Are You Sabotaging Your Own Life?

Sabotage Man not Superman!  lol!
This is my great-nephew Luke a few years ago at his birthday party.

With my last post I brought to you the principle of Measure for Measure.  This principle is simply taking your response in a given situation and applying that response to you if the situation applies to you.   In other words, if you are merciful, then mercy will be shown to you.  If you are harsh, then you will be shown harshness.  Jesus spoke of a parable relating to this very principle in Matthew 18:23-35.  In this parable a King has a servant who owes him a great deal of money, (10,000 Talents).  By today's estimations: 1 Talent = 6,000 denarii, 1 denarii = a day's wage (approx $50); therefore 10,000 talents = approx $3,000,000,000  ($3 billion and that's a low estimate since $50 a day is only $6.25 per hour!)

Anyway, this guy owes the King a whole lot of money and the King decides it is time for him to repay.  Only problem is he can't, because he doesn't have it.  So what does the guy do?  He begs and pleads for his life!  The King is going to throw the whole family in jail, because the loan can't be repaid, but the guy begs for mercy and guess what?  The King has mercy!  The King forgives the guy of the loan and lets him go!

This guy should be all thankful and gracious right?  So what does he do?  He finds a guy who owes him about 100 denarii ($5,000) and forgives him!  NOT!!!  He shakes this guy for every penny!  The poor guy also begs and pleads and asks for mercy in order to have more time to pay back the money, but the first guy gives him NO MERCY!  He even goes so far as to throw this man AND his whole family into jail for the loan.  Why the nerve of that guy!!!

There is only one problem here.  Word of what he has done gets back to the King and the King sends him a summons!  Then he gets the lecture....

"You wicked servant!  I forgave you all that debt just because you begged me to do it.  Shouldn't you have had pity on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?  And in anger his master turned him over to the jailers for punishment until he paid back everything he owed."

That's just like us, isn't it?  We are given forgiveness and mercy and then we turn right around and show everything but forgiveness and mercy to the next person.  My oh my!  We sabotage our own future much of the time.  We could have our cake and eat it too if we would just share more of it!  Sabotage!  I believe that word is grossly misunderstood and underrated in Christianity.  We speak of demons and the devil and how "he" sabotages our "walk" with Christ.  My oh my how we look in the wrong direction for answers.

It is only natural, I suppose for mankind to play the blame game.  It began in the garden in Genesis and it hasn't stopped since.  No one wants to see themselves as the one to blame for their lot in life.  Certainly I cannot be the reason I am in the shape I'm in?  If I can only blame someone else!  If I can only blame something else.  If I can only blame God, then I shall not have to bear the weary burden alone!  Have we not all been there?  Admitting guilt is like treason upon yourself, is it not?

But, there is no one else to blame.  It is each of us who must carry the weight of our guilt.  Let me show you what I am talking about.  Another great and mighty principle in Jewish thought is this:  Angels are not necessarily spirit beings with wings, but rather messengers that when given an assignment must carry that assignment out to completion and nothing can stop it.  Now with that being said, every word you speak is an assignment to an angel and whatever assignment an angel is given MUST be carried out to completion!

Does this make James 3:10 come to life for you?  Out of the mouth come both blessing and cursing?  Whew!  Who knew?  Did you?  Me neither!!!!  Oh my!!!! Shut my mouth!!!  You know, I think we can all figure out how this plays out in the measure for measure, but I want to take you to a place I bet you wouldn't even think to go with this one.

Do you realize that a great many of us sabotage our own lives by measuring out judgment on and speaking assignments onto......ourselves?  That's right.  We do that in two ways, by speaking things of others and speaking things of ourselves also.  Let me elaborate on those for you.

Speaking things about others:  when we speak judgments about others, remember those judgments are used against us.  I first heard of this a few years ago when our Church was studying a book called Thank God It's Monday; How to take God to work with you by Rick Heeren.  This book talked about how we pronounce curses upon people with the words we say.  For example, have you ever looked at someone, a young single woman with several children all by different fathers and made the statement, "She is about worthless."  If so, you have just pronounced a life of worthlessness upon her.  Mr. Heeren went on to say that if you walked or drove by that house every day and instead pronounced a blessing upon that woman you might be giving her a chance.  You will have to read the book to find out what happens in some of the cases he sights.  :)

If our words give directions to God's messengers and those messengers must carry out those directions until completion, well?  Remember, with the same judgment you use.........!  If you pronounce unforgiveness, then unforgiveness will be your judgment.  If you criticize, then people will be critical of you.  Do you see where this is going?   I will leave this point alone, I think you get this one.

