Diminishing The Value

I have been thinking about this blog and if there is anything, any topic, or subject matter that has not been at least touched upon. I know something will eventually come to me, but in that moment my thoughts were circling around those that aren't willing to finish the process by which we are all called to do - administer the good news. Now it is a topic that I think has been completely exhausted but when I am aware of believers venturing forth to do whatever, I can almost hear the complaints years down the road even before they get there.

I am beginning to understand why ministers go all the way around the mulberry bush just to say the simplest message. They are trying to keep the listener interested in order for them to heed the warning which has been preached over and over again. I understand it, but that doesn't make me like it.

Have you ever seen a baby being fed strained food and the baby refuses to eat the vegetables? A mother knows what the baby needs in order to be healthy. An inexperienced mother will do what she needs to stop hearing the baby fuss. So she will feed the baby the sweet peaches and milk. I watched my mother feed my little sister. My sister liked the sweet fruit as well. My mother would load the spoon up with the main dinner item and then dip the tip of the spoon in the fruit. My sister didn't know the difference. She tasted the sweet which made the peas and the rest of the meal bearable. However, as she grew and able to feed herself, the little tricks stopped. She was given an understanding, had some barriers to face with taste but knew what she had to do and eventually did it. It was for her benefit.

Its what ministers know when delivering a message. If the minister doesn't have the experience to do this, then he/she needs to be schooled before getting up to speak. An experienced minister knows that there are more then just babies sitting in the congregation and we aren't all fussing for the sweet stuff. Many of us hope for the meat of the Word.

Anyway, I preface all of that for you to understand why I don't always hard hit with the topic at hand even though many times I would like to. This blog is about Christian dating. First the word Christian, then the dating part. There isn't one without the other. You can't have the white picket fence and ideal relationship without the other. It doesn't happen. You can't make it happen. It won't happen. No matter how much you try. There is no good without God. That's it!

In dating and seeing all of those things that irritate you normally, they won't go away later. Its God being good. He is telling you to walk away and you have an out to do it gracefully while the emotion hasn't been involved. If she talks all of the time, listen to her words. Are they encouraging, helpful, seeing the best side of things or does she gossip, nag, and repeat herself over and over again. This will continue and it won't stop. Would you like to put up with that for 10 or more years from now?

Alright, you can see what might happen if you don't listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd (John 10:26-28 AMP). So tell me why would a believer rush into things like having sex before finding out crucial matters in a relationship? Are you tired of hearing God warn you? Is it your way of stifling the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19 AMP)? When it is all said and done, are you going back to fussing for the peaches and milk rather then the meat? Because you know when you practice what you want rather then the voice of the Good Shepherd, your Spiritual senses will become dull (Hebrews 5:8-14 AMP). You will have to be schooled again because you acted as if you didn't know better. You gave the enemy place and so he will do what is in his nature to do - steal, kill, and destroy.

There are too many of us that know better and are trying to find some kind of loop hole to where we can have the whole meal and the sweet too. Here is where the rubber meets the road. Its what separates the sheep from the goats...the wheat from the tares... the true believer from the novice. The believer eats for strength to do what he/she is called to do. We don't have time to fuss and complain with what we want. We have an assignment and time is running out. There is no falling for grace to keep picking us back up again. We know better so we do better. I don't have the time to sit through a message about what married people need to be doing when there wasn't a message on love and to practice that first. I don't need to hear about how much I should be giving when love wasn't the foundation of me giving in the first place. There is no point in reading about this topic if you haven't rooted yourself in the basic principles of Christianity....love!

I can't imagine anyone reading this entry and not knowing what is meant by stifling the Holy Spirit or not knowing there is still an enemy out and about, or trying to reason that practicing the love principle is having sex. If that is you, I have been writing this blog for almost 5 years. Go back to the archives and begin there. There is no shame in starting from the beginning. Don't pretend that you understand when there is so much to learn about being a Christian. Dating is secondary. Practice putting God first.