How to be a Man or Woman Who is Blessed of God

The Blessed Man Loves the Lord’s Truth  AND  Avoids Trouble

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly….

Eve walked in the counsel of the ungodly.  She went near the forbidden tree where the wily serpent awaited her. 

nor standeth in the way of sinners…….

Eve stood in the way of sinners.  She stopped walking and stood there and listened to the devil’s arguments.  Oh, the devil spoke cunningly.  He didn’t come out and say, ‘I hate you and want you to turn from God and worship me.’  He asked her questions that acted as though God was not entirely truthful with Eve, and that God was keeping good things from her. 

nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful……

Eve sat down and joined the counsel of the ungodly.  She fell under the devil’s evil spell and believed the his cunningly devised fable.

In short, Eve walked by a place where the ungodly lived.  She should have avoided that place all together once she knew it was forbidden,

Eve not only walked by the forbidden place, she stood there to listen to the snake question and call God a liar.  Why didn’t she stand up and defend God’s truth instead of allowing Satan to question God’s truth?  Probably she was just to weak to do anything.  The devil and cohorts are powerful.  It was utterly stupid or arrogant of Eve to go anywhere near the forbidden place.  For whatever reason, Eve listened so long that she was convinced.  She ate the fruit, and then set out to convince her husband to eat of the fruit as well.   (Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  Psalm 1:1)

 In short, Eve was drawn into sin.  She became a servant of the snake, and she went to her husband and drew him into sin.  Then, their children were born in sin, and so has the world been ever since.

 It is sort of like a Hollywood horror movie where the vampires or zombies take over the world.  (I watched a few of those movies on black and white TV when I was a kid.  I absolutely do not watch them now.  I shudder to think how bad they are on the big screen and in color.)

 Eve’s story gives us a history of the actual events that happened and an example of disobedience that brought sorrow and suffering to all humanity.  When we hear of the ‘world that perished’, we think of the world that was drowned in the global flood in Noah’s day.  But, we could also think of the world that perished when Eve sinned.  The world of perfection was gone. 

 The devil has not changed his tactics.  He is still a liar.  He still uses the same strategy. 

He entices people to walk in the council of the ungodly.  ‘Just walk by and take a peek,’ he says.  ‘What harm can there be in that?  If you don’t really know what is going on, who are you to judge it as wrong?  And, with your life and work schedule, you cannot afford to miss out on something that will give you pleasure and help you forget your troubles and cares for just a little while.’ 

Another despicable but effective tactic the devil uses is coveting, also called jealousy.  Today class-war-fare is global.  The poor hate the rich and look to the government to equal things out.  To the poor I would say this.  Forget the rich.  Forget the government.  Remember God.  God is the one who created you, and God is the One who will care for you.  Don’t let demanding a pittance from the government take up the time you could be spending growing as a Christian.  Don’t be like the one named ‘Foolish Heart’

 Foolish Heart walks by acquaintances who are indulging in something worldly.  The next thing Foolish Heart knows he is standing there gawking at something ungodly.  ‘Looks like fun doesn’t it?’  says the devil.  Or, he says, ‘That looks interesting and you might learn something.’  Or, he says, ‘Those are the right people for you to get to know.  It could really help your career or job prospects.’  Soon, Foolish Heart is drawn in to the point that it sits and relaxes in the situation.  ‘This isn’t so bad,’ Foolish Heart tells himself.  He relaxes.  He listens.  Sooner than he ever thought possible, Foolish Heart has joined the ranks of the ungodly.  He may have found a source of undeserved income either from the government or illegal activity.  He may have found an immoral activity that brings him pleasure for a season.  Like Lot, Foolish Heart would still be a saved man if ever he was saved to begin with, but he is still sitting in a seat by those who reject Gods teachings and boundaries with every thought in their hearts and minds.  Some reject Him openly.  Others reject more subtly, simply questioning God’s word here and there, His authority another place, and His mercy other places. 

 The beginning of walking in the counsel of the ungodly begins in the mind.  Every Christian who wants to avoid walking in the counsel of the ungodly must begin by delighting themselves in the law of Lord.  This delight comes and is maintained by meditating day and night on the things God has told us in His word.

