Take My Hand Inspirations: October 2018

Sunday, 14 October 2018

35: STEP 3: You Can’t Save Yourself

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, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

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

Sunday, 7 October 2018

34:TIME OUT! What Is Sin, Exactly?

Take My Hand Inspirations

SALVATION SERIES

TIME OUT! What Is Sin, Exactly?

Christianity has become like a joke to the unbelievers—and to the backsliders. When they look inside the “Church”, all they want to see is sin; their ears itch to hear more about what is going wrong with the Pastor and his congregation than the actual Word of God he preaches every Sunday morning. Then, they make a decision: “As for me, I will never go to church. . . look at what’s going on in there. I’m better out here in the world doing more good, than to be hemmed up in a place full of fornication, adultery, backbiting and stabbing, utter war between the Pastor and deacons and elders, and many Pastors’ wives are sitting around gossiping about the personal condition of most of the church members. Woo wee! Why be a Christian today?

But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out abundantly though Jesus Christ our Saviour (Titus 3:4-6).

Now that you have taken the first and second steps to salvation of your soul by admitting: “I am a sinner”, and accepting that God hates all sin, NOT THE SINNER; and that sin is leads to death—fleshly, emotionally/psychologically, and spiritually, now it’s time to understand exactly, “What is sin?”

What is so important to acknowledge here is that mankind has an inborn “sin radar” that alerts him to knowing when he has done wrong. It’s that feeling we discussed in an earlier blog—when you know you’ve done something or said or thought about something you shouldn’t have. Sin is any word, thought or action (taken or not taken) that is contrary to the holiness of God. In other words: SIN IS DISOBEDIENCE. Read Galatians 5:19-21.

SIN CAN BE PHYSICAL—Our fleshly sins include using our bodies to steal, kill, have sex before and inside marriage (fornication/adultery) and including reveries, orgies, licentiousness—sexual intercourse with objects, same-sex, animals, masturbation. Physical sin also includes speaking in ungodly ways; drunkenness and getting high on drugs; and all kinds of non-verbal gestures (rolling of eyes, sucking of teeth, fingering, etc.). This type of sin is generally reflected as uncleanness.

SIN CAN BE EMOTIONAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL—Our thoughts turn sinful when we meditate on things which are not pure: plotting to get revenge against someone who’s wronged you; lying and spreading unscrupulous rumours to destroy someone’s reputation; outbursts of wrath, distrust, jealousy, contentions. This type of sin is emulated as selfishness—to do anything to protect and preserve the ego, the self, from destruction or annihilation.

SIN CAN BE SPIRITUAL—tapping the soul to be directed toward idol worship. Anything that replaces Almighty God as first place in your life is spiritual sin: acquiring material wealth (money and “things”) and focusing on its pleasures and how to get more of it distracts our attention to worshipping our Creator; witchcraft and sorcery--actual worship of lesser gods in the occult and heresies (any doctrine that goes against the pure Doctrine of Jesus Christ, especially the Resurrection and the Doctrine of Salvation); and, finally, giving your soul to the influences of world. All these internal, invisible sins appear to the Lord as lewdness reflecting a behavior, dressing, speech and sexuality that is not the image God had for us during our creation.

Sin prompts three basic responses in people from all cultures: shame (the Muslim world and Asian), fear (African, Central and South American, and Pacific Islanders) and guilt (Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian in North American, European and Australian cultures). Because these responses are uncomfortable, people try to find ways to avoid them. Ideally we should avoid sin and turn to God in repentance, asking for forgiveness; but in our fallen state (Romans 3:23), we try to find our own ways of coping. As a general rule, people focus on achieving honour to avoid shame, achieving power to overcome fear, and obeying laws or rules to avoid guilt. However, the Bible teaches that only by turning to and obeying God can we rid ourselves of the shame, fear and guilt caused by our sin¹.

To try to cope with or to cover up sin is sinful. So how can man stop sinning? Only through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And where can man get that regeneration and renewing? Only in the Church Body whose head is Jesus Christ, whose heart is Jesus Christ, whose hands are Jesus Christ—all working together through its members.

Those who point their finger at the “Church” must be mindful of the three fingers pointing back at them directly indicating their own hypocrisy. The Church is a hospital for sick souls. We enter to get healing from the One who is our Master Doctor—Jesus Christ. Many of us came in so sick, we were like walking dead people. But once we took the steps to Salvation, we were healed and so, now, we stand as Jesus’ Doctors to heal other dying souls.

No institution is perfect on earth, especially the Church. But it is in the Church where we get a second chance, new life, born-again to do the will of God and to be saved from sin and its wages. In the Church, we receive the constant nourishment our souls need to overcome the influences of the world. It is in the Church where we get our power to destroy the works of the enemy. It is in the Church where we shall receive eternal life. Jesus died for the Church to be raised up in Him. If you cannot walk into a strong Bible-believing, Bible-preaching and Bible-living Church because you see all the sickness in it, ask yourself: “Am I completely whole—and without sin?”

ALL SIN LEADS TO DEATH. What is death? DEATH IS THE END OF LIFE—physical (the body), emotional/psychological (the soul), and spiritual. As humans, we try to cover our sins by attaining honor or fame; acquiring or outright buying power; and hiding inside of laws or rules created by man (not God) to make us feel justified for sinning. CAN ANYONE FROM ANY CULTURE HIDE FROM THE ONE WHO CREATED US?

Reference:

1. Cox, Brenda S., Things Fall Apart Study Guide, Wisconsin, USA: Progeny Press, 2006:20-22.

Most of the paintings selected for this blog are retrieved from “Black Art” search engine.

Take My Hand Inspirations