The Moral Problem

I was thinking...

The basic human problem in relation to truth and God is a moral problem. The Bible says, "A fool says in his heart 'there is no God.'" He has not said it in his head! If we said it in our head, we could have done something about the problem, but since we say it in our hearts, our heart is the problem. You are your own problem.

While you have willfully and morally departed from God, you can’t claim ignorance. You have some knowledge, even some knowledge of what is right. Those kinds of things are written on your conscience and in your heart. Unfortunately, your willful, moral rebellion clouds your reading of your own heart and conscience.

Evidence of moral departure includes the fact that you think yourself morally superior to others. You should instead compare yourself with God's perfection morality!. Evidence of moral departure includes the fact that you think you can somehow reach God on your own terms, instead of submitting to God's terms to access him. Evidence of moral departure includes the fact that you think you are basically good and do good rather than being basically bad and doing bad. Here you are completely disqualified from perfection because you have at least done one bad thing in your life, but you only count the good things in your life.

You are found guilty, before God’s perfection.

And yet there’s hope of freedom.

Bondage

I was thinking...

Impatience is problem which affects many people. We all know that we should not lose our patience, but all of our knowledge doesn't give us the power to do what we have to do. It doesn't give us the power to do that which is right to do, that which must be done.

Why? Your will is in bondage. Haven't you often done something wrong and wished you hadn't done it? It fills you with remorse as you wonder, "How can I of all people have engaged in such debauchery?"

That is why you are sometimes filled with apathy, because you have gotten so used to doing wrong things that often it doesn't even bother you.

You have to ask,”Who is my will serving? And if it is serving who should be served? And if it isn’t serving who should be served, is it really my will?

Your basic problem is willful, moral departure from the truth. All humans have willfully and morally rebelled against God and that leads to intellectual difficulties with God.

God's Word says, "The fool has said in his heart there is no God." He has not said it in his head. If he had said it in his head, we could have done something about you. Since you say it in your heart, you have a heart problem. I can't do anything for you. But God can. The Truth Can. The Son can.

Are you enslaved?

Patience

I was thinking... about the phrase, "The bondage of the will.” Have you ever heard that phrase? We all experience it often.

Have you ever noticed that what you want to do, you don't do; what you should do, you don't do; and what you don't want to do and shouldn't do, you keep doing? Do you relate to that? It’s a universal problem.

Consider the simple matter of patience and impatience:

Let's say you are driving and somebody cuts in front of you. You hit the brakes with a vehemence and lay your hands on the horn with a vengeance. But the offender is oblivious to your attention getter. He thinks you greeted him with a rather fine "good morning." So you get even angrier. You want to cut back in front of him.

Or, you want to be more patient with your kids or your spouse, and guess what you are not! You know you should be more patient--they really haven't done anything against you. But you are impatient. It is not a case of not knowing what should be done. You are not even able to do what you know should be done. And that is frustrating!

Why? Your will is in bondage. You have to ask; who is my will serving? Can my will be freed?

What do you think?

Freedom

I was thinking...

Consider the prisoner who when given the opportunity to walk away from jail, to be free forever, says that he likes it in there! He gets his food, water, clothing, and shelter. He thinks to himself, "I am satisfied."


We would all think odd of the convict who wants to stay inside the jail for the rest of his life, even when the door is opened, the keys thrown away, and he could walk free. We may even have pity on him.

Has it ever occurred to you; you have been offered freedom from the spiritual sentence that you are serving in a self-made jail?

Do you need freedom, freedom from the prisons in which you live? From a body prison? You can be freed from seeing it as a detriment to viewing it as a compliment to your existence.

Do you need freedom from the soul-psychological prison in which you live? You can be freed from the histories that you have accumulated--personal, cultural, relational bondages of the past. Do you need freedom from the spiritual prison in which you find yourself? God’s Son liberates you from spiritual bondage, now and forever.

His own declaration of truth was that he came to set the captives free!

Ultimately, all bondage is sourced in your wrong doings, in your sin. God attacks the source, demolishes it, proclaims victory, so you can live and walk in freedom from wrong perspectives, practices, and prisons.


Tell me do you want to stay in prison or move out?

What do you think?

Global Economic Crisis, Personal Heart Checks

Global Economic Crisis,

Personal Heart Checks

By: Ramesh Richard

“How is the global financial crisis affecting you?” I asked a wealthy friend. He responded, “I’m having to reassess everything about money, especially my heart.” Reassessment should be a continuous heart-exercise. Solomon recommends that we constantly check our hearts, because the strategies of life flow out of it (Prov. 4:23). The biblical “heart” stands not only for the emotion and the mind, but also for the will that controls life.

I wrote down seven questions of heart-reassessment about money which we can ask ourselves. My only recommendation in this New Year’s exercise: be ruthlessly honest with yourself and invite the Spirit’s probing leadership. You’ll be surprised and comforted.

