Will always have a clue,

Some clues,

But never the clue,

The clue that solves the equation,

Unlocks the doors that were shut,

Or locks those that need not remain open,

For each clue only leads to more questions,

To find answers to more questions,

More clues are needed,

Clues for answers to questions born of clues,

With answers beyond human comprehension.

Wandering in all directions,

Trying to catch a Light that can not be contained,

A Light that first must be seen,

Then experienced,

But never fully explained.

There is an Answer,

Because there are questions,

And clues,

The clues will never lead to the Answer,

But will always exist,

Because life is nothing but questions,

Created by the Answer.

Best only to enjoy the clues,

Let them go and let them be,

They are not to be kept,

For the searcher never finds,

But the asker always receives.

Peace belongs to the clueless,

And the Answer comes to those who ask no questions.

My ‘Friend’ 

If you only interact with your ‘friend’ when you need attention, admiration, or when it’s convenient for you,
You’re not a friend, you’re a freeloader.

If you constantly receive from your ‘friend’ but seldom give,
You’re not a friend, you’re a thief.

If your ‘friend’ confides in you and you gossip behind their back,
You’re not a friend, you’re a traitor.

If you punish your ‘friend’ when they won’t do as you please,
You’re not a friend, you’re a tyrant.

If you constantly use your ‘friend’ for personal gain and ulterior motives,
You’re not a friend, you’re a deceiver.

If you do these things to your ‘friend’ and feel nothing,
You’re not a friend, you’re only an acquaintance.

If you do these things to your ‘friend’ willfully and without remorse,
You’re not a friend , you’re a liar and an enemy.

If you these things to your ‘friend’ with no intent of changing,
You’re not a friend, and you’re lost.  

-Darrell Williams-

How do we overcome fear, follow the Holy Spirit, and make the right choices? It’s a very well known concept called the Crossroads. Going down a road, it suddenly forks and we have to make a decision. Do we choose the road on the left, or the road to the right? We can’t continue to go down our current path, because that path no longer exists. It stops at the fork, and we must choose right or left. The Holy Spirit, Jesus, God, the Trinity (whichever you prefer to believe is talking to you, but in reality you would be right regardless of your choice) guides us. The Holy Spirit always shows us the true path to take, we just need enough faith to follow that path. The Holy Spirit is constantly talking to us, we just aren’t constantly listening. We definitely hear the Holy Spirit. Some people call it their ‘gut feeling’ or ’something is telling me this isn’t right’ or some phrase of that nature we’ve heard many times. How many times have you done something that turned out to be not the best choice, and afterward you said ‘I knew I shouldn’t have done that before I even started’? That was the Holy Spirit trying to guide you away from that choice. It was your human nature that decided to use its free will, react according to past experiences, let fear (no matter how small it is) take over and do what YOU FELT was the SAFEST, LOW RISK, SECURE and COMFORTABLE thing to do. It doesn’t matter if that choice is not the best. In fact, most of the time we know beforehand that what we’re about to do won’t achieve our ultimate goal. All we know is that we’ll be comfortable if we do what WE WANT to do.

After we make the choice, we may feel guilty, ashamed, depressed, angry, etc., but most of the time we know this was going to happen anyway. I have come to believe that God definitely does not punish us for our sins, for sin and the consequences of sin are enough ‘punishment’ in itself. We are already ‘punishing’ ourselves when we don’t follow God’s will, which is the best course for us. I know if I go out Friday and drink that, if I drink too much, I will get drunk, maybe say or do something I didn’t want to do or say, which may have negative consequences (this is a repetitive concept, consequences. The consequence of drinking too much is drunkenness, of which the consequence may be unhealthy actions, of which that consequence leads to more consequences). God doesn’t get mad at us for sinning. God probably feels compassion for us because of what we put ourselves through, when we could’ve avoided all of the consequences and followed His lead in the first place. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you view it, our actions and consequences effect others. Because of our actions and subsequent consequences, we cause others to act, perhaps negatively, and thus ’suffer’ their consequences. This is why God tells us to love thy neighbor as thyself, do unto others as you will have them do unto you. What you do and choose for yourself causes others to make choices related to your choices. You drink too much (bad choice), drive home (bad choice), yell at your spouse (bad choice). Now, your spouse has to make a choice based off of your actions. They can follow Jesus and listen to that voice inside that will guide them through the experience, showing them the best way to approach the situation. If they do this, that will cause you to see the Truth in their actions, which will cause you to look at yourself Truthfully and perhaps change your behavior, for the Truth will set you free. Or your spouse can choose to react to your behavior and do what he or she FEELS is the best thing to do, for security and self-preservation, based on past experiences and fears. They can yell back at you (bad choice), or perhaps ignore you and try to run away from the situation (bad choice).

There are numerous ‘bad choices’ that can be made, all because of an initial bad choice. Now, you can see how we are all connected to the Fall and Original Sin, because bad choices build upon bad choices (The sins of the father are reflected upon the son). Fortunately, we have Jesus, the only person who made all of the right choices by following God fully, who made the ultimate ‘right choice’ and died for all of our ‘bad choices’ (sin).

