My verse for life is Isaiah 40:31- For those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up on wings as eagles.
An eagle soars on the updraft of wind and can glide on those air currents for miles. They wait to catch a wave so to speak and ride that wave through the sky. That is like the leading of the Lord; it is a strong UP current that takes you soaring above your problems and gives you a much higher perspective of things. There is calmness about it a soaring of your spirits, you are uplifted. Your situation may not change but you are energized internally to weather the storms you are faced with.
From this lofty position riding on the waves of the spirit of God you are able to look further into the future and see more of your surroundings. You are able to see things you may not have been able to see before while wallowing in self pity or anything else that kept you grounded. If you are actively seeking the Lord while waiting upon him He will send along a spiritual wind current to lift you up.
Choosing the Right Path
You will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way. Follow it, whether it turns to the right or to the left.”Isaiah 30:21 (GW)
So the leading of the Lord comes as a strong urging to go in a particular direction. You may not know where the road leads but you just know you are supposed to take that road. As you travel along that road you are to be watching for the signs of God’s leading and direction. He will place blessings along the way as you journey.
I guess the best way to describe it is like going on a treasure hunt. You have a basic idea where to go but you are not really sure what you are looking for but you will know once you find it. So it is when you journey with God. He sets you on a pathway and gives you clues and guidance along the way and as you go you find blessings in places you never would have thought to look on your own.
Insight for your “Journey across the Sky”
A View from the Nest www.eagleviews.org
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16 (ESV)
Allergy medicine that does not relieve the symptoms and religions that does not relieve distress of the people are both ineffectual.
I suffer from allergies. Some days are better than others when it comes to symptoms. When I am having a bad day I want relief from the itchy eyes, the runny nose, and the scratchy throat. I tried many different over the counter medications and most of them did not help on severe allergy days so I went looking for the drug I used to take to remedy the symptoms. And it worked!
I am pretty loyal to brands once I find something that works. I like Tide. It does the job I expect it to do-get my laundry clean and fresh. I like Quaker Oats products, they have always proven themselves to be of high quality at least to my liking. I prefer Coke to Pepsi. I like Hershey chocolate and a Baldwin concert grand piano.
I am not saying that others are not good I just have a preference. Now when it comes to my salvation I found someone who does what He says He will do and can be depended on to fulfill (the promises he made to us). Jesus was the answer to my life’s search for answers.
You may not like Jesus so you are searching for other answers. I hope you do not find like I did that some remedies are not remedies at all. In fact the money I spent on those ineffective allergy medicines could have done far more good being given to a charity somewhere. The drug company that produced these pills only took my money and offered me nothing as far as relief is concerned.
I can think of many things that take money and offer nothing in return. The government comes to mind as a big taker of money and offering very little value in return. Drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, and other vices always take more from you then they offer in return. So do mega-ministries. They offer BIG promises to get your money and then are impotent when it comes time to actually provide the help they promised.
In all my searching for Jesus I am sad to say I tried all the well known manufacturers of the ‘God’s pill’. None of their prescribed methods of salvation worked for me. It was not until I was basically kicked out of every major denomination in the United States did I actually find the ‘God’s pill’ that worked.
Jesus came to me when I sought him with my whole heart. I had given up trying to work out my salvation. I had given up trying to find my own way of making life make sense. I realized I was a failure and had no answers, only questions. When I took those symptoms and questions to the churches representing Christ in the world I was given all kinds of prescriptions to remedy my life symptoms and they all proved ineffectual.
Where was I to go? To whom could I find to represent the truth of God? What did work? What pill could I take to relieve me of the suffering? It was not until I actually tried Jesus, not a denominational view of Jesus, but the actual living breathing resurrected Jesus spoken of in the scriptures, did I find relief from all of life’s ills. No church membership was able to cure my soul sickness. None of the methodologies espoused by the many denominations were able to address my need for soul cleansing. Their prescription masked some of the symptoms but where unable to render a real cure. If I was only seeking to ease the symptoms of my sin sick soul then the denominational church structure was able to provide the needed relief, although temporal at best. Jesus however offered an eternal cure.
