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Preparing the Bride of Jesus Christ

Gratitude!

Gratitude isn’t just being grateful, it is celebrating GOD’s character and the character He places in us.

Gratitude seeps out of the Psalms time and again. “I will praise you, O LORD!” appears over and over. The dedication of the writers is profound.

Psalm 137 struck me this morning… “How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!”

From where does our gratitude flow and to where does it go? 

“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise. My heart is steadfast.” Psalm 57:7 promises the deep and earnest commitment straight from the writer’s heart, aiming for the heart of the Father GOD.

It is vital that we remember to give thanks for all things, both for our own emotional and spiritual health and for the blessing of the LORD. When we bless the LORD we delight Him and it’s handy too that we counter the devil.

As we give thanks we take our minds from ourselves and put our attention on Him. This we do because we are grateful, but it also benefits us in that we find life, joy, peace. Living a self-conscious life draws us toward self-centredness, self-pity. 

When we think of ourselves, we lose sight of our blessings and we lose sight of Him who has blessed us. We become full of self, fear, antagonism, anxiety. But when we keep our eyes on Jesus, when we praise the Father and thank the Son, when we touch the heart of GOD by His Spirit, we are divinely blessed.

But we live a life of gratitude not merely because it helps us, and not merely because it conquers the enemy, and not even because GOD is deserving. But we live a life of gratitude because it is a demonstration of love. And love never fails.

Praise the LORD: for wisdom, for grace, for salvation, for joy. Let everything that has breath, Praise the LORD!

Shalom and Amen.

Categories
Reflections and Poetry

Believer, let not your mind get lazy: a self reflection

Believers, let us not allow our minds to get lazy

I have been recognising that I am slowing down a bit. I’m not as vigorous as I used to be. That includes both my physicality and my mentally as well. Spiritually, I praise GOD because I seem to continue to grow!

There’s nothing wrong with my health or my age. I just don’t have the quickness of movement I used to have, and perhaps even my thinking is slowing down.

I’m sure the quickness and stiffness in my body has to do with getting older…. Although I’m thinner than I used to be and within the boundaries of ideal weight, and although according to medical science I’m healthy, I am aging; so physically, I’m less flexible and less quick than I was a few years ago. I exercise most days to try to keep age at bay.

As for my mind though, I don’t think the reduction of vitality is age (or at least not entirely), but rather, I think my mind will be as fit and healthy as I choose it to be, based upon the choices I make every day. Just as what I eat and what I do keeps me physically healthy (or not!), so too what I feed my mind, and how I use it will determine significantly how dexterous my thinking remains.

What isn’t good for me

I have learned too much tv or internet is not good for me. It deadens my acuity. I’ve written about that before. I can choose to watch a movie or read a book; I can choose to surf the next or not! But also, what I watch will either stimulate or deter my mental clarity and agility. This is the nub of what I want to write about today…

Proverbs 22: 24-25 says,

“Make no friendship with an angry man,

And with a furious man do not go,

Lest you learn his ways

And set a snare for your soul.”

On the surface, this proverb speaks of associations and friendships, but it can also mean influences. Today, we can influence people in the millions without ever meeting them, simply through what we post on the internet.

So too, we can be influenced by people we never meet in person. Do we know the character of the people we watch on YouTube, for example? We don’t know their personality, unless we know them personally. We only know what we see from our screens. And yet, many of these people act as pastors in our lives, or philosophers, or are our source of news and information. 

Gauging the Character of those whom we watch

If a person is raging — either in temper or accusation — he or she is angry, unsettled, or in slang, “mad”. And why do we call it mad? Because ‘emotion is hot, and reason is not’:)

Irrespective of how a person portrays himself or herself on social media or the in news media, they may — and probably do — have an agenda behind their postings. If the person is angry, is it righteous anger driving them, or self-righteous anger?

Anger: righteousness or self-righteousness

Righteousness can only come from GOD. When Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, he was very angry. But out of that anger, he said clearly and simply,

“… It is written, ‘My house is a ‘house of prayer’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” (Luke 19:46)

If we follow writers or speakers who are angry at government or science or the rich- and-powerful, why are we following them? What they say may be accurate, but what is their attraction and what is their effect upon us: on our minds, on our relationship with GOD and with our sharing of the Gospel, and with our brothers and sisters who may not agree?

