Saturday October 11, 2008
Stephen Porter - 9:18 AM ADT
110 OF ONE MIND
Jesus said that He has one church, with Him as the head [the part that does the thinking, decision making and has the final say] and that that church is fit together to form one body.
In the book of acts, the Holy Spirit would not come until they were all in ‘one’ accord.
Being of like mind or all thinking the same does not mean that you give up your independent thoughts but rather you join in, when the discussion is going on, and have your say but, when those, who are appointed to finally make the decision for any subject, make that decision, we all put aside our selfish pride, accept this decision as ‘God’s will’ and act on it with all our hearts.
Our responsibility is to be in the meetings with Godly people and to know who God put in charge of that meeting. If you don’t then you go to God and ask Him where you are to be and who you are to be subject to or you simply shut up. Unless you know God’s will or who is supposed to make the right decisions for God in any circumstance, your opinion is just that; ‘your opinion’ and not God’s.
This world has made people think that they are the most important being alive and that their opinion is the most important one there; we have been pampered, given in to and pumped up until we think this is what God wants also. This thought process will get you a hot and lonely place in eternity.
In God’s kingdom, no one individual is right and, those that are in it have learned to take and obey orders from others willingly and gladly, to join with others and work as a unit most of the time and to focus on others needs and projects and give them the attention that they require to succeed.
We have an election coming up; this is one of the most important events Christians can participate in, if they want to change this country for Christ but I continually hear ‘ho, the churches cannot get together on this’. Is God divided? No. Is God’s kingdom divided? No. Are this world’s churches divided? Yes.
So, whose fault is that; God’s? No. His people’s? I’ll leave you to answer that one; but, if we are not obeying God, who are we listening to and who are we helping to succeed?
Being ‘like minded’ is more serious than many think; the unpardonable sin is, to speak and work against what the Holy Spirit is trying to do. [To attribute the workings of the Holy Spirit to the devil]
When God appoints one of His people to run as a political candidate and you speak and/or vote against them, are you supporting God’s work?
When you speak against one of God’s people [pastor, deacon, usher, lay person, etc.], without speaking to them first, are you doing what God wants done?
When you condemn the workings of another when you have no knowledge of their reasons for doing what they do or it does not have anything to do with you or your life; are you doing what is right in God’s eyes?
When you speed around and/or tailgate one of God’s chosen children and endanger their life or make them afraid by your actions, are you sure that God wants you around His people for all eternity?
Yes, they are hard questions but better to answer them now, while you are still able to change, than later when it is too late.
Saturday October 4, 2008
Stephen Porter - 11:34 AM ADT
109 THE SPIRIT BESIDE YOU
The soul and the spirit world cannot be seen; the physical world around us is the only one we can see, hear, smell and touch; or…..is it?
The physical world is the most evident but is really the least important part of our lives. When God made us a living soul, which was the part that he made in His image. He gave us the ability to make our soul ‘look’ just like Him. We do this by choosing to accept Him and His way; then work at making ourselves into His image.
We exchange our selfish thought process for His loving and merciful one. This means, that every spirit that comes to us has to be evaluated and accepted or rejected for its God like image or its God dislike image.[Whatever we accept, we will become and look like and whatever we reject we will not become and not look like.]
As I said earlier, you are in control; just because we have accepted God as our master and His way as our way with our mouth does not mean that we can give up and do nothing from now on. There is a battle going on in God’s kingdom that we have to participate in. God is allowing His enemy, the devil, to wage war against His people so we can have our love for Him tested and strengthened.
God has made the winning of this war so easy that even the weakest person in all history can overcome and win against the devil. Most people fail and loose to the devil because they want to. They are choosing to ‘look’ like the devil rather than God.
I have italicized the word ‘look’ because you can see the spirit that a soul has chosen to take on and wear by the senses that operate in your physical body, if you want to.
