STUCK ON YOU

   Are you living the life you want to live for the rest of your life?
   Chances are, you are trying to live the dream you have imagined your life to be.
   If this is your dream, you will dream no more.
   If this is your dream, you have closed the door to an endless list of possibilities of the life you could live, an endless list of things you could do, and an endless list to the person you could become that is greater than you are today.
   In five years, you will still be dreaming the same dream you are dreaming today.
   In five years, you will still be believing the same things you believe today.
   In five years, you will still be doing the same things you are doing today.
   If this is your dream, all you are doing is watching the sun go up and watching the sun go down.
   If this is your dream, all you are doing is waiting for things to happen because you will never make things happen.
   If this is your dream, then you are stuck on you.  You are a prisoner in your own mind, shackled to a dream that leads to nowhere but to yesterday.  You are thereby stuck in yesterday's news, yesterday's blues, and yesterday's views.  The things that thrill you today will be the same things that thrilled you yesterday. 
   If this is your dream, nothing has changed since yesterday:  and nothing never will!
   Tomorrow morning, you will awake to begin a new day.  But tomorrow will not be a new day for you because you lived it yesterday.
   But what about faith, you ask.
   What about it?
   Faith is for the future, not for yesterday. 
   To have faith in God for the future, you must come out of your imagination, for it is there where you are stuck on you and still dreaming the endless dream of yesterday.
      "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  (Hebrews 11: 1)
  

UNTIL THEN

   The Bible is the most important document the world has ever known, yet only a remnant of people on the earth today read it and believe it.
   But if people will read and believe the Bible, they will come to know God for the first time.
   Until then, Christ will be no more than a stranger they have heard about---and of less value than Santa Claus and Easter Bunny.
      "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.  Amen."  (John 21: 25)

CHARACTER

   Character is not built in the arenas of life.  Character is an inside job, built by ourselves.
   If a golfer, for example, never changes, his game will never improve; and the most he will accomplish will be no more than a hitter of golf balls because the arena of golf will not change his character.
   If a church member refuses to change, he will do no more than he is doing now because the arena of church will not change his character.
   If a person lies and cheats in life, he will lie and cheat in golf because his character remains the same; and if he lies and cheats in life, just as he lies and cheats in golf, he will also lie and cheat in church because his character remains the same.
   Thus we can see:  just because a person moves from arena to arena, his character will remain the same until he chooses to change himself on the inside.  Until then, no real change is possible.
   Jesus said,
      "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  (John 3: 3)
   And again,
      "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."  (John 3: 5)
   Therefore, the born again experience of the believer in Christ must be internalized by the believer.  It is a change that will be produced on the inside of people, not on the outside.  It is a change that will be wrought by Christ, and not by ourselves.  It is a work that we are incapable of doing, and it will only happen when people submit their minds and their hearts to Christ and Christ alone.
      "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God:  not of works, lest any man should boast."  (Ephesians 2: 8, 9)
   Knowing, then, that the Word of the Lord is true, we should be able to believe that it is impossible for people to permanently change their character by themselves, for this change must be produced from heaven above, and which they must be willing to accept.
      "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."  (2nd Corinthians 5: 17)

COOKIE-CUTTER CHRISTIANITY

   Would it be fair to say that we have manufactured churches to be exactly as we want them to be and to be no more?
   We have carpet floors, padded pews, and padded kneelers, and we like that.
   We have statues and statuettes, portraits and pictures, and we like that.
   We have dangling chandeliers and candles that glow, and we like that.
   We have golden vessels on communion tables that reflect the light, and we like that.
   We have heating and air-conditioning systems, for our comfort and pleasure, and we like that.
   We have musical programs designed to fit, on time and on cue, and we like that.
   We have ministers and pastors, dressed in fancy suits and priestly garments, and we like that.
   We have tidy little messages wrapped in tidy little bows, and we like that.
   We add a word of fun, a spark of laughter, to sermon and song, and we like that.
   We like to repeat the words we have been taught to repeat, in unison and harmony, and we like that.
   We like to be in and out in sixty minutes, and we like that.
   After that, we like to drive our fancy cars to our fancy houses, turn on our fancy televisions, and watch our fancy sports teams delight our souls.
   If the pulpit is supposed to be the place where the Bible is taught and preached, where is the Bible in churches today?  Where does the Bible rank from the pulpit to the pews?
   Is there really much difference in churches across America today?
   Does any church across America stand up and stand out as different from all the rest?
   If people in churches believe the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible is a myth, what message does this send to people outside churches from those within who say they are believers in Christ?
   Have we reached the age of Cookie-Cutter Christianity?
   Have we reached the age when every church looks like every other church all in a row?
   Have we reached the age when the behaviors of the people outside church buildings are no different than when they are on the inside?
   Have we reached the age when the behaviors of people inside church buildings are no different than all the people gathered together in the same congregation and under the same roof?
   Have we reached the age when people in churches are simply not interested in evangelism?
   When was the last time you prayed for Christ to save the soul of one person?

NEW THINKING

          "Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people!"
                                 from the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life"  (1946)

   When I was a kid, my parents taught us to remain silent when adults were talking.
    Today, however, it is the youth who insist on doing the talking while putting a muzzle on elderly people.
    Today, it is the youth who believe they possess new thinking while believing that older people are suffering from old thinking:  that the thoughts and words of senior citizens are no longer applicable in this changing world.
    Youth today believe it is their duty to save planet earth from having a heatstroke, from contamination of the air we breathe, and from the destruction of earth by people who care not for the earth the way they do.
    Youth today believe the earth is overpopulated by people---while saying nothing about the populations of animals, fish, birds, and plants.
    Moreover, the United Nations believes that humans pose the greatest threat to the survival of the earth as well as the survival of the human species.
    By this method of new thinking, selective killing of certain humans is on their minds:  that certain people should be eliminated in order for a select few to continue the human race as well as protect the earth from destruction.
    In other words, certain people are considered to be no more than toxic waste, including a baby in its mother's womb.
    This method of new thinking, however, is nothing new, and the youth are deceiving themselves to believe that they are the masters of the earth and lords over people. 
       "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be:  and that which is done is that which shall be done:  and there is no new thing under the sun."  (Ecclesiastes 1: 9)
    Adolph Hitler convinced Germany's youth that certain people should die.
    New thinking is nothing new under the sun:  it has been done before.
   

A STORYBOOK

   Our thoughts are what we are.
   The things we think about define us.
   The real you and the real me is inside our heads, in our own minds, and in our own words.
   Not wanting others to know the real you or the real me, we can hide from others in our own minds.
   Only that part of me that I want you to know will I let outside of my mind; for if I reveal everything about me, then I would be stripped down and naked and totally vulnerable; therefore, I keep part of me clothed and out of danger.  For there is a risk  in letting others know the real me:  a risk we are not willing to take, even among the people we know the best---for they, at best, are just like us, and we exhibit only part of us  through our personalities, which begs the question:
    Which part of us that we reveal through our personalities is real, and which part is fake?
   Jesus said,
       "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself:  but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."  (John 14: 10)
   Do the words of our minds speak of God, or do they speak of us?
   When you enter a room, do you see others, or do you think about them seeing you?
   Jesus said,
       "In my Father's house are many mansions."  (John 14: 2)
   In our minds, which is our house, how many rooms do we have for ourselves?  From time to time, do others see us in different ways?  Is this also how we project ourselves, from time to time, from different rooms?  I can be warm and talkative today, but tomorrow I can be cold and silent.  Why did I change?  Or why did I switch rooms?  Could this indicate a lack of consistently in my own life?  Or is this a way for me to present myself to others by changing my cloaks in different rooms?
   How can others know us when we keep the greater part of ourselves hidden in our minds?
   Your life is a storybook, but what are you going to tell others from all of the various rooms in your mind?  Certainly there are some parts that should remain confidential, but there are others parts from which people could get to know you better.  The same can be said for them.
   The Bible reveals to us the mind of Christ, from which we can get to know Him better, and, for some people, they can come to know Christ for the first time.
   For the Bible is the storybook of Christ, written in words from the mind of God.

THE GREATEST WAR

   The greatest wars are the wars we fight inside our own heads, and the greatest of these are the wars we fight with people:  when the words of our minds become swords, which we use with our tongues to cut people to the ground.