Monthly Archives: March 2021

Awestruck By Lightning

A few years ago my comfortability with and satisfaction in the temporary things of life was awoken and shattered in an instant! What caused such a dramatic and involuntary response in me, you ask? Well, a terrifying lightning strike which felt and sounded as though it hit right outside my window as I lay still in bed! As strange as it may sound, this split second, morbidly frightening experience is something I have never forgotten. You see, this epic electric shock elicited a type of raw reaction from me that I’ve rarely experienced!

About a minute or so prior to said lightning strike I awoke from my slumber to the sounds of a not too shabby storm outside. My only interest in that sleepy, disoriented moment was to conk back out, but for some (and I’m assuming partly supernatural) reason I just couldn’t do it. So, BOOM! It happened. My body suddenly felt wracked with the impact to the earth and my abrupt startled demeanor. I was immediately and unexplainably soaked with sweat. And as though my spirit couldn’t help it, which was no doubt heightened by the Holy Spirit’s presence, it naturally, spontaneously leaped at acknowledging God in that moment! Before I could even think on my own!

As I continue, I want you to know that I absolutely believe this series of events, from the time I woke up, to the strike, to the resulting response, was purposely orchestrated by God.

My heart and mind rapidly went through several things in the next few moments. I lifted up words of praise to our Heavenly Father for His majesty, beauty, holiness, and might in the same way that the psalmists did when viewing nature! I thanked Him for His protection from the lightning and the storm through His directive power! I prayed for His further protection and favor through the rest of the storm as I knew only He could provide. I wondered to myself why I or anyone else would ever disobey Him, having such strength, wisdom, and understanding! Within that moment I made a simple renewal of obedience, faithfulness, and faith in Him! I also felt an immense sense of joy that I belong to Him, that He is my God and I am His son!

So, for the sake of a good title, this whole experience left me awestruck by lightning. But more accurately it left me awestruck by God, the creator & director of the lightning!

It just goes to show that the Lord Jesus reigns above everything with and in power that simply cannot be resisted!

The morning following this occurrence of electric proportions I came across these verses in Psalm 97 as I spent time with the Lord:

Psalm 97:4 – “His lightnings illumine the world; the earth sees and trembles.”

Assuming I don’t have to say anything here. God straight up planted this verse in my path, knowing of and speaking in response to my reaction toward Him and His lightning!

Psalm 97:6 – “The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory.”

The heavens absolutely spoke of His righteousness with this lightning strike and I so completely saw His glory!

Psalm 97:11-12 – “Light is sown for the righteous and strewn along their pathway, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.”

Both literally and spiritually God shone a light on my life that night!

Understand that the ones who are called righteous in these verses are simply those individuals who are upright and in right standing with God through the reconciliation provided by claiming Jesus’s shed blood. So we’re talking about all believers here!

The Amplified Bible describes the joy mentioned here as the irrepressible joy which comes from consciousness of His favor and protection. This is undoubtedly a major part of what I felt through it all! And I hope and pray this simple testimony elicits the same sort of reaction out of you.

More Than Conquerors!

“But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” ~ Romans 8:37

When my mind wanders to the truth in this verse that ANYONE who is a follower of Jesus is more than a conqueror in Him I can’t help but laugh victoriously! Because that is an awe-inspiring, overwhelming, and amazing concept! The implications of this being true are so outstanding that literally anything and everything is possible, and unstoppable by anyone aside from God, for a Christian!

How in the world do we miss this so often?! How in the world can we ever let fear overcome us and leave behind the impenetrable courage and confidence that comes with being made a son of God?! We are joint-heirs with Christ for crying out loud! We already know that He is ruling and in control of all things, so authority to victory is always His! And therefore it is always ours as well! How do we ever cower before an opportunity at impact or waver at the presence of a storm or trial, knowing this?

Now I know there are some pretty obvious answers to all the questions about ourselves I just posed, but I don’t really care. And I won’t address any of them or give any credibility to them because I think that’s half our problem: that we entertain all the reasons why fear, defeatism, and weakness are understandable or acceptable things. The devil is the only one that produces and wants us to follow those lines of thinking anyways. We don’t have any time or reason to think about those things, AT ALL! Remember, Jesus is unstoppable! He makes us unstoppable through His blood! Our purposes are much bigger and broader than we could ever realize or imagine once we grasp this truth in Christ!

Satan must think we’re pretty stupid for all the time we’ve spent either not understanding or forgetting these realities. And honestly I feel pretty stupid that it has absolutely happened to me countless times! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to prove to God that I really do trust Him and completely terrify the devil by going as big and wide as I possibly can in everything I do. It’s about time we actually believed what we believe!

We are indeed more than conquerors just like God has said, therefore no weapon formed against us by the enemy can ever prosper! And that has me feeling like the spiritual form of MC Hammer because, “Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah can’t touch this!” And you really can’t: not Satan, not the world, not anyone!

Everything I’ve presented to you here is simply because of Jesus’s unending love for us! He loved us with His self sacrifice to set us at an incredibly undeserved, equal status with Him! That’s just mind-blowing. It’s all part of the package deal of being A Beloved One. Best package any of us ever got!

