Tag: needverse

136 – God the Only Perfect Father

Whatever sin a man has not dealt with in his life, he passes this on to his children at a basic level almost reaching DNA. Permanently and unable to be treated by psychotherapy—possibly personality disorders—these sins will forever persist through the entire lives of his children. The Bible calls this “sins of the fathers” and says they are “visited onto the sons to the third and fourth generation”.

Mothers do not pass on their unresolved sin issues this way, which is part of the counterintuitive strategy of God. Does it make a woman more or less powerful that she cannot injure her children this way? Jesus was sinless for this reason; he had no father, only a mother. So, he had no sin nature in his body, constantly fighting his will and tempting him to sin, even without devils bothering him.

Because of Jesus’s work on the Cross, these “sins of the fathers” can be removed, but only by “forgiving one’s father”. There is a time when everyone must come to grips with this truth: Your father messed up big time. He neglected his responsibilities as a father and as a human in general. You MUST forgive him—that means that you never expect him to apologize and you never seek any repayment or restitution from him at all. Whatever your father did to make your life hard, get the payback and punishment payment from Jesus.

Jesus will pay whatever you lost far more than your father could anyway.

It is that we not “excuse” or “try to understand” their difficulty. As we age we come to understand our parents more and more, but we must never “excuse” their mistakes. Parents are leaders and must have their lives in order before they get involved in romance. There is no excuse for them; parents must instead be forgiven.

“Forgiving” means waving all rights to collect on a debt owed, the opposite of “excusing”. Never confuse them. You won’t need to when you depend on God for whatever perfection we need from a parent. He has it. Accept not only God’s repayment, but also His perfection as a Father who will never let you down.

135 – Evaluate the Logic

If we really believe something is true, would we do what we are doing? It is okay to ask people that question when they accuse you of something absurd. Especially ask yourself this question.

Take the religious zealot who recruits people to his weekly meeting, yet seeks arguments everywhere he goes. Not many religious teach of a God who hates enemies; God’s Word’ God Who wants enemies to repent into a hopeful future. Does a truly religious man truly want to argue? Perhaps he doesn’t truly believe what he claims, one way or another. Perhaps that man is you.

Take the doctor whose patient tells him of home remedy, but that doctor doesn’t seriously think about starting a research article in a medical journal about the home remedy. Does that doctor truly want to heal people or just stick to practicing what he already knows? How about the lawyer addicted to narcotics, drives 30 over the speed limit on a regular basis, trades stock with inside tips, or hides money in offshore accounts to pay near zero tax—does he really seek “justice” in court?

Evaluate your own logic—both what you claim to believe and what you believe about others.

You don’t know why other people do what they do. Someone could seem to confront you, but is actually saving your life. The best policy is patience and to just, plain, simply not judge. You need to prove someone was NOT trying to save your life before you hold a grudge or even “forgive”.

If someone saved your life, that’s not “forgiveable”, that’s “thankable”. To forgive someone without first hearing their side is also a judgment against that other person, which Heaven regards an ongoing judgment against you until you repent of that idea and get your thoughts straight.

Perhaps someone was trying to save your life, merely by punching you in the face to teach you to make peace quicker than make enemies. It may have been the wrong way, but that person might truly care about you deep inside. Talk. Verify. Listen. Check the logic of whatever conclusion you draw. Make sure your opinion is not just some phantom in your mind.

134 – You Be You, Let Others Figure It Out

You can never please everyone, never. So, don’t try. Live an awesome life of love, excellence, fairness, compassion, happiness, patience, understanding, and kick your own butt. Whatever people like or don’t like, understand or can’t grasp, that’s all on them.

You are the Image of God. Every human is, but most humans don’t know it. This is something we each must be told, then we must accept. What exactly it means to be the Image of God—what all we are capable of and how we “should” act—is a deep question we will neither answer nor exhaust. The more questions you answer, the more questions you’ll have. The more you understand, the more you’ll tally how tiny your understanding floats in the ocean of all there is to explore.

