The6’i’sPART-5
(PART# 5 of 6 “i’s” that lead to desp’I’sing God,‘IGNORE’)
1 Sam 2:30 for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
Merry Christmas! God’s presence is what makes heaven heaven. God’s PRESENTS His Son and our salvation gets us there. What God wants for Christmas is one thing, for us to honor Him.
Honoring God is valuing God. You value God, who you can’t see, by valuing man who you can see. This weekly blog is my prayer journal, things that God is showing me. It is also written to my son and daughter, who are in the states studying. Hopefully someday they will read it. Some of things may help them, and you as well. No need in learning things the hard way, reinventing the wheel. I´ve taken some bumps here and there, and might as well learn from my mistakes.
I want to go on record as saying that I am guilty of all the ‘I’s that go to despising God (disrespecting Him). These missives help me as well to clarify. A Christian is an active construction site. We are to be conformed to Christ’s image Romans 8:29. Each Christian is an unfinished development project. Please observe all safety precautions and put on your hard hats and safety gear when you’re around us.
As I was pondering this message, God showed me what a hypocrite I’ve been, by revealing a major flaw in my life. I am led to write about ignoring people, but there is one guy I have been trying to ignore for a couple of weeks now. I have a beggar down here who has been stuck to my hip for the past three decades. Whenever I am down, frustrated, in the middle of something or in crisis mode, he is there! Not in a good way, but by intruding and interfering (please refer to my last two messages). He’s made me almost wreck my car. He’s distracted me and made me bash my head a couple of times (bald guys hate that). He’s interrupted important international phone calls. He went to the bathroom (both big and small) in our front yard. Knocks on my door all hours day and night. Comes suddenly upon me out of nowhere at traffic lights or when I am walking and that makes me jump out of my skin. I love him. I pray for him (even more now!) I help him as much as I can. I have tried to get him jobs, but the guy’s just annoying and has issues. He is as relentless as he is troublesome. He won’t take no for an answer. He ignores advice (that I´ve been giving him for 30 years). We´re both entering the last phase of our lives, we are both running out of time. He likes living on the street I guess, which is ok if he had a relationship with the Lord. We have talked for hours, with no results. I tell him to seek God, not me. He always just keeps coming at me at the most inconvenient of times. He scares Winnie and the workers here. He also creeps out the kids, so we don´t let him inside the building. Lately I have just been ignoring him, hoping he just disappears. (Theoretically though, what´s the difference between that and murder?) I walked past him today, ignoring him, and I felt the Lord urged me to go back to him. So I did, grudgingly. That should have been a hint.
Valuing God is listening to Him. Doing what He says (I have never heard from Him in an audible voice btw, just in my heart) If you hear wrong, and act on it, no problem, God knows your heart. Much better than hearing correctly and not doing anything. God just wants you to not ignore Him. To value Him enough to do what you perceive to be His will, as soon as He gives you the indication, not a week later. So I went back to my unpleasant beggar friend, bought him some food, washed him up (he was a little ripe), talked a bit (him telling me all his worries more than me talking). I reminded him to stop praying to me, to pray to God instead. Then we really had a good time praying together. Recently, he knocked at the wee hours of the morning and I sent him away empty handed. That was a week ago. The Lord really convicted me about it. I even got dressed and went out looking for him, but he was gone. Today wasn’t a convenient time either. I was in a hurry, about money stuff. (Side note. Don’t lose your witness over your money). I almost ‘ignored’ the Holy Spirit a second time. Praise God for His leading. When we went our different ways today, the smile he gave me parted the heavens. He was all clean, (kind of) fed and ready to conquer the world. A human being didn’t ignore him. God didn’t ignore him either (in my friend’s mind). It made me smile too, reminding me of why I am here, to tell people that Jesus loves them, and to show them.
Sharing the truth about the God of love, while ignoring people, not only makes the truth bearer a hypocrite, but an ugly one at that.
We ignore man for the same reason we ignore God, by reasoning! It makes us time aware, worth aware, value aware. easiness aware, safety aware, pros and cons aware, hygiene aware, desires aware etc. Adam and Eve are the perfect example of how reasoning makes you ignore God.
