FELLOWSHIP VS PACK MENTALITY

im really glad ive chosen to take up pastor garys challenge on really getting serious about studying, chewing on, and reflecting on Gods Word. its really neat the way God works! im really seeing how all my innate passions and interests are really coming full circle as He goes into my personal world and really becomes RHEMA and not just dry boring LOGO Word. as i said before im really seeing how,... in their proper context in relation to how my priorities are ordered,...my personal passions and interests were put there by Him. His MESSAGE OF SALVATION never changes. HIS WORD never changes. HOWEVER, our INDIVIDUAL TESTIMONIES differ from person to person. the testimony of a housewife may not be the same as that of a doctor, a nurse, a criminology buff, and so forth. if someone doesnt relate to how god works in MY life, but they get it thru talking to someone else, it wasnt the MESSAGE that failed. with me, they just didnt click. the same also goes vica versa. lets say, for example, at work, a combative resident wont listen to one caregiver, but they follow me like a little puppy dog. sometimes, a different voice, a different approach, makes all the difference in the world

im having a ball with ezekiel. all my natural inner drivings that spawned my fascination with the world of criminolgy.( i have a strong feeling in my spirit that Hes going to pull me into prison ministry at some point, just not yet.)..ESPECIALLY that burning desire to find out how things happen and why...all those hours i spent under the tutelege of my psychology of abnormal behavior professor...are really coming back. walking with God isnt an easy road all the time. but its never boring. all i can say for anyone whos either never walked with Him, or just starting to get serious about it, sit back....youre in for one heck of a ride. theres NO WAY
you can spend an hour with Him...and leave the same as when you came.

i just got thru reading ezekiel chapter 14. two verses really grabbed my attention. i take that back. make it THREE. ezekiel 14:4,7-8. to me, they crystalize two very important aspects of
what God wants us to imcorporate into our collective AND individual walks with Him.
ACCOUNTABILITY and EXAMPLE. let me break it down just a wee tad.

ezekiel 14:4"...every man of the house of Israel that sets up his idols in his heart and puts the stumblingblock of iniquity before his face,....I, the Lord, will answer Him according to the multitude of His idols." INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY is very clear here. each one of us is responsible, when push comes to shove, for our own individual walks with God. blaming our pastors, or even each other, when we slip and fall is like blaming mummy and daddy for what happened to us way back when, for the fact, one day, we decided it ws ok for us to do something we KNEW was wrong, and we did it anyway. it just doesnt cut it. for one, and this passage really drives this home. HOW can i POSSIBLY blame another person for my own individual sin and iniquity, which ive allowed to to become MY OWN personal idol, when they may not even be struggling with the same thing that i am? that doesnt make a whole heap of sense. one of the things that make our individual walks with God different is the reason that our individual testimonies are different is the reason that the sins each of us struggle with are different. what i see here is when He talks about working out our own salvations with fear and trembling. its all about our inventories, and everytimne we take our eyes off of our own plates, sand look at someone elses, our just keeps getting bigger. ultimately, it all falls back on us.

ezekiel 14:7"for everyone who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face....I, the Lord, will answer him by Myself" verses 4 and 7 both, once gain being ACCOUNTABLE. i remember, not too long ago renting
a 2 part cd series from netflix that they got from a special that was done on the discovery channel on female killers. there was a particular segment on teen killers who engaged in what is called thrill killing. one notable charactersitic of this particular crime is that it is rarely ever done alone. it is almost always done in pairs, or even more often in packs. the propensity that thrill killers have towards working in packs makes it a prime crime to be committed by teens. because of their natural pull towards solidarity-confirming ones identity in a group. this type of thinking was rife in the backslidden condition of Israel in ezekiels day. fellowshipping with God, and the pack mentality im referring to here, are flips sides of a coin. when we felloship with other believers around the things of god, yes, we do, operate in one mind, one spirit towards a comon objective. however, we also understand, that we are still ultimately the ones, who are accountable before God for each of our individual actions. the pack mentality, on the other hand, often makes it very easy to stay in iniquity......THEYRE DOING IT TOO. its not just a matter of taking the path of least resistance, its also a way of sharing the blame when anything goes wrong.

ezekiel 14:8"and i will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and i will cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know i am the Lord." God uses the falings of others, sometimes especially those He initially called for His purposes, as an example of what NOT to do as well as what TO DO. often, we dont see ourselves the way others see us. one of the primary reasons God uses others as an example of what not to do is often its a mirror we can hold up to ourselves so we can see we are doing the exact same thing.