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THIS IS YOUR MIND ON GOD
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, April 24, 2024 – That look you get inside when you put all your trust in God and he does this to you, metaphorically speaking.
You’re still trusting God, even while you’re all trussed up and flailing; you just don’t know what the heck he’s up to.
That’s why they call it a test.
That’s why they call it faith.
It’s not God who’s done this to you, by the way. It’s always the devil or one of his minions. God’s given them the go-ahead, with clear limitations and restrictions, but it’s the devil who dreams up the schemes, the way he dreamed them up for Job.
Yet take this to heart: You’ll never be left trussed up and flailing beyond your capacity to endure it WITH GOD’S HELP.
I capitalized and bolded WITH GOD’S HELP so you’ll know how important that part of the test is. Many people leave it out and wonder what happened, why God never showed up to rescue them. If you come to a door with a sign on it that reads: “PULL” and you just stand there, waiting for it to open on its own, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t open. Ever. You need to PULL, like the sign says. And like scripture says, you need to ask God’s help to get you through your tests and trials. He’s not going to intervene without your request. You need to ask him.
You need to ASK. (It’s that pesky free-will thing again.)
I’ve recently embarked on a years-long course of action that’s required me to step out in faith and faith only. I have no idea what’s going to happen to me from day to day, but it’s as freeing as it is (somewhat) terrifying. Even so, I trust God and I know that a big part of the faith test and the trust test is not knowing how God is going to arrange this or that; if you know how God is going to arrange this or that, then you’re not operating by faith and your trust is in yourself only, in your poor and limited understanding of how things are or should be.
We, as born-again believers, need to move as far as we can beyond seeing with our eyes and hearing with our ears and understanding with our minds. We need to see with our ears and hear with our eyes and understand with the mind of God, like Jesus did. It may leave us feeling on occasion like that poor trussed-up pup in the picture above, hang-dog eyes and all, but it will be worth it in the end.
I know it will, because as bad as it got for Jesus right up to and including his crucifixion, it was definitely worth it for him when all was said and done. We know this from the 40 days and nights that he appeared to his disciples and followers after his resurrection, and we know this because we know Jesus one on one. We know that he sits at the right hand of the Father and will be there for all eternity. No matter how hard the tests got, Jesus’ faith and trust were not misplaced in God: There’s no-one and nothing else he could have put his faith and trust in than God.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I still have some flailing and pulling to do. ;D
TALKING TO DEAD PEOPLE
CHARLO, New Brunswick, September 5, 2023 – Do not talk to dead people: God forbids it in the Old Testament. If you have something to say to a loved one who’s passed on, take it to God and Jesus. When you’re at the grave of a loved one, tell God and Jesus whatever it is you want to tell your loved one. But do not talk directly to the deceased. That’s how you open doors to malevolent spirits, no matter how well-intentioned you are or how protected you think you are by God’s Holy Spirit.
Graveyards have earned a reputation over the centuries for being places haunted by evil entities. This is a well-deserved reputation, as evil entities are in fact being unwittingly summoned when people go to graveyards to talk to their deceased loved ones. There are no haunted places, only haunted people. Do not become a target of evil spirits by summoning them when you talk to dead people. Direct your communications only to God and Jesus.
Demons are always hanging around, waiting for you to slip up. If you try to communicate with someone who’s passed on, it becomes a major opportunity for the demons to pretend they’re the person you’re trying to reach. DO NOT TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE, including “saints”. Do not pray to “saints” and do not pray to angels (even the holy ones). Your prayers should only be directed to God and Jesus. DO NOT TALK TO DEMONS OR OTHER FALLEN SPIRITS, other than, during an exorcism, to ask their name and then tell them to leave. The only communications you should be making in prayer are to God and Jesus, no-one else.
Please remember that.
TALKING TO COUNSELLORS
As born-again believers, we know that God and Jesus are with us 24/7, thanks to the intervention of God’s Holy Spirit. No-one on Earth is better at listening or giving advice and guidance than God and Jesus. If you’re a born-again believer, there is no reason whatsoever for you to go to a guidance counsellor or a marriage counsellor or a financial counsellor or any other kind of counsellor. None. No reason. It’s an insult to God and Jesus when you by-pass them and go to a worldly counsellor.
How can a person help you more than God and Jesus can help you? Whatever problem you have, whatever advice you need, there’s no-one better to ask than God and Jesus. No-one can give you a sense of relief and peace like God and Jesus can. And best of all, their advice and counselling are FREE. They never charge a cent. And you never have to make an appointment – they’re available whenever you need them.
Let unbelievers go to worldly counsellors (God made worldly counsellors for the sake of unbelievers), but born-again believers have no cause to use their services. Any problem you have, take it to God and Jesus. Whatever your issue, take it to God and Jesus. They’re always waiting and willing and happy to hear from you.
