The Diaries of a Fruitcake in a Half Baked World!

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?               James 4:11-12

What happens when we judge someone in our mind? Are we trying to lift ourselves up because we are having low self-esteem? Is it because we are jealous of what the other has? Maybe someone that we look at seems to have it all together and we know that we don’t, so something has to be wrong with the person and we try to find it. Maybe you are sitting in a book store and in walks 4 women with their hair up, no make up and long skirts. What do you think? Do you look at them and judge them right there?

We judge because we don’t understand someone’s choices. Choices that make them look a certain way. Their choices have them where they are now and maybe you don’t like where you are and want what they have. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you judge someone because they wore that outfit to church and it is making all the men look at them. Maybe she is overweight and is sitting at a restaurant eating a big piece of cake. Maybe she is walking down the hallway of school holding another girls hand.

What about speaking evil about one another, brothers? By this verse saying “brothers”, James was talking to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Why do we speak evil about one another? Life is so hard when you walk out your front door. It is so hard to be around others who are talking about someone else and not join in.

It’s hard for me. I mean, I have turned my life around and have felt the Lord in my life, showing me the areas that I need to change to make me live more righteously (that means living right for God). I have been searching for holiness in my life. Sometimes it is confusing and sometimes it isn’t. I have made a decision to not get on facebook or email or anything on the computer until after I have given the Lord my time in the morning. I was noticing that my life was getting out of control and I didn’t know how to take hold of it. I realized that God was getting the last part of my day when He should have been getting the first.

Living my life, making the choices I make now, I  try to do it all out of love and wanting to do what the Lord convicts me of. There are some things I might not be convicted of that you are, but it doesn’t mean that you or I are less than what we should be. Everyone has their on convictions. Where one might have a conviction to stop drinking, I don’t because I don’t drink anymore. (I recently found out that I am allergic to alcohol and have immediate side effects.) I rarely did anyway because of the side effects I had, swelling immediately in my hands after the first sip. So, we all have different convictions.  The Lord deals with each of us differently but it all is going toward one goal: to be reconciled to Him.

I do have a hard time with being out in the world. I try to stay to myself and the reason is not because I don’t like people or think I am better but because I have a weakness and it’s called listening to gossip. I sometimes fall into it or I just stand or sit there. Sometimes I will start it by saying something I heard earlier and want to know if that person heard it. Even when I don’t say anything, it is just as bad because I am allowing it to enter where the Lord’s Spirit resides. After all is said and done, I walk away feeling like I failed miserably. So, I have been trying to not talk about anything that I have read that is the bad fall of someone else. The news I hear is always a conversational piece to break the ice when I’m with someone else. BUT like I said I am trying to stop that.

SO, if you are close to me or talk to me and I start saying something about what I have heard, please stop me. I would like to try and tell others to stop when they start but I just don’t know how. Have you been able to stop someone from going any further in their gossip about another person? If so, will you share with me?

The other morning I came across the words “lowly” and “servanthood”.  Reading the Bible I find that it is a characteristic that would actually help me and others. To strive for, to be a servant of Christ.  I, for one, am interested and desire the characteristics of Christ. Currently I am doing a workbook study on “The Mind of Christ”.   The word “servant” has a negative implication for me when it came up.  I mean, reading those two words, lowly and servanthood, sound like you are being a doormat and serving others and treated badly. I immediately felt my heart fall because I know this is one area I have a problem with. I started getting sad right away. I like to be happy and I like to make people laugh. Being a servant and being lowly don’t sound like a way to be happy or does it?

In Phil. 2:7 it says Jesus “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”.  A Christlike characteristics to becoming a servant is being lowly. Woah there!  Lowly?  Why would I want to be lowly? There are  a couple of reasons to not wanting to be lowly. The first is not knowing what it means and the second would be pride.  I mean, if you think about it, pride has been around since Adam and Eve in the garden!  God despises the proud, but He dwells on the lowly.  *Lowliness does not mean belittling yourself. Rather, it means esteeming others.

