Spiritual maturity is realizing that there are some things that caused you so much pain — you’ll never get OVER them. It doesn’t mean you don’t forgive. It just means the thought will always hurt you.

Every time it comes to mind — the thought will hurt you.

Whenever something or someone reminds you of it — you will feel pain.

People spend years of energy trying to make a horrible memory— not hurt.

That’s wasted energy.

You will never get OVER it.

But, you CAN get past it.

You can control how the pain controls you, and how you react to it.

You can prevent IT from preventing YOU from moving on.

Even God Himself felt pain when He thought of how His chosen people consistently turned their backs on Him…

Notice how God sounds like a ‘hurt lover’ as He expresses His pain against how they have treated Him…

Micah 6:3-5 (NKJV)

³ “O My people, what have I done to you?
And how have I wearied you?
Testify against Me.
⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
I redeemed you from the house of bondage;
And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
⁵ O My people, remember now
What Balak king of Moab counseled,
And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
From ^[a]Acacia Grove to Gilgal,
That you may know the righteousness of the Lord.”

Remember, just because God said He will forget our sins doesn’t mean that He CAN’T remember them.

He is all powerful!

You will never remember something that our all powerful God can’t. It’s just a figurative way of saying that He will never hold our sins against us once we truly repent. WHEN GOD FORGETS, IT DOESN’T MEAN HE CAN’T REMEMBER…

I really believe this is going to set someone free…

Accept the fact that you will never get OVER some things.

Understand that some thoughts will ALWAYS cause you pain.

Ask God to help you get past the pain and move on.

Ask Him to help you to be strong enough to not let painful memories control you.

Ask God to help you move on, just like He moves on when we hurt Him.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

• 

Few people ever talk about the women who followed Jesus and supported Him financially, Not, just the women, but the ‘type’ of women…

Luke 8:1-3 (NKJV)

Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and ^[a]bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, ² and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and ^[b]infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, ³ and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for ^[c]Him from their ^[d]substance.

So, you had a woman who many believed was a prostitute…

Wives of ‘important’ men…

And, many other women who were following the LORD and supporting Him financially.

We all know that would be beyond scandalous today.

We all know many of the people who claim to love Jesus would have criticized that.

How many men would co-sign on their wives following and giving money to a broke, uneducated, controversial traveling preacher?

It’s easy to be sitting pretty over 2,000 years later and judge the behavior of those living during Jesus’s earthly ministry — but we prove how we would have reacted if we lived then by how we react today.

Be honest with yourself.

This piece was an edited excerpt from my article 8 REASONS WHY MANY OF TODAY’S ‘CHRISTIANS’ WOULDN’T HAVE FOLLOWED ‘CHRIST’…

BE BLESSTIFIED!

It is clear what the bible says about adultery and fornication, it is strictly forbidden. God expects those who are married to forsake all others and be intimate only with one another…

1 Corinthians 7:1-2 (NKJV)

It is good for a man not to touch a woman. ² Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 

Most of us also enjoy a good movie, television show or play, and appreciate a great performance from a talented actor or actress. Some of the movies, shows or plays have love scenes. It could range from a kiss…to partially clothed making out…to fully nude, erotic love scenes. I’m not talking about porn, I’m talking about the movies that are accepted and even awarded by the mainstream population.

Sometimes these actors and actresses are not only married, but profess to be Christians. Let me be clear that I AM NOT JUDGING THEIR FAITH OR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, but I do have a challenging question.

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IS IT CONSIDERED CHEATING WHEN A MARRIED ACTOR OR ACTRESS DOES A LOVE SCENE?

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The kisses are real.

The touching is real.

Sometimes, the nudity is real.

Even if they aren’t having intercourse, they are having sexual contact with someone other than their husband or wife.

If you aren’t an actor, how do feel about your spouse kissing or touching someone else? Most people say “No Way!”. Now, how do you feel about your spouse getting paid to have sexual contact with someone else…again a definite, “No!”

Now here’s the real challenging question for us as Christians. It their intimate contact is considered by God to be sin, does watching it and enjoying it make us partakers with them? Is it shameful for us to talk about the scenes in our daily conversation? Consider this…

Ephesians 5:5-10 (NKJV)

 ⁵ For this you know,^[a] that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them. ⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit^[b] is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. ¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 

Does God change the rules just because of our occupation? Does the fact that they are ‘acting’ mean it’s not real contact? And, if God considers it to be wrong, do we share in the sin when we watch, enjoy and share what we watched?

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Has this become the ‘accepted’ open relationship?

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Think about it. Pray about it. Feel free to reply and tell me what you think.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The painting portrays the evening that the Lord ate the Passover meal and instituted the Lord’s Supper with His disciples before He was betrayed.

Remember, Jesus Himself told us that God is a spirit and demands to be worshipped in spirit and TRUTH…

John 4:24 (NKJV)

²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

We also live in time when people claim to love THE TRUTH and reject FAKE NEWS.

So, with all that being said, what’s wrong with the famous painting, THE LORD’S SUPPER, based on these scriptures according to the Complete Jewish Bible translation…

Mark 14:18 (CJB)

¹⁸ As they were reclining and eating, Yeshua said, “Yes! I tell you that one of you is going to betray me.”

Matthew 26:20 (CJB)

²⁰ When evening came, Yeshua reclined with the twelve talmidim;

According to the scriptures as well as the context of culture and time…THEY WERE NOT SITTING. THEY WERE RECLINING.

Of course there will be some who say, “Why does this matter?”

Those of us who claim to be Christians can be the worst at sometimes deciding ‘that doesn’t matter’ when it threatens our traditions and what we choose to believe.

So, why does it matter?

Because the painting does not depict the way it happened, and that’s not truth.

Because every painting or picture intended to portray Jesus has influenced thought for centuries.

Because every painting and picture intended to portray Jesus has shaped what and how people believe and has had an influence on the faith.

Because it shapes the way people ‘experience’ their faith and what they think is correct and incorrect.

Do you want people publishing images of you depicting an event in your honor wrongly, falsely or inaccurately? Of course not. Why should our Lord and Savior be any different?

The fact is that when you present some people with the truth, they are reluctant to, or refuse to accept it because they have been influenced by art that very well MAY NOT have been commissioned by God.

Maybe this is why He clearly commanded in regard to likenesses of Him…

Exodus 20:4 (NKJV)

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

BE BLESSTIFIED!