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| Hello to everyone out there who subscribes to my xanga site. I would like to inform you that I've migrated to another website. With great pleasure, I invite you to come and see JustinWeekly.com
I hope you enjoy my new site!
All for the King and His Kingdom,
Justin Weekly | | |
| Deep breath in.
Let it out. One more time, in . . .
and out.
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There are two times of day when we are most vulnerable to emotions. During these two times, we reflect on things past and picture things to come. During these times, we find ourselves realizing that we are not invincible and that we do in fact have flaws, or perhaps we find ourselves in denial of who we are (not that we would know at the time).
Right before you go to sleep, the last thought you have is in my observation, the thought that you want to hold onto the tightest. It is what you refuse to let go of as you slip into unconsciousness.
The first thing you think of when you wake up is, in my observation, the thought that motivates you to live for one more day. This is the thought that can make worry, happy, fearful, stressed out, or even in love. Either way, as soon as you are conscious again and think of something, whatever it is, it will always bring about a chain of thoughts that lasts until you can't hold on any longer, that is, right before you go back to bed.
Why? Why do these to times of the day fall so close to each other. Why do I hold onto the thoughts that I hold onto and why am I motivated by the thoughts that I am? Why does this even matter?
You are your own, if you are your own. You are in control of your life if you take control of your life. Your thoughts are as important as you want your thoughts to be. When it's all said and done, though, you need sleep to live. You can chose not to sleep, but you will eventually die.
The tricky thing about sleep is that in every experience you have, you are a valid witness to the truth. You are a valid witness of the things you see, feel, do, and yes . . . think. What did you think of in your sleep last night? What might you think in your sleep tonight? Sleep is so scary to the person who refuses to give up the authority of thought.
Let's go another direction with this. The purpose of sleep is to rest the body. You can get by on sleep alone but we have all experienced that kind of sleep that leaves us still exhausted when we wake up. This sleep is not restful, therefore still leaves us fatigued and worn out.
The Bible makes mention of the type of person who works all day and gains much, "For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest" (Ecc. 2:23). In this book of the Bible, Solomon comes to the conclusion that nothing a man does will be of any value unless it is done out of love for God. Without this love, everything is vain. Sound familiar?
The Bible makes a clear reference to another type of person who does not find rest in Psalms 95:
8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,[a]
As in the day of trial[b] in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
This passage declares that the reason the Hebrews (during the exodus) angered God is because the hardened their hearts and tried God and went astray in their hearts to the point where they did not even know God's ways anymore.
Rest is something that is divinely inspired and given to those who are obedient to the word of God. Rest is Holy and should be sought after as the Holy and divine gift from God that it really is.
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Hebrews 4:10-13
10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is
living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
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There is a connection between the thoughts that we hold on to and our ability to rest in the Lord. Only when you truly seek the rest that comes every night during sleep by seeking to glorify God in your sleep, will you know what rest actually is. Rest requires that the last thought you hold on to before slipping into unconsciousness is of God and His love. You have the promise of rest if you remain obedient to the Word of God. The word knows the intents of your heart. When you wake up in the morning, what is your first thought?
Justin Weekly
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| You would expect that the first thing I would want to do after being silent for so long is tell you all about my travels and experiences and things that are happening in life, and everything else that has been going on in these past months. You might expect that I would want to give you a time-line play-by-play of everything that has happened recently (especially those of you who usually receive such lengthy stories from me).
When you are invited to dine with someone, you never eat the ingredients separate from each other. No, you eat a conglomerated mass of food with different flavors, textures, and colors mixed together creating something beautiful out of the original chaos.
All will be revealed in time. You are so loved, children. Our Father loves you and because He first loved you, I choose to love you also.
Justin Weekly
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A child asked, "How can a person live a life completely devoted to God and not at all to himself?"
After pouring out my heart and allowing the Holy Spirit to take control of my words and actions, another child whispers in my ear, "I know it's all for the glory of God," then gives a subtle smile.
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In loving those you don't know or have never met, you must know why you should love them in the first place. Why should you care for someone you will never even meet? How can you care for a person you don't know? What can you do to love someone you don't even know exists?
