Money don’t grow by itself. You’ve got to water it with sweat.”
–Elmer Kelton (Stand Proud)

“Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.”
–Proverbs 21:5 (NLT)
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Revelation 2:6, is an interesting verse, “Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” (HCSB) In this verse, and also verse 15, God says He hates the works of the Nicolaitans. It means something or someone that is utterly repulsive. Their doctrine was based on compromise. “Their belief was to have truce with the world; to meld with the changing moral climate of society.” (Rick Renner) This is something that God abhors–hates.
This is a major problem within the church today. How many churches, and/or individuals are practicing the works of the Nicolaitans? The following is a list of characteristics that a Nicolaitan would show.

1) No emphasis on living holy and separated from the world.
They much prefer to be acceptable with the multitude.
2) No emphasis on the doctrinal teachings of the Bible.
They work under the guise of progressiveness; the Bible is too restrictive and should only be used as a reference.
Sound doctrine is replaced with social action and social justice.
3) No emphasis on absolute truth or absolute biblical authority.
The idea is to be “open-minded.” To be absolute is to be negative.
4) No exclusionary belief that Christ alone is the Way to Heaven.
They use as their disguise–tolerance, asserting that everyone has a piece of the truth. This will lead to universalism. It is interesting that one third of young Christians have this belief. (Rick Renner)

Do you know anyone that has these ideas? Their practices are ones that God hates. What Jesus hates, we, as His followers, must also hate.
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Ponder This: “But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people!” –2 Timothy 3:1-5 (HCSB)
That Scripture goes right along with the Nicolaitans. I saw on the news that students at one school had a walkout, took down the American flag, stomped on it, and supposedly did it in reverence to those killed at Parkland. No, it was chaos, disrespect. Take time to ponder each portion, but I want to draw attention to a few words.
Ponder verse one, hmmmm. Then think of these: lovers of self, disobedient to parents, unholy, without self-control. Do you know these type of people? Do you hang around them? Look at verse 5, Avoid these people!

The fruits–I’ll read ‘flowers’–of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, and some of these grow only in the canyon.”
–Ralph Connor (The Sky Pilot)

“You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth.”
–Psalm 71:20 (NLT)
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“Stick to your gifts, and your gifts will stick to you.”
–James Fenimore Cooper

I have often wondered about why people hark at others, “get out of your comfort zone.” Perhaps this may be true of a younger person, for they may still be seeking what God has for them; they may be wondering what their gifts and talents are and how to use them. They have not had all the experiences that life will bring.
However, I wonder at the wisdom of that statement when a person knows their talents and God-given gifts and are using them for the Kingdom of God. If we believe the steps of the righteous are ordered by God, then experiences that come should help us further the use of gifts and talents.
Now, why would I want to do something that is not what God has given me? Too many times people who say these things are prompting their own agenda. In other words, “do my thing.” We are to use our gifts for the glory of God. What I see as a danger is when a person is not seeking the gifts God has given, nor using the talents God has given for His glory.
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There are a few things I don’t quite get. Maybe it’s my feeble brain, or maybe it is just beyond my understanding and comprehension.
A woman, Behr, I think is her name, comes out and apologizes to Vice-President Pence and to the Christians of America by her statements. Here is what I would like to know. Was it a forced apology, or was it sincere?
Something else I don’t understand. How can a mayor or sheriff, or governor disregard federal law and protect illegal aliens? Many of those who they protect in their so-called sanctuary cities, are criminals and murders. How do they get away with it? You try disregarding a federal law and see what happens.
I’ve been trying to avoid politics this year, and so far, not bad, but this takes the cake. I don’t think it’s really politics, but just plain stupidity. Why is it that Hillary cannot understand that she lost? Now she is blaming husbands forcing their wives to vote for President Trump. Hmmm, so did Bill force Hillary to vote Trump? Then she said she won the dynamic, progressive states and regions. Hmmm, guess I live in backward Texas.
The “smartest man in the world” atheist Stephen Hawking died yesterday. He went to stand before his Maker. I wonder what he thought?

He abhorred the drone of life. The desert taught how useless were the idlers–how nature ruthlessly cut them off.”
–Zane Grey (Wanderer of the Wasteland)

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
–James 1:2-4 (NLT)
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Sometimes things happen to us that we cannot figure out or understand. It may be that God has seen fit to place us in a wilderness region for one reason or another. The following is an excerpt from my book, “Trails in the Wilderness”.

“Nature and God would take care of the slackers.” –Zane Grey

If you find yourself in the wasteland of the wilderness for more than one day, and even one day may be enough to do some in, you had better be prepared to survive. Some die in one day because of injuries, hypothermia, sun stroke or a hundred other calamities. The largest part of survival is to be prepared. If people are prepared, they have a decent chance of overcoming the obstacles they might face.
But I might add that one of the main reasons that people find themselves in a wilderness is simply because they were not already prepared; not knowing their way, they end up lost. Being lost in the wilderness is frightful! Fear of what lies ahead or what might be following them, or the fear of the unknown–a major factor in the wilderness. Now, in some ways, fear, the right type of natural fear, makes one alert. But fear can also debilitate and paralyze. They key to dealing with fear is to have courage, which have described as “the control of fear.”
Fear in itself is not so devastating, but that uncontrolled fear often leads to panic. Panic is destructive. Wasted energy, irrational thinking, and a pessimistic outlook are all products of panic. Maybe the greatest product of panic is the loss of hope. With the loss of hope, the will to survive begins to break down.
No matter the type of wilderness a person finds themselves in, the loss of hope is devastating. Even with all the fear, panic, and lack of hope currently prevailing in this world, the Christian should be able to take heart. Therefore, in one sense the whole of life is a wilderness, and the believer is just passing through. We are wandering, looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Wandering through this wilderness called life, or called earth, many challenges arise, but the lack of hope should not become one of them. While others are aimless in their despair, the believer survives, looking upward to the Hope that is in our Redeemer. When natural fear begins to bring on a panic attack, look to the Author and Finisher of your faith and have hope. Hope is the first great tool of survival.

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
–1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV)