I heard some very profound words earlier today; “knowing who you are changes everything.”

Yes; it really does!

WHO ARE YOU?

Are you aware of your TRUE identity or do you flounder from place to place and experience after experience wondering exactly why you are here and what is the purpose of your life?

When you don’t know who you are; a lot of things don’t really matter. If you don’t know that things go against your true identity; you are not going to be careful to think, act and respond to life in any certain way. Things just come to you at random and you simply let them happen.

KNOWING YOUR TRUE IDENTITY CHANGES THINGS

Once you really KNOW who you are though; things truly DO change.

You realize certain characteristics and values within your heart.

Your mind doesn’t follow the crowd; you set your actions to the ways that are true to yourself and that identity what you know so well.

You follow the characteristics of your true identity like a sailor follows the North Star as a compass when he isn’t sure at sea.

WHO IS TRUE NORTH FOR YOU?

If you are a Christian; your true north star is Jesus Christ.

All of your actions and each direction you take in life should be made according to His guidance.

FIDELITY TO THE ORIGINAL

If you KNOW that you are a Christian you have a responsibility to remain true to the God who created you, saved you and gave you the breath of life.

You must let Him guide your steps and you must remain true to your family of origin; The Kingdom of God.

We live and breathe in a world that makes that very hard to do.

Every day we all are pulled in a million different directions by the waves of the current culture that crash in and surround us.

Sometimes it is so fast and it is all so much that it is hard to absorb and process.

This can even become overwhelming if we do not have a true north to follow and a source of truth to reference.

HOW DOES THIS WORK OUT FOR YOU?

I hope if you are a believer and Christ-follower that you have already considered all of these constantly changing facts or our environment and are living your life according to the things of God.

You would be surprised to know how many people profess Christianity; but fail to live up to its true identity.

Let’s face the obvious here; none of us truly are able to do it alone. We all fail from time to time and have to pick ourselves up and start over after we confess, repent and ask for strength and guidance.

A DECEPTIVE AGE

The world is FULL of deceptions from the enemy of God, and they are pits that are very easy to fall into.

Some people never recover. Of course it all could have been prevented if they had only stopped for just a few seconds and taken the time to consider their true identity in Christ as a Child of God.

When you do this constantly; you never lose your way and you never lose your true self.

THE KEY THAT OPENS THE DOOR TO UNDERSTANDING

The key to staying on track as a Christian today is to know your true identity in Christ.

In light of 2 Timothy 4:2;“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction;” these words were the message this blog was founded upon.

Because of the need to be aware in all seasons of a Christian life; I want to talk about some of the things that have “crept” in on us and changed the way we live without total consideration of the consequences; or without knowing whether or not they honor and respect God.

THE TOPIC OF MINDFULNESS

Our AN APPLE A DAY topic was started as a focus for articles that teach and remind us of the ways to be, live and stay healthy Christians.

All health issues are not physical; as a matter of fact much of the physical can be influenced by the health and condition of our minds. We will start there.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to share with you some of my findings when I earnestly and sincerely and prayerfully researched a new trend that is spreading like wildfire across our lands. That trend is called “mindfulness.”

Are you familiar with it yet?

I’m sure you have seen it everywhere just as I have. I wanted to really get to the root of this new trend of society and see whether it was good or bad or healing or deceiving.

I wanted to know how much of it was healthy and godly and how much of it was put forth to help you spend the mighty dollar which seems to be the unspoken idol of our culture today.

MEDITATION AND YOGA

The “mindfulness” trend also has two close companions which I want to honestly and openly investigate from a Christian point of view. Those two friends of mindfulness are called meditation and yoga.

My knowledge of them both has been vague; but all of my friends speak highly of them, especially my Christian friends. I have found that surprising and felt I might be missing something. It set me on a mission to find out what I didn’t know or understand. I’ve been doing a lot of research and homework about these subjects. My ignorance is decreasing and my knowledge is growing.

These three friends and companions always seem to meet up; why is that? I’m curious and tired of accepting what I see on the surface. I hardly know a soul these days that is not caught up in one of these new trendy ways to live.

This is the forward for many more articles on these subjects; starting with the subject of mindfulness. I hope I don’t lose many of you here because much of my discovery may go against the grain; but you never know; maybe I will be surprised at how the truth turns out.

If you are like me and want to know the whole story; I would love for you to follow along.

Be watching in AN APPLE A DAY for the next parts of this series on spiritual health.

 

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