Convictions Yours Or Someone Else’s??

Today began trying to climb the mountains of junk somehow accumulated, no fault of my own, when I immediately stumbled upon writings from years earlier in my Christian walk. Perfect, a great excuse to stop scaling this mountain and take a reading break. As I started to read, still at the foot of this mountain my wife had instructed me to rid the house of, it quickly became apparent I didn’t understand fully what I was writing in the past. Sitting amazed and convicted as I read thoughts put down on paper as solid as a chiseler would place words on stone, I realized, God had given me ideas as a mom gives her baby a bottle. Even though the baby doesn’t realize what is in the bottle, just that it fills a void within, I didn’t realize what these thoughts contained at the time; just that they felt good. With this realization in mind all I can say is my past writings appeared to be back to the future in relation to what God has been showing me.  This can be stated matter of fact, because as recent as last week God had His toolbox open repairing broken areas of my heart with not a tool left untouched. Cleaning them up, white washing them, sometimes even with a scrub brush, and the cleaning is far from over. Breaking free from ideas I allowed man to tie-dye my heart with isn’t easy and can be very confusing at times. Now I must face ideas as to how a Christian lives and ingrain God’s thoughts into my heart as I struggle with some of the minutest things you can imagine. Let’s get to the older writings and as God sees fit I will try to understand along with everyone currently reading Faith Beyond Reason in regards to loving every man, woman, and child not only outside of the church, inside of the church, in service, and out of service as we all travel different but similar roads to glory. We will start back in 2002 with a few nuggets I found very helpful, although to be transparent I do plan to edit some wording but not the main theme and thoughts.

In today’s world it appears without a doubt Christians are more concerned with outwardly appearance in regards to offending people rather than how we appear in pleasing God. This type of follow the leader Christianity has become very popular in today’s culture allowing us to not offend the saved or the lost yet without any thought of offending God. It is has become acceptable to give others permission in determining our path to God like living instead of giving God rights to our heart. In doing this we are proclaiming to the world we would rather fit in to the norm of church buildings and society than to God’s ultimate design for life. Not quite sure how we get trapped in this vortex of indoctrination but God is the only one we should feel compelled to please with our Christian walk. As we allow God to shape and mold us the walk we are on will include the proper love for others and personal growth in ourselves. My experience has been God desires a relationship with each of us and will lay a conviction on our heart if we are traveling in the wrong direction as an obvious indication of right and wrong. With that being said I sometimes get the feeling things are wrong but upon further inspection it is only something I was taught as a kid growing up. These items are purely from good teaching by my parents and others placed around me by God. These things are good and honorable but I cannot judge others that do not follow these same personal convictions because they are not biblical only respectful in my own eyes. As the Holy Spirit draws our hearts and gives us salvation through Jesus Christ he starts us on a path of growth to become what He knows we can be. He doesn’t rip things from our grasp all at once as some self-righteous people like to believe or maybe even require as our God is much wiser. He allows us to grow just as a new born baby grows laying things down one at a time while seeing God’s miraculous changes in us along the way. I actually prefer it this path because I get to see each one of these miraculous little growth moments daily making my walk with Him grow sweeter day by day. To close I must say we need to listen intently as God speaks within our hearts. If things are to taught, written, or said they must contain knowledge brought down from above and bathed in humbleness with no duty to self, The faintest sound usually is the most important.

God Bless You All,

Brett