Good morning and Happy Friday to each and everyone. As I continue with the monthly theme of Defending in December based on Acts the 7th chapter I think about a time in my life where I defended something with every ounce of my being. When I started smoking marijuana as a teen I told myself that I wanted to get high everyday the rest of my life. I enjoyed the high places in my mind where the drug took me. There was the laughter, the munchies and the feeling of belonging when I was high. The best part of smoking marijuana was that if I wanted to add other things to the mix to make my high place even better I could. I could snort cocaine, I could drink alcohol and beer, and even dip into a liquid form of PCP to get that ultimate crazy high. I also could go work high and cover it up without no one knowing I was high except the ones who knew me. But the best part was that I could attend services and worship God and no one would ever find out. And when people found out I smoked marijuana and tried to tell me I was wrong i would defend my position. I would be Defending My High Places.
In my defense I would tell people that is does no physical harm to me. It makes my personality that much better. I am funny when I would normally be boring. It helps me stay healthy as I constantly am eating after
I smoke it. But even in my defense I forgot about that God was nowhere in my equation. So as I have found my way back to God, covered by the blood of Jesus I had to see if there were any other high places in my life personal, professional and church life that still existed. So I did some research on the words high places. In looking it up high places it is derived from a Hebrew word, bamah, which meant back or ridge. the first mention of high places in the Bible is in Numbers 21:28. In these high places is where those who did not believe in Yahweh went to worship gods such as Baal, Molech and Astarte. The high place was a elevated structure that had stones or poles erected in the images of the gods the worshipped and also had place to sacrifice things to these gods. So when I look at myself and although I have changed a lot I wonder have I gotten rid of all the high places in my life.
In my personal life I do my best to live right. I am now going to church and have just begun as of last Sunday to pay my tithes. But have I torn down my high places. I live in the hood and at times I act as though I am
better than folks and refuse to even tell them the good news of Christ. In looking in the Word of God I see in 2nd Kings 14:1-4 that although Amaziah did right in the sight of the Lord he still did not take away the high places that were used for idol worship. All this happened in the southern kingdom of Judah. In my community there are people who in high place of alcoholism, drug addiction and even whoring. They are looking for a positive message. In Mark 8:34-38 Jesus gives a great word to take to the people. I look at myself and cannot allow these high places to exist.
In my professional life I have worked in the service industry for ages in many different aspects. I look at myself as having the right kind of attitude to deal with the public. I have even won awards and such but at
times I act a certain way towards the important folk and look at the delivery man, the maintenance worker, the people who do not understand the answer I give them the first time, the youth, the seniors, in a way the does not promote that customer service spirit I supposedly have. In 2nd Kings 17:29-32 even after the people of Israel were exiled from the northern kingdom the Assyrians brought in foreigners who had their own priest and they worshipped in these high places. I cannot be professional to some and then invoke a attitude of talk to the hand to others. This is a action that even Jesus did not allow. In Mark 10:41-45 after the disciples got angry at James and John for asking for a position Jesus told them about how we must be servants before we can ever think about being led. I have to become more aware of how I treat all people no matter what race, creed, nationality, or whatever position they may hold. I cannot allow the high places of my life to exist anymore.
In my last paragraph in my spiritual life there cannot be any places of high places could there? I mean I attend church and I attempt to teach through this blog the Word of God so I have to be just about perfect
right? I could help some families by mentoring young men but I am already a teacher. I could call or even better yet meet the Mothers of the church but I pay my tithes. In the United Kingdom before they split into the north and the south King Solomon, the wisest , riches king of all time built at grand temple to the Lord ( 1st Kings 5:5). The temple was the greatest of its time. But as sure as Solomon was great in serving Yahweh he also was great at serving other gods at the high places. He had many wives and some of them did not believe in our God and worshipped ( 1st Kings 11:7-8, 2nd Kings 23:13 ) gods like Baal ( a picture of Baal is to the right ). So as great a Solomon was he still was prone to go to the high places. I am never perfect or do not even say I am but I have to recognize what I need to fix and fix it. In John 3:1-22 Jesus tells Nicodemus how he can get to heaven but Nicodemus, a smart man, a learned man did not seem to understand. In my spiritual life I have to so a much better job of being active and activate the Holy Spirit in me to remove the high places in my life for ever.
In closing we must look deep inside ourselves and find our high places. We must hear the Holy Spirit and let him guide us from our high places. We must touch ourselves and declare and decree the high places out our lives. In doing this we can affect the areas, of education, arts and entertainment, media, family, business, government, and religion. We can teat down the high places that the world is trying to say that are not there but we know it is there. Chicago is the murder capital in the U.S. so in my town there are plenty of high places that must come down in order for God to do great works. In Matthew 27:50, when Jesus spirit left his earthly body, our work began. To God be all the glory. I am a writer for thegeekchicmag.com ( please continue to pray for our release date ). I am on Facebook as Frederick Wesley. I am on twitter @brandnewweek. I am doing my radio show on blog talk radio next week called Brand new week, Brand new attitude. Please join me for my next blog called Defending your Blood. Have a great week.
P.S. Happy Birthday to my sister Angela Hayward and my dear friend Angela Francis.
Good morning and Happy Monday. Brand new week. Brand new attitude. The past is the past. The future is unlimited. This past month I was riding with my friend Angela Francis. On this particular day she had to go get her hair done and her friend Roxanne' shop. I had done this numerous times in the past so when I was getting ready to leave I told Angela I was going to the forest preserve to sit and wait as she got her hair done. At the forest preserve I would be able to do two things while I was there. I would be able to think of ideas for my blog, my radio show and my daily postings on Facebook. When you attempt to write you sometimes get writer's block and need to get to a different atmosphere ( Hmmm Writer's Block may be a blog soon LOL ). The other reason I wanted to go to the forest preserve is because it was hot that day and I needed some shade. So as I approached the forest preserve I put on my left turn signal and waited for traffic coming southbound to clear. After
Good morning and Happy Monday. Brand new week. Brand new attitude. The past is the past. The future is unlimited. Growing up we used to love to take pictures. Maybe not myself because I had a self confidence problem, but everywhere you went there was someone taking pictures. In grammar school we took pictures every week. In high school we took them every year. At church we took pictures. In the club we took pictures as a group to show we all went to a party. Most of the pictures we took were with a Polaroid camera which had great quality then. But if you wanted the best pictures you wanted the photographer to take your pictures. This was one of the coolest professions back then because all the ladies who wanted to be models or actresses had to go to the photographer to get that photo to take to the different agencies to show how they look. So in order to get the best quality the photographer had to go someplace where he could get the best results. It was his Dark Room. This is the na
Good morning and Happy Friday. The summer is now beginning and the weather is now reaching its highest temperatures. It has reached a high point of 90's so far in the Chicagoland area and it appears to be nothing in sight to relieve us of these conditions that are almost drought like. As the summer gets ready to start in earnest next week we anticipate the warmest temps of the year after a winter that saw a little snow but the hawk, ( that's what we call the wind in the CHI ) was in full effect. But the sun has been out daily and we need a little moisture in our lives. We expect things to get wet in order for us to not only cool off but to wash away some things and bring a freshness of new things in our lives. The hotness of the weather coincides with the hotness in our lives. We need things to cool off a little bit but need some things to come down so we can enjoy the things in our lives that is promised to us as Christians. We are faithful and trusting in his Word. So as we
Comments
Post a Comment