The selfishness that occurs due to our weak knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is caused by a lack of communication with God. We may say that we pray every day, but my beloved, what are we praying for? Are we praying for the truth of God to be revealed in us so we can preach the word of God throughout the world? Or are we praying to worldly satisfaction? Do we want people to do everything the way we want it done because we are the perfect Christians? I say assuredly, when we continue to pray to God for something He does not want to give us, He eventually may allow us to obtain it, but it will also come with the consequences of why God didn’t want to grant that prayer request. Let us not blame the Lord for our selfishness.

This denomination outburst is incredible. We have become so divided in order to have a higher place so in this world to say we are doing the will of God. The commandments of Jesus Christ were to “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39) Our selfishness causes us to be divided; we are unwilling to accept one another. We are so stiff-necked and hard-hearted. We all want the Word to conform to our lives and to be shaped around our selfish nature. We must shape our lives around the Word of God so it can mold us into His perfect image.

I have seen so many denominations of Christianity that will not even listen, let alone acknowledge another denomination because they do not do the same things or follow the same rituals that they do. We all want to have people convert to our denomination by teaching why our denomination is better than all the other ones, but where is the Word of God? Where is the encouragement to love brothers and sisters and to tend to the lost sheep? Yet we keep statistics of how many converts we make, and how many members we have, how much money we raise, building projects, and all this worldly information so we may boast. This information is not for the Lord because He already knows! Why does it matter how many members a church has or how many people converted?

Speaking to a Catholic relative the other day, she told me the Catholic Church is the ONLY church because it is the “universal” church and is the church that Simon Peter established. I say assuredly, the ONLY church is the Church that the Lord Jesus Christ established. That is the universal church. What we label a church is not what makes it the Church of Christ, it is what our spirits put into it and what our spirits get out of it that makes it the church. Whether we are Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, or any other denomination of Christianity, we are ALL baptized by the SAME Holy Spirit and none of us is any different from the other. To be a Christian, we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we do not trust Him, rely upon Him, cling onto Him, knowing that He died for our sins, but rose again on the third day by the power of God the Father, and have the assurance of salvation, that we will be with Him in eternity, we are not yet a true Christian. We are just going along with the label. Whatever denomination we claim, the ONLY thing that truly matters is that we preach the Word of God and we live accordingly to the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ. Assuredly, if we want to stand to worship, sit to worship, wear earrings or not wear earrings, hats or not hats, sneakers or shoes, and the list can go on and on, do it for the glory of God. Just love the Lord and praise God for giving us life! Don’t let petty rituals and religion get in the way of the loving relationship we have with our Savior, our Comforter, our Friend, our Protector, our Provider, our Messiah, our Christ, our Lord, OUR GOD!!!

In Romans 14:1 the apostle Paul writes “As FOR the man who is a weak believer, welcome him [into your fellowship], but not to criticize his opinions or pass judgment on his scruples or perplex him with discussions.” (Amplified Bible)

Who are we to say a person is a weak believer and tell them how they serve the Lord is wrong? Let the Lord guide them as we unite with them in fellowship. Let us not cause brothers and sisters to fall because we do not agree with their methods. The way they serve may bring them closer to God the same way we serve brings us closer to God. If the way we serve doesn’t bring us closer to God, maybe we are really the weak believer and should be the one asking for their guidance.

I actually have an answer to the opening question “how to be a perfect Christian?” The answer is simple. The Lord Jesus Christ answered it to for us two thousand years ago. If someone disagrees, you are not disagreeing with me because I didn’t say it; I’m just quoting my Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. The answer is to love God with your all and ask Him to let the Holy Spirit guide us. Once we have truly opened our hearts and accepted the Holy Spirit, it will unite us with our brothers and sisters covered by the blood of Jesus Christ regardless of which denomination of Christianity we belong to. Let the labels not divide us, but let Christ unite us! We shall speak out on what is against the will of God, provide support for the body of Christ, helping each other grow in truth accepting each other’s differences, so in all ways we can glorify Christ, our Savior and King.

However, as a child of God, when we journey deep into His word, and walk far along in the path He has set for us, boredom is impossible, and the devil’s lure is desolate. In all situations, being the victim is never a good thing. We prosecute the offenders for what they have done to the victims. Yet, we have all been victims to the devil manipulating us and stealing our souls like a thief in the night. Jesus says in Matthew 16:26 “for what shall it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose their soul.” Our soul, our spirit, is what the Lord uses to communicate to us. However, when our hearts are hardened, we turn away from the Lord, and enter into Satan’s playing field with no protection. It is like a football player going onto the field with no pads, helmets, mouthpiece, etc. and getting hit by 250 lbs of a pure muscle linebacker. Being in this world which is quickly passing away, we are in Satan’s battle ground any and everywhere we go.

