Author: terry.a.lindsey@charter.net

Winter has come! Wait, isn’t it summer time? Yes, but if you were a Game of Thrones fan, winter came and was defeated. Maybe, the ending did not meet your expectations, but it still ended. The victory was through one girl with the skill needed to make the final defeating blow. Then she hardly got the credit when the dragon lady went on a rampage. You may have hated the ending of this series, but winter did come and so did the end. Game of Thrones fan or not, the symbolism and creativity of the makers of this series, needs to be applauded. In my opinion, winter represented evil. Winter needed to be defeated similar to the demons that we may possess. How do we defeat winter? Well, perhaps we rely on someone riding on a huge dragon blowing fire to burn our enemies. Perhaps, we rely on one person with a vision to see the future where winter has been defeated and we all live in peace forever and ever. Read on about victory over the demons within and around us.

Winter is like fear. Our demons have a tight grip on us and we may act like a crazy person. You may have heard many times on the news how some person in a rage takes the life of another. We can only ask why? There was a person called “Legion” meaning many demons had entered his body. Legion was a crazy person who had to be restrained for fear of hurting others or himself. No one knew how else to handle this crazy person. In their eyes, he was a lost cause. They just went about their busy lives as usual tending herds of pigs and conducting commerce in the towns. Then one day a person with a vision of the end of the story encountered Legion and his demons. He ordered the demons out of the man’s body and into a herd of pigs who ran off a cliff into the lake and drowned. That ending was not appreciated by those whose commerce was destroyed. The man’s winter came and was defeated. His fear was replaced with faith for a bright future. “He went throughout the city proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:39b) Like winter which came and went, fear will come but can be defeated by faith. We should not be controlled by human laws that keep us locked up. The law became our custodian, until Christ, so that we might be made righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no long under a custodian. (Galatians 3:24-25) Winter is gone. Faith has come.

The following is a personal reflection about the love of my father to protect me when I did not even know I was in danger. I believe none of us humans are in a position to judge.

I loved my Uncle who was openly practicing homosexual acts. I was a young boy when my Uncle wanted to cut my hair. I did not know anything about homosexuality at the time, but my Father understood the dangers. He loved his older brother but clearly saw possible intentions beyond a normal relationship between an Uncle and Nephew. Did anything happen? NO! Could it have happened? I will never know as my Father protected me well before there could have been a problem. I loved my Uncle all his life though, I never understood or cared for his life choices. I believe we should love people unconditionally and leave the judgement to God. I loved my Father even more for protecting me when I did not know I needed protection. To this day, I thank God that he used my Father to intervene on my behalf. God guided my Father during those early formative years. God also molded me into the person I am today. I will never know what could have happened, but I can only imagine the possibilities. As I hear of events of abused young boys or girls in the past, were their lives impacted? Absolutely, they have been profoundly affected even with some of them going to their graves with the darkness unrevealed. My prayer is that God made them whole again. I also pray for the innocent victims being impacted now when they are too young to understand the difference between affection and lust.

I encourage you all to take a stand for what is right and prepare for the battles to come. Romans 5:2-4 states, “We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” May we endure the problems we face today until we have enough character to produce hope of God’s glory which will overcome all.

As we celebrate our Fathers and Mothers whether still living or passed, let us be strengthened in our prayers to God. May we all be led by the power of the Holy Spirit to resist evil or the temptations evil provides. May we all live Holy lives according to the Truth of Jesus Christ. Faith has indeed come.

T

In an earlier post labeled “Two” sent out on July 28^th, 2018, I wrote, “One is a lonely number. Two is not much better, but when coupled as one, becomes so much stronger”. I wrote about Saint Patrick who single handedly converted his home country of Ireland from paganism into Christianity. Did he really act as one?

To become one in the secular world means we don’t withdraw sex or anything else in a relationship in order to punish or control. You can search the web yourself as there are a lot of marriage relation discussions available. I would like to focus on a more biblical relation. John 10:30 says, “I (Jesus) and the Father are one.” Is that a marriage situation? Well, if you search further, you discover that Jesus presents himself as the Good Shepherd to the Jewish leaders. By saying he was one with God, put him equal to God. This enraged the leaders as they did not believe him so would never become one of his sheep. What are the characteristics of sheep?

Sheep cannot defend themselves, have an endless amount of wool, do not eat junk food, and hear only their shepherd’s voice. When sheep die, they seem to go in peace. (Source: Bishop Edir Macedo blogs.universal.org) If you look at these characteristics, we may see no comparison. We can be defiant in our comparison argument. Yes, we can defend ourselves, but where does defense become offense? Can we really defend ourselves without divine intervention? Something to consider. No, we cannot produce an endless amount of wool, but we can provide an endless amount of our gifts and talents. Yes, most of us eat junk food. Should we learn how to curb our craving to stay healthy? Finally, can we control our ability to hear our shepherd’s voice? Yes, we can, with much practice and determination, hear what others will not.

The Sheep and Shepherd relationship is a fascinating concept. It is hard to grasp this concept. Just like a good marriage is hard to maintain, we also need a good spiritual relationship. A good marriage is when two become one. A bad marriage is when one controls another. A good spiritual relationship is when we, though many, become one. A bad relationship is when we try to control the situation on our own. Sheep who get lost can be found if they stop to listen. They remain lost if unwilling to listen. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time refused to listen and believe. They considered Jesus as a test of their patience. (John 10:24) All too often we are guilty of hearing noise around us instead of listening for the master’s voice. May we listen to only his voice and follow him.

