderness fad” going so strong I am somewhat hesitant to jump on the bandwagon.

The wilderness is harsh, barren, and unfriendly, but it is a passive unfriendliness. The wilderness does not try to destroy you, it just exists, and you must accept the wilderness as it is and learn to respect it.

I think that many choose “the wilderness” because the other option; “the battlefield” is much less fun.

The battlefield is like the wilderness, in that it is  harsh, barren, and unfriendly, there is no respect, the battlefield is a cemetery , and the reward of passivity is a gravestone. As much as I would like to run off to the wilderness… The battlefield is where I belong, bringing principalities, and powers under the dominion of the Prince of Peace. Ephesians 6:12

I refuse to let the fleeting mirage of earthly existence or the struggles of my own humanity distract me.

I have no desire to minimise the struggle of those who are truly in the midst of a wilderness experience;  But if you are simply “draft dodging”  then quit whining about your wilderness experience, and join the ranks of warriors that will gladly sacrifice everything for the sake of “The Kingdom”

Tags: Art, choice, choices, christian, Christianity, consequence, consequences, dad, dead beat dad, depression

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Do your choices live with you?

// April 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // My Confessions, My Life, My Thoughts

Choice

Choice

I recently had to make a very tough choice, one that I would never wish on anyone.  The thing about choices are they are pretty much one way…it is rare to be able to go back and “un-choose” a choice. Most of us just have to live with our choices.  Another thing about choices is that sometimes there is not a good choice sometimes the choice you have to make is just a matter of which set of consequences you want to live with. In those really dark times, when the choices you have made try to come back to haunt you, just remember.  You may have to live with the choices you make… but you don’t  have to let your choices live with you.  Make your choices and move on… sure we all make bad choices…some of us make horrible choices… even stupid choices…But God has been in the business of fixing bad choices for an eternity. If your choices are living with you then you are probably still beating yourself up about it, wondering if you made the right choice, thinking what you would have done if you knew what you know now.  It is important to have the faith that God can work with your choices.   So relax,  make your choices, live with the choices  you make, but don’t let them live with you!

Tags: choice, choices, consequence, consequences, Faith, God, sin

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The Order of Responsibility

// January 15th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // My Thoughts

I like to think that I am a responsible person. I keep to a schedule and show up to work on time, the normal things that responsible people do.

Sometimes I let stuff fall through the cracks… It happens to everyone… no big deal.. right?

well I used to think so… until I started actually thinking!

Responsibility is not something that you can carry around like a sack of potatoes. It is a universal law that is applied in an elegant fashion to our everyday lives. So I started thinkin… well if I can avoid something that is my responsibility what happens after that? well eventually the responsibility falls to someone else.

so how does that apply to the grand scheme of things?

I mean I know people personally that have avoided taking responsibility for their actions all of their lives! what happens to them? Sad to say but someone HAS to pay! That’s the rules! responsibility must be taken at some point… you cannot escape it! even worse than that, the consequences increase with time…

so I would think, well they will pay for it when they die! – well maybe so but the physical laws of responsibility.. – that would be consequences, must be paid regardless. Ultimately the consequences of their irresponsibility will be paid by their offspring or sadly the first in line to accept the responsibility.

we see this every day in life without even taking a thought. Innocent bystanders being caught in downdraft of someones personal “crash and burn” experience. Children that starve to death because war-mongers must have their wars, families become homeless because bankers on Wall Street want to turn a good profit and take an extra few million home.

So the next time you shrug off a responsibility … look back at the ones in line behind you and think about who might pay, think about how long before they pay and how much it will cost them… Will they take the responsibility? or will someone else pay?

If you ever wonder why bad thing happen to good people… it is often because someone decided to sidestep responsibility and let it fall on someone else.

Jesus took the spiritual fall for us… who pays the price here on earth… is completely up to you.

Tags: Art, consequence, consequences, jesus, responsibility, spirit, taking responsibility

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How Could He!??

// December 30th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // My Thoughts

War, Famine, Earthquakes, Wildfires, Tsunamis, –  The news media is filled with reports of chaos and atrocity and intolerable circumstances. There is always a lot of controversy surrounding some of the horrible things that go on in the world. Some christians are yelling “Punishment” Others say “God doesn’t do bad things to people”  Still others silently wonder “How could a God of Love.. allow this to happen to innocent people.

