They were captured, taken against their will, shackled in chains and locked in the hulls of ships. I can't imagine the different ways slave traders forced them to submit. The physical pain was probably overcome by the emotional pain. I am just assuming this, because I have never been in that position.
The lives of some African men and women would be changed forever. Family trees would be severed. Traditional beliefs and cultures would be greatly challenged. Traveling, as a free people, from one continent to another, was a risk and some didn't make it. Think about making that same trip, but being in bondage. I wonder what the mortality rate was for the slaves.
I will let you decide the negatives and the positives of black people as a result of this. The cost was great. Families divided, not by choice but by force. Also, many lives were lost in the Civil war because of it. Please think on this for a few moments.
What if it was you? How would something like this affect you, your family, and your future generations? Would this produce a deeply engrained anger in your subconscious mind? How great would your hunger for freedom be? Would you have the courage to seek that freedom at any cost? Would your dream consist of making enough money to buy back yours and your family's freedom?
We still have slavery in America today, and it is destroying lives and families. This is morally and economically devastating. Many chose this slavery over freedom. No one captured them, beat them, or chained them. What is it? Who does it enslave? Is there a solution? Can we ever be free again? At what price can we be redeemed?
At this point let me continue from my last post. God created all of us with a freewill. Adam and Eve used their freewill and chose to disobey God, so they could be like God, having knowledge of good and evil. They ate fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Evil could then be known by all humanity. Mankind could then choose good or evil.
Sometimes, evil was dressed up to look better than good. Satan dressed it up and is still dressing it up to be fun and pleasurable. Consequences of choosing evil over good are always hidden or explained away. We are all susceptible in choosing evil. When we do and have severe consequences in doing so, we usually do not own the accountability that comes with our bad choices. Most of the time we blame it on others or even God.
Satan deceives all of mankind into doing anything that God has commanded us not to do. When we choose what God calls evil over good, there is always a consequence. Let us look at one of these areas in our country today.
Sexual immorality has become a devastating giant in our country today. It is one of the three giants I write about in my book: The Heart Behind the Stone: Develop a Giant Slaying Heart. How has this risen to such giant sized destruction?
God's people are told in Galatians 5:16 to: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill fleshly desires. In listing the works of the flesh, fornication is the first one on the list. Read verse 19. Satan knew mankind had a problem with this. This still is a weakness that man has. This weakness initiates thoughts in the mind which seeks ways to manifest the strong sexual desires.
There is no discrimination in this destruction. Rich or poor, famous or unknown, black or white, Christian and Non-Christian, have all fallen to this enslavement of their bodies. Satan tempted them, and their uncontrolled thoughts chose to be enslaved by the runaway desire (lust) of the flesh.
This enslavement by the body and mind has caused families to be splintered, unborn babies to be murdered in the womb, same sex marriages, children molested by pedophiles, human sex trafficking, and men who call themselves transsexuals are being protected by the federal government so they can go pee in women's restrooms. Now add up all of the economical cost of welfare payments made to those who have illegitimate children and then the medical cost. I have not even mentioned the high cost of spiritual death.
I am going to have to continue this next week. I am going to give the solutions next time on how all of this, which began with a thought in the heart, can be changed with a pure heart from God. It hurts me to see young children without fathers to guide them and provide for them. It has really gotten out of control. It has become a big mess. I am tired of it. How about you? We keep living like the world, we will keep getting what the world gives us. What we have right now. If we live like God wants us to live, we will begin to see a change. I love God, my family, and my fellow man enough to do all I can.
Send me your comments by going to www.rhepler52@gmail.com. I address some of this in my book: The Heart Behind the Stone: Develop a Giant Slaying Heart. God can correct this problem if we seek His guidance. He has done the impossible for His people before, and He is ready and able to do it again. The question is are we ready to do what He says? David, before he killed Goliath, asked, "Is there not a cause?" I ask you the same question.
Please go to www.Amazon.com to preview my books.
Thanks for reading!
Rick
Friday, May 20, 2016
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
This Happened in the Beginning. Does It Still Happen Today?
Satan knew God had given her a free will. Satan also knew God had given her a commandment, so she would have an opportunity to exercise that choice. How could he get her to make the choice of disobeying the God who created her and blessed her with the paradise of Eden for her dwelling place?
Satan would deceive her by introducing thoughts to grasp, rationalize, and dissect God's only command. (Sound familiar?) He does this in Genesis 3:1-6. The free will God had given her and Adam was going to be tested.