What about how we sabotage ourselves with ourselves?  Perhaps we always speak highly of others and judge well of others.  Okay, check that one off our list, we are good to go!  Let me ask this question, do we put ourselves down?  Have we been told in life that we are a less than favorable person and told often enough we have believed that lie?  Do we think we are dumb, fat, lazy, stupid, crazy, never going to amount to much, worthless, slow, different, even perhaps (should I say it?) a slut, we'll never fit in, no one will love us or if we find someone who does they will be an outcast just like us?

We know how bad these lies hurt us so we vowed to never hurt others that way.  Measure for measure - we don't measure those words out to others, but yet...............we measure them out to ourselves and we sabotage our own lives.  We send messengers to ourselves to continue the hurt and destruction that may have been started long ago.  IT.......IS.......TIME.........TO.......END....THE.....CYCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
STOP THOSE MESSENGERS FROM COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND GET SOME NEW MESSENGERS COMING IN HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God says you are a special treasure!  You are worth everything, so much he sent His Son, His one and only Son who willingly died to take on the curse of death for you!!!!  And He would do it all over again.  And you know what else.........He LOVES YOU!!!!!  You are not worthless!  He loves you and He created you, so you are not space junk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew! Are you ready for a new life if this describes you and in a way it describes all of us at one time or another, but for many it describes life everyday.  I have heard person after person describe heartbreaking stories of traumatic events in their life.  It occurred to me one day that I only hear one raindrop of the stories compared to all the raindrops in the world, but God not only hears all the raindrops, he also sees them too.  I have shed many tears over the stories I have heard, stories of abuse and neglect.  I cannot imagine how God must feel knowing that those He created treat each other so.

Friends, God is love and apart from him we cannot know true love.  May you find His love today.  I would consider it a gift to show you this love if you do not know Him.  May you find the peace that only He can bring!  Shalom - Peace, my friend!  
  

I just want to be loved................can you love me?

                               

                                 

This beautiful medium sized dog wandered up to my house about a week ago amid all the storms rumbling through our area and stayed. I have nicknamed the sweet thing "Bear" and I bet you can guess why!  No collar, covered in ticks and fleas, starving and seems to be afraid of getting in trouble for eating the food you put in front of him, but wants to be loved sooooooo badly.  He looks at you with these eyes that say, "Will you be my family?  I won't hurt anything, I just want to be loved."  I have tried, through facebook to find the owner, but my guess is that he was dropped.  I live in the country and on a corner lot so it's convenient for people who are looking to get out of responsibility.  Even if he does belong to someone in my vicinity, it is certain they aren't caring for him the way he should be cared for.  

I have been trying to understand where to go for the next basic understanding and this beautiful creature has given me a lesson to share.  There is a very basic principle in Jewish thought and in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) which is essential to everything we say and do in life.  This principle is called "Measure for Measure" and is the basis behind what other religions call karma, but reaches even further beyond that concept.

Let me start with the animals and work my way up from there.  Look with me at Deuteronomy 22:6-7 I am going to quote from the TANACH (Jewish translation from Hebrew to English of the Old Testament), because the wording in the English translations do not convey the true meaning of this verse.

"If a bird's nest happens to be before you on the road, on any tree or on the ground - young birds or eggs -  and the mother is roosting on the young birds or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.  You shall surely send away the mother and take the young for yourself, so that it will be good for you and will prolong your days."   

The English translations of this verse say you are to let the mother bird go, but you can see that the original translation says to "send" her away.  The intent is that she not be allowed to see you take her young from her and thus suffer at your hands.  A compassionate act of mercy!  This commandment, by the way, is referred to by the Jews as "The Least Commandment."  Have you heard that phrase somewhere before?  

There is a story from the Midrash (the oral traditions), of two Rabbi's who are discussing punishment.  I will just give the story in a nutshell.  One asks how G-d would determine the punishment for sins.  The other replies that He would just present the man with the same situation in his own life to see what judgement he, himself would pronounce upon it.  Whatever judgement he gives will be the same given back to him.  And how did he know this?  This is how God pronounced judgement on King David, through Nathan the prophet, when he had sinned with Bathsheba.

Have you noticed that many times in your own life you have faced a situation with which you pronounced judgement, only to see that same judgement come back at you later?  Think about it!  If you haven't you will see that the people or situations that irritate you the most within your life or on the job are the things in your life that you struggle the most with.  Am I right?  The next time you open your mouth to judge, see if that situation fits you first.  Perhaps it was a situation from the past or it could be something you are dealing with now.  Are you quick to judge a young woman who is sexually active?  Were you the same?   Perhaps it is someone at work who you think doesn't do their job.  Do you always do yours to the best of your ability?

