OPINION OF OTHERS

When the big question "Why was I born?" emerges from within, it is a time for significant endings and new beginnings!  It is a place in the road of our journey that can make us feel disoriented as we straddle our past and consider our possible future. This dot on our timeline can make anyone feel heavy, and depressed or melancholy.  When we feel stuck and unable to make decisions about which way to travel, it is time to STOP and BE STILL and LISTEN to the voice within.  Our wise elder, the inner teacher, the Holy Spirit, may be asking us to slow down and turn inward so we can take stock of what is working, what is not? How do we respond to the opinions of others?  Do we adjust ourselves to adapt to public opinion, or do we make adjustments to hold on to our belief in what God says about us?  How do we honor our priorities, commitments,

responsibilities, and boundaries?  Who do we consult when making long-term goals?   Have we examined how our belief systems? Are the stories that we tell about ourselves and the world about the miracle of our redemption?  Do we consider how our words and silent thoughts affect our current reality? Are the stories we tell useful? Do we hold captive every thought and align our thoughts with Christ, and His plan for us?  A PRAYER: Lord help each of us grow as bored with our vocalized victim stories as everyone around us already has!”  YES, it is time to shed the skin of our old sad self like the caterpillar did! Stilled out of pure boredom with all that the world had to offer, the caterpillar released his old life, his adolescent memories and surrendered his entire body and mind.  Then God created a brand new creature with wings that can fly above the world’s ways, and get a FRESH God sized perspective of our glorious short LIFE on earth, and our valid HOPE for eternity without pain or struggles!

Our heavenly Father's opinion of us is that He is pleased with His creation and He takes great pleasure in us. We must reclaim this truth and the authority of Christ within us.  We must BELIEVE that God will FINISH what He started in us! We must inhabit the truth that God equipped us to handle whatever task He assigns to us!   Let use our wings of faith to experience our pre-destined life at its best. Our death-of-self and rebirth into a new creature “in Christ” is our separation from a previous world view, and into God’s plan. Our radical break from the lie, from our old and tired self portraits accelerates our ongoing wave of renewal! It is in the “little things” that we witness change in us.  It is in the daily details that

we notice, moment by moment, that we are living an enriched, thriving and changed life. In the face of the current overwhelming planetary crisis, we can choose to start now, and begin small, to start fresh wherever we are. As set apart people, we gladly turn away from what has never worked, to embrace God’s way. This does not mean that LIFE will become easier! We will meet opposition, we will struggle, and we will be victorious even in the midst of chaos. Small efforts make significant differences in our own communities.  Instead of trying to change the world, as transformed people with renewed minds…we confidently contribute on a small scale and know that God is using us to make huge impacts on one watching person at a time. We are faced with many choices while living on earth, however, there are only two eternal choices. Pastor Rick Warren, author of a "Purpose Driven Life" gives us a look at our two eternal choices. CLICK this link and ENJOY Rick Warren's reality check, a living Word from God, and His loving opinion of WHY we should choose His way.  The Reality of Hell, Part 1