So, when you encounter someone who has explored and learned what it means to be the Image of God, that person will naturally confound you, surprise you, irritate you, seem in need of your “fixing”, and do things that make no sense—to you. You’ll ask why, the answer will confound, surprise, and irritate you all the more. Expect this from people who know what they are doing and expect that you will seem the same way to others, the less incompetent you get.

Sunshine is healthy, killing bad things and creating vitamin D, but it will burn skin that lacks exposure. The sun would do no favor by not shining to avoid burning people. Don’t become foolish just so people can “understand” you. Stay steady and stay on target. The more stable and constant you are, the more people will anticipate what you do, the more they will understand you—all because your revamped worldview is spreading to the world around you.

There is great pressure to dumb down your standards and conduct—to stop living by financial smarts, shrewd stewardship, good chivalry, wise survival. People would rather you be dead—and them weeping at your funeral—than for you to not make instant sense.

Don’t give in.

Be charming. Use compassion. Elaborate when welcome. But, your life’s results are your best explanation. Living godly and strongly, even when misunderstood, is best for everyone.

133 – Formal Recruiting & Contentious Spirits

When you constantly feel that people are contending with you, and you can’t seem to “forgive” it, it could be that you are infested with a contentious spirit. It is a “thing” in the spirit realm that rests on people and makes them imagine that everyone is arguing with them so that they will hunger to argue back. This is especially common among groups that attend formal, regular religious gatherings; no matter the religion, the contentious spirit is the same and makes people behave this same, contentious way. It’s not a “religious” problem; it’s a “recruit people” formal structure problem.

Usually, recruiting religious structures recruit people because they are led by people with the same spirit, always hungering for more people to argue with. To mask this, the spirits make people feel homely among their group of other people with the same spirit, enabling them to think they are friendly when, actually, they are only friendly with their clique. Even among their own religion, they will tend to argue with other groups and people. If you have difficulty with arguments and you are part of a religious weekly meeting, this could likely be you.

I actually sat with a person from a religion different from my own and explained this. The whole time he shook his head, smiling, and said, “I don’t agree. We don’t argue like that.” It never occurred to him that he was being argumentative about being argumentative. But, I didn’t call him out on it because, frankly, I didn’t want to argue. I just said, “You’ve been told, do whatever you want with it.”

That urge to contend with someone will drive people to argue about things—whether to agree or disagree—in which they have neither say nor decision. The mere desire to have an opinion about someone else’s business is a flashing red light and loud buzzer warning that one has this problem. The reason a person wants to argue with things that don’t matter, which they have no vested interest in, is because the contentious spirit on them wants to argue with everyone.

Stay aware to notice “contentious spirits” and feel free to call people out on it.

132 – God the Potter

A potter works the clay, watering it, molding it, and shaping it as fast as it will be shaped. Clay has a will of its own, but it cannot shape itself.

Once the potter has shaped and re-shaped the clay beyond what the clay is capable of, the clay will quit, no longer able to hold any form. Once the clay quits, it must be reconstituted—first dried and ground into powder, then hydrated with water and prepared once again for the wheel.

God is the Great Potter who sits at the wheel of Earth, spinning us in His hands. It was no coincidence that the artistic poet, God the Potter, made Man from the dust of the ground. Just like clay, we have a will that wrestles with our Potter’s Hands. When we don’t sit how God wants, he tears us down. If we fight Him too much, He grinds us into powder before hydrating us with water.

All of God’s work with humanity—collectively just as much as with each individual—molds and shapes us into a beautiful masterpiece. We do become grand and glorious over time—not due to any effort of our own, but only our effort to cooperate with the guiding hands of our Potter.

As we grow, study, learn, sharpen, exercise, strengthen, mature, and improve ourselves, God’s guidance oversees everything. If God cares which continent we live on, we will be on the continent of His choosing. If God decides that He will make you fall in love with music, you will be forever smitten, but it’s up to you to practice and pursue excellence. The same holds for every career and skill.

