Let me first say that by the grace of God, I’ve never been addicted to illegal or prescription drugs.
I’ve also been gulity of looking in disdain at those who are. I’ve self-righteously shaken my head at those who have overdosed or even died.
Some were trying to escape the realities of life…
Some became addicted after surgery, medical treatment, or due to a chronic (no pun intended) or medical treatment…
Others were addicted through recreational use or just to ‘unwind’…
But, the end result was the same…addiction.
So, before you judge anyone in any of these situations or scenarios, think about this…
What if either of these were illegal, or deadly (and some are depending on your state of health…
Coffee…
Cola…
Over-the-counter pain killers…
Red Bull…
5-Hour Energy…
Beer…
Wine…
Sugar.
I think you get the picture. What if coffee (which many admit they HAVE to HAVE) were as addictive and deadly as opioids?
When you see someone hit rock bottom of their addiction, stop and pray for them.
Then stop and examine your life and your…
ACCEPAPTABLE ADDICTIONS…
Then empathize with them.
But, please don’t judge them. Because the ‘addiction’ comes from the same weakess in all of our flesh, and but by the grace of God, whether you admit it or not…
Could be you. Matthew 7:1-2(NKJV)
Judgenot, that you be not judged.2 For with whatjudgment you judge, you will be judged;and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
Nearly everyone is familiar with Leonardo Da Vinci’s THE LAST SUPPER.
It’s an iconic and well-loved work of art among many who call themselves believers in Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), and it’s recognized among those who don’t. It’s been displayed in churches and homes for centuries.
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;
We experience the physical world through our 5 senses. Would you even know you that the world was real if you had not ONE sense?
No sight?
No hearing?
No smell?
No taste?
No touch?
As real as this world is, we only know it’s real because of our five senses. We experience the world through our senses. They make us aware of the evidence that the world is real.
Faith is the spiritual equivalent to all five of our spiritual senses. It is our faith that enables us to experience the spiritual world that we can’t see.
Atheists claim God isn’t real because they say there is no evidence. This is because they aren’t exercising the measure of faith that God has given all of us, so just as a person with no senses can’t experience the physical world, they can’t experience God
Romans 12:3 (NKJV)
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Think about it, God’s word confirms that faith is our sixth sense through which we see, hear, touch, smell and even taste God…
SEE
2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV)
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
Now faith is the [a]substance of things hoped for, the [b]evidence of things not seen.
HEAR
Romans 10:17 (NKJV)
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
John 10:27 (NKJV)
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
TOUCH
Matthew 8:3 (NKJV)
3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Matthew 17:7 (NKJV)
7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”
SMELL
2 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
Ezekiel 20:41 (NKVJV)
41 I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles.
TASTE
Psalm 34:8 (NKJV)
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Psalm 119:103 (NKJV)
103 How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
And just as our physical senses need to be enhanced through wearing glasses, contact lenses, hearing aids etc., so does our faith need enhancing through prayer, studying God’s word, praise and sincere worship.
So, please don’t neglect your spiritual sixth sense!
Feed your faith!
Exercise your faith!
Take care of your faith just as much as you do your 5 physical senses.
One day a man who had been walking, catching rides and using Uber to go to work every day was given a car by a family member. He was so thankful. All he had to do was have a few things fixed. As he drove it home, he stopped to get gas and the car wouldn’t start. Wow! He had to have the car towed to the shop. After they fixed it, as he drove it home he let the window down and it wouldn’t come back up. He said, “Are you serious!!!!”
As he drove back to the shop so they could fix the window he noticed stains on the seats.
He said, “Why does everything I get have to have something wrong with it? Always ‘STAINED’?”
He then immediately remembered that he had transportation to work, the store or to take his lady friend out on a date. He also remembered the fact that the price he paid for the repairs was still better than having a car payment for years. He immediately thanked God and asked him to forgive him for so quickly allowing frustration to take away the excitement of his blessing.
So many times God will bless us and if it’s not exactly the way we wanted it or comes with some imperfections, inconveniences or responsibilities, we can find ourselves with an unthankful attitude.
The bible reminds us that every gift God gives is perfect…
James 1:17 (NKJV)
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
The next time you begin to see stains on your blessings, remember that every gift from God is perfect.
Any stains we see are on our eyes and not the blessing.
We inherited all of our emotions from God…we were created in His image, so we can experience His emotions. God gets frustrated at us when we willingly sin.
So, He understands that we will sometimes feel frustrated at life… at some of His decisions… at what He allows.
