The last few weeks have been really tough. They really have not been terribly tough on what is going on with me personally, but it seems like recently those that are around me are suffering from a myriad of personal crises', some of which are deserving of the personal foul flag for piling on. Because I care about the people in my life, I am invested into their lives and care about what happens to them. The biggest frustrations seems to be not being able to do very much about things. I want to help but I can't in the way that I would like to.
There was a phrase that I learned a long time ago, both by just hearing about it, and by practical application. The term was 'standing in the gap'. What I have always understood the term to mean was that an individual would be able to help another through doing things for the person that they may not be able to do for themselves, or taking part of the heat for them to lessen their burdens, or another way was to spiritually breach a gap for them.
The idea of standing in the gap comes generally from Ezekiel 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. The previous verse shows that the condition of Israel had gone downhill and the people were acting wickedly. The idea of seeking one to stand in the gap was to say that one could plead for the people to God. Someone to stand as an intermediary and plead for mercy from God on behalf of the people. This same idea can be brought to an individual level as well where some righteous person would plead to god on behalf of others. I guess some would call this intercessory prayer.
One example of this might be when Abraham was pleading with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, knowing that Lot and his family were there. Abraham pleaded to spare the place for the righteous folks sake. Unfortunately for the city, Lot and his immediate family did not add up to enough. But this was a case where Abraham kind of stood in the gap for Lot and family, as well as any other righteous folks that may have been there.
Sometimes standing in the gap for another may put yourself on the line. Jesus tells us that no greater love does a man have than to lay down his life for his friends. Sometimes, we have to put ourselves out there to protect friends, family, fellow believers. It could require literally jumping into the middle of a fight, or placing yourself in harms way to protect another. Again we can look to Abraham and Lot for this also when Lot was captured and Abraham got his band together to go take out Lots captors and rescue Lot.
There are times too when standing in the gap can be purely spiritual. You pray and pray hard for lost loved ones and friends, asking God to intervene in their lives and open their eyes to accept Jesus Christ. Daniel 10:11-13 gives us some insight into this. We see how when Daniel prayed, the prayer was immediately heard and responded to, but it took 21 days for the angels to fight their way past the demons to accomplish the prayer. This happens when we pray too, especially when we are praying for the lost. We are in a war.
Doing these battles takes its own toll on those of us standing in the gap. We get tired, depressed, weak, etc, during these times. The Holy Spirit that resides in us as believers desires to help us through this. He will give us strength, wisdom, understanding, and can do some simple things like making sure our needs our met during these times. I kings 19 tells the story of how Elijah was ministered to after doing some of the Lords work. Elijah was so depressed he wished to die, and God had an angel bring him some food to eat to help strengthen him and bring him back into balance.
We as Christians are involved in some deep struggles whether we know it or not. We will often be asked to or feel the need to stand in the gap for others individually or as a group. It is what we do. Sharing the gospel and ministering is hard work and may require much of us mentally, physically, and spiritually. We can trust that God will see us through if we are acting under His authority.
Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
Showing posts with label Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Care. Show all posts
2014/08/08
2013/12/12
Dietary Reaping and Sowing
Galatians 6:7
Be not deceived; God is not mocked:
for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
Normally when we think of this verse, we think of people who have done some very bad things. I see this verse often used with adulterers, or thieves, or some other such obvious criminal or sinful behavior. This is a principle that goes far beyond just the obvious though and can be very subtle. Even things that don’t seem so bad can have consequences that are quite negative that sneak up on a person.
One of these things is our diet. We hear all the time about what we are supposed to eat, but we are bombarded with what we can eat. For the Bible believer one reads about what to eat and what not to eat in the scriptures, but tells himself that it no longer applies. We are free from the law and can eat whatever we want to eat as long as we eat it by faith. I’ve heard that. I’ve even said it myself a time or two. We are not as free as one would think though, when it comes to dietary law or principles found in scripture. We reap consequences from eating unclean things.
