Michael Thacker

“Investigating the evolution of consciousness through integrated symbolic, archaeological, and psychological research.”

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Exhibiting Courage And Meekness In The Christian Life

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apologetics

One primary problem the church as a whole is facing is that of cowardice and it is only getting worse as time passes. Do not get me wrong, there are a few good soldiers out there fighting the good fight, but overall the church is collapsing under pressure from within and outside. Not only do we see this happening to the church as a whole, but with individual Christians as well. We see it when they are faced with opposing forces of the faith as well as their own personal lives when faced with obstacles.

This weakness, so to speak, can be traced back about 150 years or so, and of course can be found elsewhere as well, but for the sake of this argument let us look at the modern perspective only. With the rise of technology has brought with it the necessity of comfort, happiness, pleasure and the like. Now, I am not saying that these are bad and unnecessary within themselves, but rather that we have come to depend on them too much as vital parts of life instead of blessings to enjoy from time to time.

Not only is this seen within the church and individual Christians, but it is also seen within the world as a whole. The difference between the world and the church when it comes to the increase comfort and weakness is the fact that the world is a bit more headstrong and tough when it comes to dealing with issues, while the church feels the necessity to back down to opposition in order to exhibit meekness and love like Jesus. But how valid is this approach? Is this the way that Jesus responded to opposition? Or is this just a modern conceptualization?

To put things into perspective it is necessary to look at the Greek word for meekness and go from there. The Greek word is, “Praotes” which means to exhibit gentleness, mildness, meekness, but has also been interpreted by several scholars to mean, “One who has a weapon and knows how to use it, but keeps it set within their holster.” We are called to be meek, that is gentle while exhibiting the love of Christ to others, and yet at the same time we are called to be courageous, stand firm and be alert.

“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.”
1 Corinthians 16:13 nkjv

The “stand fast” is the Greek word, “Steko” which means to stand firm, to persevere, to persist, to keep one’s standing. Even better is the phrase “be strong” which is the Greek word, “Krataioo” and literally means to be strengthened, make strong, increase in strength and vigor.

When trying to see how this correlates with the idea of meekness one only has to look at how Jesus reacted to the Pharisees in speech and conduct like the terms brood of vipers and turning the tables in the temple, and this type of action and speech, to our modern viewpoint, does not seem to meek. The way to better understand meekness, strength and courage is by not taking extreme, modern day viewpoints, and instead look at the meaning of words through the lenses of the ancient writers.

Life was much different 2,000+ years ago with no real stability present, no clean water or food, illnesses running rampant, thieves and thugs lying at every corner, no means of expeditious communication, ruthless governments and the like. The idea of meekness something much different to Paul, Peter, and even Jesus as they saw a much different world than we do today. They knew that they had to be strong and courageous in order to overcome the opposition and obstacles that came their way while doing it in as much gentleness as they possibly could do without being pushed over and trampled on.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9 nkjv

Just like Joshua in the Old Testament, we too need to be courageous if we want to fight the good fight and overcome, not only the opposition that comes against the church, but even our own personal battles and obstacles that try to inhibit us from accomplishing the call of God upon our life. We must come to understand that the Bible and the Christian life is predicated some much upon the idea of balance rather than extremes. We should seek to be gentle to all without being push overs, and yet exhibit courage and strength without becoming a tyrant of sorts. Where do you stand when it comes to exhibiting courage and meekness?

-Michael Thacker
True Growth and Prosperity

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devotional

Criticism and encouragement go hand in hand. If a person provides too much criticism there will be only regression and the loss of self worth in the mind of the one being critiqued. The same applies to those that always encourage and yet never criticize for the individual who receives the continuous encouragement comes to believe they can do no wrong and growth is inhibited. Balance is essential within life, both in a negative and positive aspect and only in the balance can we find true growth and prosperity.
End Time Update: Kanye West, Church Decline and The Rise of The Occult

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End Time Update

Kanye is seeking to start his own church that is universal to all people and Christianity is declining while witch crafts are increasing quite dramatically.
Search Out Yourself

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devotional

Humans are complex creatures with no one size fits all solution. Each individual must delve deep within themselves to understand who they are and who God has created them to be. Only in the depths of being will you face your monsters and bring order out of chaos.

