Sometimes I think it's just time to act...You know?

[TJandGENESIS]

1 Peter 2:9-10
But you campers are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. It’s awesome
§

We are the chosen, aren’t we? We are the ones who need to fight for the weak. To right the wrongs. To get the ship sailing again. For far too long, a generation has slept, afraid to wake up, to move. We sat there, watching TV, and we got lazy and fat and thought only of ourselves. We did not do what we should have to help those who need it, to inform those who are walking wrong, in various forms of sin of one or another, that no matter how you feel about God, it’s just bad to be that way. We need to think about the future, we need to help out when we can. We need to pay it forward. We need to feel good, as good as we can ever do. We need to accomplish the things we can’t or think we can’t. We need to be so busy, loving night and day, we need to stop the hate.

For far too long, we have sat here, watching the planet slide out from us, as we just ponder the fuzz in our navel. When was the last time you got up, and opened the door for the lame? When was the last time you put away the cart? When was the last time you left the loose change for someone else? Paid a meal for a complete stranger? Did something nice to someone else?

It’s not just me that needs to hear this, although I do, it’s a lot of people that need to hear it. When we look across the room at a loved one, a spouse, do we think about how lucky we are to have that person in our life? Do we tell them, at least once a day, that we love them? That they are not part of the scenery? Part of the furniture? We need to be so nice. Lonely days can turn to lonely nights if we don’t watch it. Sometimes, you need to see what you need to see, to take the long way home.

When you wake up, do you thank God that you are awake another day? Or do you feel as if your life has become a catastrophe? When you look through the years, and seen what you could have been, what you might have been, if you had more time? It’s not to late. You can change it. You can think positive things. You can be the person you need to be still. You just have to believe. You have the power of positive thought. I know there is a reason that sometimes you need to be alone, to ask, is it mine oh Lord, is it mine? But after that, you need to declare victory. When everything’s gone, and nothing seems right, there is no time like right now, to stand up, and to declare victory. To right yourself.

I know that I seem to have a bit more ‘preacher’ in me as of late, but I am trying to change. I am aware that I don’t have to win, that there is no need to fight, but there is a need to be more aware of how the butterfly in Africa causes the hurricane over Florida. How we are all connected. There must be a thousand voices, trying to get through on any given day, but we need to concentrate on that one voice, that voice that calls us all, and listen. I’m feeling less alone now. I threw it all away now. I have lost the craving for success in things that are material, and am focusing on the spiritual things more. So much liberation now; I had been under too much stress, that I almost was buried.

We need to be nimble. We need to move swiftly. We need to give a damn about others now.


Well. That’s about all I have to say about that for now.

[Neicy]

TJ,

So true. There is a tendency to get wrapped up in the day to day "stuff" and lose sight of what is really important. But we all seem to need to reach a certain point in life before we are able to see that the day to day "stuff" doesn't really amount to a hill of beans in the larger scheme of things. I must have needed to hear this. Thanks for posting.

PS. How are you doing?

[Rae Vynn]

"You campers"?

[Godiva]

Every night I tell him he is a good boy and that I will always love him.

[lefat1]

Originally Posted by Godiva

Every night I tell him he is a good boy and that I will always love him.

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me too!

[TJandGENESIS]

Originally Posted by Rae Vynn

"You campers"?

It's my translation...a TJV if you will.

[TJandGENESIS]

I wrote about a life changing sort of thing yesterday. And it made me think: We are all capable of sinning. In fact, even those who claim to be Christians, still sin. This can sometimes weigh us down. It can make us feel as if we can’t get up, that we don’t deserve to be happy, that sin is the barrier between doing good, and being bad.
On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean break of them—He, God, He won’t let us down; He’ll be true to Himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.

Some would say, we don’t need God to forgive us, that if we just make amends, do the right thing, that we will be alright. That we will be healed by our good deeds, and we can move on.

