Rude or Real

Today I want to address the concept of being real and being real rude. Some of you may think this is directed at you, but please don’t take it personal because God loves you and so do I. This is on my heart, and I am trusting God to inspire my words. In our society today people think it is okay to hurt people’s feelings if they are telling what they perceive as the truth about the situation. I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32 NKJV) You see if you go back and read this scripture in context, Jesus was talking being free from sin. Interestingly enough people have taken the John 8:32 and interpreted it as being real or telling others how they see the situation at hand. After all perception is reality, right? Wrong perception is not everyone’s reality; just yours. It is time that we realize that offending a person with the truth is not right. As believers in Christ Jesus we must understand the power of our words. The Bible says, “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.” (Proverbs 18:21 NLT) Words in truth may hurt but they should not be offensive. I think the key word is tact. When you use words that are offensive, it puts the receiver of those words on the defensive and the message you were trying to convey is lost. When we are trying to win souls for God, we are very careful not to offend the non-believer with the truth about God. However we will quickly offend someone about their physical features, financial decisions, and anything else we think isn’t the way our perception tells us it should be. This is simple the Bible states, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being “. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24 NKJV) Edify and well-being, how can something be edifying and well-being if it offends a person? When we edify one another we instruct, benefit one another morally and spiritually; uplifting the person we are speaking to. The bottom line is we should be tactful in what we say to one another. We should speak the truth but speak life into one another. I heard someone once say that they were just being real. What they said and how they said it was real rude. The next time you feel the need to tell someone your perception make sure you think about the tact that maybe required to get your point across without offending the person you are trying to help. Remember this, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” (Proverbs 27:17 NLT)


Until Next Time

Long Live the Kane

Change versus Temporary Adjustment

Today I want to talk about change versus temporary adjustment. People try to adjust their lives to fit in a certain place, whether it is to fit into a loved one’s life or maybe to fit into a crowd, it could even be at the workplace. Where you are temporarily adjusting yourself you are masking who you are in order to fit in. This can be very dangerous and extremely hurtful. With all that said people do it every day. You have adjusted your being to fit in, but at some point in time you will revert to who you truly are. Let us look at the definition of the word adjust; to settle or bring to a satisfactory state, so that parties are agreed in the result. Now let’s look at the definition of the word change; to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone. Is one better than the other I ask? Let’s dig deeper and really breakdown Change versus Adjustment. First off let me say that if both adjustment and change take place and the adjustment and change are for the better; well that is a blessing. If you are able to make permanent adjustments before change takes place you are blessed. However the reality is that adjustments are usually made after change has occurred in our lives. There is that old saying, “Hind sight is 20/20”. The Bible talks about wisdom, and getting wisdom. That in itself is another topic to be addressed later. Back to my point, the book of Proverbs sates, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding”. (Proverbs 4:7 NKJV) When we (no one in particular) should make permanent adjustments we make temporary adjustments that will satisfy, or bring about an agreed result. In my opinion a temporary adjustment just means that, you temporarily adjusted your behavior or mindset to reach a satisfactory state. Once that state is reached just like American culture after a certain amount of time we tend to forget why we made the adjustment and revert back to what caused the dissatisfaction in the first place. Think about it how many times have we adjusted our behaviors or thinking to make things better and then later find ourselves doing the very things that we had adjusted. This is being human so no one should feel bad. Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity.” (Proverbs 24:16 NKJV) The thing to take from this is not to feel bad that you made a temporary adjustment, but recognized that in order to keep the satisfactory state you have to change. What we (again no one in particular) do as people is make temporary adjustment in order to get what we want whether it is to stop or spouse or significant other from fussing, or just plain quick conflict resolution. Change is needed not temporary adjustment. I wanted to address this with you all because God has shown this to me. I had made temporary adjustments to my life only to revert back to the very behaviors and mindset that I adjusted. I now see that CHANGE was needed. My friends please do not be like me and wait until something tragic makes you change! Please I know I have been long winded with this, but God allowed me to be stripped of almost everything before I could see and understand what he was trying to show me. Again if you are in this same situation don’t feel bad. Jonah had to be swallowed by a whale before he learned the error of his ways. Samson lost his strength, his eyes and his life before changing his ways. Well I guess you can’t change after you’re dead. Anyway, my point is not to wait for tragedy to make you change. Change because it is the right thing to do. The other thing if you have lost something or someone because you made a temporary adjustment. Seek the Lord first, and he will give you strength, ability and guidance to change. Once you have change and have the counsel of God. You will truly know what to do to take back what you once had. This does not mean that you will get it back (God gives people free will). However if you have truly changed it will show, and if God wants you to have it you will. Pray, Pray, and Pray some more.

Until Next Time

Long Live The Kane

Take A Strong Stand On Behalf Of What Is Right!

In the Bible it states, "Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." (Proverbs 1: 7) What happens to those of us who know the Lord but slide back and forth between right and wrong? I mean some days I feel like I can conquer the world for God and then there are days when I just feel like doing whatever. In one of my earlier post, I mentioned being a man is doing what a man has to do. Well some days I guess I'm not much of a man. I try to be the best I can every day, but some days I fall short. Before I fall now that I truly know Christ, the internal battle within me is crazy. Knowing you are going doing the wrong thing and then actually doing it causes some serious identity issues. Once you have done the wrong thing you immediately know that you were not doing anything to bring Glory to God. That is the most disappointing part of this cycle. Knowing that I'm a child of God I'm always disturbed when this happens. Thank God for Jesus, because as it is in the Bible "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” (Romans 3:22-24 NLT) This does not give us a license to sin, but it does offer peace of mind. Peace comes from knowing that God loves you even when you fail him and you are not headed to hell. I read something that applies to all of this:

But a man cannot act like the devil, and at the same time be a disciple of Christ Jesus. Let us not serve or indulge what the Son of God came to destroy.

To be born of God is to be inwardly renewed by the power of the Spirit of God. Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion is not an art, a matter of dexterity and skill, but a new nature. The renewed person cannot sin as he did before he was born of God, and as others do who are not born again. There is that light in his mind, which shows him the evil and malignity of sin. There is that bias upon his heart, which disposes him to loathe and hate sin. There is the spiritual principle that opposes sinful acts. There is repentance for sin, if committed. It goes against him to sin with forethought.

It goes against him/her to sin with forethought. The mind is where the internal battle is waged. We as Christians should always try to fight the good fight against our flesh. When we fail do not run from God because he knows our failures before we do. He is there and loves us. Understand that there is correction and sometimes it may be painful, but God corrects us just as an earthly parent corrects their child. With that said; when the battle is strong that means you are getting closer to God, because where there is no struggle there is no relationship with God. Just remember we can find peace in our father.

Until the next time.
Long Live The Kane!