Denial Denied

Sunday’s Monday

I attended the Brother Night Leadership meeting this week and the insight is amazing as well the direction is out of the box and spot on, in my opinion. Also, this was my Meals on Wheels week and I am so blessed to be of service to such worthy citizens. My heart goes through every human emotion during my visits because they each have a story and I only get a few paragraphs during our time together. This weekend was our (Emily Loftin, Samantha Findley and myself) first camping out of the 2018 season. We had a grand old time watching the fire, making smores, scaring each other, laughing so hard and sleeping so little. God is so good, and I am so blessed!

For most of my life I have heard the word denial used in reference to addiction or abusive situations. It seems a lot of people think of it as a psychological problem that doesn’t affect normal people. You know; normal as in those with no problems, always happy and lots of friends. However, once the truth is realized, my last sentence becomes a huge ha, ha, moment. I have no accurate facts on hand to back up what I’m about to say, so it will be completely up to you to examine your own life to see if you fit. It is my opinion there are approximately 75% of today’s Christians living a life of denial! They, and quite possibly you have come under man’s interpretation of God’s word. It seems, over the years God’s call in Matthew 11:28 (NIV), “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, has been translated into come work for me. We get caught up in who the church expects us to be, with our giving, stature and living. To little is said about a personal relationship with Jesus, which requires so much more than simply memorizing and spouting a few verses from the bible or posting a few pictures of church on the internet. God is asking for a true, real to life, love affair! Luke 10:27 (NLT), The man answered, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. And, Love your neighbor as yourself.” We often call Him father (when speaking with others) and yet never truly know Him. I often have a question for those that turn on their King James charm when speaking in church or with known church goers, do you actually say amen, hallelujah and other KJV words in your business meetings or non-Christian social gatherings? Bach on task! I know what the bible says in Matthew 16:24 (NIV), Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. In my research of the subject I caught on to the fact that deny and denial, “do not have the same meaning.” It is very much possible for me to deny myself and not be in the will of God! In dictionary.com, deny; to state that (something declared or believed to be true) is not true. I can deny myself to anything for any reason and declare I have died to Christ. This is where Satan slips in with denial which is defined in dictionary.com as, denial; refusal to believe a doctrine, theory, or the like. Most search for the feel-good side of spirituality turning it to religion, which consist of minimal study of God, little to no interaction with God and a self-interpretation of God’s will. If all is well with the family, job and life, God must be well pleased with who I am. Denial! Denial! Denial! God is well pleased when we follow after His heart as is written in, Mark 12:30 (NIV), Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your msundays 4ind and with all your strength. Today is the first day of the rest of our eternal life and a decision needs to be made as to our direction. Denying comes through the guidance of God, the wisdom of God, and the strength of God. I merely furnish the desire to serve and love Him! There is no easy street, no short cuts, no cheating and no refunds. However, the beauty to discovery is quite simple, ask your neighbors and coworkers to help you with an anonymous survey of your daily attitude? That should reveal a treasure chest of information. It is surly time for all of us to ask God to show us those areas of denial in our lives and teach us better how to deny the things that are not of Him. Remember, if it doesn’t line up with God’s word, in total context, it’s denied!

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK BY BEING A BLESSING TO OTHERS!

COMMENTS / ENCOURAGEMENT WELCOMED; 04/30/2018