May 11 Altar L Aeaching
- 1. 1 The Impact of Mothers (and Fathers) On Our Lives and God’s Desire for Our Relationships The Altar, LA May 11, 2008 Slide Two: Mother’s Day Facts: 1. Origin: Pagan celebration of goddesses • In prehistoric tribes the mother Goddess was worshiped as the creator of life. • In Egypt, Isis was the Queen of Heaven who ruled over all matters concerning mothering. • In ancient Greece Rhea was revered as the mother goddess and • in ancient Rome it was Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, and another mother goddess known as Cybele. 2. U.S. Origin: Julia Ward Howe; Ana Jarvis • U.S. History: Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, suggested the idea of an International Mother's day to celebrate peace and motherhood in 1872 for mothers who had lost their sons in war. • Anna Jarvis' campaign is the reason we have a formal holiday. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared that Mother’s Day should be celebrated as a national holiday on the second Sunday in May. 3. 82.8 million mothers in U.S. (2006) 4. Stay-at-home moms: about 5.6 million (2006) 5. Holiday with a mixed bag of emotions • Not always celebrated with joy; anxiety- especially if there are blended families
- 2. 2 Slide 3: Why Is This Teaching Important? 1. Demonstrates God’s powerful love for us (He created mothers and established their unique role for our lives) 2. Emphasizes God’s desire for our emotions and our relationships (influenced by our mother AND our father) 3. Demonstrates His desire for us to love ourselves, others and Him more completely (healing of our emotions; mother/father areas of wounding) 4. Declares His will for us to carry forward the blessings and Godly beliefs we have inherited from our parents (claim our inherited riches) • It’s no coincidence that each person is here. The Lord loves each and everyone so much and He wants to establish a new relationship with His bride. He has wonderful plans, signs, miracles and wonders to bestow upon His bride. He wants to bestow these on a clean and holy bride that has been completely restored to Him…a bride that is wholly seeking a relationship with Him in Spirit, Soul and Body. Slide 4: Importance of Mothers (fathers, first caregivers) • An overwhelming amount of research has already established the importance and role of mothers (and fathers) in our lives. 1. Importance of mother’s love: nurture, touch, eye contact, communication, role modeling; bonding, attachment: • Process of attachment: womb to first 3 years of life- during that time critical brain and nervous system development is taking place. • 5 month old fetus can recognize their mother’s voice in womb; when nasal cavities are cleared at birth, infant begins to recognize mother’s smell. • Beyond, 3 years, the healthy bond of attachment continues. 2. Mother’s continued role of nurture establishes security, empathy and compassion: • With repeated bonding and attachment to mother we establish the ability to empathize with other’s feelings because in a nurturing environment we are allowed to feel and express our own feelings. We display early signs of compassion when the need of self nurture and expression is allowed.
- 3. 3 • Example: Samuel (22 months) giving a drink to Woody and Buzz light year dolls (Toy Story). 3. Scientists believe attachment to mother, father, or caregiver is how our conscience is developed; self concept, confidence, and ability to regulate emotional impulses. • Resiliency and resistance to stressful situations and trauma is also attributed to attachment (optimal brain and neurological development). • Attachment Disruptions: chronic illness, premature birth, trauma, separation from mom, neglect, abuse • In some cases an infant or toddler experiences Reactive Attachment disorder; a severe developmental condition where the child fails to bond with mother or caregiver in first few years of life (seen in many adoptive and foster child situations). • Early signs of RAD include an obvious superficial nature of personality, manipulative/controlling behaviors, distrusting self and others, obvious lying and stealing, sabotaging efforts of others to take care of them. • Woundings are the root causes for, and really establish mixed up beliefs in children. 4. Relationship with mother, father, caregiver is building block to having relationships (with self, others & GOD!!!): • But the overwhelming truth about Mothers and fathers and caregivers is that they teach us the fundamental principals about how to have relationships; with ourselves, with others, and with God. • God’s demonstration of love for us is under siege and attack by the enemy. • This is evidenced in the nightly news; the assault on children in every country; Increase in crimes against children; Increase in worldwide sickness, disease and war (trauma); Increase in break-up of marriages and family • Single moms: 10.4 million w/children under 18; up from 3.4 million in 1970
- 4. 4 • UNICEF estimates # of orphans worldwide to be approx. 210 million. • Other examples: boy soldiers in under-developed countries with civil war and rebellions; child prostitution in many countries. • The enemy (Satan and his demonic forces) cannot create anything, but he can pervert and twist. • He is trying to destroy the natural progression of relationships that God has established in an attempt to control our hearts and minds (souls). • By destroying the Godly patterns of our emotions, beliefs and relationships, he is able to disrupt our eternal destiny (if we allow it). • Satan can guestimate the future of our destiny and our Godly inheritance as he has witnessed genetic traits, blessings and gifting in our generational lines. • He may not have an understanding of God’s intended purpose for our lives but he does see the potential that we carry to impact the kingdom of God, and he will try to steal our inheritance and our destiny. Slide Five: God’s Desire for Our Emotions and Our Relationships 1. God is relational. He established relationships: • One of the most tangible ways God shows His love for us is through our parents, family, friends and loved ones. • He is a relational. He is the God of relationships. • He created the concept for our earthly families. He created the first father and the first mother. We don’t know if this was the original idea before the fall of man, but God knew that we needed fundamental building blocks to grow, develop and survive on this planet- after the fall of man.