Satan starts with a question, and he already knows the answer. Has God indeed said 'You shall not eat of every tree in the garden'? Why did he ask this question? He wanted her to state the truth God had told her. Why? He wants her to reveal God's truth. Now, he is going to get her to doubt this truth.
You will not surely die. Satan replies in verse 4. The next verse will cause her to rationalize and dissect this command. You will be like God begins her contemplating disobeying God's only command to her.
Verse 6 introduces Satan's unseen weapons to humanity. Will she fall for it? Would you? She saw it was good for food, (Lust of the Flesh) it was pleasant to the eyes, (Lust of the Eyes) and a tree that was desirable to make one wise. (Pride of life).
Satan did not make Eve take of the fruit. He got her to introduce her desires into the decision making process. She then came up with her own reasoning and excuses to disobey God's only command for her and Adam.
Her choice, no matter what excuses she could give, had the consequences of them being removed from the paradise God had given them to live in, a spiritual separation from God, and her spouse also sinning.
Humanity was then enslaved by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. What could emancipate mankind from this form of slavery? What would this form of slavery do to mankind in the future?
( To be continued)
Thanks for reading. Please send your comments to rhepler52@gmail.com and share with your friends.
I need your help. If you have read my books, "The Heart Behind the Stone" or "123 Tips: For My Grandchildren and Yours", could you write a review. If you have not purchased them, would you preview them and consider purchasing? These are good to use as devotionals for your teenagers. You may purchase them by going to www.amazon.com .
Thanks
Rick Hepler
Satan would deceive her by introducing thoughts to grasp, rationalize, and dissect God's only command. (Sound familiar?) He does this in Genesis 3:1-6. The free will God had given her and Adam was going to be tested.
Satan starts with a question, and he already knows the answer. Has God indeed said 'You shall not eat of every tree in the garden'? Why did he ask this question? He wanted her to state the truth God had told her. Why? He wants her to reveal God's truth. Now, he is going to get her to doubt this truth.
You will not surely die. Satan replies in verse 4. The next verse will cause her to rationalize and dissect this command. You will be like God begins her contemplating disobeying God's only command to her.
Verse 6 introduces Satan's unseen weapons to humanity. Will she fall for it? Would you? She saw it was good for food, (Lust of the Flesh) it was pleasant to the eyes, (Lust of the Eyes) and a tree that was desirable to make one wise. (Pride of life).
Satan did not make Eve take of the fruit. He got her to introduce her desires into the decision making process. She then came up with her own reasoning and excuses to disobey God's only command for her and Adam.
Her choice, no matter what excuses she could give, had the consequences of them being removed from the paradise God had given them to live in, a spiritual separation from God, and her spouse also sinning.
Humanity was then enslaved by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. What could emancipate mankind from this form of slavery? What would this form of slavery do to mankind in the future?
( To be continued)
Thanks for reading. Please send your comments to rhepler52@gmail.com and share with your friends.
I need your help. If you have read my books, "The Heart Behind the Stone" or "123 Tips: For My Grandchildren and Yours", could you write a review. If you have not purchased them, would you preview them and consider purchasing? These are good to use as devotionals for your teenagers. You may purchase them by going to www.amazon.com .
Thanks
Rick Hepler
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Do We Still Have a Form of Slavery Today? I Think We Do.
They had families like we do. They had to work hard in the fields and had a certain poundage of cotton to pick each day. I read in some places, the master or his taskmasters would give one whip across the back, leaving a scar, for every pound under the daily quota. No, I didn't say a dock in pay, I said a crack of the whip across the back. This would sometimes leave permanent scars.
What if the slave got up on Monday morning feeling sick? He still had to work and at the end of the work day if his quota was not made, the taskmasters whipped him. Think how you would feel at that moment. Put yourself in that emotional state for just a minute. Do you feel the pain on your back? Do you feel the emotional pain which is worse than the physical pain. Now feel this. Your master or "owner" comes in the next morning and puts chains on you, telling you to get in the wagon, he has sold you to another plantation owner, many miles away. He doesn't give you time to tell your little boy and girl good bye, nor give your wife a hug and tell her you love her. Feel the emotion in this moment. What would be your most powerful emotion or thought at this point? No, it is not fear, hate, anger, or a broken heart. It is the most powerful thought we all have to deal with at some point in our lives. It is the devastating emotion of feeling helpless.
