revelation7strong

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Travel Lines - 4: The Spirit Airline - God's Wisdom

“First of all pure.”

James 3:17

From my Journal 2005...Best to start this story from the beginning..."Travel Lines - 1: The Self Train Line - Derailed"

When I consider that there is nothing that can separate me from Your love, then I do consider it pure joy to face trials of many kinds.¹ I do want to continue to climb Your Stairway to Heaven—those steps of sanctification that progressively transform my flesh, the old creation, to Your Spirit, the new person I am becoming.

I look at some men of age, and I can see wisdom in their eyes as they speak. I can see the reflection of experience with the subject—the lines of their face indicating the roads traveled, their expressions mirroring the journeys faced. They speak from the heart and mind, a mixture of emotion with reason. Their compassion is long, and their conviction is deep—with arms open wide to receive and mentor, they stand on a firm foundation.

What makes these men different, standing out from the norm, distinctively above the blurry mediocrity? They have been through trials of many kinds, and they sought God for guidance. These men of which I speak are not ordinary men, for God has set them apart for a purpose of His own, a mission divinely directed, and they chose to follow Him. These men, God’s elect, are men after God’s own heart—men of God. They are like an Enoch, a David, Joshua, Moses or Abraham—men of faith—who demonstrated with their lives what life is like to obey God, to let Him reign as Lord of their thoughts, words, and actions.

Were these patriarchs of faith perfect at making choices, judging right from wrong, implementing a plan of action and following through to see its completion? Absolutely not! This is where they shared what is common to man—sin—responding to temptation, by responding from the flesh rather than the Spirit. David committed adultery and then murder to cover it up. Yet, David is described by God as “a man after My own heart, for he will do everything I want him to.”² The heart is where we harbor love. It is the portal of our emotions, feelings that generate responses—actions that we may later regret depending on whose heart through which we seek passage. If we are seeking God’s heart in a matter on which we are deciding, we find the essence of pure responses and true wisdom.

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere.³

When you face trials, the challenges of life that stretch your abilities beyond your comfort zone, whose heart do you seek? Your own heart may harbor remnants of wounds from the past—hurts from people that you have not forgiven, or forgiven but not forgotten—and you may keep a record of wrongs and refer to yourself as a “victim.” If so, you must seek God’s heart on this unfinished business. How does God want you to grow in true wisdom from experiencing the trial that caused these wounds and their pain?

First of all, He wants you to seek after His heart. It is in God’s heart that we find the comfort of forgiveness, but we must first seek it. Harboring unforgiven sin—acts we have committed—and unforgiveness of sins committed against us separates us from God’s heart. This is to what David refers in this psalm when he “hid” his secret sin of adultery with Bathsheba:

When I refused to confess my sin,

I was weak and miserable,

and I groaned all day long.

Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.

My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you

and stopped trying to hide them.

I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”

And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.⁴

David asked God to purify his heart so that he could experience the heart of God. “The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure.”⁵ If God’s purity is mixed with lust, jealousy, pride … it is no longer pure—it is adulterated—just like David’s situation—he combined his love for Bathsheba with the love God intended for his wife.

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Oh, give back my joy again;

you have broken me—

now let me rejoice.

Don’t keep looking at my sins.

Remove the stain of my guilt.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Renew a right spirit within me.

Do not banish me from your presence,

and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me again the joy of your salvation,

and make me willing to obey you.

Then I will teach your ways to sinners,

and they will return to you.⁶

David then experienced the restoration and joy of forgiveness:

Oh, what joy for those

whose rebellion is forgiven,

whose sin is put out of sight!