- 5. 5 2. Another example of God’s involvement in creating and establishing relationships is pointed at Jesus. God acknowledged Jesus as His son (Matt. 3:17; Matt. 17:5). He affirmed him: • At baptism and at the transfiguration. God acknowledged Jesus. He gave Him worth, value: “You are my son.” • How many of us feel acknowledged or can fully receive acknowledgment without struggling somewhere in our hearts as to whether or not we deserve to be acknowledged or whether we really add value to our friends, family, and relationships? • We struggle with these unGodly beliefs based on the emotional baggage and thought patterns we carry. 3. He created us to be triune beings; spirit, soul and body (1 Thes. 5:23): • To understand God for our relationships we must also understand something about our nature/ the uniqueness in how God created us. • The very uniqueness of who we are requires a master healer; • He is the only one who can come and restore the harmony in our life when things go wrong with our lives. • This nature is an integrated whole. • What touches our soul (emotions), touches our body and spirit; what touches the body will impact the soul and the spirit; what touches my spirit will have an outworking in the soul and body. • The medical profession example: 65% of aches and pains cannot be treated physically. (80% in inner cities). • The symptoms are in the body, but the root of the pain is not. • The term Psychosomatic expresses this declaring that the source is in the soul and that is affecting the body. Psycho= soul; somatic= body
- 6. 6 • The bible tells us there is a difference between spirit and soul (Heb. 4:12): Spirit (where we know God) has the faculty of communication, of conscience, and the ability to worship. We don’t just communicate with our soul and its mind and emotions, but with our human spirit. 4. He wants a relationship with our whole being: spirit, soul, and body • We may understand God up to a very small measure with our mind. But our mind cannot understand Him; • We know Him in our spirit, because spiritual truth comes from the Holy Spirit into our human spirit. • Many people suffer from a fundamental problem that their spirits are dead, separated form God. Born of the flesh but not of the spirit, have not received salvation that Jesus brought to restore our relationship with God. They are separated from God. • We can worship (be in relationship with God through our spirits, souls, and bodies. We can also communicate with each other through these entities. For example: a husband and wife can become “one” when their spirits are tuned to the Holy Spirit, through physical affirmation, and through appropriate emotions and thoughts for one another. • If God created us to be triune beings, He must have purposed us to be in relationship with Him through our spirits, souls and bodies. Slide 6: God’s desire for us to love ourselves, others and Him more completely (inner healing) 1. God’s heart is to heal: • God wants to heal the hurts of our hearts. • Jesus announced this in the synagogue at Capernaum: Luke 4:18-19; He closed the book and said 21.
