A message of Good News to visitors who may be searching
Apr 29, 2018 10:00:52 GMT -5
Sister and karanbac like this
Post by PG4Him on Apr 29, 2018 10:00:52 GMT -5
May I ask you a personal question? What is harming you the most? What is responsible for your failures, your limitations, your mental and emotional prisons?
Let me give you a hint: it isn't the people or situations around you. Yes, people and situations can hit us hard. But some of us overcome these things while some of us never seem to. Do we overcome with money? Not based on how many millionaires die by suicide, and not based on how many people are happy with less. Do we overcome with popularity, approval of others? Not based on how many famous people self-destruct, and not based on how many unpopular people are happy.
So here are your choices. You can try to win the lottery, lock yourself in a castle, buy lots of friends, and hope you don't end up like the next dead celebrity… or you can realize that something else works.
If we're honest, we all see in ourselves the same fear, regret, malice, and self-need that cause one person to hurt another. Some of us may be more hurtful than others, but we all hurt each other somehow. Some of us lash out while some of us shut down. Some of us turn to anger or violence, while some of us become passive-aggressive cowards.
We find ourselves in a society that exploits the poor, divides the voters, turns one race against another, idolizes airhead celebrities, wages war like a global game of chess, pressures women to have impossible bodies, treats the environment like an inconvenience, and judges a person's value by how much money they have.
All of us like to pretend it isn't our fault. We tell ourselves we're above that stuff. We are special, different, better than our peers. Really? Everyone says so – but if everyone is better than that, why is our society in such a mess? It's time for us all to admit that we're more complicit than we think.
Society – the same society that exploits the poor and objectifies women – supposedly has a solution to make us happy. More money, more friends, more social clubs, more fame. That's their answer for everything. Convenient how that works.
Meanwhile, time is running out. Our environment is rapidly becoming depleted. Our financial wealth is a hollowed-out house of cards propped up by economic manipulators. Our children are dying by suicide in epidemic numbers. We are our own worst enemy, and we are losing the war with ourselves.
Is the solution then to do good deeds? It sounds like a nice place to start, but it's an outward, often temporary fix. We work up the courage to do the right thing. We constantly ignore what we really want in an effort to override it. We hide that fear and malice as we try to drown it out with good behavior. But it's exhausting. We are once again at war with ourselves. No one around us seems to notice, our efforts go unappreciated, and discouragement drains our will to keep fighting.
Jesus once remarked that a house divided within itself cannot stand. When we wage war against our own identity, we are two opposing sides of equal strength locked in a civil war. We drive ourselves mad by destroying our selves. The beat goes on through the generations as our madness leads to wars, bloody revolutions, and suicide epidemics.
We have only one way out of this. We must be liberated from our destructive human nature. We must change from the inside out, no longer tamping down that fear and malice, but completely being free from it. We must become people with a new identity. Not an identity we invent for ourselves, but one that invades with supernatural power to win the war on our behalf.
So what do you want out of life? Do you want to trudge along in a prison of fear and malice, doing your best to keep it under control while you exhaust yourself with good behavior? Do you want to blame others while you limp to your grave in defeat? Do you want to pretend you're better than the rest of us in a false hope that some sort of cosmic justice will notice?
Justice is coming alright... and if our collective behavior is any indication, it won't be pretty. Science tells is that in the end, our sun will burn out and our galaxy will implode in a fiery crash. One day our whole universe will meet a destructive end. And here we are, conscious beings who rise above the elemental things of this world. If our universe meets a violent, fiery end, what more awaits us? The Bible says that our very souls -- that conscious life we exalt above the animals -- are racing toward a fiery nightmare we will never wake up from.
Do you want to hope for some kind of luck or exemption to get you out of it? Or do you want to start right now leaving behind the human condition for a new way of life? What if I told you there's a God who wants that for you? What if I told you that He has a glorious city in a glorious, magnificent kingdom where mighty men and women find their true selves? What if I told you that He very much wants you to become a different person – a confident, bold, amazing person of strong character who has the right to be a citizen in His glorious kingdom?