Yes, what joy for those

whose record the LORD has cleared of sin,

whose lives are lived in complete honesty!⁷

When we are obedient to God—doing everything He wants us to do—we are seeking His heart, and the blessing of experience is joy, regardless of the trial we encounter: “Happy are those who obey his decrees and search for him with all their hearts.”⁸

Harboring unforgiveness of sins committed against us also separates us from the heart of God. Unforgiveness is like the taste of bitter vinegar, a sharp contrast to the sweetness of grape juice. Both come from the same fruit—grapes—but the way the fruit is processed affects the outcome of its taste—bitter or sweet. The same goes for how we handle the circumstances that change our hearts: forgiveness is sweet; unforgiveness— bitter revenge. To remove the bitterness, envy, or jealousy planted in the heart, you must pull out the roots of their cause. The source of these emotions motivated by the Devil results from your desire to hold onto the wound until vengeance is complete. Seeking revenge is an operand of the Devil—this is the basis for the spiritual war of Good vs. Evil. Satan—Lucifer, the fallen angel—is seeking vengeance against God for expelling him from heaven.⁹ Satan aims to devour the good fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control¹⁰—by pitting one against another. In the wounds of hurtful experiences, Satan plants hate, bitterness, strife, selfishness, meanness, evil, lust, harshness, and impetuousness.

We have these wrongful feelings for others in part because we judge others’ actions, words, and motives. There is only One, who knows the thoughts of a person and the desires of their heart, and that is God.¹¹ We cannot see or discern what God sees or knows because of the two-by-four in our own eye and the selfishness and jealousy in our own heart.¹² Jesus warns us that we will be judged by the cup with which we measure.¹³ If your desire is to harbor unforgiveness to seek vengeance, you are setting up a travesty of discipline for God to met out on you. “Vengeance is mine,” says the LORD.¹⁴ These words alone should motivate you to pull out by the roots the growth of bitterness, envy, jealousy, strife, selfishness … and give them to God. He’s all knowing. He knows what happened to cause these wounds, and He also knows the wounds you have inflicted on others. This should bring pause to any unresolved unforgiveness in your heart. Forgive everyone for everything, and you’ll end up with a pure heart capable of receiving God’s pure wisdom without adulterating it.

Do you have the desire to seek after God’s own heart to become wise, not in your own eyes, but through the eyes of others who want to partner with a person who is an icon of Jesus¹⁵—a model of peace, gentleness, flexibility, compassion, empathy, mercy, good deeds, fairness, and sincerity? Then take to heart the wisdom of God’s Word:

"If you are wise and understand God’s ways, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don’t brag about the good you do, then you will be truly wise! But if you are bitterly jealous, and there is selfish ambition in your hearts, don’t brag about being wise. That is the worst kind of lie. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and motivated by the Devil. For wherever there are jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil.

"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness."¹⁶

Happy are people of integrity,

who follow the law of the LORD.

Happy are those who obey his decrees

and search for him with all their hearts.

They do not compromise with evil,

and they walk only in his paths.

You have charged us

to keep your commandments carefully.

Oh, that my actions would consistently

reflect your principles!

Then I will not be disgraced

when I compare my life with your commands.

When I learn from your righteous laws,

I will thank you by living as I should!

I will obey your principles.

Please don’t give up on me!

How can a young person stay pure?

By obeying your word and following its rules.

I have tried my best to find you—

don’t let me wander from your commands.

I have hidden your word in my heart,

that I might not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O LORD;

teach me your principles.

I have recited aloud

all the laws you have given us.

I have rejoiced in your decrees

as much as in riches.

I will study your commandments

and reflect on your ways.

I will delight in your principles

and not forget your word.

LORD, you are mine!

I promise to obey your words!

With all my heart I want your blessings.

Be merciful just as you promised.

I pondered the direction of my life,

and I turned to follow your statutes.

I will hurry, without lingering,

to obey your commands.

Evil people try to drag me into sin,

but I am firmly anchored to your law.

At midnight I rise to thank you

for your just laws.

Anyone who fears you is my friend—

anyone who obeys your commandments.

O LORD, the earth is full of your unfailing love;

teach me your principles.¹⁷

As my second journey on God’s Spirit Airline continued, the joy of trial was mixed with the love of Christ, adding layers of faith and strengthening my foundation in Him.

Next: The Spirit Airline: Healing in His Wings…”He renews my strength.”

Praise to Our Father for the words He has given me ~ Jeff Cambridge

References

All Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version^®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of International Bible Society. “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society.

