Turn Not to the Right Hand Nor to the Left

Flock of One

Recently, I've had three people opine that I would make an excellent pastor.  My joking reaction was "la-la-la," fingers-in-the-ears.  However, when  one is seeking the Kingdom of the Lord and  is trying to walk in the path which He lays out in this life, there is no stepping off of that path--not unless you want to end up sleeping with the fishes like Jonah.

But it also occurred to me that I already have a ministry consisting of one person: taking care of my eighty-nine-year-old great-aunt who had a falling accident on September 24.  (She is recovering very well and I will talk about it later at baldilocks.)  My pastoral task is to make things easier for her and to be an efficient caretaker for her home. (A trusted friend/construction worker and I started on this today.)

It seems to me that when God has something for you to do, He starts "small."  So it is that I am, at present, leading my flock of one.

Prison Break

 

In the world of Chaos

Camouflaged poison

And diaphanous oaths

 

Are the Dinner of death

Purchased with 30 pieces

Of not-silver

 

Simmered in fear

One seasoning: bitterness

 

Carnal men lust for evil women

As both avenge their tears

On each other

And move on

 

"People come and they go

"It's just the way that it goes"

Says Chaos's Prince

Channeled by a singer

 

The walls are high

In the Prison made of nothing

Where the Warden wields

An Air-Powered baton

 

But...

 

In the unbroken circle

Hopes are fulfilled          

Beauty equals Truth

And Forgiveness is the gift

Received by the Giver

 

"I am the Way, the Truth

"And the Light"

 

Carved in the Cornerstone

Of the lone refuge

 

The meat is sweet

The Water Lives

And the Comfort is endless

 

Love is the specialty of the house

 

So...

 

Battered and fried

By Chaos

The prisoner returns to the Circle

Where the Door stands

Unguarded

 

And where the King of the Unseen bids her to stay

 

Doctoring

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you love something--or someone--more than the Triune God, that thing--or that person--has become an idol, and you have put it--or him--above God. 

How do you know when you have made a thing or person an idol?  You know that you have made this error when you are willing to ignore God's will for your life in order to hold onto that idol.

And if God knows that you are still teachable, still capable of being corrected, God will remove that thing--or that person--from your life.  It will hurt, as any radical surgery hurts, and you will have to heal.  You will have to take your medicine and you will have to be rehabilitated in order to get back to full spiritual health.  It will take a specified amount of time.

For those who heed the Holy Spirit, the prescription for wholeness is the Word of God, prayer, fasting and giving. And knowing that the Doctor is in at all times.

[Re-edited]

The Name of this Blog

23Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

24Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

25Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

26Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

27Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

(Proverbs 4:23-27, King James Version)

 

I have long been in prayer over several issues--familial, personal and political--seemingly without receiving definitive answers.  There was a particular fork in the road for one issue and I did not know which path was the correct one.  Relying on worldly ideology and manner of living, I have made so many bad choices.  Now I wanted to do what God wants me to do.  But I could not discern what that was.

When I mentioned my conundrum to a Christian friend, she quoted Proverbs 4:27.  Funny how, when we have a problem, it never naturally occurs to us that doing "nothing" might be the correct way to proceed.  And that "nothing" which we can do is also known as walk forward in Faith, trusting in God to shine a light on our path, using His Word as illumination--and, therefrom, the knowledge of His Will will be as visible to the sojourner as the daylight.

 

What He Put in My Hands

I started Turn Not to the Right Nor to the Left for reasons that were implanted in me by the Holy Spirit.

I've been a Christian since the mid-1990s.  Unlike many others, I don't remember the day that I answered God the Father's call, drawing me to Jesus the Christ.  I only remember having the notion that maybe I ought to start reading one of the several Bibles that were lying around in my dwelling. After that, I remember thinking that, perhaps I should start going to church.  However, in hindsight, God the Father had been drawing me to his Only Begotten long before that--since the time when I began to be able to distinguish right from wrong in a clear manner.  I was eleven years old.  (Interestingly enough, that was the age when I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up: a writer.)

From the mid-1990s until 2008, I believed on the salvation of Jesus Christ, but I rarely got into the Word--except when I found a permanent church home in 2004--and I never put God the Father to the test with regard to faith.  I never asked him for anything and believed that I already received it. I never diligently sought first the Kingdom of God, much less believed that anything I might ask for through that seeking would be added unto me.

There have been many important events, however, since the beginning of 2008 which pushed me toward the quest for God's Kingdom.  Without getting too much into specifics--at least in this post--God has been pushing me to the point where He wants me to be since that time.  Adversity in the life of the Christian is meant for that purpose--especially when the individual Christian has strayed from God's intended path, as I had from 2008 to the early part of this year.

And though I have occasionally shaken my fist at God (while perceiving His indulgent laughter in my spirit), I know that His correction is an indication that He loves me and has not forsaken me.

Looking back on my walk with the Triune God in the last two and three-quarters years, I am astonished at the work which the Lord has done in me.  Much of it has been very painful, but like painful procedures and medications which heal the body, God's painful correction methods are healing my spirit.  And I am grateful to him for the discipline that He administers to me.

After much prayer and devotion, my aim is to give the Lord all of my love.  I hear some people reading this asking what that means.  What does it mean to love a being who is all-powerful and all-knowing?  Well, it doesn't mean the same thing as it means to love someone who can be seen with one's physical eyes.  One must love God in another manner.  The beginning point is real communication--as is so with fellow humans.  Praying is how we talk to Him; and reading His Word is how He talks to us.  Those I can do and have been doing; that is what pushed me to the point of creating this blog. 

So why did I create this blog?  It has been encoded in my spiritual GPS to do so.  I cannot see the purpose of doing so, but my faith is the evidence of the things I am unable to see.  Am I meant to bring others to Christ? I don't know.  I am merely trusting in God, being obedient to the instructions that He has put in my spirit, and picking up my "stick" --the metaphor which Glenn Beck used on 8/28/2010 in reference to the staff which Moses used when he obeyed God and led the children of Israel out of Egypt.

I am using  the things which God put in my hands.