His kingdom has no room for fearful, regretful, malicious people who hope they can keep it a secret. This citizenship requires a completely new identity. It requires a total rejection of everything poisonous we find in ourselves. The Bible calls this repentance. We're all guilty of sin. A sin is not just a "mistake" or some sort of bad behavior. Sin is every kind of poison that destroys us. It may show up through our behavior, but it comes from the fears, regrets, selfish impulses, and malice that haunt our deepest emotions. Do you want to repent from all of that sin and become a different person down to the deepest parts of you?
What if I told you that you don't have to change by your own effort? This God I've been telling you about, He knows you can't do it by warring with yourself. He sent His own Son – his very own family – to win the impossible war. Jesus came as a human to make Himself just like you. He was abused, bullied, attacked, and framed for a crime He didn't commit. There is nothing you can go through that He didn't feel. He lived through the depths of the most painful human experiences… and He beat them.
Then He died – yes, that's right, the very Son of God, who didn't have to lift a finger to help any of us, died in one of the most brutally tortuous ways ever invented, voluntarily being punished even though He was innocent. He took the punishment for every wrong thing we do, on our behalf. He carried our wrongdoings on His back and accepted a death sentence He didn't deserve so that He can say justice was done. But He didn't stop there. He defeated death, got right back out of that grave, and showed the whole world that real, amazing, supernatural life is available, beyond the constraints of our human condition.
Do you want that life? Do you want that freedom? Do you want to join Him in that glorious kingdom where every wrong is made right?
Father God's very Son made this possible for us. God has opened His heart to us. He isn't some faraway power that rules over us impersonally. He sent His Son to bring us into the family. We may apprehend real spiritual life, and we may touch the very heart of God. Then the third part of God -- the Holy Spirit -- comes to live inside of us as this new inner person sparks to life. Yes, that's right, God's very nature and presence will come inside you in an intimate way to keep you with Him.
All you need do is repent of the sin – completely reject that poisonous, destructive inner nature – and ask Father God to forgive you for letting it control you. Ask Him to forgive you for the wrong things you did while under its influence. Then ask Jesus to give you that new life, that new identity, which He made available through defeating death. Ask Him to give you salvation.
This is the gospel. It may not sound like the warm and fuzzy pep talks you hear from TV preachers. But it's real, and it's alive, and it has the power to save your soul. And now you have to choose if you want it or not.
If you have more questions, or if you need support in making this choice, feel free to join us in discussion.
Let me give you a hint: it isn't the people or situations around you. Yes, people and situations can hit us hard. But some of us overcome these things while some of us never seem to. Do we overcome with money? Not based on how many millionaires die by suicide, and not based on how many people are happy with less. Do we overcome with popularity, approval of others? Not based on how many famous people self-destruct, and not based on how many unpopular people are happy.
So here are your choices. You can try to win the lottery, lock yourself in a castle, buy lots of friends, and hope you don't end up like the next dead celebrity… or you can realize that something else works.
If we're honest, we all see in ourselves the same fear, regret, malice, and self-need that cause one person to hurt another. Some of us may be more hurtful than others, but we all hurt each other somehow. Some of us lash out while some of us shut down. Some of us turn to anger or violence, while some of us become passive-aggressive cowards.
We find ourselves in a society that exploits the poor, divides the voters, turns one race against another, idolizes airhead celebrities, wages war like a global game of chess, pressures women to have impossible bodies, treats the environment like an inconvenience, and judges a person's value by how much money they have.
All of us like to pretend it isn't our fault. We tell ourselves we're above that stuff. We are special, different, better than our peers. Really? Everyone says so – but if everyone is better than that, why is our society in such a mess? It's time for us all to admit that we're more complicit than we think.
Society – the same society that exploits the poor and objectifies women – supposedly has a solution to make us happy. More money, more friends, more social clubs, more fame. That's their answer for everything. Convenient how that works.
Meanwhile, time is running out. Our environment is rapidly becoming depleted. Our financial wealth is a hollowed-out house of cards propped up by economic manipulators. Our children are dying by suicide in epidemic numbers. We are our own worst enemy, and we are losing the war with ourselves.
Is the solution then to do good deeds? It sounds like a nice place to start, but it's an outward, often temporary fix. We work up the courage to do the right thing. We constantly ignore what we really want in an effort to override it. We hide that fear and malice as we try to drown it out with good behavior. But it's exhausting. We are once again at war with ourselves. No one around us seems to notice, our efforts go unappreciated, and discouragement drains our will to keep fighting.
