Short Takes, Proverbs and Brain Pushers

From time to time I hear short quotables or intense epiphanies in my mind that I hurry to write down before I forget them. I have collected some of these over the past year or so and decided to put them out for others to ponder. So here they are. I will add more to them I suppose as they pop up in my journey.

Far more than just wanting to study Systematic Theology,

I want to experience genuine Systemic Spirituality.

Temptation is the counterfeit of attraction to God's alluring beauty.

Profession is the counterfeit of confession.

When we demand that our children give love when they have not received it, or anything else for that matter, we are teaching them to attempt to play God, for God is the only one who can give love without first receiving it.

Delirious freedom in Christ – when you feel so free that you are not afraid to laugh with joy in the face of intimidation and evil.

We can exercise our emotions, even in religion, and think we are living from our heart. But just because we activate the use of our right brain does not mean we are correctly living from the heart that God gave us.

Masking fear with pleasure is a counterfeit to expelling fear with truth and peace through love.

Worship is looking to something or someone as a source of life and hope, pleasure and satisfaction. We increase our faith in that god the more we look to it to receive. And the more we look to it the deeper into our heart that faith takes root.

Putting all our faith into one source only is terrifying because we have been taught never to put all our eggs in one basket. Inherently then, we believe this is not true wisdom.

Much worship is an exercise in creating masks to numb our fears. As such it is nothing more than another addiction, albeit a very socially acceptable one. But as long as we fool ourselves that our worship is good enough to mask our pain and fears without challenging its validity, we will not enter into the kind of real worship that is radically transformative and is compellingly attractive to deeply hurting people. Whether our worship style is rigid and formal or expressive and emotional does not make it any less a counterfeit for deep, heart-driven vulnerability and total abandonment to God that is indicative of genuine worship.

Faith is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change – Jim Wallace.

What Fear of Freedom looks like. If I was too free I might do things that I would regret and then there would be a lot of shame and pain. People would deride me – or I would deride me. I would still have no friends but a lot more people would feel confirmed in their estimations of me as odd, not likable, strange, suspicious.

You have chosen to serve a God who is not always a welcome citizen here on this planet. You don't have time to waste trying to please everyone, You are too valuable to God for doing greater things. Yes, really. That's why He calls you to follow His lead. With each move you make for Him, you'll see people trying to seek your approval. And when that happens, direct them to your Manager. (God Space p.46)

Humility is the vacuum environment that makes us safe for the glory of God to shine brightly without burning us out, just like a light bulb needs a vacuum inside to preserve the integrity of the element.

The seal of God and the mark of the beast are trademarks.

Fear is the handle on my heart that allows someone else to control and manipulate me.

Thomas lost a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the advanced kind of faith that future believers would have.

The job of the left brain is to acquire and compile information and arrange it properly to create an atmosphere that will be the most conducive for the right brain to be able to do efficiently what it was designed to do best – worship.

For me, writing is often like taking hold of a silken thread from my heart and gently pulling on it to see where it leads me while listening to what the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to me about myself and about God. I have to be gentle but persistent if I want to find the deeper things that lie at the other end of this thread. If I am too rough then the thread will break and it may be a long time before I can uncover it again.

Fear in the heart allows the power inducing the fear to have control over us. We empower the enemy when we are afraid.

Fear must be displaced, not ignored. Fear can be subordinated by an even greater fear. But the better way is to live with so much love in the heart that fear cannot thrive. Perfect love casts out all fear. Fear has torment, love has peace.

Conscience is designed to accuse or defend ourselves. But when we accuse others we are attempting to substitute our own conscience for someone else's. And when we do that we are joining the “accuser of the brethren”. That is the counterfeit of true judgment; it is the condemning kind. Our conscience is supposed to be for our own benefit only, not to be used against others. They have their own conscience that is accountable to God directly themselves and for us to substitute our conscience for theirs is a violation of their freedom that God will never violate Himself. We have no business violating others freedoms just as we do not want others to violate ours.

Here is an Affirmation Sandwich to overcome someone's apprehension and fear of rejection.

Affirm first, then gently convey our difference of opinion and then sincerely affirm them even more strongly.