Far better to take up one's cross and serve others. This course of action also brings healing from God. And Jesus said to all, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.
For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. There is yet another way to look at Christian growth, maturation and sanctification. We can think of it as an aspect of spiritual warfare. God's goal for us is individuation and wholeness. This comes about as we are separated from the collective milieu of family and culture.
Spiritual warfare as described in the New Testament takes place not only "outside" ourselves while we are in the world, it is often an "inner space" battle as well. The Priesthood of all Believers Since all Christians are priests counselors and healers in the royal priesthood of which Jesus is our Great High Priest, we need one another in dealing with the strongholds in our lives. Not only do we usually not easily perceive the occupied territories in our hearts, we usually can't deal with them alone, without outside help from caring brothers and sisters in the Lord.
The strongholds of evil in the unconscious are strongholds of darkness for which light, love, and truth are the cure. Of course it is God alone who sees us as we really are, even our best friends and life-partners never know all there is to know about us no matter how much we share.
But to God "all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Some Psychological Terms Listed below some of the symptoms and behavior patterns that are good clues that there may exist within us strongholds of the enemy that rightfully belong to us in Christ and are thus in need of liberation. Scripture says, "perfect love casts out fear and he who fears is not perfected in love. Discovering what they are, where they came from, and why they haven't disappeared can lead to the surprising discovery that any one of us can be operating in a badly crippled life style because of deep seated strongholds of walled-off fear.
Love is the cure, since love, properly administered, "casts out fear.
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The Bible says none of us should "think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned to him. This in turn is usually a cover-up for low self-esteem and for a feeling of chronic failure in life. Self-centeredness is hard to recognize in oneself, easy to see in others, and of course something we often stubbornly hold onto thinking we are thereby safer and better off in life. The cure is to allow God to put to death the self-life in us, not just once, but daily.
Self Deception is a common human weakness by means of which we deny our sin, overlook our flaws and tend to think better of ourselves than we ought to think. The age we live in is one of extreme deception in religion, education, social affairs and philosophy. Unfortunately our hearts are susceptible to schemes and imaginations. Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?
The compulsion to steal, to lie or behave in accordance with superstitions avoiding the number 13 for instance, or fearing the number can hide strongholds that need attention.
SOUR GRAPES
Compulsive-Obsessive patterns are often strange, peculiar and frustrating, hence those so afflicted usually go out of the way to hide these failures from others to cover their embarrassment. A good part of the cure is always having at least one trusted friend who knows one's secrets no matter how bizarre they may seem to us. It is helpful to read about Jesus' tender concern for those who were social misfits or troubled with problems that opened them to ridicule by others. The Christian man or women who does not naturally move towards a normal heterosexual life style or contented celibacy, or who suffers from unresolved abnormal sexual desiresmolestation, wife or child abuse, compulsive masturbation, or homosexual acting-out, etc.
Since human sexuality encompasses body, soul and spirit these strongholds are among the deepest areas of distorted and self-centered behavior we face as Christians. Repeated Intense Dreams, Sleeplessness. Dreams of unusual intensity, especially repeated dreams or prolonged periods of lack of sleep are warning signals that often call attention to activity springing from enemy-held territory within that needs redemption.
Anxiety attacks cripple conscious behavior and usually indicate that a previous buried neurotic "complex" is surfacing with resulting spill-over of excessive energy into conscious life. The "complexes" or "neuroses" familiar to the psychologist are known to be energy-laden to a greater or lesser extent depending on the intensity of the unresolved conflict and the degree of repression.
Anxiety attacks are frightening because we fear loss of self-control and because the energy leaking up from the unconscious problem area provokes irrational fears. Many verses of scripture tells us how to directly deal with anxiety with guaranteed results. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Everyone gets depressed at times, however there are persons in our world who must be hospitalized because their depressions are so severe or prolonged. Depression is hard to deal with in many cases, and can have many causes but strongholds of the enemy should be suspected. Depression could be buried self-hatred in some instances, or guilt from unconfessed sin Psalm 32 , or a result of the loss of a loved-one or a personal tragedy in life beyond one's control. Modern medical research has shown that depressed persons show certain chemical imbalances in the brain and so sometimes doctors can prescribe medication to restore the brain's chemical balance until the root cause is discovered.
