When God says “ALL”, He means what He says, All means all and nothing less than all. How often to we re-think God’s “all things” into being most things, some things, and a few things? We often seem to re-think our God of the impossible into the dreary, hazy world of more-or-less and pretty much. Look, just look at all the possibilities open to us who have faith if we’ll simply take the Lord at His word.

Genesis 9:30 “I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.”, or from MSG “All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else.”

1 Chronicles 29:14 “For all things come from You”

Psalm 8:6 “You have put all things under his feet”

Psalm 148:5 “Let all things praise the name of the Lord,”

Isaiah 44:24 “I am the Lord, who makes all things,”

Job 37:16 “Can you explain why lightning flashes at the orders 16 of God who knows all things?”

Luke 10:22 “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father”

Luke 18:31 “… and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.”

John 1:3 “And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word.”

John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does”

John 14:26 “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

John 16:15 “All things that the Father has are Mine.”

John 18:4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him”

John 19:28 “Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished”

Acts 3:21 “But Jesus must stay in heaven until God makes all things new”

Romans 11:36 “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things”

1 Corinthians 2:10 “For the Spirit searches all things”

1 Corinthians 9:12 “but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 13:7, Love… “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

1 Corinthians14:26 “Let all things be done for edification.”

1 Corinthians 14:40 “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

2 Corinthians 7:14 “But as we spoke all things to you in truth”

2 Corinthians 9:8 “⁸And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

Ephesians 1:22 “God has put all things under the power of Christ,”

Ephesians 5:13 “But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light”

Ephesians 5:20 “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Philippians 2:14 “Do all things without complaining and disputing, ¹⁵that you may become blameless and harmless,”

Philippians 3:8 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”

Philippians 3:21 “according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

Philippians 4:12,13 “Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Colossians 1:17 “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”

Colossians 1:20 “and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven”

1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Test all things; hold fast what is good.”

1 Timothy 4:8 “but godliness is profitable for all things”

1 Timothy 6:17 “in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy”

2 Timothy 2:7 “may the Lord give you understanding in all things”

2 Timothy 4:5 “But you be watchful in all things”

Titus 1:15 “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure;”

Titus 2:7 “in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works;”

Titus 2:10 “showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”

Hebrews 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

Hebrews 13:8 “we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.”

1 Peter 4:8 “And above all things have fervent love for one another”

1 Peter 4:11 “that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

3 John 1:2 “that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

As i woke up this morning, my eyes opened as they usually do, thank you Lord, to see the ceiling above my bed. In my house i’m glad their are ceilings. That means there’s a roof defending us from wind, sun, rain, and inclement weather. But then a thought started to drift across my waking mind, like a feather gently being blown along by a breeze. With God i have no use for ceilings in my relationship with Him, but yet in all my walking about, in all my preaching and teaching, in all my praying, i carry ideas of limited options, even though my mouth declares He is God of the impossible.

How often do we come to God’s table of possibilities with ceilings of impossibilities? His endless possibilities are, more often than we think, met with our ceilings of limited options, putting a cap on His open Heaven with all our debilitating lack of faith, unbelief, a heart full of “I doubt its”, and plain old “don’t want to”. Ceilings. Most of us don’t even know we’ve got them.

A ceiling is a boundary, thus far and no further. Like when we get really put out with something or someone we might say, “That’s it! I’ve had it!” Meaning, we’ve hit our limit, or ceiling, and we’re not going to take it anymore.

And there are indeed limits. As example, shoes only walk so far, our lungs can only take in a limited amount of breath at a time, food only keeps just so long, our bodies have an expiration date or there’s a limit on our life span, a motor can only run only so fast before it breaks, tires only have x-amount of estimated miles of wear before they reach their limit, and on and on.

Matthew 19:25-26, “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” Friends, nothing is so dead, God can’t grow life out of it. Selah.

It isn’t possible to know what you don’t know, and we just have to be good with the fact there are a multitude of things we don’t know. Actually, as you’ve probably read, our brain can only retain approximately 15% of all the information in the universe, so that leaves 85% we know nothing about, and nothing means nothing there. In light of that, i have to wonder what brilliant person managed to make that calculation and how did they know how much our brain could retain? Not only that, just because we might possess that 15%, i’ll just bet our level of understanding of it all is in very, very small numbers represented by percentages which are less than one. Even our imagination has a ceiling unless God expands it.

In many situations, limits and ceilings are a good thing, the idea is a kindness, but other times they more represent limiting options. Why do we, often, when presented with the infinite possibilities of God, suddenly decide we need to reason our way out of engaging with Him? It is highly likely it is not the atheist, the agnostic, the infidel, or the people devoted to bringing about a godless society. The problem is not with the world, but within our own ranks. Often the Lord is prevented from doing amazing things in our lives, all because our ceilings don’t allow it. Most times it’s just all more than we can hardly believe. We claim He is God of the impossible, yet we come to Him with all our reasons why He shouldn’t, couldn’t or wouldn’t. Why, always reasoning “why”, but then we rarely seem to conclude it wasn’t God but us with our ceilings of what we figured was possible.

Many people firmly believe God must operate within their idea of church structures, and they must have methods, and walls, and layouts, and especially titles, and hierarchy which are almost as rigidly followed as a military command post. And most astoundingly, those people teach the children that their method is how you do church, always with an underlying, unspoken rule of “do not step off the page”. They cannot see or hear any further than their outline of how things should be done. They say, “this is how it’s done in the Bible” therefore God couldn’t possibly do church any other way. Ceilings.