 There truly is a battle for the minds of all people.  For the lost, the battle is to keep them from even considering the Bible and its teachings as the way of redemption and reconciliation between God and the individual human being.  For the Christian the battle for the mind is to at least distract them from some of the Bible truths and instructions for living.  They may be saved, but perhaps the devil and the world will be able to distract them from the importance of conforming to the image of Christ.  After all, a Christian who walks like the world, talks like the world, and acts the world will not be an example of the differences between the saved and the lost.  Walking, sitting, or standing in the counsel of the ungodly all decrease a Christians personal witness to the world.  It makes trivializing the salvation message much easier to the people of the world.  It makes for a watered down version of Christianity.  It allows the devil to gain a stronghold in the youngest generation.  Lot escaped with his life from the destruction of the city, but I suppose he would have rather perished than faced what happened afterward.  The thought that probably ran through his mind like a video on repeat was, ‘If only I had never walked by Sodom to see what was going on…….   Take heed from Eve.  She strolled by the forbidden tree and look what happened.  Take heed from Lot.  He strolled down to Sodom to look the place over.  The next thing he probably knew he was a powerful man sitting in judgment at the gates of the city.  The next thing he knew he was a homeless man with immoral daughters.

 There is no forbidden place by which a Christian can safely walk.  Evil is like the tide going out.  When you wade in the water you may get sucked out with the tide.  When you get close to evil you will be sucked into it.  Keep your feet on the stable land of obedience to God and faithfulness to His instructions.

 If you want to change the world for the better, the change begins with yourself.  Take the Bible seriously.  If the Bible says we are to do something, then that is what we are to do.  If says we are not to do something, then it is important that we do not do it!  Make it a constant goal to let your own heart be changed to be more like Christ.

Know the Gospel.

Preach the gospel by how you live.

 Take these things to heart:

 God is Truth

God communicated the truth to us in the Bible.

 Christians are to

Know the Truth – which is to know God and what He says in His book.

Conform to the image of God

Communicate the truth of God’s word to others

 The constant goal of a committed Christian should be to walk closer to Jesus.  Christians who seek to set the pace of their own steps to match the pace of the steps of Jesus will have a better Christian walk.  You want to be in step with Christ on the days your life is going fast and furious, and on the days it is slow and boring.  Whatever is happening in your life now, do your best to get in step with Jesus and stay there.  It is human nature to want to run through the rough times, and linger in the times of joy.  The correct pace or speed with which you pass through something, good or bad, is the pace that Christ sets for you.  Commit yourself to a regime of Bible study and meditation.  Any spare thought should be on Christ and His word, and not to forget scheduled time for Bible study. 

 Christians need to strive to:

Stay away from temptation – don’t think about it and don’t even walk near things that might tempt you

Stay in step with Christ – let Him set the pace for what is happening in your life today – and cast the cares of tomorrow upon Him.  Remember, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  Matthew 6:34

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

http://nethymnal.com/htm/j/u/justaclo.htm

I am weak, but Thou art strong;

 Jesus, keep me from all wrong;

 I’ll be satisfied as long

 As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Refrain

Just a closer walk with Thee,

 Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,

 Daily walking close to Thee,

 Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Through this world of toil and snares,

 If I falter, Lord, who cares?

 Who with me my burden shares?

 None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.

Refrain

When my feeble life is o’er,

 Time for me will be no more;

 Guide me gently, safely o’er

 To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

Refrain

Things That Are Unchangeable

Things that Are Unchangeable

 There are certain things that are today for everyone in general and for everyone specifically.

Things that ‘are’ for everyone are planetary locations and rotations, star location, seasons, time, place, and space.  It is a particular day, week, month, year, and season of the year.  There are certain laws that are in effect.  The law of gravity is a well-known law.  If you jump off a cliff, you will fall to the bottom of the cliff and probably kill yourself.  Who can argue with that?

Things that ‘are’ include physical needs.  People need food, water, and shelter from the elements to survive. 

 Individuals are living in a certain place, surviving by specific means, are a particular gender, heights, size, skin color, age, with a particular level of health.

 Measurements are what they are, whether you are measuring time or distance or square feet. 

 Now, what happens when someone decides that things that ‘are’  ‘are not’?  I mean, if you are measuring time and decide that Christmas is on a Tuesday when it is really on a Monday, will your holiday plans turn out ok?

