Have you ever been snared?

Have you ever found yourself suddenly snared in life, and your thinking "how did this happen?" You were walking along minding your own business, praising and glorifying God, then bam out of no where you have been snared. How could this happen? Why did this happen? How am I going to get out of this situation? Fight or flight mode kicks in but you flee because you have been caged in, so you choose fight. Thinking... this contraption is a net, I have my pocket knife handy so I will cut my way out of this thing.. SOOo you begin cutting away at the fibers of your cage not even taking into consideration the fact that you are 20 feet in the air and when you cut yourself free the only option is falling to the hard ground below. The only thing your thinking about right now is, "I want to be FREE"! "I am going to be free... Yeah! freedom.... Freedom!!! Yes! I am finally free! Now you are screaming cause the reality of the situation is that you are rapidly falling 20ft. thinking.... UH OH! this is going to hurt! Your free alright, but now your broken and in a lot of pain, and to recover from your injuries it is going to take 1 year of therapy and hopefully no longer.

Therapy is good, this is the time you begin thinking about some things, and what you could of done differently. (Thinking now...) Maybe if I wouldn't of panic and stayed calm I could of escaped that snare without injury? Maybe I should of prayed? Maybe I should of trusted God to send someone to set me free? Maybe I should of asked God how to escape from this thing? Maybe God Himself would of delivered me? Doesn't His Word say that  (talking and answering self now). How come I didn't trust God to rescue me?......How stupid could I be? I was praising and glorifying God while strolling along in life, so how come when I found myself snared I turned off the praise and prayer and took matters into my own hands? Why do I feel as though it's always up to me to fix things? Why do I say to myself if it's going to be it's up to me? Why do I find myself always trying to control things? Why do I trust myself before trusting God? This attitude of mine has always been no good. All it has ever done and all it will continue to do is bring me a lot of pain and heartache. If I would only learn this time and never do this again? Yes! that is it, I believe that I have finally learned this time and next time if there is a next time hopefully there won't be, but.... if there is

"I WILL TRUST YOU GOD!"

Is it the Truth or is it a lie?

My heart is broken, because the enemy has came in like a thief and taken captive one of our own. But alas sadly it was this person's choice. I just got word yesterday that Ray Boltz has “came out.” When I first read about this I had a lot of mixed emotions. At first I felt my heart sink to the pit of my stomach. Then I got angry with righteous indignation because of the lies of the enemy and those who turn their backs on what they know is God's Truth and begin living a life that is in direct rebellion of God.

These people know the Truth and the good news of Jesus Christ and they have even ministered to others. At one time they gave their lives to the Lord to be used by Him, and they even took part in making a difference in the lives of others by being a blessing of God’s Word in music and song. Now they say they have been living a lie! And what do they do? They walk away from what they know is the Truth and begin living a lie. See, they got it all backwards. They will say they have lived a lie when all the while they were actually living the Truth, because they were denying the lust of the flesh and walking in the power of the Spirit. They will say their sinful lifestyle feels right and because it feels right this must be how God created me. The Word of God says that we are to mortify the sinful deeds of our flesh.

Which will we yield to, the flesh/lies or the Spirit/Truth? Sadly most will yield to the lies because it makes the flesh feel comforted. Thus, people are making their own flesh their god, instead of the Creator their God. Look at what the Word of God says in (Rom. 1:24-28 AMP) Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin], Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them over and abandoned them to vile affections and degrading passions. For their women exchanged their natural function for an unnatural and abnormal one, And the men also turned from natural relations with women and were set ablaze (burning out, consumed) with lust for one another-men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own bodies and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their wrong-doing and going astray, which was [their] fitting retribution. And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome.

When I first read this about Ray Boltz I thought to myself, “now that he has decided to rebel against God’s Truth and give in to the lusts of his sinful flesh, how many babes in Christ who hear his statements will be lead astray, because they are still in need of some guidance?” Some may think to themselves, “Well, if Ray Boltz (of all people) has come to the conclusion that he has lived a lie, then maybe it’s okay for me to draw this same conclusion for my own life,” God forbid! I pray that this does not happen. I pray that the people of God will realize that denying the flesh is living the Truth and not the lie.

When we are negligent in our spiritual walk the enemy can creep in with thoughts to drive us further from the Truth. I heard a minister once say, “The higher we go in Christ, the things of this world/flesh will fall away.” The thing’s of the world/flesh does not like Spiritual altitude. The flesh wants us to stay on the world's plane. This is because it cannot understand the things of the Spirit, and when we go skyward they have to fall away. When we neglect our spiritual life, STINKIN THINKIN will quickly become the norm in our life.

There is a song by Rich Mullins. It's a beautiful song titled, “My Deliverer is Standing By”. This song tells us that Jesus is coming and he is standing by. You see it is never too late. The Lord’s arm is still out stretched to all those who stray from the Truth. Yes the Lord is a God of Love but also a God of Truth. Pray earnestly that all may come to the knowledge of the Truth, and be brought back to the narrow way.

If you want to read about Ray Boltz's coming out statement you can go to this Link: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2008/9-12/arts/feature/13258.cfm