If God Be Your Alpha...

"If you leave what's good for you in order to have what's good to you, your end will be no good at all."


People, let's stop playing with God as though He is only Holy when we need Him to do something for us.  Let's stop pretending that God is not who He says He is, because He is.  And furthermore, can we stop pretending that God is a genie in a lamp who exists only to grant us our wishes and then, once our hedonistic pleasures are fulfilled, we're free to do as we please until we need something else?  If God be your Alpha, let Him also be your Omega.  Bottom line:  if you start with God, you've got to finish with God or your end will be disastrous.  This is a lesson for those who want to grow up and mature spiritually; not those who want to stay church babies.  The difference can be seen in the life of those who learn good basics in church, then move on and apply them in life.  Most church goers are chronic; they go to church all their lives, doing the same thing twenty years later that they were doing the twenty years before.  Folks, if in twenty years your church life has not changed, you have not grown spiritually, and you cannot labor for God!  You are just a church baby.  But if after years of being taught in church you are now teaching moral values and lessons to other folks--in and out of the church, you have grown spiritually or grown up spiritually.  The purpose for growing up spiritually?  The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few.  We need people teaching sound morals, values and ethics to the generations behind them.  That's the only way to live in a better world.  But if no one is prepared to do the labor of teaching the truth and other things that matter, the society we live in erodes.  Things won't get better; they'll just get worse and worse.  There are lots of people who get older in their bodies, but their minds haven't matured much at all.  Why?  Because they are not being taught the things they need to know and understand in order to move on to the next level of maturation.  That's is what is supposed to be happening in our homes, in our churches, in our schools, on our jobs, etc., but it's not happening enough.  Why?  Because not many of us mature to the point of being teachers.  The purpose of maturation?  To build and sustain a strong society, then pass on what we know to help the future leaders of our world.  One of the purposes of history is to help us to remember where we came from so that we won't end up where we were before, repeating our mistakes.  Well, the history of your family, gender, class, social group, community, culture, city, etc., serves the same purpose, but how many of us even know our history?  Older women should be helping young girls to healthily mature into responsible young women, but look at the teenaged pregnancy rate in this country.  If mature women were teaching young girls the necessities of maturation, they'd wait longer to have husbands and babies.  Mature men should be helping young boys cross over into maturity in order to take on the responsibilities of manhood, husbandry, fatherhood, and senior citizenry, but look at the number of absentee fathers in our families.  And guys who are at home, before you jump the gun, know that emotional absenteeism is worse than physical.  Yes, you're there, but are you involved in the family activities?

So what does the church have to do with any of this?  Church teaching is for more than just informing others about Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah and, for those who are a little more advanced, David and Absalom, Tamar and Amnon, Jezebel and Elijah, etc.  As we mature spiritually, we ought to be teaching our girls it's okay to be beautiful but a beautiful woman without discretion is like a pig with a ring in it's snout (Proverbs 11:22).   They need to now that it's important to build and maintain a home without tearing it down with their own hands (Proverbs 14:6), and that nagging your man...well, read about what that's like in Proverbs 21:9, 19.  And how about Proverbs 31?  If we read and learn about the virtuous woman, we can lay to rest the Cinderella story.  Ladies: it was just a FAIRYTALE; not a promise to those who live the perfect life!  There AIN'T no such thing as Prince Charming, so stop waiting for him.  And for goodness sakes, stop finding the frog and lying to yourself and everyone else about what a prince he is!!!  NEWSFLASH: The rest of us know a frog when we see one, so stop fantasizing; we can see all that you close your eyes to.  We know your man ain't no good if he ain't no good!

Anyway, back to the church.  Learn who God really is.  He is not some troll in the sky waiting to strike you down and cast you into hell for not following all the do's and the don'ts of religion.  He IS, however, the spirit of truth (the Holy Spirit), Integrity(the Son), and intelligence (the Father).  God is  the sum of truth, integrity and intelligence.  If you start with truth, integrity and intelligence, than finish with truth, integrity and intelligence.  If you used truth, integrity and intelligence to get your blessing, then use truth, integrity and intelligence to keep and maintain it!  If you believed in God on your way up, believe in Him just as much once you get there, or you won't be able to stay.  And the bigger they are, the harder they fall.  In everything God asks you to do, or paves the way for you to do, He is faithful to give you the strength to get it done as well as see it through.  He will never leave you on your own; He will never leave nor forsake you because HE knows YOU need HIM in order to maintain what you could never have gotten on your own!  But remember: He said He'd never leave you; He never said you couldn't leave HIM.  It's always your choice, Prodigal Son, because He said He would never force you to do anything (Zechariah 4:6).

That brings me to the inevitable question of the day, which is the original point of the blog: What happened to Whitney Houston?  I was shocked and heartbroken when I read the news.  I didn't want to believe it.  How do you go from megastardom where God is clearly the influence in your life to dying in a hotel room alone, disgraced and humiliated?  I watched a clip of the interview she did with Dianne Sawyer.  She said the biggest devil in her life was herself.  It almost brought me to tears as I listened to what she had to say because at that point I knew she wasn't lying.  I wonder, however, if anyone else saw the devil as she was talking.  I actually saw two: pride and arrogance.  It wasn't the drugs or any effect thereof that killed her.  It was her pride.  The saddest part of the interview was that she maintained "Jesus loves me, this I know". Wow!  I am certainly not writing this to bash Whitney.  I am, however, reaching out to other believers by teaching the truth about the Kingdom of God, and it is my responsibility to do so.  No matter how much I wanted to see Whitney beat this thing, it didn't change the obvious about her life--or ours.  You can't exchange who He made you to be for what you want to be, and expect your standing in the Kingdom to remain the same.  There are definite consequences for walking outside of His ways.  (And for the diehards who believe that Jesus loves you no matter what you do, read Psalm 25.  If you love and trust in Him, He won't let you die in disgrace, and before you criticize me for my honesty, read Proverbs 24:24-25.  I'm sure there were lots of people in Ms. Houston's life who warned her time and time again that if she didn't change her ways she would meet a terrible end.  She came from a family with strong gospel roots; I know they tried to help her.) If you change your identity, which is what happens when you leave God and follow the world, you are no longer the person Jesus loved! You can't do what you want to do and expect God to give to you what He's reserved for those who love Him.  It is what it is.  Rest in peace if you can, Whitney.  Rest if you can.