The Bible warns against simple mindedness, and what does that mean exactly? It means to not go about your life unaware of who you are, to never search the depths of your being and to be conscientious of what is going on around you as well as the choices you make.

As much as it makes us uncomfortable to search the chaotic depths of ourselves where we find many things we may not really like about our mode of being, we may also find things that we never knew we were capable of doing. Only there are we able to conquer those monsters while discovering new things like talents and gifts that were undiscovered before.
Jesus Is Risen

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devotional

Today is a day of celebration, a day of hope for all people on earth as Jesus rose from the dead. That if we only believe in Christ and are cleansed by His blood, we will be saved and be given eternal life. This astounding gift is set before all people and all we have to do is choose.

This same choice has been presented since the beginning at the time of the fall with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Choices are apart of another great gift, that is freewill. The question we must all ask ourselves is, “In what manner are we executing our freewill?”

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.””

Joshua 24:15 NKJV

We can choose to follow the path that leads to destruction, that is the ideologies of the world that are void of any truth or merit. Or we can follow the One who gives us an eternal hope and that has imparted the gift of freewill itself to us, Jesus Christ.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16 NKJV

Let us celebrate by spending time with loved ones and praising the Lord for such great a gift as His death on the cross and rising the third day to cleanse us and give us eternal life and for the freewill to be able to choose it. Happy Easter!
God’s Timing Is Perfect

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devotional

Time is precious and with it comes the dire necessity to utilize time correctly, and yet more times than often we neglect the necessity with futile passions and desires. Most of the time we are neglecting our time by scanning through our social media feed, searching frivolously on the web, or sitting on the pot while snap chatting. But what about when we do utilize time meticulously and yet nothing seems to be happening or changing for the better?

In our society of instant messaging and “overnight” success stories, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that things should happen faster than what they do. Reality on the other hand tells a different story with most so called “overnight” successes really coming from years upon years of hard work and study. And, of course, anything worthwhile will be worth waiting for.

“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
James 1:4 NKJV

Patience and faith are essential when utilizing time correctly in hopes that things will grow and change. As long as we can feel the guidance of the Spirit leading us in the correct direction, we then have no need to fear the outcome or time. When we are heeding the call of God upon our lives, whether it be in ministry, business, etc., we can be rest assured that God is with us and will open the doors of opportunity in due time.

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faith.”
Isaiah 40:31

It’s our job as faithful servants of the Lord to stay true to the calling and to no become discouraged, but rather to continue persevering even when things don’t seem to be happening as timely as we had thought. The anxiety and fear we feel from the length of time something is taking is typically rooted within the flesh. The desire to have things happen our way and in our time stems from a desire to appease our fleshly nature and a desire for control of our life.

The remedy here is to let go and give it all to God and know as well as trust in His perfect timing. Deny your flesh, be patient and wait on the Lord and He will exalt you in due time.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:6,7

Where do you stand today? Are you waiting for the big breakthrough, and yet feel hopeless? Give it your all while trusting and waiting on God, and know that all will be well as His timing is always perfect.

-Michael Thacker
Seeking Depth Over Comfort

by

Thoughts

In a world of mass churches set at almost every corner many of times bring with them the gospel of prosperity, health and encouragement. Over the years myself, as well as many throughout the nation and world, have witnessed these churches grow to ever greater heights while smaller, “authentic” churches dwindle down to feast off the crumbs. What is it that attracts so many to these mega gatherings? The answer is found within people and their surroundings.

