Religion & Spirituality Blogs (1,491)

by Peter Amsterdam February 9, 2016

More Like Jesus

Anything that we want to do well at in life requires effort. Those who are tops in their field, whatever it may be, in large part achieve what they do because they work hard at it. The same holds true for Christians growing in Christlikeness and becoming the people God intended for us to be. It takes work as we consciously and deliberately develop godly beliefs, habits, attitudes, thinking, and behavior. It also calls for intentionally letting go of wrong beliefs, harmful habits, ungodly attitudes, erroneous thinking, and bad behavior.1

Throughout the New Testament, we read about the concept of “putting off” or removing aspects of our lives—both inner thoughts and feelings, and the resultant outward actions—which fight against Christlikeness. Meanwhile, we are to be “putting on” or adding to our lives those things which develop godliness. The idea of putting something off clearly calls for a decision to be made and action to be taken. The same holds true for putting something on. Let’s look at some New Testament passages about putting off, followed by some which speak of putting on:

Putting Off

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: s*xual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry … you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.2

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor.3 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.4 Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.5 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.6Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.7

Putting On

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.8

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light … put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.9 Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and … be renewed in the spirit of your minds … put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.10

1 Many points in this article are summarized from Cultivating Christian Character, by Michael A. Zigarelli (Colorado Springs: Purposeful Design Publications, 2005).

2 Colossians 3:4–5, 8–10.

3 Ephesians 4:25.

4 Ephesians 4:31.

5 James 1:21.

6 1 Peter 2:1.

7 Hebrews 12:1.

8 Colossians 3:12–15.

9 Romans 13:12,14.

10 Ephesians 4:22–24.





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The pieces don’t argue with their Maker and Creator or their player; they yield and settle where He places them, and go where He sends them. Do you believe that? Well, then why worry? You’re in His hands! Think about this when you’re tempted to be anxious and worry about the future. Why worry? You’re in the hands of the Master Player, and if you let Him, He’s going to place you where He wants you to be, and you should trust your heavenly Father that He has your best interests in mind. God just has to move you or circumstances in your life around to position you where He needs you the most at any given time.

Throughout my life, I’ve served Him in all kinds of ways. You couldn’t imagine how many. I have just gone wherever His hand moved me, to whatever square He wanted me to go, and I have tried to be the piece He wanted me to be.

How many times have I made a decision to do something and the Lord stopped me? It’s really embarrassing! I wanted to do a lot of things I didn’t get to do. I wanted to go a lot of places I didn’t get to go. We’ve planned to make even more trips than we have. One of these last times God stopped me and gave me something much better and more important to do, that ended up reaching many more people. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.2

We ought to thank God for all the mistakes we don’t make! Why don’t you thank God for all the mistakes you don’t make instead of bemoaning the mistakes you do make, and saying, “Why did You let me do this, Lord? Why didn’t You stop me?” Maybe He wanted you to learn the lesson that the most important decision you have to make is to be yielded to the Master of the chess board. You can choose not to be yielded. You’re a free moral agent. It’s a free country. It’s your choice whether to place your life in the hands of the Grand Chess Master, and if you choose not to, you can do so.

Why not choose to place your life in His hands? You have chosen to follow and serve the Lord, and to seek God’s will for your plans and your future. He is the Master Chess Player, and you can trust that whatever moves He makes in your life, He will cause all things to work together for your good.—David Berg

Hear from Heaven

The book of 1 Kings includes the story of the prophet Elijah. Chapter 19 recounts the tumultuous episode when he was running for his life from wicked Queen Jezebel and hiding in the wilderness. After a while God led Elijah to go to Mount Horeb. There God told Elijah to leave the cave where he had taken refuge and stand before Him. A strong wind tore into the mountain and broke nearby rocks in pieces; then there was an earthquake; then a fire; then a “still small voice.”3 God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but that still small voice was His.

You too can get alone with God to hear His voice and thereby receive His words of love and encouragement, answers to your questions, and solutions to your problems. Here’s how:

The following message were received from Jesus in prayer, as described above. So is the From Jesus with Love message on the back cover of each issue of Activated.

I know all the things that bother you about yourself. I know about the times that you compare yourself to others and think negatively about yourself, when your weaknesses embarrass and discourage you. I know about all these things, and I love you anyway.

When the storms of life blow around you, rest your head upon My shoulder and see how I will care for you.

How do I love you?—I love you unconditionally. I love you completely. I love you eternally. I love you like a father loves his child. I love you like a husband loves his wife. I love you tenderly. I love you perfectly.

2 Isaiah 55:9.

3 1 Kings 19:3–12






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For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Romans 1:17

A compilation APRIL 7, 2016

Oswald Chambers coined one of my favorite mantras: “Let God engineer.” Those three words captured his trust in the overarching sovereignty of God. And it’s that kind of trust that gives us a holy confidence.

