When emotions trump all else we end up in all sorts of silly places. One example is when people really get into the music one Sunday at church and a lot of people get emotional. Then the "worship leader" is expected to recreate "this move of God" and so they do the things that produce the emotional response while everybody thinks that it must be a spiritual response because it happens while people are praising God in church. I've used quotes there for two reasons - firstly it's part of standard Christianese to refer to someone as the "worship leader" but maybe we should ask whether someone who chooses the songs and plays the guitar is really "leading worship". Secondly if something can be recreated by man it's not a "move of God". One church I have personal experience of has really gone down the "feelings are all" route. Some time back one of the leaders there asked what I thought of some "prophetic training" material. Quite aside from the issue of whether "prophetic training" is even a relevant thing to be doing, I explained why I thought it was teaching the exact opposite of what Scripture taught. His response was that he'd watched the videos and because they didn't cause any "checks in his spirit" he thought it was OK and went ahead with using it. No answer to my Scriptural questions, it didn't feel wrong to him therefore it was right. Not necessarily self-validation, it's easy to build an empire when you've got lots of passionate people who believe something must be good because it feels right to them. Throw in a few out-of-context quotes so people come to associate being ridiculed with the persecution Jesus told us to expect and it's easy to see how every normal rational process is subverted. Reading through this thread I'm thinking I'm actually going to go ahead and write what was once to be an address but might work as a written piece, titled "what if the enemy is already inside the gates?" This is key, it takes no effort at all to "speak life" or "declare healing". It takes a lot of effort to get alongside someone and support them through their hard times. Simply "declaring healing" over someone does seem very much like what James warned of, telling someone who is cold and hungry to "be warm, be filled". It turns Christian love into little more than a fruit machine - if someone is struggling and all we do is declare wholeness over them, sooner or later someone is going to suddenly turn things around and we can praise God and accept it as "proof" that our declaration worked. Never mind the numerous times it did nothing - just like a fruit machine as long as we "win" just enough we'll keep feeding it quarters. Thanksgiving is a great thing to do for sure, but "positive confession" in the context usually associated with word-of-faith teachings is usually very different. The idea that you can create a new reality by simply repeating the same things often enough "I'm strong, I'm well, I'm rich, I'm healed" etc is more akin to sorcery than Christianity. Thinking intently on a desired outcome to make it happen clearly doesn't work, as the buyers of millions of Powerball tickets can confirm.
Continuing from my earlier post. You feel pain that your walk has caused a rift in your family? Oh man do I know that pain. Do you think that's possible to turn off? I don't. But I wouldn't say that pain is something that shows you need fixing. It's pain. It's TRUTH. You can't beat yourself up because you feel it. Which brings me to the last point. All these things you feel that you shouldn't feel make you believe your missing some standard. But you're being fooled. The "standard" is Not reachable. In this world there are people who made peace with the reality of being human and the pervasiveness of suffering, and then there are liars. The liars currently dominate the idea of what a Christian should look like today. You ask "how can I fix this"? I ask "fix what"?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Too many things people have in common to spend much time on things you disagree on. Usually, the things that are in disagreement are things better left in personal closets.
Life can be really crazy and painful at times, but just one encouraging word for you and it's a quote from Jesus Himself, "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
He certainly overcame the world, just not sure how that that can cheer one up when they're going through difficult times. How can we apply this to our lives in a realistic and tangible way?
friggin' happy and fulfilled Christians, as you say, versus crappy Christianity, the latter group with reference to Rev 21:4 (probably) has more to be thankful for in the next trillion x trillion x trillion of years [© 2016 - HisLeast] in the afterlife.
Suffering now for an eternity of fullfilment (and who knows what else)... Grit your teeth and bear it.
I saw someone else quoted this bit and, since I missed it first time, thought I'd jump in too. People seem so happy and fulfilled. Do you know if they are really happy or just putting on a good show? How many of them look at you and say "man, that Aaron dude seems so happy, how come my life can't be more like his? Am I supposed to be content with this miserable Christianity I'm stuck with?" Here's the thing. You see your life warts and all. You see the front on other peoples' lives that they want to present. If you come into my house it's reasonably tidy, at least the areas people usually see are pretty tidy. If you go into the closet off the bathroom, or into the attic, it looks like a tornado went through a warehouse. Those are the bits people don't usually see. So you might be beating yourself up for not having a tidy house when you compare it to my house, basing your warts-and-all house on the public face of my house. You see that you got angry with that guy in traffic - even if you didn't express anything that any passengers might hear you know you were angry. When your passenger is driving and you're riding along they might do the same thing, at which point they know they get angry and maybe they wonder how you hold it all together. You know you were tempted to keep quiet when the cashier gave you a 50 in change instead of a 5. But you pointed out their mistake, and maybe the guy behind you thought "man, that guy is honest, I'd have been tempted to keep it" and then wondered how come you were a much better Christian than they were. Comparisons can be useful, but only if you're comparing like with like. If you compare your warts-and-all life to the polished front people present on social media you'll never be happy. The trouble is when you present your own polished front people who see their warts-and-all life wonder what they are missing so they polish a bit more, and the internet gets ever-more unreal.
