Take My Hand Inspirations
SALVATION SERIES
STEP 3: You Can’t Save
Yourself
We
don’t hesitate to rush into a hospital when our physical bodies are in danger
of dying. We also seek counseling—either
professionally or simply by talking to a friend or relative—when our minds are
troubled by unstable emotions. So why is
it so colossally slow for some of us to get our souls checked in to the only
effective healing place available for salvation?
The
answer is because we can’t accept that we need help. The soul is the seat of the ego—the “I” that clothes itself
in fancy garments to show the world how great it is. Yes, there are some who are genuinely humble
like a child and who obey Godly instructions to fight for what is noble and just
and pure and lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy (Philippians
4:8). These souls are usually between
the ages of 0 and 10 years.
What
happens to the human being when puberty kicks in? Do the involuntary injections of hormones
make us discontent, untrusting, doubtful, contentious and all around
turbulent? Or is it that, at adolescence,
we must question everything in the world around us?
Psychologist
Jean Piaget (1896-1980), an incredible authority on the way humanity learns
(cognitively develops) about themselves and the environment into which we are
placed described ego-centrism in children as their inability to see the world
from anyone else’s perspective, or to understand that others may not view
things as they do. He also explained
that adolescent (11 years to adulthood) ego-centrism makes the teenager and
young adult feel that everyone is watching what they do, hearing what they say,
and criticizing what they look like. As
a result of becoming highly self-conscious and sometimes inhibited by shyness
or fear to express their feelings, they begin to channel their emotions into
paying more attention to their appearance and “over” worry about how others
perceive them.
It
is at this point in our soul searching that we make choices in who becomes our
friend, our “voice of acceptance” –all yearning to be part of a group, to
belong in a comfortable setting. It is
also at this stage of human development that we have the erroneous belief that
we are indestructible; and as a result we sometimes get engaged in high
risk-taking behavior such as sexual promiscuity with either sex, alcohol and
drugs abuse, gang initiation and violence, turning to the occult—all in pursuit
of feeling “good” about who we are. This
is what I call “ego-tripping” – exploring this and that, going here and there
(taking trips to unknown territories) to define who you are.
And
many of us never come out of this stage in our development with the innocence
of humility that we had between ages 0 and 10 years. What happened?
One:
If we weren’t raised on a strong solid Christian foundation, we hit turbulence
and turbulence belted us with a bedeviling blow. Who we thought God was supposed to be or do
didn’t happen, so we turn away from God in anger—never to trust in Him again
because things didn’t work out as we thought they should have.
Two:
If we allowed our souls to be possessed by the spirit of disobedience then we
have truly learned that the wages of sin definitely lead to death—by abortion
(baby dies), break-ups and heart-aches (relationship dies), abandonment,
isolation, fear and addiction (the body, mind, soul die).
Three:
We had no spiritual guidance, no one to keep leading us in the right direction
we once were going in as children. Where
were the godly grandparents and elders to show us the way and to stop us when
we were running into fire? We needed to
hear their voices more than the trembling utterances of our peers. We needed strong old-fashioned discipline
that would shock us back to our inborn soul-saving senses. Godly
elders, your voice is still needed.
So
now the "perfect world" we envisioned
in our adolescent years of how great we would be conquering it and being
ultimately successful at everything we touch suddenly comes crashing or more like
clashing against the "real world" where
bad things happen to folks with good intentions . . . and we get angry,
frustrated, and so bitter that to hear about Jesus just makes us sick.
Well,
Beloved by God, you now have a choice to make.
You have already passed the test of taking Step 1 to Salvation. You have admitted that you are a sinner. And you have achieved Step 2 by acknowledging
that the wages (the finality or end result) of sin is death on all levels of
our existence. Now are you ready to accept the truth that this same JESUS, whom you’ve heard about but
cannot physically see, IS THE ONLY ONE
WHO CAN SAVE YOUR SOUL? Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other
name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts
4:12).
Apostle
Paul explained to young Timothy (an adolescent) that: This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief (1
Timothy 1:15).
Yes Timothy was raised by two
strong women of faith and he, too, loved the Lord with all his heart, yet he
still struggled to understand many things about God’s plan for humanity. He was fortunate to have Apostle Paul as a
spiritual father to guide and keep him on the right track.
And now you, too, have someone
to lead you and help guide you to do the same—stay on track toward heaven. If no one else then I, your mother or sister
or aunty or friend (depending on the stage—age--you are at in life) take up the
cause of winning your soul back to Jesus from whence it came and keeping it
there.
But, with the humility you had
as a child, you’ve got to believe what the Bible
says—and pay strict attention to its “voice” alone. We believe by faith. It’s not everything you can see with your
eyes to understand. We, humans, have an
inborn supernatural sense call “intuition”—a strong feeling of knowing things
that are beyond our physical environment.
This is triggered in the right direction by faith in God Almighty which
the Bible says in Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the
substance [the knowing that God is exists for our good] of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
To take STEP 3 YOU MUST LET EVERYTHING YOU UNDERSTAND
ABOUT YOURSELF AND THE WORLD FALL INTO THE HANDS OF JESUS. He won’t let you down. But God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us (Romans
5:8). For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Your sins can only be forgiven
by accepting the truth that when Christ was nailed to the cross, your sins were
nailed there in Him; and when Christ died on that same cross, your sins died
there too. Who
Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to
sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were [and are now]
healed (1 Peter 2:24).
Wonderful!
Begin receiving your healing. Don’t stop
now. Let’s keep on stepping toward total
salvation—four more to go!
© 2018 by Take My Hand Inspirations, a
division of PepParadise Society Ltd Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Unless otherwise stated, all scripture
quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas
Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.
Portrait (self) by Sebastian Eriksson, 18-Year-Old Creates Surreal Artwork to Express Emotion, 2012.
Most of the paintings selected for
this blog are retrieved from “Black Art” search engine.
Take My Hand Inspirations
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