 Or, if someone living in Fairbanks, Alaska, decides it is July when it is December, and dresses accordingly, will they avoid the frostbite the comes to exposed skin in December in Fairbanks?

 If someone who is a size 12 decides to buy clothes that are a size 8, will the clothes fit?

 If an architect decides a foot is 10 inches rather than 12 inches, will a 2000 square foot home really have 2000 square feet?

 It doesn’t work does it?  Things that are just are.  That is the way it is and we cannot change it.  It is called the truth.  And, if anyone has a misconception of the truth of time, distance, measurement, necessities, and so on, they are setting themselves up for a BIG fall.

 Something else that is an unchangeable fact is the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is the truth that saves. It tells the truth by which man can be saved from hell and obtain heaven. If it is diluted to the wisdom of man, then it is not the truth that has power to save. 

 Join the task force of true Believes who earnestly contend for the faith.  Take the true Gospel to the lost.  A watered down social gospel has no power to save anyone from anything.  A lesser gospel is sort of like taking rainwater to a sick person and telling them it has the nutritional and healthful benefits of chicken soup.  Even if you throw in a couple of tablespoons of real chicken soup, it will be rainwater.  It also will not have any benefits to the health or recovery of the sick person.

 It is also an unchangeable fact that in order for a Christian to have a faith that is strong enough for the journey, they must be firmly grounded in Bible teachings and truth. A strengthening truth from the Bible is that God deserves our thankfulness, and that thankfulness to God benefits the believer as well.

 It is an unchangeable fact that something crucial to the well-being of Christians is thanksgiving.  God deserves our thanks.  It is wrong to with-hold thanks when it is deserved.  As usual, God gives more than He gets. 

 Thanksgiving DOES have benefits for you personally.  God takes notice of obedience in His children.  A moment of sincere thanks to God will most certainly bless you.  The world tends to look at ‘blessings’ as mountains of material wealth.  This is not the case with believers.  Honestly, the material blessings are wonderful.  However, they do become secondary to other blessings like life, the honest love of family and friends, liberty, freedom of worship, and freedom to follow the dreams that God puts in your heart.  Still, Christians are not to make light of material blessings like a nice wood burning stove on a cold day, a roof that doesn’t leak during a rain storm, or that really neat new refrigerator that makes shaved ice when you hit the right button.  (No, I don’t have such a refrigerator, but I want one.  Of course first I need a house to put it in, but I still want one.)  Specific Thanksgiving to God Almighty for His wonderful blessings to mankind and to you personally brings you closer to God.  The closer to God you are the better your life will be.

 We are approaching the end of 2011.  Thanksgiving is just on the horizon, and then comes the most famous holiday of them all. For Christians Christmas should be a time of even more thanksgiving.  Honestly, I like to start celebrating Christmas on Thanksgiving Day, or a week or two before.  Get into the mood of thanksgiving and let that be your constant thought through the rest of the year.  It is sort of a time of rest from worries.  Thanksgiving to God Almighty has the power to give you rest from whatever worries you have.  A very common worry from now until the end of the year is money.  How are you going to pay for all that holiday cheer?  Meals, travel, present, and even charitable giving all adds up to a lot of extra money.  If you don’t have extra money during the rest of the year, why would you have extra money for the holiday season which includes Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year?  This time of year is either the time to  cave into social pressure to spend spend spend, OR become scrooge like, OR become more thankful.  In becoming more thankful, the other problems do two things.  First they go from being  most important down to being far less important.  Sometimes unexpected solutions present themselves.  Whatever happens you are far better off being thankful than you are worrying about how to get it all done.

