The Newtown Tragedy - How Should We Respond ?

I don't know about you, but I find this tragedy difficult to know how to respond to. First of all, I can't imagine anything so difficult to go through, because it involves children. When something happens to children, it is very hard for us to grasp. It is bad enough when something devastating happens to adults, but with children, it seems so senseless and cruel.
    I've read through a couple of articles or messages on this, but the one I found tonight seems to be the most helpful. It is written by Ravi Zacharias on this particular incident. Here is the url for it, and I would encourage my readers to go to it and get a good perspective on it.Ravi Zacharias on Newtown

  Here is an excerpt:

My own attempt at saying something here is feeble but carries a hope  that somebody listening will make this world a better place. My heart  goes back to Angola Prison in Baton Rouge where I met such people  whose savagery took them to that destination. It was interesting to see  a Bible in every cell and to hear many talk of how it had become their  only means of life and hope. Someone with me said, “If we had more  Bibles in our schools maybe we would need less of them here.” To the skeptic and the despiser of belief in God, I know what they will respond.  I am quite convinced that the one who argues against this ends up  playing God and is ultimately unable to defend any absolutes. Hate  is the opposite of love and while one breathes death, the other  breathes life. That is what we need to be addressing here. The seeds  of hate sooner or later bear fruit in murder and destruction. Killers  are not born in a moment. Deep beneath brews thinking and the  animus that in a moment is uncorked. We are living in a society that nurtures hate on many sides with the result that lawlessness triumphs.

Have You Prayed For Your Spouse Today?

Have you prayed for your spouse today? It is so easy to put things off, especially if they don't seem important to us. All people who are married have struggles in their marriages, and people complain because their spouse doesn't do this or that right, or some other expectation is not met. But have you considered praying for your spouse? Your spouse needs God's help and grace in her life (or his life). If your wife is constantly cooking dinners late, or in a bad mood, can you pray for God to reveal Himself to her? God is the great heart changer. Maybe your husband comes home in a bad mood. Maybe he is angry or quiet. Are you angry because of that? Do you think you can pray for him?
Likewise, husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; so that your prayers will not be hindered.
1 Peter 3:7
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Ephesians 6:18

Whose Identity Do You Have?

"Our response to any situation is always shaped by our understanding of our identity." This quote is from the book "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands", which, in my opinion is one of the best books available on Biblical counseling.
   The reason I bring this up, is that it is so important in helping ourselves and our friends in counseling. Every person has an identity, whether it be one that is made up in their imaginations, one put on them by others, or on put on us by association. For example, if you are introduced to someone for the first time, they usually give you their name. If you go a little further, you usually find out what they do for a living. People make their identity by their association with their jobs, or their past, most of the time. Sadly, if a person has had a bad past, his or her relationship with that past becomes part of his or her identity. I remember working with a woman who suffered from depression. Whenever she talked about herself, she identified with being a manic depressant. People have all kinds of identities, but have we really thought through what our identities should be based upon?
   The Bible says that our identity is with Christ. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. We are seated in the heavenly places. We have authority over all the power of the Enemy. We who were once filthy, have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now our identity is in Christ. That doesn't mean it is wrong to tell people your profession, nor does it mean that you shouldn't talk about your past. We don't live in the past anymore, although we may need help in breaking off from certain things that are holding us down.
   The promises of God are in the Bible, but they only apply to people who have a proper relationship with God. A person can only have a correct relationship with God through God's Son, Jesus Christ. Outside of that kind of relationship with God, there really is no life. Outside of Christ, we live only for ourselves, and for what we think makes us happy. Another word for that is 'idolatry'. Idolatry is loving something else other than God. We think we love God, but we really don't. We can love God only when He has given us a new heart. If you are a person who has not responded to the Gospel message yet, your identity won't be in Christ. It will be with something else.  But the good news is that you can come to Christ in repentance and faith. For more information, go to http://thegospelconversation.blogspot.com   or   http://test4gp.wordpress.com
   If your identity is with a sinful lifestyle, you need to repent. Then you need to ask God for His grace and help to be free from that sin. Your identity doesn't have to be with who you are in the flesh. It can be with Christ, and it should be if you are redeemed!