Thus, we can at least begin to function again in society. Sinful behavior, especially in adolescence, tends to arrest normal emotional and spiritual maturation. This means a person can get "stuck" at a certain stage of growth towards adulthood and retain childish, immature, inappropriate ways of responding to life long after others have moved on.
One example would be sexual promiscuity which opposes one's ability to form strong and lasting intimate relationships. When we deal with an area of disobedience or failure in our lives, spiritual and emotional growth resume. When a person refuses the grace of God over time he or she will not only stop growing up emotionally, but may revert to the "safer" behavior patterns of childhood.
It is always sad to see a person made in the image of God who reverts back to behaving like a dependent and helpless child long after they should be serving others as a mature adult and productive member of society. Extreme swings of emotion from excessive elation to depression when there appear to be no direct causal factors in the environment call attention to our need in most cases to deal with personality roadblocks within. Use of stimulating drugs like cocaine crack, or "speed" produces elation and well-being that are unrelated to the real circumstances of one's life.
The price to be paid eventually is a psychosis or at least a compensatory season of depression which simply has to be endured until it has worked itself out. One form of serious mental illness requiring a physician's care is a manic-depressive, or bi-polar psychosis. Those afflicted can harm themselves and others inadvertently so they may need protective hospitalization. A host of effective anti-psychotic medications is now available to the trained psychiatrist to help restore normal behavior. The famous fiction story of Dr.
Hyde has made everyone aware that some individuals do suffer from the inability to be self-consistent. While all of us change our personas as we change our clothing to suit the occasion , a rigid upbringing with much repression may force some people to "act-out" their repressed and unlived selves privately or secretly as a compensatory mechanism. Extreme personality changes resulting from perhaps only a couple of alcoholic drinks is a good sign of onset of the physiological disease of alcoholism for which the only cure is life long total abstinence from further drinking.
Multiple personality behavior, though rare, can be a sign of demon possession. After all other possibilities have been exhausted, experienced help should be sought and the demons cast out. Demon possession usually occurs because a person has deliberately involved himself or herself in the occult, witchcraft, Satan worship, or hard-core pornography. Excessive day dreaming or fantasy life. Persons who fail to live out in real life who they really are in Christ may find that their unlived selves show up in excessive day dreaming and fantasies.
Sexual fantasies usually reveal feelings of sexual incompleteness and are a special case. Those who feed on pornographic literature are letting the world know that they feel inadequate in interpersonal relationships and are virtual prisoners of destructive lusts and sensual desires. Inferiority complex and low self-esteem.
As mentioned above, low self-esteem may masquerade behind the person who is bold and self-confident or egotistical in real life. In other cases a person who is excessively shy may be a secret sufferer who hopes no one will notice but also longs for help and is afraid to ask for it. Unconfessed sin, uncleansed shame, and a sense of spiritual nakedness underlie many cases of personal low self-esteem. Often we meet lonely people who simply need affirmation and someone to show an interest in them and to encourage them.
Many friends I have met, who once were lonely and lacked a good opinion of themselves, have blossomed as a result of a little interest shown in them on behalf of God. All kinds of folks who have poor self-esteem are actually delightful persons and have much to offer. Since Jesus taught us that we would lose our own lives if we held onto them, and find our salvation if we gave ourselves away to others, I have found great value in asking God to bring into my life people who need a word of encouragement or some basic human acceptance, or a sympathetic listening friend.
It is difficult enough to believe that God loves us, and often easier to believe another person cares. In any case, the incarnation of Christ obligates us to share His humanity with others through our actions. Some people are naturally shy, or especially modest, or introspective. These are personality traits, not abnormalities! Any Christian under duress can lose his or her temper, or be subject to regrettable fits of anger, bitterness, or hatred from time to time in life. For others a strong temper is a personality weakness needing to be worked on for a life time.
