“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Exodus 20:2-6

It doesn't have to look bad to be bad.

All of the earth is filled with God’s goodness. It can be difficult to differentiate the good from the bad because God’s good design is infused in everything. Also, Satan’s desire to distort what is good can be seemingly ubiquitous as well. One can look at a carved image and appreciate the design and craftsmanship that went into its creation. The progression moves from appreciating the craftsmanship to serving the objects. Because Satan distorts anything beautiful, God directs not even to make a graven image that can turn your heart away from God. Using our own reasoning, we might conclude that making a graven image is innocent as long as we don’t worship it. However, when we listen to God, He tells us what is good and bad so that we might not sin against Him even in areas where we believe there to be no sin. 

Don’t sacrifice principle for a “higher good.” 

Right is always right, and wrong is always wrong. The ends do not justify the means. God’s word is always the roadmap for morality. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21). The only way to know what is evil and what is good is to know God’s moral road map - the Bible. And once you know the roadmap, you have to follow it. 

Is this something to pray about or something to obey?

If you want to get to Texas, you don’t need to pray about whether or not you should take the road to South Dakota. Justifying going to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore won’t make it a faster, better way to get to Texas. The way to know what road you should take is to look at the map.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22

If it's not good for someone else to do, it's probably not good for you either.

Humans are emotional creatures. As such, making decisions becomes muddled with the emotions we are currently feeling and the emotions we might expect to experience. One of the best ways to hold on to what is good and make good decisions is to analyze the decision from the perspective of someone else. When you determine a course of action would be good for someone else to do, you can generally ascertain that it would be a good decision for you as well. You are not special; if a course of action would be bad for someone to pursue, it would also be a poor decision for you.

It is wrong to give up calling something good that is good.

Part of holding fast to what is good is not allowing moral relativity to change the understanding of good and evil. Continue to define good things as good and bad things as bad. When righteous Job was asked to label his righteousness as sin, he responded, “Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.” (Job 27:5b-6). Decide to do the good things you would encourage someone else to do and remain steadfast in calling good what you have decided is good to do. When you are doing good, you will more naturally pray, rejoice and give thanks.

One I’ll do that later quickly begets another I'll do that later.

Once you have decided what is good for you to do, you have to actually get up and go do it. When talking about the second mile, Jesus said, “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” Matthew 5:42). Don’t be like the neighbor who waited for his neighbor to continually knock before giving what he already had in his hand (Luke 11:5-8). Since you know it is good to love your neighbor, actively love your neighbor instead of waiting for him to come begging for help. Don’t grow tired of doing what is good and continue to call good good and evil evil. If you can do good now, don’t wait until tomorrow to do it.

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.  Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the [f]similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

James 3:1-10

You are responsible for all you have dominion over. 

The primary thing you have dominion over is yourself. Once you begin to exercise dominion over yourself, you can expand that dominion to include things outside of yourself. The hardest part of yourself to control is your tongue. However, controlling your tongue is the way you control your life and demonstrate dominion over yourself. The amount of dominion you have over yourself comes out in the amount of control you have over your tongue both to stay silent and to speak timely words (Luke 6:45). You have the responsibility to exercise control over what you have dominion over. God expects you to have dominion over yourself before you can assume the role of having dominion over creation as He has given you.

Figure out what you have dominion over and be faithful in your authority. 

Once you learn to exercise dominion over yourself and begin to expand the horizon of your dominion to include things outside yourself, you have to actually exercise your dominion and be faithful with your authority.just as faith without works is dead (James 2), so having dominion without actively, effectively exercising that authority is useless. You must determine what God has given you dominion over and you must exercise your authority over those things to bring them to a place where they can better give glory to God. As you grow in your exercising of authority and dominion, you can progress from having dominion over physical matter to spiritual matters so you can have greater gain (like the unjust steward in Luke 16 who used his dominion over physical matters to gain reputational and non-physical wealth).

Put to death the desires of your flesh. 