T

Note: To read other blogs and excerpts of my sermon audios, go to www.alookintot.com

Have you ever heard anyone say, “Don’t be so childlike!”. Probably not using the word childlike. Yes, using the word childish. There is a huge difference. To be childish has a negative meaning relating to our immature behavior where childlike implies good qualities like innocence, trusting, and pure in thought or actions. Until a child has actually experienced a more mature life, they are free to act with innocence and trust. It makes me sick to my stomach to hear on the news about abuse of a child. Yet, abuse happens every day whether broadcasted to the public or in a private hell on earth. If we see or hear of abuse, we believe it. Under the cover of darkness, perhaps we are non-believers in the truth. A parent or grandparent, loves their child and most would sacrifice their own selves to protect them. Hopefully, none of us will have to pay that steep a price. Nevertheless, we want to protect our children from the unseen dangers of this world. If a stove or oven is hot, how does a child know it is hot? They cannot see the danger or understand the element of heat. It is up to us adults to tell our children that it is hot. Stay away. Do they? Some do but many learn the hard way. They get burnt. Once burnt, chances are much greater that they will not repeat. Their memory is now related to pain so they may trust their guardians more. They cannot see the heat but now they believe it is present.

A child who believes in his parents, without seeing the danger, has faith. Childlike faith is not strange for any of us to comprehend. As parents, we should know better. We should try to teach our children based on our lessons in life. If we are successful, our child grows up relatively unharmed to carry on the teaching to their children. Even our best efforts cannot always save our child from harm. Some parents blame themselves for events happening to their child which is beyond their control. Situations beyond our control, are sad indeed, but we should not beat ourselves up. Some children are destined to grow into adults losing all abilities to have childlike faith. They fall into the world of darkness never to return to the light. Some of us see the light and begin our journey back to faith. We may have hope prior to turning from darkness, but are still selfish in nature until we become childlike again. If we keep steadfast to our hope, we become a new creation. If we can believe in the heat of a stove even though we cannot see heat, then we can believe in the resurrection of Jesus even though we did not see him coming up from the grave.

Thomas in the story told in John 20:19-31, was like that child who had to touch the hot stove before he could believe. He was childish in his actions. We are not given that opportunity to question. We are only given grace to have childlike faith to believe in the unseen. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Look forward to seeing more and more of the light of truth as we learn to serve others. Consider yourself as a parent looking after your children when you serve. God is like the ultimate parent trying to prevent his children from being burnt. If only we will believe in Him with childlike faith.

T

It is the seventh day or a day of rest or Saturday for the Jewish people. It is a day to refrain from work. Most Christians consider Sunday Sabbath for similar reasons. It is a tradition, I am afraid gone from our society as many people are working through days of rest. I wish we could get back to those days but unfortunately Saturday or Sunday are days many of us go shopping for groceries. Someone has to serve us at the check out lines. They have no time to rest. When we get home, we settle down to watch others work at baseball, football, golf, news, etc. My point here is that we have lost the purpose of a Sabbath. O yeah, some of us go to church but are anxious to leave after service to make use of our limited time with families. Perhaps, it is a product of so-called progress. We always have Holy Week to remind us of the important days of the week. Yeah right!

Holy Saturday is the day when all of us rested while Jesus laid in the tomb or did he? Perhaps, this Saturday was the busiest time for Jesus. While we rested, perhaps Jesus was dealing with our sins in the very depths of hell telling Satin our sins are paid in full. After his busy day paying for our sins, perhaps he met with our heavenly father to lay out plans for missions to be performed by believers in the mystery of faith. I am not reading from scripture but imaging the busy Saturday for Jesus.

Have you ever wandered why Good Friday is called good? How about Maundy Thursday? What about Saturday during Holy Week? Maundy means commandment which was given to us during the Last Supper to love each other just as he loved us. Though we may think Holy Friday was terrible, it is called “Good” because it led to the second step in the mystery of faith. First Christ died, second he was resurrected defeating death and sin. Maybe we should consider Holy Saturday good as well. In fact every day after Saturday should be consider Easter celebrating his resurrection. O yeah, do not forget the third step in the mystery that will occur someday when he returns. What day will that be? A glorious Sabbath for sure!

Happy Easter!

T

Exertion of enough physical force to change something’s shape. A device for applying pressure can be called a press. In ancient times there were press gangs who forced people into service. Don’t drink from a mug of beer unless you can see the bottom. Otherwise, you may be pressed into the military for accepting a coin dropped in your drink. I do not believe that tradition to press you into service is still practiced but who knows? Maybe, we should all take precautions. Press is also a whole industry of people who work for the media like news reporters. A press release was issued for my new book “Sticks and Stones” which you can find by a few key strokes on Google. The word press has many meanings as you can see but have you ever considered being pressed toward a higher prize?

Paul considered all his attributes in his past a failure, loss or sewer trash compared to his discovery of his higher calling. He discovered righteousness not by his own but by forces that were applied to him that changed his shape. He was pressed into a new shape or creation. The transformative powers that changed him into a new creation can also change us. We never really reach our full potential, but we can stretch to reach new goals, with this power. Some may believe pressure to be shaped into something new is stressful. I believe it is only stressful, if we fail to let go of the things we see with our own eyes. It becomes a relief if we look to the unseen. That is faith! Norman Vincent Peale said in his booklet called “Thought Conditioners”, “Every person, if he is to have mental health and live successfully, must move away from past failures and mistakes and go forward without letting them be a weight upon him.” I say that even past successes can hold us back from future accomplishments in life. We should never give up on the goal which is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus. One bible version reads, “The one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians3:13,14) Please read more to see how success according to the world, may prevent us from greater success according to the world to come.

T