Do You See the Bigger Picture?

As people who are growing in their understanding of the Scriptures, and because we are not 'all-knowing', we see things through a glass, and darkly, at that. Our vision of reality is very small and limited. If we are growing spiritually, and in our knowledge of the Scriptures, we expand our horizon. We have a more complete worldview.
  But we do see only in part. And that can affect our ministering to people as we seek to counsel them. For example, we might see a person who always seems to be angry. Our temptation would be to counsel him about anger. We would make sure that he knows anger is a sin against God (unless it is a righteous anger). We would make sure that he understands, from Scripture, his sin against God, and his need to repent. Now does he need to repent? Is his anger really a sin against God? Yes, and there will be a time, be it a long way away or just around the corner, that we can deal with that sin. But what if we find out that this man lives in a home where his wife is abusing him with words all the time? What if we find out that she is pressuring him to do two or three jobs in order to make her happy? What if we find out the she is calling the police on him almost daily? Now that doesn't give him an excuse to become angry, but it is a valid reason that has to be made known, in order for the man to repent and work through his sin of anger.
  I remember hearing about a man, who while in his house heard a man outside who was acting frantically. He was yelling out some kind of gibberish. He looked like a madman. I'm not sure if the man in the house called the cops or not, but, the frantic man was confronted. What was happening was, that the frantic man didn't speak English very well, and he was trying to find his lost dog and was calling the dog's name out loud, hoping the dog would hear. The man in the house did not have the bigger picture. He had a slice of what was going on, but in that slice, he built a false understanding of what was really going on.
  One more type of situation that could happen. Let's say that you get to know a person who was raised in a home where she saw Satanic rituals being practiced. What if that person saw people being given up in human sacrifices to Satan? What if she experienced Satanic Ritual Abuse and saw many powers of darkness at work with her own eyes? What if she learned all through her life, that the devil was the one who was the creator, and the devil was the one who was sovereign over every person's life? How would this person see the greatness of God? If she saw the greatness of Satan in the manifestations that she experienced during her life time, how do we help her to see the 'Bigger Picture' of reality? How will we help her to see the greatness of God? (I know it is God's work in her heart that will help her see God's greatness). If we just tell her of God's greatness and expect her to believe it, we might have problems down the road. We have to understand the why of her struggles.
  We need to be patient with people and find out where they are coming from, before we give them instruction and advice. They will be willing to listen to us, but we need to have a bigger picture of who they are before we can understand how to properly minister to them.

Our Words - Weapons for Life or Death

I was thinking about something that I saw happen a long time ago. I will not mention names, but I will never forget this. There was a woman, and man she was living with, a daughter, and grandson in this family. We went out with this family. I was surprised at what I saw, but maybe I shouldn't have been. It seemed like the whole time we were with them, the grandmother seemed to be hateful toward the grandson. She picked on him and called him derogatory names. I wondered why anyone would do that. Our words have power. Our words can be healing. Our words can bring comfort to others. We can edify and encourage one another with our words. But we can also destroy people with our words. Our words can hurt people. The Bible says that 'Life and death are in the power of the tongue.' It is sad how we use our words, sometimes.
I remember reading a story in one of Joni Earickson's books, about a young woman who was dealing with guilt. When the young woman was a teenager, she was angry at her dad and told him something like she didn't want to ever see him again. The father died that night and she never did see him again. How sad for that young woman. How sad for us when we say things we wished we would never have said.
I don't know whatever happened to the grandson of the woman who went out with my family that time, long ago. He is probably a grown up now. If that kind of behavior continued, I'm sure he doesn't have much of relationship with her now. How sad that is. Why would we talk to our children that way, or our grandchildren? Sometimes, we don't realize how the things we say will affect others. And we don't know who is watching us either.
Ephesians 4:29 says Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (ESV)
Proverbs 16:24 says Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
    sweetness to the soul and health to the body. (ESV)

Let's speak words that will edify and nourish the hearers!