To have dominion over your spiritual self, you must first have dominion over your physical self. When you demonstrate control over what you have—yourself first—you will be given more; however, when you fail to exercise dominion over yourself, even what you have—personal autonomy—will be taken away (e.g. Mark 4:25). As you discover what you have dominion over and are faithful in executing that dominion, you will be given more dominion. To exercise dominion over yourself, you must control your tongue, which bridges the divide between the physical and spiritual realms. As you put your spiritual ideas into physical words, you translate from the spiritual language into physical terms, whether audio waves or written words.

 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. 

John 16:12-15

If you give someone the answer to the first problem, you'll have to give them the answer to the next problem. 

Solving a problem for someone else takes them out of the equation. Letting someone wrestle through the problem is difficult both for the person wrestling and the person watching. While God has all the solutions to the problems of life, he allows us to go through the process of working through those problems so we can handle the next and greater problems. You will only learn how to trust God with the next problem you face if you learn how to trust Him with the problem you are currently facing.

If you help others figure out how to solve the first problem for themselves, they might be able to figure out how to solve the next problem.

By involving others in the process of solving problems, you stimulate their creativity so they can come up with their own solutions to the current and future problems. God enjoys creativity and desires for you to use your creativity to shape the world with Him. Many of the problems in life can only be solved by involving God in the solution. The process of solving problems in life become the process of returning to God in dependence and letting Him help you work out a solution.

The only way you can overcome sin is with God. 

God doesn’t solve the problems of temptation by taking all the temptations away from you. He allows you to experience temptation so you learn to draw near to Him for strength. In the garden Adam and Eve chose to hide from God after temptation, supposing God to be distant from their shame. Yet shame, troubles, nakedness or even death cannot separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39). Every created thing has no power to separate you from an omnipresent God when you choose to draw near to Him.

The Holy Spirit guides you but He doesn’t do the work for you.

The Holy Spirit guides you into all truth, but He does not forcefully push you into the truth. God gives you the authority and responsibility to activate your decision making capabilities and walk in the truth that He guide you toward. The Holy Spirit is the only force powerful enough to help you overcome sin, but you have to lean into the Spirit and follow your leaning up with obedience. The Holy Spirit helps you figure out how to behave and directs you into those behaviors. Instead of you becoming mechanical by God solving all your problems for you, God teaches you how to solve problems in your life.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 1:11-14

Everything you do seeks to give glory to someone or something. 

A house gives glory to its owner, and a piece of art gives glory to its designer. The good work you do brings glory to yourself and to God who gives you the skills to work. Sloppy work brings shame upon yourself and maligns people's view of who you represent. “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17). When you do good work because you are selfless, you bring glory to yourself and to God. When you start with selfishness and bringing glory to yourself, you become lazy and only do the minimum required to accomplish the task.

It doesn't matter how physically healthy you are when you die.

It doesn’t matter how clean a house was before a bomb was dropped on it. While creating excellence accumulates glory, all the accumulated glory returns to dust as the grass that withers in the summer sun. When all the glory you’ve accumulated returns to dust, you can remain insulated from the disaster if your focus is redirecting your glory to God. Since even you will fade away, you have to focus on accumulating glory for the only One who will last forever. When you accumulate glory for God, you fulfill your purpose and build glory that will last forever.

You are not good enough; surrender the best of you to gain Christ in you. 

The greatest glory you can accumulate here on earth is not comparable to the smallest glory you can receive in Christ. Surrendering glory in this life is not loss if you receive imperishable glory. “For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also, their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6). All of the glory you accumulate here on earth will soon fade away. Do your best to accumulate glory, not so you can keep it for yourself, but so you can give it away in order to obtain an imperishable glory and share it with others.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:6-10

You are defiled by what comes out of you.

For a house to be considered clean, the inside of the house must be cleaned. “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:11). When a bird poops on the roof of the house, the rain eventually washes it away and the house is not defiled. But if a bird goes into a house and poops, the poop will attract bacteria and that will defile the house. What then comes out of the house is disease and uncleanness. It does no good to power wash and clean the outside of a house when the inside is full of uncleanness. You are only clean when the inside of you is clean.

