There is a well known phrase that says…

“If you don’t STAND for something

you will fall for anything.”

As I have matured, which is a high sounding way of saying ” as I have grown older”…..

I really believe that phrase about taking a STAND is true.

 

As a man,

I know it is vital to consider things,

go through a process

make a decision

and take a STAND.

 

When I was in high school and college, and when it came to other people’s ideas and political thought….

I was a ship at full sail but without a rudder in the water.

My mind could be swayed with the changing of the wind.

I had developed no rudder for a directed course.

 

In the arena of spiritual things, I was less affected by the atmosphere around me because of the love, respect and devotion I felt for my father and mother, and the God they had raised me to revere and know.

I had a stance on some things….but I was mostly standing on the shoulders of the influential people around me…..parents, coaches, teachers, preachers and parents of friends.

Standing on the shoulders of others is a credit to the stances they have taken and is respectful and a correct thing to do….for a while.

 

But without a Stance of our own we have no identity.

And when those whose shoulders we have stood on are gone,

we are lost.

At some point in life we cannot allow others to take steps we need to take.

 

At some crossroad in the journey of the life that is solely ours…

we have to solidify the stance we know is right for us, dig in a bit, and take a Stand on who we are, what we believe and on what things we will not give ground.

 

I know it is a good thing to have an open mind, to respect the opinion and stance others take…

however, if you do not know in what you believe or in what you areas you would not negotiate….

then the latest thought…

the fashionable position….

becomes your latest stance

and you never really stand for anything

because you are for everything.

 

If you are for everything,

you believe in nothing.

 

Read that again and consider the thought.

 

The Man to whom I have chosen to be conformed

very seldom condemned anyone,

showed love to all but a very few,

asserted Himself only in particular situations…

allowed others their positions….

but took a STAND.

He never deviated from It….

and in so doing

changed those around Him

affected history

and is Himself, the Stand that all of creation will eventually bow to.

 

If you are for everything

you believe in nothing.

 

Is there anything that will come down the road of your existence,

to which you will put your foot down in front of, and say NO….????

 

The behavioral and cultural descent we have seen occur throughout history puts topics and actions in front of us that we cannot always simply accept as the right thing.

These things might be current and show that you have “evolved”…..

but that really means that you have simply shifted with the latest breeze.

 

There are many of these actions and topics that any thinking person must consider and then Stand against.

As well, there are topics and actions we must consider and Stand for.

 

When we become “of age”

there are those things we must Stand against

and there are things we must Stand for

even in the face of adversity and disagreement.

For when you know in what you believe

you can then know what things you are for

or against.

 

Knowing these two things….it is more important to know what you Stand for

than what you stand against.

 

Do not sit idly by and allow life and events to sail by you…..taking you astray by every wind that changes and shifts so fashionably and often.

 

There must be a rudder in the water for a vessel to stay on course.

 

Be a constant.

Be one who others know as a Lighthouse,

beaming a constant light,

standing TRUE against changing and shifting winds.

Put your rudder in the water and set a firm directed course.

 

Take a Stand.

It always does.

So many things in life flow from HOW BIG

your vision of God is.

His Role in history,

the canon of The Bible,

His Role in the writing of The Bible,

Miracles,

the validity and power of Scripture,

His Role, in not just history,

but in daily, everyday life…..

is seen by each person according to their vision

of how big and powerful,

God is.

According to The Bible I read, The Creator of all things is involved in all of History. If you read the Old Testament, you will see references to the “scarlet thread of redemption”. This is nothing other than the Hand of God consistently leading people and orchestrating events to accomplish His Plan.

The God I read about in the Old Testament did not have to be consistently at work everyday, making sure Man did not mess up His Plan.

Jehovah God could have simply spoken into existence, His Plan, at Creation…..

and Creation followed that Plan accordingly and perfectly.

The God I read about in the New Testament enters physically into History where He had been spiritually since Creation.

The Son of God, Jesus, came to fulfill promises and prophecy, not because of the failure of Man to obey The Law. Jesus was prophetically spoken of all along.

He was not a second thought by The Father.

He was coming to suffer,

He was coming to save,

He was coming to dwell among Men because of His Love for every created Man, not because any initial Plan failed.

The Holy Spirit did not come and move in people because Jesus could not move people to enough action.

Like Jesus, The Holy Spirit was not a second thought of The Father.

The Holy Spirit came to dwell in and empower the Disciples….and eventually you and me….because of one of God’s Laws.

The Law of Impenetrability says two physical objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

It’s physically impossible.

It’s not spiritually impossible.

The Holy Spirit comes to give Gifts….

those Gifts yield fruit…

and God’s initial Plan He gave to Adam is accomplished.

as He exits in us.

Occupying the spiritual space within us.

The indwelling, powerful presence of The Holy Spirit empowers us to steward the Earth, empowers us to be stewards of God’s greatest creation….Man….and reveal Jesus to other people …..because Jesus, as a Man on Earth submitted Himself to His own physical Laws and could not minister to all Men…forever.

The Holy Spirit encourages and empowers us to take God’s Word…..Jesus….to our world today.

The Spirit has done this same thing since He entered that second story room in Jerusalem fifty days after Jesus ascended to Heaven.

When all of God’s Plan for this Age is accomplished….that same Jesus will return, and not submitting to the physical laws He put into place….will be seen of ALL MEN at once and do what He said He would do before He ascended.

God is not human.

God does not have to overcome earlier miscalculations and adjust His Plan.

If you feel God does not hear you….

If you think God created all things and is now absent, and leaves it up to us…

If you personify God and think of Him as you do other Men…..

you are putting human constraints on Him and you are cheating yourself out of seeing Him as He is.

You see God and His Work everyday …

because no limited being and no accident could created The Sun, could creat the order in the universe, within our own bodies and the several systems which allow our very inner and outer existence.

Just look at it all and consider it.

There is an unfathomable Mind behind all of this created universe and our created bodies.

As a two year old …

one does not possess the ability in any way to understand a parents instruction or reasoning or love.

But they can see and experience and benefit from it.

We must understand this….

we will never fully understand God.

We do not possess the ability.

He is beyond our ability to completely know and understand Him, or His reasoning or His Love.

But we can experience it and benefit from It.

He is beyond us.

We should not limit Him in any way.

It is to our detriment to do so.

And even though He is beyond us….

our saving grace is this….

we are not beyond Him.

We are not beyond His Grace.

We are not beyond His Unlimited Love.