Food today is far removed from the food people used to consume even 100 years ago. It is processed with all sorts of chemicals that are foreign to the natural state of the food. We even create foods today that do not occur naturally. All of these unnaturally processed and unnaturally generated foods were not designed to work in the nourishment and strengthening of our body. The intent may be there, but our bodies were not designed to function with these unnatural items.
Many people today have a McDonalds and microwave diet. They are in a hurry and just are thinking of filling the belly while they are on the run to do something else. They are not thinking about the food, what is in it, how it was made, or what it might do to them. Just fill the gut and run. We as a people are reaping the results of that in record obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and many other maladies that is related to the food we eat. I am not immune myself and am reaping some high blood pressure as a result of years of eating non-foods.
In recent years, companies like Monsanto and others have even been making unnatural combinations of foods in a laboratory, genetically altering plants and animals in ways that could never occur naturally or even with selective breeding. They have cornered our market with their unnatural foods that other places in the world will not even allow into their countries. No studies have been done to see what effects these foods might have on humans. Looking at the rises in various diseases that were once rare gives at least a clue.
I am going to meet what I have sown by putting my trust in the Lord. In the Bible is outlines a diet that is good. God would not order a diet that was bad for us. God wants the best for us so I am (finally) going to trust Him on His word and learn to eat the way God intended us, and had ordered his chosen people to eat. Going by the reaping and sowing principle God set, I expect that this change to cure me of my high blood pressure and take care of most any other malady that I may have as a result of poor nutrition. Forgive me Father for not recognizing this sooner
2013/09/25
Love One Another
I
John 3:14We know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his
brother abideth in death. 15Whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal
life abiding in him.
I spend a lot of time online in various groups and pages that discuss the bible and issues of the day. As you can imagine, there are certain hot button issues that tend to bubble to the forefront. What amazes me about many of these groups is not the stand against sinful practices in the world, no; it is the stand that Christians take against one another that I find so amazing. Some of the most hateful vitriol I find among Christians is in the critique of other Christians.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples,
if ye have love one to another.
I have to wonder what people outside the faith must think of all of this when they look on. Certainly it is not an example that people would want to follow, and a poor representation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even unbelievers know that Christianity is supposed to be about love. They see us fighting amongst ourselves and it tells others that God either isn’t real, or isn’t worthy of following for who would want to be filled with all that hate for others?
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
I would exhort every Christian to check themselves to see if they are acting in the loving manner that our Lord calls us to. Pray and ask the Lord to search your heart to see if your ways are pure. Remember that we should not let the sun go down on our anger (eph 4:26). Before stepping away from that computer mad at your brother or sister in Christ, make amends in some way. When we carry away that anger, it will grow to bitterness. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; (Hebrews 12:15) For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Let us walk in that peace together, unified, understanding that each of us has our own roles.
Now
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all
speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be
perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the
same judgment.
2013/04/26
God's Social Security Plan pt2 Family
Today we will continue on with looking into God’s Social
Security Plan. The focus of today is
going to be family. Families are the #1
means by which the elderly are to be secure in their later years. In part 1 we established the commandment of
honoring your mother and father and how his carries on throughout life. Here in part 2 we have a clear command from
scripture that taking care of family is of the highest priorities.
I Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
Did you catch what it says in this verse? If you do not care for family, you are denying the faith! You do not get much stronger language than this. Tying this in with the honoring father and mother commandment, It is the expected Christian duty of a family to take care of and provide for the elderly in their family. It is a sin not to.
When I was a small child, we cared for my grandfather in his later years. He lived in our house and my parents paid for his care. He did play an important role in our family though. While my parents worked, or went out taking care of family business, Grandpa would be the babysitter. With the cost of daycare these days (and even then), what a great benefit to the family grandpa was financially. It freed my parents up to do the things needed to run the family.
Another thing about having the elders taken care of by the family was the passing on of wisdom to the younger generations. My grandpa had a million sayings about life that to this day pop into my head. I use the wisdom he passed on almost daily. He taught me other things to, like how to fish. His love for music was given to me as well. Grandpa could play by ear most anything, and that skill he helped to develop in me. I only wish he had lived longer and passed on more.
