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| Margie Faye York's homemade blackberry pie, made from her home-grown blackberries--the perfect dish to serve for a Financial Retreat! Steve and I just got back from four days at Pismo Beach where we hosted our Second Annual Ocheltree Family Financial Retreat. Those in attendance included Steve and myself. Since it is blackberry season and our friend, Margie Faye York, understands our passion for homemade blackberry pie, she sent one with us. It helped us think better. So did getting away to Pismo Beach for four days. We took time to analyze our spending, giving and saving over the past year, to set realistic budget expectations for the coming year and to set goals for charitable giving and for savings. We discussed college contributions. We made plans for investments and took time to discuss and analyze our energy consumption. We now have an appointment for a home energy consumption audit with Allbritten. Sun Run Solar should be calling this week to take measurements of our roof for solar panels. We looked at cell phone plans and the possibility of switching to a hybrid or electric car down the road. These are all things that may come up on an individual basis. But it was really important for us to take the time to look at those items as part of an entire personal family budget plan. I firmly believe that, when life starts pummeling you with demands for time, money, energy, creativity, wisdom, expertise, and more, the answer is not to let the busy-ness take over, but to stop, take a deep breath, and set aside some time for quiet reflection and planning. With thoughtful goals in mind, you can then re-enter the busy world with a framework on which to hang your decisions to get involved, contribute financially, make an investment, and so on. Your decisions will become part of a unified picture, not just seemingly disorganized snapshots shoved into a bureau drawer. And, it helps your thought process to eat homemade blackberry pie and fish and chips from Fin's and Spencer steak from Jocko's. "To lose focus means to lose energy. The absolutely wrong thing to attempt when we've lost focus is to rush struggling to pack it all back together again. Rushing is not the thing to do. Sitting and rocking is the thing to do. Patience, peace, and rocking renew ideas." --Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves |
Friday, May 30, 2014
Our Financial Retreat
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Judges Like David
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| David's back! |
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| David Lopez leads the Ocheltree Group in a great lesson and discussion
Thank you, David Lopez, for leading the Ocheltree Group the last two Sundays, as we participate in a church-wide study on "The Life of David". Last week, we studied the story of David and Goliath. Our teacher, David (Lopez) reminded us that our "giants" can start out small and grow into a proportion that is "bigger than life". This week, we studied the story of David's taking King Saul by surprise, of his having the opportunity to kill Saul, but choosing not to take justice into his own hands. The story, taken from 1 Samuel 23:15-24:22, has King Saul in a very compromised position when David and his men "happen" upon him. David is able to use his military stealth to sneak up upon his enemy and actually snip a piece of his garment, but he does not take the opportunity to kill Saul. By this point, Saul had been relentlessly hunting David, in order to kill him, through treacherous wilderness rocks and caves, for quite some time. Why did David spare the life of his enemy? Why did he leave that sort of judgment to God? David's own men were encouraging him to kill his enemy while he had the chance. They interpreted it as "divine permission" to kill when Saul stumbled into the cave where David and his men were in hiding.
"How do you deal with it when someone is whispering in your ear to do what goes against your heart?" David Lopez asked the group.
Pam Sholty, our resident author, responded, "David honored God's anointing of Saul."
Grace Pendleton hit on the power of encouragement: "Jonathan encouraged David beforehand, and those words were in David's mind."
Casey Sue observed, in a most masculine fashion, that he doesn't like it when other people tell him what to do. To which, David Jessie, our class clown, responded, "Could you cut it short there, Casey?"
David Lopez concluded with a personal challenge from the lives of both Davids, the one in the Bible and the one standing in our own midst:
Anyone who has talked to David Lopez for more than about five minutes knows that he is utterly smitten with his grandbaby, Delilah, or Lala. She and her mommy have been living with David and Kimi for some months now, and it has brought untold joy to David's heart. But, as happens in families, Baby Lala and her mommy have found a new place to live and will be moving soon. David is heartbroken, but knows this is how life is lived. Kimi, David's wife, says she truly thinks that grandbaby Lala is "in love" with her grandpa. But, David, being a man after God's own heart, like his namesake in the Bible, has inquired of the Lord, as to what he can learn from this heartache. And, in two words, it is: "unconditional love".
