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I begin today's episode with a hymn/poem entitled, "I Stand Amazed." Then I share a chapter from my book, A Course in Christianity entitled, "To All the Cringers." Next I finish with another hymn/poem, "Holy God We Praise Thy Name."

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Today I begin with a Hymn/Poem entitled, "How Beautiful Heaven Must Be" then share "The Battle Is Already Won" from my book, A Course in Christianity. Another book of mine, Advanced Christianity, has a chapter entitled, "The Battle Is Already Won" also. This is a completely different chapter from that book. Then I share another hymn/poem entitled, "Tell Me the Story of Jesus." You will be blessed.
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The Battle Is Already Won!

Isn't that great! God is so beyond our squabbles that when we turn from our troubles and embrace Him, the troubles vanish (or become diminished in our hearts).

God blossoms, our small-self fades. God explores in mighty creative currents through our minds, our small-self withers and whimpers dejectedly. God glorifies His creation having established Himself in it, our small self cannot see God, cannot see glory, cannot see at all.

When I say, "The Battle is already won," I mean it. Are you still fighting for your life? The enemy has surrendered but you still lie in trenches, in the mud, facing death and sorrow. Get out of the trenches, rise up, the cross no longer holds our savior, the enemy is defeated.

How do you let go of the war? How do you recognize your victory? You must do something. You can't stay in the trenches and wait for God to rescue you. He already did that! Don't make Him climb back up on the cross to die again for you. If you didn't get it, get it! He did it. It is done. Claim your victory now. What is stopping you?

Yes, what is stopping you. Look at this. It's the enemy. It's Satan. Though defeated by Jesus’s sacrifice, he still roams the earth looking for the weak, uncertain Christians who failed to recognize Christ's victory. Are you one of those?

Satan must crawl out of a hole to tempt you who lie in the trenches. He's down there with you, urging you to be depressed about life and all that it offers you in those trenches. He agrees with your defeatedness, he confirms both your false reasoning and your bleak view. He denies the truth and does everything in his power to make you deny the truth that could set you free.

You can't wait. You must be vigilant for God. You must be excited to exit the trenches and the mud bath you were taking there. Rise up! Rise up! Rise up, once and for all. Do not stay where God does not exist. Repent of your trenchy thinking.

You see no hope? Quit looking where there is no hope. You see no victory? Raise your artillery and fire, now. You are not defeated. The enemy is defeated. Why are you still hanging out with him? Release him and let him slink back into his hole in the ground. You do not need him anymore. There is no justification in believing his armory of untruths. Break free from his weak clutches. Throw away your crutches. Walk holding onto God's Handrail, Jesus. Win in Him!

The kingdom is won by violence. Take authority NOW. Don't succumb to the violence Satan throws at we wishy-washy Christians. Use violence to toss those weak and unworthy thoughts from your powerful God-given mind. You can't be passive in this. The battle that was already won is in your mind, but you must TAKE AUTHORITY NOW!

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Today's episode begins with a Hymn/Poem entitled, "Down at the Cross" followed by a chapter from my book, A Course in Christianity entitled, "Did Your Kingdom Come Yet?" and I finish with another Hymn/Poem, "Count Your Blessings."
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Did Your Kingdom Come Yet?

We in bodies, seem to think we dwell permanently in them. That is so obviously wrong, but we can't seem to pull ourselves out of this grave thinking.

If we teach eternal life and dwell on its aspects and characteristics, we will live in more peace and less fear. Upholding the truth in this world we've made is our job. We need to accept the truth for ourselves. No one will do that for us. We need to KNOW the truth to be set free from fear.

We made fear ourselves by trying to separate ourselves from God (an impossible endeavor). But we believe we've done that. Jesus came bringing the truth that, through Him, we haven't succeeded in blocking God out of our lives. That separation was a big deal and yet for those of us who have recognized what Jesus has done for us on the cross, that separation is healed, and we are back in the Garden again. The kingdom of God is within. The kingdom of God is the Garden, reincarnated.

Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto us (all our needs will be met). He said, "Seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be open unto you." This seeking is done optimistically, not cautiously, not reticently, not doubtfully but in a fully expectant attitude. We were made to find the kingdom. We were made to become the kingdom for people around us as we follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

The world is a mirror of our consistent thoughts. A mundane world consists of a mundane thought pattern we hold. The secular humanists have no trouble believing in a positive mind-set. If you think you can do it, you can do it! But (and Jesus tells a parable about this entitled the crooked servant) the children of God are reticent to take the kingdom into their hearts in the same way as the secular humanists firmly grasp the positive mind-set so important to what they deem success.

