Tag: needverse

227 – Higher Standards

God holds each of us to a higher standard than everyone else does. At times, other people around you will get away with terrible choices, but you will be scrutinized for the smallest, simplest, pettiest errors. When it seems that you are held to a higher standard, you are. God is holding you to that higher standard.

It may seem to others like they are held to a higher standard than you are. Their struggles and the small things they notice may be different from the things you notice. But, in some things, the standard of what God expects from you is indeed higher than what He expects from others—for those specific things, and vice versa for other things.

Then, there are people that God does not hold to those standards because, sadly, they have inwardly chosen to throw away any chance of even considering God’s morals and the higher, more enjoyable results that they lead to. Perhaps they never heard of God’s higher road of morals and enjoyment, but they never cared to go looking for any higher roads either.

Once a person learns about a higher road, a better life, sees someone “choose” happiness for the first time, or recognizes any evidence that life can get better—then pursues and chases after that better life—everything changes. God will instantly send that person both useful advice and added trouble that needs the useful advice. That person is now held to a higher standard because that person wants to be held to a higher standard. So, God is glad to oblige.

Your potential cannot be explained by the lives, skills, and results of those around you. If your potential could be understood by observing other people, we wouldn’t all be unique. When life seems hard, don’t complain about the unfairness; be thankful for it!

It is indeed, quite unfair that God honors our choice to seek a higher standard, which He then holds us to. Life dolls the same sun, rain, reward, and winter, yielding whatever is sown, and standing before God, none of us measure up. But concerning your uniqueness, God’s higher standards will make you become more than you though possible.

226 – From Men to Women

Men need women’s help, but only with half of the things anyone is capable of recognizing, and only one quarter of things we are all capable of recognizing. Respectable men will not, under any circumstances, continue being around a woman who does not give them respect, even when they don’t deserve it. That is male DNA, how God made men: Those who want respect give respect first. We have to learn it because life doesn’t work for us until we do because we can’t function without respect. A woman who understands men half as much as she thinks does understand and agrees with this 100%.

Paul commanded men to love their women, but for women to respect their men, all because that was how God designed men. So, helping a man means respecting him until he’s respectable. Everyone, man or woman, who presumes to know “all” the needs a person has does not respect that person.

Respect begins with the heart-level belief that no one can fully understand another person. Anyone so capable of being fully understood by another human, even after a thousand years, is not worthy of respect, and certainly not worthy of relationship. Whether you are a man or woman, if you want a relationship without strife, stay away from any relationship until you understand this deeply and the person in the relationship does also.

Too many women live in misery because they thought they could change their husband or that there were things she could accept if he didn’t change himself. Thirty minutes at a bookstore could have taught her otherwise. Thirty minutes at a bookstore could have taught her husband that they weren’t ready yet for a relationship. Strife develops among people who believe that they don’t need to learn from others first, who do not seek to begin by learning the easy, obvious advice already widely available.

Respectable people, however, are teachable and expect their friends to be the same. Men need to be ready to work, to take out the garbage every day and buy flowers and diamonds on holidays, not the other way around. Women need to look for men who don’t need to be told that.

225 – Higher Appeal

When life gives you a hard time, appeal higher. On the school playground, kindly obey. Make the rude teacher’s day better by making the principal proud.

By preparing your appeal to higher authorities, you free your mental energies to act with charity toward those closer to you. Live to serve the king and forget the offenses of your immediate supervisors. Even an ill mannered cop is easier to deal with if you imagine yourself on TV “out-kinding” him. You might already be on camera anyway and if you either act super-kindly or super-unruly, you might end up on TV anyway. So, smile for the crowd and forget the foe in front of you. Besides, with a wider lens and sugar with a cherry on top, your foe could become your friend anyway.