1. James 1:1 NIV

2. 1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22

3. James 3:17 italics added

4. Psalm 32:3-5

5. James 3:17 italics added

6. Psalm 51:7-13

7. Psalm 32:1-2

8. Psalm 119:1

9. Isaiah 14:12-15

10. Galatians 5:22

11. Matthew 9:4, 12:25; Psalm 37:4

12. Matthew 7:3-5

13. Matthew 7:1-2

14. Romans 12:19 NKJV

16. James 3:13-18 italics added

17. Psalm 119:1-16, 57-64

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Travel Lines - 3: The Spirit Airline - Upward

“They will fly high on wings like eagles.”

Isaiah 40:31

From my Journal 2005...Best to start this story from the beginning..."Travel Lines - 1: The Self Train Line - Derailed"

Downtrodden and defeated, a demise of mind, body, and spirit, delivered from the evil stronghold, broken of the man made by my own rule, I looked upward. The eagle soared in the heavens with majestic wings. High above all the conditions of this world, the magnificent bird rode the wind currents and experienced the solitude of heavenly peace. The eagle’s watchful eye kept guard over the lost soul, waiting for his Master’s next command.¹

I had no trouble making the decision to give myself completely, utterly, and absolutely to my Father God. The man I had never met, who prayed for me on the phone, asked if I would willfully give up my life for Christ to live in me. My heart cried out, Yes! And I humbly replied, “Yes, I want to receive Him now.” The man continued to pray, leading me with these words that I prayed in my heart:

Father God, You created me and brought me into this world. I receive and accept Your Son, Christ Jesus, as Lord and Savior of my life. I have sinned and kept Your presence from me so that I could rule my life. I made many wrong choices and did many bad things. I repent of all these choices and behaviors. I choose to stop the thoughts, hold the words, and remove the actions that disgrace You and me as a child of God. I open my Self to Your perfect will in my life. Teach me Your ways. Show me Your means of traveling through life’s journey in this world. I place my Self in Your Almighty hands.

My Lord Jesus, forgive me for every sin I have committed. Wash my spirit clean of all the evil I have allowed in my life. Bind and remove the strongholds in my life and free me from their bondage. Replace them with the Holy Spirit that brings liberty and freedom from all sin.

I receive the Holy Spirit with my heart open to You living within me. I embrace You and take refuge under Your wing. Cover me with Your presence. Show me the way to Your place of safety when I am tempted, and keep me from all evil. In Jesus Name, Amen.

The silence that followed was one of tranquility and peace. The heaviness of spirit to which I was accustomed was lifted. The catharsis—the purification and purgation that brought spiritual renewal²—of my mind, body, and spirit were refreshing.

“My brother in Christ, you are free,” said the man on the other end of the phone line.

“Thank God.” I breathed a sigh of relief and laid my head on my arm resting on the bureau. “What is your name,” I asked, not remembering if he had already told me.

“Brother Gerald,” he replied. I am an elder at the Church on the Hill. We received your call, and I have been trying to reach you. Sorry for the delay …”

“I know,” I interrupted his apology, “So has He, and I thank God for your role in saving me.”

“I want to invite you to our School of Spiritual Warfare. You will need God’s protection from the enemy’s return. It will take His power and your employment of it to stand up against the enemy.”

Brother Gerald told me how to stand firm against the enemy. He instructed me to speak out God’s Word—to read aloud from the Holy Bible, Scriptures that I felt spoke to me personally. He said that God’s Word pierces the darkness like a sword of Light—it is my weapon against the temptation that may torment me. Brother Gerald called me a “child of God” and said that I inherited all of the power of the Kingdom of heaven to take authority over Satan and his tormenting demons. He reminded me that God’s forgiveness of my sins was freely given by His grace—I did not earn it, and no one could take it away from me, not even the Devil—and that any guilt from any sin of which I asked God to forgive me was from the Devil trying to deceive me.

“God’s Word is the most powerful weapon you have to resist the devil; it is your Sword of the Spirit,” Brother Gerald explained. “Carry it with you wherever you go by inscribing it on your heart. Take the Scriptures that speak to your heart and commit them to memory, and then God’s Word will be there when you feel the torment of temptation. When you feel condemned or tormented by your past, remember that this is not from God. God will take your broken past and use it for your renewed future. Listen to these words written by the Apostle Paul inspired by God. Before Paul’s salvation he was a different person—he had people killed because of their faith in Christ as Savior—and when he wrote these words in a letter to the Christians in Rome he was writing to people like you who repented of their past and wanted to make their journey through life traveling with the Holy Spirit:

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory.