David admitted that his wife Kimi has observed him "withholding love" from others in the past when things didn't go his way. But his love for his granddaughter has transcended those conditions, and taught him how to love in spite of pain. And, he wondered aloud, could we practice that kind of unconditional love with God? Could we love God just as affectionately when we are disappointed or hurt or bewildered by His actions, as we do when we are happy and comfortable with His actions? Could we move toward becoming men and women "after God's own heart", like David was? Could that unconditional love for God be the secret to our not taking judgment into our own hands, but leaving judgment to God when we are hurt by others?
Thanks for making us think, David! David Lopez takes his teaching "on the road" to Arthur Wint's Shepherding Group next Sunday. We were very blessed to have him in our midst for two weeks!
--Posted by Mama O.
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Monday, May 12, 2014
Nashville.SundayAssembly.com
Steve and I watched Morgan Spurlock's "Inside Man" episode with fascination last night as he explored the reasons people would be attracted to a weekly gathering of atheists in Nashville, Tenn., the "buckle of the Bible Belt". SundayAssembly began in November as an off-shoot of a similar gathering in London, England, and has already outgrown its weekly meeting space, moving to two sessions.
Cofounder Sanderson Jones calls SundayAssembly "all the best bits of church, but with no religion and awesome pop songs (such as Bon Jovi's "It's My Life")."
The format for the gathering on Sundays is borrowed from mega-churches, where parishioners clap, sway and get emotional to songs before a motivational speaker stands up and shares a message. Midweek offers opportunities for small groups to meet in homes and share on a more personal level and for the pop band to practice its music.
"It's not about whether you believe or whether you don't believe," Sanderson Jones, says, "it's just about celebrating life in some community without labels. We've got this awesome motto: Live better, help often, wonder more. People seem to dig that."
According to journalist Morgan Spurlock, an agnostic himself, who served as a guest motivational speaker at SundayAssembly, "One in five people in the U.S. declare themselves as being unaffiliated (religiously), and with the under-30 crowd it's one in three people."
Spurlock asks the question, "What's driving people to be unaffiliated with organized religion?"
Spurlock says that SundayAssembly is creating "a welcoming environment where people can enjoy one another, enjoy community and what the church has created, but in a way where they don't have a lot of dogma or doctrine."
Spurlock and Sanderson both acknowledged the fundamental need of human beings to connect with one another. Heidi Hall, a journalist with The Tennessean, asked if atheism can "be isolating."
Indeed, it can, Sanderson acknowledged. SundayAssembly gives like-minded people the opportunity to gather, share, and, as Spurlock said, "make people feel safe."
I'm just listening to the conversation. There are a lot of wise and true observations here.
--Posted by Mama O.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Happy Mothers' Day
Mothers' Day is one of many occasions that offer us a chance to gather with multiple generations of family. If we are completely honest, there are positive and negative aspects to these occasions. The laughter, measuring the growth of youngsters, celebrating accomplishments and sharing favorite family foods are all tremendous. But, as most of us know and have experienced, from seemingly out of nowhere, can come a comment, a look, a memory, that triggers an unwanted and unwelcome emotional response. In the world of psychology or recovery from addiction, these events are called "triggers". Those recovering from addiction have to be particularly conscious of "emotional triggers" because "triggers" are at the top of the slippery slope that ends in substance abuse or other destructive forms of behavior.
So, is there a solution for dealing with these "emotional triggers" at family gatherings? Is there a way of gaining mastery over these age-old feelings of worthlessness or despair or anxiety or anger or disappointment or fear that are triggered in a look or a comment from another family member? Is there a way of stopping the unwanted words (or lack of words) that we speak after we have been triggered or of taking action (or inaction) that we later regret?
Good News! In a word the solution is FORGIVENESS.
