Idle_Mind Your fustration is an indication that your situation is in need of a transformation. - October 29, 2009 add/view comments (0)

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

Proverbs 11:2

A WORD ABOUT IDOLS

A good working definition of an idol is anything that is loved or feared more than God. It is a substitute or replacement for true worship.

From ancient times, and continuing today, civilizations have been creating & then worshipping false gods through the images, icons, and statues. Temples, priesthoods, and elaborate systems of worship shower them with honor. God severely condemns this practice in scripture, since He is Creator of all things and due all of mankind?s gratefulness for our existence and the world He has given us to live.

Consider below the God?s Word through Isaiah the Prophet:

6 "This is what the LORD says? Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. 7 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come? yes, let him foretell what will come. 8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one." 9 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. 10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? 11 He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. ------- Isaiah 44

The superstitions of idol worship were not created without help. Scripture teaches that idol worship is empowered by demons. The fallen spirit world offers magic, threatens retaliation, and gives the manifestations necessary to establish false religious worship. Once established, shame and honor codes, ethnic pride, and fear of family, neighbors and government are enough to sustain the system.

Acts 17:

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.

26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone?an image made by man's design and skill.

30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

In the Western world, we have our list of things that we love or fear more than God, and we can make idols without using a graven image.

Here is a short list of things we love or fear more than the One True God.

1. Ourselves: Narcissism, our way, & our desires must come first. 2. The opposite sex, the pursuit of romance. The opposite sex was to be man?s second most important relationship, but it has become the first. 3. Money, and the pursuit of material blessings can keep one from a relationship God for entire lifetime. No matter how much you have, it is never enough. 4. Power & control can be an attempt to receive personal glory. 5. Material possessions, homes, cars, boats, jewelry. 6. Chemicals that synthesize the fullness and joy that God offers us. 7. Causes that we can devote and entire lifetime to, in place of a devotion to the living God and His cause.

The list is endless. Any created thing can become an idol. Man?s root problem is the disconnection from his Holy and Powerful Creator. The bible tells us that the willful sin of the human race has separated us from the Lord and we are blinded to Him. As a beautiful rose picked from it?s stem, soon we wither and fade. We need to be rooted and grounded in God?s love. We are isolated, empty, angry, fearful and needy. Without a relationship to God our innate desire to worship leads us to god?s of our own making. All of our attempts to worship anything other than God turn out to be very disappointing and leave us empty, violated and addicted.

Thankfully, the Lord has not left us in this desperate state, destined to spend our lives in pursuit of false gods that will never satisfy. Jesus the Messiah, has paid the ultimate price for our sin and shame. Through God?s sacrifice on our behalf, somehow, God has satisfied the demands of His own Holy Nature for perfect justice.

We can come home. We can worship the One True God. We can begin a new life.

Say "Yes" to God's provision for you and come home to His love.

Romans 8:

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

Invitation

as we live day to day sometimes we try so hard to please people we want so much to be accepted that we begin to become everything for everyone else and it gets to the point, where we loose who we are a lot of what we see today is this people just don`t know who they are we try to fit in to get the job to fit into society to fit in to get into the family whatever it may be but your identity is in Christ Jesus and you`ll never know who you are until you accept Him as your Lord and savior how do you do that you ask it`s so simple nothin major,, just simply asking Jesus Christ into your heart and just confessing your sins just say Lord, I confess my sins cleanse me and come into my life and when that blood is applied to your life it`s not for just that time right then that blood will cover what you`ve done,,, and what you will do cause as long as you live you will always be faced with challenges,,, tribulations,,, and trials so when you give your life to Christ dont think that it`s over dont think that you wont ever make another mistake cause you will make mistakes but the difference now,,, is you have a big brother who has your back and everytime you make a mistake just know that your brother,,, your big brother,,,, Jesus Christ has already died on the cross that you might be forgiven once and for all and for those of you that are already saved I want to encourage you to keep that relationship with Christ stay faithful unto the Lord and serve Him whole heartdly it is time for the Church to be an example it is time for us to BE the light and not just try to prove that we are the light

...Lisa McClendon

Here`s an article I read. Thought I would post it for others to check out and discuss. :-)

01/09/2006

Are Black Women Scaring Off Their Men?
(A Fighting Spirit Is Important, But Not At Home)

The Washington Post By: Joy Jones

Have you met this woman? She has a good job, works hard, and earns a good salary. She went to college, she got her master`s degree; she is intelligent. She is personable, articulate, well read, interested in everybody and everything. Yet, she`s single. Or maybe you know this one. Active in the church. Faithful, committed, sings in the choir, serves on the usher board, and attends every committee meeting. Loves the Lord and knows the Word. You`d think that with her command of the Scriptures and the respect of her church members, she`d have a marriage as solid as a rock. But again, no husband.

Or perhaps you recognize the community activist. She`s a black lady, or, as she prefers, an African American woman, on the move. She sports A short natural; sometimes cornrow braids, or even dreadlocks. She`s an organizer, a motivator, a dynamo. Her work for her people speaks for itself--organizing women for a self-help, raising funds for A community cause, educating others around a new issue in South Africa. Black folks look up to her, and white folks know she`s a force to be reckoned with. Yet once again, the men leave her alone. What do these women have in common? They have so much; what is it they lack? Why is it they may be able to hook a man but can`t hold him? The women puzzle over this quandary themselves. They gather at professional clubs, at sorority meetings or over coffee at the office and wonder what`s wrong with black men? They hold special prayer vigils and fast and pray and beg Jesus to send the men back to church. They find the brothers attending political strategizing sessions or participating in protests but when it comes time to go home, the brothers go home to someone else.

I know these women because I am all of these women. And after asking over and over again "What`s wrong with these men?", it finally dawned on me to ask the question, "What`s wrong with us women?" What I have found, and what many of these women have yet to discover, is that the skills that make one successful in the church, community or workplace are not the skills that make one successful in a relationship.

Linear thinking, self-reliance, structured goals and direct action assist one in getting assignments done, in organizing church or club activities or in positioning oneself for a raise, but relationship-building requires different skills. It requires making decisions that not only gratify you, but satisfy others. It means doing things that will keep the peace rather than achieve the goal, and sometimes it means creating the peace in the first place. Maintaining a harmonious relationship will not always allow you to take the straight line between two points. You may have to stoop to conquer or yield to win.

In too many cases, when dealing with men, you will have to sacrifice being right in order to enjoy being loved. Being acknowledged as the head of the household is an especially important thing for many black men, since their manhood is so often actively challenged everywhere else. Many modern women are so independent, so self-sufficient, so committed to the cause, to the church, to career or their narrow concepts that their entire personalities project an "I don`t need a man" message. So they end up without one. An interested man may be attracted but he soon discovers that this sister makes very little space for him in her life. Going to graduate school is a good goal and an option that previous generations of blacks have not had. But sometimes the achieving woman will place her boyfriend so low on her list of priorities that his interest wanes. Between work, school and homework, she`s seldom "there" for him, for the preliminaries that might develop a commitment to a woman. She`s too busy to prepare him a home-cooked meal or to be a listening ear for his concerns because she is so occupied with her own.

Soon he uses her only for uncommitted sex since to him she appears unavailable for anything else. Blind to the part she`s playing in the problem, she ends up thinking, "Men only want one thing." And she decides she`s better off with the degree than the friendship. When she`s 45, she may wish she`d set different priorities while she was younger. It`s not just the busy career girl who can`t see the forest for the trees.

A couple I know were having marital troubles. During one argument, the husband confronted the wife and asked what she thought they should do about the marriage, what direction they should take. She reached for her Bible and turned to Ephesians. "I know what Paul says and I know what Jesus says about marriage," he told her, "What do you say about our marriage?" Dumbfounded, she could not say anything. Like so many of us, she could recite the Scriptures but could not apply them to everyday living. Before the year was out, the husband had filed for divorce. Women who focus on civil rights or community activism have vigorous, fighting spirits and are prepared to do whatever, whenever, to benefit black people. That`s good. That`s necessary. But it needs to be kept in perspective. It`s too easy to save the world and lose your man.

A fighting spirit is important on the battlefield, but a gentler spirit is wanted on the home front. Too many women are winning the battle and losing the home. Sometimes in our determined efforts to be strong believers and hard workers, we contemporary women downplay, denigrate or simply forget our more traditional feminine attributes. Men value women best for the ways we are different from them, not the ways we are the same. Men appreciate us for our grace and beauty. Men enjoy our softness and see it as a way to be intouch with their tender side, a side they dare not show to other men. A hard-working woman isgood to have on your committee. But when a man goes home, he`d prefer a loving partner to a hard worker.

It`s not an easy transition for the modern black woman to make. It sounds submissive, reactionary, outmoded, and oppressive. We have fought so hard for so many things, and rightfully so. We have known so many men who were shaky, jive and untrustworthy. Yet we must admit that we are shaky, jive and willful in our own ways. Not having a husband allows us to do whatever we want, when and how we want to do it. Having one means we have to share the power and certain points will have to be surrendered. We are terrified of marriage and commitment, yet dread the prospect of being single and alone.

Throwing ourselves into work seems to fill the void without posing a threat. But like any other drug, the escape eventually becomes the cage. To make the break, we need to do less and "be" more. I am learning to "be still and know," to be trusting. I am learning to stop competing with black men and to collaborate with them, to temper my assertive and aggressive energy with softness and serenity. I`m not preaching a philosophy of "women be seen and not heard." But I have come to realize that I, and many of my smart and independent sisters are out of touch with our feminine center and Therefore out of touch with our men. About a year ago, I was at an oldies-but-goodies club.

As a Washingtonian, I love to do the bop and to hand dance styles that were popular when I was a teen. In those dances, the man has his set of steps and the woman has hers, but the couple is still two partners and must move together. On this evening, I was sitting out a record when a thought came to me. If a man were to say, "I`m going to be in charge and you`re going to follow. I want you to adjust your ways to fit in with mine" I`d dismiss him as a Neanderthal. With my hand on my hip, I`d tell him that I have just as much sense as he does and that he can`t tell me what to do. Yet, on the dance floor, I love following a man`s lead. I don`t feel inferior because my part is different from his, and I don`t feel I have to prove that I`m just as able to lead as he is. I simply allow him to take my hand, and I go with the flow.

I am still single. I am over 30 and scared. I am still a member of my church, have no plans to quit my good government job and will continue to do what I can for my people. I think that I have a healthy relationship with a good man. But today, I know that I have to bring some of that spirit of the dance into my relationship. Dancing solo, I`ve mastered that. Now I`m learning how to accept his lead, and to go with the flow.