Outside the Box

[Christsfreeservant]

“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” (Romans 13:11-14 NASB1995)​

To awaken from sleep physically is to be consciously aware of our surroundings, to be mobile, to have our minds and bodies moving, at least to some degree, and to be taking in what is going on all around us, such as hearing noises, wondering what they are, and perhaps investigating them to see what they are and from what source they come and for what purpose. We can see with our eyes, and hear with our ears, and smell with our noses, and feel with our fingers, and we can evaluate all of that with our minds.

And to awaken spiritually is all those kinds of things, only on a spiritual level, not a physical level, although the physical is involved, as well. Our spiritual eyes and ears and senses are now taking in the Word of God, and we are spiritually digesting what we are hearing and reading, and we are searching out in the Scriptures the things we do not understand, and we are praying to the Lord for the wisdom and discernment to know what the Scriptures are teaching and to know how to apply what we are learning to our daily lives.

But it is also to evaluate and to discern all that we are hearing and seeing that is going on all around us, including what we are hearing from our government heads, and from the news media, and from famous people, and on social media, and from those who call themselves prophets, apostles, preachers, pastors, elders, and evangelists. We should test whatever we are hearing or reading or viewing against the truth of the Scriptures to see whether or not what we are hearing, seeing, or viewing is surely of God.

And now let me give you an example of this from my own life’s circumstances. Nearly two months ago, at midnight, all of a sudden I started having sharp chest pains, chest pressure, and difficulty breathing. And I was having sharp pains under my arm, too, all of which were on the left side of my body. And I am not one who just runs to a doctor every time I am in pain, or any time that I feel sick, but these symptoms could have been signs of a heart attack, and so I went to the emergency room at the hospital.

They ran some tests, and they found that a lung mass I had had since 2014 had nearly doubled in size. But we don’t know when this mass began growing, for it had not grown at all between 2014 and 2016, and it had not been looked at again until my visit to the ER at the hospital on September 17, 2025. But the doctor there declared that my heart was in good shape, and she minimized the lung mass growth as nothing significant. But my family doctor took me seriously and he ordered a bunch of tests for me.

And the tests revealed that this lung mass might be cancerous, that there is a spot in my brain that is suspect for cancer, and there is a spot in my breast where it might be cancerous. They also discovered that my heart is not in good shape, but it has some issues on the borderline of heart failure, and my lung is not working well at all with that mass inside it, and I am breathing at only 44% of 100% breathing capacity, and there is a chance that the lung mass is the culprit for what is causing all my other symptoms.

But even though my family doctor is more open to considering multiple possibilities for what is going on within my body, and was willing to schedule the tests for me which then produced results, the specialty doctors I have seen so far are more narrow minded, for they focus on their specialty and seem to not be ones who think “outside the box.” And this is happening in the Christian world, too, where many professing Christians are so locked into their church denominations and theologies they can’t see beyond that.

And so they won’t venture into searching out the Scriptures for themselves, studied in context, to see what they are actually teaching about Jesus Christ and his gospel message and what God requires of us in thought, word, and deed, who profess the name of Jesus. They know what they were always taught, right or wrong, and so they will not go beyond that, kind of like these specialty doctors. Now none of us should consider anything against the teachings of the Scriptures, but we should search them out for the truth.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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Outside the Box
An Original Work / November 5, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love