Jesus talked to and cast out many evil or demonic spirits that the religious world did not know were there or were helpless to do anything about them. [If you read the bible you will notice that He only dealt with those evil spirits that the human carriers brought to Him. There were many more spirits that the human carriers decided to keep for themselves that He did not interfere with because He will not interfere with our God given gift of free choice for our own souls. {Judas worked for Jesus for three years while he carried a devil in him.}]
I meet many spirits in my daily routine that I cannot do anything about because the carriers’ want to keep the spirit that they are carrying; however I do not accept those spirits that I do not want to influence me. I do this by passing off remarks that are made that are not proper, by ignoring unhealthy subjects or by making positive statements to a negative comment.
You and I can ‘see’ these bad spirits by questioning and understanding why they do what they do, say what they say and act the way they act. God has given us clear guidelines, in His word, what our conversations should and should not include, how we are to conduct ourselves when we are alone and when we are around others and how to control ourselves to please Him. Those that do what He says because they love Him and ask for His help will show His spirit all the time; whether anyone is watching or not and those that are taking on evil spirits may try to hide them when others are around, but they will let down and show their true nature when they think no one is watching.
A good or a bad spirit will form into a habit that will gradually become harder and harder to hide so, the enemies spirit will soon show itself in someone that has taken it into themselves and, like Judas, there will come a time when it will be obvious to everyone.
Wednesday October 1, 2008
Stephen Porter - 5:58 AM ADT
18 COMING UP
You’ll be hearing this over and over again for the next month; snow and ice is coming so you had better slow down but going slow is not the only way to prepare for bad road conditions. Knowing what to do and how it affects the vehicle helps, too.
First, winterize your car and your mind at the same time. Top up your antifreeze in the radiator and use none freezing windshield washer fluid; put your winter tires on and an emergency kit; blanket, candle, lighter, flashlight, first-aid kit, toque, spare jacket, mitts or gloves in the trunk or back seat.[preferably in a small travel case to keep it together.]
So the cars ready, how about the mind? First, the most dangerous time is when the temperature is a couple of degrees above to a couple of degrees below freezing.
A couple of degrees above, when you start out can be freezing in the low places, on slopes that are facing any kind of breeze and ON NEW PAVEMENT!
That’s right, new pavement is the first thing to freeze when the temperature is around the freezing mark. New pavement has not had the time to settle and the tar in it is still sticky and it will hold the moisture on top of it; where in old pavement, the tar has been heated by the summer sun and settled into the cracks and holes; letting the moisture go through it and away from the surface so, even if it freezes, the ice forms around the exposed rocks and bumps and you can still get some traction.
New pavement holds the moisture on a slick, smooth surface so it freezes in a thin sheet on the pavement meaning that you will hit a complete sheet of ice in places on new pavement.
With the roads going out last spring and the government election coming, there is a lot of new pavement going down right now. This will be a major hazard come freezing in another month; beware!
On snow and ice, I prefer a vehicle with the power wheels in the back or a four wheel drive vehicle. [Remember, it is only 4 wheel drive when it is in 4 wheel drive or an all wheel drive vehicle. A 4 wheel drive vehicle that is not engaged is only a two wheel drive vehicle.]
The power wheels being in the back and the motor in the front will not give you as good a forward traction as a front wheel drive, motor in the front, vehicle but, in an emergency, you can control a back wheel drive vehicle by taking your foot off the gas and gently braking, while you steer to stay on the road. In an emergency with a front wheel vehicle, you must NOT take your foot off the gas. It will create drag on your front tires and your free-turning back wheels will try to [and most times will succeed to] pass you; spinning you out of control.
In a front wheel vehicle and in an emergency situation, you must use the front drive wheels to pull you out of the situation, pointing them toward where you want to go. Most inexperienced drivers do not know how to do this and, in an emergency, you do not have the time to rethink any mistake you make. It takes cool thinking and guts to do this the first time and then learn it.
Drive safely this winter and I’ll leave you with one of my sayings for winter driving; on slippery roads remember; no sudden turns and no sudden stops. Do everything slow and easy.
Saturday September 27, 2008
Stephen Porter - 10:51 AM ADT
108 HOW MUCH?
The Old Testament is full of rules and regulations for the conduct of God’s people; for them to be able to please Him. For God to be angry with or at you, is to not go to heaven when you die, not have happiness or peace of mind in this world and to only live for the here and now pleasures and desires; in other words, no hope for the future only gratification now.
