“Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”” ?(Luke 18:25 NIV-G/K) ??“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ?(1Corinthians 1:18 NIV-G/K) ??There is a question that have been repeatedly going through my mind in the last several days. ??Do I need a Savior? ??I have been thinking a lot about the verses above and how it not only relates to those that are not Christians but it relates to us, who are Christians as well, maybe even more so. ??If we need food, we drive to mcdonalds. ?If we need money, we get out our credit card. ?If we are bored, we turn on our televisions and computers. ?If we hurt, we go to the doctor. ?If we are depressed we take a prozac. ??In our society we worship wealth, power, and strength. We prize people who are independent and can solve their own problems. People are suppose to be self-sufficient. ??If you look at my upbringing, I lived in a house where we always had food, always had television (actually we had 6 or 7). If we are strong enough, if we are smart enough, if we had enough money, there is not a problem that cannot be solved. I understand perfectly well why my parents and sisters do not feel they need a savior. My family believes they have enough money to solve any problem. We are told we need to have self-esteem and that we are to be brave, strong and independent. The world owes us respect, we deserve prosperity and happiness. ??I am not writing this to the non-believers. I am writing this for myself. I am writing this to my brothers and sisters in Christ. We think to ourselves, “life is good”. we go to work or school, we come home, we watch television every night, we worship at church, we go to bible studies, we participate where needed. we have people who love us, we have plenty of food on the table, oh sure there are problems, but they are minor. We do all the right things in all the right ways and we just cruise along thinking God is blessing us and all is well. The enemy has brainwashed us into believing we are self-sufficient. ??What do our testimonies say? What do our lives say? Do we need a savior? I think that it would be very easy to exchange the word rich for the concept of being self-sufficient. Self-Sufficiency closes the door on God, our savior and puts us exactly where the enemy wants us. Alone and vulnerable. ??A decision needs to be made: Who is in control? God or us? ??Being a God fearing; Christ loving Christian is contradictory to being self-sufficient. God doesn’t need our help. God wants us to totally depend on Him. Our walk with Christ is counter-intuitive to the world. God calls us to: ??•Trust in him (Proverbs 3:5) ?•Depend on Him for our needs (Matthew 6:25-34) ?•Bring our broken heart and spirit to Him (Psalm 51:17) ?•God is our refuge and strength (Psalm 46 1-3) ?•Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you (Psalm 55:22) ?(And many other verses) ??Do we live a life of self-sufficiency or God-dependency? ??Please let me know what you think? Am I thinking right or am I just insane? What am I missing?

Technorati Tags: God-dependency, Salvation, self-sufficiency, world

I finally broken free. I finally escaped the lies that have kept me in bondage over the last month. It shouldn’t surprise me how easily I get snared by the lies the enemy tells me. I know the enemy. I should know better. Actually they aren’t lies they are truth, the master manipulator can use the Bible against us if we forget the whole truth.

The lies are simple for me to believe. What the enemy tells me (I am paraphrasing for the sake of decency and possibly clarity):
I am of the darkness
I am worth nothing
No matter what I do I will never be holy enough to be seen by God
I don’t deserve God’s forgiveness.
I turn away from God/I am an enemy of God
My life is leading to death/I should be dead

What right do I have to write about God? None!

Over and over the Bible talks about how unworthy man is and how we deserve God’s wrath. The enemy is right.

BUT

The enemy forgets… Sooner or later the whole truth comes out. Sooner or later his lies are exposed.

John 8:32And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 2:3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

The enemy is right I am of the darkness, I don’t deserve God’s love. My life of sin leads me to death and then the rest of the truth comes out.

I am a struggling Christian. I am a fighting Christian. I am not sure which term I appreciate more. My friend says that as a fighting Christian the “action” is more proactive. I struggle to remember the reason for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made. He did not die on the cross to condemn me to the wrath and anger of God. He died on the cross to take the dead and decaying people of the world and to make them alive and seen by the most Holy God. He chose to die on the cross to save a worthless, self-destructive person and gave him life.

Two of the books I have read most in the Bible are Romans 7 and 8. Romans 7 talks about the battle between the flesh which is worldly and the mind which is spiritual. I appreciated and found comfort in the fact that the great apostle Paul took the time to write about the war within him the war between his flesh and his spirit. Near the end of the book , verse 7:24 Paul cries out “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” This is where the enemy wants to leave us. He wants to leave us in abject misery.

Paul goes on:
25I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Romans 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Paul ends chapter 7 laying out the struggle of the Christian life and reminds us of the victory that Jesus Christ has won for us. A victory that he won and gave to us as a gift, which we flat out don’t deserve. Chapter 8 really explains what was won for us unworthy people. Christ freed us from the bondage of living in everlasting sin and brought us closer to our Father. He changed the relationship with God from Fearful Judge to loving Father.

The enemy wants us to believe that we are condemned to live a life of endless failure and decay, driving ourselves into deeper and deeper perversion. The truth is that there is a light out of the darkness. There is a pathway to true life, the life our Creator meant for us. A life with him.

Technorati Tags: devil, Gospel, Redemption, Sin

I spent my whole life looking for something…
Looking for answers
Looking for purpose
Looking for love
Looking for solutions
Looking for Reason
Looking for Love
I know where to look now…

All I have to do is look up to my Father in Heaven,
my Savior, my King, the Lord in Heaven.

I just wonder why it is so hard to remember…

Technorati Tags: Depression, God