The Most Important Things

Your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the Earth. Exodus 33:16

That’s the best way to put that. I don’t think there is a better way to describe “us.” Ussus (southern colloquialism) is Christians. We are supposed to be defined and set apart as people who have the presence of God. In the book of Acts, the Apostles were described as “those who had been [in the presence of] Jesus.” We are not defined by anything other than the presence. And from that presence, flows culture, language, standards and purpose; among many other things.

Some people have placed the culture, language, et al above His presence when “presenting” the Kingdom of God. This only leads to lifeless religion and works-based theology. We must continue to distinguish ourselves as people of His presence. This is the bottom line. When we walk in His presence, all day long, we are able to properly relate to people. How? We are in tune with the Spirit of God. He leads us and He guides us. We enter into situations aware that the holy Spirit wants to do something and we are prepared for it. Instead of our current state of encountering people in need and walking away saying “I should’ve prayed for (or witnessed to or …) that person.” When we don’t live in His presence, we are surprised and interrupted by humanity rather than prepared and led to make contact with humanity.

When the Holy Spirit descended and remained upon Jesus, it was signifying an unbroken, intimate communion with the presence of the Father. Jesus was showing us the way to be led by the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit all day. He was showing us how to be prepared and led to reach humanity with divinity.

Are you in the Spirit right now? What about tomorrow afternoon? What about [insert time and place here]? You can be, and God is desiring to be with you. Acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit right now and let Him lead you today.

Good vs. evil. We see it in the movies, books, video games and even taking place in our own lives. Yet the world is making a huge attempt to blur the lines between good vs. evil. They are feeding the world the idea that man is generally good. Any mistakes man may make are the result of strange people who are extreme in their views. We see that even our current presidential administration has reduced terrorism to, “man-made disasters”. Not the result of evil people bent on world domination. You wouldn’t necessarily think that good vs. evil would have that big of an impact on your day-t0-day life or even your relationship with Jesus but it does.

There’s a fresh wave of “interfaith” movements being spread across the world right now. It says, “if we can sit down and discuss our differences between our “religions” then all will be well”. Also, “if we can understand each other, perhaps we can unite to take on the injustices in the world”. This is all very noble on the surface. Here’s a brilliant quote from Tozer regarding these types of meetings: “the purpose of these talks is not to confront truth, but to discover how the followers of other religions think and thus benefit from their views as we hope they will from ours”. If we come to the understanding that man is inherently evil and is incapable of anything good within himself… we come to the realization that all talk is idle. Specifically, talk that is not related to eternity. And so these discussions that never confront truth, never go anywhere. Everyone agrees to disagree and the world is satisfied with tolerance and compromise.

To understand that we are in a battle between good and evil is a relative “no-brainer”. To understand that the battle must be won everyday in our hearts and minds is an entirely different proposition. We are not fighting for popularity, we are not fighting to be looked upon favorably by the world. We are fighting (spiritually, of course) for good to triumph over evil. Jesus said, if they hate me, they will probably hate you. James writes, friendship with the world (system) is enmity with God. Those are not verses that encourage us to be friends of evil. But to overcome evil with good.

God’s throne is established in righteousness and justice. Holiness and help. Sacrifice and service. The battle lines are constantly trying to be redrawn. Who’s side will you be on?

Check this video out (click on the continue reading link):

The best part about this blog, is that I can edit it from anywhere at anytime. I have an app on my iPhone that lets me update at anytime. Gotta love that!

Caleb says, that’s easy!

This is it! The first official blog on my new site. I hope you’ll check back often. I plan to update it as often as possible. And there will be lots of amazing content. Some of it will be of a spiritual nature, some tech, some media, some political…basically anything that I think is really worth saying to the rest of the internet. Leave me a comment, add me to your favorites, make this your home page, etc. Talk to you soon!