I sat down today to do some more of my current assignment. And I looked at the statement I had made about Jesus having absolute authority over everyone! Then this thought hit me: Humanistic psychology doesn't believe that! But then that thought continued into the following:
If there are no absolutes, as humanistic psychology believes, then I don't have to surrender myself to Jesus or enthrone Him as Lord. I can keep myself as lord instead.
Having no absolutes removes from me the need for God. I can then be free to do what ever I want to whomever I want, and I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. And because there are no absolutes, truth is now relative, and no longer fundamental and absolute, I can say that there is no truth. And because of all this, God obviously doesn't exist! Or maybe He or She does exist! There are no absolutes after-all! I wasn't there when this world happened, I can not definitively say how it did or didn't happen!
Oh look, the very first problem that has arisen from a lack of absolutes is indecision! I cant make up my mind, I cant decided things, I can no longer sleep at night, because my indecision is driving me insane!
And because God either does or doesn't exist, He or She either did or didn't create humans! And this lack of absolutes leaves far more than just the foul taste of indecision, it has left an uncertainty of creation! The creator either does or doesn't exist, so earth either was or was not created! Meaning that humans either were or were not created. But, this opens the door for some instability!
Lets just believe this piece of obvious rubbish over here called evolution! It's got some very major holes in it, but at least it has stability. Either that or we could believe this other theory or idea... that earth was populated with animals and humans by aliens. That gives an element of stability too!
And because there are no absolutes, people can believe what they want! And, because either having had crawled out of pond scum, or left abandoned by aliens, means I can still do whatever I want! I can still enthrone myself as lord!
And because humans either crawled out of pond scum or were left abandoned, human life is hardly sacred. We were left on our own, to our own devices. I can do what I please – included in that is my right (because I am my own lord, I now have rights) to kill my unborn baby, and anybody else’s unborn babies for that matter! I can declare that is it is a right to kill... we can now kill the unborn, we can now kill the old, and in that we will add the disabled, and the useless, and pretty soon there will be no-one left but me!
And if I decide I need to kill my neighbour, I can claim temporary insanity, if I pay my lawyer enough he or she will get me off with minimal requirements on my behalf! And I can go on telling the ever widening void in my heart to shut up and sit down, because I am lord!
I am the only one who cares about me, I am the only one who’s going to look after me, so I'm going to do whatever it takes to get me to where I want me to be! (No matter to those who gets trampled underfoot!)
And if I am a leader of a country, then I'm going to use all my practiced ambition, manipulation, abuse and whatever else to take over that country over there (because I want the land and its resources more than they do!). And because, today, I'd like to believe that some of humans are not as advanced or as evolved as the rest of us, I'm going to say to my citizens that those in that country no longer deserve to exist. We need the land and resources more than they, and we are more advanced or evolved than they! Thus, genocide has been legitimised! Those less evolved or less advanced beings no longer have the right to live!
I am my own god and I am president – I can do whatever the hell I want!
And it is now, with shock, dismay and enraged anger that someone would dare tell me that God does in fact exist, that there are in fact absolutes, that I am a sinner, that I need saving.
How dare they present to me their archaic beliefs. How dare they speak to me about the things I have fought for years to silence in my heart! How dare they tell me that heartless aliens didn't seed earth. How dare they tell me that humans didn't evolve from goop! How dare they tell me that there is a benevolent God who loves me, cherishes me, died for me and offers me grace and forgiveness!
What's worse than all that is that this God now demands that I shift my carcass off my throne and put Him there instead! They tell me that I don't have the qualifications to rule the world, let alone myself! And they tell me that there is nowhere in the universe where I can get those qualifications!
I spent years silencing this in my heart, and it is as if they have been secretly listening to my hearts silent screams! How dare this God come to the fore! How dare He and His followers upset my equilibrium! And now, I am pushed into the corner and my only response is to remove all trace of this God from the constitution, schools, workplaces, hospitals, homes, heads and hearts! And if they don't want to let it go, then they can go – to prison, or worse! I simply can not accept that I am a sinner and need anything!
I did all this myself! I had no help. Where was God when I prayed for the abuse to stop? He didn't answer, because He didn't exist! I stopped it! So why do I need someone else to save me? I already did that! Why do I need a saviour? I've been on my own for so long! Why did some Gods son feel the need to die for me?
I know how this world works – you do everything you can to get everything you want, everything you don't want and everything that is left over that you might want, but don't need! Then, you die … alone … cold … hungry … with no friends! So what is the point of wanting or having a saviour?
How do you share the good news of Jesus with a person in this state of mind? How does one introduce this person to Jesus?
Monday, 3 August 2015
Friday, 31 July 2015
atonement
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.
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.
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)