Victory Temple Chantilly's Podcast Home Of The Free

"Don't look back." Ge 19:17 NLT
Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, He sent angels to warn Lot and his family to get out of town: "'Run for your lives!' [one warned.] 'And don't look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!'...But Lot's wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt" (vv. 17, 26 NLT). By looking back, Lot's wife disobeyed a direct instruction from God.
As a result, she died-stuck in the past. There are three important lessons here for you. (1)
"Don't.. stop anywhere in the valley!" We all go through valley experiences in life, but we must not get stuck in them or set up residence in them. (2) "And don't look back." The reason the windshield in your car is larger than the rearview mirror is because you're supposed to spend most of your time looking through the windshield, and only periodically glance in the rearview mirror so you can move forward safely and reach your destination.
Getting the idea? (3) "Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!" When someone hurts you, you have two choices: take the high road or the low road. When you take the low road and retaliate, something within you begins to die spiritually. But when you take the high road, you grow stronger, wiser, and more mature. When you get stuck in the past, it's always at the expense of the future. Always! God has better days and better things in store for you. So forgive, forget, and move forward.
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"I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt...And you forgave me!" Ps 32:5 NLT
In Scripture, the word confession is comprised of two forms of the same Greek root: ohmo, meaning "the same," and logéo, meaning "to speak." Therefore, confessing your sin to God means saying the same thing about it as He does. It means calling a spade a spade-not a gardening tool! Nowhere does the Bible refer to our sins as mistakes, bad judgments, and slips. However, it clearly says God forgives our sin: "I...am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins" (Isa 43:25
NKJV). So let's be clear. (1) Confessing isn't about apologizing. Saying you're sorry is appropriate and necessary at times. But you could never be sorry enough to deserve or earn God's forgiveness. Confessing is agreeing with God about the nature, extent, and offensiveness of your transgressions. (2)
Confessing isn't about feelings. Some of us plunge into remorse, guilt, and depression over our sins. And when such feelings lead to confession, that's good. But even when we don't feel these emotions, our confession is just as genuine and effective. (3) Confessing isn't complaining. Making a laundry list of your sins and telling God how terrible you are is more akin to complaining than confessing.
Coming clean with God and agreeing with His evaluation of your sin is what He wants from you. Then, like David, you can say, "I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt...And you forgave me!
All my guilt is gone. So, confess your sins to God--then start acting like someone who has been forgiven!
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"The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise." Pr 15:31 NKJV
One expert points out that leaders touch your heart before they ask for your hand. That's the law of connection. Before a leader can touch a person's heart, he or she has to know what's in it. And you learn that by listening. A reluctance to listen is too typical among poor leaders. Over half of all management problems are the consequence of faulty communications. And the vast majority of communication problems stem from poor listening. Many voices are clamoring for our attention. As you think about how to listen, keep in mind that you have two reasons for listening: (a) To connect with people, and (b)
To learn about them. That includes your competitors. Sam Markewich quipped, "If you don't agree with me, it means you haven't been listening." Though of course he was joking, the sad truth is that when a leader views another organization only as competition, he or she focuses attention on building their own case or championing their own objective and forgets to learn from the other group's efforts. Now, you don't necessarily want to base your actions on what the other person is doing, but you should still listen and learn how to improve yourself. It's a costly mistake to get so busy doing your own thing, or trying to make things happen, that you're not paying attention to what's going on around you. Every day you live and every experience you have, both negative and positive, can teach you valuable lessons. But you must listen!
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#Where there is no vision, the people perish." Pr 29:18
A pastor writes: "The second law of thermodynamics states this physical truth: If left to their own devices, everything in the universe moves toward disorder and decay.
Cars rust. Food rots...It's also called the law of entropy. And the only way to prevent entropy is to introduce an outside energy source to counteract it. The technical term for this is negentropy. And the refrigerator is a good example. You plug it into an electrical outlet, and it produces cold air that keeps food from rotting. If the refrigerator gets disconnected from its energy source, entropy will take over again. And things will get smelly. Isn't that what happens when we get disconnected from God? Life moves toward decay and disorder. So how do we overcome our entropic tendencies?.. [Solomon answers,] 'Where there is no vision, the people perish. If sin is entropy, then investing our energies in a God-sized vision is negentropy. The word perish comes from the Hebrew word para, and 'entropy' is a fair translation." Perhaps many church problems don't come from an abundance of sin but rather from a lack of vision? We're not suggesting that there aren't sin problems or that those problems don't need to be dealt with. But in too many instances, there isn't enough vision to keep churches busy. Our vision isn't big enough to demand all our energies, so we focus on petty problems to keep us busy. The same is true on a personal level. If we had a larger vision of what God wanted to accomplish in us and through us, our problems would diminish because we are consumed by a cause greater than ourselves."
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"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."Jas 1:22 NIV

When you listen to or read God's Word but don't apply it to your life, you deceive yourself. How so?
(1) You settle for knowledge rather than experience.
The Bible says, "If anyone...knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them" (Jas.4:17 NIV). How does that grab you? When you know the truth but don't act on it, you're not simply making a mistake or exercising poor judgment-you're sinning. The Bible says knowledge without obedience is sin.

(2) You compare yourself with others.
Paul writes, "Don't compare yourself with others" (Gal 6:4
MSG). "When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise" (2Co 10:12 NIV). That enables you to remain carnal but comfortable, and the older you get, the more seasoned you become at doing it. Over time you build a reservoir of responses, and when the truth gets too close for comfort, you have 101 reasons why it applies to everyone except you. 

(3) The Word moves you briefly but doesn't change you permanently. 
There is nothing wrong with responding emotionally to spiritual truth. But if you go merrily on your way without changing your behavior in the slightest, your spirituality boils down to nothing more than a vapid emotional experience. 

(4) You substitute communication for transformation. 
You talk the talk but don't walk the walk. You think if you speak eloquently and convincingly about a point of Scripture, you're covered-off the hook. You're not! James says, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says."
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"Do not say, 'Why were the old days better than these?' For it is not wise." Ecc 7:10 NIV
Two more reasons we resist change are these:
(1) Because it feels awkward and uncomfortable. When was the last time you tried something for the first time? Can you name it specifically? If you can't remember, your comfort zone may have turned into a rut. A sign on a wall contained two statements.
The first had an X through it. It said, "If it ain't broken--don't fix it." The second read, "If it ain't broken-break it!" Sometimes the only way to "get out of the box" is to break out.

(2) Because we cling to tradition. The Pharisees could not receive the truth Jesus shared because they were bound by their traditions. And many of us still cling to tradition. We assume that if something is a tradition (a long-established pattern of behavior), it must be the best way. That's not necessarily so, as change agents like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford demonstrated. Question: How many traditionalists does it take to change a light bulb? Four: one to change it, and three to talk about how wonderful the old light bulb was!
Bottom line: When a tradition connects you to other people or to your personal history, it can be good. If it doesn't, maybe it's time to try something new. The Bible says, "The way of the righteous.shines ever brighter until the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they are stumbling over" (Pr 4:18-19 NLT).

So, what changes do you need to make in your life?
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