Well?? why?… I have my opinions… and.. this being my blog.. you get to read em!
#1  why do bad things happen?
well since the dawn of creation bad thing have happen because of the natural course of events… for instance… living next to a volcano…. BAD CHOICE!   mebby you didn’t know that… but still the fact remains!
the other reason bad things happen is because of consequence.  Consequences are tricky, they don’t always fall to who you expect… so often someone innocent pays the consequences.
#2  It all depends on what you are calling “BAD”
for example… choosing to knock your child out of the way of a car and breaking their leg in the process? … could be looked at as a good thing to do! however your kid may not thank you for the pain! especially if they feel the “salvation” was uncalled for!
#3  What really matters in the first place!?
This really brings it all down to brass tacks.   God is not concerned with our “Flesh”  it is our Soul that matters to him! He will knock us away from the street time and time again, giving  chance after chance to realize that there is more to life than living!
#4  He proved his point
starvation, abandonment, unwed mother, step dad, half-siblings, misunderstanding, abuse, crappy friends, stupid friends, homelessness, angry mobs, beating, abuse, fear, defamation of character,  etc. all of these things is what God chose to allow Jesus to suffer,  he was called “the man of sorrows” “acquainted with grief”
Why would God allow his son to go through all of that!?   … he is a God of Love after all.. right?
Jesus suffered because God does not exempt himself from the rules of consequence… he allowed himself to accept the consequences of all of our actions ultimately suffering our greatest fear, death.  This illuminates the value of our souls versus our flesh.
So why do bad things happen,  well it depends!   it may be consequences, protection, natural order of things… ect.  the point is that your soul matters! it is all that matters!
what about the starving children?   the victims of rape, the innocent!    again… this is about their souls… and whether you can understand it, accept it, or like it, everything is being done to rescue every single human soul, whatever the cost… they may be taken early, they may live until they are 100 years old. But each will come to the defining point where their life is worth more than the flesh that contains it…
do you love your child when you let the doctor hold them down and give them 5 shots in a row… fighting back  your tears for their sake?… yes…. because you are made in his image. And you know… that what is best is not always what seems best…
and once it is all over… he grabs us up… and holds us.. saying.. “there there… it was only a moment,  now I can hold you forever! and no more bad things will ever happen to you ever again!”
How could I not love someone like that?
Tags: Art, blog, choice, christian, Christianity, christians, consequence, consequences, dad, depression, Faith, fear, friends, God, jesus, Love, pain, Religion, sin, sun

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Why do I Exist!???

// November 20th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // My God

The question has been posed over and over again… in too many ways to count. “why am I here” “what is my purpose” “who am I”

The reason for our existence is an important question to answer, It governs how we look at the world. I would even venture to say that every single decision we make is governed by our understanding of why we are here. Sooo… Why are we here?
First we need to go back to the beginning….
God… 
John said “God is Love” this is very possibly a gross understatement but we get the point.
So what is love?  
Love by definition requires an “object” a “focal point” a “recipient”
Love by definition also requires that the “giver” expend themselves for the “recipient”
So if God is Love, Then it is easy to understand that he wanted a “recipient” to expend himself on, It is his nature to do so. 
So, God created us so that he could love us?  - makes sense
what else?
Absolutely nothing… I know.. it seems stupid. but hear me out.
Why do you have kids?.. so that they can do something for you? so that they can have more kids? so that you can punish them?  what is their purpose?
Children are a product of  Love,  and they are an object of love. They exist to be Loved!
Let’s apply this to the real world and see if it lines up with what the bible teaches.
  1. Love the Lord God with all your might.
  2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus specifically stated that the entire spirit of what God wanted was all wrapped up in those two “commandments”  
Well what about “Sin” and “Spreading the Gospel” … all of those things.
We tend to objectify so much these days that we lose sight of what matters. Sin has never been the “issue” it is a symptom of free will – and the knowledge of good and evil.  
Every time that we sin, we are choosing to love ourselves, over either God or someone else,  The reason that God even gave the “Love Commandments” is to reveal his nature. He wants us to be like him because he loves us. Just as we hope that our children will be like us and do everything in our power to teach them.
So when we choose to love ourselves more than God or others, we get caught up and injure others. The consequences of our actions are then very visible leading us to repent from our selfishness and learning once again that Love is the only solution.
here are a few quick bullet points.
  • how does this apply to habitual sinners ?