Ignored internal feelings produce bad external decisions.

The decisions you make are like the roof and exterior of your house. They reveal to your neighbors what is most likely going on inside of your house. A clean house will not produce disease on its exterior, and an unclean house will not produce pristine cleanness on its exterior. To manage what is happening on the outside of your house, you must focus on what is happening on the inside. There aren’t “good” and “bad” feelings. Feelings just have to be put in the right rooms. Once your house is organized and cleaned, then you can work on fixing the external behaviors you want to change.

The person who wants to change will start now; the person who doesn’t want to change will start tomorrow.

If you actually want a clean house, you will start cleaning now and clean up immediately when things come up. If you continually put off cleaning till tomorrow, the uncleanness will accumulate. You will soon become overwhelmed by the amount of cleaning required and decide to give up on the idea of having a clean house. Your feelings and emotions are the inside of your life, you have to keep them organized to have a clean life. You can’t ignore your feelings when they wander out of their rooms; you have to acknowledge them and help them get to the right places. Letting the feelings run uncontrolled around the house will create an unclean chaotic house. Eventually, the uncleanness will come out of your house into your front yard for all your neighbors to see. So begin by cleaning the inside of your house and organizing your feelings before your front yard gets overrun with uncleanness.

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3:22-24

It wasn't wrong for Adam and Eve to be naked until after the fall. 

Is God a moral relativist? “I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.” (Romans 7:7-9). God isn’t a moral relativist, he doesn’t adjust morality based on human actions. When the environment around mankind changed, sin sprang into life and seized the opportunity. While mankind had full dominion over the universe, he was clothed in the mantle of God’s righteous authority (e.g. Revelation 3:18, 7:9, etc.). When mankind surrendered dominion over the earth to Satan, God’s covering lifted from the earth and mankind became naked. Man’s nakedness became a sin when the earth’s environment changed. By some mechanism, what wasn’t wrong became wrong not because the moral code changed but because the environment changed.

It wasn’t ok to eat meat until after the flood.

Again, morality doesn’t change. When the environment of the world changed as a result of sin, the application of the moral code changes. The command to eat of the fruit of the trees and be filled (Genesis 2:16) remained, but the application of that command changed when the environment changed and the fruit alone no longer filled him. The overarching command to eat remained as the environment changed. Your task is not to make your own moral code but to determine what God’s universal moral code is and how it applies to the environment you are in.

Morality comes from God’s voice. 

It wasn’t wrong to eat from the tree of knowledge until God said so. Being naked became wrong without God saying so. Morality comes from God’s edicts as God’s moral code covers His people. Lawlessness is both acting in contrast to God’s moral code and removing His covering from your life. Nakedness became wrong by removing God’s covering. “But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (John 4:16-17). Moral living is not doing what is wrong and actively doing what is good. Just avoiding evil isn’t moral living; you must actively do good.

Throw it away in the trash can, not the toilet. 

Just because you can eat something doesn’t mean you should. It is better to throw bad food away rather than eat it and throw it away after it goes through your digestive system. Morality (right and wrong) comes from filling yourself with good food and avoiding bad food (spiritual and physical). The more you fill yourself with God’s moral code, the less you have to decipher right from wrong on your own system. Let God cover you with His moral code and actively live in it.

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

James 1:21-27

People do better when they are given something to do with what they've learned. 

You can learn about how ants and flies spread bacteria and how weeds choke your plants, but until you begin to do something about it, such knowledge is useless. You need a way to use the knowledge you’ve gained in a practical real-life setting. God designed you to integrate learning and doing in a seamless pattern. You don’t have segmented learning and doing life where you learn for a bit then do for a bit then learn… Learning and doing happen simultaneously, so that learning drives you into doing, and doing solidifies the learning into your life as you refine your learning by adjusting your doing.

If you see weeds, go pull them.

