beach thought

Psalm 101:3
"I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. "

at the beach, when i was there with my friend dave, the sand was way higher then usual. it was weird, the tide was super low, but the actual height of the sand was way higher. this was so strange to me because the beach looked totally different. i went over to the tide pools and most of them were gone. covered up in the sand. i tell dave about how there were usually rocks there, but that they were covered up with this sand, but he doesn't believe me. i argue, telling him that there are the original rocks under the sand, but he refuses to believe me. he'd been there before but i had been there way more often and i finally convinced him of how right i was/am. later it hit me like a football to the back of the head when you aren't looking and you realize you should have seen it coming because it's so obvious.

consider the rocks as the foundations of morals that we are born with. they are definitive and present. they are strong, and near impossible to ignore because they are right there in front of us. the problem is, is that the world starts leaving traces of it's views and standpoints about things in us. consider the world as the sand. as the world's views and morals start building up in our lives, the sand starts piling up around the rocks. now at first, it's no big deal, little sand in between big strong boulders is no problem. but if it isn't washed away, it starts building up in a terrible way. we will be making small compromises about not getting rid of this little idea, or that little idea and those cracks start getting filled up. as time progresses, the sand starts becoming dominant, and the rocks are easier to ignore. it plays games with our heads, and it almost looks like the rocks have gotten smaller. the views of the world pile higher and higher around our rocks of faith and morality, but if they aren't flushed away, a previously small problem in our personal life starts becoming a major issue in our day to day lives

the rocks become so small that we only trip on them every once in a while, and thats only over the big ones. we can ignore those smaller principles when the world's view of how we should live our lives covers it up. what about just simply lying to someone. the world says that this is not a big deal, and starts getting into our heads that it really isn't. but the more we listen to the world, and let that settle in us, we forget what the fundamental truth is -

1 Peter 3:10
"Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech."

Psalm 5:6
"You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors"
(abhor - to regard with extreme repugnance or aversion; detest utterly; loathe; abominate.)

truth is, is that God isn't ok with it. but we will forget that if we let other things cloud our judgement

here's the other thing. lets say our rocks are actually covered with sand. lets say our lives are filled with the misconceptions of the world. when we come to Christ, would it be easier to dump new rocks on the beach, or just wash away the sand? dumping new giant rocks on the sand seems somewhat ridiculous, when there are already ones there, we just don't see them. when we come to Christ, we shouldn't look at the views of being a christian as something as difficult as moving giant rocks onto a beach. everything that drives us to make decisions in a Godly manner are already in us, we just need to wash away all the stuff that is ruining our sight of it. how do we do that

holy crap this is longer then i thought

ok, so a few weeks ago, i was going through my vhs phase again. this happens every so often where i watch old movies that are on vhs because old movies on dvd usually don't work because old movies on dvd work only twice because they suck. for the few weeks before this, i had started understanding God's love way more, and started putting into practice. even the little things of just remembering that i need to treat people with love and know that in my heart, not just in my actions. little things i was trying to do for people were starting to become more frequent and easier to do.

well i was on my couch, wanted to pick a sick vhs movie, therefore i started looking. as my eyes went from cover to cover, i would remember movies i loved. ones that i used to watch over and over. but something was different. i would instantly remember if it had a sex scene in it, and decide that i didn't want to watch it. honestly, i wasn't trying to do this, it just happened. i didn't want to watch it. i guess it was because it could cause me to stumble in certain parts of my faith, or start leading down a road i didn't want to go, but honestly i just plain didn't want to watch those movies.

1 John 2:16
"For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world."

i believe that deep down inside me, i already knew that i shouldn't be watching that stuff. my parents didn't tell me that, the world definitely didn't tell me that, and church never really speaks specifically about that topic. so where did this come from.

when we understand God's love, and accept it, then start pouring it onto other people, our lives change. the way we live our day-to-day changes. when our intentions are solely based on pleasing God, we start seeing things in a different light. He's the one that can get rid of the views of this world. when we start acting out God's love, it starts eradicating the crap that the world has left in our hearts. His love is what takes away that, His love is the water that slowly takes away the sand that reveals the rocks. only through His love do we start realizing the truth about this world, and realize how to live a God pleasing life. mind you, i don't have this down perfect, but i'm trying

Colossians 1:4-14
"(4) because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— (5) the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel (6) that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. (7) You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, (8) and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

(9) For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. (10) And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, (11) being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully (12) giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. (13) For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, (14) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins"