Authentic

Pss. 50:15 “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”

Do you know what it means to be authentic in your faith?

If we live in Christ, if we live our true identity our community, our world will never be the same. That is the message Jesus gave to Paul and Paul delivered to Ephesus. He wanted us to be authentic in what we show the world. If we are authentic then the world sees our unified Light. The more light that shines, the more illuminated the world will be during the dark times.

I often hear, “I can’t believe you wrote that, that you just put all of you out there.”

My response is, “It’s my truth.” That my friends is my authenticity. I am who I am and I don’t hide behind false bravado. If Jesus himself came knocking on my door, would someone else answer? He would see through me, He sees through everybody’s mask.  Would I put on a mask and pretend to be someone I’m not? Would I hide all the dirty dishes? No, because there are none. What He would see is the real me, just as He sees me every day. Not that He cares if you have dirty dishes, he would see you trying to hide them and your feelings of embarrassment and being caught unaware that He was coming.

Can everyone say that they were prepared for His visit? No? You attend church on Sunday, then come home, kick off your shoes and pop open a bottle or can of some booze and then go to the web and just accidentally fall upon the pornography or undesirable sites? You feed yourself junk and that includes the hate and disgust of the world until the next Sunday comes around when you put on that ‘Sunday face’ again? You then repeat the same thing over and over until each Sunday comes around? That is not being authentic.

Let me tell you another thing about me I’ll just toss out there; life’s tough. There is no easy road to being a person who is authentic in nature, God loving. That road is full of debris that hinders the path so going along smoothly becomes a rocky road and I don’t mean cheesy peasy ice cream easy, either. You might say, “What? Are you telling me you’re Miss Perfect?” And I’ll tell you right up front, in no uncertain terms, I AM NOT perfect, I am authentic! I wait for His coming and I prepare myself daily for His arrival.

Let’s say for example if you bumped into someone from Church in the grocery store, would you be the same person they see on Sunday? Suppose you have booze in your cart, would you feel uneasy, ashamed, proud, what? Let’s say a person from Church stopped by your house on a Wednesday unannounced, would you scurry to hide your mess? Would you pretend you’re not home because your place isn’t ‘acceptable’ to look at? 

Think about that seriously. Are you the same person sitting in church on Sunday as the person sitting at home the rest of the week? Yes I stumble, I fall, I skin my knees but sin is not something I commit willingly and usually I’m right up front about my sin; for some reason, hiding doesn’t seem to work. God sees all, so why hide behind a mask? If the truth is out there then it becomes easier to heal, easier to walk the path of authenticity because you’re exposed.

Nobody (except a doctor) likes to see an open wound. No one likes to share the open wound because it feels like you’re seeking self-pity. I like to put my open wounds out there to find healing. “See this scar? That was a wound that’s healed!” 

There are so many non-authentic people in the world the darkness is overloading the system. It’s like a bad virus that has corrupted the files. We want to choose a good cleaner for our system, we want the best anti-virus protecting us but our bad choices often lead us to damage the entire system. 

The authentic Christian chooses Christ to be his/her healer cleanser on a daily basis, not just a Sunday visit. It doesn’t work that way. Can you imagine turning off your firewall, your anti-virus protection on the computer every day of the week except Sunday? The vile, decrepit, sinister beast that will eventually expose your true nature will attack you. You have to have true authentic protection on a daily basis for the armor to hold up in your weaker moments.

This is MY story. This is MY authenticity shining through. Every person is different and has a different level of security set up. My choice is Christ. Has it stopped me from being attacked? Has God blanketed me from all pain? Nope, He sure hasn’t but He HAS been the one who's healed me. The only one who was there with a Kleenex to dry my tears. The only one who dove into my system to take away the crud; charges me up and emits a light that everyone sees. THAT is my authenticity in Christ shining through. 

May the lit umbrella of the Lord become your authentic nature and shine through you all! 

God bless

Eph. 6: 5-6 “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;

Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;”

Quotation Saturday

Acts 18:9 “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:”

OBSCURED

“Even the darkest cloud cannot obscure the brightest light.” 
― Ken Poirot

“Writers whose thoughts are expressed with clarity and precision are assumed by readers to be superficial. Where the meaning is obscured, then readers give more attention and consider the fruit of their labour more valuable” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“You can't be successful if you are good at hiding yourself! Be success minded; think about uncovering what you know, what you have, and what you have to know for the comfort, inspiration and enlightenment of others!” 
― Israelmore Ayivor

“If you don't want to be average, don't rush into doing what the crowd is doing” 
― Constance Chuks Friday

BLIND

“If the Creator stood before a million men with the light of a million lamps, only a few would truly see him because truth is already alive in their hearts. Truth can only be seen by those with truth in them. He who does not have Truth in his heart, will always be blind to it.” 
― Suzy Kassem

“Sometimes your light shines so bright that it blinds people from seeing who you really are.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it.” 
― H.L. Mencken

“So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.” 
― René Descartes

CLARITY

“Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.” 
― Oscar Wilde

“A solid answer to everything is not necessary. Blurry concepts influence one to focus, but postulated clarity influences arrogance.” 
― Criss Jami