Loving the fearful and needy.

Loving the fearful and needy.
Here is a message that I think would be helpful to many Biblical counselors. Sometimes, it is hard to know when to use tough love, or when to be gentle in ministering to needy people. Some of these 'needy' people show anger. It can be helpful to be patient and work through the issues and that will help them to see their anger and fear, so they can be delivered from their bondage. We want to be careful to not be like 'Job's comforters'. I have to admit, I would have a hard time working with this, but I am the one who needs to be changed by God's power. The Bible says, 'Love is patient'. Are we impatient with people and do we want to 'fix' them quickly by giving them Bible verses that we think can help, or are we 'slow to speak' and use words of wisdom, and are we willing to take the time that is needed to help people who are suffering? This message is by Winston Smith, Tim Lane, and Myriam Hertzog. This is an area we all can grow in, as we grow together as a related body of believers.

People Need to be Untangled

Being entangled with sin. Satan, along with our selfish hearts, works to entangle people in sin. Sin is not solely an object in our hearts that we have to get out of our hearts in order to go to heaven. Neither is it solely something we need to be forgiven of in order to go to heaven. Yes, we do need to get sin our of our hearts, and we need God’s forgiveness for our sins. But we need something so much more. And here is what it is; We all need to become free from the slavery of sin. Sin does more to us than keeping us out of heaven. Sin actually entangles us and keeps us in bondage to freedom. But what does that look like?

Part of the problem with this situation is that human beings, because our minds and thinking are darkened, think that sin actually frees us and makes us happy. Our unregenerate nature is wedded to the temptations of sin that come our way. It goes all the way to the core of our beings. We could take any sin, and use it as an illustration, but we could use stealing as a specific example. I know that there are different reasons for people stealing and it would take up too much room to use stealing, as a general sin, to explain here, so we have to be even more specific.

  When I was young and worked at a drug store, a woman with a couple of children at her side, was at the register and I was ringing up her products. It was a very strange order, for it was several packages of nail polish items. The lady proceeded to write a check, and when I asked her for her I.D., I noticed how shaky her hands were. She failed to produce the I.D. so I called for the manager, and he already was acquainted with the woman and explained that she was stealing the products. This woman was in bondage to her sins. How can people like her be free? It is easy for us to judge and simply say, “Let him who stole, steal no more.” Is the goal to just see that stealing is wrong, or, that God hates stealing and this woman needs to stop stealing? Ultimately, we want her to see that. But that is not the starting point in a situation like this. The ultimate goal for this woman would not be for her to not steal items anymore (although that would be a result of the goal for her). The goal would be for this woman to understand who God is, in His majesty and holiness, as well as His power, and mercy. But, there could be problems with this. She might have a background of other obstacles that would keep her from understanding or relating to God, in truth. She may have come from a family where lies about God were taught. She could have come from a family who was abusive to her. I am NOT making excuses for a person’s sins. But there are unbelievable things that happen to people, that Satan has intended to keep them in bondage with. Before they can understand the Gospel, they have to understand who God is and what He is like. God is not like the angry dad that beat his children up every night. God is not like the rapist that said he was Jesus and that the victim must obey him or the victim would be killed (Yes, this really does happen in America, and more often than what we realize). God is not like the mom who leaves her children to fend for themselves while she goes bar hopping.

  It is no wonder this country has so many ‘false conversions’. We simply tell people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives, and if they ask Jesus into their hearts, they can go to heaven when they die. Then we give ourselves credit when one of those false converts responds to us.

No, our churches need real ministry today. The churches need men and women who truly love and know God and are living out His word in their lives on a daily basis. The local churches need humble men and women who are empowered by the Holy Spirit and are using the spiritual gifts to help one another in the church.

The Bible says in Galatians 6:1-3 Brothers, if a man is overtaken in a fault, those of you who are spiritual, restore such an person in the spirit of meekness; considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man thinks of himself as something, when he is nothing, he is deceiving himself.