Most of our emotional problems are symptoms of one deep-rooted spiritual problem: lack of trust in the sovereign God. It’s our lack of trust in Him that results in high levels of past-tense guilt, present-tense stress, and future-tense anxiety. And if we allow it to, that three-headed monster will deplete every ounce of holy confidence we possess until we lose our sense of destiny.

Many of us find our confidence in the things we can control, but it’s a false sense of confidence. Holy confidence isn’t circumstantial. It’s providential. Too often we allow our circumstances to get between God and us. Holy confidence puts God between us and our circumstances. And when we do that, the Almighty One dwarfs the giants in our lives.

Let’s face it: we are control freaks. We want to control our circumstances. We want to control others. And ultimately we want to control God Himself. We do this in the name of sanctification, but it’s pseudo-sanctification. It’s nothing more, or maybe I should say nothing less, than a futile attempt at self-help. Lack of trust is more than refusing God’s help. It’s a prideful attempt to help God by doing His job for Him. We play God by trying to control everyone, everything. But God hasn’t called us to be God. He’s called us to be ourselves. And our control issues are really trust issues. The less we trust God, the more we have to control.

Nothing is more spiritually, emotionally, or relationally exhausting than pretending you hold the planets in orbit. And the flip side is true as well. The greatest freedom in the world is relinquishing control and submitting your life to the Sovereign One.—Mark Batterson

Getting there
“Come ye after Me.”—Mark 1:17

One of the greatest hindrances in coming to Jesus is the excuse of temperament. We make our temperament and our natural affinities barriers to coming to Jesus. The first thing we realize when we come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatever to our natural affinities. We have the notion that we can consecrate our gifts to God. You cannot consecrate what is not yours; there is only one thing you can consecrate to God, and that is your right to yourself.1 If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you. God’s experiments always succeed.

The one mark of a saint is the moral originality which springs from abandonment to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing wellspring of original life all the time; the Spirit of God is a well of water springing up, perennially fresh. The saint realizes that it is God who engineers circumstances, consequently there is no whine, but a reckless abandon to Jesus. Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as He is with you.

If you abandon to Jesus, and come when He says “Come,” He will continue to say “Come” through you; you will go out into life reproducing the echo of Christ’s “Come.” That is the result in every soul who has abandoned and come to Jesus.—Oswald Chambers

God’s chess game
When the God of the chess board picks up a chess piece and moves it to a new square, the chess piece doesn’t argue about it. It doesn’t protest; it doesn’t try to keep the Chess Player from doing it. It doesn’t say, “No, I don’t want to go to that space. I’d like to stay here. No, I want to go to that space over there. No, I’m a knight and I don’t want to hop this piece. I want to hop that piece over there.”

1 Romans 12:1.






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Society is a language. Language is basic to social existence - to relationship. If you leave language, you are alone. The world may be filled with millions, but if you lose language you are alone.

Meher Baba stayed continuously for forty years in silence. What was he doing in silence? Really, you cannot do anything in silence because every act is somehow related with others. Even in imagination, if you do something you will have to imagine others; you cannot do it alone. If you are absolutely alone, action becomes impossible. Even the imagination to act becomes impossible.

Acting is related to others. If you drop language inside, all doing drops. You are, but you are not doing anything.

Meher Baba would tell his disciples, by writing a note, "On this particular date I am going to break my silence," and then he would not break it. This continued for forty years, and then he died in silence.

What was the problem? Why should he say, "Now, this year, on this day, on this date, I am going to speak?" And why should he postpone it again? What was happening inside? Why would he not keep his promise?

Once you know silence for such a long time, you cannot fall back to sounds again; it becomes impossible. There is a rule, and he didn't follow the rule so he could not come back. There is a rule that one should not remain silent for more than three years. Once you cross the limit, you cannot come back to the world of sounds. You may try, but it is impossible. It is easy to move from sounds to silence, but it is very difficult to move from silence to sounds. Beyond three years many things simply become impossible. The mechanism cannot function the same way again. It has to be used continuously; at the most, one can remain silent for three years. Beyond that, if you remain silent the mechanism which can produce sounds and words cannot be used again, it becomes dead.

Secondly, the person becomes so much silent remaining with himself alone that it will now be a misery to communicate. Then to say something to someone will be like talking to a wall, because the person who has remained silent for such a long time knows that you cannot understand whatsoever he is saying. Regardless of what he is saying, he knows he is not saying that which he wants to say.

The whole thing has gone. After such a deep silence, he cannot move again to the world of sounds.