But to struggle to memorize and do every single one of those rules and regulations is an impossible task. By the time that Jesus came into the world to show mankind how it was done, the Jewish people had over 3000 rules specifically detailing how far each rule would let a person go and where they had to stop before braking that rule.
Jesus’ ‘New Covenant’ wasn’t a different way of doing things by nullifying God’s old laws; which wrote out ‘do this’ and ‘don’t do this’.
Jesus’ ‘New Covenant’ was a new agreement between Him and His people because He took the payment for our sins [failing to do it God’s way and not pleasing Him] on Himself, paid that debt to God and, then, said ‘follow me and I’ll show you how it is done’.
Love is described by some as ‘wanting the best for’, but you could also add ‘at the sacrifice of me’. God loved so much that He sacrificed His son and Jesus loved so much that He sacrificed His life. Both of these things would be considered wrong in our eyes but are right in God’s eyes because of why they were done.
So, it is not a matter of ‘what we do’ but ‘why we do it’.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that a person should stay home from church just because they think it is full of sinners. It is and that is why you should be there; so we can all correct ourselves together.
To fill your life with good habits is not a bad thing. The habit of going to church is better than the habit of going to the bars but that ‘developing religious habits’ is exactly what the Old Testament religion done. They and we, sometimes let the habits become the ruler in our life and, sometimes, to the displeasure of God.
When a soul is sitting in a church service but is heartbroken inside from a destroyed marriage or some other hurt and you know about it; there is a quiet way to leave your seat, get to that person and comfort them without announcing to the whole congregation that you are doing that.
You see, Jesus said ‘love’ pleases God; love that listens to Him, love that obeys Him, no matter what He asks and love that trusts Him, no matter what He says. Before you condemn someone’s actions, find out why they did what they did. Ask God to show you, ask them to explain or, if it has no bearing on you, leave it alone.
How much we love God or how much we do not love God will be shown to everyone else by how much we obey what He asks us to do, whenever He asks us to do it.
You may have to reject a person to show that you love God, you may have to get angry at someone to love God first and you may have to suffer the consequences of these actions to show them that they are wrong and that you have chosen God’s friendship over theirs.
Jesus went the way His father told Him to because He loved Him and His friends followed Him; He did not follow His friends and His friends showed how much they loved Him by following Him with all their heart and to the end.
Saturday September 20, 2008
Stephen Porter - 10:29 AM ADT
107 RULES
The are rules for everything; rules for living, rules for dieing, rules for walking, rules for eating, rules for everything that you will say, do and, even, think.
Every person, organization or government makes rules of conduct for those under them. Parents have rules for their children, organizations have rules for their people and governments have rules for their people and departments.
Without rules, no-one would know how or what they are supposed to do and would have to rely on those, in direct contact over them in their group, to tell them what to do to be a valuable addition to the group. This could lead to a direction that the group did not want to go in, if that person over you decided to do their own thing. [Most church splits are caused by this action.]
When everyone is obeying the rules that they are supposed to, the group, organization or community is in harmony and enjoys peace and safety while they progress at a satisfactory pace.
When a part of, or most of, the people in a group are disobeying the rules and doing their own thing, there is confusion and chaos and the progress of the group slows, stops or, even, regresses back away from where they really want to go.
Most rules are put there for the good of the entire group and, regardless of what we think about them, someone in authority and, usually with help from their advisors and some intelligent thought, decided that the rules were the best ones for the process.
God has allowed or given everyone their position of authority, for His good and the good of those that He has placed under us and He will hold us accountable for the diligence that we put into overseeing those people or things and our obedience to those over us.
He also has rules that He will expect total obedience to when His kingdom comes; rules that He expects us to be learning and practicing now so we can know and do them well.
His rules do not contradict the safe and peaceful coexistence of all people with each other and everything but do have to be enforced diligently and, sometimes, even violently. Punishment and, even, extraction have to be used as tools to keep the whole healthy and progressing. As each one is responsible for the authority that God has given them, this punishment must be done through the proper chain of command and with much discussion and humility.
