Blood, sweat, & tears

Even in the best weather construction workers still sweat. When have you ever seen something being built and thought to yourself, "man that looks easy"? Even with all the modern technology available any building is the product of hard work. Relationships are no different. The most beautiful and long-lasting ones are those that people worked the hardest to build. If you are unwilling to work hard, relationships are not for you. If you are unwilling to forgive, true love will avoid you. Love doesn't build a relationship, work does. Love may get you to the construction site, but you gotta be willing to put on your hard-hat, sweat, and possibly even be cut and bleed(Jesus) if you want to build a relationship that is destruction proof. That is all...I'll be back(1 Corinthians 13)

Knowing is half the battle!

It is far easier to simply shake your head in agreement with something than it is to actually become that something. In reality, true agreement happens only when we become what we hear. So the same holds true with the word of God. For example, when God says, “Love is patient, love is kind...it keeps no record of wrongs”(1 Cor.13) He is not merely making commentary about Himself. He also is not simply building a monument to love for us to simply marvel at the depth, height, and width of its majesty. He is, rather, calling us to become exactly what He is speaking to us. To put it another way, in the account of creation suppose God said “let there be light” and the darkness from which this light was supposed to come simply marveled at this command. Suppose the light approached the darkness and asked “Excuse me. Are you ok? Haven't you heard that God said let there be light?” And the darkness responded, “ Man I've been out here in the dark not able to see a thing for a long time. I run into myself all the time. If you don't mind, what exactly is light?” “Light is the absence of darkness.” the light replies. In utter shock and amazement the darkness says, “Wow! Imagine that! Light! The absence of darkness. I have to go tell someone else.” “Wait! Take me with you.” the light replied. However, it was too late the darkness had “vanished” without realizing that it needed to become light in order to find anyone.

This figurative encounter illustrates two very powerful truths. The first truth is that the greatest asset to communication is demonstration. And second truth is the reality that in order to affect you must first infect.

Ultimately, what I am communicating here is two-fold. First I want to destroy the notion that anything magical or mystical happens when we read the word of God. The bible is best understood and communicated in practice. Simply reading the bible and praying that something will just happen is about as magical as walking into the gym and praying for muscles and strength. Second, I aim to challenge the religious concept the knowing the word appeases God and is a part of our obligation to Him. What I am after here is a misconception lodged in the subconscious that triggers a false sense of satisfaction after we complete our daily devotion and bible reading. Because God has placed His word above Himself, He is never satisfied until His word is fulfilled. God took this principle to the extreme when He told Adam, “the day you eat of this tree, you will surely die”. When Adam disobeyed, God was obligated to fulfill His word. We were taught that Christ came to save humanity from eternal death, but it is also true that Jesus came to prevent our father from becoming a liar. In other words, God is not satisfied until what He has said actually happens. This is why Satan is considered a liar and impotent. It's not because he goes around telling childish fabrications, but because the devil knows God's word but is incapable of fulfilling it.

This takes us back to my initial statement about agreement. Agreement and fulfillment walk hand in hand. People often use the terms agreement and contract interchangeably. When a contract is signed, it said that there is an “agreement”.When God speaks a word He enters a contract between His word and our spirits. Therefore to be in agreement with God's word we must fulfill its terms. Using our earlier example, “Love is patient, love is Kind...” we see that God is calling us to become what Love is and not marvel after it. Whenever you marvel after something, you make it temporarily inaccessible and non-transferable. This is why it is so hard for us to transfer love because it's really impossible to know what love is unless you are what love is. I challenge everyone to become the change that you want to see in others. Remember you cannot communicate what you cannot demonstrate and you must be infected with the change you want to affect people with. Have a blessed Saturday!

UnderLearn/Overdraft

Today's lesson wasn't an easy one. I woke up to the tune of 3 overdraft fees for an account that I barely even use these days. I was so angry because I felt that I had clearly been wronged by the bank, and even if I was at fault these fees were certainly astronomical. Naturally, I called the bank's customer service department to request that these fees be waived. Sadly, that did not happened. Instead, I was left with the bitter taste of money wasted. I felt so wronged and violated by these charges. I thought that surely this bank must have a horrible reputation with consumers. Well, it turns out that I was right as I searched the internet for a place to find some sympathy. Sympathy is exactly what I found as I read numerous horror stories as customers criticized the bank's “deceptive” policies. I started to feel a little better knowing that I wasn't the only victim, but this feeling did not last long. While I was reading, I came across a consumer who had taken the time to post an excerpt from my bank's checking account policy. There it was, in not so plain english, the bank's terms and intentions disclosed and given to me before I'd ever completed a transaction with them. At that point, fair and unfair became irrelevant terms in reference to this policy and it became clear that my problem was not with the bank, but within me.

Even if I had be successful in recouping those fees, I would not have been better off than I was before they were imposed on my account. Evidently my problem did not stem from a lack of money, but a lack of knowledge and or ignorance. It wasn't just that I did not know the bank's policy, but more importantly it was because I did not read the terms of my checking account(I ignored them).