The perfect law of liberty shows you the laws and principles of pulling weeds. You still have to put those principles into practice and decide to live by the laws. You can try to kill weeds by suffocating them with fertilizer, but if that is not how the perfect law instructs you to kill weeds, you will most likely make the problem worse. You have to both know what the perfect law of liberty tells you to do and utilize your liberty of free will to get off the couch and go pull the weeds. Of course, you have to know how to pull weeds before you go out and pull them, and an effective life plan with include both learning about pulling weeds and going out and pulling them.

If you fight the ants you will lose; you have to find and eliminate the queen. 

Sometimes we pursue doing something with what we’ve learned before listening to see if it is the right thing to do. We waste our time squishing the ants and don’t get to the solution of killing the queen. Seeing a swarm of ants drives you into action, but your action has to be integrated with learning. As you start squishing ants, you will learn that they just keep coming. As you move into action, you will learn as you go, and as you learn, you will continually adjust your course of action. Look into the law of liberty and become a hearer and doer of what it says.

I said to the Lord: “You are my God; Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle. Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further his wicked scheme, lest they be exalted. …

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; the upright shall dwell in Your presence.

Psalm 140:6-8, 12-13

The righteous are not the ones who live flawlessly, but the ones who give thanks to God. 

The Lord exalts those who put their trust in Him, and those who call upon His name, He makes blameless. God is the strength of our salvation. He is the one who brings justice for the poor and vindication for the afflicted. The upright will dwell in God’s presence because they give thanks to God’s name. The righteous recognize that everything good comes from God so they seek justice in His presence. Affliction drives the righteous toward God for the solution, and they thank and praise God before they are delivered. You don’t have to be flawless to come to God, but as you come to Him and thank Him for who He is, He will make you flawless.

To enter heaven you must be born again. You will be born of the spirit as Adam was born.

You cannot give birth to yourself. Therefore, you must thank the One who gives us life. Adam was not flawless before he was born; he became flawless when God breathed life into him and stamped him with His image. You don’t become flawless by anything you do; you become flawless when God breathes His spirit into you. The righteous are not the ones who are holy enough to create their own righteousness. The righteous are the ones who receive their righteousness from God and praise Him for His righteousness. You will either try to give birth to yourself and fail or receive your birth from God and thank Him for all He gives to you.

Leave it in God’s hands and wait.

When you are trying to create your own righteousness, you will be anxious about production. When your righteousness comes from God, you can rest in His timing and remain thankful in all things. Remember that you receive your life from God, and you can be thankful at all times. And just as you receive your life from God, you receive your righteousness from God. As you remember all you receive from God, turn you to remembrance into an act of praise.

The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy. The house of the wicked will be overthrown, but the tent of the upright will flourish. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above.

Proverbs 14:10-14

If it doesn’t open, it might not be a door.

Many times we expect for God to work in a certain way, and we look for doors and passageways He might open for us. Our heart knows the doors God has opened for us before and we rejoice in what God has done for us. The doors lead us into the house God has for us and we continue to flourish as we explore the house God leads us into. We begin to expect certain patterns to be doors and for God to work in certain ways. Yet, every door God opens to us, we find a new room full of new experiences of God. You can trust that God has new doors for you with exciting material inside, you sometimes have to wait for Him to show you to the door.

You bring your experiences with you.

Your experiences may tell you that certain things are doors and others are not. If you only look for doors you are expecting, you may miss some of the doors God has for you, and you may find yourself waiting outside a wall that you assumed to be a door. Life is more than your experiences and you have to continually seek after God to find the doors He has for you. The doors and the ways that seem right to you may lead to death, but when you are following God with all your heart, you will be satisfied from above.

Will you let God tell His story in you? 

Sometimes the doors God opens for you aren’t the doors you want to go through. You may be disappointed when the ornate wooden door with gold trim doesn’t open while the shabby, dilapidated door opens. God knows what is on the other side of every door. Follow Him through the doors and let Him show you which ones to open and walk through and which ones to pass by. Don’t let your experiences guide you because God’s ways are the ones that lead to life. Let Him show you what ways are doors and which ways are walls. As you follow God, you will let Him tell His story in you instead of insisting upon telling your own story.

Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity. Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. Ecclesiastes 2:18-26

The sun rises and sets on everyone. 

Both the wise and the foolish dwell under the same sun. when one leaves his habitation under the sun, he may take nothing with him; he leaves it all to another man. The toil that one works by the sweat of his brow is common among those who dwell under the sun. Everyone goes to bed and wakes up to work; this also is vanity. However, the word translated vanity shouldn’t be construed and meaningless—without meaning. It is more rightly translated “beyond meaning.” God’s system is so complex that it goes beyond the understanding of even Soloman. It would be expected that after enough repetitions of “going to bed and waking up for work” one would be able to come to an end of his need to work. And yet the sun still rises and sets.

You are but a mist. 

Just as the sun turns water into vapor, so your life under the sun will become like a mist and vapor that quickly fades away. This too is vanity, not because it lacks meaning but because it goes beyond our comprehension. All that is beneath the sun fades away like a distant memory of a shadow. And all the good work we do with the sweat of our brow from the sun’s heat becomes as nothing. As powerful as the sun is, it is only one of many stars and suns in the universe—many larger and stronger than it. And though the sun remains established in the heavens while all that is under it vanishes, you and I are far more valuable than the sun.

You are more valuable than the sun.

The sun and the hosts of heavens in all their glory do not display the glory of God. Of everything in creation, you display God’s glory the most because you are made in His image. You are creative, loving, and set apart in a different way than the rest of creation. Though the universe seems permanent while humans fade away, the universe will fade away while you remain forever. Thus, fading away from a universe that will fade away essentially loses nothing. This also goes beyond our understanding that you, a tiny part of the universe, are far more permanent than the entirety of it all. Both the wise and the foolish dwell and fade under the same sun, but the wise prepare for life once they are no longer under the sun.

Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; fighting all day he oppresses me. My enemies would hound me all day, for there are many who fight against me, O Most High. Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? All day they twist my words; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather together, they hide, they mark my steps, when they lie in wait for my life. Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, O God! You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His word), in the Lord (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You, for You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?

Psalm 56:1-13

Fear shouldn't drive you to safety, it should drive you to God.

When your enemies oppress you to swallow you up, you are driven to action. You are either driven to fight or run away from the oppression or you are driven to trust in God. God calls you to be still and know that I am God. Even in the midst of trouble you can remain unmoved when you rest in an unmoving God. Unless God is where you turn to when life happens, you will be constantly tossed to and fro by every happening of life. You could fret about events that cause your life to be spent and pull your hair out in anxiety, or you can trust a God who numbers your hairs and bottles up each tear your cry. Life will cause you to either rest in your anxiety or in your trust in God.

Do you want God to join you or do you want to join God?

Fear exposes your allegiances. In times of trouble, you will either ask God to join you in your reaction to fear or you will set aside your natural reactions and join God. If you have decided to join Jesus, you should not be driven by the chaos of fear. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear,” (1 John 4:18a). If you have joined God in love, you will not be moved though the mountains shake. When you have only asked God to join you, your fear will guide you. If you have joined God, you will have nothing to fear. If you have only asked God to join you, your fears will drive you as God’s movements in your life become dimmer and dimmer.

Even Moses waited. Wait so you can hear from the Lord.

“And Moses said to them, “Stand still, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.”” (Numbers 9:8). Moses had a face to face relationship with God and probably knew God better than anyone else. Even Moses waited to hear what the Lord commanded and joined God by not responding without hearing from the Lord. Will you join God and wait on Him before you respond, or will you insist that God joins you as you react to your fears and the happenings of life? Will you let fear run your life as you run to safety or will you let fear drive you to your rest in God?

Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:25-32

Only disciples can make other disciples. 