We think we can solve problems by prescribing Bible verses for people who need help. Again, ultimately the Bible is the only source for dealing with problems. But we have to ‘untangle’ the person from the things that are holding them into bondage. Then the word of God will bring healing and ministry to people that desperately need God. That’s when eternal change can take place. Untangle the person from their bondage of sin. That's when the light of the Gospel will shine in.

Let's Talk About Pain

What is pain and why do we have it? Is it a result of selfishness or does it come when someone has abused us? Here are some thoughts on pain.

There are different kinds of pain. I used to think of pain and broken-heartedness as a result of being jilted. Being jilted is sad, but, at the same time, being jilted is probably resulting from idolatry. If God isn’t the most important thing in our life, we are setting ourselves up for a heart break.

But I have to wonder if that is what the Bible is talking about, when it talks about Jesus healing the broken-hearted, is a different kind of pain. Maybe we are using the same word to describe two entirely different things.

In the Therapeutic Movement, there is a focus on healing the person from their ‘pain’. Pop psychology uses ‘man as the standard’ for measuring things. There is no teaching on humility, neither is there teaching on a greater Being that we have to submit to. So, if a person is not getting what they want in life, they experience disappointment, then the resulting ‘pain’ from the disappointment. Pain is the result of worshiping idols that isn’t being fulfilled.

But what about other types of pain? Because of the damage from the Therapeutic Movement, which puts man at the center of the problem as well as the answer, the word ‘pain’ has gotten a bad reputation. It sounds selfish. And it can be. But, there are other kinds of pain, as well as other reasons for pain.

Serious pain will be a part of life for women who have been raped or were/are victims of sexual abuse. Rape is a serious thing and has detrimental consequences. A rape victim cannot just shake the experience off and go on with life. People need to know that when they encounter a rape victim, there is going to be a lot of work in helping the victim. There is hope, but it is not as easy as telling the person it will be ok.

First of all, women or little girls who are raped will not be able to tell anyone. One reason is because there is so much shame involved in it. The girl has been violated. Her dignity was stolen from her. She will feel ugly, dirty, and full of shame. A good counselor will have to listen to her, if she is willing to talk. The worst thing a counselor could do is to tell the girl that it really didn’t happen, or that if she didn’t do such and such, she wouldn’t have been raped. Another reason rape victims will not talk about it, is because the rapist has threatened her, should she tell anyone. He might tell her that nobody will believe her, or he might say that if she tells, he will come and steal her puppy.

You have to try to imagine what it is like for a person to go through rape. It is very difficult. She will experience a lot of pain. She will feel betrayed. She will wonder why God allowed this to happen to her.

So, if a person has trusted you enough to confide in you, please listen to her. She probably is telling you the truth. Please don’t betray her confidence by telling her it is not a big deal, or that it didn’t really happen. If she doesn’t get help from someone she can trust, she won’t get any help at all.

 Yes, there are different kinds and degrees of pain. There are different reasons for having pain. Jesus came to heal the broken-hearted, not people who got jilted necessarily, but people who have suffered at the hands of others. There are all kinds of abusive situations. There are many ramifications because of the abuses we receive from others. Some are severe and need attention. People need ministry. 

  If you or someone you know, has been a victim of abuse, and you want help, there are ministries and churches that can help. Please send me an email if you are looking for answers or help. RUgood@mail.com.

Does Divorce Really Affect our Kids?