What is the reason for habitual sin?    - a selfish person chooses to put themselves above God and continue to injure others.  If they allow God to love them and learn to love others then their habitual behavior will go away- Including addictions!

  • how does this apply to being a good christian?
well,  since being a christian is little more than choosing to allow God to  love us and accepting the gift of Jesus.  - you are pretty much done!
  • But what about doing good works

you are still missing it here… if you love people,  you take care of them!  what’s so hard to understand about that?

  • what about “Spreading the Gospel”  Don’t I have to “Do something”?

Well… again,  You fell in love, and you are not telling anybody about it? … I find that hard to beleive!

More on this soon!!!
Tags: addictions, beleive, christian, consequence, consequences, God, jesus, Kids, Love, purpose of existence, selfishness, sin, spirit, why am I here

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Re: Politics. From the "Other Bald Guy"

// October 20th, 2008 // 11 Comments » // My Life

So I gotta weigh in on the politics discussion. Ive actually just been thinking a lot about the issue recently…and I still don’t know exactly what I think about it…however, I have come to some conclusions about it.

The first question I asked myself was: How do I treat other similar issues in my life. Issues like, what job I want, or where I want to move, or what kind of vehicle I need to purchase. Well if you look at my “God’s Will” post, you will see that for me, there is no mysticism or hokus pokus in how I make choices in my life. If I need to buy a car, I decide what kind of car my family needs, and how much I can spend, then I go buy a car. If I’m looking for a job, I…well, I…go look for a job. See its the beauty of the garden of Eden. You know the time God said,here is what I want you to do, and if you do “x” you will regret it…and we did “x” and to this day I am a little ticked off with Eve. However the beauty of it is that God gave us the ability and the freedom to do what we pleased…and hoped we would please, to please Him… sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t, but we live and die on our own choices. Despite His cosmic supremacy, and sovereign, He doesn’t threaten us with a lot of scary things if we don’t do what He wants us to. He gave us the option and the list of consequences, and said make your choices.
So every day I make choices. Some are good choices, some are informed and wise, some are spur of the moment and perhaps regrettable, but they are all my choices and if I keep on walking in the light of Jesus, His blood, like a good set of windshield wipers wipes away the sins nanosecond by nanosecond. SO I do my dead level best, and trust Him to keep me safe.

So why would I treat politics any different. There are two choices, one seems to be in opposition to many things I value, one seems to be more in favor of things I value… I have an opportunity to cast my vote… so I do, and then I go on with life trusting God to do what He wills, despite my humanity and perhaps shallow-ness of mind. That’s it… I’m no activist, I don’t go to rallies. I have yet to make any poster board signs with life altering phrases for the masses to read as they drive by, but I make my choices every day. I know those who don’t vote (fine by me) and their reason is that it doesn’t really matter if we vote or not, God places the leaders in place as He sees fit…” I agree with that partially, I mean I absolutely believe God does what He wants to do, but follow the logic of that train of thinking…
First, is it good to have good leaders? (Christianity will survive no matter what)
– yes, remember in Acts when they pray to live quiet peaceful lives? IE. good leaders.
Second, does anything we do, have anything to do with what leaders we get?
– Yes, in this nation we are allowed to choose who we want to lead us…
Third, Is it wrong for us to make choices?
– No, God built us on the premise that we make our own choices?
Fourth, can God do as He wills no matter what we choose?
– Absolutely.
Fifth, Will God override our choices and force something on us that we don’t choose?
– If that was God’s MO (modus operandi) ,then why not just force us to Love Him… He hasn’t done that yet, Obviously.

My conclusion is that we treat politics just like everything else we do as Christians. Make a choice and walk on, trusting that God works all things for good to those who love Him and are called according to his purpose. Don’t be so arrogant to think that God needs you to make things run smoothly…but also don’t underestimate the value God places on people…humans, to accomplish His will. IE. David, Sampson, Moses, Solomon, Gideon, Abraham…all people, and all making their own choices, and all vitally important to the scheme of our salvation.

So go vote, and then go on with your life and live with what happens. That song by “RUSH” called “Freewill” has a line that says, “if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” Pretty much right on… you made a choice, It’s just been a lazy choice, one that did’t require much from you, but I guess to each his own right? God is still God no matter who gets elected.

Fat to chew on. Do you have “Rights” as a Christian?

Tags: Art, choice, choices, christian, Christianity, christians, consequence, consequences, Family, God, God's will, jesus, Love, Mac, peace, politics, sin

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