 Also, to all my readers, I know some of you aren’t really worried about Christmas presents and expenses.  You are worried about having no job, and how you are going to pay your electric bill in the dead of winter.  I prayed for you just now.  I ask all other readers to take a minute right now to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are hurting financially right now.  Also pray for those who have suffered loss this year such as death of a family member, an unwanted divorce, and other such terrible losses.  And, for the brethren who are without even personal safety, much less a constant way to provide for their families.  God help each of you, and God give each of us the means and a generous heart to help those we meet who are in need.  I want to speak to both  those who have suffered terribly this year as well as to those who have prospered spiritually and materially in this article.  Thanksgiving is the help for everyone, regardless of circumstances.  But, let me speak to those going through rough times just a moment.  An example of thanksgiving in dire circumstances is given to us by the Pilgrims who first came to what would become the United States of America.  During their first year, the Pilgrims suffered approximately 50% casualties.  HALF their number died!  Yet when the opportunity came they offered a huge thanksgiving to God for His goodness to them.  The legacy left by their behavior rocked the world.  So, if you are in dire circumstances, the most effective thing you can do is sincerely thank God for the daily benefits He gives to you.  If things seem to be going your way now, it is an equally good time to give thanks.

 In the Bible we are told five times of the ‘sacrifice of thanksgiving’.  I think the more dreadful the circumstances the people are facing, the more thanksgiving is a sacrifice.  They have to take their thoughts off their problems, or sacrifice the sorrow’s first place in their thoughts, and give thanks to God first place in thoughts. I suppose even sorrow or trials could be a taken as a ‘god before God’ if the trials are getting first place in the believer’s life.  The Pilgrims were certainly an example of a sacrificial time of thanks.  But in the thanksgiving there is rest from which it is hard to turn away.  When you stop thanking God, you have to face the trials alone.  Always remember that while you are thanking God, God is working on solutions for you.  Also remember that among all our worldly goods, though they be great, no one has anything worthy of an offering to God.  Thanking God for His goodness to us is the way to express our thanks properly, AND rest from our sorrow and trials,

AND give God the authority to work out our difficulties on our behalf.

 Take the time to go to a web site like biblegateway and look up thanks, thanksgiving, thankful and read the verses.  Believers are called upon to be thankful in all circumstances.  I don’t think we are supposed to be thankful when tragedy or hard times strike, but rather to be thankful for the goodness of God that continues through whatever circumstances we are facing. 

 The best way to prepare for the coming season of holidays including Thanksgiving and Christmas is to pay strict attention to thankfulness to God.  The best way face the rest of your life is to set a pattern of thanksgiving in all seasons in all circumstances.

 If you are in a dire set of circumstances, faith in God’s ability and willingness to fulfill his promises to His children is the beginning of change.  Have faith.  God is righteous, and God loves His children.  Give thanks.  It takes a lot of faith and determination to set aside sorrows and thank God that His word is true and that He will do all that He has promised.  (Remember that little song ‘Every Promise in the Book is Mine’?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-lqYLoBZqI  )

 If you are in good circumstances now and living the life of which you always dreamed, remember that it is God who has blessed you.  Give thanks.

 I have two songs for this article because thanksgiving seems to be accompanied by music. 

 The first is Amazing Grace because it is a ballad that tells the story of conversion, life, and heaven.  Memorize all the verses.  There is no song like it all creation.  The verse that says, ‘The Lord has promised good to me – His word my hope assures’ – explains the reason we have courage to give thanks in the midst of trials.  The Lord promises us good.  His thoughts toward us are good.  We can’t see the big picture most of the time – but that does not change what the true picture really is.  God had promised good to me personally – and to you personally as well.  Give thanks.

 The second song is ‘Faith is the Victory’.  Hebrews chapter 11 tells of faithful acts of the saints of ages past.  For the individual Christian to take his/her focus off their troubles and focus on giving thanks requires great faith and determination.  God has not changed.  He still takes note of those who go forward by faith, seeing the greatness and power of God instead of the impossibility of their tasks.  By faith, set aside your distractions whether they be good or bad, and make thanksgiving a constant and continual part of your daily thoughts and routine.  Faith and thankfulness are first and foremost an attitude of the heart.  A right attitude has its roots in thanksgiving and faith.  I wish to all of you a blessed time from now through the rest or the year.  I thank God for believers around the world, and pray for His the continued blessings of His help to each of us. 

Faith is the Victory

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/f/a/faithist.htm 

Encamped along the hills of light,

 Ye Christian soldiers, rise.

 And press the battle ere the night

 Shall veil the glowing skies.

 Against the foe in vales below

 Let all our strength be hurled.

 Faith is the victory, we know,

 That overcomes the world.

Refrain

Faith is the victory! Faith is the victory!