Most of these problems can be dealt with by confession and prayer. Wife-abuse, child-abuse, attempts at suicide, or various forms of self-destructive behavior are good indicators that the one whom Jesus called "the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning" has made his home somewhere in our hearts and needs to be dislodged and thrown out. Because the person who commits sin is temporarily not his own master any longer, but is controlled by another, he or she can not behave in the meek, gentle ways of Jesus until the control of the Holy Spirit is restored through confession and repentance.
Drug and alcohol abuse.
Pharmakeia aka Witches
Persons who drink too much or use illicit drugs to avoid coping with reality are often snared, not only by bad habits, but have been trapped into self-destructive behavior patterns that are the result of enemy activity in one's life. The Greek word pharmakeia , usually translated "sorcery" in the New Testament, implies bondage from seducing spirits than can occur because of abuse drugs or alcohol.
The psychedelic drugs, and such as PCP, LSD, pot, Ecstasy, and the like open the mind to seducing spirits and interfere with the boundary-layer controls between the conscious and unconscious mind that God built into us for our own healthy self-regulation. Excessive thrift, excessive spending. Men and women who chronically mismanage their worldly resources, either through not using then at all, or by spending sprees and living beyond their means usually have trouble within.
Not only does money management require liberty and responsibility in Christ:. For the love of money is the Greek: Compulsive eating or drinking. Not all fat persons are signaling to the world that they need spiritual help, but it is certainly true in many situations that those who over indulge are trying to fill up unmet emotional needs in an inappropriate way.
Getting such people to lose weight may mean dealing with a stronghold-within that resists discovery and change, surprising though this may seem. Individuals who are overly legalistic and deny themselves all recreation and enjoyment of life are often broadcasting to the rest of us their need for inner liberation that they might find the freedom that God longs to give them.
In other cases individuals have grown up in legalistic churches and need help in gaining the freedom Christ has earned for them. Since God has given us all things freely to enjoy, and Jesus said He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, Christians who avoid the risks and adventures of living and enjoying real life may have inner bondage from which they can, and should be, set free. Individuals who are driven by insecurity, secret lust for power or excessive fear of failure have problems that need attention as well.
Wholeness in Christ implies balanced living. Just as certain persons are offensively rude, aggressive, pushy, so some people can be seen to be totally lacking in the ability to take the initiative, to pursue worthwhile goals or to venture forth into the world of relationships in spite of hazards and fears.
Quite a few men and women never grow up in today's world and expect someone else to feed and cloth them as mommy used to do. Jungian psychologists write books on young men whom they refer to as "Puer Aeternis" types. These tragic young men can be wonderfully charming, innocent-appearing, and loving, but most can not cope with the demands life makes on adult manhood; neither can they believe that bad things can happen to them. Many perfectly wonderful young women accept reclusive living, leading to "old-maidhood," not realizing that God would like to use them in wonderful ways even though they might prefer not to marry.
Obviously there are underlying reasons for such cases of arrested development. Difficulty in interpersonal relationships. In this category should be included fear of authority figures reflecting on poor childhood relationships with one's parents, fear of the opposite sex, and constant need for peer-group approval. Closely related are those relationships where one person finds he or she "can not live without the other.
While we all need each other, we need God most of all, and to force us to grow up God may find it necessary to pry us loose from excessive dependence upon other people in some cases. Such dependent-relationships are usually two-way or they would be soon broken by the other party and ended. The test of healthy relationships is that they should overflow to the benefit of others and be outgoing rather than turned inward.
Unfortunately many Christian marriages are turned inward to the detriment of all involved. Relationships based on the axioms, "I'll love you if you'll love me", "we both are lonely so we might as well be lonely together" may be better than no marriage at all, but they are certainly not very fulfilling relationships. It may be difficult to start over again after the failure of a marriage of many years, or to think of oneself as being useful to God or man after serious sin has befallen us,: On my kitchen wall is a plaque that means much to me, it simple says, "Prayer Changes Things".
The list could continue, but perhaps these few illustrations are enough to convince that we are all badly flawed, and that we are both weak and helpless before God, if we could but admit it to ourselves, to Him, and to each other. There is nothing wrong in being weak, in fact the Apostle Paul writes that Christ's strength is made perfect in our weakness. He speaks of us as earthen vessels with a treasure inside. What counts is the treasure not the container!