"What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?

"Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.

"Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."³

This was the beginning of my journey on God’s Spirit Airline—experiencing the love of Christ.

Next: The Spirit Airline: God’s Wisdom…”First of all Pure.”

Praise to Our Father for the words He has given me.

Jeff Cambridge

References

1. Psalm 91:11

3. Romans 8:28-35, 37-39

Monday, March 7, 2016

Travel Lines - 2: The Soul Cruise Line - Shipwrecked

Shipwrecked

“For the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost.”

Matthew 18:11

From my Journal 2005:...Best to start this story from the beginning..."Travel Lines - 1: The Self Train Line - Derailed"

My wandering eye couldn’t miss the billboard. The bronze-tanned, long-legged, scantily clad, voluptuously displayed woman lying on the beach beaming a smile directly at me added life to the words advertising paradise:

Take command of your life!

Be the captain of your destiny!

Launch your life on the yacht laden with the treasures of fun-filled living!

Choose this “Cruise Line for your Soul” and experience the fulfillment of your dreams!

Call 1-FOR-THE-SOUL

The phone number connected me to a recorded, seductive greeting: You deserve what you desire! The ship is about to sail. The prevailing winds are with you. The cards predict it. The signs are right. It’s in the stars and your horoscope reads, “Sail away from your trouble. It’s good for your soul. Paradise lies ahead.” By the time a travel agent picked up the call, I had taken the bait, hook, line, and sinker. I heard what I wanted to hear from the travel agent, and within the week, I boarded the schooner, “Gone with the Wind,” with its three masts towering overhead and the feeling of adventure coursing through my veins. I was lead by my heart to gratify whatever felt good. Have you ever been ruled by your heart?

Sailing away with the wind at my back, I left the coastline and everything behind— except for the mess of baggage that I stowed below deck is hidden from view. I wanted to appear to “have it together.” My investment in Self-help had built a beautiful façade. What is your “baggage of life” full of? How do you keep it “hidden”?

Sailing on a boat is very different from traveling by train. Whereas the Self Train Line had a definitive course, predictable and planned, the Soul Cruise Line was at the mercy of the wind, a force unpredictable regarding direction, danger, and destiny. While on the train, my mind led my behavior, a myriad of calculated thoughts, by design to propel me successfully to stardom, to the heights of my career. In contrast, the cruise on the sea was like floating through time, my heart leading the way. I had burned out the high-powered scheming pattern of the past—the fewer the thoughts, the better as long as it felt good—Ecstasy!

The nature of Self-help is insidious. Its foundation is based on one’s ability to change his or her circumstances. Self-help employs and empowers the flesh, and who rules the flesh, but the prince of the power of the air of the world in which we live, none other than the Devil himself.¹

When I empowered the flesh, I gave authority to the ruler of the carnal mind to direct the lusts of my heart, the feelings and emotions that drove my behavior.² Essentially I had the cart before the horse—my emotions and feelings lead my behavior instead of my actions guiding how I felt. I became impulsive, heading in one direction then changing course, my destiny at the mercy of the wind. At sea, I was affected by storms, waves, bitter winds, and the contrasting lulls of stillness where I sat deadpan, motionless in the scorching sun, listless, useless, and demoralized—the destiny to paradise became a figment of my imagination.

The course of my journey on the Soul Cruise Line was left in the hands of the wind. If only I could take control of the rudder! The rudder, a moveable paddle attached to the back of a boat, is small in comparison to the major effect it has on changing direction—it can turn a ship around! Without this mechanism to steer, a boat could be cast upon the rocks, shipwrecked and unable to continue its journey. Does your life at times seem as if you are lost at sea, aimlessly moving about wherever the prevailing wind takes you?

As storms swept across the seascape of my life, I found myself cast about, out of control, at times harming myself, as I was unable to place my feet on solid ground. It was during these times that a feeling of helplessness overcame any means of Self-help, and I sank into despair and depression as my course headed closer to rocks of doom. Where was the paradise the advertisement described?

