“When religion becomes nothing more than a bunch of rules it makes God want to puke.”~janitor

There seems to be a lot of confusion amongst the religions of the world.  As best I understand it, God is not a god of confusion.  There are other gods of confusion, but there is only one true God with a capital "G" and He is not confused nor does He create confusion.  These comments on confusion are not directed at a specific religion.  They are pointed at any religion you choose.  The confusion exists in all.

It seems to me the confusion starts in the heart of man and plays out amongst the heart of God's people.  Within the heart of natural man is a built-in desire for self worth, power and influence.  It is difficult to naturally remove one's focus on self and place the focus on Jesus.  The process requires direct intervention by Jesus and a willingness for man to submit to the authority of God. This process of submission is required of God regardless of the "position or rank" one holds in the local church. 

Considering submission is required of all, it would seem given that men of the cloth would naturally be submissive to the Father.  Sadly, it doesn't happen like that.  Some do.  Some don't.  Some have submitted at one time, only to allow pride and desire for power, prestige, self worth or whatever to begin controlling of their life once again.  The submission to Christ's authority in one's life is a daily task.

A sure sign of a submission problem amongst God's people is when a person elevates themselves above another and speaks for God.  Some things said that might be a warning sign for you will go like this…. 

• "I need you to do this for God." 
• "In Jesus name, I believe this is what you need to do."
• "God forgives you and so do I."
• "God will never do this or that."
• "God told me you should do this or that."
• "If you don't do this you are being disobedient to God."
• "God says to care for the poor.  You need to go to Timbuktoo."
• "You need to grow in the spirit.  Let me show you how to perform miracles."
• "Here eat this bread and drink this cup.  It will wash away your sins."
• "You need to give at least 10% of your income to be a church member in good standing"
• "If you give, you are guaranteed 100 times more in return."

The list goes on.  When religion becomes nothing more than a bunch of rules it makes God want to puke.  The creation of rules is a natural process of man taking control from God in an attempt to gain power, money and control over God's people.

Anytime, anyone tells you what God will or will not do or allow to happen, you should have warning bells go off in your head.  The person may be right, but the person is setting themselves up for failure when they attempt to speak for God.  I don't think anyone has the ability to dictate the terms of God's activity.  We are much too limited in wisdom, knowledge and understanding to be successful at predicting the actions of God.  There is but one truth.  It is the Word of God.  

If you find yourself in a religion with elevated people controlling your life, you need to run away from it and them as far as you can go.  Run straight to Jesus.  He has His arms open wide.  In Jesus, you will find a place of love and forgiveness.  You will enjoy the life God intended.

Oh and did I mention, we are all Priests? It seems to me, a priest answers to Jesus….  When Jesus served the people he did not elevate himself.  He positioned Himself at the people's level.  The Word says it this way…

"It happened in these days, that he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God. When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he also named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot; Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor. He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and they were being healed. All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all."~Dr. Luke

Even as the Son of God, Jesus did not elevate Himself over the people. He came down to a level place. 

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Whataburger has FREE giveaway celebrating 12 days of Christmas and I have a “throw-down”!

A week or so back, I picked up 4 message versions of the new testament Bible.  I call them my "throw-downs".  The name comes from the term used to describe a gun being discarded intentionally or at least I think that is what it means.

I went to Whataburger and got my FREE french fries for lunch.  Pretty cool. I paid $1.62 for a full meal.  As I was leaving, I saw a guy I thought might could use some encouragement, so I went out to my car and picked up my "throw-down".  I went back inside and extended my hand.  I said, "Hi.  I'm Archie.  I have a gift for you.  Merry Christmas."  He smiled and said, "Thank you."  I went to my car and went back to work.  It felt good.

Inside the cover of each Bible is a page number reference to John 3:16.  This tells of the FREE gift of Christ.  I also have my blog address.  I'm hoping sometime a gift recipient will comment about the FREE gift.  Who can tell?

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Anyone following the International House of Prayer? What do you think?

Surf here:
http://cmp.ihop.tv/gp.php?pid=kbAHZyJpDuCqRQIn03YsAmdAZE2b93_E

You can read about the movement here:

 http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000060205

Peace..

“Battle of the Ants” Don’t miss this episode.~janitor

I was walking the church property, yesterday.  I came upon a big mound of dirt, looking much like an ant hill but no ants. I kicked the top off and you guessed it. I don’t know how many ants, but thousands anyway.  They all began frantically scurrying around, trying to figure out what to do.  Some were carting off eggs, others were carting off dirt and some were trying to get up my pant leg.  They are very focused and determined on their objectives.  I went to get the poison… Sorry PETA, but not really.

