Chris' Christian Blog

November 17, 2020

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These are two of my favorite verses!

Proverbs 3:5-6

5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

What do these verses mean to you?

I just noticed this morning, November 18, 2020, that I started to do this entry yesterday, and walked away, leaving it unfinished. I was not feeling well yesterday. Along with stomach issues I also have narcolepsy so I go to sleep on a dime. I was out of my medication yesterday and probably lay back down. My medication came last night so I am on it today. I'll be alright until time to fill the prescription again. Then if I have to wait for the doctor to mail me the prescription I may be sick again. I'll contact them when I have two weeks left and get the process rolling this time.

Trusting in the Lord is often hard for us. I know it was for me at first. God knows it is hard for us and that is why He answers even a small amount of faith. The mustard seed is the smallest seed there is. It is so tiny a person can barely see it with the naked eye. Yet God promises us that if we can have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed He will answer that faith. He responds to it because He knows it is all the faith we have and that if He answers a mustard seed faith then that mustard seed will grow into more faith. I started out with just a mustard seed. I had very little faith. Ninety-nine percent of me thought faith was a bunch of dung. I thought there was no possible way God existed and had logical arguments validating my reasons to believe He did not exist. However a small part of me believed. It was just a shred. God blessed that shred and I threw it out to test Him. I timidly prayed, telling myself that if He answered it would be okay and if He did not I would know. Well of course He answered. This caused me to wade out in water covering my feet. In time and with some answered prayers and persistence God developed my faith so that today I am 99.999995 percent positive in my faith but still have my shreds of doubt. These come from the flesh and from Satan. I am so sure that God exists today that I would be willing to stake my life on it. I read a question the other day on social media that asked "If Christianity ever became a felony, would you break the law?"

I wrote emphatically that yes, I would break the law and pray there was enough evidence in my life to convict me of it. I wrote that I would also be praying that while I was being convicted of breaking the law I would be praying that Holy Spirit convicted those prosecuting me!

Leaning not on my own understanding means trusting God to grow my mustard seed of faith into miracle-working power. I am praying that God so develops my faith in Him that my presence works miracles in people's lives. I want the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 to manifest in my life, not to prove to me that God exists, but so that I can use them to help my fellowman. The USA has fallen way behind in these areas. In African countries, the dead are being raised. Why can we not raise the dead in America? We don't raise the dead because we do not have the faith to do so! The beggar at the gate in Acts 3 was not healed because he had faith. He was healed because Peter and John had faith. They didn't ask him if he wanted to be healed. They simply took him by the hand and "In the name of Jesus Christ get up and walk!"

We want to blame it on the recipient when miracles fail to happen for us but the recipient of the miracle has nothing to do with it. The faith has to come from within us! If we allow God to take our mustard seed sized faith He will grow it into a death-defeating, illness-removing tree that heals, speaks in one language and is heard in another, and casts the powers of darkness out of the demon possessed! We lean to much on our own understanding to do that. These things don't make sense in our understanding therefore we don't trust them. Well the fact is that God does not make sense to the carnal mind! God is Spirit! If we are to serve Him we have to quit leaning on our flimsy belief and allow Holy Spirit to do our believing for us. Faith comes from God. If Chris Breva and myself depend on God, rely on God, and believe what my spirit tells me then I too will be able to take the cripple by the hand and say "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth arise and walk!"

I won't need them to have faith. God will heal them and then they can have a mustard seed of faith. We expect the faith to come from others but it does not. It comes from us. Jesus said we only need a small amount and God will grow that small amount. I propose that most of us do not have that small amount. If we did our world would not have COVID-19, cancer, and all these other illnesses because our faith would heal our land. We lean on our own understanding. The flimsy reed pierces our hands instead of supportinmg us.

"Prompt: I was cruising the galaxy and found this planet:

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Write your views about listen.

I just noticed this morning (November 18, 2020) that I started my blog yesterday and did not finish it. I am playing catch-up today. I must have gotten side-tracked yesterday, which is becoming easier for me to do as I age. Yesterday, I would say I went to sleep at the helm. I have a sleep disorder called narcolepsy. It makes you very forgetful and you sleep a lot. It also causes you to dream when you are wide awake because part of your brain goes to sleep. I was out of my medication yesterday and it was my third day doing without. I slept most of the day and probably started to blog anbd did not finish nor post it.

Listening to me is something I try very hard to practice. I am a peer support specialist along with being a chaplain. It is my job to actively listen. In the process of active listening, one seeks to understand precisely what another is saying and to understand the feelings behind what they are saying. You do this by paraphrasing what was spoken and by asking for clarification. It is often difficult to actively listen because we are thinking ahead to what we are going to say. We hear the first few words of what another is saying and then our brains go to work formulating our response. Formulating that response detracts us from the remainder of their statement. Active listening means clearing our minds of distractions and focusing one hundred percent on what is being said. Of course none of us will ever do that perfectly because we cannot adequately clear our minds. The best we can do is attempt to stay in the moment and concentrate. We ask open-ended questions such as what, where, how, why, and when to get them to give more detail. We let them know we are hearing them and let them lead the conversation. That is my take on "listen".