So Meher Baba tried and tried, but he couldn't bring himself to speak again. He wanted to say something, and he had something worth saying, but the mechanism and the movements necessary to come back to a lower realm were impossible. Thus, he died without saying what he wanted to say.

It will be helpful to understand this: whatsoever you are doing, always go on doing the opposite with it. Go on changing to the opposite always. Remain silent for a few hours, then talk. Do not become fixed in anything - you will be more alive and more moving. Do meditation for a few days, and then stop suddenly and do everything that can create tension in you. Then move again to meditation.

Go on moving between the opposites, you will be more alive and dynamic. Do not get fixed. Once you get fixed, you will not be able to move to the other extreme, and the ability to move to the other extreme means life. If you are not able to move, you are already dead. This movement is very good.

Gurdjieff advised his disciples to have sudden changes. He would insist on fasting and then he would say, "Now eat as much as you can." Then suddenly he would say, "Go on a fast." Then again he would say, "Start eating." He would say, "Be awake for a few days and nights continuously, then fall asleep for a few nights." This movement between the polar opposites gives you a dynamism, an aliveness.

By David Berg, February 2006

Most of us don’t consider ourselves particularly strong or capable, and we feel we lack certain strengths or abilities that we wish we had. That’s when it helps to remember that God specializes in using people who aren’t great in themselves.

The apostle Paul wrote, “You see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:26–29 2 Corinthians 4:7).

When we don’t feel capable or sufficient for the task God has set before us, then He has a chance to take over and do things to suit Himself. In fact, the weaker we get in ourselves, the stronger we can be in His Spirit, because that’s when His strength comes in (2 Corinthians 12:10).

The very fact that we feel incapable is one of the best things possible, because then we depend on the Lord and He has a chance to work—and He will. “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). The Lord likes for us to be dependent on Him, to know that we need His help, and to ask Him for it. It’s then that “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

The weakness of strength

The biggest temptation for people who have a lot of natural ability and drive is to push things through in their own strength, but that has its limits and dangers. “Men of force are men of faults,” and their biggest fault is when they keep on going in their own strength, their own force, instead of letting the Lord work through them.

My mother, for example, had a lot going for her in the natural—a lot of God-given talents, abilities, drive, personality, looks, and so on. But it wasn’t until after she broke her back in an accident and was bedridden and in a wheelchair for five years that the Lord was able to use her the way He wanted to. After she and her doctors had tried everything they could with no success, when she didn’t have anyone else to turn to and no more strength of her own, the Lord stepped in and healed her miraculously—and she knew the Lord had done it! She still had the natural traits and abilities He’d originally given her, but through this experience she learned to lean on Him, to let Him use those traits and abilities for His glory, and to give Him the credit for whatever got accomplished—and that’s when He was finally able to use her to the full. Of course, all of us depend on our natural abilities to some extent at different times, so to rely more on the Lord and His strength is a lesson we all need to learn.

How to win spiritual victories

It’s been said that “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.” Well, that certainly is the truth, because when you’re weak in yourself, that’s when you can be “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10). However, the Devil might not tremble so much if you’re one of those people who think that they’re “strong.” If you’re too self-confident, that in itself is a major spiritual weakness. “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

We cannot strive in our own strength. We must look to the Lord, and He must win the battle. We don’t have to try to win victories by our own striving, struggling, and working in the flesh. We just have to do our part by putting our will on God’s side, and God will do the rest, which is virtually everything!






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PUTTING THE FINGERS IN THE EARS, HEAR THE SOUND OF SOUNDS. This absence of sound is a very subtle experience. What will it give to you? The moment there are no sounds, you fall back upon yourself. With sounds we move away, with sounds we move to the other. Try to understand this: with sounds we are related to the other, we communicate with the other.

So even a blind man is not in so much difficulty as a man who cannot speak, who is dumb. Observe a person who is dumb: he looks inhuman. A blind man never looks inhuman, but a dumb person looks inhuman; the face gives a feeling of something which is not human. And a dumb person is in more difficulty than a blind man. With the blind man the problem is that he cannot see, but he can communicate. He can become a part of a greater humanity, he can become a part of a society, of a family; he can love, he can speak. A dumb man is suddenly out of society. He cannot speak, he cannot communicate, he cannot express.

Try to imagine yourself in an air-conditioned glass room, a soundproof room. No sound can enter to you, and you cannot scream, you cannot do anything to express yourself, the sound will not go out. In a glass room you can see the whole world moving around you, but neither can you speak to them nor can they speak to you. You will feel hopelessly frustrated, and the whole thing will become a nightmare.

A dumb man is in a nightmare continuously. Without communicating he is not part of humanity.

Without expression he cannot flower. He cannot reach anyone and no one can reach him. He is with you and far away, and the gap is unbridgeable.