     I was thinking about something I read a long time ago, probably in the newspaper written by some 'expert' about children being affected by divorce. It seemed that this person didn't think that children would be adversely affected by divorce, but I never could agree with this conclusion.
   I heard something on the radio yesterday that is more realistic when it comes to the affects of divorce. It was a short little program where a man who was a doctor told of a little girl who came into his office because of bad stomach pains. The doctor drew the little girl out by asking her questions. After asking questions he found out that the little girl and her family were living in a homeless shelter. Why? Because Daddy found another lady to love and didn't want to take care of his family anymore!
   So, divorce really doesn't hurt anyone, right? Wrong. When a divorce takes place, children feel guilty. Sometimes, the child of the divorced parents feel that he or she is to blame for the divorce. Of course, that is Satan's lie to try to destroy the child. If Satan can get the parents to divorce, then certainly the child is open for his tactics as well.
   I don't think it takes a genius to understand that divorce is harmful to children. You might be asking then, what about me? What about what I want? Why do I have to stay married to the same person if I want someone else?
  50 + years ago, people thought twice about things like divorce. If the marriage was hard (and most marriages are), people were mature enough to try to work through their problems. They stuck it out, even though the grass seemed greener in other places. But, the situation of divorce goes much deeper than just sticking it out. When two people get married, they are committing themselves to each other, before a holy God. They are promising that they will stay with each other until one or the other dies.
   The big problem today, and the reason why people so easily divorce, is that society has taught us to take the easy way out of our problems, and it seems like divorce is the easier way out than to stick with something like a commitment to someone that we don't want to stay with anymore. Lawyers make a lot of money from divorce cases. Society has also taught us that we 'deserve' better than what we get. Well, if we get what we deserve from God, we would end up in hell! But God is merciful. He gives us good gifts. He also gives us problems to work through, so that we will grow and be changed through them.If we buy into society's lie in avoiding problems, we will become myopic and self-centered, and we will never grow or change. Of course, if a person is outside of Christ, he or she won't see any need to grow or be changed. That person will only be self-centered and self-seeking the rest of his or her life. No one outside the grace of God can die to their selfishness and live for others.
   The other reason people get divorced, is because they want to be married or have a relationship with someone they are not married to. In America today, we can get a lot of things. We have money that can buy us things and we think those things will make us happy. Our marriages begin to drift and we start looking around for someone who will pay attention to us. We are intrigued by someone other than our spouse, and then we don't think it is a big deal to leave our spouse and family for that 'other' person. We have little or no motivation to remain faithful to the one we made vows with. Basically, we lost our fear of God and become selfish again and want to do our own thing. Of course, it is easy to get away with it in America because money buys everything and we have a lot of money.
   What we need to realize is that God is holy, and we need to fear Him. We need to respect Him for who He is. We need to learn what the Bible says about Him, instead of thinking of Him as a Cosmic Santa Claus or a sweatered grandfather who spoils his grandchildren. He is God and we are going to give account to Him one day. He knows when we are lusting after another person. He knows when we want to get out of our marriages. He wants to help us out of our sin and deception. His ways are higher than our ways.
   We need to be praying for our families. Men need to lead spiritually. Women need to respect their husbands. Husbands need their wives as help mates. We all need God's help in our lives and marriages. The power of the Cross will help us to die to our selfishness and live for Him. Only when we have a new heart and the grace of God can we live a life that is truly fulfilling and glorifying to God.
  One more thing; if you are a product of a divorce please don't feel condemned by this article. And if you were the cause of a divorce, God can help you to repent and be restored. There is hope and healing for people who were involved in divorce. Please find a place where you can get counseling and help. And lastly, if you are having an affair and have made the decision to divorce your spouse and go on with the affair, please repent! You are on dangerous ground! The ramifications of your decision will be devastating. God can help you break the hold of sin on your life!