I chose to leave my troubled life behind, but I did not realize that I was still hanging onto the baggage that I brought on board. The lure of the advertisement deceived me; the travel agent sold me false goods, promising me I would find a better life. What I was about to find was that I didn’t have a foundation to weather the course of life. As the tempest intensified, I was eventually cast on the rocks of hard times and the last of all I called my own was scattered across the waves. Desperate for survival, I numbed the emotional pain but found nothing to hold me up above the consuming waves of my past. My legs churned aimlessly in the water, nowhere to go, if only… My foot scraped against the rocky shoreline. Marooned I was, yet dead I was not, as I waited for the sea of my predicament to calm, not knowing what to do next—shipwrecked—my life broken like the pieces of the boat that brought me to this destination.

“But I became afraid, and because of my fear I crashed beneath the waves.”

Matthew 14:30

I was fed up with my life. It may be OK to fail once on the course chosen, but twice? I was so angry with my Self that I was willing to do anything to rid me of the torment, day and night, which I experienced. I was never free from the reminder of my train wreck, my shipwreck, and the daily drowning in my past. Who to call? Who would answer? What would I say?

Desperate for a change of the ugly feelings to which I woke every morning, I left work on my lunch hour and went home. A concerned friend had given me a phone number to call for help, and I had left a message the previous day. Does anyone care? Where do I start, and how far is the climb out of the pit I am mired?

I called the phone number again, and someone answered. My life was about to change. Gone was the façade of Self—the “You’re OK” mantra. Here I was talking on the phone to someone I had never met, to whom I was spilling my soul of pain, bearing my heart of desperation, and venting my mind of torment. Purged of the erupted emotion, I waited to hear the answer I needed. There was silence, and then I heard, “Can I pray for you?” My lips quivered as my eyes flooded with tears. I reached forward to lean on the bureau for support as I fought to mouth and whispered, “Will you?”

I was bawling inside, pent-up pain churning inside. The words I do not remember, but the vision was burnt in my mind, and the feeling stamped in my heart as he prayed. I saw the drama of the Last Supper in which I portrayed Peter, the self-confident and impulsive disciple who boasted that he would give his life for his Lord.³ I could hear my voice as I exclaimed, “It was I who walked upon the surface of the Sea of Galilee. But I became afraid, and because of my fear I crashed beneath the waves.”⁴

I was desperate for Christ to take the weight of my suffering and the bondage of sin from me. At that moment, I let go of all that weighed me down, the baggage of years of Self-reliance, Self-indulgence, and Self-ambition. I would trade all of that to find solid ground underneath my feet.

It was at that moment, at home on my lunch hour, standing in my bedroom with the phone to my ear hearing the man pray for me and seeing the vision of Peter desperately reaching to Christ for help, that I raised my right hand to the sky and inside myself I cried out, “Lord, save me!” And as suddenly as the thought, a bolt of Power touched my hand and shot through every fiber of my being as God’s Spirit gave me an understanding that I was no longer in bondage. The cathartic effect of God’s Holy Spirit purged me of the stronghold. From that day forward, I was free. I was liberated.

“If a shepherd has one hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one? And if he finds it, he will surely rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.⁵

—My Savior, Jesus the Christ, Son of Man, Son of God

Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, he gives freedom.⁶

—Spoken by Paul, an apostle shipwrecked three times

and once spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea⁷

Next: Saved by the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God of the universe. Under eagle’s wings He took me on a journey, flying from one lesson to another with His angels as pilots. This is a journey of the Spirit, learning to rely on Him, walking in faith on solid ground as He took me from Self to Spirit, as he changed the desires of my heart to reflect His perfect will for my life.

Praise to Our Father for the words He has given me.

References

1. Ephesians 2:2, John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11

2. Romans 8:5-6, 1:24-25 NKJV

3. Luke 22:33

4. Matthew 14:29-30

5. Matthew 18:12-14

6. 2 Corinthians 3:17

7. 2 Corinthians 11:25

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Travel Lines - 1: The Self Train Line - Derailed

Derailed

“No one is able to plan his own course.”

