Some folks are sane, others insane. Lined up on one side of the field are health, healthy mind and heart, single-eyed, balanced, and whole. On the other team; divided, double-minded, sick, unbalanced and ignorant are the terms. “Holiness” for man speaks of set-apart-to-God; the other guys can be referred to as “profane.” This second term meant originally, “outside the temple.” The Hebrew brings out these definitions also: “exposed, common, wounded, break a word, dissolve.” Ephesians 2:14-15 teaches: “For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” “He” is Jesus and His Peace creates a buffer of protection for the soul against internal division. What was the middle wall? Enmity, the law of…
Healing at the Cross Posts
Memory is defiled when something of a snare resides in it. For example, if I have in remembrance a sin or failure, this stumbles my function today. My question for me remains, “What part of ‘blotted out’ do I not understand? Well, my big-shot memory feels that it must keep my big-stuff secure, for the purpose of big-recall in case I need to defend my big-self, or “set the big-record straight.” Sorry, I got carried away with big-me. The problem is I may feel the need to place the blame on the right person, myself or other; after all, I must be honest. Yeah, right! “I must show my sincerity, after all, I have to ‘man up’ and eat my fate. I have made my bed so now I must sleep in it.” —excuse me while I regurgitate. Frankly, “forgetting” has become a chore, and bucks up against my big-boy…
Some folks are sane, others insane. Lined up on one side of the field are health, healthy mind and heart, single-eyed, balanced, and whole. On the other team; divided, double-minded, sick, unbalanced and ignorant are the terms. “Holiness” for man speaks of set-apart-to-God; the other guys can be referred to as “profane.” This second term meant originally, “outside the temple.” The Hebrew brings out these definitions also: “exposed, common, wounded, break a word, dissolve.” Ephesians 2:14-15 teaches: “For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” “He” is Jesus and His Peace creates a buffer of protection for the soul against internal division. What was the middle wall? Enmity, the law of…
Always carrying about in our body the death, state of death, dying, liability to death, or suffering of Jesus? Which one is revealed in 2 Corinthians 4:10? Well, I understand that I will suffer what is common to man in this world, I am liable to the death of my physical body at all times, and I am aware that I am dying and one day will eventually die as the body grows old and expires. My question is; how do these produce life in others? I have a tendency toward agreement with certain scholars that the “state of death” of Christ gets the reference here. This is the one given to me at salvation and this is what I carry. Why? Because, by His death, my “death” died. Yes, my being dead in trespasses and sins, died, by the death of my Savior, and this reality I carry with…
A Christian moves. The moves lie in the “from faith to faith,” “from glory to glory,” “from strength to strength” categories and require “grace for grace.” The path of the just shines more and more unto the perfect day, and “in thy light we see (more) light.” Line upon line we learn; and precept upon precept. Job, in chapter 29 was found in a lament. Apparently, he was an amazing man of patience and ministry having a sense of God moving with him at all times. When we read this chapter we are astounded at the level of maturity he had. Nevertheless, it was all ended now; a grief and grieving was all that remained. Job was about to experience an identity crisis though dying was still more on his preferred horizon. It dawned on me while reading this portion how often this very thing occurs for us believers, in…
“The Lord cannot fully bless a man until He has first conquered him.” —The call to nearness enables the resistance of worldly temptation.” A.W. Tozer We surrender when conquered, we yield when broken, we capitulate when exhausted; we “cease from our own works.” Ironically, a faith begins here, and also a hope, and also love. As the project stalemates we find contentment with the Project Manager. His presence defines our new beginning; He-in-us becomes hope-of-glory. His nature in us describes love. Oddly enough, finding Him and losing me arrive simultaneously. My dreams dash, my visions smash, my passivity or enterprise collapses and burns. Will breaks now and resolve , conscience bears hampering , and emotions lose care. Rational explanations wanting, we concede. As children we wrestled with my Dad for fun. He would pin us down and cry out, “give up?” We would squirm only to be pinned again. “Give up?” Finally, we got tired, pinned us…
When Jesus saved me, He showed to me my emptiness as He then filled it up. How great was that darkness! How large a place was hidden from my consciousness! Now, as I was being scoured clean, my big bad pretention for not needing people or their love, uglified my psyche for a moment. Just as quickly, it was gone and love poured in —tears of joy, strains of uninhibited laughter. There is an extremely devious yet efficient technique which hides from sight vital processes and real feelings in a man; nevertheless, at the awakening of true love, this dishonest dealer disintegrates. O, the power of unfailing love! —All-encompassing, un-conditional, personal, and intimate; we think of it. Love takes off the band-aids, healing cloths, and tapes; it unclouds the murky water, X-rays the soul, and seeks out the spots to remove them. The leavened malignancy causes dough to expand as…
“One thing we know about our panic —we own it.”“What else?”“We are directing it.”“Really?”“Yes, it receives its cues from us in various ways —weakening, strengthening, ebbing, and flowing at our unconscious movements.”“Tell me more.” “It thrives on attention!” In a word from Viktor Frankl he teaches: “a university student complained about being anxious with regard to an oral report to be given —let us say –on Friday. I advised him to take his appointment calendar and to write on every page of the week, with large letters, the word ‘ANXIETY.’ As it were —I asked him to plan for an anxious week. He was much relieved after doing this because now he was suffering from anxiety only, but not from anxiety about anxiety.” “Pressure induces counter-pressure, and counter-pressure, in turn, increases pressure” —another Frankl quote. Let’s reflect: This above example of “paradoxical intention” does what? It relieves a person from…
“Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.” Golda Meir When men or women cry there starts a chemical release which has been observed and documented by professionals. Apparently only certain substances comprise tears and their flow alters a person’s physiology in a refreshing. “…weeping is an excretory process which removes toxic substances that normally build up during emotional stress.” “… tears of stress reduced the bodies manganese level, a mineral which affects mood and is found in up to 30 times greater concentration in tears than in blood stream.” “…emotional tears contain 24% higher albumin protein concentration than eye irritants.” These quotes were borrowed from Pancreatic Cancer Journey.com. This “tear” talk reminds us of the ways of old-school Bible psychologists who cited bodily functions and organs as corresponding to certain actions of the soul. In their repertoire are head,…
Have you ever met a passive aggressive person? Their blitzkrieg finds an area of release that you vehemently need and refuses it militantly. These are masters of the shut-down, czars of the melt-down, monarchs of the stare-down, and sultans of let-down with swagger. They live for driving people up a tree, frustration’s outer limits, and leave their friends headed toward the nuttery. Really they may be very lonely folk, grown up, but far from mature in some areas —particularly conversation. They don’t know if they can trust you yet to speak their mind; they are afraid that their lousy people skills will potentially turn you off. Could be they are scared of commitments, insecure and suspicious. Often wounded, they move past caring about relationships in general. Because we love these ones, the frustration manifests. A believer who gets converted later in life aggravates the conversing problem. Ephesians tells us of…