We think that there are certain places that Satan refuses to go, but that is the life of the enemy. He is everywhere and he has many demon servants. If the devil has the audacity to try to tempt our Lord, Jesus Christ, what makes us think he won’t come into our homes or come into our churches.

Satan watches us, waiting for our perfect moment of spiritual boredom and emptiness, to come upon us to sift us as wheat. Jesus said to Simon Peter in Luke 22:31-32, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Our Lord knows that we go through trials and tribulations in our lives and temptation is guaranteed. If we notice, the name Simon is issued when His faith is tested, but Peter is the name used when he is following the Lord.

However, notice in the next verse in Luke 22:33 Simon Peter says to Jesus “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both prison and death.” So many of us proclaim our faith and trust to the Lord in the good times, but when we are tested, we fail and deny God just as Simon Peter did. All of this is caused by our lack of understanding and not having relationship with God. I have met many people who proclaim to trust in God and put all their faith in Him, yet they are miserable about their situations in this life. To fully trust and have faith, we must read His word, our guidelines on how to live life through good times and bad times.

Now with the Holy Spirit living within me, I cannot recall the last time I have been bored and I do not foresee being bored in the near future. It is amazing how the Lord takes control of our lives when we allow Him to. He provides us everything to fill our lives with Living Water so we will no longer thirst.

There are many resources that the Lord provides us to stay in His word and on His path. The two best resources provided to us to satisfy our spirits are His Living Word, and prayer. As a child of God, we are to pray anytime and all the time. In all that we do, there must be a prayer through our hearts to lead us through the way.

Now, the Lord loves us so much that He also sends His messengers to help fill us with His word and continue to walk on His path.

Moreover, the Lord has commanded us to make disciples so that the lost sheep can come home to Him.

I have realized the more I am filled by the Holy Spirit, I have no more desires for the things I once held dear.

Oh Lord, thank You for taking control of my life and removing my spiritual boredom far from me. I have never felt so alive before. Only You Lord has the capability of removing the nonsense of this world. I thank You for this Living Water that constantly flows through my body that you have provided.

⁷ Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.”

⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:7, 9-10

Thank God for working in the hearts of those who were part of abolishing slavery. God does not want to see His people suffer and He will deliver them as he always does as He delivered the nation of Israel out of Egypt.

However, although slavery has been abolished, why are we still all slaves. Although we are getting paid for work that we do, we barely get to see any of the income we make.  It all goes to our slave owners and instead of calling them master, we call them Chase, Wells Fargo, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Chevy, Ford, Honda, Toyota, mortgage payments, health and death insurance, and so much more that we worship as our false gods. We are a slave to our wants and desires so we can look good in front of people. Our self-esteem is so low that we spend all that we have to  impress (express to) people who really don’t care about us.

So we are paying all this money for our houses, cars, jewelry, and everything else in between. So now we get two or three jobs to make the money to feed our gods. What a crazy cycle! Do our pride and ego devour us or what?

My dear friends, slow down and breathe. We work so hard to try to gain the world, but we lose our soul in the process. We compromise what God wants for us so we can gain what means nothing to Him. We lose sight of our loved ones so we can provide for them, but in the process of providing all the materialistic things of this world that is passing away, we no longer know our wives or husbands, boyfriends or girlfriends, and most commonly our sons or daughters.

Now when something dramatic happens in our lives, we are very surprised. So many times it is said, “My husband (or wife) would never do anything like that” or “my child could never do the things they are accusing him (or her) of.” How do we know what the people we are physically close to but emotionally and spiritually distant from are capable of? We place fancy sneakers and clothes on our kids, but when they are caught doing drugs, stealing, having sex, and much more, we don’t want to believe it. Well we’d better believe it. God has a way of opening up our eyes by shaking up our lives in the worst way possible because that is the only way he can get our attention as we are so “busy”. What other way will we listen?

So now while we are slaves to everybody that we owe, we have no time to be slaves of Christ Jesus. If we allowed Him to live in us, we would see what is really important. Everyone makes it seem so bad to downgrade but it seems like downgrading our physical lives will upgrade our spiritual lives. All physical and earthly possessions will pass away but our spirits have everlasting eternal life.

There is only one person who is worthy of being a slave to and that is our Lord Christ Jesus. He has truly set us free from all of our slavery to sin and all our bondages. We are so unworthy of the Man so pure who shed His blood for us, although He has set us free. I would rather not be free, but to be a slave, a bond servant to the Lord who loves me more than ever imaginable, who delivers me from ALL harm and evil, to carry out not my will, but His will.

² If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. ³ If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. ⁴ If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. ⁵ But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ ⁶ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever. Exodus 21:2-6