Churches need to get back to the basics of the gospel and spread abroad the good news of Christ and his saving power rather than promoting their particular brand of doctrine. What the world needs is more cures from sin sickness and not simply remedies of symptoms.
When people are looking for relief from their spiritual afflictions they too want something that works. When I was spiritually desperate and searching for answers that is when I found Jesus to be the answer to all my spiritual problems.
Drixoral worked for my allergies and Jesus works for my soul sickness. I tried all the rest. I am sticking with the best.
But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Psalms 103:12 (NKJV)
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”Heb 8:12 (NKJV)
How many of us remember our school days and the permanent record? How many times have you, like me, been threatened with the words, “it is going into your permanent record”. It was the duty of the school to keep a permanent record of our activities both good and bad during our tenure. This permanent record was a history of who we were, when we were in that institution of higher learning. Ideally this permanent record would have been kept spotless and only list accomplishments, not the exploits of a wayward teen.
School discipline was something we feared as children. Being sent to the principals office was not a school trip we looked forward to taking. We feared the permanent record almost as much as we feared failing a class.
Some miscreants enjoyed the permanent record of misdeeds and foibles. To them it was a badge of honor, a written record of their misdeeds. They were proud of these outlandish acts that others thought were not so noteworthy. To them a trip to detention was an admirable goal. For me however it was something to be avoided at all costs.
Law enforcement has a record of all the lawbreakers in their data base as well. I wonder how many miscreants from high school found themselves with a permanent record of lawlessness? I wonder how many have permanent criminal records to coincide with their high school permanent records? I wonder how many of them spent time in a detention center of a different sort?
Truth be told we are all lawbreakers when it comes to the ways of God. The bible teaches clearly that no one is righteous. Romans 3:10 None of us seeks after what is true and right, we all like sheep have gone astray, each one following after our own way of doing things. Isaiah 53:6 We all have sinned and come short of God’s glory. Romans 3:23 We all have a record of wrongdoing so to speak. In the end we must stand before the principal and give an account of what we have done with our life. Revelation 20:12
Unlike the school district’s and law enforcement’s permanent records God does not keep a permanent record of wrongs. They are not written with a permanent marker. God made a way to erase all those permanent mistakes without having to endure detention. God’s way was to send someone else to detention in our place. God sent an advocate, a substitute, a scapegoat who would take our punishment for us. Jesus would take all our misdeeds with him to the cross of Calvary where they are forever engraved on his hands.
If we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and acknowledge that he died for our sins, and if we repent of our sins, then Jesus will go to work on our permanent records to blot them out of God’s record book and replace them with forgiveness.
Therefore the only permanent marks in heaven are the marks in the hands, feet and side of Jesus. They are permanent reminders of the price he paid for our sins. A permanent mark of the sacrifice offered for our forgiveness. These scars are a permanent record of His love for us.
God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.John 3:16 (GW)
But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)
On March 17, 2008, Oprah hosted her third webnar class with author Eckhart Tolle. Since her endorsement of Tolle’s book, A New Earth, about 3.5 million copies of his spiritual self-help guide have been sent out and more than 2 million people in 139 countries have now signed up for the World Wide Web seminar using a new technology called Skype. (Skype is a free software that allows you to make Internet and videophone calls from all over the world.)
After reading the first two (2) chapters of A New Earth, it is apparent that Tolle does not embrace any one religion over another but instead creates his own, new religion by blending many tenants of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sufism, Christianity, and other faiths into one. According to a review in the Vancouver Sun by Douglas Todd, Tolle’s “spiritual outlook has become more complex since (his earlier book), The Power of Now, when he dismissed external reality as an illusion and made it sound as if “living in the now” was a panacea for all the world’s problems. In addition, Tolle believes outer realities – including politics, war, poverty, and even the climate – will magically be transformed when individuals change their inner consciousness. This may be true, but only to an extent.”
