Graves' This and That

With the opening of Pandora's Box, what are we to do?  Stand and look at the box of evil and its contents being spilled out like a calf looking at a new gate totally shocked and offended?  How offended are we?  Or how apathetic do we choose to be thinking this is bad, surely this is not going to get worse so I will just sit and wait.  Our walls of spiritual sensitivity have begun to grumble because we think shoring up the walls with complaints will strengthen them.  What offensive action are we willing to undertake?  Or do we just give a new sheet of music to the present day NEROS and encourage them to fiddle on?  What in the world do we do with songs like ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS MARCHING AS TO WAR? Surely we are not foolish enough to think that any election of a man or a woman is going to change the appetites of lust, greed, murder, and abuses of one another!   My suggested strategy is the same as the strategy Paul commanded in Ephesians...

One of the popular praise songs is about one who is crying out to God about the injustices that are going on in our world today, and the question of the crier, is, "God, why don't you do something?"  To which God replies, "I did.  I created you!"   Pandora's Box of evil and ilk continues to be opened and I understand that we may not know specifically at this very moment as to the strategies that we may need to execute but I do KNOW: 1. We have a powerful weapon in our spiritual armor, PRAYER.   2. That James 5 says that the prayers of a righteous man are effectual.  3. In James 4, he also says that we have not because we ask not or ask with wrong motives. 4. II Chronicles 7:14 admonishes us, who are called by His name, to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our own personal wickedness and the wickedness of our nation.  God's response to our willingness to obey...then will He hear from heaven and will forgive our sin and heal our land...

I just finished slogging through the reign of King Solomon.  What blessings he had on his life, and how he squandered those blessings because he forgot his own words from Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Solomon was a renown king of  knowledge, his wisdom, his riches, his writings, and it seems that every project that he undertook was accomplished.  What a man for his era.  He was definitely blessed of the Lord.  Interestingly enough, he was warned by the L ORD , "B ut if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the co m mands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my NAME." I Kings 9:16  He heard, he knew, and I assume that he arrogantly thought as we all have, it may happen to you, but it will never happen to me!  Good ole self-decept...

John 9 is the story and the testimony of the man who was healed of his blindness from birth.  Sadly, it is also the story of the blindness of religious people.  The Pharisees were all in a dither about Jesus healing a blind man on the Sabbath.  Their statement is more illuminating about their blindness, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."   What are some of our blind spots?  That sin is what another does, but NOT what I do.  That sin has a value, a ranking from worst to bad or small infraction of the rules.  That my doing enough good works will outweigh any bad that I have done.  That God is ready to hammer me with His golden hammer of justice.  That God loves her more since He has answered her prayer.  That I am a chess board pawn and that God moves me about just because He can.  That sin is about what I do and not who I am.  This is simply a short list of blind spots, self-deceptions that I ca...

Chapter 7 of John closes with each person went to his own home, BUT Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.  I was reminded that Jesus said that He had no place to lay His head.  I wondered about the Mount of Olives and its significance to the LOR D? Mount of Olives was east and about one mile from Jerusalem.  It is to be the location when the LORD physically returns that He will set His holy feet.  It was about 200 feet above the Kidron Valley and it was elevated enough that looking back, Jesus could view the city of Jerusalem with its hustle and bustle of city life. The Mount of Olives was probably one of Jesus favorite solace locations.  Reading through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and now John, the attention is brought to the hostility, the jealousy, and the murderous intentions of the religious teachers and Pharisees who shadowed Jesus.  The question again comes to my wondering heart, how does the GODMAN not sin and refuse to take all of the abuse...

In my readings about Jesus, I always see Him as God's Son.  I do forget, that on Earth, He was GodMan.  Reading John 7 this morning, the phrase, "For not even His brothers believed in Him."  He well understood what rejection felt like, specifically rejection and misunderstanding from His own family.  Very painful, but an interesting reminder that a family can be a source of great rejection, misunderstanding, and criticism. Family was not His only source of rejection as I read of the religious and even some of His own disciples left Him.  Isaiah 53 records that "He was despised and rejected by men." Perhaps I am too idealistic, but it does seem that family should be the source of encouragement, nurturing, and accepting of one another's abilities, personality quirks, intellect, and achievements. There are many families that are just that.  I wonder? Why choose to compete, compare, criticize, try to control, or simply be apathetic or antagonistic toward fami...

As I read John 4 today, I have had a tendency to see the over riding truth to be about the miracle of the lame man being healed and the confrontation of the religious leaders against Jesus.   As I read further, I came to verses 31-32.  "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid.  There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that His testimony about me is valid."  I thought of my mindset which often defaults to all of the failures and the "shoulda, woulda, and couldas" of my invalid mindset.  Many times in speaking and in thinking, my defaulted mindset has become higher in esteem in practice than the validity of the Word of God and who I am in the Lord Jesus experiencing His spiritual blessings.  2 Corinthians 10 calls them strongholds, still sin, but He has given me the authority to pull them down in His name.  A WORK of the Spirit constantly in process and progress.  Psalm 138:2 reminds me that He will exalt His Name a...

As I opened my Twitter account, my eyes and heart were drawn toward a picture of an Iraqi woman holding a child with numerous children in the background.  The caption read that she was 30 years old with 3 children.  She had been taken captive by Issis and that she was raped as many times as 9 times a night...to be "religious", the statement was, "married and divorced" by men.  I immediately felt revulsion, her pain, her anger, and her hopelessness.  I do not know if she was a Christian, however it was stated that she had a cross tattoo on her arm.  WE must rally to pray! I WONDER? As a Christ follower, what are we going to do?  A quote was also on the feed later, "You can't make footprints on the sands of time by sitting on your butts..and who wants buttprints?" Inspire_Us.  The greatest weapon we have as Christ followers is prayer.  It is the most direct, the most powerful, and the most loving action we can do until The LORD orders our next ste...