I have often said to my wife, “I’m sorry Hon.” “Sorry for what?” she comes back. “For everything.” – meaning: I’m sorry for being alive, for being human, for doing what humans do. “Oh” Honestly, I have come a long way with my human-hood; come to grips with it. My early problems with it came as a result of a subtle philosophical mistake. I believed, and it was implied by what I could grasp as “normal,” that people are fundamentally good. That is, “normal people are good.” My problem was, I was not good all the time, but liked being bad better. I really tried hard to be good, and because of this, I was guilty a lot. I was letting my conscience be my guide as I was taught to do. This philosophy led to a very low self-approval rating. Needless to say, I had a poor self-image, also…
Category: <span>God’s Psychology</span>
Does time heal all wounds? Well, I tire easily reading psychology books that teach: “the interplay between suppressing and exposing a hurt will eventually bring healing.” “grieving losses will eventuate a return to “normalcy.” “re-integrate a victim into society, and again they will be adjusted. “ Sincere ideas which may contribute. Friends, my problem is this; “normal” for these guys, encompasses the old sin nature. They assume wrongly that a man is born free. They suppose that the whole head and the whole heart ain’t sick and faint. In stark contrast to their evaluation, “normal” equals “wounds, bruises and putrefying sores.” “My wound is incurable,” said Jeremiah. Way before time’s wounding event, man exists a ball of woundedness. God plans to exterminate all of it — every speck. Only a bloody cross, only a dying Savior can fix a man. Because man miscalculates, God’s solutions seem radical. Paul admitted, however, “in my…
Taiwan Restaurant, Budapest Hungary But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him. Job 23:13-14. When God performs His Word, something happens. “He performs the thing appointed for me,” Job exclaimed. He perfects or finishes what concerns me, also; says the writer in Psalm 138:8. “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it;” 1 Thessalonians 5:24. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which He has before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10. God works His work in man. “It is God which works in us both to will and do of His good pleasure.” What does it mean in Philippians 2:13? The word “energy” is underlying this verse. God produces the…
on the Danube at night In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. Psalm 77:2 “Regret describes a slight disappointment over loss.” “Sadness is a taste of the truth that the world is not all right, creation is not what it was meant to be.” “Depression is a continual state of mind; effort appears futile because it seems that nothing can really help or provide meaning.” “Despair is the utter absence of any sense of hope, accompanied by a sense of powerlessness.” Quotes are from “The Cry of the Soul,” Allender and Longman. When a soul refuses to be comforted what is happening? The place of “dis-ease” appears to be safer? “Powerlessness” has displaced “power” as the more “real” value priority, through testing over time? Despair is insulating a person from the disappointment…
Cast not away your “confidence” — “freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech, openly, frankly, without concealment, without ambiguity or circumlocution, without the use of figures and comparisons.” “… which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Heb 10:35-36 Straight from the shoulder, without beating around the bush, with no holds barred, candidly, freely, cast not away your confidence, for it has great recompense of reward. Clarke writes “Having so great a fight of sufferings to pass through, and they of so long continuance, God furnishes the grace; you must exercise it.” What is the promise to be received? Elevation. Humility, of the sort which suffers above, receives elevation or honor; those clothed in humility get grace. Those who run the race with patience, have laid aside encumbrances and sins. The weights have…
Fresh means not stagnant, decayed, fermented or rotten. God’s life is fresh, bright, original, innovative, creative, clean, and crisp. Can we discern the difference? Here’s a primer. Is there a thin layer of slime on it; is there a lot of bugs around it or has the color of it changed from green to orange? These kinds of signs are mini-clues that foods, thoughts, or words, reek, (stink, duh); are not fit for consumption. How do we keep it airy? Check the source, my friend; cool and clear beget cool and clear. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good for the use of edifying. Nevertheless, even when the origin is unsullied, it can no longer be refreshing if we wait too long to use the substance. Things will be bitter to the taste, or bland or just funny; strange to our palate, unfriendly…
The Mirriam Webster dictionary describes an identity crisis as “A feeling of unhappiness and confusion caused by not being sure of what type of person you really are or what the true purpose of your life is.” The Free dictionary says it this way; “A psychosocial state or condition of disorientation and role confusion occurring especially in adolescents as a result of conflicting internal and external experiences, pressures and expectations and often producing acute anxiety” Theorist Erik Erikson coined the term “identity crisis.” He said “it is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at oneself.” He described “identity” as: …a subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image.” James Marcia said, “The balance between identity and confusion lies in making a commitment to an…
We are now learning to apply the Word which we have learned, to put it on, to use it, and put it into operation; this changes everything. First we had become skilled at the knowledge-level of God’s Word, too much of which swelled our foreheads. Before that we were dunces; some wore the hat. Our nifty education of the Bible helped most of us create labels, models, stereotypes, and superlatives to define our environment and make our life easier. We put the world in a storage crate, and some of us built battlefields for our toy soldiers; or dollhouses for the little girl’s version of war. “Authenticity” we defined as “close to genuine as possible” and this was our path of advancement as we pressed toward our own brand of “Realism.” Very noble, but our Bible philosophy was getting tilted as our lifeless human behavior bent stagnant. Something remained amiss,…
Psalm 34:2 teaches that the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Hear what? Hear the Word and keep it. “The meek will He teach.” “The meek will He guide in judgment,” Psalm 25:9. Sounds like humility and meekness open some doors to a real God and His living Word? Yes. Humility comes from living in the effects of a crucified self life with its’ old consciousness removed, while meekness is a devotion to the newly opened God-consciousness in resurrection. These are two functions experienced in soul and spirit. They alter the mind, breaking will, emotions and conscience. In essence, humility relates to the process of death; meekness with the life following. So, as we take baby steps with our God in Micah 6:8, our steps are firmed up in faith-meekness in which we condition ourselves to “see as good” the perfect plan of God and receive and apply the…
The old story factored relevant, as pig pens are pig pens no matter how a person gets there. I certainly found myself in the same disgusting state as the wayward son, barely surviving with only scraps of nourishment fit for swine. The thing that I and the prodigal shared was the ineptness that took us into our groveling conditions but also the ham-fisted incompetence toward getting out. For the out of control youth, the face in slop was preceded by the low-paying hog-feeding job, and prior to that was a kind of hysteria. Yes, the Bible teaches that the boy’s waste of substance with riotous living caused an emotional trauma for him. His unfortified ability to control things was lost and the bottom was dropping out of his big strategy. In his soul’s lowest of the low, nothing of his self-made mess was faceable for him now. For me, the…