Do you feel it with him? You ever been there? How do you feel right now? Are you showing empathy or apathy at this point ? I am thankful many back then had empathy for the slaves. Our country lost over 600,000 lives over the decision to abolish slavery. What would our country look like if someone back then, did not have the courage to stop this type of enslavement and treatment of a fellow human being, also created by God?
How would slave owners and their taskmasters be perceived today, if we still had that form of slavery? Would we have anyone to care enough to do something about it? Would we detest the way the families were broken up, because of the master dividing families and selling them off to other slave owners, sometimes far away? The thought of even bringing that form of slavery back, would cause riots in the streets in most cities today. Our government and the media would do all in their power to not allow the people of this country to be enslaved by these horrible slave owners and their taskmasters. Why would they do this? They would do this because the identity of the slave owners and taskmasters would be known and punished. They could be seen, touched, heard, and then ostracized, if not put in jail, from society. What they were doing to their fellowman could be seen and the damage to their families would be realized as being wrong.
Today, these masters and taskmasters would not be tolerated nor protected. They would be exposed for the evil they were doing and solutions would be given and acted upon to correct this evil. We would probably experience both democrats and republicans unified on resolving this.
Now. Read this slowly. We still do have slavery in America. There is a master with his own taskmasters enslaving the people we love everyday. We cannot see him nor his taskmasters, but we can see the families he is separating and a country divided because of his desire to have us serve him.
Who is this master, who has enslaved the mind of mankind with his deceptive destructive, yet pleasurable promises? He is Satan, a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44) Yet people believe and follow the path he leads by his lies. He has crafty taskmasters that bombard us with thoughts and damaging desires which lead us to do acts against our families and even ourselves, we would never dream of doing.
The slaves of old were forced to leave their families, not by choice but by force of their masters. Today, fathers willingly walk away, satisfying the desires of their master. We grieve over what was done to the families of slaves. Family members were traded like cattle, and some were separated never to see one another again. Yet these children knew their father and mother loved them and leaving them was not their choice, because at the time, they were forced to do so.
As a free people in America, we have a choice of who we serve. We will serve one of the two. Joshua said in Joshua 24:15, (Please read the whole verse) But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Also, in Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. So we have a choice. Which one are you serving now?
Our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to have the best. He has given us His word to live by. Most importantly, He has given us His Son to die in our stead. I want you to be honest with your thoughts as you contemplate on answering my next question. Would your life be better right now by following Christ and His teachings? Would your family be whole, by your following Him? What would our country look like if it followed Him? What would we look like as a people? What would be our day to day actions?
If you are not truly and honestly following God right now, do you know who you are following? There is only one other option and he is the prince of this world. If you do not choose God as your master, then you choose Satan, the ruler of this world,( John 12:31, Eph. 2:2). He also has many other names. If you do not choose God, then you choose Satan by default.
What does Satan use as his taskmasters? Go to 1 John 2:15-17. His taskmasters are describe in these verses. These same taskmasters have been used by Satan since the garden of Eden. With his deceptions and the enabling of these taskmaster to control your life and desires, you are enslaved to follow these desires. The end product is not righteousness, but destruction, and mankind is blindly and willingly led into this most devastating form of slavery. The taskmasters are: The lust of the flesh; the lust of the eyes; and the pride of life.
Christ was subjected to this master and his taskmasters in the wilderness. He chose God and God's word to make this master and his taskmasters leave. His choice was to serve God and God's purpose for Him coming to earth, over any pleasure the world (Satan) promised in this life. The end result is, our salvation. Be grateful He made the right choice. ( Matthew 4:1-11)
Let's compare the two masters and their taskmasters. We will start with Satan first. He hates us and wants us to be lost eternally with him and his angels. He uses temptation and his taskmasters are: the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He temps you with your own fleshly desires. He deceives you into thinking it will be ok to fulfill your desires outside of what God has commanded. These sinful desires are in the world and not of the Father. This world will pass away and the lust of it.
What are some of the consequences of choosing this master? What will the taskmasters do to you? Did you think it was awful for a slave to be sold off and never to see his family again? What about over 600,000 deaths to bring an end to slavery? Would you support slavery like that today? Are you sure? What about the beatings the taskmaster gave to slaves if they didn't do what was asked?
In this blog post I want us to notice what damage has been done by the allowing to be enslaved by Satan.