Jeremiah 10:23

From my Journal 2004-2005:

God is working on me. As I awoke this Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m., God’s Holy Spirit within me opened the “eyes of my understanding”¹ to the obstacle that keeps me from “following the Holy Spirit’s leading”² in every part of my life—Self-confidence. It is the Self-assurance that I can get out of any jam I find myself, any bind I put myself and any trap in which I fall, that creates the delusion that I “have it all together.” This is the great fallacy of a man’s thinking—Self-power—that one can overcome all things in his own strength.

As I look back to the days of my youth—high school and then college, graduation and then career—I realize that Self-confidence, Self-assurance, and Self-power caused the jams, binds, and traps in which I found myself. The resource, Self—confidence, assurance, and power—was relied on to save me from the problems—jams, binds, and traps—however, Self was the very reason for my downfall in life as I made choices regarding marriage, career building, success, money and wealth. I reasoned that if I made a wrong move, I could make the next right move to correct it. In my naivety with life, I failed to realize that the choices I made had lifelong implications and consequences.

Consider the game of chess. Once one of the chessmen is captured, it’s taken off the game board forever; there’s no second chance. However, one can always start the game over with a fresh slate and learn from experience the best moves to make to win the game. With life, starting the game over with a whole new set of pieces all in their original positions is not an option. Life decisions have, in some cases, irrevocable consequences. Why? Life decisions affect other people. My decisions impacted the choices and lives of others as did their decisions due to the cause-and-effect chain of events that puts life in motion—and guess what? I was not the conductor; I was not the one in charge.

As much as I wanted to believe that I controlled my own life and affected the outcome of my choices, I began to realize over a course of experiences that it might have been wiser to ask the Conductor in which direction He was headed! By the way, on which line of travel are you stepping through life? There are several, and to simplify this metaphor on choices that provide life with direction, I will focus on three major travel lines: the Self Train Line, the Soul Cruise Line, and the Spirit Airline.

As the 6:23 a.m. train approaches the crossing of our neighborhood with its horn blaring, it reminds me of traveling on the Self Train Line. “Here I come,” the horn seems to blare. “Get out of my way,” it continues to blast, “I’m coming through!” When I made the choice to travel through life on the Self Train Line, the song echoing in my head was “it’s all about meeeee!”

Through my choices based on Self, I did not consider their effect on others and most importantly, choices based on my Self-desire did not consider the Lord’s will for my life. When I traveled on the Self Train Line, I was stuck on the tracks of the decisions that were “all about me.” At each stop the train made, people boarded that would affect my life and people departed, those representing resources that left my life. My hope was in the chance that as this train made stops, it would pick up more of the good than the bad in life and that favorable consequences would outweigh negative ones. What is your ability to effect change in your life if you are traveling on the Self Train Line?

Choices are limited to the changes in direction and routes available at the stations at which the train stops. These stops represent the crossroads of one’s life, events that require decisions that could change life’s direction. Sometimes we are so caught up in our self-preservation or possibly asleep at these crossings that we are unaware of options and choices that could affect important outcomes regarding prosperity, morality, and eternity.

I woke up to my own circumstances and found the Self Train traveling through a long stretch of wasteland. I found myself stuck in my own Self-directed travel plan. I could choose to ride it out or consider changing tracks in the midst of it. I was becoming despondent over the lack of options that my Self-directed plan provided. I could only see what was directly in front of or behind me, all that whizzed by me was out of my grasp as this Self-directed Train headed towards its outcome—the end of the line. Does this remind you of any choices you have made? Do you feel stuck in the life you have placed yourself?

When I considered this, I began to realize that Self-confidence could be a façade of confidence, a false assumption regarding my own power to direct the course of my life. Then the reality of my travel through life’s events hit me with the impact of walking directly into a wall—I was on the wrong track! What choices would you consider at this point?

I considered deserting the train on which my life was traveling. It appeared to be an easy way out of my predicament. But this option became more complicated as I considered the roots I had established with the baggage I had accumulated during my journey on the Self Train Line. Selecting a different track became a complicated move and the cost of making the move seemed out of the question. When I made the choice on which line to travel after I graduated from college, I was young, traveling light with just one bag stowed away, a bag of “stuff” of which I had yet to learn to let go from my childhood and youth. Little did I know at the time that this “baggage” would affect the selection of the “stuff” that I would accumulate during my journey on the Self Train Line. If you are at a crossroads, and your heart desires change, which travel line would you choose?