The higher appeal will serve you well in the long run. A landlord, employer, magistrate, sheriff, trade partner, and anyone with powers to dangle over your head may try twisting your arm and lord their strength over you. It’s sad, but normal. Don’t get bent out of shape about it. And, if you play the long game—the end game—you may court friends and authorities much more powerful than they could contend with. But, you only find those higher appeals through wider and longer lenses.

One of the highest appeals is to public opinion. No organization’s or nation’s president is ever bigger than the organization or nation. The people at large are always the highest appeal to make.

Then, there is the supreme appeal to God. But, in a sense, God Himself appeals to the people. He does not impose His good rules on us. It’s up to each of us to welcome Him. Even God appeals to the public, on some level. But, His appeal to the public is so strong and convincing, whenever we find a good idea, we celebrate it. Sometimes we even give God credit for good ideas, even though they all belong to Him.

So, make the higher appeal to God by appealing to the public how He does. Don’t ask the public to teach you right from wrong; appeal to the public. There is a difference.

224 – Leading as Followers of Jesus

You cannot lead others until you first lead yourself. And, you cannot lead yourself until you first understand who leads you. And, you cannot understand any leadership until you understand the Leader of All Things.

You may believe in God, but you will encounter other people who have not figured out Who leads the created universe. All ideas about leadership—all problem-solving, heart-to-heart talks must begin with exploring this question: Where does leadership begin?

The order must be proper. Moving on to later questions of leadership are pointless and you do your friends no service to address the advanced questions of leadership without finishing the basics. The only successful leader must be a godly leader, otherwise his leadership will have severe limits.

Look at leaders who have not thoroughly answered questions about God and you will see corresponding shortcomings in their leadership results. Always look at leadership from the perspective of godliness, whether in your own growth or in those you work with. The mid-to-high level leadership tactics are generally godless children attempting a rebellion. But the higher, “expert” methods of leadership always pursue questions and answers about godliness.

Christians from the Sunday morning culture are often anemic where leadership is concerned, unless they have significantly augmented their Christianity with Bible study and mentoring that Sunday morning has no control over. Christians who have known a “least common denominator” Bible teaching devoid of the basics have not had the opportunity to grow into advanced levels of the Bible’s teaching. Basic Christianity understands that leadership begins with godliness, but eventually we learn more about godliness from the advanced methods of “soft power” that Jesus taught.

Whatever your challenge is in leadership, first remember that it is a challenge in “godliness” and second meditate on how Jesus’s ingenious leadership methods out-smarted King Herod and even overthrew Roman Caesars, centuries after his death.

The depth and brilliance of Jesus’s leadership is inexhaustible. Focus your research there. As you study history to learn its repetition, always go back and see Jesus working with leadership principles in ways even more masterful than the greatest Machiavellians could comprehend. Search themes of “servant leadership” and “overdone-submission”—leadership principles inseparably intertwined with godliness.

223 – Levels of Sins

There are no different levels of sin. People throughout society frequently bring up questions about specific sins, “What about this sin?” or, “What about people living this lifestyle who say they love God?” The Cross of Jesus Christ redeems us from all sin. It does not condemn us for sin. It does not pick and choose its favorite sins like we tend to. The Cross delivers us from all sin.

The presumption of the Biblical-moral worldview where sin is concerned is “equal need for redemption”. Whether something is or is not sinful or immoral, the Bible’s final message is not that we are condemned, but forgivable. Immorality is presumed to be self-condemning.

Fleeting passions and dishonesty do not quench the soul’s thirst for fulfillment. They are ungratifying—all of them equally. To even consider certain sins as being above or below, more or less severe, than other other sins is a sin itself since it falls short of the Bible’s view that the Cross offers us redemption from things that harm us and leave us empty and dry.

People who live in continued immorality or dishonesty, yet say they love God, actually and only love their misunderstanding of God. To some extent, they have contrived their own moral code and invented their own version of a god who prefers that moral code.