This, my good friends, is why we suffer. We think that we need more, but if we knew more about what we had our needs would be less. This blog is not about money, but ignorance. In this case, I asked God for more and instead He showed me how I had mismanaged what He had already given me. In essence He said to me, “you are being destroyed in the area of finances because you ignore the knowledge required to successfully manage them.” I asked for more money, God gave me more knowledge. Although the bank's policy on fees is pretty unethical, it was actually my ignorance of their policy that gave them permission to take advantage of me. The most interesting thing about banks in general is that they invite and reward educated consumers with wealth, and reject and reward ignorant consumers with poverty. I was just about to declare this an evil practice until I realized that God does the same thing. Please read this scripture and have a blessed day! Hosea 4:6, "my people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I will also ignore your children."

Heaven Bound? Not so fast...

Heaven? One of my friends said,"everybody wants to go the Heaven, but no one wants to die." That made me think about John 17:15 where Jesus says, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." The Lord's prayer: "...thy Kingdom come thy will be done on EARTH as it is in heaven..." If you pray like this you are actually praying for heaven to come to earth. I used to say things like, "I'm a stranger passing through this land, heaven is my home!", but according to the Psalms heaven is not man's home, earth is. Psalm 115:16, "The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man."

I know it sounds good to escape this treacherous world for a better place, but let us carefully examine what the bible really says. No crying in heaven? Really? That's not what John saw. Revelation 6:9-11:

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?11 And white robes were given unto every one of them;and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, shall be fulfilled.

Wait a minute! Why would people who are in heaven have anything to complain about? Shouldn't they be enjoying themselves? Or maybe those people know the whole story and are anxious because they know that heaven is not their home. Maybe before they died they read Revelation 21:3 which talks about the new heaven and a new earth and it says, "...the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them..." Notice it says, "He will live with them" and not "they will live with Him". This is actually the fulfillment of the Lord's prayer, "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." Ironically, some of us pray every night for heaven to come to earth and then we wake up, dread going to work, and then pray to go to Heaven.

New flash! In the words of P.Diddy(que the music), "we aint' go-in nowhere!" That's right unpack your bags. If you die and you are in right-standing with God, your spirit will go to heaven temporarily but your body will someday be resurrected and the new earth will be your final resting place. So for that matter, the earth was never meant to be empty. "...He is God, He did not create the earth to be empty, but to be inhabited(Isaiah 45:18). All of this information is in the Bible that you read at least every Sunday so please don't be upset with me. If anything, I'd say take it up with Jesus. He prayed for you to stay, you pray to leave; which prayer do you think will be answered?

Please sign-up to follow this blog @ http://timothy-kennedy.blogspot.com/...Stay tuned tomorrow for a discussion on what Jesus instructed us to do instead of being preoccupied with heaven. We will also talk about why we are not necessarily living in the last days...peace.

"Stand to reverence the reading of the Word of the Lord!"

Random question perhaps but what's up with notion that you are reverencing God when you stand for the reading of His word? I mean a know it's a gesture and a symbol of respect, but symbols and gestures are supposed to reflect the actual condition of the heart towards a thing. So in this case, standing for the reading of the word and yet not obeying the word wouldn't exactly qualify as reverence. Better yet standing for the "reading" of the word, but never actually reading the word on your own is more like hypocrisy than it is reverence. Now I am not opposed to standing for the reading of the word of the Lord when I am asked, but that gesture is more like reverence to the request of the speaker. The truth is that standing when you read the word is a preference whether it's your own, or whether it's requested of you. Reverence is just too tall an order to be accomplished by something as inconsequential as standing. True reverence to the word of God can only be shown through our obedience to it. In John 14:15 Jesus says to his disciples, "If you love(or reverence) me you will obey what I command"...and the irony is that the disciples were probably sitting down.

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1st Blog

This blog will be about any and everything. I believe I have an interesting perspective and so does anyone who sees life through the purpose and original intention filter. In order to draw an audience I suppose I will need some provocative and thought-provoking content. For the record, what exactly qualifies as "thought-provoking"? I think I have a general understanding of what people mean when they label content "thought-provoking", but just what exactly are those people doing before they read that they need to be provoked into thinking mode. Notice I said "those" people, hence I am not talking about you(lol). I guess what people really mean is that they're looking for something to stimulate new thoughts in the mind- something that is worth the exercise that is reading.

Well for that matter there is nothing more thought-provoking than purpose. The purposes of our universe, the purposes our planet, the purposes of you and I...what are they? Does anyone really know? Does it even matter? This is truly interesting because everyone of us is functioning in a vocation either because we believe we are meant to be there or we aren't quite sure where we're supposed to be. Many of us haven't even got around to that question and yet time goes on. The fact is that out all of the created species in this world the question of purpose lies only in the heart of humanity. Animals seem to instinctively know where they are supposed to be and seem to be doing exactly what they are supposed to do. Humans? Not so much... Ironically, the only time we see animals out of place or malfunctioning is when there is human interference...not that there is anything wrong with the zoo, circus, aquarium, or even having a tiger(potential death) as a pet but, you get my point. Ultimately purpose is central to humanity and every single dilemma that exists in this world, because if you don't know your purpose you will abnormally use yourself and others.

Does this qualify as thought-provoking?

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