I include a few paragraphs here from an excellent book I have been reading called The Magic of Forgiveness by Tian Dayton, Ph.D.:
"People who have deep, unresolved pain from their own childhoods carry that pain into their parenting and partnering. Along with it may be a need to hide their fears of feeling vulnerable or needy, or of being 'found out,' so they put on a false face, drive their fears downward and play them out in dysfunctional ways with their own children and spouses. The emotions we deny have even more power because they make those close to us feel crazy. They sense one thing, and we tell them something else. What comes out of our mouths doesn't match up with what they pick up on at a more intuitive level. Sometimes, our loved ones try to make sense of this split by discounting their own reality and joining in adopting a facade.
"Or maybe parents need to be needed a little too much. Since they haven't really self-defined themselves vis-a-vis their parents (that is, they live physical y apart, but emotionally they haven't' left home), they may have trouble fostering healthy autonomy in their own kids or allowing their partners to have a separate identity. The hot-and-cold emotional patterns from their childhoods can get lived out in their relationships with their own family members. They may connect, but not easily; or maintain rigid control to keep the chaos that they carry in their childhood hearts from erupting into their own homes. When the intimacy of partnership and parenthood makes their childhood feelings of sadness and loss vibrate beneath the thin membrane that separates their child from their adult selves, they may not know how to balance their emotions. They may withdraw, smother, explode, or all of the above. When parents don't make it a priority to resolve wounds from their own pasts so that they don't impact their ability to partner and parent well, they will inevitably seed their wound into the next generation, in one form or another. Closeness requires a secure sense of self. If significant pieces of our emotional world lie buried in silence, those zones of numbness will keep us from connecting fully with our partners and our children. Intimacy also offers us one of the most available passages toward personal and spiritual growth, if, when we get triggered, we're willing to back up and use our emotions as indicators of where our work might lie.
"So forgiveness can be explored as a way of staying connected in a manner that is ultimately self-preserving. Though we may feel like we're giving up a piece of ourselves--say our resentment, our wish for retribution or our anger--we may actually be preserving some more useful and valuable parts of self. Peace of mind, for one, or feeling good about ourselves as human beings. We give up the moral high ground that we feel we gain when we hold onto the anger we may feel toward someone we're constantly cutting down to size in our minds and, to our utter amazement, we're on a whole different kind of high ground. We gain solidity within our center. We no longer constantly feel torn up inside. Instead, we have a center that holds. We have, paradoxically, found a way to gain emotional space--through letting go.
"Forgiveness enables feelings to emerge to the surface and be felt and understood for what they are, rather than to be buried and emerge in countless toxic forms. It provides a way out of the many little sins that we all commit daily, within the privacy of our own hearts, so that we can work with rather than deny them.
"Forgiveness is an organizing principle that has the ability to transform the painful events of our lives into our own spiritual growth. The key words here are 'our own.' We have no control over people. We may wish we did, but it's a fantasy, really. People will do what they will do; they will live on their own schedule, not ours. But we do have control over our own choice to grow. In ways we hardly realize, the time we put toward growth affects our inner life, which becomes our outer life. We become more mindful, gain more mastery over our inner world, get in touch with our bodies, learn self-discipline and more about what makes us tick.
"One of the ways to beat the system, if you've been hurt, is to consider forgiveness as an option, not just to let the other guy off the hook, but to do right by our own selves. To free us from the endless repetition of the painful dynamics that inevitably entwine themselves around so many aspects of our lives when we can't process, metabolize and move on.
"But the truth is that if we can't in some way forgive and move on, the revenge we seek is enacted on our own lives. We doom ourselves to repeat the painful circumstances we've experienced in ways that only debilitate our happiness. The daughter with the cold, critical father who falls in love again and again with men who can't love her back or the girl who was distanced by the mother she wished to be close to and today either distances or smothers (two sides of the same coin) her own daughter, are people who could not find their way out of a painful past dynamic and move on. They are still reenacting the things that hurt them most in some form or another.
"Forgiveness offers us a way off the wheel of karma, out of a cycle of pain. Christ, on the cross, made this his last order of business. 'Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.'"
(Excerpts from The Magic of Forgiveness: Emotional Freedom and Transformation at Midlife by Tian Dayton, Ph.D., pp. 168-181, copyright 2003, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, Florida)
--Posted by Mama O.
