Year: 2020

Freedom or Enslavement?

Dr. Mike Life in Christ , ,

2 Peter 2:19

They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

The Bible portrays an active battle between you and Satan, you and the culture, and you against yourself (1 John 2:14, 2:16, 4:4, 2 Peter 2:20, Romans 12:21, John 16:33). Jesus himself stated that everyone of us will go through tribulations of some kind during our lifetime. So, when evil arises, why are we so shocked?

As an old Yankee baseball friend once stated, “Life is wired to throw curve balls, sliders, and sinking fast balls while you are just entering the batter’s box and not even ready to swing the bat.”

Yet sometimes we forget. When life is comfortable, money is in the bank, family is healthy, and the world is speaking good news, we experience temporary utopia and believe life will be like this forever. Then the bottom falls.

Most of the time, it’s a family affair. A tragic accident, or death of a love one hits those immediately within our world. But when a major pandemic like Covid-19 becomes a worldwide threat, especially for the elderly and those with challenging immune systems, fear immediately seizes us.

A recent poll taken during the Covid-19 fallout showed that 88% of Americans stated this was the worst experience of their lifetime to date. Doesn’t this hint that most Americans live a sheltered life?

If fear, anxiety, and social isolation doesn’t wake up the hearts and minds of people living in spiritual stupor, then you wonder what will. What will make people take a step back and realize how fragile freedom is and how enslaved they are within their personal prison.

We are all slaves. You may think you are free, but if you step back and take an honest view of yourself, you will have to admit you are a slave.

You may think you live in a western-world democracy and therefore you are free. But are you? We know those who live under dictatorships are slaves to the state, but what about you?

If you can be honest for the moment with yourself, you will discover that you may be a slave of fear or anxiety. Or you may be a slave of your pride, your carnal desires, or even your thirst for more and more which is greed manifested.

You are enslaved by your smart phone, pornographic material, or fast cars and women.

Or you may just be enslaved by your weight, beauty, and appearance. Maybe it’s your ideology, aversion to risk, or suicidal tendencies. Maybe chronic health limitations, prescription drugs, or just the continuous alcoholic drink morning, noon, and evening.

Maybe it’s always to be right, resisting the love of others, or just being a self-made, independent person.

Maybe it’s not accepting personal responsibility, or making commitments, or just being lazy.

The fact is we all have issues that enslave us. The question though is how can we break free.

The choice of who or what you are going to serve will manifest itself in your life. We all will make poor choices somewhere and someplace. And we will most likely survive most of them. But will we thrive under anyone of them?

Real freedom comes from choosing who you will ultimately serve. You can choose anything you want and you will eventually feel its pain. Or you can choose to serve the King of Kings, and experience what real freedom within the divine circle of life truly is.

John writes in the letter to the church (1 John) that Jesus Christ is the answer. He already overcame the world for us. You can join Him and He will lead you like many others into real freedom.  He can help you break the cord that binds you to your carnal desires.

So, reach-out to HIM. Ask HIM to allow you to experience real freedom. Seek out others who also are on the journey to live free as HIS servants and lean on each other. And knock on all the doors HE presents to you. One or more of those doors you walk through will change your life into an amazing ride of intimacy, adventure, and meaningful fulfillment.     

But you need to choose wisely. And the first and last choice is always Jesus Christ.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Fruit of Ungodliness

Dr. Mike Life Tools , , , ,

Romans 1:18

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

The first chapter of the Book of Romans does an excellent outline of the characteristics of the ungodly life. In fact, when one reads the chapter, one can easily identify the platform of a political party of this country. But leaving politics out at the moment, when you read through the 1st chapter you come across the attitudinal spirit which leads to ungodly behavior. Starting from verse 18 through 32, you find:

Suppressing the truth – the ungodly don’t care for the truth of a matter; only the personal fulfillment of their self-centered agenda.

Failure to honor God – God is removed from the equation and therefore doesn’t receive the respect and acknowledgement of his authority in their life.

Ungrateful toward God – In their eyes, God is the problem, not the solution.

Futile in their thinking – Rational thinking without God as the center leads to many theories but rarely a solid conclusion.

Foolish, darken hearts – The emotional center of the person is generally negative with strong leanings toward the dark side of life. Wisdom is lacking.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools – Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord is how the Book of Proverbs explains. Without God, they reach conclusions without logical reasoning and wonder why their lives continue to be expressed in stupid outcomes rather than victorious celebrations. 

