J
ok i been working on this for a bit i hope you hear my heart on it !!!!!!
Have you ever said “That won’t affect me” or “Oh, you are just being too critical about things?” Even so, I have often wondered, just how do the things we feed into our lives really affect our own minds and actions? Can we really just fluff off all these things? The realization of how easily subtle things can affect us has had a deep impact upon my life.
For example, many people love the Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings, but both contain witchcraft which can be considered evil. Even the Smurfs, yes the Smurfs, particularly Papa Smurf, used witchcraft. No, I don’t think simple exposure to these things will cause us to start casting spells, but my heart aches when I think how books and movies can desensitize us to the works of the devil.
Even addictions do not happen overnight, it takes time to develop and I think the same is true with different things we allow into our lives. I am not saying we need to avoid all things that can be evil - no, not at all - but we definitely need to keep our filters on and be mindful of our morals all the time, so the devil can’t get a foothold on us.
I am known as a funny person. Yes, I do love to make people laugh, and as they smile, hopefully they will, for a brief period of time, forget about the worries of life. I am trying to be careful, but the story that I am about to share changed my heart on how many things that we think are funny, really aren’t. Now please listen to the heart of the story, as I believe it will apply to many aspects of our very lives…..
One time, I was asked to be a chaperone for a cub scout outing. We had about 10 to 15 cub scouts and 3 leaders (including me) camping out in this place. We had been having lots of fun, and we had baked beans for supper that night. (Oh yeah, the music did follow.) After eating, I taught them this game. It was suppose to be very quiet, but it always ended up in lots of laughs. It is called monk. You sit the kids in a big circle with one kid in the center. The person in the center will pick someone in the ring. Once they are sitting face to face, both will say “monk” which means neither one can speak. The person in the center will try to make the person in the circle laugh or smile without touching or talking. Well, it was a lot of fun, and of course the beans did provided plenty of extra laughs.
This one kid, though, was trying very, very hard to make his opponent laugh. After having no luck, he stood up and did a slap stick routine. It seemed funny at the time, but the Lord later got a hold of me and corrected my attitude about it. You see this kid made a gun with his finger and shot himself and comically dropped to the ground. We laughed up a storm at his actions.
Did you get it!??! Let me rephrase. The kids thought committing suicide was funny. There it is. See how such a subtle thing can seem funny. How the devil can use something so simple and so subtle to make something seem so unimportant WE LAUGHED at suicide!!!
When I state it directly, it seems horrible, doesn't it? In fact it is and was. I have told this story many times to instruct others how we need to be careful. I just do not think people really truly have a heart felt understanding of just how careful we need to be when watching or listening to things. In our lives, we have two situations. There is the evil that we commit for which the Holy Spirit immediately convicts us. There is also the evil that we seem to "walk into” and don’t realize it.
The Bible passage where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet shows us how we need to be a servant, but remember Peter had refused. Jesus informed him that you can’t come to me unless he washes your feet. Peter overreacted and asked to be washed from head to toe. I am sure Jesus smiled as he replied “you are already clean,” which means pure, "I just need to wash your feet." I prayed about this and I feel it can be said this way “Peter, you are pure in my sight already. You just need to take accountability for the things you have done today. (i.e. what you feet is dirty from) No, I am not saying that we are automatically pure, but as Christians, we have already had forgiveness. We only need to keep seeking the forgiveness for our wrong actions. Praise God for his unending forgiveness! How he knows our mistakes and will forgive us!
Now I would like to take a look at why our feet get dirty. You see, we all can recognize wrong actions or wrong words spoken, but I wonder how often we take into account the things, we didn’t want to see or hear. Take a bad joke at work, an inappropriate program on the TV or even online. In the time of Jesus, we would have dirty feet from the dirt on the ground, and that was life. Now think of all the animals around. I am certain there was lots of manure on the ground, and as much as you would not want to step in it, I am sure you would. That is like not really noticing it till you washed your feet later - just like us taking accountability of all things that happened in the day. Occasionally we need to allow God to show us how certain things have been unknowingly dropped in our spirits and minds.
We all know how the sower will plant seeds in our hearts and our very beings, that when nurtured, they will grow into blessings for us and others. I would like to parallel that to when devil adds a virus to our beings. Just as when a sickness progresses, it causes our bodies harm, so does a "spiritual" virus to our very souls. The devil knows how to feed this virus, and this is why we need to be aware of all the events that surround us as we go through our day's activities. I not saying we need to be paranoid, of course not, but to have the understanding that so many things we tend to just “fluff” off may be more damaging than we realize.
I have found that for me, I need to go to God in my prayer times and ask him to show me what was inputted in my being that can cause problems. You see the devil is very crafty, and he knows what will cause us to stumble. But on the other hand, God allows the devil to show us those things. Yes, God uses the devil to finger things in our own lives, in order to show us where we need to grow. I suggest praying that God reveal what is inside of us. God loves us so very much and will show you what is going on. In that process, he will show you where you lack, and through that exposure, recover you. Finally as you start healing, your fleshly tendencies will drop off
Grow Seeds not Viruses !!!