- 7. 7 • What was Jesus actually saying? He as just drawn two powerful passages from the prophet Isaiah, 61 and 35. • Isaiah 61:1-2; Isaiah 35: 3-10 • It is God’s desire to bring life to the dry places. Why? • Because he knows that we feel pain and suffering from the consequences of sin, but He wants to set us free from earthly baggage- to be able to experience a deeper relationship with Him. • If we are healed, we can give freely to others and to Him. If that answer is not good enough for some of you, you may be experiencing a need for love in your life or you may be experiencing a false sense of self worth. • He also longs for our complete wholeness because we have a divine purpose and destiny to fulfill and that destiny is influenced by our beliefs about God and ourselves. • The cross is another example of God’s desire for our restoration and healing. 2. Theological debate: what’s been taken care of at the cross? (when we receive salvation): • Spirit: restored to God, now just need to mature in God. • Soul: redemption of sin (Ephesians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 5:21), and cleansing of iniquity (secret, deliberate, or wickedness practiced and can be passed on from generation to generation in our lineage) Exodus 20:5- at least up to four generations • What’s left? • The power of sin in our lives has already been broken, but the consequences and patterns of sin (in our lineage and in our present) is our responsibility. • There is power that Satan had over us before we were saved. That power has been stopped and broken. Now our challenge becomes having the will to deal with our thoughts and emotional behavior patterns.
- 8. 8 • We carry many wonderful instincts (inherited genes and characteristics) that can be positive and hold potential for our future (kindness, love) • but we also have negative instincts such as jealousy, anger, selfishness that can be triggered from our emotional scares and wounding (consequences and effects of sin). • If we continue to follow in these emotional traps and habits, they could delay, distract, or ultimately destroy that plans that God has for us and our generational influence. 3. It is God’s desire for complete healing in our spirit, soul and bodies: • It is the will of God that we are healed physically of every disease. • It is also the will of God that we are healed of every hurt that impacts His created beings. • As we looked earlier, He gave us role models (parents) to love and nurture us form the beginning of life. Unfortunately, we live in a world where there is sin. Sin destroys, it perverts, and it disables us from experiencing the fullness of God. • But God had a plan to restore us to Him, through his Son Jesus. Jesus' model of healing touched the spirits, the bodies, and the very souls of those He encountered. Slide 7: Healing For Our Spirit, Soul and Bodies. 1. Healing of our spirits: • salvation, issues of Lordship that are unresolved that cause blockages with God; • crushed spirits (thoughts of suicide); Psalm 34:18; Prov. 17:22; (broken or timid spirit) 2 Tim. 1:7- God’s desire for our spirits. 2. Healing of the Body: Physical disease or disabled. Many examples in bible. 3. Healing of the soul: (mind, emotions, will);
- 9. 9 • personality, thinking, decision making, etc. all based on our belief systems of ourselves, others and God- influenced greatly by our parental (mother) examples repeated as children. a. Healing our thinking: God wants us to have a sound mind and dwell on His truths for our lives (Phil 4:8.) We can be sick in our minds: example: depression, despair, torment, suicide, criminal mind set, wrong belief systems, confusion. • Some of these are reflected in our spirits. b. Healing of emotions: emotions are God given, but they can undermine the work of the Holy Spirit. Emotions impact thinking. • Emotions are also tied to relationships. • We may experience fear, anger, and other emotions that can damaging as we respond to the negative way others treat us. • We can react to our emotions in a Godly or unGodly way. • Example: there can be unGodly grief or sadness over relationships, work, circumstances, etc. If the pain is lasting an abnormally long time or is extreme there is need for healing. c. Healing the will: We make decisions through our will- it’s our control center. • It’s the place of “yes”, “no”, “wait” and so on. • We make choices on a constant basis but if we are sick in our will, we will be fearful to make choices. • If we’ve never been allowed to make choices, our wills could be crushed, we withdraw from making decisions, or we procrastinate.
- 10. 10 • Others may not be able to process the steps necessary to make a decision, we can’t make them, or we’ve been manipulated so much that we just let life happen to us. • Our will needs to be submitted to God. The emotions will eventually follow. • Ex. Getting out of bed maybe a battle between our ill and our emotions. • Forgiveness is an excellent example where our will must absolutely override our emotions. • It’s very natural for our will to ignore or decide against our feelings- but – we must not suppress the feelings. We need to deal with the feelings. • Again, it is God’s desire for our complete healing. • We’ve discussed the importance of the role that God established for our lives by designing the earthly family, that each child born into this earth would have a loving and nurturing mother and a protective and affirming father. • The forces of darkness has tried to destroy that plan and we can see the symptoms of the decay of earthly parental roles and family dynamics. • Statistically speaking, there are some in this very room who had something far from a “role model” experience growing up as a child. Maybe there were absentee parents or maybe even worse, you experienced severe abuse, abandonment and neglect. The Lord wants to touch you. • Even the best parents make mistakes. Regardless of the good intentions of our parents, they consequences of sin in our family lines (inherited thought patterns, behaviors, cultures, beliefs) and maybe the level of unawareness within our parents can inflict wounds that will stay with us unless we are willing to lay them down at the feet of Jesus. Slide 8: Cycle of wounding:
- 11. 11 • Some of you in this very room are wrapped up in the unGodly belief that you don’t need healing from your past. • Several unGodly mindsets may rule you (i.e. “just pull yourself up by your bootstraps”, “why focus on the negative”, “don’t focus on the past, just forgive, forget and move past the hurts”, “time heals all wounds). • If you are struggling with this teaching because of those mindsets, I’m here to testify to you that God will allow you to continue on the path you are experiencing. Your personal relationships, your marriage will stay the same unless you are obedient to God’s desire for your life. It is prideful to think that you can heal yourself without involving the Holy Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you regarding this teaching. Allow the Holy Spirit to release painful memories that you haven’t dealt with and that you want to forget about. You will experience greater freedom and fulfillment in every area of your life as you walk hand in hand with your heavenly Father who has promised to never leave you or forsake you. • You’re not alone anymore. Cycle of Wounding: 1. Wounds produce lies: • When our spirits are wounded, a lie forms around the wound • Lies: I don’t belong, they don’t want me around, love me, need me. I am the wrong: size, color, shape, sex, etc. I’m not worth it; people don’t hear or see me (Psalm 32 & 51). 2. Lies produce Belief Systems: • A personal philosophy about yourself, others, life, or even God can be a driving factor for your life. • UnGodly Belief examples: • I’m shy, don’t fit in, am a loner; I hate crowds; birthdays; holidays; am fat, no one understands me, certain people don’t like me; men can’t be trusted; women are too emotional or not logical enough
- 12. 12 • People are mean, all Christians should be wealthy; God is going to give me____. • Life is hard, or unfair • I am the only person who will ever take care of me. • Mnay, many more ungodly belief systems Effects of Belief Systems: -Your spirit will drive you to fulfill the need created by the wound, but the desire will be based on a lie. Example: A person wounded needing nurture will search for love, but from the wrong source (sex). -Lie: I’m not worth it, or good enough; so the person seeks validation through performance/perfectionism 3. Therefore, Belief Systems Create Behavior: • Rebellion • Promiscuity • Drugs • Searching for nurture and validation- become an untrustworthy person • UnGodly beliefs are bundles of lies which direct how you conduct your life. • A person can seek God’s forgiveness for behaviors (cursing, lieing, cheating, etc.) but we often times repeat the sin because we haven’t dealt with the root- the wounds that create our belief systems which create these behaviors. 4. Habit Structures: • If patterns of behavior are repeated often enough, a habit structure is created. • This is a formalized response to stimuli based on our belief systems. Lie: I’m different Belief: I don’t fit in Habit Structure: I don’t go to social functions or parties
- 13. 13 5. Character Development: • Qualities of life developed within: We start to see specific character traits that are developed over time. -Trust -Commitment -Loyalty -Integrity, etc. 6. Personality: • Charater traits help to shape our personalities… • How another person views you. Happy, Gloomy, Successful, Fulfilled, Struggling. Ex. Uncle john is funny; aunt sally is giving; bert is mean, Luis is sweet, • Circumstances can often trigger the pain of past wounds and often will unless they are up-rooted and healed by the loving Father and the Holy Spirit. • Heal the wound, replace the lie, allow your belief system to change, and habit structure to be rebuilt. • There is usually more than one factor involved with how woundings occur and lies are formed. In honor of Mother’s Day, let’s look at mother and father areas of wounding and see what the Lord’s plan is to restore you to Him if you are wounded in these areas. Slide 9: Mother & Father Wounding 1. Fathers provide “belonging” • Belonging: a sense that you belong here, a sense of place and purpose. “You have a place to fulfill.” • Provide destiny. Matt 3 & 17: “My beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” • Nurture: Encouraging nurture fans flames of hopes & dreams, molding character and personality.