Exchange the glory of God for other images – they worship and glorify the idols of power, money, fame, status, etc. rather than God who makes all things possible.

Hearts of impurity – Rather than a rich, emotional inner chamber of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness, and self-control, their inner Spirit is empty and mostly full with the darkness of life.

Dishonoring their bodies among themselves – adultery, prostitution, abortion, etc.

Exchanged truth about God for a lie – The biggest lie is eliminating God from the equation of life. Lies distort the truth and reality. Without truth and reality, one is dealing with a fictional narrative. Without God, how many other lies and distortions of reality are built upon the shifting foundation of one’s beliefs? Lies are empty promises with trap doors leading to pain, suffering, and delusional outcomes.

Worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator – They worship humans, animals, earth, institutions, anything and everything rather than the God who designed and implemented Life from the beginning.

Dishonorable passions – women having sex with other women; likewise, men with men; and people having sex even with animals.

Committing shameless acts with one another – lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender sexual behavior is accepted by each but contrary of a godly, fulfilling life.    

Filled with evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless – all negative attributes which lead toward societal suicide and destruction. A community cannot flourish when people oppose one another rather than up-build each other toward a common purpose built upon historical proven values.  

Approve others who practice these attributes – people like too associate with people like themselves.

We all have at times experienced similar ungodly attributes. The differences are those who regularly practice such behavior instead of once in a while unwanted blowups. Those who have surrendered themselves and have accepted the authority of Jesus Christ in their life, have changed their focus from glorifying self to worshiping the Triune God. Learning to walk as an apprentice of Jesus Christ covered under God’s grace, filled with HIS presence, and constantly pursuing a growing relationship with HIM, leads to a life where HIS life and beauty becomes a reflection in our life. A life worth meaning and purpose and flourishment for self and others.

Which is why the glory and honor is ALL HIS as we humbly walk with HIM.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Is Human Nature Inherently Good?

Dr. Mike Kingdom Paradigms , ,

Mark 10:18

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Ecclesiastes 8:11

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

Matthew 15:19

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Luke 6:45

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Matthew 12:34

You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

God is the standard of goodness. Even Jesus acknowledges this when he was called a good teacher. He pointedly stated only God is good. Yet there are many in today’s culture who believe humans are naturally, inherently good. They claim evil is the exception. But is this true?

What does history reveal? Nation’s dictatorships killing innocent people by the millions. Nations hating other nations for no other reason but jealousy or being different. Adults being predators of children. Thieves who would rather steal from others than work for a living. People lying to cover up their shortcomings. Gangs selling destructive drugs to others. Organized criminals looting stores. We could spend the day listing all the ways evil resides and is expressed in and through people.  

What does the Bible reveal about the natural inclination of people?

The emotional heart is the central organ of evil. The spirit that influences the heart needs to be changed for goodness to shine. Only after Satan is removed from the scene as pictured in the Book of Revelations, and humans receive the Spirit of God as outlined in Gospel of John, will goodness become the central core of a person’s life. Until then, the battle to control one’s behavior is a never-ending proposition.   

Thankfully, until that time totally arrives, God has provided us with HIS truth of values and goals as outlined in the Bible which help us to continually reposition ourselves unto the path of proper behavior; plus HE continues to shower us with HIS amazing grace that embraces us with HIS favor until that time arrives.

HIS biggest favor is sharing HIS life with you by living HIS life in you and through you. When we accept the Triune God’s authority in our life, HE comes to live in us. The Bible identifies HIM as the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit enriches us with HIS presence and shares HIS fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. All are the basic values which leads a person to experience the richness of life as God created us to enjoy.

The longer we live, the more we see man’s natural inclination is to lean toward evil. Only when the heart has been changed towards accepting God’s authority (Truth) and HIS Spirit merges with ours, is there a semblance of good. Yes, you can be ignorant of God’s ways and still live them out. (Mankind implementing the Ten Commandments in their lives is a good example). But humans still need to learn good; it doesn’t come naturally. All of us are endowed with the internal struggle to channel good over evil. Its not easy. But the reward of being free to express oneself without harming self or others is the outcome. Otherwise, society will suffer and burn while one person indulges themselves into narcissistic behavior until eventually they find them self, alone, miserable, and empty of any emotional happiness. Which would you prefer?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved