Sound The Alarm!

SOUND THE ALARM! SOUND THE ALARM! SOUND THE ALARM! Do I have your attention yet? Are you waiting to see just why I would scream and yell at you? Does it matter what I have to say? Will you receive it? Will you hear me or decide to just go on about your day? SOUND THE ALARM!

I can barely turn on the t.v. without another image staring at me that is contrary to what I believe. Transgender athletes and transgender children are celebrated with their own t.v. shows, magazine covers, and congratulatory posts. However, there is nothing but backlash for Christians who say God does not celebrate this. He gave us life and He makes no mistakes. SOUND THE ALARM!

Christian families are labeled as cult members for professing God and living lives that honor His word. They are vilified for refusing to date every Tom, Dick, and Harry before marriage. The world says they must be under mind control. I ask who is controlling the children of the world whose choices kept programs like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom going strong?

SOUND THE ALARM! The Lord God directs us to refrain from sex before marriage. Instead of celebrating that, we celebrate condoms designed to alert us for the presence of STI's. If we followed God's word, not a one of us would be risking our lives.

SOUND THE ALARM! The bible warns us to be sober minded and vigilant, but we read that and associate it with everything except refraining from having a drink. Jesus turned water into wine right? He also raised the dead and caused the blind to see. But not once in my life have my friends or I been healed when we were out drinking.

SOUND THE ALARM! It's time that we all equip ourselves for this spiritual fight. That means loving each other enough to share God's word regardless of what we feel is right. It means understanding that to grow we have to let go of the hate and embrace the truth that's in His word before it is too late. SOUND THE ALARM!

Adayinthelife :-)

Loyalty

I am loyal to a fault. I will go to war for my family and friends. If I love you, there is nothing that I won't do for you. These words that I've spoken countless times are not just words. They are truth. They are my truth and anyone who has ever stood under the umbrella of my love can testify about just how true they are. Loyalty to me is not an option. Loyalty is a requirement.

It is a requirement in every relationship. Loyalty is second only to love. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous, but loyalty...Loyalty is possessive, it is determined, and it is unwavering. Loyalty says I will fight for you even when you don't know how to. Loyalty says I will stand in, stand up, even stand out if it means that my standing will help you. 

Loyalty like love is endless. It is resolute and true. It is all of these things, but like true love it is not fueled by emotion. No, true loyalty is based in a commitment that does not exist because of how you feel. It exists despite the feelings that come and go. It is rooted and grounded in a principle that many of us profess, but fail to understand. I am loyal to my family and friends, but true loyalty is rooted and grounded in God's love. God's love is not selective and exclusive. God's love is inclusive. His love reaches beyond those who we have bonded with and covers every corner of the earth.

God's love is a covenant between Him and each and every one of us. His love is restorative. His love is unconditional and does not require us to love Him first, back, or at all. This is the love that loyalty is built on.

I am loyal, but if that loyalty is not built on the colorless, emotionless, faceless love of God it is not truly loyalty at all.

I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail.

Psalms 89:28

Adayinthelife :-)

Avoiding Foolishness

How many times have you had to face yourself in the mirror after a momentary meltdown? Was it three or four last week? For some of us it was three or four in rush hour traffic this morning. Regardless of when it was or how many times it happened, the end result was the same. You moved on. You might have cursed the driver in front of you. You might have told your boyfriend's ex exactly where she could go and how to get there. You might have even yelled at the person who made your food wrong or the bill collector that kept calling your house. But what is true of everyone who is reading this is, we all eclipsed the moment. So I have to ask why not just sidestep the drama in the first place?

Why not just avoid giving in to the foolishness that we are faced with day after day? Rush hour didn't go any smoother just because you cursed the driver. Your man's ex is still just that...his EX. You either ate the improperly made food or you did not. And we all know that a bill won't get paid until we are good and ready to pay it. So why get angry? Why exhibit character that is not pleasing or edifying to God? Why allow how we feel in a moment to take control of the course of our day?

Failing to avoid foolishness means we give over control of who we are in Christ and entice others to do the same. Scripture tells us to avoid putting a stumbling block in front of another sister or brother. When we choose to curse, yell, or tell someone off, we are lowering ourselves beneath God's threshold of approval and creating the space for someone else to fail. Is someone else's salvation worth the 30 seconds it took you to let off some steam? Would you still do it if you knew it meant you were the person that caused someone else to get so far out of character that they could not make their way back to God? We might think the release is worth the risk, but even that line of thought is foolishness to God.

Adayinthelife :-)

Why Do People Cheat?

Why do people cheat is the type of question that immediately draws a reaction from whoever is being asked. Some people respond out of the depths of their own experiences. Others respond based on what they know to be true from observations of family or friends. Everyone has at least one readily accessible explanation for why men cheat or why women cheat, but my question was why do people cheat? It may seem like I'm just splitting hairs, however if we focus on why people cheat our answers will change.

For example, we say that men cheat because they are dogs and women cheat because the man cheated first. We might add a story or some small antidote to bolster what we are saying, but fundamentally we believe the behavior of cheating is dependent on someone else's actions. If women weren't loose, men wouldn't be dogs who are prone to cheat. If men weren't cheating dogs, their significant others would have no reason to cheat. I think you get the picture.

The truth is that cheating is an individual decision that involves another person, but is not dependent on that person's actions. What I mean is people decide to cheat because of what they want not because of what someone else has to offer or what someone else has already done. Scripture explains this in James 1:14

"but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their OWN evil desire and enticed."

It may be easier to to say I cheated and give a reason that is based on someone else, but it would not be truthful. We each must reach a point of maturity that allows us to look inward instead of outward. We must reach the point where we are accountable for our choices. We must reach the point where we can look at why people cheat (why we individually cheat) as the sum of our own actions and not an external equation that we are forced to live by. 

Adayinthelife :-)

Marriage is Sacred

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Save the excuses. Save the explanations. Just know that God would never send you someone who is already married, but satan will. Just because it feels good please don't assume that God has His hands on it. Just because God allows it please don't assume that He initiated and approves of it. God allows temptations because He has supplied us with a survival kit called "Faith" and instructions called "Obedience", it's just up to us to use them.. Married Folk are much like that tree in the Garden of Eden that we shouldn't eat from. Now we talk about what Adam and Eve did, so why are we repeating history. There are many other trees to eat from, leave the (Married tree) alone.. ~ Mr. Carr

Adayinthelife :-)