The litmus test is simple

If, from what we are digesting, we are not growing closer to GOD and to loving Him and others more, then what we are digesting is not of GOD.

Making healthy choices

How much non-spiritual food do you want to digest?  A little bit of chocolate is not unhealthy physically, but how much proportion of chocolate do you put in your daily diet? Likewise, a little bit of news can be interesting and can even inform for our prayers. But how much “bad news” is healthy to digest or even desirable?

To my mind, as Paul suggests in Philippians 4:8, I will aim primarily to choose, “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

These are righteous choices, these are healthy choices, these are wise choices to make.

Be aware

I write Preparing the Bride because, as a watchman, my call is to observe and notify. What I observe is that a whole lot of people in the body of Christ are getting seriously distracted, and sometimes even disturbed by evil plots and conspiracies of the powerful elite. 

If this time spent upon such matters is not growing us toward Yeshua our Saviour, then it is time badly spent.

If these powerful elite are evil, are we praying for their souls? If they are of the devil, why are we giving them time? “Resist the devil and he will flee.” (James 4:&) Often I don’t observe people resisting, but rather dwelling upon the evil, sharing it — which is gossip — and being antagonised by or fascinated with it.

Evil exists, but I don’t choose to hang around it

Someone may respond to my provoking this subject by saying, “But we must pray against it.” Yes, and we must also pray for our leaders.

The devil is fascinating, the devil is deceptive, the devil will do anything to entice us away from Jesus. 

How close are we to our Saviour and how far from the devil in these days? How ready and prepared are we as the Bride? At the end of these days, that is what matters.

Bless the reader and know my heart is simply: to love Yehovah GOD, the Creator of the universe, and to make Him known.

Shalom, Shalom.

Categories
Politics and Society today Watchman on Alert BLOG

Mental Health Today: Was King Solomon Depressive?

I read Ecclesiastes with some familiarity

It’s a book I’ve read often, and Chapter 3: A Time for Every Season is popular with many people. But Chapter 2 which precedes it is what I dwell on today.

I ask myself, was Solomon depressed when he wrote it? He must have been. To have all the wisdom and wealth in the world, and to start a book with,

“The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.” (Ecc Chapter 1:1-2 NIV)

and to come to this stark conclusion, I think he must have been at a low point in his grand life when he wrote Ecclesiastes.

Solomon’s focus in Chapter 2 is on the futility of effort, as legacy does not hold any guarantees of sustaining the result of one’s effort; to enjoy one’s labour is worthwhile, but with no forward expectations.

“I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish?” (Ecc 2:18-19a NIV)

Solomon has strayed rather than prayed; if he had prayed to GOD, he would know who would follow after him, or be at peace with whatever GOD would bring.

“Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.” (Ecc 2:24 NKJV)

He has not lost faith in GOD, but he has lost relationship. He speaks not of the spirit, but of the soul.* This, I think, is the key to his depression.

He is alone, ruminating in his mind, rather than searching GOD and His spirit. Truly, he is wise and correct to say, ‘everything is meaningless’, for without GOD, without relationship to Him, Solomon is truly alone — with his wealth, his wives, his children, yet he is isolated and alone.

from Peter Paul Rubins’ The Judgment of Solomon

Today in our society, depression and lack of mental health is on the rise, particularly amongst the youth

Today, we live in a society where GOD has been removed from schools, from health care, from society in the main. The result? 

To Solomon, who had wealth, fame and power, came depression. His success became meaningless to him. Today, though higher education, prosperity and independence have become increasingly available to young adults, they have proven meaningless to the happiness of many. Just as Solomon became isolated from GOD, likewise today, our youth grow up without GOD. Our relatively prosperous society too, on the whole, suffers from a lack of the Joy of the LORD, who provides humanity with its true source of strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and purpose.

“To know GOD and to make Him known” was the key slogan behind my discipleship training course, provided through a YWAM-trained pastor when I was a young woman. How I wish (and pray), that more Believers and society on the whole, would discover this key to a truly fulfilling life.

“For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight;” (Ecc 2:26a NKJV

*Yes, it is true that in the Old Testament man did not receive the Spirit of GOD as we do through Jesus Christ. But David, Solomon’s father, often spoke of the Spirit. For example, Psalm 139:7 says, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”

Note: Images from www.Lambsongs.co.nz and Peter Paul Rubins’ Judgment of Solomon, available at www.smk.dk