Sit and Stay...Good Boy.

A friend recently posted a picture online which included the 23rd Psalm and I found myself revisiting this beautiful psalm inspired by God and penned by David so long ago. So beautiful, in fact, that many who are not even within the Christian Church, know many - if not all - of those lines.

While the picture painted (in the psalm) is pretty much self explanatory, there is actually one part of it I used to misunderstand, mainly because I overlooked a couple of words as I read it.

Verse 2 begins with: "He makes me lie down in green pastures".

For the longest  time, I used to read that verse and picture myself flopping down on my back in the middle of green grass - usually beside a calm, lazy river - and just relaxing and staring up at the clouds as I felt the warm sun on my face.  Nice thought, but not exactly what it says though.

It does not say "I get to lie" or "He lets me lie down", no, it says "He MAKES ME lie down",  which changes the meaning a whole lot actually.  It changes it enough that the image in my mind has changed a fair bit.

Now, now I am puppy - yes, I picture myself as a puppy. A hyper, active (cute and cuddly) little puppy. And I want to take off and run, but I am close the road. So my Owner reaches down a hand and gently, yet firmly, pushes me down - making me lie down. You see, I want to go, I want or run but I am not ready to go there yet - I may never be ready to go there for that matter. But I do not understand that, I just want go. As a puppy, my Owner could explain to me how I may get hit by a car if I take off, but I am a puppy - I wouldn't understand. So instead, He makes me lie down. Eventually, He may let me go across the road, but He will be with me with I go - and that is, again, if I ever can go there (there is a big difference between country roads and a 4+ lane highway after all).

You see, He makes me lie down because I am not ready to go there yet.  He makes me lie down because I may never be ready to go there. He makes me lie down because I do not understand what lies ahead of me - I cannot see the unseen or the danger it poses. He makes me lie down because He loves me, because He knows what is best for me, because He knows I am not ready right now (no matter what "I" think) and sometimes, sometimes because He knows I just need a rest before moving on.

If you are in a place in life or ministry or whatever right now and it just seems like you cannot get moving, no matter what you do, maybe just maybe, He is making you lie down.

Thank you Lord, for caring enough about me to make me lie down.

East-North by North-East

It bothers me no small amount when I see Christians doing and following these little "harmless" things that I know are not of God.  Everything from Astrology and Tarot cards, to Ouija boards (including the homemade versions like the "Charlie" thing) and mystical healing powers of all forms (crystals, incantations over candles, etc). These things are NOT of God and they certainly are NOT harmless. God does talk about such things in the Bible and not in a favorable light. They are all forms and practices of witchcraft. Yes I said witchcraft and I do not mean Harry Potter - I mean powered and empowered via Satan and his cohorts. That 'energy' your sensing is not your own, it is his. That is who you have tapped into. I know no few will counter with "oh no, that is the energy/spirit in the world" but I ask you, "who is the spirit of the world"? (1 Cor.2:12; Gal.4:3; Eph.2:2).

You cannot merely play with these things anymore than you can play with a cobra and then be shocked when you get bitten and poisoned by it. These things are real. They are dangerous.

I am not about to jump in with others who say not to bother with such things because they do not work or are not real. If they did not or were not, why would God bother to warn against them? No, they are very real and sometimes they do work. Look at the Apostle Paul's encounter with a fortune teller in Acts 16 - he did not cast that spirit out because it was not real.

If nothing else, you cannot follow Christ AND follow other religions/beliefs. If Christ is leading you East, and the others are leading you North, the best you can do is go North-East which, in case you have not guessed, means you are not actually following Christ at all. You may be fairly close in the beginning but, in the end, you are going to be pretty far apart from each other.

If you are engaged with any of these things, you have got to break  away from them. You are willingly playing with the power of the enemy and inviting him to 'hang out' with you.

As with all that I pen within here, I try to be honest and truthful to you ... and I tend to speak from experience and not from book knowledge. This is no exception.

To God be the glory.