Jesus once remarked that a house divided within itself cannot stand. When we wage war against our own identity, we are two opposing sides of equal strength locked in a civil war. We drive ourselves mad by destroying our selves. The beat goes on through the generations as our madness leads to wars, bloody revolutions, and suicide epidemics.
We have only one way out of this. We must be liberated from our destructive human nature. We must change from the inside out, no longer tamping down that fear and malice, but completely being free from it. We must become people with a new identity. Not an identity we invent for ourselves, but one that invades with supernatural power to win the war on our behalf.
So what do you want out of life? Do you want to trudge along in a prison of fear and malice, doing your best to keep it under control while you exhaust yourself with good behavior? Do you want to blame others while you limp to your grave in defeat? Do you want to pretend you're better than the rest of us in a false hope that some sort of cosmic justice will notice?
Justice is coming alright... and if our collective behavior is any indication, it won't be pretty. Science tells is that in the end, our sun will burn out and our galaxy will implode in a fiery crash. One day our whole universe will meet a destructive end. And here we are, conscious beings who rise above the elemental things of this world. If our universe meets a violent, fiery end, what more awaits us? The Bible says that our very souls -- that conscious life we exalt above the animals -- are racing toward a fiery nightmare we will never wake up from.
Do you want to hope for some kind of luck or exemption to get you out of it? Or do you want to start right now leaving behind the human condition for a new way of life? What if I told you there's a God who wants that for you? What if I told you that He has a glorious city in a glorious, magnificent kingdom where mighty men and women find their true selves? What if I told you that He very much wants you to become a different person – a confident, bold, amazing person of strong character who has the right to be a citizen in His glorious kingdom?
His kingdom has no room for fearful, regretful, malicious people who hope they can keep it a secret. This citizenship requires a completely new identity. It requires a total rejection of everything poisonous we find in ourselves. The Bible calls this repentance. We're all guilty of sin. A sin is not just a "mistake" or some sort of bad behavior. Sin is every kind of poison that destroys us. It may show up through our behavior, but it comes from the fears, regrets, selfish impulses, and malice that haunt our deepest emotions. Do you want to repent from all of that sin and become a different person down to the deepest parts of you?
What if I told you that you don't have to change by your own effort? This God I've been telling you about, He knows you can't do it by warring with yourself. He sent His own Son – his very own family – to win the impossible war. Jesus came as a human to make Himself just like you. He was abused, bullied, attacked, and framed for a crime He didn't commit. There is nothing you can go through that He didn't feel. He lived through the depths of the most painful human experiences… and He beat them.
Then He died – yes, that's right, the very Son of God, who didn't have to lift a finger to help any of us, died in one of the most brutally tortuous ways ever invented, voluntarily being punished even though He was innocent. He took the punishment for every wrong thing we do, on our behalf. He carried our wrongdoings on His back and accepted a death sentence He didn't deserve so that He can say justice was done. But He didn't stop there. He defeated death, got right back out of that grave, and showed the whole world that real, amazing, supernatural life is available, beyond the constraints of our human condition.
Do you want that life? Do you want that freedom? Do you want to join Him in that glorious kingdom where every wrong is made right?
Father God's very Son made this possible for us. God has opened His heart to us. He isn't some faraway power that rules over us impersonally. He sent His Son to bring us into the family. We may apprehend real spiritual life, and we may touch the very heart of God. Then the third part of God -- the Holy Spirit -- comes to live inside of us as this new inner person sparks to life. Yes, that's right, God's very nature and presence will come inside you in an intimate way to keep you with Him.
All you need do is repent of the sin – completely reject that poisonous, destructive inner nature – and ask Father God to forgive you for letting it control you. Ask Him to forgive you for the wrong things you did while under its influence. Then ask Jesus to give you that new life, that new identity, which He made available through defeating death. Ask Him to give you salvation.
This is the gospel. It may not sound like the warm and fuzzy pep talks you hear from TV preachers. But it's real, and it's alive, and it has the power to save your soul. And now you have to choose if you want it or not.
If you have more questions, or if you need support in making this choice, feel free to join us in discussion.