Have you ever noticed how we seem as a culture to have no brakes on our mouths?
Not too many years ago, we debated issues and ideas. Now we slam anyone’s character when they don’t agree with everything we think is important. Instead of addressing the idea or topic, we think the only way to win an argument is to make the person we are talking about appear small or insignificant.
I started writing this topic on “Discovering God as a Lover” in two previous articles, which some have found to be either hard to grasp or accept, and so I wanted to continue the topic. So much of people’s Christian faith is anchored in the notion that knowing facts about God is all that is required to have a satisfying Christian experience. From a Biblical position, this is the farthest thing from the truth.
We first talked about the scripture from 1 John 4:7-8 which identifies God’s very nature. God’s nature is defined as love, and unfortunately that word in the english usage has so many different meanings today. We use the same word to say, “I love steak” or “I love tacos”. With the same word we say,”I love my dog” and “I love my kids”.
My last blog I talked about being in a relationship with God that goes beyond the elementary things of acceptance and forgiveness.
Heb 6:1
So let us stop going over the basics of Christianity again and again. Let us go on, instead, and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start all over again with the importance of turning away from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.
Far too often, non-believers are convicted of their rebellion to God and His purposes, and are ready to deal with their guilt over past sin and rebellion. They come to Christ as their Savior, to be forgiven an embraced as an adopted child, but there is so much more that God has in mind for this new relationship which Christ paid for.
Do you remember the first crush you had as a little kid? My four year old grandson has a crush on a little girl in his preschool class. It is a time in our lives when we are captivated by beauty. For a boy of four, it is something that stirs this little guys heart that causes him to want to please the one of his affection. Granted, this first love experience may not happen at four, but we are wired for love, after all. Are we not made in the image of God? We still retain certain aspects of the nature God which he designed Adam with. We are made just like Him having the aspects of the nature of “Love” like Himself, though marred.
A recent survey by American Psychiatry says that nearly half of American households have had someone seek mental health treatment this year! This is just one such survey revealing the struggle and confusion of the human soul. Believing in God but not trusting Him practically is like the above picture.
Another study done in 2007 found that 3 out of 100 people struggle with depression. The same study showed that people being treated for depression tripled in the early 1990s. Overall about 8.7 million people were treated for depression in 2007 compared to 6.5 million in 1997. Today it is estimated that 11% of people world-wide suffer from some form of depression and among adolescents under 18 years of age its closer to 70%. Is it any wonder the suicide rate is up so high with teenagers?
One of the few things children are not taught is how to be humble enough to ask for help regularly. If you were encouraged to ask, you were a fortunate child. As adults, we assume kids will figure out they need others in their lives to learn and navigate this life. Too often, kids experience criticism in their quest to learn and end up being afraid of showing any kind of weakness with regards to their intelligence or skills.
All to often, when kids become adults, they carry this baggage of insecurity in their souls, which cheats them of a rich life with others. With all the electronic devices we use, we have become so unaccustomed to asking for help from another human being, and instead, refer to the internet to solve our ignorance or lack of inexperience. Now the internet is a great tool, like all the YouTube tutorials, but t’s so sad that we are becoming more insecure rather than well-balanced as human beings because of using it. Texting, emails and the like are convenient, but have a cost of isolation and further awkwardness in interacting with others.
Life has a way of feeling like a “Tug-Of-War” and, so often, we never seem to reconcile why. Without getting too complicated, let’s unravel the elements that make up the individual and why we tend to be pulled in more than one direction. Put your seatbelt on and hang in there with me and be prepared to have your brain stretched just a little bit…it will be worthwhile in the end!
I have desired to investigate the concept of the “Soul” and how the health or sickness of the soul affects our everyday life, so in this article I wanted to address the seeming tug-of-war between our soul and spirit. From my studies over the years, the soul and spirit are inseparably linked, although one may be the proximate leader.
As we have discussed previously, our spirit is given to us by God when we come into existence and our soul is a combination of our mind, will and emotions. To make matters more complicated, we have a personality that is part of our soul, which is also given at birth, that is both a composition of what God gives us and what our genetic heritage gives us. Still with me?
The background of this word came from the Lord as I was flying from North Carolina to New York, to minister at Saratoga Abundant Life Church, in Saratoga Springs, New York. the day was April 5, 2018.
I intended to put music on in the plane and go to sleep. After not seeping much for a number of days I knew I really need the rest. I felt directed by the Hoy spirit to put the sound track to the movie “The Last Samurai” on and settle in to go to sleep when just after the first song ended the Holy Spirit told me to take out my iPhone and start writing. I attempted to disagree with the Lord’s instruction, claiming my keyboard on my iPhone had small keys and I had fat fingers, but the Lord was not changing his mind or my instructions.
Helping men discover a meaningful relationship with God has always been a passion of mine, ever since finding Christ myself in 1969. So many of us men have grown up without good role models, let alone our fathers teaching us what it is to be a man. There are a lot of boys walking around in men’s bodies today.
I came across a book the other day, which I found very helpful in explaining why men are so confused and twisted inside, but also how to get straightened out in our thinking to finally find the life we were meant to live with God and others. The book is called “Fathered By God” by John Eldredge.
I have not always been a fan of John Eldridge, for a number of reasons, however this book I found exceptionally good. Maybe it’s where I am today in my walk with God, or maybe it’s just that this book is very good, either way its a great read especially the first part of the book. To be honest, the first few chapters ripped by heart open to some old wounds from my youth. Thank God for good writers and the Holy Spirit speaking.
Ever wonder why your Christian walk seems to be erratic? Why you just can’t seem to have a stable Christian walk with God and people?
This is a complex question, but one worth investigating. Just because the question is hard doesn’t mean we should avoid it. The soul itself is often a mysterious topic, and most writers in the last 50-75 years don’t refer to the soul much at all if ever. If you go back 100 years or more there was a lot of discussion about the soul and it’s importance. Writers in the past spent their whole life trying to understand the soul and it’s function.
Today, if a writer or commentary refers to the soul they say it’s not important, only a person spirit is what’s important because they say our soul will be lost when we die and only our spirit survives. First, this is totally false as the soul and the spirit are often the same word in Hebrew as well as greek being “breath” or air. Now I am no scholar, but there is a enough passages of scripture to see that the soul and the spirit often are inseparably link to each person. Secondly, they assume the soul fades when a person dies. King David wrote about the soul a lot.