- 14. 14 • Both parents nurture, but father draws out hope for future. 2. Wounds: Neglect, Rejection, Lack of validation, Lack of affection, Absence. 3. Fruit of Father Wounds: defensiveness, dislike being told what to do, restentment, feeling unsettled, not in the right place. Women: seek too much validation from men, this is actually seeking father or father approval. Often ends in feeling of anger or rejection when not received. Woman not validated: -Seek older men, affirmation, and independence -Fear of rejection. Creates fear of man/husband and therefore servitude or enabling persona. -Fear of failure; on job results in defensiveness, inability to take responsibility for mistakes. -Fear of disappointing man. Can’t live up to standards. Live in atmosphere of not doing right. “If he is upset it is my fault.” Man/Woman Not Validated: -Difficulty in finding your place in the world- little sense of belonging -Lacking confidence, or just the opposite “I’m going to prove myself.” -An unhappiness and sense of not belonging reside in heart -Sexual confusion, “looking for father” persists and can cause identity confusion A father wound can cause difficulty in submission to authority/man -Loner mentality -Reaction to authority 4. Global Truth: The need for nurture exists in each heart and unfulfilled, will cause our spirit to search. Often this search becomes skewed by worldly or carnal pulls.
- 15. 15 5. Goal: To be validated, nurtured and to understand and accept our sexual identity • No man/woman can give this, but God can heal the wound. • Psalm 27:10 “when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” • Psalm 68: 5 “A father of fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.” Slide 10: Mother & Father Wound 1. Mothers provide sense of “being”: love, communication, identity, and especially security • Again, mothers provide safety. They provide nurture without which we can depersonalize. • Female, ability to be, receive, be intuitive, are relational. • We need to be taught everything: -communication -love -identity -security Love and comfort is communicated in several ways: -Touch: brings comfort. People love to touch babies. Touch says you belong, have value, you are somebody. We need mother’s touch to helped establish security and identity. Spirituality and sexuality are intimate and intertwined with identity. We need intimacy and touch. If touch is absent we will seek improper touch. -Eye Contact: important especially to infants. This communicates a sense of belonging, validation, identity. Mothers look in the eyes of their babies during nursing. Sometimes while nursing baby will smile or laugh; says all is okay to them, brings peace and rest. In 50’s not much nursing. Now more than ever. If mothers do not communicate love and identity we will look for it.
- 16. 16 -Communication: mothers teach us to communicate. They know our cries. We are validated and learn to communicate through mother’s responses. Mothers understand us and mirror us. This creates validation, a sense of balance. 2. Wounds: lack of love, nurture, bonding, valued, comforted, validation, identity 3. Fruit of mother wounds: fear of disappointing authority figures, not belonging, not being right, confusion of identity: “I should have been male/female”, need to earn approval. 4. Global Truth: The need for nurture exists in each heart and, unfulfilled, will cause our spirit to search. Often this search becomes skewed by worldly or carnal pulls. 5. Goal: Allow God to fill you with tenderness and nurture. To bond with you in love. We cannot re-bond with mother, but in Him we live and move and have our being. (Isa. 49:15-16) Slide 11: Breaking the Cycle of Wound (Healing) 1. Recognize that there is a mother/father wound. 2. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the wound. 3. Take time to “release” the attached emotions. Inner healing is a progress. We can get healed in steps. God is gentle with us- He takes His time to ensure that we are fully healed. Example: UnGodly Belief: “People cannot be trusted.” Step 1: “People cannot be trusted most of the time.” Step 2: “ People cannot be trusted some of the time.” Step 3: “Some people are trustworthy.” Godly Belief: “ I choose to trust God, who is trustworthy all the time, and be open to trust others.” 4. Forgive your father and mother 5. Repent for judging them (get out of their reaping stream)
- 17. 17 • Bitter root judgments: reactions to hurt, a refusal or inability to forgive, condemning judgment. • These bring into operation the unchangeable laws of God, which cause us to reap in kind what we have sown. • Gal. 6:7. God holds us accountable for our own sinful reactions to what happens to us. • For example: when our judgment dishonors our parents (regardless of whether it is merited, or even if the judgment is true that means that (Deut 5:16) ensures us that life would not go well for us in that regard. • The law expressed in physics is “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” • The law in chemistry is, “every equation (or formula) must balance.” • The moral and spiritual law is: (Gal 6:7, and Matt 7:1-2.) • The law of sowing and reaping however, adds another dimension. • We do not sow one seed and get back one seed. All things increase in the kingdom of God. The longer a judgment continues unrepented and unconfessed, the greater increment it gains. We sow a spark and reap a forest fire, or sow to the wind and reap a whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7). • Example: throwing a tennis ball against a wall and a basketball bounches back at you 100 miles per hour. Scriptures to remember for healing: Psalm 27:10: “When my father & my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me.” Psalm 68:5: “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation.” 6. Forgive yourself for receiving the wound 7. Ask the Holy Spirit to heal completely
