Choose The Path of Enlightenment. "Build Your Own World".

Some people bemoan the fact of their existence and seem to always be thinking of bad things, dire consequences for their actions, and regret the decisions that they have made, or the decisions of others that have been made for them and greatly affected their condition in life. Don´t despair, for there is hope yet in your future actions that could become a life-changing event. The fact is that you are not exactly stuck in the detrimental situation in which you may find yourself.

Long ago, just after graduation from college at USM, I was traveling on a Greyhound Bus out to California on a seven-day Ameripass for $76. In those days you could buy a bus ticket and it was good for almost anywhere for quite a long time. You could leave the bus, stay at a motel, rest, and then get back on the bus the next day. I happen to be passing through Arizona at the time, and we were near one of the Native Indian population centers, around Tucson, Arizona on Interstate 10 and south of Globe, Arizona, which is near the San Carlos Indian Reservation. I know this because an older gentleman got on the bus just outside of Tucson in another little town that we passed through. He sat down by me and we began to talk about different things in our lives. He was dressed in somewhat Indian fashion for their culture and even told me that he was an Apache Indian, the first one that I had ever met. The man was old with lots of gray hair and had the look that many wrinkles give to a face with his age. We had discussions about life in general and about how difficult sometimes it was.

He told me something that has stuck in my memory, about that day and time long ago out in the desert areas of Arizona that we were passing through. This very old and wise man said that "You build your own world around you", and you affect your destiny with the choices that you make in life. It is not so much what other people do to you, or what effects a place or location has on you, but really your own mindset and the choices that you make, which has the greatest result and consequences on your situation. I don´t remember the man´s name or much about him, but it seems that some people you come in contact with stay with you throughout the rest of your entire life. Since that day I met and talked with him, I always remember what he told me, "You build your own world". His words seem to stick with me to this day.

It is true that YOU really affect your own self more than does all your environment, your friends, your family, or your situation in life. I remember at the time that I had met this wise old Apache Indian man on the bus that day, all my current vices had already been abandoned like; smoking, drinking alcohol, gambling, going to bars, getting into trouble, fighting, being disrespectful, doing things I wasn´t supposed to do, and being lazy. I had even stopped blaming my teachers in college for being critical or difficult to learn from, by blaming myself first and changing my own behavior and actions. One particularly devious professor would write with one hand on the chalk board and erase with the other. So, I studied harder, concentrated more, and spent much more time going over notes taken, even tape recording the lectures to get all the information exactly that they had given us with the velocity of a fire hose. I would go back to the dorm, play the tape recorder and make detail legible notes, and set aside the text book, studying only the lectures that the test questions would always come from. Achieving excellent grades the last part of my college years, brought me finally to graduation. The wise old gentleman that I met on the bus that day only verified and consolidated my knowledge that I had already come to realize. I would be the one to change my own destiny. Still, his words resonated with me and stayed in my mind for years and years to acknowledge and really to reinforce what I already had come to realize at that time.

Some people to this day have held on to their sins, keeping them and treating them like treasures, when they have their entire lives in turmoil, confusion, and disarray, all because of their own stubbornness to give up their sins. Still, they seem to always blame others for their own predicament. Jesus spoke to the people and they gave up their sins willingly, being healed and brought to be made whole, when they could not find any other solution to their problems. Choose the path of light. Let enlightenment bring your life into focus and study little by little the words of Jesus Christ in order to completely change your whole life. You build your own world around you and make your own path, which makes all the difference in the world. First, change yourself then your life will change, your family, your neighborhood, your state, your country, and then the whole world will change around you. "Build your own world".

John 1:4 - 1:5

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/John-1-4_1-5/

John 8:12

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/John-8-12/

John 12:36

“While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.”

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/John-12-36/

1 John 1:7

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1-John-1-7/

January 10, 2023

Cliff Rhodes Christian Ministry