So, is there a solution for dealing with these "emotional triggers" at family gatherings? Is there a way of gaining mastery over these age-old feelings of worthlessness or despair or anxiety or anger or disappointment or fear that are triggered in a look or a comment from another family member? Is there a way of stopping the unwanted words (or lack of words) that we speak after we have been triggered or of taking action (or inaction) that we later regret?
Good News! In a word the solution is FORGIVENESS.
I include a few paragraphs here from an excellent book I have been reading called The Magic of Forgiveness by Tian Dayton, Ph.D.:
"People who have deep, unresolved pain from their own childhoods carry that pain into their parenting and partnering. Along with it may be a need to hide their fears of feeling vulnerable or needy, or of being 'found out,' so they put on a false face, drive their fears downward and play them out in dysfunctional ways with their own children and spouses. The emotions we deny have even more power because they make those close to us feel crazy. They sense one thing, and we tell them something else. What comes out of our mouths doesn't match up with what they pick up on at a more intuitive level. Sometimes, our loved ones try to make sense of this split by discounting their own reality and joining in adopting a facade.
"Or maybe parents need to be needed a little too much. Since they haven't really self-defined themselves vis-a-vis their parents (that is, they live physical y apart, but emotionally they haven't' left home), they may have trouble fostering healthy autonomy in their own kids or allowing their partners to have a separate identity. The hot-and-cold emotional patterns from their childhoods can get lived out in their relationships with their own family members. They may connect, but not easily; or maintain rigid control to keep the chaos that they carry in their childhood hearts from erupting into their own homes. When the intimacy of partnership and parenthood makes their childhood feelings of sadness and loss vibrate beneath the thin membrane that separates their child from their adult selves, they may not know how to balance their emotions. They may withdraw, smother, explode, or all of the above. When parents don't make it a priority to resolve wounds from their own pasts so that they don't impact their ability to partner and parent well, they will inevitably seed their wound into the next generation, in one form or another. Closeness requires a secure sense of self. If significant pieces of our emotional world lie buried in silence, those zones of numbness will keep us from connecting fully with our partners and our children. Intimacy also offers us one of the most available passages toward personal and spiritual growth, if, when we get triggered, we're willing to back up and use our emotions as indicators of where our work might lie.
"So forgiveness can be explored as a way of staying connected in a manner that is ultimately self-preserving. Though we may feel like we're giving up a piece of ourselves--say our resentment, our wish for retribution or our anger--we may actually be preserving some more useful and valuable parts of self. Peace of mind, for one, or feeling good about ourselves as human beings. We give up the moral high ground that we feel we gain when we hold onto the anger we may feel toward someone we're constantly cutting down to size in our minds and, to our utter amazement, we're on a whole different kind of high ground. We gain solidity within our center. We no longer constantly feel torn up inside. Instead, we have a center that holds. We have, paradoxically, found a way to gain emotional space--through letting go.
"Forgiveness enables feelings to emerge to the surface and be felt and understood for what they are, rather than to be buried and emerge in countless toxic forms. It provides a way out of the many little sins that we all commit daily, within the privacy of our own hearts, so that we can work with rather than deny them.
"Forgiveness is an organizing principle that has the ability to transform the painful events of our lives into our own spiritual growth. The key words here are 'our own.' We have no control over people. We may wish we did, but it's a fantasy, really. People will do what they will do; they will live on their own schedule, not ours. But we do have control over our own choice to grow. In ways we hardly realize, the time we put toward growth affects our inner life, which becomes our outer life. We become more mindful, gain more mastery over our inner world, get in touch with our bodies, learn self-discipline and more about what makes us tick.
"One of the ways to beat the system, if you've been hurt, is to consider forgiveness as an option, not just to let the other guy off the hook, but to do right by our own selves. To free us from the endless repetition of the painful dynamics that inevitably entwine themselves around so many aspects of our lives when we can't process, metabolize and move on.
"But the truth is that if we can't in some way forgive and move on, the revenge we seek is enacted on our own lives. We doom ourselves to repeat the painful circumstances we've experienced in ways that only debilitate our happiness. The daughter with the cold, critical father who falls in love again and again with men who can't love her back or the girl who was distanced by the mother she wished to be close to and today either distances or smothers (two sides of the same coin) her own daughter, are people who could not find their way out of a painful past dynamic and move on. They are still reenacting the things that hurt them most in some form or another.
