Accountability

The Lord has been speaking to me about accountability lately.  What does it, accountability, entail?  I have to say that this thought process has been happening over the past year.  A growth, a path, a journey to some place better, I hope...

I have heard a lot about grace.  Mercy and grace, mercy and grace.  Do not think me grateful for mercy and grace.  I will take mercy and grace over truth and justice any day, but, BUT - not at the expense of watching someone else be injured.  I know I come across sounding hard, but the truth - I have endured some hard things and all because someone did something that was not right and...nothing.  No accountability.  However, I am trusting God to make it right on all accounts.  So it has brought me to a path of , I love you, but have you considered what you are doing?  What you are doing, fellow brother/sister in the Lord?  Does it line up with God's Word?  These thoughts have been flying through my head for about six to eight months - Accountability, justice, truth, love. 

Ahhh, Love...everyone associates love with soft, fluffy, smells good, looks good, puffy clouds.  They have forgotten that sometimes, sometimes Love has to be tough.  Love has to say, "That's wrong.  Don't do it!"  Love has to discipline, "but I don't want to hurt them."  To not discipline is "to hurt them."  And where do you draw the line these issues?  In the light of eternity, before an angry God, do you (me) want to be told - you didn't cut it.  You did not do this for me.  I do not want to be in that position.  I jokingly refer to myself as one of the Black Sheep of the Flock.  In reality, it is not a joking matter. 

So my husband and I were going out for lunch and I see one of those electronic digital signs with a flashing message.  Hmmm, God are you speaking to me?  The sign said, "Accountability.  Self-control."  Instantly the accuser popped a thought in my head.  "Yeah, self-control. You have none."  Immediately, another thought countered, "I didn't walk over there and beat the living daylights out of you."  Yep, I would call that self-control...Yea for me!  Score!  But this event started a thought of process of accountability, self-control, what does Jesus want me to do?  I do not think he wants me to sit idly by and let evil reign havoc and destruction.  I do not think he wants me to be silent when I see evil instead of addressing it and saying, "that's wrong."  I do not think he wants his church to exit left and be like "God doesn't want us to deal with it."  God will deal with it. 

Lesson here - When Adam fell, he gave ownership of this earth to Satan.  So this earth no longer is God's because he gave Adam the caretaking of earth and Adam gave it to Satan by his sin.  However, because the earth is the Lord's and all the fullness thereof, the principle that God owns it is still there meaning that in the spiritual realm, through the power of Christ, if you are a Christian you have higher power and higher authority than Satan because Christ defeated Satan.  That is why what you speak is important.  If you go around saying, "I am sick, I am poor, and I am lost."  You get what you say; likewise, if you go around and say, " I am rich.  I am blessed.  I am healed."  You will be rich, blessed, and healed.  Likewise, God is not going to 'take care of it.'  He gave you, dear Christian, that responsibility and he expects us to do something - prayer, witness, protest if necessary...whatever it is that God tells you to do...but if you sit by and say, "God will deal with it."  Well...No, He won't!  Because he told you to.  We are his hands and feet on this earth.  He does it through us, his people. 

And then we start our Bible study by James MacDonald, "Downpour".  It has been a great study.  We're not finished with it yet.  I believe he is taking us down a path of accountability.  How much more are we going to tolerate sin?  We all want revival.  Revival happens when we realize how much we need Jesus.  We are all sinners who come short of making the mark.  Only Jesus helps us make the mark...Hmmm, God...What are you saying?  I sure wish people would stop hindering your Holy Spirit and let you operate as you will through who you wish to use.  That they would understand, it's not a power trip.  It's about an obedient servant who desires to do your will in their life.   

Thanksgiving, the Forgotten Holiday...

Thanksgiving, The Forgotten Holiday...

We see the mad dash start right before Halloween.  The holiday, which as a Christian, always gets me in to some kind of trouble because I refuse to celebrate it.  Then we fast-forward to Christmas forgetting the awesome testimony of Thanksgiving and the historic relevance it has to our country, the United States of America.  The one holiday that really should be celebrated by every melting pot of the ethnicity of every culture that chooses to call America home.   Why?  Well, let's dust off that old history book on the shelf of  - We always forget which is why we are doomed to repeat - repeat what - what we forget - Thanksgiving, the holiday which was established by the pilgrims who came to America seeking what ?  Religious freedom.  It is a holiday which should never be forgotten.  Most of all by Christians, yet I see many choosing to zoom right over Thanksgiving and let's get on to Christmas which is another pagan holiday incorporated in to Christianity because the Christians could never get the pagans to stop celebrating the holidays dedicated to their gods.  Ooops, here I go again, the Black Sheep of the Flock....