Eve reasoned with Satan (and herself) saying that God said she would die if she ate the fruit, and Satan replied in Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die: Notice the tone? By the tone, reasoning, and by the contradiction, Satan was helping Adam and Eve to ignore (despise, disrespect, not value God). Don’t even entertain thoughts like this. It’s the start of going down a slippery path. I think Satan believed himself to be right, that’s why he was so convincing. I think Satan still believes himself to be right, by his flawed, unperfect reasoning. That’s why he is furious. That is also why he is doomed.
Satan WAS an angel, the most beautiful angel, until he started reasoning. Don’t let well meaning, unsaved people tell you to be reasonable. When you’re voice of reason within you speaks, listen to it. Unless it is going against the Word of God, or what you feel the Holy Spirit is leading you to do. Very rarely in my life, in fact, as far as I know, NEVER HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT SHOWN ME TO DO SOMETHING REASONABLE. Sure, go to work, provide for your family, pay the bills, that’s reasonable stuff that we all have to do. But one day, wait for it, the Holy Spirit will show you to do something outside of your comfort zone. It´ll seem totally unreasonable, but it will be the best decision of your life. Satan followed his own reasoning, and it didn’t work out like he planned.
Isaiah 14:13-14 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. And we know how THAT ended!
I am writing this to myself because I want to radically erase everything that makes me despise, not value, God. That would be the six ‘I’s and the attitudes that lead up to them. Ignoring someone (therefore God) starts by the tone. Don’t only watch your words, but watch your tone (you´re attitude). If you start to question God’s decisions, stop it! Questioning God, His existence, the infallibility of His Word, quit it right now. No good will come of it. My tone with others is my tone with God. My tone, with my beggar friend, long before I started ignoring him, got gruffer and gruffer. I should have checked my attitude in its tracks. I have found that I can talk myself into anger. I noticed now, that the beggar never got upset with my gruffness. He acted more like a Christian than I did. But my own words were affecting me and my spirit man as well. I was valuing the beggar less and less because of what I was telling myself. Our words and thoughts are the steering wheel of our hearts and mind. YOU CAN CONTROL BOTH!
Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
THIS APPLIES TO THE SPEAKER AS WELL AS THE LISTENER.
I always pray for an orphanage, a larger work, more staff, more finances etc. But I need to learn more about ‘handling the Holy’. You handle the Holy things correctly by esteeming them Reverence begins with attitude. Giving value. I know people whose theology is messed up, but God honors them because they honor Him. Ministry, more times than I like to admit, takes away a lot of my reverence for the Lord. Spending less time with Him. It is more valuable to spend time with the Lord alone than anything else in ministry. If I spend more time with the Lord, I get much more done in ministry. More effective. Less time with the Lord, and I am spinning my wheels and ruining anything I have produced in my own labors.
God has shown me that the more I make my time valuable to Him, He will make a way for me to have more time. If I honor Him with my time, He’ll honor me with His time. He’ll provide better communication ahem, still waiting on a computer God! He’ll multiply my sleep and rest when I need it. I want my time, and my life valuable to Him. I don’t want to ignore Him, nor others. I need to make my time more valuable available to Him so He can help me with my time, health and everything else. Honor to honor. I honor Him, He honors me. If I don’t, He will esteem me lightly. I need to make my time more valuable to others. As I treat others more honorably, I am treating God more honorably.
I used to judge other pastors because they taught stuff I always believed was wrong (bad doctrine). The older I get, the more I realize we are all off in one way or another. It really doesn’t matter, we rightly divide the Word of truth as much as we can, and that’s it. The question is, “do you love my Jesús?” Talk about not using my time for God honoring activities, judging others is a complete waste of time, and not valuing man nor God at all!!!.
God is faithful, and let me spend some quality time with those guys. note to denominational guys, spend time with people in other denominations, get to know them, they will know we are Christians by our love I was quickly humbled. They really valued God! Way more than I did. I learned so much. Their time was valuable to God.They would spend hours joyfully reading the Bible. Hours praying for one person. They would happily give the last of their food or money to the ‘whosoevers’. Not all of them. Just the ones God let me get to know. They happily, joyfully, evangelized everyone, non-stop. They daily spend hours on their knees before anyone else even wakes up. Many of these guys are much older than me. These guys were interceding for me, and still are as far as I know. They might have been laboring under some bad doctrine, but who knows? I think we all are in some way or another. But I do see that these guts honor, value and respect the Lord and others, and God is blessing them by honoring them. They have great testimonies too about integrity, morals, and restraint. But mostly love. Don’t throw the baby out of the bathwater. Don’t ignore a Christian brother because he goes to a different kind of church than you do, or has different political opinions. To be frank, we don’t have the right to ignore anyone.