Let us begin with the family. What effect has Satan and his taskmasters had on the American Family? How did God want the family to be from the beginning? Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24, NKJV) God set the precedence and command for future men and women to be of one flesh, making a family. Notice He said, shall leave mother and father. Man was to leave his father's family and start his own family.
How sacred and binding was this marriage to be? Jesus said, But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. (Matthew 5:32, NKJV) (Remember God said His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways, and His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, Isaiah 55:8-9) Jesus stated the only way to dissolve a marriage and to be able to marry again, having a marriage that God would recognize, in this verse. We will get to the why later.
In this family, husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, wives are to be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ. Also, children are to obey and honor their parents. Fathers then are to bring their children up in the training and admonition of the Lord ( Please read Ephesians 5:22-6:1-4) This is where God's ways and thoughts are higher than man's. Today, man tries his own ways to define a family.
One of Satan's targets I talk about in my upcoming book, The Father of Deception, is the family. He uses his deception to keep the family torn apart from how God intended it to be. Satan is going to enslave you with his deceptions and his taskmaster, the lust of the flesh, is going to make you disregard your children, wife, and even the God who created and loves you.
Have Satan's deceptions in this area worked today? Has his taskmaster, the lust of the flesh, done a good job in enslaving men and women to their fleshly sexual desires outside of what God would have them to be? It is hard for me to come up with families that Satan has not tried to ruin. Do you know of any?
Satan uses our thoughts and desires to deceive and tempt us to commit fornication and adultery. When mankind gives in to these sinful desires, society suffers and lives are lost and eventually souls are lost, completing Satan's plan.
(To be continued next week)
Always remember, you cannot go back and change the past, but you can begin today in Christ to make a new and better ending.
Thanks for reading and be sure to read the continuation of this study in the next few days. Please share on Facebook with you friends and send your comments to rhepler52@gmail.com .
Rick Hepler
What if the slave got up on Monday morning feeling sick? He still had to work and at the end of the work day if his quota was not made, the taskmasters whipped him. Think how you would feel at that moment. Put yourself in that emotional state for just a minute. Do you feel the pain on your back? Do you feel the emotional pain which is worse than the physical pain. Now feel this. Your master or "owner" comes in the next morning and puts chains on you, telling you to get in the wagon, he has sold you to another plantation owner, many miles away. He doesn't give you time to tell your little boy and girl good bye, nor give your wife a hug and tell her you love her. Feel the emotion in this moment. What would be your most powerful emotion or thought at this point? No, it is not fear, hate, anger, or a broken heart. It is the most powerful thought we all have to deal with at some point in our lives. It is the devastating emotion of feeling helpless.
Do you feel it with him? You ever been there? How do you feel right now? Are you showing empathy or apathy at this point ? I am thankful many back then had empathy for the slaves. Our country lost over 600,000 lives over the decision to abolish slavery. What would our country look like if someone back then, did not have the courage to stop this type of enslavement and treatment of a fellow human being, also created by God?
How would slave owners and their taskmasters be perceived today, if we still had that form of slavery? Would we have anyone to care enough to do something about it? Would we detest the way the families were broken up, because of the master dividing families and selling them off to other slave owners, sometimes far away? The thought of even bringing that form of slavery back, would cause riots in the streets in most cities today. Our government and the media would do all in their power to not allow the people of this country to be enslaved by these horrible slave owners and their taskmasters. Why would they do this? They would do this because the identity of the slave owners and taskmasters would be known and punished. They could be seen, touched, heard, and then ostracized, if not put in jail, from society. What they were doing to their fellowman could be seen and the damage to their families would be realized as being wrong.
Today, these masters and taskmasters would not be tolerated nor protected. They would be exposed for the evil they were doing and solutions would be given and acted upon to correct this evil. We would probably experience both democrats and republicans unified on resolving this.
Now. Read this slowly. We still do have slavery in America. There is a master with his own taskmasters enslaving the people we love everyday. We cannot see him nor his taskmasters, but we can see the families he is separating and a country divided because of his desire to have us serve him.
Who is this master, who has enslaved the mind of mankind with his deceptive destructive, yet pleasurable promises? He is Satan, a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44) Yet people believe and follow the path he leads by his lies. He has crafty taskmasters that bombard us with thoughts and damaging desires which lead us to do acts against our families and even ourselves, we would never dream of doing.