These relationships are how a culture passes on itself to future generations. It creates a cohesiveness in the culture, and a knowledge of the cultures past and ties it to the present. It is a way that culture identity is passed along and makes I possible for a culture to perpetuate and stay connected with the roots of its past.
These days, with the advent of Government social security, we have lost those things. Families have given up the care for their elderly, passing off the responsibility to government. Over just a couple generations of the government taking care of our elderly, we have lost a lot of our culture, drifted away from the roots of who we are as a people. It is now the government deciding these things.
Also with the government stepping in to do what was the families mandate, it has broken down the families. We no longer see generations living together or even near each other. These days we segregate our old people in homes or retirement communities and miss out on all of their wisdom and knowledge. We lose all the stories of our history and lose context with our past.
Economics are also affected by this break down of the family units. In the past, the larger families would live on land they owned. Each generation would build upon the wealth created by the previous. The longer and larger the family, the more economic security was generated for the family as a whole, and a greater ability to carry out our God given duty to take care of our family. In the last two generations, as families split up, the lands held by families has been sold off to corporations. It is now large businesses that are reaping in the wealth generated by the land while the broken and scattered families have been reduced to little more than slave labor, passing along their meager wages to the mega corporations who bought their land. The family is then left with less and less resources to take care of the family causing a greater reliance on a government program to do the job that we were put in charge of.
Whatever are circumstance are now, it is not the job of government to take care of family. The social security for our elderly falls square into the responsibility of the family, scripturally. It is time that families retake that mantle of being responsible for their own and not be so expectant on big government to do their job.
I Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
Did you catch what it says in this verse? If you do not care for family, you are denying the faith! You do not get much stronger language than this. Tying this in with the honoring father and mother commandment, It is the expected Christian duty of a family to take care of and provide for the elderly in their family. It is a sin not to.
When I was a small child, we cared for my grandfather in his later years. He lived in our house and my parents paid for his care. He did play an important role in our family though. While my parents worked, or went out taking care of family business, Grandpa would be the babysitter. With the cost of daycare these days (and even then), what a great benefit to the family grandpa was financially. It freed my parents up to do the things needed to run the family.
Another thing about having the elders taken care of by the family was the passing on of wisdom to the younger generations. My grandpa had a million sayings about life that to this day pop into my head. I use the wisdom he passed on almost daily. He taught me other things to, like how to fish. His love for music was given to me as well. Grandpa could play by ear most anything, and that skill he helped to develop in me. I only wish he had lived longer and passed on more.
These relationships are how a culture passes on itself to future generations. It creates a cohesiveness in the culture, and a knowledge of the cultures past and ties it to the present. It is a way that culture identity is passed along and makes I possible for a culture to perpetuate and stay connected with the roots of its past.
These days, with the advent of Government social security, we have lost those things. Families have given up the care for their elderly, passing off the responsibility to government. Over just a couple generations of the government taking care of our elderly, we have lost a lot of our culture, drifted away from the roots of who we are as a people. It is now the government deciding these things.
Also with the government stepping in to do what was the families mandate, it has broken down the families. We no longer see generations living together or even near each other. These days we segregate our old people in homes or retirement communities and miss out on all of their wisdom and knowledge. We lose all the stories of our history and lose context with our past.
Economics are also affected by this break down of the family units. In the past, the larger families would live on land they owned. Each generation would build upon the wealth created by the previous. The longer and larger the family, the more economic security was generated for the family as a whole, and a greater ability to carry out our God given duty to take care of our family. In the last two generations, as families split up, the lands held by families has been sold off to corporations. It is now large businesses that are reaping in the wealth generated by the land while the broken and scattered families have been reduced to little more than slave labor, passing along their meager wages to the mega corporations who bought their land. The family is then left with less and less resources to take care of the family causing a greater reliance on a government program to do the job that we were put in charge of.
Whatever are circumstance are now, it is not the job of government to take care of family. The social security for our elderly falls square into the responsibility of the family, scripturally. It is time that families retake that mantle of being responsible for their own and not be so expectant on big government to do their job.