In Matthew 14 Jesus sent the guys on ahead in a boat. The wind and waves were giving them a really hard time, enough so they were laboring against the weather.  But then, Jesus comes stepping along, walking on the water, and when they saw Him it totally scared the soup out of them. He calmed them down, not the weather, just those in the weather, and then, as usual, Peter had something to say. i’ve re-imagined the conversation at this point. Peter: Lord, if it is really you, i mean really you, if you give the word i’d like to try walking on water too!” From behind him comes a hissing from the other disciples: “Peter! Shut up man! What are you doing? Are you nuts? Can’t you see this boat is rocking out, the wind is howling, and the rain, oh good grief, the rain!” Suddenly Jesus calls to Peter: “Sure! Step out.” Spectacularly, Peter begins to climb out of the boat and the other disciples are grabbing for him a little saying, “Hold up there Pete! For goodness sake man, think! This is not rational!” Another may have said, “Let him go! You know how he is.” And another might say, “Well, the Lord did call to him and it’s better to drown while obeying God than it is to do nothing.” Finally, Peter puts his feet on the water and it feels pretty solid. He gives it a few more steps, walking in the impossiblity of the moment. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he begins to reason within himself, reasoning who did he think he was that he might be like Jesus and walk on water, afterall, pride does go before a fall. He might start remembering the time he charged extra to the widow lady and didn’t feel bad about cheating her just a little bit, seeing himself as unworthy of God’s miraculous. With the wind whistling and rain coming down sideways, he may have began to reason, “others may, but probably not me”, and his faith begins to fade as he begins to sink, and the more he sinks the more his faith fades. In desperation he calls out one of the most powerful prayers in the universe, “Lord help!” Immediately, Jesus grabbed him. Think, now, i don’t know it, but i’d bet they walked back, together, and climbed in the boat, so it’s not like Jesus dragged him through the water because Peter had the nerve to believe in the impossible. Jesus welcomed and even encouraged Peter’s effort to reach past his doubt and unbelief, past his self-manufactured ceilings of possibilities and get out of the boat with Jesus. At first Peter had no limiting options, but the farther he walked towards the Lord, walking in the impossible, the more his self-defined limiting options began to overwhelm his faith. So, think….

With God we have no use for ceilings in our relationship with Him, but yet in all our walking about, in all our preaching and teaching, in all our praying, we carry unrecognized ideas of limited options, even though our mouth declares He is the God of the impossible.

How often do we come to God’s table of possibilities with ceilings? Do we ever ask the Lord to raise our ceilings? His endless possibilities are, more often than we think, met with our ceilings of limited options, putting a cap on His open Heaven with all our debilitating lack of faith, unbelief, a heart full of “I doubt it”, and just plain old “don’t want to”. Ceilings.

What do you think?

i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries.

                    Ting! Did you hear that? Listen again, “Ting!” That’s the sound in the Spirit when the Lord gives us ideas. “Ting!” Ah, there it is again. It’s not big, it’s not a boulder in your living room, but the sound of the Lord passing us dreams and visions, like seeds planted in us that will grow into fruitful things in it’s season. (Ting!)

As a little boy, a very little boy, my dad decided it would be good for me to begin learning to play catch. He got me the smallest glove he could find and we went into the backyard, him on one side, and me on the other. i was totally clueless as to what i was supposed to do. i was already thrilled that i was outside with my dad, but had no idea what was next.

i remember this like it was yesterday. He said some foreign words to me, like, “i’m going to toss you the ball, and you try and catch it.” i was clueless what he meant by “toss you the ball” and clueless as to how i was going to do an odd thing called “catch”, nor was i coordinated enough to actually catch anything. He carefully tossed me the ball and, of course the ball bumped my chest and fell to the ground. Then he said some other foreign words to me like, “now throw it back.” This went on and on until i began to get the idea of something as simple as “playing catch”. Eventually, i learned to volley with him, and i think we need to learn to volley with God. Ting! There it is again, that sound of God tossing us the ball.

You know, if the Lord doesn’t reveal Himself to us, we just won’t see Him, afterall, how do YOU relate to God? Say. How DO YOU relate to Him? God gives us ideas of Himself so we can relate, and they are often small, like a leaf floating on the wind in front of us, ideas which He blows across our mind. He keeps on passing the ideas in front of us, until one day, Ting!, we begin to get the picture. i have to chuckle to myself sometimes when i hear another believer say, “Hey, i just came up with this great idea.” You came up with it, huh? All by your self? Really?

The Lord speaks to us in unlikely places and at unlikely times and we need to get better at playing catch. (Ting!) He has the uncanny ability to inspire us with ideas that use our talents no matter where we are.

George Frideric Handel was a German musician and composer, and powerful people paid him to compose music for celebrations, musical productions, and worship. One of Handel’s most famous works, Messiah, is about the life of Christ and includes an orchestra, choir and solos. Handel wrote Messiah in just 24 days during the summer of 1741, alone in a room. A servant overheard Handel say, “I did think I did see all heaven before me and the great God himself.” When we hear the “Hallelujah Chorus,” we can also feel like we’re getting a glimpse of heaven. i’d bet anything, it all started with a little melody way, waaay back in the back of his head somewhere, and it got louder, and he felt a little motivation rising, and clearer, until it was prevalent and present. Then one day he had another great idea to write the music out. Ting!

Pay more attention to the Lord than Facebook or Instagram! For me, God has a lot to say and i’d really like to hear it. Remember that time you had the little thought to call so-and-so, and when you did, they were really encouraged? (Ting!) That’s right, it was God tossing you the ball. How about that time you had the idea to sit next to that kid on the bus, and you were kind and were genuinely interested for the short ride? (Ting!) That’s right, it was the Lord tossing you the ball. Remember that time you had the idea to take some friends to a movie and it was a great time? Yup, (Ting!), it’s highly likely it was God giving you the idea. There was the time you suddenly had the idea to send someone a greeting card and write some nice stuff inside, and much later you found out they were having a hard time and that little bit of niceness just sweetened their day. (Ting!)