The slaves of old were forced to leave their families, not by choice but by force of their masters. Today, fathers willingly walk away, satisfying the desires of their master. We grieve over what was done to the families of slaves. Family members were traded like cattle, and some were separated never to see one another again. Yet these children knew their father and mother loved them and leaving them was not their choice, because at the time, they were forced to do so.
As a free people in America, we have a choice of who we serve. We will serve one of the two. Joshua said in Joshua 24:15, (Please read the whole verse) But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Also, in Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. So we have a choice. Which one are you serving now?
Our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to have the best. He has given us His word to live by. Most importantly, He has given us His Son to die in our stead. I want you to be honest with your thoughts as you contemplate on answering my next question. Would your life be better right now by following Christ and His teachings? Would your family be whole, by your following Him? What would our country look like if it followed Him? What would we look like as a people? What would be our day to day actions?
If you are not truly and honestly following God right now, do you know who you are following? There is only one other option and he is the prince of this world. If you do not choose God as your master, then you choose Satan, the ruler of this world,( John 12:31, Eph. 2:2). He also has many other names. If you do not choose God, then you choose Satan by default.
What does Satan use as his taskmasters? Go to 1 John 2:15-17. His taskmasters are describe in these verses. These same taskmasters have been used by Satan since the garden of Eden. With his deceptions and the enabling of these taskmaster to control your life and desires, you are enslaved to follow these desires. The end product is not righteousness, but destruction, and mankind is blindly and willingly led into this most devastating form of slavery. The taskmasters are: The lust of the flesh; the lust of the eyes; and the pride of life.
Christ was subjected to this master and his taskmasters in the wilderness. He chose God and God's word to make this master and his taskmasters leave. His choice was to serve God and God's purpose for Him coming to earth, over any pleasure the world (Satan) promised in this life. The end result is, our salvation. Be grateful He made the right choice. ( Matthew 4:1-11)
Let's compare the two masters and their taskmasters. We will start with Satan first. He hates us and wants us to be lost eternally with him and his angels. He uses temptation and his taskmasters are: the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He temps you with your own fleshly desires. He deceives you into thinking it will be ok to fulfill your desires outside of what God has commanded. These sinful desires are in the world and not of the Father. This world will pass away and the lust of it.
What are some of the consequences of choosing this master? What will the taskmasters do to you? Did you think it was awful for a slave to be sold off and never to see his family again? What about over 600,000 deaths to bring an end to slavery? Would you support slavery like that today? Are you sure? What about the beatings the taskmaster gave to slaves if they didn't do what was asked?
In this blog post I want us to notice what damage has been done by the allowing to be enslaved by Satan.
Let us begin with the family. What effect has Satan and his taskmasters had on the American Family? How did God want the family to be from the beginning? Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24, NKJV) God set the precedence and command for future men and women to be of one flesh, making a family. Notice He said, shall leave mother and father. Man was to leave his father's family and start his own family.
How sacred and binding was this marriage to be? Jesus said, But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. (Matthew 5:32, NKJV) (Remember God said His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways, and His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, Isaiah 55:8-9) Jesus stated the only way to dissolve a marriage and to be able to marry again, having a marriage that God would recognize, in this verse. We will get to the why later.
In this family, husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, wives are to be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ. Also, children are to obey and honor their parents. Fathers then are to bring their children up in the training and admonition of the Lord ( Please read Ephesians 5:22-6:1-4) This is where God's ways and thoughts are higher than man's. Today, man tries his own ways to define a family.
One of Satan's targets I talk about in my upcoming book, The Father of Deception, is the family. He uses his deception to keep the family torn apart from how God intended it to be. Satan is going to enslave you with his deceptions and his taskmaster, the lust of the flesh, is going to make you disregard your children, wife, and even the God who created and loves you.
Have Satan's deceptions in this area worked today? Has his taskmaster, the lust of the flesh, done a good job in enslaving men and women to their fleshly sexual desires outside of what God would have them to be? It is hard for me to come up with families that Satan has not tried to ruin. Do you know of any?
Satan uses our thoughts and desires to deceive and tempt us to commit fornication and adultery. When mankind gives in to these sinful desires, society suffers and lives are lost and eventually souls are lost, completing Satan's plan.
(To be continued next week)
Always remember, you cannot go back and change the past, but you can begin today in Christ to make a new and better ending.
Thanks for reading and be sure to read the continuation of this study in the next few days. Please share on Facebook with you friends and send your comments to rhepler52@gmail.com .
Rick Hepler
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