You Don't Need Counseling, You Just Need The Bible

   I have often heard, whether openly or more subtly, that Biblical counseling is not really a necessary thing. You only need to use the Bible with people in helping them with their problems.
  This kind of thinking is making a couple of false assumptions. It is assuming that Biblical counseling can be done by giving out Bible verses when people have problems, much like giving out a necessary vitamin or supplement when a person has a physical need and is lacking in a particular type of nourishment. It assumes that the counselee can just simply be ministered to by finding the appropriate Bible verses or passages that pertain to his or her problems. But it goes much deeper than that.
   The Bible talks about how we are to be doers of the word, and not only hearers, lest we be deceived. I think this is part of what I am trying to get at. Many of us know Bible verses. We know the verses that pertain to worry, fear, needing wisdom, trusting God for our needs, etc. It would be easy to tell a person not to worry because the Bible says that we can cast our cares upon God for He careth for us. Or we can tell the person that he or she can trust God because God takes care of the sparrows and we are more important than sparrows.
  Of course, there is nothing wrong with pointing out those verses to people who need to hear them. But what happens when we tell someone not to worry because we should be casting our cares upon God, and a month or two later, the person comes to us falling apart because they tried to do what the Bible said and they still had the problem with worry and the problem led them to a worse state. Plus now, there is condemnation in their minds because they feel like they have failed God. What's a person to do? What's a counselor to do?
   Giving out Bible verses like vitamins in counseling doesn't do the job the way it was intended to. First of all, you have to give the whole picture of what is going on. You have to help the person to identify his or her sin (not just the symptom). You have to point them to the power of the Cross. They have to understand why their sin is there, so they can look at their heart and repent. Then they need the power of God, provided by the Cross, to help them over come their sin. Simply speaking, they need to apply the Word of God to their hearts, not just know what it says in their minds.
   In some ways, Biblical counseling is like discipleship. Jesus told us to be fishers of men. He also told us to be disciplers of men and women. Biblical counselors need to become skilled in teaching the word of God. The word of God needs to be taught, but even more importantly, it needs to be applied to the heart. That is the heart of Biblical counseling.
   I understand that today in modern evangelicalism, many think that we get saved, go to church, preach the Gospel so others can get saved, go to church and bring our converts there, teach the converts how to preach the Gospel so others can be saved and come into the church. What is missing from this? The whole subject of sanctification is. I'm sure that some people think that sanctification and justification are basically the same thing, and since we are saved by faith, then we are justified by faith, and that we are automatically sanctified, so, that is the end of that. Now we just tell others the Gospel and they will get saved, so they can tell others the Gospel, and so on. But sanctification has to happen in our own lives, and if it doesn't we won't be spiritually healthy people, and the church won't be healthy either.
   Sanctification is spiritual growth. It is God working in us, changing us by His grace. It is as we feed upon God's word, we grow spiritually. It is not just memorizing Scriptures, but, letting those Scriptures become part of us. We digest them. We live them out by the grace of God. If we just memorize Scripture and never apply it to our lives, we become deceived and spiritually malnourished.
   One more angle to look at. The devil knows the word of God better than any human being. I think sometimes we know the Scriptures and try to use them, but unless they are working with the Holy Spirit in the person's life that we are counseling, they will only be like words on paper. They have to be activated in our lives by the Holy Spirit. If they aren't, then we end up in legalism. I have a saying that a friend came up with, and it goes like this; Grace without Truth = Lawlessness. Truth without Grace = Legalism. But Grace plus Truth = Liberty. That is what we want for our counselees; liberty. Not liberty to sin or be selfish, but liberty to be free from the bonds of sin so we can serve God and live out our lives for His glory. And that is why we do Biblical counseling.

"You Are Now Free to Go"

  “You are free to go now” After the Civil War, the slaves that were brought to America were pronounced ‘free’ but how many of them knew about that or acted upon their new status? In much the same way, I think Christians are set free, but, they are acting like they are still slaves of sin. Could it be because we are not informed of our freedom yet? Possibly. Or could it be because of habit? All our lives we were slaves of sin, now God’s word tells us we are free, but we are still in the mindset of the slave.

  There was a time when I really didn’t get the whole concept of being set free from anything. I thought Jesus died to take away my sin and now I could be forgiven for my sins. I didn’t realize that not only did Jesus die for my sins to pay for them, but the power of the Cross also sets us free from the bondage of sin. There is a difference between being aware of what sin is, and being in bondage to sin. It also protects us from the deception of sin. People today cannot only be forgiven of their sins, but they can also experience freedom from the bondage of sin. That is where many of us miss the boat, unfortunately. Part of that is because we don’t have a very full understanding of sin in our lives and the ramifications of our sins. We can have our eyes opened to see how great God is and how ugly our lies are. We can repent from lying because we know that it is wrong. But it is another thing to be set free from living a life where we feel like we have to lie and be deceptive. We have to identify the idols that are being supported by our lying. When our hearts are changed, we can be set free from the bondage of having to live with sin as our companion.