Whatever we need delivered from is not our choice. Few people choose their addictions in advance. Both morals and help to obey them must both come from above. If we determine our own morals, then we are our own greatest power to fulfill them. But, when we bend the knee to an all-powerful God Most High—Who alone can determine a moral code—then we can walk in a power greater than ourselves.

We can only come to God on God’s terms. You life will skyrocket when you let God determine your morals and help you back on your feet when you fail to measure up. Someone who persists in any sin, dishonesty or immorality, yet claims to love God, may very well love God, but still has room to love God much, much more. By definition, that includes every one of us.

221 – Constant Prayer

Prayer is meant to have a constant presence with every human. Your body is the wick, prayer is the flame, and the oil comes from good, daily deeds, Bible study, and responsible choices. The flame may grow more and less intense, but it should never go our. Your spirit should be in a constant state of prayer—even while you sleep if possible. Even in your dreams, you should maintain an awareness that God is near with His love as you love Him back.

When prayer is a constant thing, it will form a kind of “cloud” around you. Circumstances that would normally harm others won’t harm you. Doors will open up which everyone else thought to be impenetrable walls. The quiet “nudging” from the Lord will hint at which roads you should take, often times avoiding disaster or delay that you may learn you avoided. You may even have small thoughts leading to your own discover of home cures for small illnesses, if for no other reason than for God to verify that you hear Him somewhat accurately. This “cloud” doesn’t make you ignorant of the world, it allows you to go everywhere in the world without the normal harms.

A life of prayer will also lead you into higher waters and deeper hardships, but it will be with you through it as you grow to understand the hardship of others—hardship one half of society might never understand about the other half. But, you will understand that hardship because your prayer cloud led you into the hardship that taught you.

Many governments across the world have unfair laws that cannot even be obeyed by their own people. These governments feel sad for not being able to govern effectively. Even mid-ranking Nazis often turned a blind eye to Jews and American soldiers. Remember America’s underground railroad. Prayer will also navigate you through those times, without fear, without giving up on all legal compliance, and without facing trouble.

Learning to navigate from inside your cloud of prayer is a skill. You make mistakes, but keep going and learn how the trust, work, and His direction all work in concert. Constant prayer supplies wings to soar.

219 – Rules Aren’t for Their Own Sake

Rules enforced without injury are just an excuse to boss other people around. God made rules for justice and justice is not moot. Rules were made to govern people, to help us all enjoy better lives. Once rules impede on a better life without bringing much more and better vibrancy, those rules become unjust.

Legally, courts often require “standing” in order to press charges. A “concerned citizen” can be a witness as a “bystander”, but only if there is a victim with a measurable “injury”. This is an argument against enforcing “J-walking” when no traffic is present, but that opens a long debate on whether any civil law, including traffic laws, should be enforced unless a crime has been committed against a specific person. But, in God’s sense of justice, J-walking is only “wrong” if it interferes with traffic because true justice is only, always, ever about doing what is right by other people.

Enforcing rules that don’t affect you—putting yourself as the self-appointed cop over people who aren’t bothering you—to stop others from doing something that isn’t hurting anybody isn’t “justice”; it’s “bossing”. Even if someone might be committing a crime, inform the police and let them handle it; don’t pursue and don’t try to enforce. As a witness to a murder, you might keep a loose tail to help police track the killer, but not always—and only if you know what you’re doing.

Witnessing a crime doesn’t deputize anyone. Sadly, many people anoint themselves judge, jury, and executioner. That is no life to live. Never let yourself be the busy-body sticking his nose where it don’t belong.

God gets a bad wrap when “morals” are misrepresented as an excuse for busy-bodies to meddle in other people’s lives. Busy-bodies only boss others because they want a distraction from their own lack of good results.

Justice begins with minding one’s own life, by prospering at home and in one’s own business, then involving others to bless and protect them. Give your justice to the world by being just and fair to your own priorities—by completing your goals as an inspiration to others. And, if you encounter a busy-body, say as much.