We live in a society and culture that promotes leisure, wealth and health on the daily with the intent of causing the mass to focus solely on these things as purpose and meaning in life. If someone believes in the God of the Bible, many times it is a small fraction, if any, of their daily routine. Most don’t even know what they believe with few to fractions that have a glimpse of understanding the Bible and what it means to be a Christian. How did we come to this point? Technology has some to do with it.

Over the years, throughout the last century till now we have seen a dramatic increase in technological advancements that provide comfort, leisure and freedom from many labors that people once had to do themselves. We have increasingly become more reliant on technologies to help us, even to the point of worship. With the introduction of Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Echo comes a new era of reliance that has never been witnessed before in the history of humankind with little to no understanding of what consequence comes with it.

The only real understanding we have witnessed so far with the technological advancement over the years has been people’s tendency to become apathetic towards life and their obsession with leisure and pleasure. This, of course, has been a scheme done up by the devil himself from the beginning with the forbidden fruit and the desire to appease the flesh. Does this mean that technology is bad? No, and yes. It all depends on how you utilize it and how addictive, or not, you become to it.

With apathy and the desire for pleasure has brought with it, at least for believers, the desire to attend churches that promote the same ideal. This is one, not the only by no means, factor for which we see mega churches that proclaim encouragement, prosperity and the like grow so rapidly. This has contributed to the decline in attendance for churches that teach in-depth and stick to the roots of what the apostolic churches were like at the beginning.

Does this mean we should teach more about hell and negative things? No, but we should be teaching what the Bible says about sin and how to overcome it. We should be teaching what the end times will be like, how we should not appease the flesh and how to properly admonish one another. We should be teaching about the power of the Holy Spirit and what the blood of Christ really means in our life.

Church shouldn’t just be a hangout with a feel good message to send you off for the week ahead, but rather should be a place for people to grow spiritually and in the knowledge and understanding of the word. It’s time to wake up our spiritual senses as well as our appetite to truly experience God and His word in our life. It’s time to get rid of our apathy and desire to appease the flesh, and rather be filled with the Holy Spirit and desire to go out and make more disciples. It’s time to get in depth, even if it means to get uncomfortable.
Pain Is Part Of The Process

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devotional, Uncategorized

No pain, no gain has been a popular phrase among many athletes throughout the past few decades, but it is not just for athletes. Life here on earth is currently in a fallen state and will remain that way until the return of Jesus Christ. Till the day occurs we are set to reside in a fallen state where hardships and trials attack us on the daily, ranging from small to large scale and devastating. Since the fall of man this has been so:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17-19 NKJV)

There is no escape from the fallen state except by death or by the return of Christ, so do not go looking for heaven on earth because you will not find it. No matter how hard we try we will always run into trials and hard times, but the good news is that we can overcome these hard times by leaning upon God and His word. When we relying on the power of God to strengthen us and His wisdom to guide us we can then push through the hard times and come out victorious.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Lets face it, it is very easy to get side tracked when pain and hurts come our way. When the seas of life begin to rage we begin to sink as we take our sights off Jesus and stare at the waves. The key here is to redirect our sights back on Jesus when we feel like we are sinking and just like Peter when he was walking on the water and began to sink and Jesus pulled him back up, so will He also do for us when we call on His name and set our sights back on Him.

One of the main factors of pain that I like to tell people is that pain is many times needed in order to grow in God as we journey through this life with Him, seeking to reach full maturity. Without pain we can become stagnate in our growth process and ultimately, more times than often, find ourselves drifting away from God as we feel no need for Him with the comforts of an easy life rocking us into a spiritual slumber.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4)

I do not know where you stand today. I am not sure of what battles you are facing, but remember to ask God for wisdom and strength to guide you through the pain. Ask Him to reveal to you what He is doing through this battle and to continue to help you grow in Him more and more with each passing day. You are an overcomer in Christ, so move forward in faith to the victory that lies ahead! God bless!

-Michael Thacker

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