Throughout the Bible, God shapes people through their circumstances. Consider Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Ruth, David, Daniel, Esther, Jesus’s disciples, and the Apostles.

When he became prime minister, Winston Churchill said that all his, “past life had been but a preparation for this hour…” He had indeed been prepared by God the Potter, just as you have been prepared—and are still being prepared—to become whatever vessel God wants you for. Your role is to cooperate with the Great Potter’s Hands while they do the shaping.

131 – Etiquette

When you first walk into the office, say hello before talking business. Never invite yourself, but you are expected to drop in unannounced where you are always invited. Even when you get home, announce that you’ve arrived. If you live alone, check in with friends often. Communicate. “Ping” your presence. If you’re not early, you’re late, but don’t knock before the meeting.

Inquire about meal plans when meeting within two hours of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. When inviting guests to a first-of-a-kind, tell them what you will be wearing so they can dress to the occasion. Even in the snow, take off your glove to shake hands. Nothing beats the gesture of going out of one’s way just to be friendly, even when it’s not necessary.

Always leave soon enough so people are hungry for more, it’s polite because it means you know your place. Don’t be too welcoming. Uninvited help is an insult except those rare moments when we can’t send an SOS. When taming a wild animal, let it walk all the way up to you to take food from your hand; if it’s a scavenger it will bite you anyway, if it’s a prairie dog or rabbit it probably won’t.

Always be kind and give respect, especially in the face of adversity. Do what it takes and then some. The older one should act like it, always act like you’re the older one. Don’t sweat the little stuff, it’s all little stuff. When traveling, be the first to wake, the last to sleep, and always help carry someone’s luggage. Leave everything better than you found it. Don’t mess with it if it’s not yours.

When you point your finger at someone, three point back at you. Good rules like this keep you on your toes in other areas. Learn them from older generations, especially people who have strong experience. Pieces of etiquette have roots in history and good ideas.

Don’t brush off wise traditions merely for seeming constraining or “unoriginal”. Write them down and keep training yourself. Read many more in the Book of Proverbs. Derive your own from the rest of the Bible as you read it daily. It’s called wisdom.

130 – Light Must Be Shared

Life can’t be hoarded, goodness must be shared. Spread your knowledge liberally with all who ask.

Evil tries to contain knowledge for power and so-called “ascension” into levels of life that God has made freely available to everyone. This is achieved by anyone merely through mediating on God’s Word’s words, understanding God as He describes Himself in God’s Word through the personalities of the writers, praying for requests and fellowship with God, and obeying God’s Word’s simple, useful commands for delayed gratification and self-control. Anyone can do this, so spread your knowledge freely.

The same applies to administration and leadership. Don’t hoard people, not even your family. Hold everything with an open hand. Professors lose free research labor when they allow a student to graduate with a PhD. Religious groups are notorious for leaders being territorial with their people, as are MLMs by definition of the LOS.

Whether hoarding knowledge or people, failure to share knowledge is a form of control. God is Light and He shines everywhere; it is up to each if us to respond to His light. But, hoarded light will kill you. If you want more of God’s light, you must pass on whatever light you have, otherwise God will put you in the shade, safe from His light, so you won’t get burned by hoarding. This is why so-called “leaders” and “mentors” who hoard knowledge and people hit a glass ceiling on what they can teach and achieve: They don’t pass on everything they know to all who seek. As with knowledge and people, share your money.

Give healthy tips—not too much, but better to be generous than stingy. Pay subscriptions for “premium” features, don’t only use a service that comes free of charge. You can’t pay for every single service you ever use, but if you pay for premium versions of the services you enjoy most, you will sow good chivalry that will come back around. When you pay for something, you respect it more.

Likewise, charge others for work, but share freely what you can give without cost. Pass on the light you have, encourage, drip teachings, then the Light will shine on you all the more.