Now, not ALL ideas are God ideas and, it’s the truth, we need to practice a little discernment. i’m just saying, hey friend, God is communicating with us, are we paying attention? Not all His communications happen on the scale of a large billboard sign in bright lights. If we were honest, haven’t we all asked the Lord to talk to us, maybe even admitting to Him that we don’t understand so could He make the words or vision more plain? Sure! i think there’s another side to that which says we’ve also got to be more interested to pay attention and look around a little better. His opportunities absolutely abound. Are you listening with eyes looking? (Ting!)

On a parting note, texting, social networking, watching TV, or playing computer games can rob us of His opportunities and steal lots of time, and don’t you know the enemy loves for us to be so occupied with everything other than the Lord, we miss opportunity after opportunity. Being in a position to volley with God (Ting!) is a gift, and if you miss the ball, don’t let it get to you, “I guess, now that i’ve missed God’s opportunities, He won’t come knocking on my door anymore. Oh well. i guess i’ll just go stand in the rain.” C’mon man, just try again, and try and try and try, because eventually, you’ll get good at catching the ball and even be able to throw it back. God is not brittle and we can’t run Him off. Nobody has that power.

What do you think?

i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries

          Draw close to Him and He’ll draw close to you. Test Him.

Phil 3:12 “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

Paul’s spiritual goal was to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ”. He did not get hung up on his mistakes and failures. Instead, he just asked God to forgive him, and then he put the past behind him, because they were now covered by the blood of Jesus. He kept his eyes on the prize, and he went for it. That’s a great example, but realistically, for so, so many, it’s difficult to do… you know…that whole idea of “just forgive yourself and go on.” That’s ideal, but often our family and friends, and especially the enemy of our soul, just won’t let us live down our foolishness from the past. How many family gatherings wind down to laughing and talking about the dumb stuff so-and-so said or did, and every time the story gets relived it gets added to, becoming more and more embarrassing, until you just don’t want to go back anymore.

Go for it! You can do it! Yahweh is FOR us!

The Holy spirit made such a change in Paul’s life that he actually viewed his old life as refuse. Phil 3:7 “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ“, and v8, “…for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that i may gain Christ.” He put away his “I know clothes” and took off his “important person shoes” and chose friendship and affection for God over making a big name for himself and sitting around in air-conditioned spaces.

We will never know intimacy with God until we make devotion to Jesus our central aim and focus. We can’t be intimate with the Lover of Our Souls if we only know about Him, giving Him only our mental ascension. The more we are consumed with devotion to Him, the more we become like Him, and the more we become like Him, the more we mature in our walk as believers in the Only Begotten Son of God. Anything that distracts us from this pursuit is a stumbling block to our spiritual development. Philippians 3, as a whole, is a bold challenge to each of us to become the people after God’s own heart through an always increasing relationship with Jesus.

Let this stick to you: Personal achievement will never earn us spiritual position or maturity.

Gaining the three “P’s”, Power, Position, and Prestige, will not gain us Christ. Achieving titles, qualifiers, degrees, or endorsements will not gain us Christ. We must be willing to lay down everything, including our own personal dreams and goals in our quest to know God, “… for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord…”. As was mentioned in the last program, take off your “I know” clothes, and your “important person shoes” and go be among the people, living life as the Lord has given you. We must hold back nothing as we give our hearts to attain Him. As has been said before, Daniel 11:32b “…but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”  If we will devote ourselves to knowing the Lord, He will open amazing doors to us, for this unwavering pursuit of intimacy with God through growing knowledge of the Lord is the true mark of spiritual maturity.

Phil 3:20 says, “…our citizenship is in heaven…”, therefore let us not fear the world or the things, principalities, or powers in it, but let us step out on the water, risking with God, “…according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.“

We pledge allegiance, to the Lord, of the unified Kingdom of Heaven, and to the theocracy, One King, by which it stands, one Kingdom, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries

……the date is today, and the time is now.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, contemplative conversation, just for you in this season, at this time, where ever you are, be it grieving at home alone, or in the middle of a crowded place, the date is today, and the time is now.

Hey listen, in no way are any of the programs aimed at persuading anyone to one religious faction or another within Christian circles. It isn’t to persuade Catholics or Methodists to be someone else, or, for that matter, any other denomination to become your new denomination, far from it actually. i for one, harbor no appreciation for denominations in the least. The goal is to inspire a reconnection with God, deeper, wider, and longer than before; to cast a vision of where we’re going, as individuals and as a community, how to step into that vision, and for you and God to root out where you’re supposed to be. If we don’t have an idea of where we are going, it’s really difficult to know how to be where we are. As an example, if we don’t know we are going on a trip tomorrow, how can we prepare today if we’re blind to the fact we are leaving the house tomorrow?

But in the meantime, we can learn more about the Ever Lord, the One King, who He is, how He does some of the things He does and why, yea, why, why why. Doesn’t it seem as though God is always digging around through our why?

As we approach an intersection, we are approaching a place of rapid-fire decisions which simply must be made. As we approach, the light is green… green… green… and we know at annnyyyyy second it could suddenly change to red and we’d have to slam on the brakes. The closer we get to the moment an imminent decision must be made as to whether to stop or give it the gas, the more tense everything gets. There is a tension in the deciding that is uncomfortable. How we make decisions is partly done from our inclinations, like, “i am inclined to run a red light at the last moment”, “i am inclined to slow down at intersections”, “i am inclined to be honest no matter what,” or “i am inclined to be honest only when it suits my personal agenda”. How about, “i am inclined to think i need an image management program” as opposed to “i am inclined to play down my titles because i don’t need anyone’s endorsement to do what God has asked me to do, afterall, there are no pastor’s or bishops in Heaven, only the redeemed.”?

Our inclinations and motivations are driven by what we believe, which warrants a very piercing question, if answered with all honesty, “What exactly do you believe, how did you come to that conclusion, and why do you think it’s a good idea?” That’s called, your “epistemology”. Big word with big implications whose defining reaches down to even our smallest, and seemingly innocuous doctrines. If you think your smallest ideas and imaginations don’t really matter, rest assured and settle it in your heart, everything matters.

