Thought Bombs

I’ve been thinking a lot here lately about the place I am in the world. A lot of people would call it a mid-life crisis or something to that effect. I don’t necessarily agree with that assessment of my life. Although I do admit that I’ve been a bear to live with lately and that my thoughts have been focused on where I’m at in the world today, and what have I actually accomplished.

There is a book that I’ve been reading called “The Power of Praise and Worship” by Terry Law. In it he used the term “Thought Bombs”. Thought bombs are words that the enemy lobs at us on a daily basis. They are contrary to what God’s Word says about us, and they have just one intent, and that is to destroy our lives.

But you see the devil, our enemy really doesn’t have any power over the born again believer. Jesus defeated him all those many years ago. Stripping him of any real power that he had, and in turn Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit Who gives us the power to overcome the enemy every time.

The Bible likens our enemy to a “roaring lion”. Notice what it does not say. It does not say that he is a consuming lion. It says that the devil is only a roaring lion, and a roaring lion is one that just makes a lot of noise, but nothing else. That is exactly how he operates in our lives. He roars his words of doubt and unbelief at us, trying to trick us into saying the same thing that he is saying.

He is lobbing “thought bombs” at us, and they have no effect unless when we hear them, we take those words and begin to say them out loud with our own mouths. The devil knows he has no power over what we give him, and therefore tries to trick us into believing that these thought bombs are really just our minds talking, and not him attacking us.

Look with me at Proverbs 23:7a in the King James Version. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” The word that I’m the most interested here is the word “thinketh” or “thinks” in common English. It is pronounced in the Hebrew shaw-ar and means to split or open that is to act as a gatekeeper, to estimate or think.

Then look with me at what Jesus said in Luke 6:45; A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Here Jesus tells us that it is out of the abundance of our hearts that we will speak. In other words, we only speak that which we know, and we only know that which we think about.

What I see here is that whatever we are thinking about is what gets down into our hearts. And it is whatever is in our hearts that we are going to speak, thus giving power to the enemy or to God to work in our lives.

When the enemy is lobbing his thought bombs at us, they are not to just make us feel down, low or even just to harass, he is using them to in effect get us to think on his things instead of God’s things. He does this because he understands this Kingdom principle that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak.

So when those thought bombs come, what are we to do? This is what I am learning to walk out right now. We can’t stop the thought bombs; there are too many voices on the wind in our lives. It’s kind of like walking through thick brush in the woods. There are hindrances all around you; and you just have to keep pushing through them.

I know that I for one would really like to just sit down and wish them away, but that doesn’t happen. And if you did that in the woods, eventually (given enough time) all that brush would grow up around you and cause you to be even more blocked than before. So we can’t sit down and stop, we just have to press on, no matter how hard it gets.

How does that look though? And how do I exactly do that? Through the power of praise and worship, now I’m not talking about getting a band together and start singing, although singing is one aspect in the praise and worship of God.

We have to start first with an understanding of what praise and worship is first. Praise is you telling God about how great He is. And worship is you telling God how much you love Him. Remember in the Old Testament where David wrote about praise? It’s found in Psalm 8:2; Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

Then we see Jesus quote this scripture in Matthew 21:16, but He does so in just a little different way; And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? It’s interesting that David called it strength and Jesus called it praise.

What I see here is that through our praise to God, we are given strength to shut up the enemy and the avenger. So when he lobs his thought bombs at us, and we in turn begin to praise God it turns those thought bombs into naught bombs. When we think on the greatness of God and what all He has purchased for us through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, what else can we do but praise Him?

Friggin' ~ Flippin' ~ Freakin' ~ What the?

What has our society become? I mean really, have you taken a long hard look at it recently? I was around a twenty-something and his Grandmother today. She must have said "friggin" at least a dozen times.

I don't really know why I dislike these euphemisms (yōō'fə-mĭz'əmz), (Here is the definition for those of you who don't know this word: n. The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive.) maybe it's because if I was to hear the word that was being substituted it would go up my backside as well. I don't know, it just seems vulgar to hear them being used, and by a Grandmother no less.

I think it really irritates me because it is just one more way that we are throwing decency and morality out the window. We say that we use these words as descriptive words in our vocabulary, but what do they really describe? Let's look at them; "Flippin" that means to flip. "Freakin" means to freak. And "Friggin", well I don't know what it means to frig....

These are words that were hardly used even five years ago, yet now I hear them on a daily basis, and truthfully it disgusts me. I don't know what to do to get us back to a better time. I mean I have to get onto my children a lot about the use of these euphemisms, and they tell me that they don't mean anything. I find that hard to believe....maybe I've just become an old coot...

How Are You Doing Today?