“When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.” 
― Horace Walpole

“...it is precisely because the world appears to us to be multiple, ambiguous, and paradoxical, that we must strive to speak and write clearly.” 
― Mark Dintenfass

VISION

“The most pathetic person in the world is some one who has sight but no vision.” 
― Helen Keller

“Never surrender your hopes and dreams to the fateful limitations others have placed on their own lives. The vision of your true destiny does not reside within the blinkered outlook of the naysayers and the doom prophets. Judge not by their words, but accept advice based on the evidence of actual results. Do not be surprised should you find a complete absence of anything mystical or miraculous in the manifested reality of those who are so eager to advise you. Friends and family who suffer the lack of abundance, joy, love, fulfillment and prosperity in their own lives really have no business imposing their self-limiting beliefs on your reality experience.” 
― Anthon St. Maarten

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.” 
― Ayn Rand,

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” 
― Albert Einstein

Quotation Saturday ~ Christmas

Luke 2:13-14 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

CHRISTMAS

“And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.”
~ Sigrid Undset

“How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!”
~ Benjamin Franklin

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
~ Charles Dickens

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,' returned the nephew. 'Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”
~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

“Don’t spoil Christmas Day by anticipating how it will be. Let is unfold as it does, and be grateful for whatever comes.”
~ Toni Sorenson

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!”
~ Dr. Seuss

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.”
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.”
~ Ronald Reagan

“Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.”
~ Steve Maraboli

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“As Christmas day unfolds in strips of ribbons and bows, I’m reminded of Christ and His birth, when the Glorious King came to earth wrapped in swaddling clothes.”

~ Joni Zipp

“And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Poetry Sunday ~ All Good Men

“All Good Men”

©Adam Zipp

The gunpowder and smoke,

the sounds of a roaring hell,

that is where the glory is shed,

along with the blood stained rivers,

the sick lay wounded in their beds.

Turn away from the pain,

let the night sky fall down like rain,

it is said that good men die young,

but good men stand up to be strong.

Good men fight,

They play the songs of the war bands,

they guide us all with an unseen light,

and always take our hands.

Liberty lives within strong men,

even when evil lashes out like a roaring fire,

the darkness will seep out from the Lion’s Den,

If good men do not aspire.

They never fought alone,

One good man can win a battle,

but when grouped with many men,

together a war can be won.

The men who fought,

they are strong and wise,

they have been through the pits of hell,

always risking their lives.

In the cold months ahead,

in the long warmth of the dead,

may we give thanks to those living and gone,

for everything they have done,

let us thank a vet.

Weary Among Men

Job 39: 12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

Weary Among Men

My heart is growing weary

My eyes are drawing dim.

I cannot find the laughter

In man who’s wrought with sin.

My legs are turning wobbly

My arms they hurt to raise.

I cannot find the joy

In man who gives false praise.

My mind is set to wander

Away from a faulty place.

I cannot find the happiness

In man who wears false face.

My body’s nearly broken

I’m aching all inside.

I cannot live in sanctity

While man is full of pride.

Dear Lord come and take me home

Where I might find some peace.

I cannot stay where I don’t belong

I cry out for sweet release!

Prov. 7: 19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

Poetry Sunday ~ I Pray

2 Sam. 7: 27 For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.

I Pray

Now I’ll kneel me down to pray

Lord I know not what to say

The world is filled with so much hate

I pray to you, it’s not too late.

Just because they read the news

They feel the need to share the blues

My prayer is for them to open their eyes

And see some beauty within the lies.

I’ll pray they have an open heart

To give out love as their new start.

To not be overcome with guile

That they instead would give a smile.

As I kneel me down to pray

Please have mercy as they stray

Grant us peace here on earth

Allow in men to see their worth.

Now my knees begin to hurt

For man who sleeps in earthly dirt

Will you love them once again.

Show them grace, I pray, AMEN!

Ephesians 4:32-33 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Quotation Saturday

SPORTS
(in lieu of Super Bowl Sunday)

“Winning isn't everything--but wanting to win is.”
― Vince Lombardi Jr

“If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead.”
― Erma Bombeck

“I later discovered that in order to be a good athlete one must care intensely what is happening with a ball, even if one doesn't have possession of it. This was ultimately my failure: my inability to work up a passion for the location of balls.”
― Haven Kimmel, Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana

Vince Lombardi Jr.
“football is like life - it requires perserverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”
― Vince Lombardi Jr.

“Guys care about sports teams. I'm not talking about simply rooting; I'm talking about a relationship that guys develop, a commitment to a sport team that guys take way more seriously than, for example, wedding vows.”
― Dave Barry


SUNDAY

“A sabbath well spent,
Brings a week of content,
And strength for the toils of the morrow;
But a sabbath profaned,
Whate’er may be gained,
Is a certain forerunner of sorrow.”
― Anonymous

“... God is not a Sunday plumber - he's always available...”
― John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“... millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
― Susan Ertz

MEN

“I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.”
― Anaïs Nin

“Why are women... so much more interesting to men than men are to women?”
― Virginia Woolf

“Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is... suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.”
― Gillian Anderson

“No woman wants to be in submission to a man who isn't in submission to God!”
― T.D. Jakes