I find few concepts more horrifying during waking hours than the concept of eternity. What an absolutely unimaginably hateful thing.
This topic invariably brings me to the sifting of Peter, something I can intimately relate to, though I am no Peter. "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:"22:31Lk I never, in 49+ years of faith, could have imagined the in-depth, prolonged, pruning process that would bring me to the very breaking point - where even my faith would seem to be threatened. "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Lk 22:32 Through these, among so many instructive themes in the NT, I have learned to stand on what I know are the essentials of the new life and when all else fails, to not only stand, but to voice my faith, regardless of what emotions dictate. If my faith genuinely rests on these spiritual principles then it stands to reason that no earthly device will tear them from me. [SIZE=small]If I am headed for eternity, then my comfort level in this world becomes almost irrelevant.[/SIZE] "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" Rm 8:18 But areas of my faith which are merely based on things of my own will, presumption and invention will be found as dross. So, at times, for some of us, at least, there might come a time when we will be brought to the point where we have no recourse but to hold on by threads of hope. The end of the process, which never truly ends this side of the river, is that we are strengthened. "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" 1Pt 1:7 So rather than looking for a "fix" per se, I surrender to the process and wrestle oftentimes with the same-ole weaknesses, dreads and earthly mind-sets until it's time to go home. In each battle, I am presented with a choice or a series of choices. What I choose determines whether I win or lose that particular battle.
The text I referred to. Rev 21:4 - He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” I am looking forward to that. Can you explain what's hateful about that?
I really enjoyed this IMINXTC. I am not sure if this will be close to the topic or not, but the last few weeks I have been thinking on gemstones/precious stones and how many places in scripture these are mentioned. God must have a reason for this--- The idea that something is precious, or rare or beautiful, priceless can only develop over long periods of time in unusual but perfect environments deep beneath the earth (sometimes as far as the mantle) under massive heat and pressure. Teddy probably knows a lot about this process. It helps me to think that God sees me as precious and so much so that He has given me the perfect unusual and difficult environments to enable me to develop into something compared in beauty to a precious stone perhaps even surrounded by precious elements as gold or silver. I found a birthstone ring I wish I could post pictures but I have trouble doing so on this site for some reason. The stone is a very clear Alexandrite. This stone changes color from green/blue tone in sunlight to red/purple tone in candlelight. Natural alexandrite's are more rare compared to other gemstones. The ring I found this week was the stone surrounded in small diamonds and 14k gold delicate setting. I said to myself it was "something a princess would receive as a gift" because I could never afford it or want it for myself as a token of wealth or to be seen by others for their envy but because it reflected, to me, a reminder of what Jesus is making me into. He is making me into something beautiful---for others to see Him and reflect His Light and also a part of an entire temple of precious stones for His Glory. I have to have hope in the end result..and what He says about me today, remembering that the process is His and unusual to me, mysterious, fitting and last but not least, successful because God does not fail. 1 Peter 2:4-5 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
That's the thing, knowing He was able to do it, doesn't necessarily mean I can. At least from my point of view.
From my point of view I have Jesus, who has done it before me, who I can rely on when I don't feel like I can.
I've been having that struggle for the last few years, but recently (well, 6 months ago?) I made the decision that I wasn't going to focus on all of my failures, but instead on Jesus. It's not an easy thing to do, as if I have a switch inside my head where I can just change my focus. The reality is what I posted in Aaron's thread: it makes me feel like a hypocrite, pathetic, etc., and so I need to remind myself that Jesus didn't come to save the ideal version of me, but the messed up me (in truth, I'm afraid of the glorified me; it's a concept that blows my mind, and I don't know how to conceive of it). Ironically, it was my therapist giving me bad advice that caused me to understand what I hadn't before understood about sin, and that was my breaking point. It was either focus on myself and live in a state of acedia, apathy, depression, etc. that would eventually lead into a destruction of myself and all my relationships, or start focusing on Jesus and allow myself to work through who I find myself to be (within the context of a church community that would effectively ostracize me if they found out what I was burdened with). It hasn't made the struggle any less difficult, by the way.
Paul tells us in Romans 5.... 20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we get self-absorbed in ourselves, our failures can drive us to utter despair. We are by nature works oriented. But the Gospel is not. I think this is one reason to be in the Word regularly. Where sin abounds, grace abounds more. That picks me up instead of leaving me in the pit. The Word reminds of such things.