

{"id":15786,"date":"2015-12-27T19:51:06","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T19:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=15786"},"modified":"2015-12-28T00:21:53","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T00:21:53","slug":"the-next-step-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=15786","title":{"rendered":"The Next Step Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?attachment_id=15787\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15787\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-Blog Post Image wp-image-15787\" title=\"Screen Shot 2015-12-22 at 8.44.10 AM\" src=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-580x151.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-580x151.png 580w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-150x39.png 150w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-270x70.png 270w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-600x156.png 600w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-350x91.png 350w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-400x104.png 400w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-370x96.png 370w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2-500x130.png 500w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-22-at-8.44.10-AM2.png 672w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take another few steps down this very important road.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\">5. \u00a0We are who we associate with.<\/span><\/strong> \u00a0Build a circle of friends that believe as you do, wow, sounds like a church! \u00a0I know lots of people say I&#8217;m not into into &#8220;organized&#8221; religion, those places are full of hypocrites. \u00a0Yes you are absolutely right, they are, another word for that is sinners. \u00a0However, there is worse news coming. \u00a0Romans tells us that &#8220;we are all sinners, we have all fallen short of what God wanted for us.&#8221; \u00a0So if you are going to throw stones at all those sinners, well just remember what Jesus said, &#8220;Let he that is without sin, cast the first stone!&#8221; \u00a0Hey I didn&#8217;t say it, if you don&#8217;t like it&#8230;take it up with Him!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>6. \u00a0Watch what you watch on TV, at the movies, and what you listen to.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 This is a tough one, \u00a0I like a good movie as much as the next guy, but I&#8217;ve gotten stricter on myself about what I spend my time watching. \u00a0I lean towards TV shows that have a strong moral message like Blue Bloods. \u00a0How do we know? \u00a0 Watch one episode of any show, if it espouses something that makes you uncomfortable, you likely should take that one off the list. \u00a0Warning, this is going to cut your TV time way down!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>7. \u00a0Make your play list uplifting.<\/strong><\/span> \u00a0There are plenty of good artists out there that produce great music, that is keeping with your new standards, and some terrific Christian music. \u00a0Thankfully artists like Jordan Smith are turning the tide on great music that is uplifting!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>8. \u00a0Clean your slate.<\/strong><\/span> \u00a0Developing \u00a0a perfectly open line of communication with Him changes everything. \u00a0That starts with forgiveness, not yours, that&#8217;s a done deal! \u00a0Now it&#8217;s time to search your heart and make list, a list of those you have not forgiven. \u00a0I know the drill, I&#8217;ve been through it, and I can give you some advice; God loves you but it is not a good idea to try and convince Him that you have the right to refuse to forgive someone because of how badly they hurt you. \u00a0A little review; Your Heavenly Father, (God) sent His ONLY Son to die so you could be forgiven for your sins! \u00a0Do you really want to argue that point with Him??!!\u00a0 Thought so, get to it, you&#8217;ll never believe the freedom that comes from letting it go!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>O.K. that&#8217;s some heavy stuff, so let&#8217;s give it rest for now, but the pay off is greater than you can ever imagine!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Blessings,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Let&#8217;s take another few steps down this very important road. &nbsp; 5. \u00a0We are who we associate with. \u00a0Build a circle of friends that believe as you do, wow, sounds like a church! \u00a0I know lots of people say I&#8217;m not into into &#8220;organized&#8221; religion, those places are full of hypocrites. \u00a0Yes you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15786"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15797,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15786\/revisions\/15797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}