Love Builds Up, Lust Brings Down

I want to start off by saying that I think we way over-complicate the differences between loving affection and lustful attraction as a society and people in general. We fabricate our own lines on the issue and many times fail to see where the actual line is by God’s standard. We dance around reality in relation to certain situations and argue back and forth as to whether or not a response is lustful or loving. Well, the truth is, there is really only one thing that defines the difference between the two; Simply put, anything done in love is based on some level of selflessness and anything done out of lust is based on selfishness. What I’m basically telling you is that there are many actions that can be done out of either love or lust. You can be doing the exact same thing, but what defines its source is whether it is done for yourself or for another.

Now, lust can appear in several ways, whether it’s in pursuit of relational/physical attraction, money, power, possessions, or whatever. Everything I’m going to say will apply to lust in all of its forms, but the first form in the list is obviously the most prevalent and immediate, so this post is mainly pointed in that direction. Do keep in mind that these principles can easily be used in regard to the other forms too though.

Lust is rooted in selfishness, while Love is rooted in selflessness. I know, I already said that. And I’ll probably say it a few more times in the same or similar words before I’m done. I can’t stress it enough. This concept truly is all there is to it and the sooner you grasp it, the sooner you’ll be able to understand and recognize the difference between the two. The more a choice is made for your own sake, the more it leans towards lust. The more a choice is made for the sake of others, the more it leans towards love.

Love gives and is satisfied. Lust takes and is never satisfied. Because love looks to the wants and needs of others it is willing to and often reveals itself through giving. Since love gives to others there is no danger of not being satisfied because it’s reward is the joy of others. Lust focuses entirely on your own wants and therefore takes from whoever it can, whenever it can. Because this is the case, lust cannot and will not be satisfied since you will inevitably want more and more when you see there’s more to be had. Who would you rather be with? Who would you rather be?

Love is holy, comforting, and centered around Christ and others. Lust is unholy, cruel, and centered around your individual self. Do I really need to go much further with this one? We all know out of these two which is the right choice.

God’s perfect invention of human relationship, in its many forms, was meant for love not lust. Lust only comes as a perversion of His purpose. Love is always what He has in mind. When we use relationships in the way we’re meant to, as a means of portraying love, we operate out of an interest in and concern for others. This is where the beauty of connection through relations is found and is the only way it is ever effective. When we use them in a lustful way we are operating out of an interest in and concern for self. And if that’s the root, it is only ever destructive.

Love builds the type of relationships that last. Lust always eventually destroys relationships with others and God. People do not stick with the ones that only work for the advancement of their own good, you don’t and nobody else does. The relationships that mean the most to all of us are the ones that we sacrifice the most for and loving relationships have no other option than selfless sacrificial gestures. Lustful relationships never end in sacrifices for the other party.

Walking in lust leaves you bound by the shackles of guilt and the never ending desire for more. That life is nothing more than a prison. You can never get enough and usually by the time you realize that, it’s far too late to have a guiltless recovery. On the promising other hand: Walking in love allows you to live with freedom and the confidence that comes with a clean mind. There is extreme liberty that comes with not being dominated by your fleshly desires because it means you have the necessary self control to make a positive impact. Yes, there is a way to fulfill these desires in a manner of love, but this control that comes from walking in love gives you power over your lustful tendencies. Beyond that, a mind that operates in this way does not have to be continually worried about falling into traps or having a cloud of guilt follow them.

Let me share with you a little bit of what the Bible says on the topic:

Ephesians 5:1-4 – “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a sacrifice and sweet smelling fragrance to God. But immorality and all impurity or greediness must not even be named among you, as is becoming among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish and sinful talk, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting or becoming; but instead voice your thankfulness to God.”

Just like a child copies the patterns of his father, we are called to be imitators of God and His traits. And it only makes sense for us to do so because we are so dearly beloved by Him. This means for us to live and love like Jesus Christ did, giving of Himself and not taking for Himself. It comes right back to operating out of unselfish love versus selfish lust. Jesus loved us in such a way that He gave His life for us, dying as an offering for our sin. There is nothing more selfless than this. And this very well pleased the Father and was a sweet smelling fragrance by His standard of love. This is the example we are to pursue after in our dealings with others. To do so means to deeply please God and find favor in the eyes of all men as well.

The end of the passage of verses includes a list of sins that are all rooted in lust and selfishness and are things that will leave you trapped in a cage of trying to please unquenchable desires. It is a desperate place that no one wants to fall into and I don’t think I need to go into explaining what each of the words mean because we all know just what actions line up with them in terms of lust. Along with this principle of falling into the pit of sin’s disparity, going down this trail of lustful activities is something very unbecoming of those who call Christ their Lord. Any sincere line of godly thought reveals that it’s not a very safe direction to go. The verses end by telling us the way to avoid such actions is to choose to give thanks to God for inviting us into His community of love found in the relationship between Him and His Church. Expressing our gratefulness for this is an activity that enables us to operate out of such love.

Let’s choose to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and walk along the path of living in love, not the one of living in lust. What is at the end of the former road is much more promising than the end of the latter.