Yet we owe it to ourselves as redeemed men and women to vigorously devote time and energy to the conquest of the promised land of Canaan, to the redemption of the kingdom God within that has granted us as our inheritance in Christ. This "conquest of the land" is of course the theme of the book of Joshua. We Christians have no claims to a plot of land as the Jews do, nor even to any earthly inheritance, and we do not usually find our real enemies are other persons external to our lives.
Neither do we claim our rightful inheritance in Christ by means of conventional warfare. Rather instead we must proceed by the ground rules laid down in the scripture for the conquest of the territory within. The strongholds discussed thus far are those of the "personal unconscious" to use a term borrowed from modern analytic psychology.
The largest problems we face as men and women coping with the problems of "this present evil age," are problems of the "collective unconscious. Unless such groups or movements are grounded in scripture and in fellowship with God, they are bound to be deceptive stratagems of the god of this world. If so, they represent larger strongholds that need to be evaluated and aggressively addressed by Christians.
Dealing with the collective strongholds in society is the subject of spiritual warfare proper, as discussed by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians Chapter 6. However many of the same principles of general-spiritual-warfare apply to attacking and reclaiming the personal strongholds in ourselves as individuals. A very key passage is found in Paul's second letter to the Christians in Corinth:.
We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete" II Corinthians What this passage reveals is that the strongholds of evil in ourselves and in others are buttressed and fortified with rationalizations and arguments, with defense mechanisms and illogical patterns of thought based on ignorance, tradition, or the false philosophies of this world.
The core of the strongholds is always pride, whether it takes the form of arrogance, self-exaltation, or touchiness and resentment pride turned inward. This passage is most helpful, for it shows us that the problems we deal with in our unconscious and in the lives of others are like castles built up and defended by the "strong man" in a certain way. To successfully attack, invade, and destroy enemy-held strongholds is really not much different from storming a medieval castle, but in Christ we have been armed with a better set of weapons than the best knight in armor would wear:.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore take the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. If one keeps in mind that God's goal for us in life is that we should become whole persons, and that the Enemy's intentions are to destroy us, the nature of the war we are in can better be kept in mind. While many believers content themselves with second-best, there is no need for doing so, considering the unlimited nature of the life God offers us in Christ and the mighty weapons He gives us for helping one another to fullness of life now.
In applying the above passages to our emotional and spiritual roadblocks, it is only necessary to note that all of us resist change and even cooperate most of the time with the enemy in his maintenance and preservation of the castles he has built within us. The on-going efforts of the enemy to keep us from giving over these areas to Christ are popularly known as "defense mechanisms", and, unfortunately we all have them and resent at first anyone interfering with what lies beneath them. Not only are we defensive when the outer periphery is approached, we often find a whole host of reasons, or "rationalizations" for not allowing Christ to penetrate more deeply or probe further into the heart of our problem - that is, we might decide it can wait for "another day.
So it is true that "we are our own worst enemies. It is the testimony of the people of God in all ages that these root evils are at the heart of our constant resistance to growth.
The weeds grow back in the garden faster than the flowers! But then who enjoys being humbled, or even humbling himself, though it is a fixed truth that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So we ought to be willing to "Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that in due time He may exalt us.
Then it is up to us to give God permission to move in, to tear down and to redeem these areas of our lives that we have lost to ourselves through sin. God does not force Himself on us, neither should we force ourselves on another - even when we want to help meet what is an obvious need. In helping others we must not meddle or pry where we are not welcome, nor violate another's will or God-given "territorial boundaries". In helping others know themselves better we must realize that we too will be changed by the process. In life we have no mirror to see ourselves except through the scriptures, fellowship with God and learning how to see ourselves as others see us.
We shall not succeed in helping another if we perceive of ourselves as superior to our friend, nor will we gain his trust and confidence if we harbor attitudes of judgment and condemnation in our hearts, however subtle:. It is before his own Master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand.
