spiritual – Page 13 – Cross Culture Church

March 2014 Article: “The Winds Of Change”

Seasons change, conditions are changing, and people will change. The world is in a constant state of motion. Life is a linear move towards a future state of being. Yes, we are changing, but the question is what are we becoming? Some would like to believe that they are making progress, while the mental attitudes of those who see themselves as progressives constantly pump themselves up with positive affirmations. Even though words do in fact have power, the truth will set you free.

Constantly saying a thing is not the exercise of faith. Faith must involve seeing the right path on which your life must travel. Then by faith, you must continually seek God’s direction to avoid veering from that course. Change presents the challenge to travel down the path of least resistance and it can be so subtle that it may happen unnoticed. This is not the same environment of the previous decade. Decisions have been made that influenced the mindsets of society as a whole, and now, it has become more difficult to express the values you once held dear. If you for a moment are more concerned about the majority opinion rather than maintaining a commitment for what is right, you have lost the cultural war. It is not what the majority of the people think or what you may think that you know; it is what God knows that really matters.

The mind of man is so fickle that even a popular movie depicted by actors can be enough for many to change their minds. The sound effects and the mood-setting music have the tendency to mesmerize the soul into a state of receptivity. Consequently, the conscience is not discerning enough to filter through what is being presented as fact or mere fiction. It is just entertainment, so why take this matter so seriously? It is because everything that we are exposed to, whether consciously or unconsciously, has the potential of influencing consensus opinion. It is similar to the frog in the kettle…The water is gradually warmed while the frog adjusts to his new found environment until eventually he is boiled in his pleasure. Is it mere entertainment or is it a part of the systemic programming of the will to accept what God has prohibited to defy and ultimately compete for His throne? Just listen with spiritual discernment to the message that the majority has chosen. The magnetic pull of sin and spiritual rebellion has brought the mass minds of society its lowest state without question.

The outcome is a dissatisfaction that continues to surmount. Suicide, drug abuse, murder, family violence, and divorce are at all-time highs. Even though the path may appear natural, it was never the path intended for you to travel. The changes occurring all around you will sweep you under its current unless a change takes place within the heart. God is unchangeable and anchors the soul, enabling you to get on the course for which you were born. You were not made for what the world is becoming. You were made to glorify your Creator. The heavens and all of nature respond to its Creator…But since God has given you the choice to love Him or rebel against Him, will you align your will to His will? Only then will you experience the peace that you so desperately sought after in the wrong places. Change is constant. You are living in a climate of change. But the question is, will you change in order for the Unchangeable One to bring you into proper alignment for which you were born? For God’s sake, don’t be swept away by the wind.

03 Jan 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: January 3, 2014

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“I say to God, “Be my Lord!” Without you, nothing makes sense.” Psalm. 16:2(MSG)

To reason is a virtue. Through reasoning we embrace the truths applied to our hearts with a renewed mind and emblazoned hope. Those who have meditated upon the Word have arrived at conclusions that are vastly different from those who merely compare the spiritual to the natural. It is the reasoning that is limited to what is known, or merely natural that will lead to a great impasse. Our minds alone cannot grasp the origin of the creation of all things. Neither can we figure out their proper use and truest meaning. Only God is able to guide us into the deep mysteries that would raise even deeper questions than otherwise would be asked. However, the journey on which we are led will reveal to us His Majesty and Glory. We cannot help but worship the One who knows and reveals secret things to His children that the wise and prudent are not privy to. None of His wisdom is sensible void of knowing Him. As we pursue Him, the knowledge of His will for all things becomes sensible. Without Him, nothing makes sense.

