Who has captured your heart?

In the days of fast living, on the hamster wheel or merry go round of life, we often have a undefinable amount of information being either received into our brain or cast off. Our spirit, soul and body are always affected by the information taken into our heart.

If we are not sharpened up in our tools of discernment, we may be letting things in that will only bog us down. When we let things in that  are only adding to either negativity or really just junk, like junk food, it just becomes empty calories and causes weight gain and disease. Our hearts are unable to build in a healthy way to further the God quotient in us. We then have to spend time going back into our heart to remove all that is detrimental to our heart growth and our identity in Jesus.

Spending time removing all of the junk that does not uphold the love in our heart or the continued growth so we can continue to become Kingdom minded, slows us down to either a snail’s pace  or a complete standstill. When it becomes a standstill, we will be looking back because of the wrong things let into our hearts. It is like rewashing a load of clothes over and over to clean out the specks of dirt that just don’t seem to want to go away.

In raising my children, I taught them to PAY ATTENTION. We have to discipline  our minds/hearts to be focused on what is going on around us and in our hearts. It really helps later on when the very fast life we especially here in Southern California. If you walk into circumstances or situations without an assessment by PAYING ATTENTION, we are often ambushed. We are allowing things enter into our hearts that wreak havoc unnecessarily. I need to add PAYING ATTENTION is actually responsibility and accountability.

I want to relate some more information here about understanding what we let into our hearts. As we do life, ( I call it life in the fast lane) we do life with a constant barrage of information in our current age of information. I often see it as atoms bouncing around at a high rate of speed when the right conditions are present. That action eventually produces something.

If we have only our self present and not the word of God built in us, to combat the illegal entry of  unhealthy information, we are often setting ourselves up for failure. As mentioned above we come to a stop if we must spend time undoing the wrong information. And casting off what doesn’t belong residing in our hearts. Our hearts should be a home for love and not fear. It’s also like a garden you have to pick the weeds out of.

The next thing I want to make a picture about is one of the things we spend time doing that often, not always, can be a very accepted way to spend time and let in information. Remember, information can be positive or negative. The word of God is the plumb line of what builds love and not fear. Love builds the Kingdom of God.

The court jester is not something we really know about today or have very little knowledge of. Most people do not know that this is where the concept of actors and actresses eventually originated from. My heart was hurting for people’s souls and why they were always so distracted. The Lord Jesus lead to the following information.

My heart was grieved over how is it that people were not, for whatever reason not spending time with God. Believe me I know life happens more than most people. Life throws challenges out there that we can be completely overwhelmed with. I am currently writing a book with just one of those challenges.

There are so many life challenges that are very obvious in people’s lives. Provision, illness, relationship problems, failures in life, the list goes on and on. One thing always affects another part of our lives. The time we need to spend with God is chipped away at by these events in our lives till there is no time and God often comes either last or not at all. In reality, if we put God first, everything else falls into place.

So here we go into the world of distraction and avoidance. It is a vicious cycle. The following is the not so obvious form of distraction.The spirit of entertainment is designed to detain you from your destination. Your time with God that is so vital for you to grow and learn to love. To be safe and sound. It is considered an acceptable way to spend your free time, your down time, your leisure time. Entertainment. Remember the key here is to not live in the world of Entertainment.

I can hear all of your questions of “How can that be?” Remember, we have a free will and choice. Too much of anything, becomes a stumbling block. It also becomes a perversion. 

I am going to define the word entertain. Entertain: to give admittance to or reception to; to receive. To hold in the mind; to harbor; to cherish. When you add the suffix -ment to the word it makes it a resulting state or an action. The same French word in entertain and detain, tenere are used. It means to hold or detain. Now, let’s go back to some Court Jester history.

The Court Jester originated in China and then Europe during the years of early as 65 B.C. and throughout the 18th century. The jester, Royal Court jester, or fool as they were called had a variety of expected duties.  The Royal Court Jester was employed by a monarch. The Royal Jester was a court function or institution. They were well taken care of by living on the premises of the monarch they currently served. Their duties included but not limited to the following: sing, dance, joke, joke to mock anything from the current political situation or any other sad situation. Playing a fool, poet, musician or scholar got you the job as well. They also had not so savory backgrounds and often a vagabond spirit about them, no roots. Their nonconformity often got them the job. They became a confidant to their kings. They would often quiet down the monarchy who were at the verge of killing someone and save a life. They also represented a lot of what we see at a circus today. Juggler’s, sword swallower’s, clowns and so on.  They might have kept up the King’s confidence in a current situation. In certain situation’s they were considered a deterrent as well as someone who detained. We can see that in some situations they may have helped but also hindered. The jester used humor to calm down the King or situation. They often made the situation more visible to the King and let the King decide.

Sounds good? Maybe. The jester was a wedge between king and the people. Even at the expense of his own life. Their lives were threatened if they couldn’t calm down the king. Humor is a good diffuser until it becomes an interference to solving of  real problems and change.

In the Yuan dynasty, it marked the decline of the jester. Stage actors became the new jester. Forward to today we know these forms of entertainment displayed in many ways. Movies, plays, circus acts, juggling acts, animal acts, x-games, the Olympics, every sort of sport and human feat. Some of these events can be a wonderful distraction for a day or period of time. I know full well God wants us to have FUN.! He is not opposed. And yes movies and some of these things can spark us to speak to God about life. And he has used some of these to help people heal. How ever God is the ultimate healer.

I just want to point out that we can still become desensitized and live in the world of fantasy and not reality. Only avoidance and distraction live in the world of fantasy. It interferes with the real supernatural world that God has waiting for us. Living in our head is just a waste of time. I know we have Godly imagination. Godly imagination is for each individual to explore. It is not a distraction but creativity.

I pray for you today to not lose yourself in a world where we are distracted and avoid the life God has for us. I pray we behold him in our heart and not things of the world. I pray God makes time for you to fellowship and spend time with him. He is jealous for your time. He loves you and created you to have time with him. Most of all Jesus died to tear the veil between us and God so we can spend time with God.

Greetings of Godly Love today.

 

Sharon Luzzi