We are all members of one body—Christ’s. As members of the same body, we share a common DNA. When you have Christ’s DNA and know what His DNA is like, you are able to share that with others. As you shed your skin cells—which are really Christ’s—while going about your daily activities, you create opportunities for Christ’s DNA to impact others. Only Christ’s DNA can make others like Christ, so before you can go out and say you are spreading the gospel, you have to have Christ’s DNA alive and active in your life. Christ’s DNA works like a genetic mutation and changes the DNA of the individuals who welcome it into their life. You are not spreading your own DNA, but Christ’s; and as you do so, Christ makes others like Him.

If you are married to Christ, you must become one flesh with Him.

For you to be married to Christ, you must have His DNA inside you, transforming you into His likeness. Once you are married to Him, His DNA will stay with you forever. “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, may he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return to Me,” says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 3:1). Although it would be expected that abandoning Christ would lead to Christ rejecting us, since His holiness is the primary mutating factor, He always welcomes and beckons us to come to Him. Our sin does not taint His holiness; rather, His holiness redeems us. 

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” (Heb 6:4-6). It is impossible to become more like Christ by any other means than His DNA. You cannot get God to save you your way; salvation has to be done His way—through the cross and His transforming DNA. As you become one DNA with Christ, you become His disciple, and as His disciple, you will make more disciples because it's part of His DNA.

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.” 

“I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: ‘Your seed I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations.’” Selah

And the heavens will praise Your wonders, O Lord; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints. For who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those around Him. O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them. You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one who is slain; You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm. The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fullness, You have founded them. The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name. You have a mighty arm; strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance. In Your name they rejoice all day long, and in Your righteousness they are exalted. For You are the glory of their strength, and in Your favor our horn is exalted.

Psalm 68:1-17

God alone is worthy of heaven. 

“At this also my heart trembles, and leaps from its place. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth. After it a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, and He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend."

Job 37:1-5

Heaven cannot contain God’s glory; it thunders as His glory overflows beyond the borders of Heaven. God alone is worthy of Heaven and yet Heaven in all of its expanse cannot contain Him.

He claps His hands and causes the clouds to thunder. 

We cannot comprehend Heaven’s reactions to God’s glory. How much more do we fall short of understanding God. Every movement of the train of God’s robe causes the Heavens to tremble. Only God in His glory is worthy to dwell in the place that His glory overwhelms. He fills the expanse of Heaven with His glory, so that only He is worthy of Heaven, then He stretches His glory beyond Heaven’s borders. And yet in the midst of all His glory, He bestows His glory on one of the tiny creatures He made.

He comes and sits with you.

God didn’t choose to fill the planets or galaxies with His glory; He knelt down and made mankind in His image. As tiny as we are compared to the earth, universe, and Heavens, we posses a measure of God’s glory that the rest of creation lacks. We must recognize how awesome it is that God’s glory dwells in us. His glory makes us worthy of Heaven as He shines through us as His glory oozes out of us.

Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 

1 Timothy 6:1-10

Godliness without contentment becomes selfish.

When you are content, you will not despise your Master. When you keep in mind that you brought nothing into the world, you will be grateful for whatever you have and content. Your contentment will lead you to serving others and seeking to be a blessing to them as God has blessed you. Godliness without contentment becomes self-focused on “how Godly I can become.” Godliness with contentment recognizes that Godliness isn’t about you, but about others. You brought nothing into the world—God gave everything you have  to you—so everything you have should be used to bless others. Your Godliness should bless God and other people as you are content with the Godliness God has given you.

Contentment without Godliness is loss. 

Contentment enables you to move beyond yourself and become a blessing to others. If you are able to bless others and win over kings as friends but lose your own soul, your life will have been meaningless (Mark 8:36). Your life began as a vapor and your life will end as a vapor. You fall like a drop from the watering can and you either nourish the environment around you, as you were created to do, or fade away in the sun without any impact. Either way, if you don’t point back to the bottomless watering can that gave you flight into your environment, you have done little to help your environment. God as His watering can never run out of water, you have to direct the attention of your environment back to God and His can for you to have any real benefit to your environment.

Your relationship with others is a reflection of the relationship you have with yourself. 