2013/04/25
God's Social Security Plan pt1
In the United States (and other nations) we have a government program called social security. All our working years we pay a tax and at a
certain age we quit working and the government sends out a check to us for the
remainder of our lives. It is not a huge
check though, barely enough to survive on.
Despite that, most American have come to expect and rely on that little
check as their assurance of being able to survive without working in their old
age.
Social security has allowed a revolution in family dynamics. In our latter years we now expect to live independent lives; independent of our families. In our latter years we now don’t have to be dependent on our families for support. We can support ourselves.
I wonder how many people know that God has His own social security plan? He does, ya know. This idea of a government giving some sort of guarantee of assurance and care in our old age through a benefit program is actually a new idea that has only cropped up in the last century. It is not the way things have been done throughout history, and not exactly the plan God has for us.
Social security is a rather simple plan, and easily executed. You reach a certain age, quit working, and the government sends you a check and gives you insurance. God’s plan is simple too, but it is also complex. The difference between mans plan and Gods is also like night and day. They two are a completely different way of looking at our latter years, family, community, and nation.
Social security has allowed a revolution in family dynamics. In our latter years we now expect to live independent lives; independent of our families. In our latter years we now don’t have to be dependent on our families for support. We can support ourselves.
I wonder how many people know that God has His own social security plan? He does, ya know. This idea of a government giving some sort of guarantee of assurance and care in our old age through a benefit program is actually a new idea that has only cropped up in the last century. It is not the way things have been done throughout history, and not exactly the plan God has for us.
Social security is a rather simple plan, and easily executed. You reach a certain age, quit working, and the government sends you a check and gives you insurance. God’s plan is simple too, but it is also complex. The difference between mans plan and Gods is also like night and day. They two are a completely different way of looking at our latter years, family, community, and nation.
Gods plan starts out with one of the 10 commandments. Now when this commandment was given by god in
tablet form, it was an already known and expected moral imperative set in
society that got its start and was known and expected all the way back to Adam
and Eve. The only reason it had to be
written down is that people moved away from the Lord. We know it as the 5th
commandment. Honor thy father and thy mother.
So much comes out of such a little phrase. It is more than just a child doing what their parents tell them to do. This is a statement that lasts a lifetime and encompasses a lifestyle. It is a commandment that should affect our character and conduct. It should affect our decision making and our plans for the future. It is a sentence that affects what we think of what family is and should be. It is a foundational commandment in God’s plan for social security.
We have come to the beginning point at understanding what Gods plan for social security is. This plan does have one requirement though before it can really be implemented fully. We have to believe that God is. If we don’t have that foundational belief that God is real, then all that follows will not have full meaning. If you don’t know God, I would encourage you to get to know him. The way we can get connected with God is believing in His son Jesus Christ, who the father sent to be a substitute for us, to pay the penalty for sin that we deserve so that we can once again be reunited for our creator. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
In part 2 of God’s Social Security Plan, we will delve into the details of His plan, and how those plans should play out in our lives now and as we grow older into retirement age. There are several aspects to Gods plan that involve most every aspect of society and how we live our lives. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
So much comes out of such a little phrase. It is more than just a child doing what their parents tell them to do. This is a statement that lasts a lifetime and encompasses a lifestyle. It is a commandment that should affect our character and conduct. It should affect our decision making and our plans for the future. It is a sentence that affects what we think of what family is and should be. It is a foundational commandment in God’s plan for social security.
We have come to the beginning point at understanding what Gods plan for social security is. This plan does have one requirement though before it can really be implemented fully. We have to believe that God is. If we don’t have that foundational belief that God is real, then all that follows will not have full meaning. If you don’t know God, I would encourage you to get to know him. The way we can get connected with God is believing in His son Jesus Christ, who the father sent to be a substitute for us, to pay the penalty for sin that we deserve so that we can once again be reunited for our creator. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
In part 2 of God’s Social Security Plan, we will delve into the details of His plan, and how those plans should play out in our lives now and as we grow older into retirement age. There are several aspects to Gods plan that involve most every aspect of society and how we live our lives. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
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