TALKING TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY
It’s tempting for us to unburden ourselves to family and friends, including our Christian family. But we need to be very, very careful about who we choose to unburden to and very, very selective about what we choose to reveal. Scripture tells us that even our closest friends and family members, including spouses, could end up being our worst enemies, and not necessarily from anything they do intentionally. What they mean for our good may be contrary to what God wants for us. Think of Jesus’ mother coming to take him home when he was healing people in Capernaum. Mary thought she was doing the right thing – the motherly thing – by protecting Jesus, but she was in fact doing the opposite by trying to stop Jesus’ ministry.
We can never fully trust anyone in a mortal body, even those who claim to be born-again, as their inspiration may not always come from God and their intentions, despite their smooth words, may not always be noble. Scripture tells us that Jesus never unburdened himself to any of his disciples. If he had a problem, he took it to God. If he had a concern, he took it to God. If he had a suspicion, he took it to God. He played his spiritual cards very close to his chest when it came to his disciples and everyone else except for his Heavenly Father. Revelations from God Jesus only revealed when God gave him the go-ahead to do so.
As born-again believers, we’re surrounded by enemies 24/7 – spiritual ones as well as flesh-covered ones. Even those who claim to have our best interests at heart and to be on our side should be held at arm’s length and never fully confided in, never fully trusted. God we can trust, Jesus we can trust, but everyone else, no. Not being perfected, everyone else is fully capable of betrayal, everyone else is still able to choose against God, everyone else is still able to fall and take us down with them.
I want this thought to disturb you. I want the thought that you can only trust God and Jesus to so deeply disturb you that it takes root in your heart and you mull it over until it becomes part of you, until it becomes your default position. I want you to hold this disturbing thought up against scripture to see if you find support for it there. ****SPOILER ALERT**** You will find support. All throughout scripture, you’ll find warnings not to trust people. Some of the warnings will be overt and some will be revealed in sordid tales with sordid outcomes detailing the fatal consequences of unwisely trusting people. You must learn not to trust people. As a born-again believer, not trusting people must be your default.
Jesus sacrificed himself so that we could have a close relationship with him and with God through God’s Holy Spirit. There’s no-one else we truly need to lean on during the rest of our time on Earth, and no-one else we should trust.
TRUST
ANNAPOLIS ROYAL, Nova Scotia, May 1, 2022 – Trust is one of the most underrated character features, despite being the one that most people demand in others and the one that makes human societies thrive.
It’s not money that creates wealth in a society; it’s people trusting each other, and based on that trust, living and working together in good faith towards each other’s mutual benefit.
Without trust, there is no basis for a relationship, and without firmly based relationships, society falls apart.
I trust God and I trust Jesus, but I don’t really trust anyone else. When I say “trust”, I mean I trust them to keep their promises, I trust them not to trash-talk me behind my back, and I trust them not to do something that’s purposely to my detriment. I can’t say that about anyone else I know, which is a sad commentary perhaps more on me and the people I attract into my life than on humanity in general.
But why are so many humans so untrustworthy? Why do they betray each other?
God went out of his way to let us know that he would never leave us or betray us. He went out of his way to let us know that we can trust him. He commanded us to love him, but he went out of his way to let us know that we can trust him. He made it personal. He didn’t command us to trust him, but he made sure that we knew we could.
This is a very great gift and privilege to know we can trust God. If I had been alive 2000 years ago, trailing behind Jesus, I’m sure I would have trusted him, too, even before his resurrection. I would have known I could trust him because nothing he said or did was contradictory. He didn’t gossip or belittle people; he didn’t argue for the sake of arguing or twist words just to come out on top; and if he had a beef against someone, he told them outright – he wasn’t sweet to their face while trash-talking them behind their back. He showed, in his words and actions, a strength of character that was trustworthy to the core. How sad that someone so unconditionally trustworthy could be so betrayed by those closest to him.
We can’t know what goes on in people’s minds. We can ask them questions or hook them up to a machine and try to interpret their brain waves, but knowing for sure what they think about this or that or about this person or that person or whether or not they’re lying is beyond us.
But Jesus knew. By the power of God’s Holy Spirit, Jesus knew what people were thinking and what was in their hearts. And because he knew, he entrusted himself to no-one but God.
Think about that for a second – because Jesus could read people’s hearts and minds, he trusted no-one but God.
Maybe my experience of humans is not so far off the mark.
Even so, God wants us to trust people at least enough to do business with them, to use their services, to exchange pleasantries with them, and to live and move among them during the rest of our time on Earth. He doesn’t want his children to cloister themselves away, other than for occasional retreats. He wants them to serve even the untrustworthy.
Jesus was the prime example of how to serve. No cloistering, other than for the occasional retreat, though he still kept his thoughts mostly to himself. About the Kingdom, he was generous to a fault in sharing. He gave far more information about it than even most of us now are able to bear. But he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve. And he didn’t reveal a lot of what God told him, because he knew it would be misunderstood and misapplied.
We can always – without exception – trust God and Jesus. As for everyone else, I’d recommend committing to serve them, but otherwise playing your personal cards close to your chest, like Jesus did.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 