01 Jan 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: January 1, 2014

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“Set up the Tabernacle on the first day of the new year.” Exodus 40:2-3

The Tabernacle is the dwelling-place of God. What will be God’s position in your life this year? This is the time to consider what priority He is to occupy. Discard what would be distractions and placing in position reminders of who God is and what He has done throughout the previous year. Each utensil had to be in order. Everything had to be in their proper place because God was to tabernacle among His people. Decisions must be made early and maintained throughout the year. Many will be making New Year’s resolutions in light of areas in need of discipline. The spiritual disciplines will affect the soul and spirit. They alone have eternal value. Arrange the disciplines of your heart to seek the Lord as never before. It is His desire to express a degree of love unknown to you in your present state. When the alignment is complete, He will suddenly come into His dwelling-place to inhabit that space reserved exclusively for Him.

23 Nov 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: November 23, 2013

Posted by Cross Culture Church Categories: Meditations

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, (12) teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” Titus 2:11-12

God has dispensed from Heaven an abundance of His grace. Where sin and spiritual blindness abounded, only what one had grown accustomed to was known. Grace came to teach us that our old nature must be denied. How could one ever be freed from what he once defended because it defined him? It is the grace that has appeared in order to show us that a new life was possible. When it came on the scene, it opened our eyes to know that heaven’s order should become earth’s greatest dream. The slave can at least see freedom in order for freedom to be desired. That desire for something beyond our current patterns of living is responded to and then we are empowered to aim higher above level of ungodly and worldly lusts. Each day we will embrace all the more God’s standard of righteousness thus rising above our own. It is because of the grace that has appeared that produces the salvation that we so desperately need.

21 Nov 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: November 21, 2013

Posted by Cross Culture Church Categories: Meditations

”These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 2:13

All that is called wisdom may be lacking the potency to change one’s life for the better. There is practical wisdom that may assist in one coping or even managing what is already there. But for a permanent change to occur there has to be the instructions in wisdom that comes from above. Wisdom that comes from above has no earthly references. Nothing can be compared to the depth and wealth of spiritual things. These are the intangibles that affect all that is seen, heard, or experienced. The teacher is the Holy Spirit Himself. He instructs the heart so that it embraces what would otherwise be foolishness to those who think they already have the answers. He first must raise new questions and spiritual inquiries are made. Without the hunger and thirst for righteousness, God’s standard for living, even His Word will be reduced to what is manageable by man. Because the Holy Spirit has dealt deeply within the heart, there is the pursuit for wisdom that God will never ignore. He gives it liberally and does not reprimand the individual making the request. He walks in the wisdom of God and is over time, transformed into becoming a living expression of it.

24 Oct 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: October 24, 2013

Posted by Cross Culture Church Categories: Meditations

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” Philippians 4:11

When there is a convergence of our state and our contentment, evidence of spiritual maturity is made manifest. There is a steadiness in the life of the individual that lives on that level of confidence knowing that God is not limited to circumstances. The contentment that Paul speaks of is not inactive contentment. He participates with God in what He is doing. If something is lacking, he is confident that God will provide. If he has an abundance, he know that God as provided. The credit is given to God for blessings received and his dependency on God alone to meet his need settles him down and frees him from anxieties. Yet no condition can hinder God from doing through him what has been assigned. His earlier years were more than likely more frantic. He had to learn how to yield to the Holy Spirit in all things. The rush of life accomplished very little and oftentimes would make matters worse. He learned to wait on the Lord and to be patient. The virtue of faith and patience produced a living hope that God is able to supply his every need according to His riches in glory. Our needs are no different. He must reveal both our deepest need and His supply. He will grant us what we need if we are aware of our most pressing need to know Him. Then we can be content with godliness.

11 Oct 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: October 11, 2013

Posted by Cross Culture Church Categories: Meditations

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, (2) as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” 1 Peter 2:1-2

Things that have the potential of hindering our spiritual growth are to be laid aside. It is not always clear as to how things that may appear so benign can restrict the flow of fellowship with the Spirit of God. He is gentle and so pure that any of the above mentioned have the potential to disrupt the peacefulness and calm that He alone can provide. Feeding on the earnest milk of the Word is the antidote to the poisonous effect of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking. It will convict us when the thought arises in our minds to participate in practices which will hinder His effect upon our lives. One of the evidences that we are born again is that our spirits will know what we so desperately need. We are then able to grow past those things that plagued our souls before we came to know the Lord. As we lay these things aside, the fruit of the Spirit will grow within us. The very character of Christ becomes our character. Those who are born again desire the pure milk, not the polluted, that they may grow into what the Word has promised.

27 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 27, 2013

Posted by Cross Culture Church Categories: Meditations

“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:14

The Apostle Paul uses the language of an athlete competing for the ultimate prize. The intermediate victories are not be become the level in which he was to settle, but his eyes were upon something much greater. They may be used as a means to lead him there, but ultimate prize was the fulfillment of the upward call. This has more to do with becoming someone than getting something. He qualified to enter in to the competition of becoming all that God had called him to become. And out of his becoming, he was enabled by the Holy Spirit to do all that God had called him to do. We too have been called by Almighty God to a standard of spiritual excellence. It is a standard of living out and giving a full and clear expression of the life of Jesus Christ upon the earth. The world is in desperate need of knowing Christ and He can only be known through His Church. He was aware of his imperfections and areas where improvements were needed. But also open for God to reveal to him any blind spots that he at that point was not able to see. His was a matter of progressing in Christ towards the ultimate goal that was before him. To be found in Him, not having his own righteousness or self-justification of deeds, but totally yielded to Christ. We must set this as our goal as well. He has called us to reach up in order that we may reach out and touch the world with His love and power. This can only happen when it is all of Him and none of us.

16 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 16, 2013

Posted by Cross Culture Church Categories: Meditations

“Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” 1 Timothy 4:16

Doctrines have been the dividing line among many within the Church. The debate over doctrine has split brethren from fellowshipping with each other. And some who do not understand the importance of doctrine may either generalize all beliefs as being of equal value or dismiss all beliefs as being false. Doctrine or didache is teaching or what is taught. Right teaching or instructions will produce righteous living. Paul was admonishing Timothy to pay attention to how his own character was being developed in relation to what was being taught.

Is there an adherence to the Word of God bringing you into conformity to a godly standard? This can only take place when you continue in the original instructions which brought you to salvation, and build upon the foundation of those truths that which leads to spiritual maturity. Once you veer away to the left or to the right of the road rather than remaining on the path of truth, your capabilities to discern will be compromised. The life of the instructor and the life of the student must remain focused on the Chief Shepherd of our souls. Then the Holy Spirit can correct what is in need of correction in both. The student will not be trying to overtake the teacher neither will the teacher attempt to overtake God. Proper order will be established in order for Jesus to get His message through to all who are willing to learn from Him.

06 Sep 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: September 6, 2013

Posted by Cross Culture Church Categories: Meditations

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

The consistency of the message is as important as the message itself. Messages that contradict what has been established as foundational in our understanding of Christ cause spiritual erosion to occur within the soul. The writer of Hebrews was warning them to remember what was established within them by those who both spoke and modeled the standard of which they once faithfully followed. Consider that their instructions were intended to lead them to an end result that was to reach far beyond the immediate. This is what any faithful disciple must consider. Those who lead are graced to guide their followers into areas that can only be understood once obedience is completed. Disobedience occurs as the result of being carried away or allured, and not led. Character deficiencies are sensitive to an alien appeal. One is then flesh driven rather than Spirit-led. One’s diet must consist of that which can provide for eternal gain. It should not consist of the delicacies that appeal to the taste but does harm to the body. What Jesus taught His disciples required them to fully follow Him if they were to become disciples indeed. Through their continuance, they were led to understand aspects of His call to holiness and righteousness. Otherwise it would have appeared to be merely be a call to the enjoyment of the fish and the loaves. His call was to self-denial, to taking up one’s cross, and following Him. Only then would they participate with Him in the glory that awaited them on the other side of full obedience.

Load more posts