I'm not going to write an instruction manual for loving people, that has already been done. Instead, I want to say one thing: You must love people because God first loved them. That is the basis of loving those whom you haven't met.
1 John 4:19-21
19 We love Him[a] because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love
God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, how can[b] he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Be obedient to the Word of God. Have a passion for loving God that is greater than any other passion in your life. When you feel like guilt rules over you, ask instead for conviction. When you really understand the difference between these two, you'll know which God you serve. I love you!
Justin Weekly
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| If you are someone I call or text regularly you may have heard me ask this question, "How have you seen God's glory today?" God's glory isn't something that happens at conferences. It isn't only visible at church or in the presence of Godly people. The glory of God surrounds us always. It is shown in all ranges of visibility. It covers the entire spectrum of light and even more.
What have you seen in God's glory today?
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I have a friend who has no idea of how greatly God is working in him. He has a tendency to avoid thinking about himself at all cost. If you ask him a question about himself he'll make you guess the answer. My friend is beautiful.
God has this way of being the shiny penny in the handful you pull out of your pocket. It's the first that catches your eye. Sometimes you wish it weren't there because you realize how dirty the others really are. There is no shame in being a dirty penny.
When I asked my friend the other day how he saw God's glory, he got frustrated as usual. My friend feels like I'm putting him on the spot when I am him this question. He loves the satisfaction that comes after having an answer because he gets the opportunity to "put me on the spot." This time after a minute of thinking about it, he said, "Well, I don't know, I guess 'cause it's sunny and cloudy at the same time."
WHAT AN ANSWER! Wow, this took me aback. Usually I would get something like "I'm alive, I guess" or "I slept a little last night" or maybe the occasional, "the clouds look cool" but this, wow! In the simplicity of his answer, my friend said it all.
God is alive! God is shining! God is shining through the clouds!
It's hard to focus on God's glory all the time. It's even harder to actually see God's glory for what it is when you are focusing in on it.
Never forget how much I love each of you. Even if I've never met you and you read my blog, I love you. It's crucial that you start focusing in on the glory of God. Give him credit when you see Him. If you seek, you WILL find. Thank God for glory!
Justin Weekly
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| In my studies lately and in my relationships with a couple of people, God has presented me with the task of seperating everyday issues into their respective realms. In doing this, I have been able to communicate God's love with more ease and clarity then ever before to these couple of people.
To start, I would like to present some outside quotes from some random people on the subject at hand:
1)Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least, you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and depth; that there are no walls nor fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought.
-Robert Green Ingersoll
2)Our music has depth, and attempts philosophical thought and meaning with discussions of infinity, eternity and mortality. There is a line which people cross that turns it into some magical, mystical realm, for which I don't claim responsibility and don't hold any great truck with.
-David Gilmour
3)My thinking tends to be libertarian. That is, I oppose intrusions of the state into the private realm - as in abortion, sodomy, prostitution, pornography, drug use, or suicide, all of which I would strongly defend as matters of free choice in a representative democracy.
-Camille Paglia
4)Such highly qualitative leadership is demanded especially in the realm of the fostering of right international relations. Here the demand is simply irresistible.
-John Raleigh Mott
It is obvious that people are aware of a distiction between a spritual realm and a physical realm. Sometimes you may hear any broad topic referred to as a realm. There is a financial realm, a technilogical realm, a realm of death, a realm of quietness, a realm of peace and tranquility. . . etc. I am specifically discussing two realms: the physical and the spiritual.
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Why are there some sins that we react to strongly and some that we don't even know happen? Why is it that we sin unconsciously or in our sleep, or without taking action? How is it possible to sin in our thoughts?
Have you ever asked yourself these questions? I have. I've got a bigger question for you.
DOES SIN EXIST IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM, THE PHYSICAL REALM, OR BOTH?
Take some time to think about this before continuing to read. Do you have an answer?
Sin exists in the spiritual realm. It does not exist at all in the physical realm. Bear with me in love here while I explain.