Your contentment with yourself and who God made you to be will be reflected in your relationship with others. A drop of water must be water before it can wet anything around it. The more like water the drop of water becomes, the better it will impact its environment in the way it was created to do. The less like water it is, the more there will be disruptions in its relationships. You are a drop of water, remain content in who God made you to be by nourishing those around you. And remain Godly, for if God is like water, you are like a drop are to model His nature to the world around you.

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 2:1-11

You cannot walk in the flesh and the spirit at the same time. 

The path of the light has a set of guidelines and rules for you to follow if you want to be on that path. The path of darkness also has a set of rules and guidelines. Travelers must choose a set of walking rules. The path travelers go on is not determined by the path they want to be on but by the rules they follow. If you want to be on the path of light, you must walk by the rules of the light. If you walk by the rules of the path of darkness, you will be on the path of darkness no matter how much you claim to and want to be on the other path.

Satan's goal is to get you to sin.

Satan doesn’t care about the path that you want to walk on, he only cares about the path you actually walk on. The key guideline of the path of darkness is living in sin while the key discipline of the path of light is living righteously. Living righteously and walking on the path of light does not come from your own righteousness, but from Christ’s righteousness at work in you. When we walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7), we allow His light to shine through us as we walk along His path with Him.

The greatest expression of godliness is helping others become more godly.

God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were on the path of darkness, He brought the light to us. We are imitating Christ’s love for us when we love one another and bring His light to them. When we bring light to a brother who is walking in darkness, we fulfill the love of God and demonstrate that we are walking in the light. We must take heed that when we bring light to our brother that we don’t stumble onto his path of darkness (Galtians 6:1), but if we are truly walking on God’s path, we will be compelled to share His light with others. Choose which path you will walk on and bring someone with you.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Romans 5:1-9

Connection comes before correction.

God targeted our connection with Him before addressing our behaviors. He demonstrated His love for us by giving to us even though we did not deserve His gift. God didn’t wait for us to earn His love, instead He graciously rebuilt our connection to Him. Our connection to Him is what leads to a correction in behavior. Efforts to correct our behavior isn’t the first step to restoring our connection with God. We can’t earn a friendship with God by our good behavior; we have to pursue a relationship with God because He pursued a relationship with us. Our behavior will change as we value and grow our relationship with God. 

Bearing fruit isn't a prerequisite of abiding in the vine; abiding in the vine produces the fruit.

A branch that is disconnected from the vine cannot produce fruit by its own will power. It must stay connected to the vine or be grafted in to be able to produce fruit. You must remain connected to the vine to bear fruit. Your ability to bear fruit comes from your connection to the vine; in other words, connection creates production.God wants you to produce fruit, and the way He made that possible was by restoring your connection to Him. the Vinedresser became the vine and was cut off so there was a way to graft you, as a disconnected branch, into the vise. As you remain connected to the vine, you are 

You are a tree, how much seed will you produce?

Producing seeds is part of who you are. Because it is part of your nature, you will produce seeds. The only question is what kind of seeds you will produce and how many seeds you will produce. A branch that is connected to a grape vine will produce grapes and grape seeds. A branch that is connected to an apple tree will produce apples and apple seeds. The seeds you produce are largely determined by what you are connected to. A branch that is well connected to a fertilized, healthy plant will produce abundant, healthy fruit. God is the giver of life, so if you are well connected to Him, you will bear much fruit.

And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. Luke 12:42-48

Don't run through a glass door even though you can't see it.

Just because your master is away, it doesn’t mean you get to play. Just because you can’t see something, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. The more you are aware of the things that you can't see, the better you are able to navigate in the world around you. The more you work diligently while your master is not around, the more likely you are to continue working diligently when your master is around. Everything you do creates a habit that will lead you into more diligence or more laziness. Just because you can’t see the formed habit doesn’t mean it is not there.

Nothing in life is neutral. It’s either healthy or cancerous. 