Ok, fast forward….I am laying in bed flipping through channels around 10:30 at night and come across Joyce Meyer Ministries.  I rarely ever watch t.v. but this night I turned it on and was searching for something to entertain my mind.  Joyce was talking about depression.  We all have something to be depressed about, seriously. If you really want to get down, then you can find something to make you sad and if you dwell on it, you will stay there.  Well, she made a really interesting observation on how to get out of depression without medication.  It is esteeming others! Imagine that.

To becoming lowly, I need to esteem others. Now that is not hard or discouraging like I thought.  I know I can do that. If we all desired and put some effort into esteeming others wouldn’t the world be a better place?  When you lift others up, some might not be very receptive to it at first, but when you truly mean it and the smile on your face is genuine, people notice and can’t help but smile back or if they don’t, they will eventually.

So if you find yourself depressed right now, find someone that you can esteem.  You will find that not only does it make that person feel better, it will make you feel better because your mind will be off of yourself and your problems and on someone else.

We would love to hear your stories of experiencing the characteristic of being lowly. Tell us how you have esteemed others around you. We would love to hear your ideas.

*The Mind of Christ  by T.W. Hunt and Claude King pg. 21

What?

I’ll say it again…life is about rules.

There are rules to a football game, rules to a job or you’ll be fired, rules in school, rules for driving.

We follow these rules because of our wants and desires.  Living Holy has rules too.  These rules aren’t to make you unhappy but to help aide you in the quest for holiness.  You have choices and are free to make them.  Standards aren’t to take freedom from you but help you live free.

For example.  I am 39 years old and I have 3 teenagers.  I see the stage they are in, each one of them, and remember that age. I remember thinking almost exactly like my oldest daughter, so when I see her going down the road I went, I want to tell you the shortcut because I know it now. That way she won’t have to take the long route.  Well, that is how it is with God’s standards.  He see’s the big picture of our life and the Word is our road map.  If we decide not to be obedient and follow the directions, then we will be on some bumpy ground.

Like my daughter hearing my advice to make life easier for her, she wants to be in control of her choices. It’s hard to give up control and stay on the right path.  This control is really a false sense.  We aren’t in control of our life, really.  We just choose which road to take when we are given a choice. In a sense we are in control of our choices.  We really aren’t free, we have just been told over and over again that we are.  I think of the movie, “He’s Just Not that into You” when at the beginning of the movie it shows that a little girl is treated really badly by a boy she was being nice to.  She runs to her mom and tells her through her tears that she is hurt. The mom then tells the little girl that the boy was mean to her because he likes her. What did that teach that little girl? That whenever a man is mean to her, that means he likes her. When we are told things we tend to believe it.  Being free without Christ is one of them.

We are all in bondage until we give our life to Christ.

Maybe we have lost faith? Faith in putting ourselves in the hands of our Creator.  If this is the case, we become our own God.  Someone that knows better. Why else wouldn’t we put our faith and trust in Christ? We think we can do better because we don’t have faith.

Forget that a certain religion has standards.  This is YOUR life! To live holy, what standards must there be to help YOU?

What is faith? Read Hebrews 11.

Something to meditate on…

In people’s selfish ambitions to be more, get more, etc… our world changes.

In this day and time, change has happened to make life easier so we are lazier, heavier and our morals are dying with the ages.  There is more selfishness to make one’s life easier.  When it’s distancing one farther away from righteousness.

What is “righteousness”?  It is living right.  That is how I remember it. To help you live “right” requires obedience to the Lord.

How can these selfish ambitions and obedience live together?  Selfish ambition leads to death, obedience leads to life.

Righteousness is living right. Once you find yourself being obedient to the Word, next would come sanctification. read More >

Alright, how many of you have been to a Bible study?  Did you like it?  I was involved with Bible studies from 1995 until 3 years ago. I haven’t been to church except maybe 3 times in the past 3 years.  Why?

Well, I just don’t want me or my family to get hurt again or get in the wrong frame of mind.  ”Get in the wrong frame of mind”? How can you get in the wrong frame of mind by going to church?  Very easily. read More >