God has the final say as to who has done well or who has done badly; who has obeyed His rules and who has not.
Jesus, God’s son and king of the entire creation of God, obeyed the Old Testament rules that God placed on His people; obeying even the wicked priests because that was what His father, God, wanted Him to do. Jesus broke none of the rules of God, His religion or his government because he loved his father in heaven and received his reward; us to be his servants and friends, if we choose Him to be our friend and master.
He has and will decide who we are to obey and who we are to have authority over and it will always agree with his father’s word. It’s simple; obey those over us with a love for God and rule those under us with a love for God.
For due diligence, God has rewards and for slack and lazy people, God also has rewards. The choice is yours what reward you will get; choose wisely.
Tuesday September 16, 2008
Stephen Porter - 7:14 PM ADT
17 SIGNALS
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the use of signal lights.
In the past, signal lights were not required even though most vehicles came with them factory installed.
If a person wanted to, they were taught the left arm signals for stop, left turn and right turn in their drivers’ manuals and they could signal without lights. [I still see some using the hand turn signals with mopeds, bicycles and the occasional car.]
The light turn signals were made into law and are now mandatory to use. [I think. I have not seen or heard of this law but I have heard of some getting fined for not using them. All gossip, you understand.]
It would be common for most drivers to forget once in a while so to forgive the other driver not using their signal light would be a nice thing to do. That would not excuse you for not being prepared for the unexpected actions of the drivers around you.
The use of the signal light is a little fuzzy to most, I believe; because of what I see them doing. To the best of my knowledge, the turn signal is supposed to be used within 100 yards of the actual turn. This eliminates people thinking that you left your signal on while you drive by a couple of opportunities to make the turn that your light says that you want to make.
Another point that I would like to make is the fact that, you signal when you are going to commit to the turn; as you enter a lane that is dedicated to that turn. Once in a dedicated left or right turn lane, your signal light is no longer require because you have no choice but to go the way the lane is supposed to go.
Most vehicles turn the signal off when the steering wheel comes back to center after the turn but trucks and transports do not have this function and must be turned off manually by the driver. It is not unusual for a busy truck driver to forget to turn his signal off so watch for other signs that tell you where the truck is going before you completely trust the turn signals of trucks and older vehicles.
The use of the turn signal is to tell the other drivers what you intend to do and where you intend to go so they can get out of your way or take the proper action to keep everyone safe; thus avoiding a crash.
Helping each other drive and be safe should be our number one concern on our streets and highways.
Saturday September 13, 2008
Stephen Porter - 9:49 AM ADT
106 DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Decisions are an every day, every hour and every second part of our life. Some we have made for so long that they have become a habit that we don’t even think about, when we make them. Our arm itches and we scratch it, without a second thought but, at the first itch, we had to think about what was irritating us and find out what the best way was to stop the itch.
Thought, trial and error and discovery were our teachers at the first; then we learned from those around us. [Our biggest teachers being our parents and, mainly, our fathers.] We would watch them and see how they handled a situation and then, do the same thing.
Action and reaction became a normal part of our lives and we began to make decisions at blinding speeds without putting any real thought into it. This has become the habit of most people in the world today to the point where psychologists can predict what a person is like and what they will do with a great degree of accuracy.
They have even created a difference between Christian’s and non-Christian’s way of thinking because of their faith; it has become a pattern of thought.
All the information coming into your brain from the seven senses creates an awareness of what is around us and what we can do about and in it. [Yes; I’ve added a sense. They say that there are six senses but, of that sixth one, I have divided it into two parts; the feelings made from the unknown and the feelings made from the known. God, to me, is a known and familiar sense that I experience all the time but some things and persons are unknown experiences to me. God I know and trust; the others I explore carefully.]
We, as created souls, are just habituating in this body. The body comes equipped with all or most of the tools we need to experience the spirit world, the physical world and the thought world around us. We hear something in our ears, [and, sometimes, sound comes through as vibrations in our body] and then we process it, discover what it is, what made it and how it is going to affect us. Then we have to decide what we are going to do about it, if anything. [Doing nothing is still a decision to be made by you and me.]