Just because something looks healthy doesn’t mean that it is healthy, and just because something looks poisonous doesn’t mean that it is. To know if something is poisonous or healthy, you have to know the things you can’t see about it—its chemical properties and the plant it came from. Without knowing about the things you can’t see, you aren’t able to know how to use the things you can see. Everything you do and everything you consume either adds to your life or subtracts from it, even though often you cannot immediately see the adding or subtracting.

Choose fasting rather than eating what’s bad for you. 

Nothing you eat is neutral; it is either good for you or bad for you. If you are hungry and get off the freeway for some quick food but the only restaurant you can find serves bugs and poison, you should obviously choose fasting rather than eating there. When you know the unseen things about a restaurant—like how many people get food poisoning after eating there—then you are able to determine if the food they serve is healthy or unhealthy.  Everything you consume is either good for you or bad for you and either adds or takes away from your health. When you live by what you can’t see, even if it looks good or bad, you are able to make healthy choices.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:7-10

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? … You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written. Romans 2:1-24

You always have time to do what's right.

Every decision you make is sowing something you will reap in the future. When you sow spiritual seeds, you will reap spiritual food you can feed yourself and others with in the future. If you continue planting good spiritual seeds and nourishing the spiritual crops you have growing, you will have a steady supply of spiritual food. The more you practice sowing, caring for, and harvesting spiritual crops, the more naturally you will continue in that production. As you set your fields in order, you are then able to advise other farmers on their crops, but your fields have to be well maintained for your advice to be of any value.

You have to do what you expect others to do.

As you look at your neighbors’ fields, you can see that sewing, reaping and eating fleshly food is unhealthy while producing spiritual food is healthy. Although it is easier to tell your neighbor what is wrong with his fields, you can only manage your own field. Anything you see wrong in your neighbors’ fields that you are not working to correct in your fields is something you need to keep to yourself until you are ready to work on your own fields. When you have mastered the planting, growing and harvesting of spiritual crops in your fields, you are then able to advise others on their fields.

Be your own sermon illustration. 

What you produce in your field is readily visible to your neighbors. Your fields will illustrate what you sew. If you sew to the flesh you will have fleshly crops growing in your field; if you sew to the spirit, you will have spiritual crops growing in your field. You will live out of the crops that plant whether or not they are the crops that you want or the crops that you study. And your crops will have an influence on the soil, which will influence your neighbors’ crops. So sew to the spirit, so you may reap of the spirit and have spiritual food to feed yourself with.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In them, He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. Psalm 19:1-6

He creates a canvas out of nothing and then draws on it.

The heavens declare the righteousnesses of God by remaining bound to the laws He created them to live by. The earth declares His righteousness by obeying His laws. Nations declare His righteousness by upholding the laws He decreed them to rule by. You declare God's righteousness by obeying His laws. Everything God creates declares his righteousness and glory. God has so much excess glory that He creates an entire universe, pours His glory into it, and loses none of His original glory. God doesn’t become more glorious by sucking the glory out of the things He poured His glory into. He increases His glory by giving it away.

Nothing has glory apart from God.

Everything that exists exists because God created it. Everything displays an aspect of God’s glory—even the mundane things. God’s character is expressed in a set of rules that do not restrict freedom but create the framework where freedom can exist. Objects in our universe display God’s glory by moving, or not moving within the laws God designed the universe to live under. The more an object abides by the rules, the better it displays God’s glory. A rock displays God’s glory by abiding by the law of gravity and standing strong as a picture of God’s immutability. A shooting star displays God’s glory by following the laws of gravity and orbiting around black holes and other space material.

Church and the gospel are not about your entertainment.

 Christianity isn’t just something to do with your time. Christianity is an entire life-style change to give God glory for what He has done through Jesus Christ. Just as everything else operates because it receive glory from God, you and the gospel exist to receive love and glory from God, so that you can return the glory to God as you were created to do. Nothing has glory apart from God. everything that exists receives life and glory from God and has a set of laws to live by. God creates things so that He can pour His excess life and glory into them as they reflect the greatness of our God. You can reflect God’s glory by being who He made you to be.