 O glorious victory, that overcomes the world.

His banner over us is love,

 Our sword the Word of God.

 We tread the road the saints above

 With shouts of triumph trod.

 By faith, they like a whirlwind’s breath,

 Swept on o’er every field.

 The faith by which they conquered death

 Is still our shining shield.

Refrain

On every hand the foe we find

 Drawn up in dread array.

 Let tents of ease be left behind,

 And onward to the fray.

 Salvation’s helmet on each head,

 With truth all girt about,

 The earth shall tremble ’neath our tread,

 And echo with our shout.

Refrain

To him that overcomes the foe,

 White raiment shall be giv’n.

 Before the angels he shall know

 His name confessed in Heav’n.

 Then onward from the hill of light,

 Our hearts with love aflame,

 We’ll vanquish all the hosts of night,

 In Jesus’ conqu’ring Name.

Refrain

Amazing Grace

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/m/a/amazing_grace.htm  OR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUfe_XX8K0I 

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

 That saved a wretch like me!

 I once was lost, but now am found;

 Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

 And grace my fears relieved;

 How precious did that grace appear

 The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

 I have already come;

 ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

 And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,

 His Word my hope secures;

 He will my Shield and Portion be,

 As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

 And mortal life shall cease,

 I shall possess, within the veil,

 A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

 The sun forbear to shine;

 But God, who called me here below,

 Will be forever mine.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

 Bright shining as the sun,

 We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

 Than when we’d first begun.

The Image of God - What Does it Look LIke to You?

The Image of God – What Does He Look Like To YOU?

It was a dark night in the souls of the Israelites.  God had brought them through the plague visited on Egypt.  He had brought them through the Red Sea on dry land.  The Egyptian task masters following after them were drowned in the sea.  They marched onward until their leader Moses left them alone for a while.  Then the foolishness in their hearts was shown in what they did.  They decided to make an image of god/God.  I don’t know who decided the God who saved them looked like a golden calf.  And, I also don’t know if they decided fully to dump God altogether and accept Baal as their god.  Anyway, for some rebellious reason, they decided to make an image of god/God so they could worship it.  I don’t know why they wanted an image of god, because they had the presence of God and the power of God with them.  But I do have a guess as to why they wanted an image of God.

An image such as a golden calf was the people’s way of going to God or replacing God with a god who required nothing of them.  It was limiting God’s power to tell them what to do.

 An image of a god is made by mankind.  It is made to suit mankind instead of God.  God made man in His image. When man makes an image of god, he is really promoting himself to god, and demoting God to the created being. 

 This behavior, this conforming God to one’s own image of God, loses God altogether.  The conformed image is not God at all.  It is just an image that cannot do anything.  It may be a mental image or a literal image, but it still can’t do anything for the individual or mankind as a whole.

 God is actually a very complex being to say the least.  He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.  That means the God of the Bible really does know everything, He is everywhere, and He is all powerful.   He is the God of love and mercy.  He is ALSO the God of judgment.  He really is continually perfect in every way.  And that is just to name a few of the attributes of God.  Now, how can all those qualities be put into an image?  They answer is they cannot!  The only thing an image might do is capture something like a one dimensional snapshot of God’s eyelash.

 There are many images of God today that are shaping the world as a whole.  Let’s take look at a few.

 Here is a very common image of god running rampant throughout Christianity.  It is the image of God as love.   That’s it.  In the mind of the individual God may be imagined as an elderly grandfather type, or a soft spoken shepherd walking about a mountain meadow playing with the animals.  Regardless, He is seen only as a God of love.  God IS love, but He is also much more.  An image of God without also seeing the God of judgment is incomplete.  It does not give the believer the necessary knowledge to make sound decisions.  Yes God loves His children, but that does not give them a free pass to ignore what the Bible has to say about Christian living.

 Another common image of God is that of judgment only.  God is seen as someone trailing you like a hungry grizzly bear.  He is just waiting for you to slip up so He can punish you.  How unfair is that?  The devil is the hungry lion wanting to destroy you.  God is the Good Shepherd wanting to keep you from harm.  Any parent knows it is far better to give a precious little hand a small spat to keep them from playing with light sockets than it is to let them actually stick their finger into the light socket.  Certainly God does the same for us.