We can be successful also. We must choose not to be victims. We are not slaves to "fate" or "chance." We are spiritual beings temporarily in physical bodies, making decisions that affect us (and everyone around us.)

Fear denigrates our true position as amazing children of God. Fear wipes us out and swipes the rug out from under us. Fear squeezes our life-flow until it almost stops but because God ordained our life, it can never truly stop. Even if death comes to our bodies, our lives go on. (Where that life dwells after death, I don’t know but the saved children of God dwell with God).

Let's dwell with God now, what do you say? Why fall into some sort of apathetic attitude in which we "go" to heaven after death? Why not bring the kingdom of God to earth, as it is in heaven, as Jesus prayed would happen? Seriously, why not? Ask not what Jesus can do for you, ask what you can do for Jesus!

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I took an old Cat Stevens song, "Morning Is Broken," and poetically infused an instrumental by Alexander Nakarada. That's first. Then a short chapter from my book, A Course in Christianity entited, "We Are the Will of God." Finally I share another hymn/poem with an instrumental by Kevin Macleod. This one is entitled, "He Leadeth Me." Blessings abound!
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Do you exist? Amazingly preposterous question that has been pondered by those unsure of anything. God willed us into being and it is God's will that we exist. If He didn't will us into existence, we wouldn't be here to wonder about it.

God loves what He willed. He loves us. He loves us enough to give us this earth, this playground, to figure things out. He loves us enough to send His Son down into our castles made of sand here and show us the Way, the Truth, and the Life. By ourselves we could never figure it out because our way, our truth and our lives do NOT show us a cohesive path toward God.

If God willed us into being, why is it possible to engage in carnality and sin here in this "playground"? God didn't will us into being so that He could pull our strings and make us love Him. He gave us free will. He willed us into being but did not force us to will as He willed. But we are made in the image and likeness of God so our very nature, the very essence of our being is like God. Because our will is free, we can choose what we are going to will. When we will outside of God's will, however, we misconstrue our being. We try to fit ourselves into a mold that we have carefully made, a mold of pain and suffering because it doesn't agree with what God willed us to be, children of Himself. He doesn't force us to will as He wills but, in creating us we became His children, and, as I said, made in His image and likeness. If we are willing ourselves to be different than that, we are engaging in fantasy and usurping God's will and what He made, us. That's what hurts. That's what causes all our pain. It is self-inflicted. We are doing this to ourselves. We must stop it!

We need to allow Jesus to be the pilot and we, the co-pilots. We need to humble ourselves before the Captain. He came to give us life, a life more abundant than we can imagine, a life filled with love, given, shared, a life that far surpasses what we have made here in this playground.

Give your life to God, give it to Jesus and allow His Holy Spirit to enfold you and guide you to your true destiny in Him. No more sad endings, no more carnal commercials touting cures that do not cure, and fun that doesn't last, and tears that never end. Give your life to God...NOW! Don’t waste another minute.

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I begin with one of the old hymns with beautiful instrumental music embedded with it. This one is "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Next you'll hear a chapter from my book, A Course in Christianity entitled, "Why Not Now?". I believe you'll be blessed.

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Today you will hear two hymns narrated by me, embedded with emotionally satisfying instrumentals. I begin with, "Take the Name of Jesus with You," then share a chapter from my book, A Course in Christianity entitled, "We Define Ourselves by What We Share," then complete the episode with, "Softly and Tenderly". You will be blessed.
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We either share love or we share fear. Love is part of the invisible nature of God. Fears are the stones that make this world. We are either enraptured by God's love or stoned by the world's fears.

What are you? A vehicle of God's healing love or a boulder rolling down a hill crushing everything in its path?

Sometimes we can't see ourselves. We're blind to our own faults. Our carnal self has a pretty clever way to deal with this. It builds a wall so that we can't see our fallibleness. It causes us to not see us as the cause of anything but only see others as the cause of everything. We are never at fault. Everyone else is. Then, to further propagate the lie, it attempts to correct everyone else. Depression, pain, further wall building, and very possibly a complete misconstrue of our fellow man results. Forgiveness erases distorted thinking. It puts us back on track to living a fruitful, faith-filled life. Remember, God forgives us when we forgive others. It is a cause and effect situation.  Here is a summary: In order to have pain and discouragement (the effect) you need to be unforgiving and always correcting others (the cause). In order to be happy and genuinely loving (the effect) you need to be forgiving (the cause). 

People with lots of money can hide behind their bodyguards. They can be so shielded that not one ray of sunlight can penetrate their fearful and dark selves that they refuse to acknowledge. This is exactly like living in a cave, forever "protected" by seclusion. Never having to interact with anyone, never having a chance to see the mirror that others are to us.