In essence, Tolle’s approach to his spiritual quest is basically to dumb down all faiths including, and in particular, Christianity. By reducing Christianity to a watered down version, Tolle supplies a Christianity that is more appealing to the masses. According to Chuck Norris in his article, Oprah’s New Easter, “Tolle only quotes relatively benign sayings of Jesus, avoiding the more difficult ones. For example, Tolle notes that Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is already present on earth and can be experienced right now, but Tolle overlooks Jesus’ teaching that one must be born again (by believing in Him as the Son of God and Savior) to see that kingdom in the future” (Norris 1). Additionally, Tolle makes no mention that Jesus was making reference to the kingdom of heaven that will take place on earth after Jesus’ pending return in which He will set up his new kingdom here on earth.
Needless to say, Tolle incorrectly interprets this passage on page 43 of his book when he writes, “‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,’ Jesus said, ‘for theirs will be the kingdom of heaven’. What does ‘poor in spirit’ mean? No inner baggage, no identifications. Not with things, not with any mental concepts that have a sense of self in them. And what is the ‘kingdom of heaven’? The simple profound joy of Being that is there when you let go of identifications and so become ‘poor in spirit'” (New).
As Norris noted, Tolle does indeed dumb down Matthew 5:3 by declaring the poor in spirit is here and now and all one needs to do is live in the present as well as do away with all your earthly possessions. While controlling our insatiable need for material possessions – as Americans – would most definitely be a worthy goal for each and every one of us, Tolle misinterpreted this scripture by taking it out of context. Whether intentional or not, he misconstrued what this passage is really about.
What Tolle leaves out of his dumbed-down version of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is that in this particular passage, the word poor is linked to in spirit. If Jesus had used the word poor by itself, than Eckhart’s interpretation would be valid. However, Jesus links poor to spirit to clarify His intention. “To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge honestly and with understanding our spiritual poverty – indeed our spiritual bankruptcy – before God” (bible 3).
Norris also states that we “need to rebel against low expectations of culture and choose to do hard things” (Norris, 1). In other words, instead of falling at the feet of the current guru and hearkening his dumbed-down version of ‘Christianity,” we need to take a stand and follow the road that is less traveled. Although a much harder road to travel, it is one that will ultimately lead us to the eternal One who has all the answers, not just for our own personal lives, but for the society we live in.
Ultimately it is our own personal decision to make. We can choose to accept the dumbed-down version of Christianity that is being espoused by the Tolle-Oprah church, or we can take the harder route and the less traveled road and follow Jesus Christ. In order to do so, however, we must accept all of Him, not the dumb-down version offered up in A New Earth.
Number three on the New York Times best seller list does not surprise me. People would much rather believe all these convoluted offerings rather than the truth that a loving God actually cared enough about our pitiful selfs that He sent His only Son to die so that we might live.Now I do not know about you but my best intentions has never led me anywhere but to despair. No matter how hard I tried I could never measure up to be GOOD enough by the so called enlightened crowd so I guess I would be doomed to forever live in despair save for the Lord Jesus Christ who came into my life and rescued me from my despair. Now I know who I belong to and therefore I am no longer looking to the enlightened crowd for my self worth.
Perhaps Chopra and all his adherents would be better served to read the ‘Good Book’.
In the book, released in February by Harmony, Chopra states, “I have written what I think the New Testament means…” And what it means to Chopra, the author of more than 40 books, is quite different from the way orthodox Christians have understood it through the centuries.
Chopra believes that the “real” Jesus — the third Jesus — is much less than the New Testament makes him out to be.
According to Chopra, Jesus was nothing more than an adherent to what we now call New Age philosophy.
“Jesus did not physically descend from God’s dwelling place … nor did he return to sit at the right hand of a literal throne,” writes Chopra. “What made Jesus the Son of God was the fact that he had achieved God-consciousness.”
We shouldn’t discount Chopra’s book and assume no one is reading it. Sadly, the opposite true. “The Third Jesus” — full of New Age, heretical pabulum — was ranked third March 30 on The New York Times’ list for hardcover advice books.
My verse for life is Isaiah 40:31- For those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up on wings as eagles.
Law enforcement has a record of all the lawbreakers in their data base as well. I wonder how many miscreants from high school found themselves with a permanent record of lawlessness? I wonder how many have permanent criminal records to coincide with their high school permanent records? I wonder how many of them spent time in a detention center of a different sort?
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