Category: Successful Living

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Grasshopper Mentality

When Moses sent twelve spies to scout out the land of promise, only two, Caleb and Joshua, brought back a good report. The other ten were fearful of the inhabitants. This is what the fearful spies said, “There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:33 NKJV).

The evil report of the fearful spies resulted in their own immediate death by a plague. A judgment against the older generation of those twenty years old and above would prevent them from entering the land and result in their death in the desert wilderness over a forty-year period of time. The whole nation’s entry into the promised land would be delayed forty years.

Remember the identity problem the ten fearful spies had? “We were like grasshoppers in our own sight.” What causes people to have a grasshopper mentality? These spies were looking at their own shortcomings, inabilities, and weakness; while not believing in the strength, greatness, and power of God.

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Purpose

I once had a conversation with a gentleman whose career for many decades was a department superintendent of a major manufacturer. His position had a high level of responsibility. He related with regret the times when he took his family on a vacation but had to leave them on location and return because of a work problem.

He did not outright say his career was a regret, but I could discern in his tone, “Why was it so important then, but now it seems almost silly?” Or “For what purpose?” I am quite certain when he retired, he was quickly replaced. By the way, the corporation no longer exists and his physical department is rust and dust.

Someone without a purpose is a lost individual. True purpose comes from somewhere outside of us. If we are just a blob of amino acids sailing through space, how could we have a true purpose? If there is no eternal purpose, then there is no purpose (or a very short-lived purpose).

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Meaning of Life

Now I have jumped into the deep end of the pool! Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and freshmen plebes have tolled over the meaning of life for millenniums. The phrase, “meaning of life” asks the question: “Why are we here?”

There is a simple, short answer that satisfies most of us, but begs for more of the curious, introspective types. The short but grand answer is simply, God created us and desires to have a relationship with us fulfilling His purpose. But let us go a little further.

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Marred Image of God

Recently, I saw a news report where some protestors marred a few expensive works of art in a museum. A once beautiful artistic work was marred, so it is with God’s original image of mankind, it has been marred by disobedience.

Do you realize we are all marred images? When I look in the mirror, that is not a concept I can argue about. A visit to Walmart will also verify that fact.

Mankind was originally made in the image of God according to Genesis 1:27 (NKJV), “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Of all the creatures of creation, we were the only ones created in the image of God.

I believe the image is more than an obvious outer appearance such as nose, ears, etc. We were created as spiritual beings with self-awareness, a capacity for moral judgment, and consciousness of divine existence (knowing that we are part of something beyond matter, energy, and time).

Man’s image became marred when the first couple ate the forbidden fruit opening their eyes to both evil and good. Then they had the capacity like God knowing the good from the evil. This put them in a dire position of knowing good from evil yet not having the inner power to always choose the good and refuse the evil.

We often speak of this marred image as our broken human nature. Every man born has a broken nature. There are many different forms and degrees of brokenness. Some are obvious and usually tolerated like an argumentative person. Others are cloaked and dangerous like a serial killer.

There is some form of brokenness residing in all of us. The image of God in us is marred—broken. We happily say, “No one is perfect!” It is true, yet, we say it happily to convince others not to judge us too harshly.

We should not get comfortable with our brokenness and wear a badge to prove it. We should not expect people to get comfortable with our brokenness. And most of all, we should not expect a wink and a nod from God concerning our brokenness. From time to time, someone will post on social media something like, “Don’t judge me, God doesn’t judge me.” Someone who thinks that God is not the ultimate judge, evidently has not read the description of the “Great White Throne Judgment” in Revelation 20:11-15!

Let me remind everyone, we all are broken in some way! I have certain unhealthy and/or sinful propensities, you have another kind. I do not expect or want anyone to affirm my brokenness. I will try to show mercy and grace and pray for you in yours.

“Brokenness” is a synonymous term describing sinfulness or the propensity for sin. The Bible describes besetting sins or “sin which so easily ensnares us” (Heb. 12:1 NKJV). It describes our weakness or fault point. The sin that easily ensnares us is another way of describing brokenness.

Again, we all struggle with something. Even though it may be an easy sin for us, it should not be an easy excuse for us. How many times have you heard someone say with a smirky attitude, “Well, that’s just the way I am, and people will just need to get used to it!” Really??

Or… “If you stay around them long enough, you will get to know them and get used to their ways.” Maybe most of us do not have that much time!!!

My brokenness is not an excuse for my conduct or lifestyle. It is not an excuse for my demand upon anyone to tolerate my brokenness, much less celebrate my brokenness. I should confess, repent of it, and ask Holy Spirit to empower the victory over my brokenness.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV)

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24 NKJV)

Do you know that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die on a cross for our sins a.k.a. “our brokenness”? Why should we so casually glory in the sin that Jesus died for?

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt

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The Value of Life

People are more than globs of carbon compounds organized by DNA. We, yes, you and I, were created and designed by God, in His own image. In the second chapter of the Bible, the declaration is made, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7 NKJV).

For all of you animal lovers, yes, treat your critters humanely, but they are not equal with us. Human beings are at the apex of the creature pyramid. Our eyes are on the front of our heads which makes us a predator. A five-hundred-pound black bear is much more likely to run from us than attack.

We are not gods, but we do have the spark of divinity in us. We were created in the image of God. Just as God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so he created us as a triune being with a spirit, soul, and body.

The main point to this: We were created in the image of God with a soul, and everyone is inherently spiritual. A person is a spiritual being regardless of their morals or religious leanings, people can be spiritually righteous or spiritually evil.

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