If we are believers in Christ, underneath all our thinking, the Holy Spirit is changing our impulses from worldly impulse to Godly impulse, from worldly instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations, to Godly instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations, re-bending them and squeezing them into righteous shape.

It is a general instinctive tendency to run away in the face of difficult trials, thinking only of self-preservation, but in the heart of every believer there grows the inclination or instinctive tendency to not run away from difficult trials, because more and more often, standing for the truth in Christ is more important than preserving our reputation or even our lives. Fear says runaway, but, there are things more important than being afraid.

To reiterate from the last program, a doctrine is a belief or set of beliefs held and taught, it is our internal descriptive theology and ideology from which we operate and continue on. To search out doctrine means to take nuances from words of instruction within the context of how the words are used; to grasp wisdom, take understanding, or to sit under the good sense of a teacher’s persuasion. Titus2:1 says to “teach what is sound and right according to sound doctrine.”

In his sermon titled “Heaven”, Charles Spurgeon spoke of four subtle doctrines which i think are worthy of discussion. Our topic is concerning the doctrine of impulse, our instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations. A bit brainy, but i think it’s a worthy discussion to have.

A really bad habit that’s allowed to continue on in its method’s and practices, eventually takes over and molds our entire personality, until we become “self-contentedly dead”, happy with who we have become, not realizing we have become inanimate, or dead. Yea, who are the dead anyway?

The things we’ve done and seen in our lives stick to us, we can’t wash them off so easily, and if allowed to remain we become those things. In my experience, the blood of Jesus is the only hope for those who’ve lost their way, having become, think about this: “self-contentedly dead”; Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, chastised for our peace, and by His stripes we are healed. Jesus is the only hope to wash the things we’ve seen and done off of our heads.

Where do you get your impulses, your inclinations and motivations? Are you a church leader who “gives to get”, in other words you get people to play g-r-e-a-t music at your church so it will expand your church, or is it to bless the people in hopes they wake up and advance their relationship with Christ? Do you get charismatic people to speak for what they can do for you? How that charismatic person will draw more people in, or is it for something greater and higher to advance the congregations pursuit of the Lord? How do you lean in your heart, what is your inclination in those situations?

i agree with Henry Drummond. Let’s assume Adam’s sin was the first of it’s kind, and up until that moment, i believe he was perfectly righteous from the first moment of his existence. From the first he breathed in life, he was capable of right action ….. if he was immediately capable of right action he was also inclined to act right. You get that? Our inclinations motivate our actions. For Adam to do right, i believe he had to be created with a pre-disposition to do right, he had to have had an inclination to righteous action because of the holy disposition of his heart. He had this inclination due to his cognizance and loyalty to God. i believe one of the things lost when sin entered in was Adam’s inclination to right action, being replaced with an inclination to operate without God, and to give power to wrong action. As a result, one definition of sin is losing your relish for righteous things, and giving power to your flesh over your spirit.

Our inclinations spring from our heart posture, how we lean in our hearts toward or away from God. An old definition of attitude is: the pitch and yaw of a boat or airplane; how we lean in our hearts toward God.

Our inclinations and motivations squeeze us into shape, we become the pattern of even the most basic of our beliefs. Without Jesus in our lives we are powerless to follow any other pattern and inclination, other than sin and the world, yet with Jesus alive in our heart, He becomes the power to “re-bend” us away from the world and toward Himself, if we’ll allow it. We all have inclinations and motivations, but let’s think about where we got them…they had to come from somewhere, no one is born with God’s values immediately inclining their heart to right action. Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

The aptitudes and predispositions which lead to death and inspire us to simply be “self-contentedly dead”, those we were born with, again, if we are willing, and allow it to be so, the Lord can and does re-bend our foundational inclinations into patterns of righteousness and goodness, bringing us into right-standing with God, as it was in the beginning.

Exodus 6:6, “Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm …” The idea of an “outstretched arm” is an idiom, a phrase which isn’t readily obvious just by looking at the individual words. In this particular case, an “outstretched arm” means that the Lord is greatly inclined to deliver His people, His heart is “inclined” towards our deliverance, not “declined” away from us. The Lord is the personification of perfect choosing, and His heart is always, always, always inclined to goodness, without even a shade of anything less.

In 1Kings11:2-4, the Lord is speaking to Solomon about his love of foreign women. Three times the Lord says the foreign women would “turn his heart away” and in vs4 we read that indeed, the foreign women, whom he loved, did turn his heart away, or caused him to incline his heart away from God, thereby becoming disloyal. The idiom “turn his heart away”, speaks of the pitch and yaw of his heart, and he near completely, was no longer inclined to follow after God.

After several years of thought, i believe i can conclude that the desire to make righteous choices requires righteous desires and inclinations, and without a Godly inclination toward goodness, we are not able to do good.

i believe our choices follow our inclinations and motivations. From this comes the idea that what you believe rules you, you don’t rule what you believe. Our inclinations and motivations, as set in the foundations of our heart. They are the fuel driving our decision-making machine, and only the blind, naked, and clueless think they’ve got control over all that. No person is smart enough to run their own life. We need help and should call to the Lord to re-bend our foundations to His will.

Psalm14:1, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.”

Mankind, as a whole, have all fallen short, have all become corrupt, indeed, there is none who do good. We have allowed secular drift to clog our God communications. Doing a good deed doesn’t mean you are good, there is only One who is good, Matthew 19:16-17, “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.…” Think about that, the man asking the question was implying that if he were to do that one good thing which was above other good things, somehow, he would be able to get for himself eternal life. Friends, a life of good deeds not only doesn’t make you a good person, neither does it qualify you for entering in the Kingdom of God. Will God let into Heaven those who do not love Him?

i’m gonna put this out here, without Christ in our hearts, even our good deeds are not good deeds. Without Jesus, who is the sole possessor of righteous goodness in the universe, in our heart, good works are called dead works. There i said it. Isaiah 64:6, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Friends, be brave to ask the Lord to reveal to you what your inclinations and motivations are, and make the necessary adjustments He reveals to you, not so you can “get it right” but that you would draw closer to Jesus who has given you life, hope, and redemption.

