What would Arkansas have been without YOU?

#1 · July 20, 2020, 5:19 pm

Quote from Tim on July 20, 2020, 5:19 pm
What would Arkansas have been without YOU?

YOU have made a difference!

Have you ever thought about what your neighborhood, the people that you grew up with, the people that you associate with, would be, if you had never been born. The impact and influence, including good, bad and otherwise that your community and circle of contacts that have made you the person that you are.

Have you looked at others, their lives, maybe relatives that live in different areas of the country or world; what are they as a result of the influences surrounding them.

You are what you are because of influences. Do you like what you look back on and what you have become? What do you really want to be? What kind of individual, or even more important, what kind of an influence are you?

Your circumstances may influence you, but should they? Deuteronomy 7:16-26

People and spirits, or the lack of these, in those circumstances will influence you.

What you see, what you read, the things that you hear, the things that you touch and are touched by, influence you and cause you to respond to your circumstances in different ways.

You can try to control your responses in order to solicit the desired response from those that you honor, adore, revere, respect, love or fear, etc... in the circumstances that you find yourself. The only way that I know to really control your responses is to be dead to all that is you and alive and controlled by all that is God, His Holy Spirit, living under the yoke with Jesus Christ.

You can not always choose your circumstances, but you will choose the things that you allow to influence you (your WILL is always in control). You also determine the amount that your circumstances influence you, for the good or bad, by what you choose to think on, meditate on, set your affections on, etc. In the Bible, this is referred to as your heart. Whatever you highly value (New Testament treasure - a deposit, that is, wealth), that is where your (Old Testament - the feelings, the will and even the intellect.... New Testament - the thoughts or feelings (mind) heart will be!

Circumstances, can and will, make certain life-choices easier, (good or bad) and other choices more difficult. They will also have an effect on your joy or happiness. The amount of power your circumstances have over your emotions will depend, very much, on what your treasures are, and your growth and maturity in the stature of Jesus Christ.

Circumstances also will show me and all around me, the kind of relationship that I have with the Spirit of Christ. It is the things that happen to me that allow me, if my sight is not darkened, my heart not hardened and/or my neck not stiff, to know how I measure up to the stature of Christ and my rate of growth. I will be able to be aware of that which is refreshing or rotten, living or dieing, within my being, by the fruit that is produced. (The fruit of my life is a result of... 1^st, what I allow to control my thoughts, 2^nd what I allow to come on my face and/or body language, then my actions, what I say and/or do.) Do my actions reflect the fruit of the flesh or the Holy Spirit? What does the Gardener think about my fruit, internal and external?

The more that you struggle against evil in order to please Jehovah God and live in His ways, the stronger character you will have. The life in the Holy Spirit is a definite upstream, chosen, effort/struggle, like the salmon struggling against all odds to return to the place of their origin to bring about new life. It is in the salmon’s nature. Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to have a new nature and the indwelling presences of the Holy Spirit to encourage, strengthen, direct, etc. our righteous struggle against evil and selfishness, in order to produce a shining influence on lives along our journey to produce new life to carry on the planting of Godly seed.

What would Arkansas have been without YOU?

YOU have made a difference!

Have you ever thought about what your neighborhood, the people that you grew up with, the people that you associate with, would be, if you had never been born. The impact and influence, including good, bad and otherwise that your community and circle of contacts that have made you the person that you are.

Have you looked at others, their lives, maybe relatives that live in different areas of the country or world; what are they as a result of the influences surrounding them.

You are what you are because of influences. Do you like what you look back on and what you have become? What do you really want to be? What kind of individual, or even more important, what kind of an influence are you?

Your circumstances may influence you, but should they? Deuteronomy 7:16-26

People and spirits, or the lack of these, in those circumstances will influence you.

What you see, what you read, the things that you hear, the things that you touch and are touched by, influence you and cause you to respond to your circumstances in different ways.

You can try to control your responses in order to solicit the desired response from those that you honor, adore, revere, respect, love or fear, etc... in the circumstances that you find yourself. The only way that I know to really control your responses is to be dead to all that is you and alive and controlled by all that is God, His Holy Spirit, living under the yoke with Jesus Christ.

You can not always choose your circumstances, but you will choose the things that you allow to influence you (your WILL is always in control). You also determine the amount that your circumstances influence you, for the good or bad, by what you choose to think on, meditate on, set your affections on, etc. In the Bible, this is referred to as your heart. Whatever you highly value (New Testament treasure - a deposit, that is, wealth), that is where your (Old Testament - the feelings, the will and even the intellect.... New Testament - the thoughts or feelings (mind) heart will be!

Circumstances, can and will, make certain life-choices easier, (good or bad) and other choices more difficult. They will also have an effect on your joy or happiness. The amount of power your circumstances have over your emotions will depend, very much, on what your treasures are, and your growth and maturity in the stature of Jesus Christ.

Circumstances also will show me and all around me, the kind of relationship that I have with the Spirit of Christ. It is the things that happen to me that allow me, if my sight is not darkened, my heart not hardened and/or my neck not stiff, to know how I measure up to the stature of Christ and my rate of growth. I will be able to be aware of that which is refreshing or rotten, living or dieing, within my being, by the fruit that is produced. (The fruit of my life is a result of... 1^st, what I allow to control my thoughts, 2^nd what I allow to come on my face and/or body language, then my actions, what I say and/or do.) Do my actions reflect the fruit of the flesh or the Holy Spirit? What does the Gardener think about my fruit, internal and external?

The more that you struggle against evil in order to please Jehovah God and live in His ways, the stronger character you will have. The life in the Holy Spirit is a definite upstream, chosen, effort/struggle, like the salmon struggling against all odds to return to the place of their origin to bring about new life. It is in the salmon’s nature. Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to have a new nature and the indwelling presences of the Holy Spirit to encourage, strengthen, direct, etc. our righteous struggle against evil and selfishness, in order to produce a shining influence on lives along our journey to produce new life to carry on the planting of Godly seed.