We Have GOT To Do Things Differently!

[Meg]

When a person turns to a Christian for answers, be that person an unbeliever or a Christian in trouble, the first question in their hearts is "Am I safe with you?" Dare I let down my guard? What will happen if I do?

How we answer these needs will either make or break our service to the Lord.

Luke 7:37-38

37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

This is a lovely picture of the Sanctified response to such a question. The woman Luke spoke of clearly felt safe with Jesus Christ. So then, the Lord was setting an example here...

If we are going to be effective, first we must be sure of the difference between how the world thinks and how Jesus Christ thinks. We MUST carefully evaluate what we are depending on to make us feel like we matter, and much more critically, what are we depending on to make us feel like someone else matters.

What do we really believe is true about ourselves?

What do we really believe is true about each other?

One stroll around the local mall will give a clear enough picture of the pornographic value system the world depends on to set the value of each other. Now that homosexuality is the latest fad, even the young men are open to exploitation.

The depravity that is increasingly the norm these days says that people are only worth what can be taken from them. Oh deepest grief, what have they done to the poor children??? The girls are worth more on their backs than they are on their feet, and they BELIEVE that!!

The congregation at church can only serve the Lord by writing a check, and they BELIEVE that!! So thats ALL they do!!!

We are left with the impression that if we cannot be exploited, we cannot be valued, we cannot be loved. I BOUGHT INTO THAT!!!! It took Jesus Christ the longest time to talk me out of that mistake.

We all have family members and friends being systematically destroyed from the inside because of the chaos that is tearing the church apart and ruining the credibility of the Lord.

God, please, its gotta stop somewhere!!!

Are they safe with you?

If not why not?

[GodSaveUSA]

What do we really believe is true about ourselves?

Sometimes it doesn't occur to me that I matter at all to Jesus or anyone else because I have indeed fallen in for the lie that all I really am is what I've been used for by others. I'm a man, so the fact that we've been through similar circumstances is heartbreaking.

I really wish Jesus was a little louder sometimes so I'd stop going through the routine of self-shame.

I don't understand why someone so young as I was had to go through the life of pain because of what others put me through when I couldn't have known any better.

[Meg]

Sometimes it doesn't occur to me that I matter at all to Jesus or anyone else because I have indeed fallen in for the lie that all I really am is what I've been used for by others. I'm a man, so the fact that we've been through similar circumstances is heartbreaking.

I really wish Jesus was a little louder sometimes so I'd stop going through the routine of self-shame.

I don't understand why someone so young as I was had to go through the life of pain because of what others put me through when I couldn't have known any better.

I went through that for a long time, GodSave. It was so hard to not believe that the measure of my worth was people's very low opinion of me. There is not a fixed method of finding how the truth in Christ applies to you individually, but there is a way to work through this.

The first step is to read the New Testament daily, from the Gospels through Jude, so that you become familiar with what the Lord has to say. It is very beneficial to read the same Books over and over, not trying to force yourself, but simply to explore and consider the difference between Biblical thought and what we see around us every day. Now this can mess you up if you go looking for people around you who act like they do the same, because nothing in the Bible is as simple and seemingly effective in practice as it is on paper (it took me YEARS to figure out why that works the way it does!). But don't let that discourage you. The more you really try to apply Biblical instruction to the way you interact with people around you, especially unbelievers, the better you'll understand why so many Christians don't seem very good at that either... Don't let that stop you; the Lord doesn't knock us for our failures, what He does do is strengthen what we're doing right and teach us through our mistakes -- at least thats what He does when we admit our mistakes in prayer and ask Him for help. Thats why privacy in your prayer life is really important.

It takes some effort, prayer and refusal to back down from what the Lord is saying about you that disagrees with what people are saying about you. It is reasonable to expect things to go wrong in your life, that will put pressure on you for the purpose of making you turn to the only One who has what it takes to figure out the mess. Thats where the words Stand Firm take on a whole level of meaning. By putting pressure on us, the Lord finds the weak spots in our faith, not so He can cut us out of His plans, but so that He can bring you to a point where you really need His insight badly enough to listen to and put into practice whatever He says is real. When the process is at its most scary, it can seem like there will never be a way out, but still, Stand Firm. The Holy Spirit has a way of strengthening us, that even when we know He did it, and I have lived this, we simply can't explain or describe how He did what He did do. That is the part about the concept of faith that we simply can't explain other than to insist its very real.

It takes some stubbornness to refuse to believe the lies thrown at us, and sometimes we aren't always strong enough. That is where perseverance comes in. Perseverance means simply hanging on to whatever bits of faith you have left on the worst day of your life, refusing to deny Jesus Christ. Perseverance might even be ALL you have left at your worst moments -- I've been there. Since I have been there, and more than once or twice too, I've lasted long enough to state on no uncertain terms that when it gets that bad, the one thing Jesus Christ never did do was get mad at me. First, He held me together, second, He kept telling me His own point of view until I could finally understand why He is right.

I hope this helps.

In Christ, Meg