Jesus died on the cross to give us atonement, which refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin through the death of Jesus Christ. The implications of atonement for Christians are huge!
Firstly, Jesus was our substitute (Hebrews 9:28, 1 Timothy 2:6, Mark 10:45). Part of atonement is justification, which is where God removes the sin of the guilty and counts them as righteous, because of Christ's obedience and death.
The next part of the process is reconciliation, which refers to the removal of enmity or sin between humans and God. This was done so we could have relationship with Him and He could “walk with us in the cool of the evening”, as He did in the garden with Adam and Eve.
Propitiation is the removal of Gods wrath with the gift of Jesus. God had wrath because of our sin, Jesus became our gift by dying in our place. (1 Thessalonians 5:9) Because of love and the offer of atonement, we swapped places.
Redemption is the last part. It is being set free from bondage, or sin, by payment of a price, Jesus. Because of redemption, we get union with Christ. We are redeemed by God, and are now able to live in obedience to Him out of our love for and gratitude to Him.
Friday 31 July 2015
Thursday 30 July 2015
humanistic psychology and Christianity
Humanistic psychology says that there is no God and therefore there are no absolutes. Without absolutes one is bound to loose oneself in the world, causing many problems. Whereas, the Christian believes that there is a God and that He created every human in His image, therefore there is an absolute, which all life is based on! The Christian counsellor is therefore in a position to be a compass or guidance for the one who is lost, in order for them to not only find who they are, but also to find their creator.
Recognising that as humans, we are created in Gods image as an absolute, is a good starting place to be able to find oneself! Understanding that our identity should be based on what God says about us imperative to healthy living, in body soul and spirit.
Humanistic psychology says that evolution is acceptable and accepted, therefore we are a product of our environment, which should only be true in relation to the weather helping us decide what we will wear in order to maintain appropriate body temperature! Christians believe that we are created in Gods image, we were fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Therefore, we are not a product of our environment, we did not crawl out of pond scum, become a multitude of different creatures before finally ending up human! Being fearfully and wonderfully made comes with responsibilities. If we attempt to deny our created image, then we not only attempt to call God a liar, but we also make ourselves look foolish before our creator!
Humanistic psychology says that we were determined (chemically, environmentally, and genetically), therefore sin is a sickness or a disease. The bible says that sin entered through one man (Adam) and redemption/salvation came through one man (Jesus). (Romans 5:12-21) The bible clearly states that we need to repent of our sin, we are each responsible for our own actions, we can not pass the blame on to someone else or call it something else! (Acts 2:38, Ezekiel 14:6, Revelation 2:5...) Because sin entered, that opened the door for death to freely enter. According to Cruden's Complete Concordance (Youngman's Edition), sin is any thought, word, action, omission, or desire contrary to the law of God. For original corruption, or the depravity and naughtiness of our corrupt nature, which is prone to all evil. It is more than obvious here that sin is not a disease or sickness! It is our nature, because sin entered through one man, being Adam, at the time that he and Eve met with a snake in the garden!
I find it interesting that humanistic psychology contradicts itself. If there are no absolutes, how then can it state that humans evolved, or that we are determined chemically, environmentally and genetically? There are apparently no absolutes, therefore the rest of the presuppositions have no leg to stand on!
I also fail to see how telling someone that they evolved from pond scum is going to help them overcome their issues! If anything, it's going to leave them feeling worthless and useless! It also tells them that life is not sacred. And, if there are no absolutes, then someone can say that they have no issues. If having issues says that there is something wrong, then without absolutes, there is no guide post to compare oneself to, therefore each person is either perfect or imperfect and possibly a mix of both, because nothing is absolute, there is nothing to measure oneself against and sin is a disease or sickness that simply requires a band aid until we somehow “get over it”!
To help a person get better, a Dr has a set of tools to use to diagnose the problem. These tools must have some amount of absoluteness to them in order to diagnose many different people with the same condition...!
As humans, we are complex creations. Made in the image of a benevolent loving God, who seeks to have an intimate relationship with each of us! He already knows the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:29-31) and our deepest darkest secrets. He wants to walk with and talk with us as He did way back in the garden with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8)! They hid, and just like them, we hide from God!
Recognising that as humans, we are created in Gods image as an absolute, is a good starting place to be able to find oneself! Understanding that our identity should be based on what God says about us imperative to healthy living, in body soul and spirit.
Humanistic psychology says that evolution is acceptable and accepted, therefore we are a product of our environment, which should only be true in relation to the weather helping us decide what we will wear in order to maintain appropriate body temperature! Christians believe that we are created in Gods image, we were fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Therefore, we are not a product of our environment, we did not crawl out of pond scum, become a multitude of different creatures before finally ending up human! Being fearfully and wonderfully made comes with responsibilities. If we attempt to deny our created image, then we not only attempt to call God a liar, but we also make ourselves look foolish before our creator!
Humanistic psychology says that we were determined (chemically, environmentally, and genetically), therefore sin is a sickness or a disease. The bible says that sin entered through one man (Adam) and redemption/salvation came through one man (Jesus). (Romans 5:12-21) The bible clearly states that we need to repent of our sin, we are each responsible for our own actions, we can not pass the blame on to someone else or call it something else! (Acts 2:38, Ezekiel 14:6, Revelation 2:5...) Because sin entered, that opened the door for death to freely enter. According to Cruden's Complete Concordance (Youngman's Edition), sin is any thought, word, action, omission, or desire contrary to the law of God. For original corruption, or the depravity and naughtiness of our corrupt nature, which is prone to all evil. It is more than obvious here that sin is not a disease or sickness! It is our nature, because sin entered through one man, being Adam, at the time that he and Eve met with a snake in the garden!
I find it interesting that humanistic psychology contradicts itself. If there are no absolutes, how then can it state that humans evolved, or that we are determined chemically, environmentally and genetically? There are apparently no absolutes, therefore the rest of the presuppositions have no leg to stand on!
I also fail to see how telling someone that they evolved from pond scum is going to help them overcome their issues! If anything, it's going to leave them feeling worthless and useless! It also tells them that life is not sacred. And, if there are no absolutes, then someone can say that they have no issues. If having issues says that there is something wrong, then without absolutes, there is no guide post to compare oneself to, therefore each person is either perfect or imperfect and possibly a mix of both, because nothing is absolute, there is nothing to measure oneself against and sin is a disease or sickness that simply requires a band aid until we somehow “get over it”!
To help a person get better, a Dr has a set of tools to use to diagnose the problem. These tools must have some amount of absoluteness to them in order to diagnose many different people with the same condition...!
As humans, we are complex creations. Made in the image of a benevolent loving God, who seeks to have an intimate relationship with each of us! He already knows the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:29-31) and our deepest darkest secrets. He wants to walk with and talk with us as He did way back in the garden with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8)! They hid, and just like them, we hide from God!
Saturday 25 July 2015
sin remorse repentance
Sin is the sick insidious
nature to cause harm stemming from harm done! It began in the garden
and continues today. It has been given many titles and in some cases
been swept under the carpet to be ignored or has been outright embraced
as “good”. Sin includes what we do and know we shouldn't, what we don't
do, but know we should and what we think and our motivations! Sin is
something that we love to hate! Yet, if we hated it enough, then we
would do something about it! Elijah House talks about absolutely hating
your sin before you'll even consider letting go of it! Sin enters life
in the womb, because the baby feels the emotions around it! I can feel
the mothers intentions whether good or bad! And if bad, it makes a
judgement, and an inner vow. Ever wondered how it is possible for a
child to kill a cat or dog, one that's been the family pet? Look back
into their heart as that tiny helpless baby and ask the question of what
was going on at the time? What is it that could cause such a small
being to feel, experience and vent so much rage and anger? In the
scriptures, David talks about sin from as far back as the womb, yet
humans being fearfully and wonderfully made!
To get rid of sin, one needs to look at the patterns or fruit! What sin are you constantly committing, that you wrestle with constantly and constantly find yourself doing over and over again. You repent of it, then an hour find yourself doing it again? Why is that? Trace back... A man is married, to his third wife and is having affair number 50... is it really “commitment issues”? Or is there something else going on? A woman, at work in a retail shop, could be any shop. She opens the cash register and is tempted to take some or all of the money. She doesn't need it! Her job pays her enough to cover her bills, but that little voice in her head says that she just has to have it! What's going on?
It's not enough to slap a band-aid on the wound. Especially when the wound is a festering sore that simply refuses to heal! What can be done? Well, nothing until you really hate what you do!
There's remorse and there is repentance! What's the difference? Remorse says “I'm sad because I got caught and I don't want to loose whatever I shouldn't have! And oh, woe is me, my reputation is ruined, because someone else was sticking their nose where it doesn't belong!” Repentance says “I'm relieved because I got caught, I'm going to give back what I shouldn't have and I'm sad about the pain and loss I caused to everyone around me! And I'm not going to do this again! I'm done, it's finished!”
How you answered the question of how you felt when you got caught is exactly how you will gauge if you will find yourself doing it again in an hour or not!
Remorse often gets a band-aid slapped over a gaping great wound that is still full of muck and gunk, that often has a putrid stink, where as repentance takes the wound to a doctor to be cleaned out, stitched up and properly dressed to cause healing to occur!
As part of repentance, you need to pull down the structures that hold you in the pattern of perpetual sin! The longer you remain in your sin (whatever it may be) the more you will build a stronghold to keep you in that sin! Repentance is like setting fire to, and destroying that stronghold!
During a ministry time I had a picture of a person stuck in a tower and Jesus outside the tower with a sledge hammer, waiting for permission to bust in and destroy the stronghold! It's an awesome sight to see a stronghold get destroyed! Because that is where people get set free! But did you notice that Jesus, sledge hammer in hand, was WAITING!!! He waits for you to tell Him you're done!