Have you ever said “That won’t affect me” or “Oh, you are just being too critical about things?” Even so, I have often wondered, just how do the things we feed into our lives really affect our own minds and actions? Can we really just fluff off all these things? The realization of how easily subtle things can affect us has had a deep impact upon my life.
For example, many people love the Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings, but both contain witchcraft which can be considered evil. Even the Smurfs, yes the Smurfs, particularly Papa Smurf, used witchcraft. No, I don’t think simple exposure to these things will cause us to start casting spells, but my heart aches when I think how books and movies can desensitize us to the works of the devil.
Even addictions do not happen overnight, it takes time to develop and I think the same is true with different things we allow into our lives. I am not saying we need to avoid all things that can be evil - no, not at all - but we definitely need to keep our filters on and be mindful of our morals all the time, so the devil can’t get a foothold on us.
I am known as a funny person. Yes, I do love to make people laugh, and as they smile, hopefully they will, for a brief period of time, forget about the worries of life. I am trying to be careful, but the story that I am about to share changed my heart on how many things that we think are funny, really aren’t. Now please listen to the heart of the story, as I believe it will apply to many aspects of our very lives…..
One time, I was asked to be a chaperone for a cub scout outing. We had about 10 to 15 cub scouts and 3 leaders (including me) camping out in this place. We had been having lots of fun, and we had baked beans for supper that night. (Oh yeah, the music did follow.) After eating, I taught them this game. It was suppose to be very quiet, but it always ended up in lots of laughs. It is called monk. You sit the kids in a big circle with one kid in the center. The person in the center will pick someone in the ring. Once they are sitting face to face, both will say “monk” which means neither one can speak. The person in the center will try to make the person in the circle laugh or smile without touching or talking. Well, it was a lot of fun, and of course the beans did provided plenty of extra laughs.
This one kid, though, was trying very, very hard to make his opponent laugh. After having no luck, he stood up and did a slap stick routine. It seemed funny at the time, but the Lord later got a hold of me and corrected my attitude about it. You see this kid made a gun with his finger and shot himself and comically dropped to the ground. We laughed up a storm at his actions.
Did you get it!??! Let me rephrase. The kids thought committing suicide was funny. There it is. See how such a subtle thing can seem funny. How the devil can use something so simple and so subtle to make something seem so unimportant WE LAUGHED at suicide!!!
When I state it directly, it seems horrible, doesn't it? In fact it is and was. I have told this story many times to instruct others how we need to be careful. I just do not think people really truly have a heart felt understanding of just how careful we need to be when watching or listening to things. In our lives, we have two situations. There is the evil that we commit for which the Holy Spirit immediately convicts us. There is also the evil that we seem to "walk into” and don’t realize it.
The Bible passage where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet shows us how we need to be a servant, but remember Peter had refused. Jesus informed him that you can’t come to me unless he washes your feet. Peter overreacted and asked to be washed from head to toe. I am sure Jesus smiled as he replied “you are already clean,” which means pure, "I just need to wash your feet." I prayed about this and I feel it can be said this way “Peter, you are pure in my sight already. You just need to take accountability for the things you have done today. (i.e. what you feet is dirty from) No, I am not saying that we are automatically pure, but as Christians, we have already had forgiveness. We only need to keep seeking the forgiveness for our wrong actions. Praise God for his unending forgiveness! How he knows our mistakes and will forgive us!
Now I would like to take a look at why our feet get dirty. You see, we all can recognize wrong actions or wrong words spoken, but I wonder how often we take into account the things, we didn’t want to see or hear. Take a bad joke at work, an inappropriate program on the TV or even online. In the time of Jesus, we would have dirty feet from the dirt on the ground, and that was life. Now think of all the animals around. I am certain there was lots of manure on the ground, and as much as you would not want to step in it, I am sure you would. That is like not really noticing it till you washed your feet later - just like us taking accountability of all things that happened in the day. Occasionally we need to allow God to show us how certain things have been unknowingly dropped in our spirits and minds.
We all know how the sower will plant seeds in our hearts and our very beings, that when nurtured, they will grow into blessings for us and others. I would like to parallel that to when devil adds a virus to our beings. Just as when a sickness progresses, it causes our bodies harm, so does a "spiritual" virus to our very souls. The devil knows how to feed this virus, and this is why we need to be aware of all the events that surround us as we go through our day's activities. I not saying we need to be paranoid, of course not, but to have the understanding that so many things we tend to just “fluff” off may be more damaging than we realize.
I have found that for me, I need to go to God in my prayer times and ask him to show me what was inputted in my being that can cause problems. You see the devil is very crafty, and he knows what will cause us to stumble. But on the other hand, God allows the devil to show us those things. Yes, God uses the devil to finger things in our own lives, in order to show us where we need to grow. I suggest praying that God reveal what is inside of us. God loves us so very much and will show you what is going on. In that process, he will show you where you lack, and through that exposure, recover you. Finally as you start healing, your fleshly tendencies will drop off