Maybe that is what you think. But I am here to tell you, you need to ‘talk’ about your sins to someone, to something, to make them clear. You need to look at yourself, and figure out what you can do to right your ship, before it takes on more water. To Christians, that means confessing ones sins to God (and no, I don’t have a list of all the sins)...and God will forgive you. Simply put, though, you can’t just kill someone, say, and confess it, and it’s all right. No, you have to make amends, and in that extreme case, it means turning ones self over to the authorities, and accepting punishment. Not that anyone I know is guilty of this, but you get the point. God is not some magic ‘do over’ kind of being, but He does offer peace after the fact.

We are part of the process. We have to FREELY admit to our sins. We have to own up to them. Believe in God, or not, it makes us better people when we fess up. This in turn, makes the world a more productive place. If everyone who every screwed up, just admitted to it, just came clean, we would move the planet to a better place.

It’s not easy, turning the right leaf over, and then letting that leaf go, but we have to if we want to move forward, we have to let our past go, and in doing so, our future is more secure.
I get knocked around sometimes, for being a Follower of Christ, and it’s not easy being a person in the 21st Century admitting to believing in what many think is a fairy tail. It’s a hard thing to do, but God tells me, that where He is, I may also be, up where the truth will set you free. That in the ‘world’, we may get knocked around for believing. Well, I am ready for my knocks.

What is strange to me, is that atheists don’t have a problem with believing in nothing. I have a harder time with that, then believing in God. In Christ. NOTHING seems so...final. That there is not one thing out there that may have started all this, and is still out there, full of knowledge, that is harder for me to buy. GOD seems so liberating to me. It’s easier to take a single leap of faith, and fall into God’s loving arms, with no resistance, then to take a leap into the nothing, not knowing what will await you on the other side of that leap.

I am not here to tell you to believe or you will go to hell; not my place. I am not sure what hell will be for some, or others, but my own personal hell would be to die, and finally find out the Truth, and be told that I have to walk around the planet, unseen, unable to reach out to those I loved, to tell them what really happens when you die, how alone you might be, separated from your loved ones for all of eternity...yikes! That is hell to me.

In the end, no one knows our destiny, not me, not you, no, none. Christ knows, God knows, but He ain’t telling me about it yet. I can read the Bible, I can study it day and night, I can surround myself with The Word, and still at the end, I am not sure when I die, or why. I once heard it said, ‘Why not believe in God? Why not at least play it safe?’ I mean, what is the worse thing that can happen? What if all that I believe in, is just bunk, and when we die, that’s it? Well...what if it is not? Why not play it safe? Why not just relax, and put your sins away...

It’s harder to keep all the lies, the sins, up in the air, never knowing when one might bite you in the rear, then to just let it go, and let God take it. You have to admit, there is a certain freeing up to letting sin go. But you have to really want to do it. It’s not a half way kind of thing. And I don’t expect everyone reading these words to buy it, or to want to try it, and that is fine.

But I made a promise to God in the hospital. That I would find a way to take the loss of my toe, and turn it around for some sort of good. Maybe someone will realize that I was able to face the loss of my toe due to some sort of strength that God gave me. Maybe it will take a while for people to see that my life is changing. Maybe some will never. But that is okay.

[Loveit]

Yes, TJ, I see the changes. I know that you believe the Lord and His Word. I see the glory of the Lord working in you. Keep looking to Him, He will not fail you no matter what.

I will remember you in my prayers as you go through each day TJ.
Take care!

loveit

[Godiva]

For many people forgiving yourself is much more difficult than accepting forgiveness from others. Forgiving others is so much easier than forgiving ourselves.

I've always felt that Jesus' commandment "Love thy neighbor as thyself" was the hardest because sometimes we find it very difficult to love ourselves. Loving others is so much easier.

[TJandGENESIS]

Originally Posted by Godiva

For many people forgiving yourself is much more difficult than accepting forgiveness from others. Forgiving others is so much easier than forgiving ourselves.

I've always felt that Jesus' commandment "Love thy neighbor as thyself" was the hardest because sometimes we find it very difficult to love ourselves. Loving others is so much easier.

Yup, tis true what ye say there.