Come down from the cave and let the truth be revealed. Fire the bodyguards so you can see, at last, how the world has fooled you into believing a lie. Fire the bodyguards so, at last, you can interact with the people God places in your path, so that you can see the mirror they hold up to you and become humble and pliable and teachable.

How do you define yourself?

Another way to hide from who you are is to become very busy. Busyness keeps your mind occupied with trivial things that keep you from recognizing who you are. It is never the job that causes us to lose sight of ourselves, it is our failure to recognize our responsibility to choose wisely and honestly and not try to hide ourselves from ourselves.

Do not be afraid of the carnal self that is trying to define you. You can step back and observe its deceptive ways, inspired by Satan. The carnal self uses the mind God gave you to twist and distort reality. Withdraw your dependence on its dark view. It's actually very difficult to maintain a distorted view because, through Jesus’s example and His gift to us of the Holy Spirit, God's view is quite dominant. The truth always wins out against Satan's lies. Step back from your made-up self and let God's Son, Jesus, erase your delusions and set you on the right course.

You will soon know who you are, then. And soon after that you will take your place on the right side of Jesus, in Heaven and live eternally in glory.

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I begin with a hymn-poem entitled, "O Jesus I Have Promised," then share from my book A Holy Hodgepodge, a chapter entitled, "Irving the Candle." Finally I end episode with another hymn-poem, "My Jesus I Love Thee."
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  This is the story of Irving, the candle. Irving was unaware of what he was, but he knew he had a lot to do in this world. His defenses were always up because others were always trying to snuff out his light. Indeed, Irving spent his entire day just defending his wick from the snuffers he encountered. Though his light never went out, it did burn dim.  

One day Irving Candle picked up a copy of the Bible and began reading Jesus' directions that if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and you suddenly remember that if someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar--go and be reconciled to that person-- then come and offer your sacrifice to God.  

Irving was a smart candle. He knew he had a lot of grievances against the snuffers in his life. But it seemed really important to him to fight against the oppression of light, these snuffers laid on him. He felt if he didn't fight them, his light would be snuffed out, permanently. He felt if he didn't defend himself, his light (and his life) would be over.  

He put his Holy Bible down, thinking to himself that if he would just fight this battle against the current snuffer in his life, and win, he wouldn't need to fight anymore. "I'll just fight this one and then I'll try to let go of my grievances after that," he told himself. But a strange thing happened. Irving Candle never could fight that "last" battle because there were always other, more important battles that threatened his light. These battles took his attention away from his true purpose (which was to shine) and made him think his purpose was to defend his wick from the oppressors of light. There never was a last battle, only the next battle. There never was a time when he could realize his full potential of lightness because he was so into defending his wick.  

As Irving Candle continued to defend his wick, his light grew dimmer and dimmer. It didn't go out (because God created Irving as light) but because Irving thought his purpose was to defend his wick, he found his goals shifted and changed hopelessly. His purpose was always outer directed. Though he felt justified in defending his wick, he was not really achieving his goal of being the light and he began to be depressed by that.  

Suddenly it dawned on Irving Candle, as he thought about his light-snuffer landlord that had bilked him out of some money, that focusing on the light, (his faith in God's provision for him and his family) was more important than focusing on the dark (his resentment toward his landlord). Suddenly it occurred to Irving Candle that the best thing he could do for his family was teach them by his example and fully submit to Jesus' commands to love those who persecuted him and forgive those who do him wrong. He knew full submission to Jesus would invite His light to shine through him completely, healing him deeply. If Irving could learn to routinely give it all up to Jesus, rather than focus on defending his wick, his family would learn how to be better lights, in this world of snuffers. 

It was at this point that Irving Candle dropped his previous unattainable goals of defending his wick. He did not want to be in a state of "wick"edness. The wick snuffers were too numerous, and they always found his blind spot when they came up behind him, as he walked life's path. He

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I begin with a hymn made into a poem and narrated by me entitled, "Love Lifted Me." Next I share a chapter from my book, A Holy Hodgepodge, entitled, "An Eye for an Eye." Lastly I share another hymn as a poem, "I Love to Tell the Story."
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Jesus said to go against the grain of humanity's obsession to return evil for evil. He didn't say to ignore those who do evil to us (which would be the next step down from an attitude of vengefulness), but He said to actually love them.  Love them? How?