If sound is the vehicle to move to the other, then soundlessness becomes the vehicle to move to oneself. With sound you communicate with the other; with soundlessness you fall down into your own abyss, into yourself. That is why so many techniques use soundlessness to move within.

Become absolutely dumb and deaf - even if only for a few moments - and you cannot go anywhere else than to yourself. Suddenly you will find that you are standing within; no movement will be possible. That is why silence was practiced so much. In it, all the bridges for moving to the other are broken.

Gurdjieff used to give long silent periods to his disciples, and then he would insist that not only was language not to be used, but there was to be no communication, no gesture - neither with the eyes nor the hands. No communication was to be used. Silence means NO communication. So he would force the group to live in a house - twenty, thirty or forty people in one bungalow, in one house - and than he would say, "Remain here in this house as if you are alone. You cannot go out." Forty persons would be there, and he would say, "Move in the house, live in the house as if you are alone.

No communication! Do not recognize that the other is, not even by the eyes. Move completely as if you are the only person residing in the house." With three months of living in this way, absolutely dumb and deaf, with no possibility of communicating, there would be no possibility to move out.

I do not know whether you have observed or not, but in society those who can talk much become prominent; those who can communicate their thoughts easily become leaders - religious, political, literary, any type. Those who can communicate their thoughts, those who can talk efficiently, they become leaders. Why? They can reach more people, they can reach to greater masses.

Have you ever heard of any dumb person becoming a leader? You can find a blind man becoming a leader; there is no problem. And sometimes he may become a great leader, because all that his eyes are not doing, all those energies will be transferred to his ears. But a dumb man cannot become a leader in any walk of life. He cannot communicate, he cannot become social.

Assuming, you would get mourners at your funeral, what would they say ?

Can anybody tell me what is ego and how can I overcome my ego problem. how ego spoils us.

Can anybody tell me what is ego and how can I overcome my ego problem. how ego spoils us.

The logical solution to this and other identification problems is to dispense with the card and simply attach the silicon data chip to its owner. What surer way to accomplish this than to implant this rice-sized biochip under the skin, and what better place than the hand or forehead? Biochips have already been implanted in pets--ostensibly for medical and tracking purposes-- and in at least two humans. A British university professor has had several chips implanted under his skin to perform tasks such as opening electronically locked doors and turning on lights or his computer when he walks into the room. A U.S. surgeon did the same. A version of the popular biochip used to track pets has already been developed for human tissue. Could this or something like it be a forerunner of the mark of the Beast?

And what about the number 666? It is likely to have something to do with people being assigned a unique multidigital number, along the lines of a personal identification number, or PIN.

A complete switch from clumsy cash to efficient electronic currency would certainly make our lives easier by making financial transactions quicker, more convenient, and more secure. However, it would also make our lives more controlled, comparable to the ankle transmitters that some convicted criminals under house arrest or on parole must wear. Your whereabouts could be known at all times, and your privacy would be nonexistent. Every purchase you made, every place you went, every TV show you watched or Web page you perused, every phone call you made could be monitored and recorded in a central database.



And there is one more catch. According to the Bible, the driving force behind the coming one-world order is the most evil entity the world has ever known. The Devil, also known as Satan, will no longer be content to operate behind the scenes--the Beast (Antichrist) will be the Devil incarnate. The Devil's goal has always been to have people worship him instead of God. In the last half of the Antichrist's rule, the horrific three and a half years that the Bible describes as the "Great Tribulation," he will pull out all the stops in order to achieve this.

Revelation tells us that accepting the mark of the Beast will not be an entirely financial decision. It will also be a decision to embrace the Beast and what he stands for. We are also told what will become of those who worship the Beast and willingly bear his mark: "If anyone worships the Beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God" Rev. 14:9-10.

Although the Beast will rant and rave on the world's stage for a few short years, he and his followers will be the ultimate losers. At the end of the Antichrist's seven-year reign, Jesus Christ will return with the hosts of Heaven to right all wrongs, and He and those who love and follow Him will emerge from the Great Tribulation as the glorious and eternal winners.

You can be a sure winner too, by accepting Jesus as your Savior. Two thousand years ago when He walked the earth, Jesus gave His life so that you could experience His love and have all the other wonderful gifts He has for you in this life, and live forever in the next. To receive all that, all you have to do is sincerely pray a short prayer like this one:

Jesus, please come into my heart and life. I'm sorry for the things I have done wrong, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I receive You and Your gift of eternal life, and ask You to fill me with Your love and peace. Amen.

It's that simple. Receive Jesus today, and He will never leave you. He will be with you through the troublous times that are soon to come, and beyond! He will cut the strings!






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