Maybe, just maybe, the most important thing is not sorting things out and labeling what is good or not good, but more the underlying inclination and motivation that prompted the need to draw such a distinction, almost as if it’s too scary to listen to the Holy Spirit about what’s right and wrong. Even to this day, people want a list of do’s and don’ts outlined for them, whereas within our life in Christ, the Lord wants us to follow Him, which is more than just keep a bunch of rules. Surely, in the face of the grace of God, you don’t believe that your well-being and prosperity is derived from your ability to get it right. i didn’t say don’t be obedient, of course, that is a fundamental necessity, but i am addressing something far more foundational, and that is our impulses, our inclinations and motivations which we operate from, our basic beliefs, theology and ideology from which we do life. The Lord is very interested in speaking to us about that stuff. From the beginning to the end, one obvious truth is that God is concerned with the total life of his people, and nothing is beyond his concern, in His eyes, everything matters.

i don’t believe we just have the Lord’s likeness upon us, like eyes, mouth, ears, nose, touch, movement and direction, i believe we also have it within us in that we feel, choose, think, relate, love, hurt, etc, etc.. When the Lord said in Genesis 1:26 that He would make man in His own image and likeness, those are two different words there, meaning it is like a father who has a son, the son has a resemblance to his dad, or an image of him. The son can see, hear, taste, feel, smell, walk and talk like his father. He also reflects his dad, he tends to think, and choose, decide, laugh and be sad like the parent. i guess you get the picture of resemblance and reflection.

Those of us who are in Christ don’t simply have a resemblance to the Lord, but we also possess His reflection, but it is more than simply being able to act, decide, have thoughts and inclinations, it is also the reflection of holiness, righteousness, goodness, peace, hope, and joy. We are inclined like our Heavenly Father. From this it’s easy to see why when someone gloriously declares, “We are all just children of God” it holds no water. Just because we all have the power to breath and choose doesn’t mean we are blood relatives, there must be an inner reflection of Christ for us to be blood relatives, and that requires repentance, believing in our heart, and confessing with our mouth according to Romans 10.

When men try and do ministry with the wrong inclinations and motivations, it is like trying to write on paper and the ink dries on your pen before you’ve made the first letters or lines. It’s just a lot of scratching and scraping….it just doesn’t work. God’s work is first set in our heart as inclination and motivation which He has planted there. From the inclination to right action grows right ministry, and if He has given us His endorsement, He will also make the provision. And on a side note, i don’t believe God asks us to do anything we can do ourselves. Following Christ sets in our heart right inclination and motivation … we gain a Holy Spirit leaning towards acting according to God’s values.

In my heart exists all kinds of inclinations, but the longer i lean into Jesus, the more the tendency to act like the world which fades away, dissolving secular drift….in these latter years of life, more often than ever, i think i almost always lean toward the Lord more than the world, even when i sleep.

2 Corinthians 5:14, “For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us.…” Ahhh, now we’re down to the matter. Henry Drummond writes that when we function under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, we do God’s bidding without having to think to act to force ourselves to feed the hungry, cover the naked, house the homeless, or love the unloveable….it comes to us like an easy wind blowing through our heart and our service and obedience is peaceful and easily entreated. When we allow ourselves to be available and function under the Holy Spirit impulse, being inclined to follow God like a little lamb follows the shepherd, suddenly we see the need of others because the reflection of Christ is at the right angle, the God-angle, suddenly we see people we didn’t have eyes for yesterday, yet they were there, we are righteously compelled without being urged by some religious doctrine which has been legally impinged upon us.

When we live life in the inclination and motivation of the Lord, life seems more like the way it is supposed to be lived. We don’t think to ourselves that we need to give ourselves a medal for living an extraordinary life when we get home this evening. It feels like life is supposed to feel, alive in the presence of God, in the moment, all day long. God gives us a Holy Spirit-natural-leaning to do the missions of His Heart.

Living life in Christ is like that, and not thinking to take credit for the glory we operate in, is like one fellow said, “It’s like when you look at a mirror, you don’t see the mirror, or even think of it, but only of what it reflects. A mirror never calls attention to itself except when there are flaws in it.”

That’s how i want to live my life. i want to be like that mirror, who’s inclination and motivation is to reflect Jesus, never calling attention to myself, but to always be found pointing to Jesus. i want to live as if that’s not some dream or vision but a real experience any person can live.

In Hebrews 12:2 Paul uses a Greek word for “looking to Jesus” that’s not used anywhere else in the Bible, only there. It’s a two part verb, the first part meaning a separation from the whole, and the second part means to see with the eyes, to see with the mind, to stare at and discern clearly. It is not only a physical action but a mental action both. The Hebrew equivalent means to “experience by perception”, and the more i perceive and see Jesus, the more i become like Him, meaning the more we see Him, the more our lives will gain a natural inclination, a natural leaning to follow after Jesus, the more we follow Him, the more we reflect Him, receiving no attention and gathering no medals of honor to ourselves.

Now, that may not seem to make any sense to some listeners, but let me encourage you to not just trot past that, not giving the idea a second glance, but to let it sit on the back of the stove until the Lord brings it forth and reminds you of things He’s said when you need to know them.

Our inclinations and motivations are also called “intentions”, they are a spark, like the flash of a gem stone, which is more than an inkling which is a hint or a slight knowledge. And what is the nature of a spark? It’s humble, it is small like a little light reflecting occasionally on and off in the darkness. Buried in the Hebrew letters for the words “intention” and “inclination”, it is easy to discover they’re origin is in our imagination as a spark, and as we know, a spark is all we need to start a fire, for good or bad.