- 18. 18 8. Receive Nurture from your Heavenly Father and through others.: The Aramaic form of ab is abba, a common Hebrew word children use for “daddy.” Jesus applied this toddler word to His Devine Father (Mark 14:36). The Holy Spirit teaches us to call God “Abba” (Romans 8:15). 9. Honor your heritage. Honor your heritage: • We are blessed with a heritage form our generational line and from the decisions/beliefs/characters of our very own parents • Just as there are obvious areas of wounding that we receive from our parents, caregivers and others who influence us, there are great blessings that are passed down…the bible even says to a 1,000 generations. • Research on DNA and blood demonstrates how character traits are established throughout generations. • We can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the areas in our family blood lines that are consequences of sin, and we can activate and receive the blessings that are locked and that have not been released to us. • Examples of DNA coding- inherited traits. (i.e. Luis’s creative abilities, my ability to teach passed down to me, Samuel’s love for car’s) Slide 12: Changing Our Destiny: Claiming & Reclaiming Our Inheritance 1. Healing of the spirit, soul, and body can change your destiny!: • Our daily decisions will change if our beliefs and behaviors change… therefore our futures will be restored to the perfect plans that God has for us. (Jeremiah 29:11) • Our passions and desires will be opened and we will begin to see clearly what we were designed for if we don’t have this revelation already. (more than working, getting married, having kids). 2. Claiming the blessings from your parents and past generations can change your destiny!:
- 19. 19 Scriptures: Exodus: 20: 6, Psalm 112:2,Psalm 103: 17-18, 2 Tim 1:5 (Paul reminds Timothy of his inheritance of faith passed down to him from his grandmother Louis, and mother Eunice) • Even by acknowledging our inherited blessings and traits, we can deicide to activate them. • We are effected by our ancestors, our mothers, and our fathers for good or for evil. 3. Our personal chooses will impact our destiny, our legacy, and eternity (the Kingdom of God): • Although we can be healed from past wounding, we will have instincts and “triggers” that become enabled through everyday life experiences (i.e. fighting with spouse, treated unfairly by boss). • And, some of our behavioral patterns are generational….sin/curses pasted down to us…. • We have been recreated in Christ, but we still live with body and same mind. Those who have amputated limbs often talk about the feeling of the absent body member. We have to re-program our hearts and minds through new patterns of thinking…reading God’s word, fellowship with other Christians. • We have to renew our minds daily and spend tie with God in His word. • Let his word continue to minister to us and heal us. Destiny: • Our personal destiny becomes the measure to which we submit to God through body, spirit, and soul and to the degree that we remain accountable to others and God.
- 20. 20 Legacy: • Every deed produces a seed. We are constantly sowing into our future. • (Phil Munsey) “Legacy is organizing the way you live your life so that you will be a blessing to other people for generations to come. It’s nothing more or less than taking responsibility to ensure that your relationships and resources will outlive and outlast your time on this earth.” • God transcends time; He sees all things from beginning to end. The plans God has for you are so big, so meaningful, and so important that it will take both you and generations to come to comprehend and complete the work. • For example: by taking the step to teach tonight, I am ensuring that my unborn son will have the genetic traits to stand up and preach the word of God someday. • To impact eternity, we have to come into agreement with God’s plans for our lives. Benjamin Franklin is credited with creating three critical questions each of us must answer: 1. Where did you come from? 2. Where are you going? 3. To whom are you accountable? Many years before, Paul answered these very questions in Acts 17: “He has made one blood…and has determined the boundaries of their dwellings…in Him we live and move and have our being…He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world” (Acts 17: 26-28) The 3 answers are: 1. From a specific bloodline 2. Toward a life of purpose found in Him. 3. To God on the Day of Judgment. These 3 questions may be the most important questions you will ever answer. Answer well. 4. Choose each day…be determined in every action and in every decision you make!
- 21. 21 Choose well!