How was I to get “back on track” with the life about which I dreamed? My life’s dream evaded me day after day as I moved farther away from any reasonable way to obtain it with my own efforts. I was only in my mid-thirties, but the pain and struggle of my situation seemed like what others referred to as a “mid-life crisis.” The “mid-life” reference is a misnomer and doesn’t represent age; but rather, a point in the midst of life’s travel when it is realized that life isn’t going (and hasn’t been going for a long time) in the direction intended.

This was a significant turning point in my life. I was on the Self Train Line—the fast-track, cross-country express—that traveled at high speed, made few stops, accomplished great distances and was equipped with the latest in technology. It stopped at the major cities, places teeming with distractions of the world. The stops were a place to get off, get loose, and relieve the pressure-cooker stress of riding an “espresso” train of life—“life in the fast lane.” Each stop took its toll on me as I made choices that fed the Self—confidence, assurance, and power—that drove my decision-making. Relationships began to break down, and resources dwindled, and I started to react impulsively to my situations, foregoing the “strategic plan” that originally set my course.

There was a stop on the Self Train Line that marked the “end of the line” during my mid-life crisis. At this stop, I was forced to make a decision. The express line had reached its destination, and all passengers had to depart. One could select another train line traveling up or down the coast or head back from where he or she had come.

I was exhausted, depleted and “burned-out” from my express trip through life on the Self Train Line. Along the way, I had allowed events at train stops to distract me from my marriage, family, and career. I made choices that fed my Self-desire, ignoring the consequences that affected others at home and on the job. I collected more baggage from these stops—I became burdened with the bondage of “wrong choices” (the politically correct, societal term for sin). My marriage wasn’t exciting enough, my job wasn’t fulfilling enough, and my free time was consumed with relieving the pressures of climbing the corporate ladder of success. I didn’t have enough, couldn’t get enough, nor fast enough. My personal life took a nosedive, and as a kamikaze pilot with a damaged plane out of control, it destroyed my corporate career. My marriage died, and I buried it. The financial house of cards that I employed to build a business fell apart as my lavish and playboy tastes consumed my resources. I had acquired more baggage as a consequence of squandering my marriage, family, and career. I was at the end of the line. The cross-country trip was over. I had no choice but to make a change, for my state at the time was a rock-bottom mess.

I began to search for alternatives to the Self-directed train of life. My past decisions had led me to the wrong destination. I was alone. My family was broken. My business career path had ended. I could work, be gainfully employed, but I had no direction. Aimlessly I wandered. I was hurting and vulnerable to the quick fixes of a bleeding heart. Something was wrong with my Self. I needed help for my Self. Self-help! Yes, I’d found the answer! I needed help for my Self since my Self-confidence, Self-assurance and Self-power had disintegrated into Self-pity, Self-indulgence, and Self-deprecation. I poured my Self into Self-help books, attended seminars to enlighten my Self, and listened to tapes to unleash the “power within” my Self. I learned about Self-empowerment and how this would lead me to my Self-destiny defined by my Self-desires, Self-goals, and my Self-esteem.

Derailed and dejected by my “crash and burn” career, marriage, family, and personal life, I looked around trying to figure out how others found pleasure in living. What were they doing to find freedom from their troubles? How was I to lift my Self from my bottomed-out Self-esteem? Lost and wandering, I needed to escape the world I had created.

Next: Unstable and unsettled as a wave of the sea, drove and tossed by the wind.³

Praise to Our Father for the words He has given me.

Jeff Cambridge

References

1. Jeremiah 10:23

2. Ephesians 1:18 NKJV

3. Galatians 5:25

4. James 1:6

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Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Travel Lines - 4: The Spirit Airline - God's Wisdom

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Travel Lines - 3: The Spirit Airline - Upward

Monday, March 7, 2016

Travel Lines - 2: The Soul Cruise Line - Shipwrecked

Shipwrecked

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Travel Lines - 1: The Self Train Line - Derailed

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