Jesus more than understands the power, weight, guilt and shame associated with sin. He held it all, remember? He took it so we didn't have to. Yet we are still more than happy to wallow in our shit! What's with that? Oh, that's right, it's called denial! We deny to ourselves that it's bad! We tell ourselves that it isn't as bad as it looks, or as it smells!
I recently witnessed a person who did something, then not thirty seconds later she said she had done nothing! I was in shock about how strong her denial was! Should I have been? Probably not! My own denial can be that strong sometimes!
What are we going to do about it? Remorse? Repentance?
To get rid of sin, one needs to look at the patterns or fruit! What sin are you constantly committing, that you wrestle with constantly and constantly find yourself doing over and over again. You repent of it, then an hour find yourself doing it again? Why is that? Trace back... A man is married, to his third wife and is having affair number 50... is it really “commitment issues”? Or is there something else going on? A woman, at work in a retail shop, could be any shop. She opens the cash register and is tempted to take some or all of the money. She doesn't need it! Her job pays her enough to cover her bills, but that little voice in her head says that she just has to have it! What's going on?
It's not enough to slap a band-aid on the wound. Especially when the wound is a festering sore that simply refuses to heal! What can be done? Well, nothing until you really hate what you do!
There's remorse and there is repentance! What's the difference? Remorse says “I'm sad because I got caught and I don't want to loose whatever I shouldn't have! And oh, woe is me, my reputation is ruined, because someone else was sticking their nose where it doesn't belong!” Repentance says “I'm relieved because I got caught, I'm going to give back what I shouldn't have and I'm sad about the pain and loss I caused to everyone around me! And I'm not going to do this again! I'm done, it's finished!”
How you answered the question of how you felt when you got caught is exactly how you will gauge if you will find yourself doing it again in an hour or not!
Remorse often gets a band-aid slapped over a gaping great wound that is still full of muck and gunk, that often has a putrid stink, where as repentance takes the wound to a doctor to be cleaned out, stitched up and properly dressed to cause healing to occur!
As part of repentance, you need to pull down the structures that hold you in the pattern of perpetual sin! The longer you remain in your sin (whatever it may be) the more you will build a stronghold to keep you in that sin! Repentance is like setting fire to, and destroying that stronghold!
During a ministry time I had a picture of a person stuck in a tower and Jesus outside the tower with a sledge hammer, waiting for permission to bust in and destroy the stronghold! It's an awesome sight to see a stronghold get destroyed! Because that is where people get set free! But did you notice that Jesus, sledge hammer in hand, was WAITING!!! He waits for you to tell Him you're done!
Jesus more than understands the power, weight, guilt and shame associated with sin. He held it all, remember? He took it so we didn't have to. Yet we are still more than happy to wallow in our shit! What's with that? Oh, that's right, it's called denial! We deny to ourselves that it's bad! We tell ourselves that it isn't as bad as it looks, or as it smells!
I recently witnessed a person who did something, then not thirty seconds later she said she had done nothing! I was in shock about how strong her denial was! Should I have been? Probably not! My own denial can be that strong sometimes!
What are we going to do about it? Remorse? Repentance?
Wednesday 8 July 2015
Relationships... Community... And a challenge!
I've been studying lately. And in my school, I came across several things that caught my attention... one is the following statement: "in fact, the main reason missionaries leave the mission field is because of relationship problems - there is often somebody that they cannot properly relate to."
And I began to wonder - do christians fail to start in work for the same reason?
They decide to undertake training in some area to be better equipped to fulfil their calling, yet because they come across one or more people that they don't agree with, or cant get along with, they throw in the towel and walk away, and remain less equipped to do what they originally set out to do!
I find this to be a strange reason to drop the ball so to speak!
In my training (to be a counsellor) I'm certain that at some point in time, whether sooner or later, I'm going to find a person, or even several people, I neither agree with or get along with. I have a choice to make - either walk away, forget my training, or deal with my crap and learn to agree to disagree!
I often wonder why people cant simply acknowledge that others have a different perspective from them, or that maybe the problem is not the other person, but them, themselves!
If we simply chose to be humble, acknowledge they we have the capacity to be wrong, or have issues, life will go much better for us! Because then we can begin working with God and those around us, to become the people God created us to be!
At this point, I would like to issue a challenge:
If you have walked away from your work, because you smashed heads with someone (or several someones), then can I challenge you to pick yourself up, and continue walking! Ask God to show you where the issue lies, and if the problem is you - have the guts to deal with it, seek help to deal with it. And get on with doing what you were created to do!
In this challenge excuses will hold you back, so see your excuses as an opportunity to pray and seek Gods face!
To obey is better than sacrifice!
May Gods blessings shower down upon you. And may you be coated in the dust of your Rabbi!
Australian Watcher On The Wall
http://australianwatcheronthewall.blogspot.com.au
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