Being a Christian is not an easy task. It is not easy precisely because we aren't that much involved in the process. It is most difficult for us to ease off on our obsession to be in charge in all our affairs. All Christ asks of us is that we humbly submit our lives totally to Him, our Lord and Savior and allow Him to make the changes within us and in our lives. We are not expected to be wizards or magicians, able to make a potion to drink or shout "abracadabra" and, voila, instantly be able to love the unlovable. What is so difficult to remember is that we are not in charge of our "growth," we are only in charge of when we are going to allow Him to change us from the inside out. If we have a prideful heart, and insist on doing it ourselves, we are going to desecrate the process and feel a sense of failure brought on by our inability to reach our goal of loving those who don't appear to deserve our love. Our humble heart is the only way to be successful for it is the humble heart, in Christ, that, through Him, can accomplish the impossible.

We've got to let Christ take our burdens and trust Him to heal ANY circumstances we may find ourselves in. If we lack the understanding that with God all things are possible, we could easily detour onto a fruitless road of trying to handle everything ourselves. In addition, if we think that with God, all things are possible, but use this knowledge for self-gain, we will find ourselves caught up in worthless goals toward worldly gain which, though possible with God, they are far from satisfying. The key here is in focusing on God's goals, which are stated quite clearly in the Bible, and know, beyond a doubt that with God these goals can be accomplished. Then we unleash the almighty power of our living God toward His clearly stated goals. 

Do not make the mistake in thinking God won't reward you for following Moses' upgraded precepts and laws (now stated by Jesus Christ.) He will reward you abundantly and He will give you signs NOW that you are a true lover of His Son, Jesus Christ, who said, "If you love me, follow my commands." No longer do we seek vengeance against those who have mistreated us, but, with complete submission to Christ, we now offer love. The "eye for an eye" mentality of old must be transformed into an outpouring of Christ's love, which we gladly give to this hurting world.

Take the first step, if you haven't already done so, and humbly pray for the Lord to take your sins away and allow Him residence in your heart. Realize that Jesus died on the cross for you and make Him your most valuable treasure here on earth, as you eagerly follow His commands to love those who are the hardest to love.

Lord, grant me vision beyond the ancient law of "eye for eye and tooth for tooth." Give me a heart like Jesus' who told us to love one another as ourselves and to even go so far as to love our enemies and pray for them. This seems impossible to me, Lord. But I know YOU can. Please, Lord, I submit my heart to You so that You may work Your blessings through me. I will step out in faith as You, dear Lord, make th

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I begin this episode with a hymn made into a poem, "It Is Well with My Soul." Next a chapter from my book, A Course in Christianity, entitled, "A Major Hang-up." I finish with another hymn presented poetically, "Be Thou My Vision."
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Judgment is a rope around our collective necks, choking out our life. It really is. We judge, we condemn, we pull the rope tighter and tighter until we can't breathe. And then we cry out to God to save us. Save us? Yes, save us from ourselves. 

Then God tells us that we must forgive. How often? 70 times 7. That does not mean just 490 times. It means forever, infinitely. Daniel 9:24-25 talks of the End Times and there is a reference to God’s ending all things in His timing cryptically indicated as 70 x 7. Hence Jesus’s alluding to the Old Testament reference of 70 x 7 at Peter’s question means we should forgive forever, until the end of time. So, if we still reside in carnal land, if we still think as the world thinks, we must take the forgiveness ball and run with it.

But, being worldly means we distort things. We do the opposite of what we are supposed to do. We forgive to destroy. We may say, “I forgive you, but I hope you spend eternity in hell!” 

"I forgive you, but..." is not the right answer. When we do this, we are clutching the rope that I mentioned in the first paragraph of this chapter and pulling on it causes us to choke to death. Stop it! Forgiveness to destroy does nothing but destroy us. What we do to others (or even think about doing to others) we do to ourselves because God created us collectively, not individually. That is important to remember. 

As a reminder, it is a scientific fact that we poison ourselves with negative emotions. In a strange twist of fate, when we despise others, they do not feel the poison released now coursing through our system. They do not feel our pain. There is a reason God has toxins swirling around OUR body when we hate and not our enemy's bodies. It means WE must stop judging and condemning, doesn't it? 

Our purpose on this earth is to forgive to heal. We want to forgive in a way that the forgiveness counts instead of trying to fake it. That is the way we overcome this world as Jesus wants us to. He said, "I am the WAY." and from the cross he shouted sincerely, "Forgive them for they know not what they do." Then God raised Him from the dead after three days. 

If we sincerely forgive from whatever cross we are bearing (all the way down to the depths of our God-created soul), then we, too, will be figuratively raised from the dead. We will have new life. Praise God for the simplicity of that practice and the effectiveness of it. 

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This episode is a rerun of the 2nd episode of this series. It was first published back in April 24, 2021. Enjoy the nostalgia.

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