One pastor down here has a doctrine that is very harsh and legalistic. He preaches on a radio station, always screaming, very angry sounding. (For 40 years now) Unbearable to my seminary trained mind. I met a real man of God (as if I am an authority or something). I asked him about his testimony. I really liked him. He is always impeccably dressed, a humble, gentle spirit, and a soul winning pastor. He said that the pastor that I found ‘unbearable and repulsive’, found him during a 20 year drunken binge, sleeping in the sewers, begging for rum every day. The pastor that I didn’t ’approve of’ prayed and fasted with him for 7 days to get him sober. And 10 years later he’s still sober and serving the Lord with joy.
I need to stop ignoring people and God by;
- stop screening calls
- watch my tone
- watch my thoughts
- place souls before agenda
- honor God by making my time valuable to him
- answer emails and texts promptly
- answer the door
- slow down
- care and listen
- pray
If we, as a royal priesthood, aren’t bringing in the sheaves with joy and love for the ‘least of these’ and the ‘whosoevers’, it is because we are ignoring them. If we ignore anyone, we despising God and our offerings are unacceptable.
Malachi 1: 6/7 saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible
COVID 19 UPDATE- STILL NOT ONE CASE OF COVID AMONG THE 300+ FAMILIES WE SERVE (APPROX 6000 PEOPLE, NOR AMONG OUR STAFF, NOR OUR EXTENDED FRIENDS AND FAMILY. SCHOOLS AND FEEDING CENTERS GOING ON AS USUAL. PSALM 91
PRAYER REQUESTS.
- We have $950 DUE in taxes, lawyers, fines and CPA,and then clear sailing for the rest of the year.
- We gave out 1050 Christmas presents one on one. Thank you God, and thank you for your gifts, prayers, and encouragement! But poor Winnie is wiped out
- FOR OUR OWN HOME APART FROM THE MINISTRY. IT WILL BE CLOSE ENOUGH TO DIRECT AND OVERSEE EVERYTHING, BUT NOT INSIDE THE MINISTRY’S WALLS. IT’S NON STOP HERE AND WINNIE’S NOT WELL. SHE’S WORN OUT. I FOUND A HOUSE FOR 29K
- FOR THE ORPHANAGE THAT I KNOW IS IN OUR FUTURE. NOT ONLY AN ORPHANAGE, BUT AN OLD FOLKS HOME AS WELL. I THINK THE TWO CAN BE SIDE BY SIDE ON THE SAME PROPERTY, IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF MONEY. IT WOULD BE A BLESSING TO THE OLD FOLKS TO HEAR KIDS PLAYING, AND IT WOULD BE A BLESSING FOR THE KIDS TO HAVE ABUELAS AND ABUELOS.
- ALL PAPERWORK AND LAWYER WORK, AND NGO BOOKS HAVE BEEN RESUBMITTED.
- AMERICA!
PRAISE REPORTS
- Summer vacation is here, much needed. Everyone is getting to relax. Winnie and I are only doing the feeding center in the dump until school starts again in Feb
- Since I have started tithing my retirement I have had no stress about finances
- A much lighter atmosphere. We have been oppressed for a long time. Even though we have more problems and dynamics there isn’t that pressure. I think it was spiritual and your prayers are working. I feel victory.
Pureheart Update – John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave……. We gave out 1,050 presents impacting over 6000 lives with the love of Jesus Christ. Thank you God, NicaSource and thank you for your gifts, prayers, and encouragement!
WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING, IT’S WORKING!! pray, donate, and spread the word about us, what we are doing and the needs here!.
Please share this letter on FB and with your friends, churches & civic groups.
MATCHED TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS FOR THE REST OF 2020. THAT MEANS THAT 200% OF EVERY PENNY YOU DONATE GOES STRAIGHT TO THE KIDS. MY VA DISABILITY AND SSI COVER OPERATING COSTS
Dean and Winnie Peters