I dumped poison on the mound and the ants.  Oddly the ants turned on each other and began fighting to the death.  The enemy was the poison, but they chose to kill each other.  It speaks oddly of us as humans.  We build our homes and satan through life kicks the top off.  Rather than do battle with the one doing the kicking, we do battle with each other.  Why is that?  Why not seek God and let Him take care of the evil that is attempting to destroy?

The battle scene is described many times in the Bible.  The Jews would faithfully show up for battle and God had already turned the enemy against itself.  I think the “Battle of the Ants” is a great reminder to seek God and let Him do the battle.  He has everything He needs for victory and is pleased we you ask Him for help.

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Focus of my Delight

If it were God's desire to gather a body of believers together in the form of a local church, where might God have the focus?  It might be good to focus on the poor.  God tells us to care for those less fortunate.  It might be good to focus on the widowed, they also are less fortunate.  It might be good to focus on deep Bible study.  God wants us to gain wisdom,  It might be good to focus on prayer.  God tells us to pray.  There are an unlimited number of good causes to focus on.  But where does God want us to focus?

"While he(Peter) was going on like this, babbling, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: "This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him." ~Jesus

The cool thing about a focus on Jesus is that obedience in all the other activities become a natural result.  Focus on Jesus and you will feed the poor, help the widows, read His Word, pray and more! 

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You’re outta here!

"Knowing the correct password—saying 'Master, Master,' for instance— isn't going to get you anywhere with me. 

What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. 

I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'" ~Jesus

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How do I focus on Jesus?

I asked this question on Facebook.  The thoughtfulness and depth of answers is wonderful.  Want to share with my blog readers.  Maybe you will choose to help in my search for understanding…

Archie Rhines I have a question. It is important to me. Maybe you can help. Maybe not. Here goes… What does it mean to "Focus on Jesus"? How will I know if I have succeeded?

Jennifer Rutledge

Focus On Jesus — living in His Truth each and every moment and knowing that He is the way to success in the first place. Doing what God says, even in the difficult choices, is how you can feel a measurement of that success, I would think.

Kimberly Guerra Mauldin

PRAYER. i'm pretty simple, and i'm sure there is some great theological answer out there, but for me it is simply keeping Him in the center (sometimes not so easily done for me), how do i measure success, honestly i dont think of it as "am i successful" i just look at where i was, where i am and where i am going, and know that He is working miracles, so i must be doing something right.

Ana Graves

I don't know if we ever succeed at this, until heaven, of course. I was thinking about something similar to "focus on Jesus" last night. I read a part of Psalm 119 that talked about pondering the statutes of God…I thought, what does that look like? I'm so easily distracted from his purposes, from him. The distractions of the world tend to make my eyes towards other things. So, to "focus on Jesus," as I read the Psalms, I'm learning to ask him to help me focus on him and his purposes and his statutes. The more I ask, the more I tend to be looking his way and not towards other things. Interesting question to ponder…

Archie Rhines

I will go back and think on your responses throughout the day. I'm open to more insight from friends….
So far… Truth, Prayer, Ask and Ponder encourages a focus on Jesus. 
I'm Truthfully Asking in Prayer as I Ponder on what it means to focus on Jesus.
Thank you!

David L Mauldin

ill know success when i get to heaven. focus on jesus is hard sometimes self will and all. if living in salvation was easy the bible would be two pages it would say you are saved now go live your life any way you want. the end. keeping god the head of your house and life and decisons is focus for me

Darla Carter

I think Jesus will be truly the focus and in focus when we see Him in the others around us and treat the others around us as if they were Him. I think that would be the ultimate test on if we are loving the Lord our God w/ all our Heart and soul and mind and strength and loving our neighbor as ourself. Am I there and living it-no. Is it a worthy goal-yes. It would be extremely interesting to see all of us focused on Jesus in that manner–can you imaging the change that could occur. That was a very thought prevoking question for me to see-Thanks Archie

Archie Rhines

Great thoughts David and Darla. I think I'll repost on my blog. I am still trying to figure it out. FOCUS on Jesus. How do I do that? hmmm.

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Do your part.

"In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part." ~Matthew

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Simply, Pray…

I woke up yesterday with a simple word on my mind, pray.  That was all.  Just the word, pray.  

I said, "God.  For what shall I pray?" 

God said, "Pray."

So I prayed…

God says in His Word to keep your prayers simple.  Let your yes be yes and your no be no.  Pray something like this…

Our Father in heaven, 
Reveal who you are. 
Set the world right; 
Do what's best— as above, so below. 
Keep us alive with three square meals. 
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. 
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. 
You're in charge! 
You can do anything you want! 
You're ablaze in beauty! 
Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Do you ask and not receive?

Cora and I are with friends at a marriage treat.  I'm up early eating God's Word.  Here is his Word to you and I. If you are praying and not receiving, there is a reason why.  It's pretty simple.  God spells it out like this…

"And here's a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don't get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you've broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that's what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don't cheat on your spouse." ~through Malachi

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