In Genesis 50:20, where it says, “meant for evil”, the word “meant” speaks of something which began in the imagination as a spark and was woven together into a larger idea that was acted on, but the whole thing began as a spark that started a fire, and had their hearts not been inclined to do evil, the fire would have never caught. What evil was so flammable in the heart of Israel that the spark in their imagination caused a large scale fire to begin with?

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Malachi 3:16, “Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name.” i just love that verse.

There at the end is the word “meditate” or “thought on His name”. It’s a phrase which also means to imagine things about God. In the word is a humble spark, or inclination and motivation to not only imagine but weave together ideas and to execute what is imagined, like weaving together the reflected light caught from gem stones, and if you caught enough gem stone light and wove it together, you could have a coat of many colors. Now wouldn’t that be amazing? A garment of woven together gem stone reflected light, a heavenly garment born from righteous imagination, triggering our inclinations and motivations, to do the works of the Lord, changing the world around us! i like that vision, so let’s stop right there and say, think about it!

           We who are believers in Christ and are in hot pursuit of God have impulses, inclinations, and motivations in us that should not be a surprise. i’ll speak for myself here, so here goes, i am inclined to read my Bible often to see Jesus better; i am inclined and motivated to kindness, even when i, initially, don’t feel very kind; in my heart is a motivation to help, just in general, just to help and aid those in need; i am not inclined to be combative and defensive much anymore; i am inclined to watch the vision of my heart while using my physical eyes to see the world in front of me, motivated to watch for God’s direction; it is my inclination to see as He sees; i am motivated to engage with others to share the goodness of God with them; i am highly inclined to believe God hears my prayers and will answer; i am inclined to not do things which taint and diminish the honor the Lord has given to me, nor to dishonor and bring demise to those around me.

What or who sparks your imagination, inclinations, and motivations? We become the company we keep, meaning they influence the way we dream, believe, and imagine. Who or what do you allow in your life, adding input to how you lean towards or away from the Lord?

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation, broadcast semi-live from the late evening cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge, and every crystal clear, beautiful evening is pleasant.

Deuteronomy 31:21, “For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” The Lord knows the things we are inclined to before we know what those things are, long before we begin to weave together a plan of action. In His knowing what we will do before we ever do it, He sets such a course of action to lead us to Himself, that even our imagination, inclinations, and motivations are bent to lean in the accomplishing of His purposes. What a wonderful God we serve!

Be strong and courageous this week, listen with all your heart, the Lord is truly speaking to you. Drive carefully, pray diligently for loved ones and your neighbors….i hope we meet again on the trail of the lonesome pine, to sit by the fire and dream of God, whatever dreams may come. Amen!

Let’s get right to the topic this evening – my guess is there are a lot of people who incur offense at the hands of others, mostly from family, friends, and the occasional stranger – probably, the worst of offenses are aroused by someone close enough to us to really get under our skin. The closer the relationship, the more ridiculously easy it is for us to be offended and suddenly be faced with the wonderful opportunity to become a victim. Oooohhh, and haven’t many of us gotten good at playing our victim and martyr card.

Don’t get me wrong, there are millions of people in this world who are real, honest victims, right this very second, like, right now, and all of us, at some point or another, large or small, long or short, will be victims of something which someone else set in motion.  We like to talk about a “culture of honor”, a “culture of reward”, or a “culture of this-or-that”, but it’s almost as if our nation has also become a “culture of offense”, a “culture of fingerpointers”, and a “culture of victims and martyrs”. i think this nation is, generally, depressed. Consider how many people take sleeping pills just to fall asleep, anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications, and even additional medications to wake up and somehow live life in the drug haze which drives them. It’s a lot.

Friends, it isn’t possible that we are all victims, at least not all the time, not for everything, but yet multitudes use their victim credentials to prosper themselves or their agenda more than mature thinking and intellectual abilities.

It is amazing, that within the rank and file of the Body of Christ, how many are tempted to gain the approval of the people around them by playing our culture’s offense-taking game. Like the medical student in Oregon who was so offended by a joke, she had to take time off, claimed disability, and then began a law suit. Sometimes i think, if that’s all it takes to offend people so much that they crumble to the ground, then maybe they came to the table primed to be offended before they were ever offended. Maybe they were the penultimate victim before they ever got there, just a willing victim on two legs, waiting for the offense to occur, because surely it will come if we wait long enough.

Offense and being a victim will bow us to the ground, and the weight of it all will bend us down so far we can hear our own backs crack under the weight of offense — and we haven’t even begun to talk about the contagiousness of offense or the victimology of holding an offense. Allowing it to continue in our hearts is like allowing rot to remain in our flesh, and doing nothing about it.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the late night cascading shores of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over and every evening is pleasant. Let’s search our hearts as we briefly begin the discussion about offense, in hopes that we’ll grow up and act like adults in the Kingdom of God, as opposed to being offended, acting out as victims and martyrs, whining, complaining, and snurling our lip at each other.

Just because we don’t like something or we disagree with someone doesn’t necessarily cause us to sin, but living with offense does indeed wound our conscience and create distance between ourselves and God. For the remedy I quote Bob Newhart, “Stop It!” i’ll say it again for those who harbor offenses, “Stop it!” Ask yourself, “Why am i so offended? What’s at the heart of it?”

Yes, it’s true, we have the right to be offended and thus be a victim or martyr if we want to, that’s true. But where does all that go, to what end? Did it draw us closer to God? Why are so many of us seemingly so willing to carry a weight which is not ours to carry? Who required you to carry it? Wasn’t God? Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Do we think that’s only about the burdens of life, or about being discouraged or saddened? It’s also about not being offended and letting it settle in our pockets like a little sand that is completely at home right down at the bottom in the seam. At first offense is in the bottom of our pockets like a little lint. But over time, if allowed to remain, it seems to grow like fungus in the dark, and next thing you know your pockets are full of horrible things which were never intended to be there.

