MORE MULE-OLOGY
Your overwhelming response to our teaching on Mule-Ology truly blessed us. Holy Spirit gave us this addition to share with you.
For those who may have missed it, the essence of Mule-ology is based on an old Southern saying about mules. It goes, “You plow the mule until he can’t plow no more, then you ride him until his back breaks, then you shoot him and eat him.”
Mule-ology is the feeling that you are that mule. It is rooted in our deep-seated need to be loved, nurtured, respected, secured, acknowledged, recognized, and rewarded unconditionally and at levels other humans can not provide. Mule-ology is feeling obligated, not appreciated.
One of the critical ingredients of Mule-ology is inordinate self-focus. It happens to all of us at one time or another and in varying degrees. At extreme levels, heavy doses of self-pity develop. At psychotic levels, paranoia emerges.
A significant contributor to overstimulated self-focus is a lethal tool of the evil one that Jesus warned us about:
THE CARES OF THIS WORLD.
Some of the products of an unbalanced focus on THE CARES OF THIS WORLD include the fear of what others think, negativity, competition, invalid values of this life, worry, anxiety, arrogance, meanness, criminal activity, sadness, all nature of mental illnesses including addiction and alcoholism.
Think about just one of these: the fear of what others think. This fear is the substance of most teenage neuroses and suicide. In adults, it causes poor decisions and life choices. It can and frequently does cause people to reject the promises of Jesus. The twisted logic is that people will like us if we do or say this or that.
The problem is overvaluing this life and its concerns. Any person over sixty will quickly agree that this life is a wisp of smoke. It goes by in the blink of an eye. The life to come, however, is eternal. So why do we invest so much time and energy worrying about the vicissitudes of our earth life?
Here is a command from Jesus that few know:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.“
(Matthew 6:19-21)
I often ask people to consider where God lines up on their Totem Pole. Where does God rank among the things that are important to us? Isn’t it interesting that we can spend conservatively four to five hours a day on the internet but find it hard to spend fifteen minutes with Jesus? Many men can spend an entire weekend watching or participating in sports but can not find thirty minutes to invest in Jesus.
This phenomenon is inverted from where we should be.
Jesus instructed us to “SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Then He added this promise: “AND THEN ALL OF THESE THINGS (the things that we search after and chase fervently.) SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU.”
(Matthew 6:33)
MULE-OLOGY Is the feeling of being unloved, unappreciated, unrecognized, unrewarded, insecure, and obligated to carry our heavy and ponderous burdens alone. It is seeking these things in the wrong places. It is an odd conviction that we can find the love, recognition, respect, appreciation, rewards, and security we need in others.
The fact is that other humans do not have the capacity to provide our needs at the level we desire. Only God can give them, and He has and does.
Nothing is more painful and frustrating to the human psyche than THE LOSS OF AN EXPECTED GAIN. When we expect that others can and should and will fill our souls, we will only find frustration and bitter disappointment. Ask survivors of abusive relationships if this is not true.
HOLY SPIRIT directed Paul, our anointed and appointed teacher, to instruct us with this command:
“We cast not our eyes on the things that are seen but on the things that are not seen because the things that we see are temporary and subject to change, but the things that we do not see are of God and are eternal.“
(2Corinthians4:18)
Holy Spirit gave Paul another stunning message for us:
“By faith, we understand that the universes were created by the Word of God (Jesus) so that what is seen was not made out of visible things.
(Hebrews 11:3)
MEANING:
God created the seen from the unseen. This is a stunning message when we consider that Paul had no understanding of science or the unseen. He had no knowledge that God created the seen from subatomic particles. The creation can never be greater than the Creator. Yet we place more value in the things of the creation than the things of the Creator.
The point is that the things we see are temporary and subject to change. The things of this earth will turn to rust, and they are gone in the blink of an eye. Our heavenly home is forever. The unseen is where God the Father, God Jesus, and God Holy Spirit are. We should make the heavenly realm and preparing for it our highest priority.
Nothing in this world can take the harness off of the mule. God left a hole in our souls to be filled with only one thing, His Love. Nothing else can fill it. Yet we try to fill it with earthly things like, material things, success, fitness, sports and entertainment, sex, money etc. These things can never bring us the comfort we seek. That hole cries out to us to fill it with receiving and believing Jesus and His love.
I heard a shocking and horribly wrong comment from one of the worlds greatest evangelists. He said there was a man who was so heavenly-minded that he was no earthly good. WRONG! The opposite is true for the vast majority of people.
Wouldn’t it be better to be more heavenly-minded than earthly-minded?
Jesus said this: “Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again and then, in his joy, went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
(Matthew 13:44)
WOULD YOU SELL EVERYTHING YOU HAVE TO BUY THAT FIELD?
Jesus is telling us that we should invest our treasures in Heaven. Those treasures include but are not limited to our: Time, Treasure, and Talent.That is why He told us to make the great commission our highest priority. In Jesus’s last remarks on earth, He commanded us to take the Gospel to all the world’s people and immerse them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
(Matthew 28:18-20)
Shucking the bonds of Mule-ology is to examine our focus and priorities. To escape excessive preoccupation with ourselves, we need to adjust our insights. We need to seek the things our souls long for in the places they are found. Instead of looking for love in all the wrong places, we need to search for love in Jesus, who loves us so much that while we are at our worst, He died for us.
Our treasures are stored in God and His glorious Heaven, where our needs are met and the holes in our souls are filled.
BE HAPPY! SHUCK THE PLOW! REJOICE IN JESUS!
End of teaching
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