"How are you doing today?" I am in retail, and I sell shoes. So therefore, I start a lot of conversations. "How are you doing today?" is one that I frequently ask of all the people that I meet in my day. And if I were to ask you, I'd probably find out that you ask the same question as well.

My thought today is, do I really mean it? When I ask someone how their day is going, am I willing to get in there and really try to find out? People have been asked this question so many times, that usually they just give the "pat" answer, "I'm fine, and you?"

I had to ask myself today, "What would I do if someone actually told me how they were doing, and their answer wasn't 'fine'." So I've decided to do a little experiment. I'm going to ask the various people that come in how they are doing today and see how many answer by saying "fine", "good", something like that, and how many actually tell me how they are really doing. It should be an interesting experiment. Also, to add to the experiment, I'm going to give a real answer about how I'm doing if I am asked in return.

I'll do this for a few days, then come back and update with the results....

I Saw The Heart of the Father This Morning...& It Ain't Good

Today, I was afforded an opportunity that I've not had a lot of. I saw into the heart of my Heavenly Father, and I'm still trying to reconcile what He said.

My day started off like many others, I was up at 6 am, made a pot of coffee, asked the Lord where He wanted me to read in my bible today, and then did just that. After reading (and a small nap) I poured a cup of joe, and got out The Silence of Adam and picked up where I left off with yesterday's reading. An hour or so later, I made some rice, had breakfast got ready for work and left calling two friends on the phone as I drove to work. I wanted to ask them some questions about some stuff coming up in the ministry that I'm heading up.

Anyway, as I finished the phone call, got out of my truck and walked to the front door of my store, up from my spirit I heard the Father say, "Why don't you talk to Me about things?" "You spend all morning reading, and preparing, yet you don't talk to Me, unless you need something, or have some answer you need. Why don't you just talk to Me?" It was almost as if He was saddened, not scolding...which was actually probably worse....

I've been thinking about this comment that He made to me this morning, and I'm reminded of a husband and wife talking and one of them trying to get the other to engage in conversation with them. I have totally let the Father down....I know that He loves me and I'll work through this with Him, but I just wanted to put this out there as a way of reminding all of us to not get so busy doing the Christian thing that we forget the Author of the Christian thing and spending time with Him, just being ourselves and letting Him be who He is....strength and honor for the Kingdom.....

The Merry-go-round.....

As a kid, I can remember always wanting to get on the Merry-go-round. It always looked like so much fun. I could barely contain myself as I would run from the car to the playground. I'd get on it first and hollar for my brothers to hurry up and get there, but the anticipation would get the best of me and I would begin to run around holding onto the bar racing as fast as my little legs would go, building up as much speed as I could, then I would jump on, hold tightly and go for the ride I had so long waited for.

Of course, then my younger brothers would show up and I'd have to wait and get them on board and begin to push again. Sometimes a grown up would push us and get us going really fast. But it usually didn't take me long to realize that while it was so much fun at first, it got old really quick, and my stomach couldn't take the round and round and round. I would get off and stagger around like a drunk man for a little while, trying to get over the cold sweats and upset stomach.

Tonight the thought came to me that that is how sin is. It comes on as something that we really want to do, we think about how much fun it is going to be, and we can't hardly wait until the opportunity to have whatever it is that we are wanting arrives. And then when it finally gets here, we enjoy ourselves for a time, but then we find ourselves in that situation where what at first promised so much joy ends up causing us pain.

I think this is what the Scriptures are trying to tell us when we read in Hebrews 11:25 speaking of Moses; "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season..." Sin is fun plain and simple, to say otherwise would be a lie. Because we see here that it is fun...for a season. A season is a short span of time. When we choose to sin we will be enjoying it for a while, just not a long while.

That is where so many of us fall I think. Because sin feels good (at first) we think, this must be an okay thing, it must not be that bad...it's only after the season is over and we've reaped our harvest that we realize how caught up in the mess we really are. It is at this point that we, like I was when I was little, start to stagger around like a drunk man, feeling horrible inside. The biggest problem with this, is that most just continue to stagger around and away from the Father God.

God knew that we were going to sin, and He is not surprised when we do. Does he like it? No. Does He stop liking us if we sin? No. What we have to do, is turn back to Him, confess our sins and He has promised that He will cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness and bring us back into right standing with Him. (1John 1:9)

I am not at all condoning sin, or saying that it doesn't matter and we shouldn't try to live a holy and righteous life. I just think that what happens so many times is that people are afraid to go to God when that is what they need to do the most. So yeah, don't sin is the best way, but if you do, you have an advocate with the Father (Jesus) who lives to plead your case before the Father, just don't run from Him...run to Him. Strength and honor for the Kingdom....and whatever you do, get off that Merry-go-round.....