While I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, I asked him the same question. He replied "both realms." His response was followed by this question, "how can sin not exist in the physical realm if people are killing each other and stealing property and . . . "
This is pattern of thinking that is very dangerous. By seeing sin in this light, you give it authority in the physical realm, where it doesn't even exist. One of the most misunderstood and illconcieved truths about God is that He sees all sin equal. This contradicts everything we believe in society. There are different penalties for different severities of offense and so on. The Bible clearly states that the wages of sin is death. Not some sin, all sin. But let's not stray to far away from what we are really talking about here, that is the existence of sin in the spiritual realm.
The only reason we react to some sins and are oblivious to others is because we have an emotional reaction to some sins. For instance, if someone were to lie to me I might not even notice, but if they stab me, I would likely be extremely offended. Emotions exist in the physical realm. They change, they can be described using humanistic qualities and characteristics. Emotions are stronger in some people than others. Emotion is where the misconception of sin starts.
Since we've established that sin belongs to the spiritual realm, I will refer to it as the spirit of sin. The spirit of sin drills itself into people. It touches everybody, but it's like pressurized air trying to escape through any crack it can find. When we allow our emotional reaction to sin to give the spirit of sin authority in the physical realm, that is when we will see the spirit of sin manifest in the actions of others. The spirit of sin has no place in the physical realm if you believe that God is sovereign and that his love reigns.
Now let's add something else to the equation: love.
DOES LOVE EXIST IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM, PHYSICAL REALM, OR BOTH?
Go ahead, think about it. Come up with an answer.
Love also exists in the spiritual realm only. The spirit of love is a wonderful thing. It enables us to not be susceptible to the manifestations of the spirit of sin. 1 John says that God is Love. The spirit of Love is God's Holy Spirit. If you are a born-again believer, you have full access to the spirit of love. Whoa!!!! That is such an amazing gift. . . . or is that my emotion coming out?
This is where everything comes together. In the spiritual realm we as born-again believers have the two most opposite spirits constantly looking for an crack to explode out of. The spirit of sin and the spirit of love cannot be assigned human characteristics. I Corinthians describes love with human characteristics, such as "patient" and "kind," but these are descriptions of love manifested in the physical realm, not the spirit of love. When we describe sin using human characteristics, we are describing sin as it appears when manifested in the physical realm.
Because of this, it is important to fight the belief that the Spirit of Sin and the Spirit of Love are fighting for the same space in your heart. This is a wrong and ignorant view of the things of the spiritual realm. While I was talking to my friend, he asked me a question, "What if Satan chose not to do the things specifically outlined in the prophesies as a way of deceiving the world and disproving Christianity?"
Just by assuming that Satan has the power to chose, you are exercising mindlessness. What I mean is that it is time for you to start thinking actively and stop being trapped by your thoughts. The spiritual realm and all the spirits in it are beyond the imagination. They exist in abstract thought, and can only be seen by means of manifestation, but if you ask for these things to be revealed, God the Father, will allow you to understand.
Know this: the spirit of sin and the spirit of love are not competing for space in your heart, they are both completely present at the same time. In your first birth, the spirit of sin alone dwells in you. When you are reborn in Christ, God's Holy Spirit, the spirit of love then dwells in you also. You cannot kill or defeat or abolish a spirit. You can control which spirit is manifested in your life. Both spirits are beyond time or measure, they are not quantifiable, they are always present.
By allowing the spirit of love to manifest itself in your life, you are doing many things. First, you are giving love authority in the physical realm. Second, you are being obedient to your general calling as a Christian. Third, you are preventing the spirit of sin from manifesting itself in your life, which makes it have no authority in the physical realm.
I challenge you to look deeper into your perception of the spiritual realm. If you are actively fighting in the spiritual warfare that is going on right now, it is extremely important for you to know what you're up against. Do not respond to the manifestation of sin by allowing your emotions to increase your susceptibility of sinning yourself. That is how the process a spirit gaining authority in the physical realm happens.
The good news is that YOU have the ability allow the spirit of love to have full authority in the physical realm. Just like the spirit of sin can gain authority by finding a weak spot and exploiting others, the spirit of love will always, always, always, help other born again believers to allow love to be manifested in them. This is why we are called to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. This is love. Do you have it?
I love you all, and in no way do I mean to offend, ever. If you are unsure of anything I ever post, I would be happy to talk via phone or e-mail. God's perfect Word will never fail to aid anyone in pursuit of love.
Justin | | |
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