 There is another image of God that shows Him to be a negotiator.  The Bible clearly states there is one way to God the Father and that is through Jesus Christ the Son.  Yet, from the very first family until now, there have been multitudes who try to go to God in a way that suits themselves.  Cain tried it.  He didn’t like the blood sacrifice, so he decided to negotiate with God instead of doing the thing God required.  Cain offered God the produce from his garden.  It wasn’t a case of Cain ‘just offering what he had’.  It was a case of Cain trying to negotiate his way into heaven by his own way. 

 Another image of God is that of a great collectivist.  In the end He is going to ‘collect’ all the souls of mankind and take them to heaven.  He is ultimately going to let everyone into heaven because everyone deserves it as much anyone else.  To the ‘everyone is going to the same place crowd’, God will finally cave in and let all the un-regenerated souls into heaven along with those who followed God’s instructions on how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 There is also the image of God as the frazzled ineffective parent whose children are out of control.  The world is in a mess, and God is without power to deal with what is going on.  He can’t keep the world running by Himself.  He needs ‘co-saviors’ who come in the form of little children remembering to turn off light bulbs and signing petitions to stop global warming.  Co-saviors are those who preach a social and/or globalist gospel.  Those who get on the ‘save the earth’ bandwagon are little saviors of the world.  The God of their salvation just can’t do it by Himself anymore.

 There are those who have an image of God as ‘The Great Acceptor’.  They are sort of like Cain, in that they want to give to God the work of their own hands, or their own preferences.  You see them taking their music preference to church without regard to what God prefers.  You see them ignoring part of the Bible that cause them to feel uncomfortable, or passages that offend the ungodly.  They do what is right in their own eyes and just ‘know’ God will eventually accept it.  (An aside here to parents – don’t let you kids wear you down into letting them do something you know is not right.  Parents are the first image a child has of God.  If you set aside what you know is right because of their continual pressure, they get the idea that is all it takes to get their own way.  You are free to say no to wrong behaviors and stick to your right decision.)

 The truth is that there are many who would rather have an image of God than God because it is just easier.  God has standards by which His followers are to live.  If someone makes an image of God, they can put into what they want.  If they don’t like some of the boundaries God has set, then leave those out of the image.  If they don’t like the judgment aspect of God, then that can be left out as well. 

 Images always give a small view of a great God.  They also do not have the truth in them.  It is true that:

God loves you.

God is with you.

God has a plan to help you.

It is also true that:

The Lord chastises those He loves.

 Most believers begin their Christian life with an image of God.  He can’t be seen clearly to begin with.  God really can’t be seen clearly this side of heaven.  But, what begins to happen in true believers is that changes begin to occur in their view of the greatness of the God of the Bible.  As they hear the truth preached and as they personally study the Bible for themselves, they begin to get a glimpse of God that cannot be contained in any image the human mind can conceive.  They begin to realize their idea of God, the God of their salvation, is just too small.  And then they begin to dig deeper into the teachings of the Bible.  They begin to desire that be made over again in the image of God.  Their heart desires all that the Lord has to offer them.  They want to be more like God instead of making God more like them.  Transformation begins in the life of the believer when he or she sets out to be more like God. (This is NOT to become God, but to conform to His image.) The Holy Spirit begins to work in such believers and enable them to conform to the image of Christ.  They have stopped MAKING an image. They want to BECOME the image.  They want to no longer conform to the image of the world, but instead be transformed into someone whose life shows other Jesus Christ. 

 Changing one’s life to be more like Christ is hard work.  In fact, without the aid of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible.  Change requires the Holy Spirit’s help, and constant determination on the part of the believer.  Those who have changed the Gospel Message to a social gospel are impatient people, preferring that Christ work on their time table and produce the level of obvious fruit they want.  And, no matter how hard they work, they are ultimately lazy people because it is much harder to work at changing your own life than it is to work at changing the lives of others.

 Is the leading guiding light in your life the Holy Spirit?  You will not be led to create mental images of God that limit Him to one realm by the Holy Spirit.  Neither will the Holy Spirit lead you to try to do things that only God can do.  The Holy Spirit leads believers to be more like Christ.  Through Christian actions, impossible things can be done.