Be very careful what sentence you pronounce upon another!  Look with me at Matthew 7:1-2 for a moment.  In what we generally call The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clearly talks about this principle and even spells it out for us.

"Don't judge, so that you won't be judged.  For the way you judge others is how you will be judged - the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you."

Oh my!  I bet you haven't quoted those verses correctly have you?  The only thing I hear when this gets quoted is, "Judge not!"   There is a much deeper lesson going on here, but I must save that one for another time.   Jesus continues in Matthew 7:12 with what we have come to know as "The Golden Rule."

"Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets."

For now, just know the measure we use in the treatment of everything and everyone around us is being used as a measuring stick on us.  It is we who choose our punishment.  I think about this in relation to the parent who asked the child, "Would you like for me to use the small tiny switch or the thicker branch when I spank you?"  I would choose to live in such a way as to make it unnecessary to be spanked, thank you very much!  But, alas I still do things which require a swat every now and then (as I stated in my last post).

Even the way we treat a bird on it's nest or a dog which has lost it's way in the storms.  Everything created by God in Heaven is worthy of our attention and care.  I feel for this poor animal.  I know what it's like to loose track of where I belong.  I am in mid-life now and trying to get my bearings.  Both parents have passed on, both sons are now grown and have lives of their own and it's time to find my place separate and apart from them.  Who am I and where do I belong?  I know who I belong to, but sometimes amid the storms crashing around and the noise of traffic it can be frightening and I just get lost a little.

 It is during these times that God sends something to remind me of home, something like Bear who's wandering too, just asking, "Can you love me?"  It helps to keep me on track and remind me to treat others the way I want to be treated, even when they frustrate me to no end.  They need love too and perhaps they are lost and lonely and need guidance back, just like Bear.

The local college students are moving in on campus today and for many of them, loneliness will set in shortly and the stress of campus life and classes will push them to the edge.  Let me remind you as you go about your daily life, remember to say hello to these young people and be friendly.  You may be the "home-base" they are needing for a moment just in order to get their bearings.  Can you love them?  Asian, Middle-Eastern, African, South American, it matters not the nationality or color.  MEASURE FOR MEASURE!      

 

Basic #3 - part 2 Angels and Demons! Told you I wasn't finished with it yet! and maybe you'll even get lesson #4!-

Oh yeah, the process!  Enough already!  Oh no, ladies and gents!  The process isn't over until we breathe our last!  Now, how has your week been?  If yours has been like mine, well rough I'd say.  I have been up and I have been down.  I have praised God one day and (I'll do a little confessing here).....I have spewed filth another.  Yes, you heard me right.  I have been angry half the week and been caught up in the rhetoric at work and due to my physical pain and disgust at situations beyond my control have chosen to use words that brought me down.

                 

God reminded me of that fact, in a strong fashion this morning, through a post on facebook by someone I graduated High School with.  Every day she posts a scripture verse and today's verse was James 3:9-10,

"With it we bless Adonai, the Father; and with it we curse people, who were made in the image of God.  Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing!  Brothers, it isn't right for things to be this way."  JNT

I didn't curse people, but oh how my mouth gets me in trouble!!!!  Am I the only person who has this problem?  Somehow I doubt it. This is the point of extending my previous post.  I want to use myself as an example.  Didn't really want to do this, but I might as well.  At least I can't sue myself, ha!

Do you struggle on a daily basis trying to live a Godly life?  Do you sometimes, or many times, feel like a failure?  Heaven knows I do or use to!  There are nights when I would go to bed feeling like the lowest of the low, because I believed I had failed God.  "Why did I say those things?"  "Why did I do that?"  "Why did I give in to that?"  Is this where you are?  Do you struggle with a sin, an addiction?  You know, a lot of people think an addiction is something like drugs or alcohol, but an addiction could be anything you can't leave behind.

The problem is exactly my problem throughout this past week, I had not been plugged in.  Let me divert for a moment to give you an example.  One of my jobs, at work, requires the use of a lift to raise the baskets of parts to a level of ease for our use.  On Thursday, I went to pull an empty basket out and replace it with a full basket, but the lift had not been charged up the night before and the battery was dead.  It would not move.  The Set-up brought another lift over, but the battery on it was also near death, so short story, we had to bend way over to reach our parts for 20 minutes or so.  Result - aching back!  One person did not do their job of plugging in the lift and others paid the price!