Offense sets in the craw of so many fellowships it has driven many to close their doors and terminate fruitful relationships. It is like pride, it will drive the laughter from our hearts, it will cause us to slit our eyes to see only what we want to see, cause our ears to hear only what we want to hear, and will change the song in our hearts to the braying of a donkey.

This is no small thing. We are offended at wrong doctrine, we are offended that someone didn’t take our suggestions, we’re offended that leadership didn’t tell someone to be quiet, we’re offended because our friends tell us their boundaries in the event we are inappropriate, we’re offended if we aren’t given the ministry we think we should have, we’re offended if someone is honest with us, we’re offended if someone isn’t honest with us, we’re offended at what some people wear to church, or don’t wear to church. Often, we are even offended because someone is offended.

One time, i noticed the woman on my left was breathing hard and had a sneer on her face. Being adventurous, i whispered to her asking what was wrong. She whispered back saying with real venom and a sneer, “That woman over there! Just look at her shoes!” i casually looked and what i saw was a young woman wearing open toed high heels with a strap that criss-crossed around up her calves to just under her knee. i whispered to the woman, “What’s wrong with that?” She said with dripping contempt, “They’re hooker shoes! It’s just not right to wear shoes like that to church!!” i mean she was really upset and offended. i had to chuckle, and then i laughed, and then she was offended at me too. Shortly, with contempt on her face, she left in a huff, glaring at the pastor and his wife, like they had anything to do with anything.

What’s really at the heart of offense? Can we be honest, transparent, and vulnerable enough to get to the root of our offense? It takes courage, honesty, and a willingness to resolve. And while we’re at it, why, oh why do we have such a difficult time being honest with ourselves about ourselves? i mean think about it. We tell ourselves all sorts of stuff that is just so complicated in the long run, when the truth would have been so much simpler.

Being offended seems to make it very much all about ourselves you know…it seems like a selfish way to dominate others…. the bottom line being to assert our personal power. If someone “makes” you mad, the truth is YOU are making the choice to be mad. If someone, supposedly, “makes” you feel inadequate, YOU are allowing it. Or if someone “makes” you feel dumb, it’s not them, they aren’t that powerful, YOU doubt yourself. How is it we allow anyone to be so powerful in our lives that they can, with only a few words, “make” us think that way about ourselves?

Here is a quote from David A. Bednar, “Certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person offended us is fundamentally, false. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else.” We, the church, tell people we are rock solid, but it just seems like we are so available to hold an offense.

Maybe rather than think so much about why so-and-so is so offensive, it would be better to consider what it is within ourselves that causes us to have such resentful displeasure towards that person.

i was asked to do worship at a church once, and the pastor approached me saying, ““Please, just keep it calm and even, nothing over the top. We just don’t want to offend anyone.” Oh, so, that was it, someone, somewhere might be offended. Well, what doesn’t at least offend somebody? Someone, somewhere is going to be offended about something, somehow so there is no point in trying to be so spineless and colorless that no one is offended.

A woman once told me that i breathed too loud and it really bothered her. She said, with all piousness, that she would be happier if i’d stop. i thought to myself, “Does she mean she’s offended if i breath and she’d be happier if i stopped breathing? Why did she feel it was so important that i know about her displeasure?” And that is another point: Why do we feel it is so important that we need to make sure the other person knows we are offended? Do we somehow think the person we have deemed offensive will suddenly say, “Oh, you are so right. i’m being very offensive and i need to stop.”???

Dick Cavet once wrote, “What is our obligation to those who are offended? What? To help them limit their suffering by avoiding all offense? With what advice?” Most of the time the person or persons we’ve taken offense with don’t even know they have done anything which offended anyone.

Mr. Cavet went on to say, “You could stay in the house, watch no TV, read nothing of any kind including potentially upsetting snail mail or e-mail, and you just might manage to glide through an offense-free day. No surly neighbor, no near-misses by unpunished, demented, sidewalk-riding cyclists, no cab driver letting other cabs in ahead of yours while distractedly nattering on his phone in some unknown language. Stay cocooned and you will risk no insults from rude waiters, no pain from gruff clerks, no snarls from any employees of United Airlines.”

Listen, being hurt is actually easier than being right. To prove we’re offended we just have to dig up some moral indignation and then stomp off in a justified indignant huff. But to prove we’re right we actually have to make arguments and use logic and gather evidence. Why debate theology or politics if you can win your audience by making the other person look mean and cruel?

And how has our culture of offense taught us to deal with offense?  When i asked a man this question, he said, “We’ve learned to demand apologies and make snide, belittling remarks attacking the other person. Often we demand apologies just because we can. It’s a way to shame those with whom we disagree. It forces the other person to admit failure or keep looking like a weasel while we figure a different way to make them pay. Even the weakest offense-taker can bully multitudes of intelligent men and women through the emotional manipulation that goes with offendedness.” What is more amazing to me is that when that same offense-taker surfaces to complain to someone in leadership, without doing any real conflict resolution, they join hands with the offense-taker to continue the manipulation of others, and then feel smugly justified they have done the right thing.

If any of us carries an offense and we’re like a cocked gun just waiting to go off, chances are the ease with which we’re offended dates back many years to something totally unrelated to the present offense. Oh bother, what will we do? We won’t get far with Jesus until we allow Him to seriously and consistently address our readiness to be offended.

Taking offense has become something of an unspoken right in our country. One fellow wrote that, “If you see something, anything, that strikes you as unsavory, take it as personally as possible and sound off as loud as you can.”

