Christianity Oasis Forum

[vahn]

I dont know where that thought came from , well , I shouldnt say "I dont know" , for I am just coming off of "Total Cleansing" proccess and I guess that "thought" is direct result of it .

But realy , think about it . If I were to put just one drop of food colouring in a crystal clear 50 gallon fish tank would anyone notice ? NO , I know that for a fact , I just tried to show that to one of my caseloads early this morning . I have a huge 100 ga. tank in my office with 2 oscars and the biggest suckerfish I seen , went to the kitchen , got hold of food colouring and glancing through the cupboard my eyes fell on a bag of sea salt , I went "hmm , maybe the Lord is trying to teach me something in the process as well " ( "You are the salt of the world ? " maybe ?) , but anyway , this guy "Jim" had been bebating with me ever since I decided on the journey of the neccessity for it with his opinion of "Well no matter how much you have sinned , God will forgive you for it , and take away all of them anyway right ? " Well my first response to him was rather sarcastic but true anyway , I came back with my opinion on that saying " I still remember the first time I heard that in church and said 'well , that's good to hear , I'll come back later then , when I'm 90 something ! ' " .
Anyway , back to the office , I said look at this "Jim" , red dye , and I squeezed a drop in the tank . So ? Ok , Jim do see the dye ? "well yeah , its right there ! " ok , now let's look outside my window for a minute ok ? just for the heck of it , what do you see ? Trees , pond , garden .... beautiful isn't it ? yep , ok , now lets go back to the tank , what do you see ? Well the corral , the fish .... That's it Jim ? yeah ! ok "Jim" where's the dye ?
When we turn our heads from one beautiful scene (the tank) to another our focus will immediately be on the "beauty" of what's surrounding us (window , trees, pond , garden...) "Jim" didn't see the garbage can the bench with newspapers and cardboards all around it that someone had used for a blanket the night before , and still beholding that beauty when we came back to the tank he didnt see the dye either until that is , I mentioned that to him by asking "does that mean the dye is not there anymore ? Nope it was still there , and moreover , after asking him to look out the window once again , he saw the bench and the newspapers .
Another example , if we were to take a coffee filter and whatever colour dye we place in it , no matter what colour liquid we sift through the filter , water , milk , ginger ale , on the other side that liquid will take on the co;our of the dye thats in the filter . So is it with our minds , using tech lingo , GIGO , garbage in garbage out , and unless we take the dye ENTIRELY , only then GIGO would spell , GOoD in GOoD out !!

Oh , "what about the lesson that YOU're supposed to learn from this vahn ? "

After "Jim" left I took a small pebble sized grain of the sea salt and dropped it in the tank , the oscars that usually come right to the top of the tank and I almost hand feed them , (the "beautiful" ones) one didnt even touch it , the other spit it back out but when it reached the bottom "low-life" (adopted name of the suckerfish ok ?) just gobbled it !

Thought I'd share my morning

[deetu]

cool analogy vahn...

[momof3]

Good moring Vahn. This was a very thought provoking post, bro. I thank the Lord that the blood of Jesus, shed on that cross, takes away our sins and makes us white as snow in the eyes of our Holy God. Only through the blood of Jesus are our sins forgiven, past, present and future...we are in need of God's mercy and forgiveness every day. He is longsuffering and ever forgiving when we go to Him with a heart of repentance. Hopefully, as we grow in Christ, we want to sin less and less, however, He is faithful to forgive when we fall. Your post brought these scriptures to mind...

Isaiah 55:8
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

Isaiah 55:9
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Psalms 103:12
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Jeremiah 31:34
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

So many times we look at what is ugly while our God looks at the beauty in us..through the eyes of Jesus, who paid our price in full.

God bless you, my brother.

Luv in Christ,
momo

[comfy]

A concentrated grain of sea salt might be able to cause an imbalance of minerals in a living creature so it could kill it or make it sick. So, I'd be careful about giving things like that to poor little "low-life".

So, the guy was saying that since Jesus will forgive us it is OK for us to sin?

