ponderUpon...

You are standing on an open plain. To your left is a castle, a refuge, a safe place. Now you look to your right and you see something advancing. Whatever it is it doesn't look friendly. It's coming closer, your fear starts to build and you know you can run and take refuge in the castle but something holds you back. This is completely illogical, why aren't you running as fast as you can to where you know you will be safe, away from this advancing force of darkness. The choice is clear and obvious isn't it? This is the analogy of temptation. This is what I wish people would picture every time they're tempted. In the physical world we make smart choices (most of the time) when it comes to danger. We're not going to walk out in front of a passing bus or walk off a cliff. That would be completely illogical and idiotic. So why don't we think of temptation that way? Sometimes we do but what I'm say is why not think of it in this way all the time. If there was a...

I want to let all you in on a little secret. It's a secret I hope all of you know but it's something we all forget...almost everyday it seems sadly. God is stronger than whatever temptation we have. I recently watched a video where the author of "The Story of God, the Story of Us", Sean Gladding, talked about a man who just accepted Jesus as his savior. Well this man calls Sean up on the phone and says he's really struggling with a temptation...and the temptation is really strong! I thought to myself, "hey I've had that feeling before." Where (fill in the blank) temptation is so strong and you can't help but to give in. The other day this thought occurred to me. You feel like this temptation is really strong, it consumes your thoughts, and you know you'll give in...but...our God is bigger. Our God is stronger, our God is more consuming than any temptation that seizes us. How easy it is to overcome if we just turn the temptation over to Him, t...

There is a person suspended sideways holding onto two chains each having a handle. One chain goes downwards and is connected to a shadowed world. The other chain leads upwards extending into the light. It is a struggle holding onto both worlds but this person knows that if he drops the world extending below then it'll be easier to hold onto the world above. So the person drops the world below and it slowly slowly falls as if it is falling through space. The sad thing is, that world below is still within grasp and the temptation to grasp it back is too great. So it is grasped and the struggle remains. The person in the story is all of us. See, we all would like to completely let go of that world for good and never reach for it again but there's that humanity within us that won't let us. This isn't a story without hope though. The following are my thoughts from the other day which help explain the transition of letting the world below go: The wages of sin is death. So we ...

There is the earth. Now there is a single beam of light coming straight down onto the earth. This beam of light is all good and purity that God created. This and nothing more. There is something outside the beam of light. It is the abstract of all of God's good...the opposite. See there is nothing newly created from the beginning of the beam of light. Everything abstract from the beam of light was taken from the light then turned backwards. This abstractness is the perversion called sin. It is the opposite of the beam of light...a sick reversed copy if you will. Nothing can invade the beam of light or stand against it because it is an ever binding pure solid truth that cannot be challenged. So the abstract of light fills the left and right and the beam of light stays in the middle. There is one example that corresponds to this tale that comes to my mind, homosexuality, which has always been an issue in this world remember Ecclesiastes 1:9. God created marriage, it is a holy, pure, ...