Jeremiah 12:1 NKJV
Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?
Sometimes we can feel guilty over our frustration.
But remember, gettingfrustratedisn’t a sin unless…
It causes us to be ungrateful.
It causes us to be in thankful.
It causes us to complain rather than lament.
It causes us to doubt God.
It causes someone else to doubt God.
It causes us to lose our faith.
It causessomeone else to doubt God.
When you feel frustrated or even angry at yourself, others, life or even God…do a Google search for Psalms of Lament.
Notice how God teaches us to responsibly express our frustrations as long as we always end with expressing our trust in Him.
Psalm 13 (NKIV)
13 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? (A)How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; (B)Enlighten my eyes, (C)Lest I sleep the sleep of death; 4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Ephesians 4:26 (NKJV)
26 (A)“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
Let me say first that I’m not excusing adultery, fornication or any other sexual sin. These sins also result from an innate, natural desire that we don’t ask for, and people make a choice to commit these sins based on that desire.
However, there are many people who are now trying to defend homosexuality by saying that Jesus never addressed it, or forbade it. They say only the Apostle Paul addressed it, and some even try to contend that he wasn’t really talking about homosexuality.
I’m going to keep this short and sweet.
We all know there are several sins that Jesus never directly addressed…
Rape…
Incest…
Domestic Abuse…
Bestiality…
Gossip…
Jealousy…
To name a few.
Jesus didn’t even say directly that getting drunk is a sin. It was indirect.
He did address marriage, fornication adultery and divorce.
And, no one disputes that the LORD only permits sex within marriage.
In Matthew Chapter 19, Jesus repeated what He Himself said as The Living Word in Genesis 5:2 , yes He was there in the beginning (Elohim, the name for God in Genesis is a plural noun)… Matthew 19:4-5(NKJV)
4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made[a] them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’[b]5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?[c]
The context of the conversation here is marriage and divorce. Jesus specifically calls out MALE and FEMALE in the context of marriage. This is not a cherry picked scripture. It is Jesus in perfect harmony with what God established in the beginning.
Jesus clearly says let HIM (male) be joined to his WIFE (female), because some try to contend, ‘who says that a wife has to be a woman’.
This undeniably defines marriage as between a man and woman.
These verses (Genesis and Matthew) define marriage as between a man and woman. And, since God only permits sex within marriage, sex with any partner, heterosexual or homosexual is sin.
So yes, without saying the word ‘homosexuality’, Yeshua, Christ Jesus addressed it. Any other conclusion is conjecture…reaching…trying to fit a square peg into a triangular slot.
For those who want to bring up slavery in the bible to justify their argument to defend homosexuality, click this…LET’S TALK ABOUT SLAVERY IN THE BIBLE…
And remember, no matter what sin someone is struggling with, God expects us to love everyone without excusing or condoning the sin.
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.
Are your children ever disobedient or disrespectful? Come on, now even ‘good’ kids have their moments.
Are your adult children ever unappreciative, disconnected or disrespectful?
Mark 7:8-13 (NKJV)
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men[a]—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.” 9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’;[b]and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’[c]11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God),12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother,13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Most if not all Christian parents love to remind their children of what the bible says about being obedient to parents…
Ephesians 6:1 (NKJV)
6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Colossians 3:20 (NKJV)
20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.
And, most parents get frustrated and angry when their children…
Disobey them…
Disrespect them…
Deny them…
Embarrass them…
Don’t appreciate them…
Don’t ask for their advice…
Don’t take their advice…
Don’t talk to them…
Respect others more than them…
Or, even rebel against them.
Have you ever had, or are you going through any of these situations as a parent? Did you put your parents through any of these situations?
All parents want their children to listen to them…to honor and respect them. And, they don’t want it to be a ‘burden’ to do so. They want them to do it freely out of love for them.
So, parents, the next time you are frustrated because your children aren’t listening, or aren’t giving you the respect you deserve, remember this verse…
1 John 5:3 (NKJV)
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
Then, I ask you to join me in asking yourself, “Is this how God feels when I…
Disobey Him…
Disrespect Him…
Deny Him…
Embarrass Him…
Don’t appreciate Him…
Don’t ask for His advice…
Don’t take His advice…
Don’t talk to Him…
Respect others more than Him…
Rebel against Him…
Don’t listen to Him?
Why should we expect any more out of our children than we give to God?
Maybe, just maybe, God is sometimes trying to teach us a lesson through our children.
BE BLESSTIFIED! 