Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” {Footnotes: What we put in our mind determines what comes out in our words and actions. Paul tells us to program our minds with thoughts that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Do you have problems with impure thoughts and daydreams? Examine what you are putting into your mind through television, Internet, books, conversations, movies and magazines. Replace harmful input with wholesome material. Above all, read God’s Word and pray. Ask God to help you focus your mind on what is good and pure. It takes practice but it can be done.}
I have asked myself, what are we doing? Why are we not standing boldly against the forces of evil? Why are we in a lazy, fearful state of mind? We fill our minds with media from many sources. We may read, watch TV, listen to the radio, etc. We must be mindful on what we are exposing ourselves to. We may walk away from a movie, book, and Internet pages with all kinds of immoral thoughts. We may be full of pride, we may be fearful, we may be full of lustful thoughts, we may be angry, and we may idolize what we see or hear. Our eyes and ears are the window to our souls. We may think it is innocent and fun but we are putting our self in immoral thought battle and a daydream coma. Satan is using this as a tool of confusion and distraction away from God and the work He has for us. Now I’m not saying we can’t use this in our favor by filling our Internets, books, magazines and TV with media worthy of praise. We must repent. Be bold! Be disciplined! Be wise! Be filled with God’s Spirit and allow Him to lead us. Let’s ask ourselves; is our media making our Spirit Sick or is it healing us? Why do we worry about tomorrow, when God is in control, cause I can tell you that can’t control anything. God is our power, our salvation, and our reason for breathing. If we think we have control on our own we are lying to ourselves. We must repent from our evil ways. We must repent before it’s too late. Get rid of our pride, our worry, our anger, our lust, our lack of focus, our indiscipline, etc. Get rid of it if it is not of God and repent! The Lord is drawing near. I say we must repent and get on our faces and cry out to God for forgiveness. We don’t have much time. We must turn our confusion into God’s glory. He will bring peace. We fool ourselves by thinking that God wouldn’t hurt us or punish us because He is a loving God. He is a loving God with so much love that it is just amazing, but He is a God of truth and a God of wrath and punishment. Yes, He allows us to choose our destiny but we have to face the consequences of His anger if we disobey His law. Repent before it’s too late.
Matthew 3:2 “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”
Matthew 4:17 “From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”
Acts 2:38 “Each one of you must repent of your sins, turn to God………
Acts 17:30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he COMMANDS everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to Him.”
2Peter 2:4 “For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. HE THREW THEM INTO HELL, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the Day of Judgment. 5 And God did not spare the ancient world-except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when He destroyed the world of the ungodly people with a vast flood. 6 Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. 7But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. 8Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. 9 So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from the trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. 10 he is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.”
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
Rev. 2:5 “Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from it’s place among the churches.”
We must repent before it’s too late; the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Eternity is only a breath away.
thedailylily.com 
You are right, CF, “we have free choice”. And, I would add, choice is power in our hands. It is our responsibility to make responsible choices. And, from your writing, CF, it sounds like you are addressing Christians. To think a healthy Christian is not able to make responsible choices in areas you speak about above is unbelievable. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us, counsel us and empower us with ‘dunamis’ to empower us to make wise choices.
2 Timothy 1:7 “… but you shall receive power (dunamis) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;” Spirit (4151) (pneuma from pnéo = to breathe) means a blowing (wind), a breathing (breath) and can refer to the seat of the inner spiritual life of man, capacity to know God.
Spurgeon says, “It is an abomination to let the grass grow up to your knees and do nothing towards making it into hay. God never sent a man into the world to be idle. Now is the watchword of the wise.”
CF quotes from Acts 17:30, “…God command everyone everywhere to repent.” I think the Word of God supports the thought that the believer that continues in this state as mentioned in this blog is weakly and cowardly…..
Billy Graham will be 91, Nov. 7, ’09. Read some of his Notable Quotes. http://www.billygraham.org/News_Article.asp?ArticleID=712
Reading articles by men and woman of character is one way to get your head out of the pigs’ trough.