In dealing with the strongholds of the personal unconscious it is well to keep in mind certain conditions of the inner man that may need specific attention through prayer, instruction, or changes in life-style before healing can set in. Some of the these include: Ignorance of the Scriptures. It is useless to pray for things God has already said "no" to in scripture. Similarly many Christians stay defeated because they are unaware of the hundreds of promises conditional and unconditional in the Bible free for the claiming!
There is real life changing power in the Word of God, those who do not feed on the Word remain sickly and anemic and can not expect to become whole except to an insignificant degree, no matter how sincere their efforts. Especially in regard to healing and wholeness the Psalms have always been of infinite worth to the people of God down through the ages. In my darkest hours I have turned to the Psalms and found them rich treasures of encouragement, hope , comfort, and healing.
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A sad commentary on many of our churches today is that they do not teach the scriptures or perhaps give only a verse or two when the congregation is starving for a decent meal. Other churches specialize in excessive emotionalism, charged appeals, and hours of chorus-singing. These worship activities provide a temporary lifting of the spirits but do not give us the "strong meat of the word" we all need to survive the rest of the week. In regard to worship Jesus said, "God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" John 4: Obviously He wished us to strike a balance between music, prayer, testimony, open sharing and the preaching and teaching of "the whole counsel of God.
The conscience can be "seared" so as to be grossly insensitive to right and wrong. Unless programmed with scripture our consciences can mislead us by making us feel guilty when we have not erred, or by allowing us to rationalize heinously wrong behavior without providing us with strong warnings:. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself to God without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness, and reverence; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. It is useless to try to help people who are resistant to truth and change because of this common affliction.
In such situations we need to ask God for humbling and breaking experiences, or for patient love to soften the heart so that it becomes receptive again. A related problem is stubbornness, a form of pride. God often sends us adverse, painful experiences to get our attention when all else fails. The will in bondage. Every wrong choice in life weakens our ability to resist evil in a given area, every right choice builds up the will. Many individuals have so little "will-power" that they need lots of help to get back on their feet walking with God.
In recovering a will from bondage, the smallest initial right choices are the place to start and repeated failures are common even for long periods of time. Persons with broken-down wills need especially close accountability to other members of the Body of Christ. Frequently the Old Testament speaks of the Jews as a "stubborn and stiff-necked people". The neck is a symbol for the will, and a strong will towards God is called a "strong tower" in the Song of Solomon. Just as unconfessed sin festers in the unconscious causing all sorts of problems and subsequent defeat, so all Christians need to draw upon their circumcision in the cross of Christ, by faith, in order to experience the cutting off of the flesh and the old life.
The figure of circumcision means that we need to deal radically with our consecration to God, especially in regard to sexuality, emotions and related affections. Physical circumcision is a vivid symbol given to show us that our sexual lives, which we would like to claim as our own to be controlled by no one else, are to be given to God for the purpose of serving both Him and our partner in marriage. One ancient legend is that wedding rings were first modeled from the circular ring of flesh removed from the male generative organ in circumcision.
He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them triumphing over them in the cross. This old-fashioned term simply means persistent disobedience or rebellion to the revealed will of God, and failure to walk with God on a daily basis.
Carnal Christian living guarantees an inevitable harvest of death, since God is not mocked. In addition our walking in the flesh increases the territory ruled over by Satan in us and threatens the entire "kingdom within. Though Abraham loved his nephew Lot like a son, the latter was a compromised believer who was saved "but only as through fire". I often wonder what we can talk to Lot about in heaven. It would be indiscreet to inquire about his daughters, and empty to ask him to describe what life living in Sodom was like. Peter tells us that Lot was vexed night and day by moral conditions in Sodom.
Having been justified by his faith along with the rest of us, he will arrive in heaven without sin or blame remaining. In an evil world, all of us are buffeted about by activity in the "heavenly places" which involves good and bad angels, and hosts of falling spirits: Persons who have been involved in the occult, though now Christians, may find bondage from such spirits is hard to be freed from and that persistent efforts are required.
I do not believe any Christian can be possessed by evil spirits since God is sovereign over the temple of our bodies, however Christians do from time to time need relief from the world of oppressing spirits. Such oppression should not be suspected until all other possible problem areas have been explored and eliminated.