There is such a huge amount of information in every look, touch, smell, taste and feeling that we cannot absorb and think about it all so we have learned to focus on certain points of information and make our decisions on a relatively small amount of information.
The sight function has become our number one sense for information. Most everything has geared itself to our eyes; how pretty they are, how appealing it is or how badly we think we need what we see, is taking most of our time.
Millions of dollars is spent every day to get something [or someone] in front of your eyes in an appealing way and to make you decide to spend your money [that you spent your time earning] to buy what you see.
Yet, God’s word says that what is not seen is far more valuable than what is seen; making our decisions to be honest or dishonest, moral or immoral, kind or cruel or trustworthy or untrustworthy so important in our decision-making that our life depends on us making the right ones.
Jesus had finished buying our salvation and had inherited the kingdom of God when he opened his shirt to show Tomas the gaping wound in His side. Tomas saw the gross open flesh wound but, instead of turning sick and backing away, he acknowledged that Jesus was his Lord and master and loved Him the more.
Let us make the decision to walk by faith and not by sight. It will please our God.
Sunday September 7, 2008
Stephen Porter - 10:09 AM ADT
105 BLANK
It’s Sunday and my page is a day late. Usually, I wake up on Saturday morning with a topic or more in my mind to begin my teaching page with and the Lord adds to the topic as I type but yesterday morning I had nothing and didn’t get anything all day.
I questioned God about that but didn’t really give Him all of my attention. I just kind of casually asked Him then went on with my day doing the things that I wanted to do. This morning, I realize that He gave me this heading yesterday but, I got caught up in my day and didn’t get back to the computer to type anything.
I also learned that He had made my pages come so easy that I had become spoiled and started to take them for granted that they would always come that easy and that I would not have to do a whole lot of work to get them.
In my conversations with Him, this morning, He made me realize that I had missed doing the page yesterday so, in staying home from church today, I had also missed a day to gather with His people and worship Him. [I missed doing two things that He loved for me to do]
I had become complacent. Any other time, I would have come into the office, sat at the computer and started something while I waited for Him and it would not be very long before He would give me something and I would get it faster than I could type, [like right now.]
I did NOT start so God let me mess up and miss His blessing. He waited, patiently, while He watched me do my own thing, saying nothing and doing nothing; knowing that I would come to this place of understanding and regret with only one option left. Ask His forgiveness and get back to the task that He has given me. [I have long since made the decision to stay with Him, no matter what, so, continuing to do my own thing and ignoring God from then on was not an option for me; even though I have seen others that have chosen to do this.]
Having lost out on those blessings that I should have enjoyed yesterday and today and can only continue on today and hope for His blessing and enjoy His presence now.
He loves us but He will not force Himself on anyone. We have to do it His way if we want to be His friend. When we make a mistake, He requires us to go to Him [trusting Him] and apologize; then receive His forgiveness and continue on with the love relationship that we started at our first acceptance of Jesus and our first repentance for our sins that put Jesus on the cross in payment for them.
Any blessings and successes that we missed are gone and should not be brought back into our minds to continue to beat ourselves with. God considers this to be an abuse of ourselves and is not allowed to be done to someone that He loves. However, the lessons that we have learned from our failures should remain to teach us how to handle a similar situation in the future and teach us how to help others that need the correct knowledge to deal with that situation in their lives.
This page is written today, showing my failure and shame so that others can see how to handle failure and shame before their God and how to take the proper actions to restore their right relationship with Him and how to get back into His good graces.[and how to stop beating yourselves with your old past mistakes and trust Him to renew a right spirit in you.]
May God bless you one and all.
Wednesday September 3, 2008
Stephen Porter - 8:33 AM ADT
16 FOR THE RECORD
Just for the record, it has been said that I should not let a tailgater change my driving habits. Anyone coming up behind me, beside me, or pulling in front of me changes my driving habits. Anyone getting close enough to be a hazard to me or themselves has to be calculated into any situation that I could be driving into.
