Fantastic Friday #873 - Inferior

Inferior

“My eyes have seen all this,
my ears have heard and understood it.
2 What you know, I also know;
I am not inferior to you.
3 But I desire to speak to the Almighty
and to argue my case with God. Job 13:1-3

Are there times when you feel inferior to someone else? Maybe at your work, a person in authority makes you feel like you don't belong in your position, or possibly you might have experienced in a church setting that someone made you feel like you didn't have the same faith as them and you don't quite belong in their group. The challenge in today's world is there is always going to be the view that there is someone inferior to you. Maybe it is the cultural status, or monetary status where the inferiority is felt the strongest. God created us all as equal individuals, so there is no reason why any one of us should feel inferior to each other. A synonym of inferior is lesser, and when one recognizes that we are all lesser than God, but we can still approach God in humbleness, I have a strong belief that our feelings of inferiority would be lessened. We need to live a life that is full of recognition that we are all equal in the sight of our Lord, and a little humbleness goes a long way.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #872 - Holding On

Holding On

18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. 1 Timothy 4:7-8

What are you holding on to? Many in our world today are holding on to the wrong things. They are swallowed up by what the world is telling us we need to have or how we need to handle business. I got very upset this week with two people at work and instead of holding on to the spirit when I spoke to them, I spoke out of a place of anger and frustration. I look back on these instances after one of my staff told me how she observed me being dismissive, and how she knew that it was not like me. She knows I am a follower of Christ, and if she can see how it was not like me, I wonder what the other person feels about my reaction. Sometimes we need to hold on to the teachings and example of Christ, while He did get angry, He did always speak out of love and care. I find myself sometimes holding on to too much and not leaning into the spirit to guide me. Don't hold on to what the world says you should do or say, hold on to the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and use His example to handle things in our life.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #871 - Thankful

Thankful

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3:15-16

Some days I think our world is getting worse and worse, but then I think maybe it is just that 2% of people who are nasty to each other, aren't thankful, and are hateful are ones that make it into our social media lives. I sat down this week and began thinking about all the things I am thankful for, and those things certainly outweigh any kind of difficulty or strife that I personally have in my life. I was on a conference call later this week and the person on the other end asked me if I was stressed, and I was like no, why do you ask? They said because you are squeezing a stress ball. Funny, I told them that I am trying not to be stressed about anything and start focusing on the blessings in my life and be thankful. It isn't easy, because the enemy sneaks in daily and tries to make me think that I shouldn't be thankful, even for the hard times. I have found that I am a much happier and peaceful person when I am thankful for the family and friends God has given me, even the ones He has taken away. I am a better man, father and husband because of those people that are in my life and were in my life. If we take these small steps to be thankful, we will experience Joy and happiness in our lives.

Have a great weekend.

Matt

Fantastic Friday #870 - Love

Love

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12


I did something this week which I never do, I got involved in a discussion online about the interpretation of a scripture. The main gist of the discussion was referencing that part of verse 8 above which states God is Love. Someone stated that God is not identical to Love and that God is Love but love is not God. This statement was made because of someone else's post that stated God and Love are one in the same.

The reason I bring this up is because one individual stated that the more accurate phrase in this verse 8 should be God is loving. I shared that once you change love the noun to a verb loving, it totally changes the meaning of the scripture. He also shared that scholars have been making decisions about word usage all the time. This brings me to my next comment with this scripture.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16

So, if this word is God's word, His intention was it was to be read as written and not change the verbiage which would likely change the meaning. For years people have been developing their own interpretation of scripture and this can create issues when we start changing God's Word. All I know is that if we need to understand something better that God has written, we need to use prayer to our advantage. You can take a moment to do what is stated in Philippians 4:5-7 and God will guard your heart and mind.

Have a great weekend.

Matt