Theological Secrecy

 

    

    The Bible uses several descriptive terms for the one word we use: secret.  Some words can be translated as hiding place, shelter, friends, or treasure in reference to secret.  It can be overwhelming if you look at it as a whole.  This is why your journey with God and His Word is a daily step.  You learn more and get closer to Him every time you dig into the Bible.  It doesn't happen in a day.

    I write this blog daily to bring me closer to God and help other people in what He is teaching me.  Nothing I write will be more powerful than you getting into the Word personally.  You can use the scriptures I read at the bottom, go look up your own scriptures to support or refute my words, or find your own study.  The Bible holds a wealthy of wisdom, guidance, an value to life and eternity.

    God's secrets are about the spiritual world, eternity, life with Him, and truths blocked to you until you are ready to accept them.  Your relationship with Jesus is a type of secret because it is between the two of you.  You can share, but the intimacy is all your own.  Jesus is the lover of souls and until you have salvation you will never be able to understand that.

    A secret is not known to seen or not meant to be known or seen by others.  Secrecy is the action of keeping something secret or the state of being kept secret.  Does understanding what it is affect the way you see the Bible, salvation, and your life?  There are good and bad secrets.  Good secrets make you feel involved, important, and trusted.  Bad secrets steal your joy, peace, and health.  God only gives you good secrets.  

    The Gospel is the good news.  It is a secret that becomes clear upon salvation.  It gives your yearning to understand.  It is that yearning that makes you want salvation.  Theology is God's secrets manifested for people to be able to have. Prayer opens your heart and mind to understanding and being able to go deeper into those secrets of truth.

    The old testament secrets are heavy.  It shows us how flawed we all are and how God pursues us.  The Gospel is about Jesus' secrets and how he reveals them.  They are beautiful.  The rest of the new testament shows us how to live without Jesus with us.  The secret is the Holy Spirit and how He works.  

Psalm 51:1-6, Proverbs 11:13, 20:19, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, Matthew 6:5-6, 18:15-17, & 1 Corinthians 4:5

Battling Desire

 

    Everyone battles their worldly desires.  It takes God, faith, and self-discipline to win that battle.  You can never give up because you are fighting for your relationship with God.  See your temptation for what it is, your sinful nature, and be ready to fight it with God's Word.  Pray for God's power to be in you and that you will have the wisdom to use it to overcome temptation.

    What are your triggers that cause you to sin?  How to you deal with your triggers, so that you do not sin?  When you are tired, bored, or complacent you are the most vulnerable to be triggered.  It is easy to see why, but it is no excuse.  You have to be prepared to live life in an unpredictable world.  

    When you resist your worldly desires, then the Holy Spirit is able to work in your life.  He will replace them with Godly desires that lead to life, beauty, and love.  The gifts that the Holy Spirit gives are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  These are worth fighting for.  They allow you to live free from heavy burdens and things that wear you down.  

    To win your battles is to choose obedience.  True obedience comes from love.  Focus on what is true, honest, right, pure, lovely, and admirable to live in peace in your heart and mind.  It will renew your life.  

    It comes down to what your heart belongs to.  What are you willing to let go of (sacrifice) to be able to follow Jesus? Are you willing to allow Him to lead and be your strength?  Your time is now.  Don't waste it.  

Psalm 119:33-40, Matthew 5:27-30, Romans 13:11-14, Galatians 5:16-23, Philippians 4:8-9, Colossians 3:1-4, James 1:12-15, 1 John 2:15-17

Walk with God Part 2

 

    Christians have to have self control to glorify God.  You have to be glorifying God every day to walk with Him.  That means that your thoughts and desires are no longer allowed to control how you behave.  Do you trust the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you?  Or do you try to take over and do things your way?

    Submitting to God is a struggle because of your human nature.  However, if you want to walk with Jesus, then the Holy Spirit has to lead.  Your body is His temple where the Holy Spirit abides and reigns.  Are you able to let go of your human desires to make room for self-control?

    When you walk in pace with the Holy Spirit your sinful nature is no longer in control. It does not mean that the spiritual battle has ended.  It means you choose obedience over selfishness.  The battle is what makes you tired.  The quicker you can submit, the better it is for you.  

    Human desire will corrupt and weaken you.  The more you pour yourself into God, the easier it will become to deny your sinful nature.  It will always be there until you get to resurrect with Jesus, but it doesn't have to control you.  Jesus freed you from those chains and gave you the Holy Spirit to walk with you upon salvation.   

    Life is easier when you give into human nature, but it is not nearly as fulfilling.  Walking with God requires more energy and effort, but it gives life meaning.  God knows what you need.  That is why He commanded you to nail your worldly passions and sinful nature to the cross with the blood of Jesus.  

    Walk away from your past sinful habits.  Do not go back to that bloody cross to rip them off chaining yourself to the sin you had been freed from.  Jesus will destroy them if you allow Him.  However, if you insist on putting yourself in chains again, then He will not stop you.  You will never find the freedom that you were meant to have in chains.  It is important to walk with God to be truly free.  Walk in faith and not by what your eyes alone see.

Psalm 119:105-112, Micah 6:6-8, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, Galatians 5:16-25, & 1 John 1:5-7

Sexual Desires

 

    Christians are tempted.  There is no shame to be tempted.  It only becomes a sin if you allow the temptation to become a sin.  We all fight temptation, but it becomes a little easier the closer you get to God.  He makes it clear what His standards are about sex.

    It is God's will for His people to stay away from sexual sin.  We are called to be holy and we can't be holy if we act like the world.  We are commanded to take control of our body because sexual sin is against your body.  Do not live impure and offend the Holy Spirit living within you.

    God doesn't leave you to try to be strong on your own.  He is not going to allow you to be isolated and struggling.  He will provide what you need to escape and find freedom.  It is harder at times, but you are able to withstand temptation and not allow it to become a sin.  Keep your focus on God and obedience is a lot easier.  

    You are called to live in peace.  Be thankful that you can have an inner peace that comes from salvation.  When life is good, do not allow yourself to slip back into old habits.  They will take you places you do not want to go.  Be prepared and exercise self-control.

    Temptation is the battle against sin.  God is fighting with you, but it is your win or your defeat if you do choose to sin.  It is a battle fought every day, so we are never able to become complacent.  Stay in God's Word to find strength for your battles.  

    Hold yourself accountable and find a prayer partner(s) to pray for you.  These are people of the same sex that you can be completely honest with about your struggles and when you do sin.  A prayer partner will pray over you when you are in it and can't see clearly.

    You are in a battle.  It may not be sexual sin everyday, but you do fight temptation every day.  There is power in God's Word.  Do not go into the battlefield unprepared and expect victory.  Satan will prey on your weaknesses.  He wants to shame you.  He wants you to feel isolated and alone in your struggle.  He wants to distort your identity in Christ.  He wants to keep you in bondage.  Do not let him.  

    If you are not currently winning the battle with sexual sin, then turn to God now.  Pray over it.  Pray that He sends trusted people into your life that can help you in this battle.  Consider going to your church pastor to hold you accountable.  Ask for victory and freedom.  He loves answering these prayers.  He wants to give you mercy. 

1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Colossians 3:12-15, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, & 1 Peter 1:13-16

Your Desires

 

    When you are a Christian, God sanctified you to be His witness.  He made you clean.  When it comes to Him, you have a clean slate and nothing from before ever existed up to that point.  This mean you have the door wide open to change and it starts with your desires.  You are sexually pure.  The question is will you stay that way?

    Sexual purity comes from God.  His standards are higher than humanities.  That means everyone on some level will struggle with sexual desires.  It comes down to how you think about sex.  Any impure thought is the same as committing adultery.  It doesn't matter if you are married or not.  You have cheated on your future spouse and did not glorify God in the moment.  Sexual sin comes down to your desires that you feed with your thoughts.

    Satan loves using sexual immorality to get people to stumble.  He uses it to keep us from living out God's will that day.  If it becomes a pattern, then you are stepping away from God more everyday.  The only way to fight this is to dig into God's Word.  

    If you are a Christian, then your body is united with Jesus.  The Holy Spirit lives within you.  He encourages you to flee from sexual sin.  No one is exempt from falling into temptation.  You have to know what sexual immorality is to be able to flee from it.  Sexual immorality is committing adultery, not respecting roles in the family, defiling yourself, look lustfully, abandon yourself to shameful desires, or practicing impurity without shame.

    You will be tempted.  It is what you do with temptation that matters.  If you fall, then confess to God.  If you hurt someone else in the process, then do all you can to make it right with them after you make it right with God.  Repent your sinful desires and turn away from them like they never existed.  Jesus has given you everything you need to overcome your sinful desires and have victory over them.

Exodus 20:14, Leviticus 18:6-20, Matthew 5:27-30, Romans 1:24-27, 1 Corinthians 6:15-20, & Ephesians 4:17-19

God & Food

 

    What is food to you?  How much does it affect your daily life?  Is God involved with you thought process when it comes to food?  Does God fill the voids in life or do you replace Him with food?  It is important to be self-aware of how much food impacts you on an emotional, physical, and spiritual level.

    If you put food before God, then it is sin.  Nothing will change that fact.  The only thing that can change is your priorities when it comes to food.  Sin will never make you feel complete, but God can.  He will make you feel complete if you submit to Him and commit to obedience.  The point of obedience is to learn how to love like Jesus.

    God is powerful enough to break the bonds that sin has over your life.  All you have to do is ask and have faith that He will.  It may be immediate or He may ask you do put in a little effort.  The journey is not the same for everyone, but the freedom is.  If God will provide for all the animals and ecosystem, then you can trust that He will provide for you.

    When it comes to food make a commitment to yourself and God in how you want it to exist in your life.  Make sure you acknowledge that the food is from God and not a god by praying over your food.  Ask Him how you need to change in your eating habits and follow however the Holy Spirit leads you.

    Make healthy choices, so you can live a healthier life without medication and other things that affect your longevity. Choose whole foods, garden, go to the farmers market instead of picking processed foods.  Be aware of your portions.  Maybe eat a little less in some areas and more in others.  Maybe eat off a smaller plate and cut out eating snacks when you are bored.  

    Eat slowly.  It takes the brain about 20 minutes from the time that your stomach is full to register that fact.  If you eat slower by putting your fork down between bites and chewing a little more, then it gives you brain a little more time to keep you from over eating.  It also allows you to savor the meal.  

    Consider leaving a little food on your plate.  I personally hate to waste, so I do meal prep.  I make sure i eat everything that my dogs can't and if I do have anything left over, then they can eat it for me.  That way I am not throwing away food and feeling like a bad steward.  

    It is okay to be hungry sometimes.  God calls you to fast and pray when you really need something, so that says there is value in not always being full.  Maybe fast when you pray over your eating habits to see how much hunger affects your attention.  It could clarify some things for you.  When at a restaurant, ask for child portions or plan on taking some home with you for another meal.  Splitting it with another person is a good option too.

    Avoid snacking between meals.  If you don't eat meals and snack all day, then that is okay if you are snacking on whole foods and not processed foods.  If your activity drives you to food, then change up the activity or the location until the habit is broken.  If you snack when you watch tv, then give up tv for 40 days.  If you can stop for that long, then the habit should go away.  

Genesis 1:29-30, Psalm 104:10-18, 107:4-9,  John 6:35-40, & 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

Glorify God with Food

 

    You are able to glorify God with food through your attitude.  Be grateful for what you have, the variety you get, the flavor you experience, and enjoy it.  Some may have more than others, but you have what you need in the moment.  Acknowledging that God gave it to you with gratitude in your heart.  This is how you glorify God in how you eat.

    If you put your cravings before God, then you put His gifts above Him.  That is when food becomes a sin.  God wants to give you things that you enjoy and love, but He wants you to keep Him first.  He wants you to have satisfaction in life while enjoying it with Him.  He is with you at every meal, snack, and bingefest.  If you think about Him being with you in that aspect, would you change anything about your habits with food?

    Delicious food is meant for life, not death.  Do not allow what you eat to kill you.  When you have a craving evaluate to see if it is hormonal, exhaustion, or a replacement for where God should be.  Are you eating absent mindedly, fill an empty spot, or fill your hunger?  Do not allow food to become destructive, shameful, or an obsession that replaces God in your life.  

    Remember you live here now and should enjoy what is provided, but your home is in Heaven with Jesus.  Food is for survival, but it can be enjoyed.  However, like alcohol, if what you eat causes another person to sin, then it is sinning.  Be aware of other people's needs when it comes to food.  

    If you see a meal is causing someone distress, then change it up.  Serving food or feeding someone can be an act of love.  Some people have strict rules about food.  Honor the rules for their sake.  Have a servant's attitude and feed them what they need in Christlike love.  Jesus addressed food, but always from a heart perspective.  When it comes to food let it be for the glory of God and not a selfish appetite.  Let food's purpose be to take care of God's temple and enjoying the process.     

2 Chronicles 15:11-15, Psalm 42:1-3, 63:5-8, 73:21-26, Romans 14:14-19, 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, & Philippians 3:17-21