Now, notice I never said that a choice was ‘wrong’, just a bad one for the situation. For example, a child learns how to ride a bike. The parent will be behind that child when the training wheels come off and the child attempts two wheels for the first time. The child will make some ‘bad choices’ when it is learning to ride. The child will lean off balance (bad choice) and fall (consequence). The child will turn left and hit a pothole when they should’ve turned right (bad choice), and fall (consequence). These aren’t wrong choices, they are just bad choices. No choice is ever wrong, just not the best choice for that situation. The child could have turned right, into the path of a car (bad choice) causing severe injury (consequence), but instead it turned left into the pothole and fell, scraping its knee (good choice for the situation, but still causing a relatively negative consequence. However, a much better consequence than death). Since the Fall, even all of our good choices have a stench of badness to them, because we no longer live in a perfect world. If it were not for the Fall, we wouldn’t have the need to not make bad choices, because there would not be such a thing as ‘bad’. All choices would have been according to God’s will, thus good and perfect.

God to us is like a parent behind their child as it learns to ride the bicycle of life. The child is going to make some bad choices, but the parent will always be behind watching, giving instruction, and making sure of its safety (salvation). The parent can’t steer the bike for the child (free will), so the child retains the right to not take the parent’s advice and turn the other way (sin). The child also may not understand the instructions the parent gives, so they may make bad choices just based on non-comprehension (God’s indefinite knowledge vs. our limited comprehension of His plan). Is the parent going to get mad at the child because it tried to do it their way once, or twice, OK several times, repeatedly, ultimately making bad choices? Is the parent going to get mad at the child because it didn’t understand what was said, and as a result lost balance and fell? No, the parent (God to the child) will not. The child did nothing wrong. Instead, the parent will pick the child up from the ground, give encouragement, perhaps more instruction, put the child back on the bike and walk beside as it peddles off, again, into the unknown. As the child begins to understand the consequences of bad choices, and the fact that it is best to listen to the parent’s instruction and try to understand at all times to the best of its ability, hopefully the child will start making more good than bad choices. The child follows the parent’s instructions (God’s will), so now it learns how to ride the bike without constantly falling (sinning) and actually enjoying the ride (the peace that passeth all understanding).

Now, there are some cases where the child (us) willfully and repeatedly disobeys the parent (God), making bad choice after bad choice, thus experiencing the consequences of scraped knees, narrow misses by cars, and not learning and enjoying how to ride a bike (life). In this case, the parent would most likely take the bike away from the child. For the child is either not ready to learn how to ride a bike, or it needs more instruction and rebuking about its attitude (lack of faith and selfishness). The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Is it wrong for the parent (God) to take away the child’s bike? No, God was only protecting the child from itself. The bike was not the child’s in the first place, it was given to the child by the parent (God). The parent bought the bike for the child (Jesus paid for our sins).

God to us is like the parent when the child finally listens attentively, obeys instructions, and finally learns how to and enjoys riding a bike. The parent is pleased with the child, so happy that it is enjoying the ride and overjoyed by its growth through the whole process. The parent might give the child a better bike and less restrictions on where to ride (when you can be trusted with less, you will be given more). But this only gives the child more opportunities to make bad choices, and the cycle may, and most likely will, start all over again. But the parent (God) is patient, loving, graceful and merciful. The parent knows the child will fall again and again, that the child will disobey and fall again and again, that the child will misunderstand and fall again and again. But the parent knows that this is the only way the child can grow ( walk of a Christian) and learn how to make more good choices as it realizes that the parent won’t steer them wrong ( God’s ultimate Truth).

Wrap it up man…..

Every choice we make is a choice at the Crossroads. No matter how insignificant the choice may appear, it is ultimately an opportunity to make a bad or a good choice. Bad choices build upon bad choices, and good choices build upon good choices. The more good choices we make, the closer we get to God, the more we understand Him because we’re engaged with Him more, and the more He will help us walk down the road. The more bad choices we make, the farther away from God we stray because we are more into the self and doing our thing. Remember, God gave us free will, and if we choose not to follow Him and His plan, He’s not going to stop us. Nor is He going to help us in our bad choices, because our bad choices are not choices He would make. God is incapable of doing bad (evil), for God is pure goodness, therefore God can’t participate in our bad choices. Not that He doesn’t want to, or that God doesn’t have compassion for us, we just chose to go to a place He will not go because of who He is.

The more we depend upon the self, the more fear is created. Fear is based on uncertainty. We are not perfect like God, so there will always be uncertainty in our actions if we aren’t following God fully. The more bad choices, the more precarious our lives become because the outcomes always differ, usually for the worse. We become uncertain of our actions, and fear increases. Fear can increase to the point where we are afraid to move because of our uncertainty. We may even become AFRAID TO MOVE TOWARD GOD because of the uncertainty we’ve caused. This is when we have to start winning the small battles, choosing the good path even in the seemingly insignificant things. This will gradually get us used to making good choices, and good choices build upon good choices. Good choice are in line with God’s will. God’s will is perfect and true. More good choices, less uncertainty, less fear.

 DW

It’s amazing how God works.  He uses every circumstance to spread love and His Truth.  I want to be accessible and approachable to everyone.  I don’t want to come across as self-righteous and holier than thou.  The self-righteous and pretentious behavior of some Christians is often what prevents non-Christians from accepting Jesus.  I am just like any other human being.  I make mistakes.  I have flaws and quirky behaviors that annoy others.  I may say some choice words and I make bad choices.  I also like to have fun, joke around and  listen to all types of music (except country).  I like to play pool and have a few beers too, just like a typical male.  The difference between me, a Christian,  and a non-Christian is I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,  he died for our sins and was resurrected on the third day.  Aside from this belief ,  I am a sinner just like the rest.  I just have salvation that I want everyone to have. 

Healthy people don’t need a doctor-sick people do.  I have come to call not on those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.

Mark  2:17

Peace and love…..

 Darrell W  (aka YammY)