Well, I know Paul speaks of "the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." (in Ephesians 2:2) I understand that when we disobey God, that this spirit of disobedience is working in us to have us sinning. And this spirit of Satan is nasty and lousy and degrading. So, whenever we do anything, at all, that is in a selfish spirit, we are maybe feeling some physical pleasure, however . . . deeper . . . we are being degraded spiritually and emotionally by how Satan's spirit is making us more or less how he is. And he is yucky and disgusting and negative and nasty, etc. And this makes us desperate to feel some pleasure, like he is desperate, I understand. So, pleasures of booze and drugs and sexual gratification and food comfort are not what we need when we get lousy and nasty and bored and lonely, etc. > we need how You, alone, LORD, can cleanse us and have us in Your living waters, instead, refreshing us in Your love's "incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in" Your sight (1 Peter 3:4) . . . so we are pleasing to You, too . . . not just trying to make ourselves feel better.

So . . . if I start to get messy inside myself, I call this sin and admit this and be quiet for God to do what only He can do.

[vahn]

Once again thank you all for the replies

Comfy "low life" is fine and still alive , I don't know , when I flipped the cover open to feed the oscars he came right up to the top with the others as well , I don't know if he was asking for more salt or what ? When i told him about your caution told me to say "Hi" . ha ha .

momof3 , how can I thank you for your heart warming reply , after reading your reply or maybe while I was still reading it the words "For I will make everything new" rang in my head so I decided to change the "theme" in the fish tank for it sits right across my desk behind the seats where the guys would sit , I had positioned it there on purpose to keep my train of thought while they go on with their "woe's and poor me's " .
While doing so , "Jim" taps on the door and asks if he can borrow a $100 though he didn't know how or when would he be able to pay it back . "OK , Jim close the door and have a seat , what's going on bud ? " Placing a $ 100 bill on the desk , but I still wanted to hear what he had to say , he said "You just gona give it to me ! , No questions asked ! " , "What if I was to use that to buy dope with or a bottle ? " and he kept looking at the tank , I said "Before I say anything let's pray first 'Jim' "
"I am not one bit concerned whether you're going buy dope or potato chips with that bill , neither am I concerned with you going off on a binge , not that I don't care but rather I know you wont even though you may want to " Defences come up with " Are you telling me you're phsycic or something ? " I said no "Jim" , why do you keep looking at the tank ? , you asked for a 100 dollars it's on the desk for you to pick up and you haven't done so yet , what's up ? " well , umm , so , later "I didn't mean to distract you from what you were doing , I'll back a little later , thanx " out goes my 100 dollar bill . I'm going "sheesh was that a mistake or what ? "
Two hours later , he's back with a big box asking me to help him carry it into the office . He had gone and spent the money on a whole set of filters and minerals and flushing system for the tank , he asked me if he could have a seat , I said "nope , you cant install all these gizmos sitting down now can you ? "
"How did you know ?" he asks , I said "I didn't , and I prayed you wouldn't do anything stupid , but I did know one thing , earlier you passed by my office more than three times while I was draining the tank before you asked for the money , and all that was as a direct result of the conversation we had putting the dye in the tank which is , by the way , the reason for the "rearrangements" and furthermore , I didn't give you the money I simply placed it on my desk , and as long as that bill was on my desk it was still mine until you picked it up , then it became yours , so what you do with becomes your problem not mine " " But I still could've gone and bought dope ! " , Ok , "jim" now you can have a seat and close the door . Here's the deal , when something comes from God and FOR God nothing , absolutely nothing can go wrong ok ? So , don't let it go to head that I trusted you with not buying dope , but rather I trusted God for Him to show me the fruit of my efforts , you see "Jim" its in the doing , not in the talking that one's actions bear fruit , you understood what I was saying about one drop would contaminate the whole tank not by me just simply telling you , but from showing you , and I was willing to sacrifice the well being of my fish in order for you to get the picture , and I know how much you love those fish , you love them more than I do that's why you bought all this stuff , because you knew the tank being contaminated so will be the fish , the filter and the cosmetics , so , "

Is God's Word contagous or what ? But sad to say so is the "filter" .
Upon leaving "Jim" asks for the copy of the "Vows"