1. Ideas: What are my ideas concerning the good life? Am I confusing quality and quantity in my understanding? How can I get away from a “numbers” view of life?

2. Beliefs: How do I discern true beliefs from erroneous ones about God and mammon? How do I prudently use my finances? What do I believe is God’s role in providing for both the system and opportunity of making money?

3. Values: Which persons or possessions matter to me the most? Why? If a forest fire was encroaching to snuff out my home what would I take with me? My kids used to think I’d run with my computer first! I have since changed that value.

4. Sources: In whom or what do I trust? Where does my source of security, purpose, and joy lie? Do I consider money as merely a means to peace or the true source of existential peace? How can I be sure?

5. Relationships: In my relationship to people and things, how am I faring with covenantal responsibilities (i.e., to spouse), and those to whom I am connected genetically (i.e., kids, parents, siblings, etc.) and spiritually (believers, close and far off)?

6. Goals: Is money the goal of my life? A man wondered at 35, “If money was not an object, what would I set out to do?” Now at 70, he notes, “Money is not an object anymore, and I still don’t know what to do!”

7. Habits: Are my principles, priorities, and practices of earning, spending, giving money, etc. usually integrated? How do I deal with my own irrational thinking, incorrect believing, and/or impulsive doing in money matters?

After answering me, my friend returned the question: “How are you affected by the global crisis?” As a novice in money-making, I moved the conversation to a ministry level. I see this global season as a deep time of ministry opportunity.

• Opportunity to repent personally and church-wide for self-centeredness and self-sufficiency, both being tested right now. I sent out an e-mail challenging churches to find five minutes for prayer in their Sunday services before the U.S. election. A couple of pastors wrote back that they couldn’t afford five minutes to pray during services!

• Opportunity to capture this moment of increased personal awareness of spiritual deficit in the deepest, fastest, and widest possible ways for ministry. At the highest levels, our finest leaders are finally and publicly acknowledging the limitations of their intellectual abilities and capabilities. Let’s point them heavenwards.

• Opportunity to help those who are worse-off than us, “to do good to all people, especially to those in the household of faith” (Gal 6:10). I especially think of pastors under terrific economic pressure, or social persecution, or those affected by natural disaster. I know one country where you can only withdraw up to the equivalent of two U.S. dollars each day from the bank, but you spend that much to go on the bus to the bank. It is imperative that we help those in the family of believers at this time.




P.S. A banker friend recently told me, “since most people are worth 30% to 50% less than they were at the beginning of 2008 and are reticent to give, simply say a kind word and be there for the leaders of non-profits.” I am making it my goal to do just that in my sphere of Christian leaders, just like my friends have always been there for me. Thank you in advance and in anticipation for the gift of your presence.

IMPRISONMENT

I was thinking...

By definition, God has no human limitations, earthly inhibitions, or physical hindrances. So you will never be and can never be God. You are human, and being human, you are bound and destined to be in a prison.

At this very moment, you serve a a sentence in one or more of the following prisons:

1. Everyone is imprisoned in a physical prison (we must always live life in our physical bodies).

2. Many are in a psychological prison (connected to their souls).

3. And many more are in a spiritual prison (connected their spirits).


I have news for you; there is a key that can set you free! I too served in a prison view of life. But I bring you this message not from a spiritual prison, but from the advantage of having been freed.

Of course, if life itself is the sentence, why do we put bad people under a life sentence? That practice itself tells you that there is more to this life, than spending time incarcerated in a jail..

I want to give you hope from the One who makes people free. He can free you from your charge, without charge. He frees you from your prison, and puts up a sign in front of the door saying, "no admission." Wow!

The truth shall make you free. You’ve got to receive the truth to make you free. The truth said of himself, “If the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed.”

What do you think?

What is Life?

I was thinking...

Part of being human is the desire to know the answer to abstract questions that no other creature on earth asks. Recently I asked myself, "What’s life?" This is one question your dog doesn't ask and your computer doesn't ask, but because you are human, you ask it.

And I hope it’s a question you ask with hope . . . a question you ask as though there should be a satisfactory answer.

You may ask this question like a philosopher does. But all too often theoretical findings do not often translate into practical realities. You could ask this question as a psychologist. But a generic answer doesn't help. You may even ask this question as a physician or a scientist doing brain research. But identifying the physical cause does not give you a satisfying answer to our primary question, “What is Life?”

I suggest you ask this question as a searcher--in the quest for life, truth, and meaning.

In your search for what life is, you may come up with an answer like this:

Life is imprisonment. It feels like we are serving time in a meaningless sentence. It seems like we are dealt this life and we have to somehow put up with it. After all, we didn't ask to be born. Some people really do feel that they are serving a life sentence. Or, more truly a death sentence!


Would do you like to stay in a spiritual prison? or be freed?? You can be freed from a prison view of life. Being freed by someone, Life’s freedom giver, who makes you free. Since the truth shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

Would you like to experience this freedom? Would you like life to have purpose?

What do you think?