"Forgiveness offers us a way off the wheel of karma, out of a cycle of pain. Christ, on the cross, made this his last order of business. 'Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.'"
(Excerpts from The Magic of Forgiveness: Emotional Freedom and Transformation at Midlife by Tian Dayton, Ph.D., pp. 168-181, copyright 2003, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, Florida)
--Posted by Mama O.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Prayer Changes Things!
As I walked down the long hallway leading from the main parking lot to the fellowship hall on Wednesday afternoon, I looked straight at the sign that fills a little indentation in the wall:
PRAYER CHANGES THINGS!
It has been there for years, and I see it often. But, on Wednesday afternoon, it was talking to me. Besides having a very busy week, I had some deeper, more personal issues weighing on my emotions and spiritual health.
During dinner, I stopped to talk to Rachel Hamm. I shared my struggles and she shared hers. Then, she recommended, what do you know, prayer!
Those of us who attended the 2014 Womens' Retreat with Marci Bertalatto have been introduced to this very powerful form of spiritual warfare prayer, as have those who have attended training seminars with Kingdom Ministries in Fresno.
While this prayer is not a "formula" to make all things better, it does contain the essential elements of spiritual warfare, necessary for taking authority in the spiritual realm and placing matters in "kingdom order", under the authority of Christ, instead of allowing Satan to steal our power to choose the right attitudes and actions in life.
Steve and I prayed this prayer the following morning with profound results in my spirit. Where I had experienced turmoil, fear and anger the day before, I felt faith, hope and peace after praying this prayer. I share it with you here:
Declare verbally (aloud) and in faith:
In Jesus' Name, we (I) assert the resurrected victory and Lordship of Jesus Christ over (Name). Because he/she is made in the image of God, we (I) claim his/her mind, body and soul for Christ and the fulfillment of His purpose in his/her life. IF there is any activity or influence of the Evil One in his/her life, then in Jesus' Name, we (I) command them now to be silent, still, and go to the feet of Christ for judgment. We (I) cancel any plans intended to harm or hinder them and command that you remove all effects of blindness and deception so they're able to see the light and glory of Christ who is the image of God. We command all of your lies to come into the light and become subject to God's truth. Because God wills their freedom and desires that all people come to the knowledge of His truth, we command you to loose him/her so they may know, serve, and freely choose Christ and experience His love and freedom. In Jesus' name, we extend God's shadow of protection over him/her and their mind to shield them from all harm and every form of deception. Lord Jesus, we honor and worship you as Lord of all. Therefore we ask you Father to draw (Name) to yourself according to your desire, purpose and will. We claim the revelation of who you are and your truth to their mind, heart, and soul. May they recognize your love and presence; and listen to and respond to your voice. Protect them from the evil One and free them from the lies they've heard or believe. Surround them with your Presence, shield them with your power and command your angels to guard them in all their ways. We (I) surrender them to you and place them under your dominion and free them to do your will. Amen.
--Posted by Mama O.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Futility and Fear
What comes to mind when you hear the term "The Judgement of God"? Chances are you envision earthquakes or thunderstorms or wasting disease or drought. And those are dramatic manifestations of divine judgment.
But, is it possible to live under God's judgment on a day-to-day basis and not even know it?
I propose that it is, based on my reading of Psalm 78. This psalm retells the story of Israel's wanderings in the wilderness, of God's miracles and the Israelites' lack of faith.
The psalmist recalls the plagues God sent against the Egyptians, the dry path God created through the Red Sea, the manna God sent to feed the people in the desert, God's miraculous deliverance of the people from their enemies, and his choice of David as king over the people, among other stories.
Sadly, the people would accept God's deliverance or provision but quickly forget God's goodness and turn back to rebellious grumbling and complaining and outright idolatry.
"Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers" (v. 12)
"He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths." (v. 15)
"Yet He commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven." (v. 24,25)
"And He led them on safely, so that they did not fear; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies." (v. 53)
"He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them an inheritance by survey, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents." (v. 55)
"They did not keep the covenant of God; they refused to walk in His law, and forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them." (v. 10,11)
"But they sinned even more against Him, by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness. And they tested God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy." (v. 17,18)
"In spite of this they still sinned, and did not believe in His wondrous works." (v. 32)
"How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert!" (v. 40)
Two verses, in particular, stood out to me, among these stories.
"Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." (v. 41)
By complaining against God and refusing to believe, in spite of His wondrous works, these people limited God. God could change the course of nature, but God would not force anyone to love Him or believe in Him. Love and faith must come from within our own hearts. God has given us those attributes as equipment. We will need them to lead a rational life that acknowledges the reality of God. But, we must choose to use love and faith. God will not force us to use them.
"In spite of this they still sinned, and did not believe in His wondrous works. Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear." (v. 32,33)
It appears that living under God's judgment can go unnoticed and unrecognized by its recipients. Those living in unbelief can be vulnerable to all kinds of sales tactics that play on fear, rather than on confidence and faith. In other words:
"If you don't buy this product you might be: unpopular, poor, unattractive, lonely, victimized, unsafe, unable to perform sexually..."
And, those living in unbelief can live lives of futility, consumed with trying to be happy, fulfilled, content, wealthy, popular, attractive or successful. When we make any of those things our goal, they always stay just a little out of our reach. We always have to work a little harder, stay up a little later, be willing to sacrifice our standards to reach these goals....
The only goal that will bring lasting happiness, fulfillment, acceptance, provision and contentment is the pursuit of God and obedience to His Word.
Paul affirmed these truths to his student Timothy, centuries later, in 1 Timothy 6:6-12:
"Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare,and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (New King James Version)
--Posted by Mama O.
But, is it possible to live under God's judgment on a day-to-day basis and not even know it?
I propose that it is, based on my reading of Psalm 78. This psalm retells the story of Israel's wanderings in the wilderness, of God's miracles and the Israelites' lack of faith.
The psalmist recalls the plagues God sent against the Egyptians, the dry path God created through the Red Sea, the manna God sent to feed the people in the desert, God's miraculous deliverance of the people from their enemies, and his choice of David as king over the people, among other stories.
Sadly, the people would accept God's deliverance or provision but quickly forget God's goodness and turn back to rebellious grumbling and complaining and outright idolatry.
"Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers" (v. 12)
"He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths." (v. 15)
"Yet He commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven." (v. 24,25)
"And He led them on safely, so that they did not fear; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies." (v. 53)
"He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them an inheritance by survey, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents." (v. 55)
"They did not keep the covenant of God; they refused to walk in His law, and forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them." (v. 10,11)
"But they sinned even more against Him, by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness. And they tested God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy." (v. 17,18)
"In spite of this they still sinned, and did not believe in His wondrous works." (v. 32)
"How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert!" (v. 40)
Two verses, in particular, stood out to me, among these stories.
"Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." (v. 41)
By complaining against God and refusing to believe, in spite of His wondrous works, these people limited God. God could change the course of nature, but God would not force anyone to love Him or believe in Him. Love and faith must come from within our own hearts. God has given us those attributes as equipment. We will need them to lead a rational life that acknowledges the reality of God. But, we must choose to use love and faith. God will not force us to use them.
"In spite of this they still sinned, and did not believe in His wondrous works. Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear." (v. 32,33)
It appears that living under God's judgment can go unnoticed and unrecognized by its recipients. Those living in unbelief can be vulnerable to all kinds of sales tactics that play on fear, rather than on confidence and faith. In other words:
"If you don't buy this product you might be: unpopular, poor, unattractive, lonely, victimized, unsafe, unable to perform sexually..."
And, those living in unbelief can live lives of futility, consumed with trying to be happy, fulfilled, content, wealthy, popular, attractive or successful. When we make any of those things our goal, they always stay just a little out of our reach. We always have to work a little harder, stay up a little later, be willing to sacrifice our standards to reach these goals....
The only goal that will bring lasting happiness, fulfillment, acceptance, provision and contentment is the pursuit of God and obedience to His Word.
Paul affirmed these truths to his student Timothy, centuries later, in 1 Timothy 6:6-12:
"Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare,and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (New King James Version)
--Posted by Mama O.
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