I did not plug in to the Word, both written and through prayer, this past week and the result was devastating both to me, to others and to my God!  I brought myself down through my words, I brought others down through discouragement and disgraced my God through my language.  I hope I learned my lesson!

To carry this lesson further is to even give you a basic lesson #4 The 10 Commandments aren't commandments!  I know you are probably like me and have grown up learning them as THOU SHALT NOT!, but nothing could be farther from the truth!  The Jews call them The 10 Words.  Each one is actually a heading for a section of corresponding in-depth instructions from God to the Children of Israel.  

The Jews teach that these Words are connections to God.  In essence, they are how we plug into God in order to keep charged.  If we want to connect to God, obedience is the key and he gives us the power strip with 10 outlets to plug into.  The key is that we have to connect to all 10 in order to charge correctly.  We cannot pick and choose which ones we want.

Have you ever tried to hook up a DVD player or gaming system to your television and left off one of the color coded plugs in the back?  You connected, but not everything worked correctly, right?  See what I mean?  You will still have a relationship with God, but you cannot have the best possible relationship until you connect to all 10 outlets!

What about reward and punishment?  Well, let's see, if I stick a paper clip into a power outlet and I get shocked, is that outlet punishing me?  Absolutely not!  I have connected with the power source, but not in the proper way.  I have received what is due me for not connecting properly.  If I plug my computer into the power outlet and turn it on, I get to play games!  Am I being rewarded?  No, I am connecting properly to the power source.  Am I making any sense?

Does this help?

Could it be that in today's Christian society and our somewhat disregard for the Older Testament, we have overlooked some of the connections?  Is this perhaps why so many Christians struggle with sin in their lives and day to day living?  Are we not plugged into all the outlets?  Have we picked and chosen which of the 10 we plug into or perhaps we have chosen how we interpret them or re-interpret them?  Have we decided over the course of history how God's connections are defined?  Perhaps we need to look at the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 to see how they should be interpreted and defined correctly!

I want to go back over all 10 of those connections with you and let God search YOUR heart as He has mine.  See if there is an empty outlet or perhaps just a spot where that plug-in has loosened and isn't connecting properly and remember they are not multiple choice.  

1. God spoke all these words, to respond:		א. וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים אֵת כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה לֵאמֹר:
2. "I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.		ב. אָנֹכִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים:
3. You shall not have the gods of others in My presence.		ג. לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל פָּנַי:
4. You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness which is in the heavens above, which is on the earth below, or which is in the water beneath the earth.		ד. לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה לְּךָ פֶסֶל | וְכָל תְּמוּנָה אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם | מִמַּעַל וַאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתַּחַת וַאֲשֶׁר בַּמַּיִם | מִתַּחַת לָאָרֶץ:
5. You shall neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a zealous God, Who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me,		ה. לֹא תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם כִּי אָנֹכִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת עַל בָּנִים עַל שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל רִבֵּעִים לְשׂנְאָי:
6. and [I] perform loving kindness to thousands [of generations], to those who love Me and to those who keep My commandments.		ו. וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לַאֲלָפִים לְאֹהֲבַי וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָי:
7. You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold blameless anyone who takes His name in vain.		ז. לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת שֵׁם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהֹוָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִשָּׂא אֶת שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא:
8. Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it.		ח. זָכוֹר אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ:
9. Six days may you work and perform all your labor,		ט. שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָל מְלַאכְתֶּךָ:
10. but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God; you shall perform no labor, neither you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your beast, nor your stranger who is in your cities.		י. וְיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת | לַיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה כָל מְלָאכָה אַתָּה | וּבִנְךָ וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ:
11. For [in] six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.		יא. כִּי שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהֹוָה אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ אֶת הַיָּם וְאֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל כֵּן בֵּרַךְ יְהֹוָה אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת וַיְקַדְּשֵׁהוּ:
12. Honor your father and your mother, in order that your days be lengthened on the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you.		יב. כַּבֵּד אֶת אָבִיךָ וְאֶת אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ:
13. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.		יג. לֹא תִּרְצָח: ס לֹא תִּנְאָף: ס לֹא תִּגְנֹב: ס לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר:
14. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor."		יד. לֹא תַחְמֹד בֵּית רֵעֶך ס לֹא תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ וְעַבְדּוֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ וְשׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמֹרוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶךָ:

The text on this page contains sacred literature. Please do not deface or discard.

I want to leave you with one final scripture for today.  

"You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."  Deuteronomy 4:2

Are you connected and staying charged?  Don't get caught in the middle of no man's land and your phone is dead, okay?  Until next time, Shalom!