Deliverance from enemy oppression has been the experience of many of God's people through the centuries. Pride is at the heart of all sin. Arrogance, haughtiness, egotism, and self-righteousness are her bed-fellows. Outward pride, showing up as self-exaltation, arrogance and egotism is easier to spot than stubbornness, touchiness, or resistance to change which can be signs of inward pride.
It is important to always be aware that meekness, lowliness and humility mark the fruit of the spirit. God's work with us is not finished until we have been repeatedly broken, brought to the end of our own resources more than once, and until we have been made-over into the likeness of God's own Son. Only after knowing God twenty-five years did I realize that I would be increasingly humbled by God for the rest of my life, if I was willing to keep following Him!
Since pride blinds, it is well to ask God to show us what He sees about us that we do not:. Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! The stages of Christian growth, theologically speaking are justification, sanctification and glorification. The above discussion has largely to do with our part in working towards sanctification. Sanctification is another name for wholeness, spiritual maturity, well-roundedness. Colossians 3 sums up this by showing us that our life in Christ involves daily choices in identifying fleshly responses in our life, and then dying to them.
For an excellent commentary on this passage see Ray Stedman, -- Colossians Series. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scyth'ian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Your vanity and greed and lust Are each your portion from the dust Of those that died, and from the tomb Made you what you must needs become.
And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. In those days they shall say no more: Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
Advances in the behavioral sciences suggest that there may be negative psychological traits that are genetically influenced. Individuals appear to be born with dispositions toward alcoholism, sexual aggression, erratic work habits and other personality disorders. Whether we go back to Adam or some other relative, whether we talk about major perversions or minor peccadilloes, it's all the same: Wrong-doing resides in our DNA, without our creation or consent, demanding compliance, crying out like that malevolent plant in The Little Shop of Horrors: It's common these days to assume that wrong-doing includes only those behaviors that are voluntary and unforced.
If it can be shown that some orientation is caused rather than chosen we render human choice irrelevant and remove that behavior from the realm of moral argument. Our ancestors made us what we "must needs become. But there's good news: The laws of heredity are not the highest laws. There is one higher. George MacDonald wrote, "Everyone is born nearer to God than to any ancestor and it rests with everyone to choose whether he will be of God, or of those who have gone before him It does no good to excuse our sin, even our inherited predispositions.
The only way to rid ourselves of an evil trait is to call it what God calls it--evil--and bring it to him for his healing. He can then begin to bring about a cure. The decision to bring our failed and flawed temperaments to him may be nothing more than the end-product of a lifetime of failure. We may have struggled so long with our compulsions that we've given up in despair. But God does not despair of us even when we despair of ourselves.
Some of us are difficult cases. Flawed by environment and indulgence as well as heredity, our personalities resist change. We have a hard machine to drive, as C. Yet God can take the most difficult and damaged life and gradually turn it into good. He does not leave us in ruins. He is watching over us "to build and to plant. The process is neither swift nor painless, but chaotic and subject to agonizing delay.
Progress is seldom made by quantum leaps, but by tentative steps and a number of hard falls. It is a gradual thing, better seen in retrospect than in prospect. Yet, every day, as we bring ourselves to God and to his Word, he goes to work to put his law in our minds and write it on our hearts. For reasons God only knows, some of us may glorify him for a time through our compulsions.
We're so damaged that total healing awaits heaven. Return to Book Page. Preview — Infidelity by DeWayne Williams. Credited with being the 'strong one', the words 'broken man' are not readily-viewed as acceptable in the eyes of the world.
Essays and Papers
Within the pages of this piece of literary art, you will meet Joseph; a man confronting truths that steered his life onto pothole-ridden paths with reckless abandon. You will come to know a man who has searched for something that exists, yet is just out of reach due to tragic experiences and haphazard decisions made all throughout his life.
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The very thing he despised was the very thing that fueled his desires His search for the truth leads him to a place he's been time and again - but had previously overlooked. He has looked insecurity square in the eye. Embarrassment has had its place riding shotgun for far too long. The time had arrived for Joseph to be freed from the vicious cycle of torment. From childhood to adulthood, the place he believes he will find refuge is the breeding ground for the final stage of the life he was used to living.
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