In John 5 there was a man laying by the pool of Bethesda, who had had a sickness or disease for a long time. It was the Sabbath and Jesus broke the law of the Pharisee’s by healing the man. As a result, the Pharisee’s were so offended that vs 16 says, “…therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.” Not only did they persecute Him, but they looked for a way to kill Him, they were so offended they actually wanted to kill him. When Jesus said in vs 18, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working”, they became so, SO offended, they worked even harder to kill him.

To “hold an offense” is a purposeful thing, it can be let go of, but somehow the one who is offended feels there is some payoff to not resolving the conflict. Ask yourself, “What is my payoff if i retain my offense?” If you can’t quite bring yourself to resolve it, what is the payoff? Is it personal power? Pride? What is it which constrains you?

In Luke 13:11 there was a woman who had an infirmity and was bent to the ground. Of course, i take it literally that she had a debilitating condition, but “infirmity” is also a word used of “moral imperfection”, but the most common use is translated as “sickness” or “infirmity”. But let’s see it another way. Could it be, as a metaphor for being bent under the weight of offense? There is nothing which actually says what, exactly, the problem was, but i would say regardless, she could possibly be viewed as a picture of how we look when we are willing to carry an offense around. Bowed to the ground, bent and all gnarled up, miserable, and discouraged. Is it really worth the burden? i say, if you don’t have to carry the burden, then lay it down. If you don’t have to go around like a cocked gun looking for ammunition for the purposes of simply needing to draw blood somehow, is it profitable?

i’ve decided over the years of dealing with my own offense-ready attitude that there are often four faces of offense:

1. Number of offenses: We might forgive some, but are not prone to forgive with much repetition.
2. The number of offenders. We may pardon one or a few, but the greater the number of offenders the less inclined we are to forgive.
3. Kind of offense: We limit or control what sort of offenses are forgiven. As long as it doesn’t cost us much and it would be to our advantage, we are mostly willing to forgive.
4. The degree of offense: We’ll forgive an offense if it is small enough to not be of any injury to ourselves, but then that also depends on how sensitive we are and what mood we’re in.

There are even what i call “Friends of Offense”, which are like pride, bitterness, or depression as examples. They come to visit but then won’t leave, and the more they stay, the more entrenched they become. Friends, the four faces of offense is a topic all in itself. The Lord bids us to let offense go, stop holding on to it as if you’re justified, when really, it is a vindictive, controlling spirit we are practicing, and there is no part of the Lord in that.

How have your own hasty actions and sharp words caused offense? Funny how when we act that way we justify to ourselves how the other person deserved what they got. We say, “I am right to complain and be offended!” At that, in the past, the Lord has posed me a question, “Who do you think you are? Who made you Holy Ghost Jr, that you do the very things others do, but yet they are offensive and you are justified?” Ouch! He was right, sometimes i do have that attitude, mercy for me and justice for you.

How have you been offended by peoples actions? Was it really them who did or said something to you that made you react with indignation and offense? Are other’s truly that powerful that they can make you react poorly? And after you react so very poorly, are you going to be responsible for your behavior, or will you do what some do which is “blow it off until it all blows up” and then with further indignation, question “how could this be happening to me?” or loudly say, “How dare you speak to me that way!”

It is my responsibility to not allow offense to find any traction in my heart or mind. It is my responsibility to call it what it is, and not rename my attitude with something a little softer sounding rather than being honest about what is really going on with me. It is my responsibility to work to resolve the issues. If you’re waiting for the other person to chase you down and ask why you’re offended, and have removed yourself to a distance away from them, you might very well be waiting a long time. You know, we can be honest and transparent, but if we’re not also vulnerable, then we’re still the brick wall we wish we weren’t. Without vulnerability, we are unavailable for anyone to speak into our lives.

Friends, there are too many things which have been left to stand which should have never been allowed to stand. If we build a wall to keep out offensive people, not only have we walled them out, but we have also walled ourselves in, and we must be brave to tear our barriers down. We need to be bridge builders, not fence makers. Now that does not supersede good boundaries, nor is it a reason to NOT defend ourselves from those who would harm us. There is a reason we lock our windows and doors, just like there’s a good reason we don’t allow some people in our lives. But if we do have fences, they need to be there for the right reasons, and excluding people because we are offended is NOT a good reason.

Understanding what is in our own heart and owning our attitudes and actions is a key to learning how to NOT be offended, afterall, unresolved conflict could easily lead to losing our direction with God. Look at Absalom, he was offended, he sowed strife and division, and led astray an entire group of people who were of the same mind …. his followers literally fed off of his critical and offended spirit.  It wasn’t long before Absalom led a revolt to try and begin a kingdom which would be built on the foundation of offense. Hmmm, that’s ugly! How many churches have incurred a split born out of offense, and the offended ones went off to start another church, a church built on offense. Do we think that’ll work in the long run? And if it won’t work for a nation or a church, why do we think living with unresolved conflict will work for us? Think about it.

This has been a very pointed discussion, but a necessary one and i hope we’ll all take it to heart and think about how to resolve our offenses, some which seem so dear to us. Yes, that’s right, some of us have pet offenses which we seem to keep well watered and fed. Many of us even tuck our pet offenses in at night to make sure they are comfortable.

Ask yourself though, is God offended? If anyone in the universe ever had all the rights imaginable to be offended, it would have been Jesus. But rather than harbor offense, He died for our sins that we would have the power to cease carrying the burden of offense and the arrogant, self-important, self-justification that comes in the door with it all.

Offense is like pride, it will drive the laughter from our hearts, it will cause us to slit our eyes to see only what we want to see, cause our ears to hear only what we want to hear, and will change the song in our hearts to the braying of a donkey.

Drop your throwing stones and rest in Jesus, it’s much easier than carrying around the weight of offense, and it does have weight you know, an ever-increasing weight. Let go man, resolve it and let it go! Today is a great time to begin the path of resolve! Drive carefully, and pray earnestly for your neighbor, and i’ll talk to you next time. There’s a big amen at the end there. So Amen.