What special presentations by that man of God, Billy Graham. As I listened and read jhis quotatins I saw that he truly is a man of humility. Although, like Paul was, an especially-called-out man of God yet, the greatness of these men is manifested in their humility, admission of missing the mark many times and their humble repentence before the Lord.
Thank you, Sara, for sharing these links with us. I truly enjoyed and was again instructed by them even though I have read and heard Billy Graham many times.
May God Bless Billy on his 91st birthday and throughout the rest of his journey on this earth. Happy Birthday, Billy.
Thanks chickenfarmer for the exhortation to focus on godliness and monitor what we feed our spirits and souls. The website Sara shared was good food for meditation. Seeing the fruits of Dr Grahams life and his staying power focus of an evangelistic call to repentance and a forward look to heaven shows the value of what you are saying…’Eternity is only a breath away.’
It is a sobering truth chickenfarmer that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Eternity is only a breath away.’
With every breath we take, we are nearer to crossing that finish line. I think that’s why we don’t want to get bogged down in distractions and time wasters. We can’t afford to get sidetracked with things that will have no value in eternity. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
II Cor 4:18
In the ‘sobering” reality that eternity is ever so near to those of us who walk on the face of the earth, let us not be so gloomy and sad-faced of countenance that exhibits to others a “plight” that really is superficial. Joy is the trademark of the true Christian ; the joy of the Lord being our strength. People should be asking us what is the source of that joy that bubbles up within you when the harsh reality of a material world gone bad looms upon the landscape of humanity. We should be ever ready to give an account of the glorious hope that resides within us.
Determination to walk the Christian walk should manifest in a glory expression on our faces and not a grim one.
Watch that grimace on your face, and show grace!!
When I allow the situation that the enemy throws at me to be displayed on my visage and cause others to ask…”are you tired, today” (when I am not) then I have to do a face check. Grim Christians…and I realize there are situations that bring grief and sorrow…but I am speaking about day to day combat with the enemy. Some of us advertize gloom when glory should be ondisplay.
I recently had a conference with a Father and he told me that he was having his son read every book he could find on the heros and men and women of character as he wanted his son to grow up as a mighty man of God. What a wonderful Father. May we to read about men and women of character. In the Prayer Retreat we attended this weekend we heard about the life of a beautiful women who was 87 who was had a life that was poured out and lived to the fullest serving her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She is Ruth Mizel. She worked on George Bush Sr. campaign, flew airplanes, and travelled the world. She was so excited by the events, people, and places God had laid out before her. God is such an awesome God that He did things in her life that she could not even perceive in her minds eye – what happened was much too awesome. Precious God precious Mrs. Mizel who chose to follow the Lord all the days of her life.
That is it, CF! I just have to add the footnotes for the verse in 2Peter 3:8,9, read with me: ” God may have seemed slow to these believers as they faced persecution every day and longed to be delivered. But God is not slow; he just is not on our timetable (Psalm 90: 4). Jesus is waiting so that more sinners will repent and turn to him. We must not sit and wait for Christ to return, but we should realize that time is short and we have important work to do. Be ready to meet Christ any time, even today; yet plan your course of service as though he may not reutrn for many years.”
Thanks, CF, for enlightening us, again!
Thanks for sharing that footnote Needles. God’s patient mercy gives us hope and encouragement to to keep working and believing knowing that He “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
I Tim 2:4
CF says, “Satan is using this as a tool of confusion and distraction away from God and the work He has for us.” What tool and plan are we using against his tool?
I think chickenfarmer offered a pro-active countermeasure for confusion and distraction, “We must repent. Be bold! Be disciplined! Be wise! Be filled with God’s Spirit and allow Him to lead us.”…”Get rid of our pride, our worry, our anger, our lust, our lack of focus, our indiscipline, etc.”
One tool I find helpful regarding focus and discipline is to prioritize my day by staying active in my local church, CCI, and interacting on and with The Daily Lily. As I try to stay timely and thorough in doing my part, I find confusion and distraction is minimilized and it helps others to do their parts also. This helps keep the door closed to the enemy.