If a child runs out between two parked cars, would I get stopped in time only to have that vehicle behind me push me into killing that child anyways?
Would that vehicle beside me swerve into me if something happened on the other side of it?
Is the driver that just pulled in front of me able enough to get stopped if an emergency took place in front of them and would I be able to miss them, if it did happen?
Everyone around me becomes a calculation when I am driving safely. While I hope that they are watching out for me, I must be watching out for them. We are on this road together and required to keep each other safe.
Anyone not obeying the highway regulations near me, makes me nervous and, if anything dangerous happens, I will protect the innocent first. If I have to make a choice between taking out an innocent pedestrian or a guilty driver, my choice will always be to take out the guilty person. If they are going to disobey then they should be the ones to pay, not the innocent. [However my first thoughts and reactions will be to save both, if I can.]
There is also a thought process that is popular among the law-breakers that those slow drivers cause crashes by provoking them to unlawful actions. So they are trying to tell us that they are not in control of their own thoughts, emotions and actions; should these people actually be allowed to drive a large steel object around other people?
The driver’s seat is the place where these steel objects are controlled from and that person is totally responsible for the actions of that object. The driver is the one responsible to see, calculate and act upon any situation that occurs around that vehicle; even if it is an unexpected event, they are required to be prepared for it. [Most people driving do not have transport truck training, but that is what is taught in the transport driver training schools.]
In closing, except in a 50 Km and, possibly, a 60 Km, zone, it is my preference to drive 5 to 10 Km. under the posted speed. The reason that I don’t drive slow but maintain the speed limit [and go the extra by giving a 2 to 3 Km difference to make up for my tire wear and, possible, speedometer difference] is to help those drivers that think they have to hurry, to go as fast as they legally can.
Saturday August 30, 2008
Stephen Porter - 10:16 AM ADT
104 PAY DAY
Our whole purpose for working is to earn a living. If we are thrifty, we can save enough to retire on later. [If it is not all taken away from us.]
The world system is getting better and better at taking away what we are trying to keep and selling us things that we do not need or that will not last long enough to pay for their overall cost.
It has us so far in dept for our future earnings that the slight increases in the day to day costs are cutting into what we were planning to save for later so that we are, more and more, living to survive right now, let alone later, when we are too old and weak to maintain the same pace that we are setting now.
By taking away our future security, the world system is taking away our peace which, in turn, is taking away our health; making us older and weaker faster.
The system does not care about you or me; the system cares only for itself and each one in that system is in danger of accepting this attitude of caring only for themselves. Their wealth, their health and their security gradually takes over more and more of their thoughts and time every day. They are pushed harder and harder by their dept, their need for so much income and their present wants that they are selling their future to keep up today.
Few have escaped this system which, in today’s smaller world, is now world wide in scope. Those poorer and less able people have already fallen behind and are living, day to day, with little or no hope while the rest of us are drawing closer and closer to their position every day. Every day, we loose a great number of our population into the too poor and hopeless ranks.
Even those that have arrived to retirement with enough to live on, are worried that, with the costs going up, maybe they cannot remain secure.
All of this takes place on a day-to-day base, unnoticed, until payday; when we try to make up for what we have spent in the past and then try to provide for our present needs and see that what is left for our future is gradually disappearing.
God also has a payday; a day when all our actions of faith or disobedience will determine our security for our future.
This world system of disobedience started with Adam and Eve and progressed to where it took all but 8 of the people of the world before God decided to have a ‘payday’. Of those 8, one had a future because of faith and obedience to God, one had a secure future because of obedience to a faithful husband, three had a secure future because of obedience to a faithful father and three had a secure future because of their obedience to husbands that were obedient to a faithful father.
Our secure future depends on our faithfulness to our God on a day-to-day base but will only be evident at payday.
[To those doctrinal Christians, read carefully; nothing was said about salvation but, will your ‘payday’ leave you feeling secure and peaceful or with regrets at how much of your ‘paycheque’ you spent on things that you did not need?]