   Old habits are hard to break. Old mindsets are hard to change. You can condition a dog to behave a certain way. Let’s say that a person was cruel and had a dog. Let’s say that the cruel person kept the dog in a crate most of the time. Sometimes he would let the dog out. For a short time, the dog was delighted. It was out and it was free, so it thought, until the owner beat it. After a while, the dog would not want to come out anymore. He would know that he was going to be beaten again if he came back out. I think sin is like that. The Bible says that we are slaves to sin before our conversion. We enjoy sin for a season, but then the bad effects of sin come about. When we come to Christ in repentance and faith, the chains that held us down are broken, but do we realize it? Do we realize that now the tables are turned? Now we have the power to overcome sin.

   Through sanctification we learn to experience victory over sin and freedom from the bondages of sin. It doesn’t come overnight though. But it won’t come if we are not informed by the Word of God. If we are not studying the Bible and learning what God says to us, we will be uninformed of what is ours through the Cross. We will live in ignorance of the Power of God. Read the following words of the song called, ‘Praise the Lord’ by the Imperials:

Now Satan is a liar
And he wants to make us think
That we are paupers
When he knows himself
We're children of the King

If we don’t know what the Bibles says about our victory over sin and how we access it, we won’t live in victory. By default, we will listen to Satan and believe his lies about who he says we are (or aren’t).

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Romans 12:1,2 : I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

Titus 2:11,12 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

God gives us the power to say 'no' to sin, and 'yes' to righteousness. All this can happen because of what Jesus did on the Cross.

If you have any questions about this topic and want to write, please send an email to RUgood@mail.com

Remove the Baggage!

   Here is a simple reason for doing Biblical counseling: In order for some people to be helped, someone has to remove the baggage that was put on them throughout their lives. The average person just needs to hear the Gospel and have a Biblical understanding of who God is, what sin is, what sin has done to them and their relationship to God, what God must do about sin, and what God has done to take care of our sin problem. The average Joe can get this. It can make sense to him.
   But there are people out there that have loads of baggage on them, that will prevent them from seeing the Gospel, or being able to grasp the fact that we are sinners in need of a Savior. These people have to have the baggage taken off them before the Gospel will make sense to them. That is what Biblical counseling does. It makes it so a person who has a warped understanding of reality can come face to face with the fact that he or she is a sinful person in need of a Savior. Biblical counseling and Biblical evangelism work hand in hand to help promote the Gospel.
   I am thinking of an example in the Bible that describes this scenario. In Mark 5, there is a man who has been possessed by a demon (or many demons). His life, as far as he can tell, is completely gone. He will live the rest of his life in horror if nothing comes about to change his circumstance. He lived in the cemeteries and no one could do anything to help him. He was completely hopeless. And the worst part of his story is that after he died, he would face God in judgment and spend eternity in hell. But God...God came on the scene and delivered the man. The demons were made to leave. The man was now able to get a grasp on the Gospel. Jesus came to the rescue. Now, this man not only was demon free, but now he was a servant of the True and Living God! The baggage came off him and now he can clearly see God!
  We can be used of God to 'take the baggage off' people too. We can minister the Gospel to them, and they will have a clear view of God. They will see their need for salvation, and see how horrible their sin is before a holy God.
  If a person has been victimized by others, he will see the terrible sin of what someone else did to him or her. It will be hard for a person to see her own sin, because the other person's sin is so much greater in their eyes. Plus, people who are victimized by others, will take the blame for the other person's sin against them. It is the nature of being victimized. That's why those who do the victimizing think they are getting away with it. God sees the sin of the victimizer, and He will deal with it. But we have to help those who have been destroyed by others. We have to help them work through their victimization so they can properly see their own sin before God, and therefore will be able to deal with their sin properly through the Cross.
   Here are two web sites that offer information on Biblical counseling:
CCEF
www.ibcd.org

How Would You Counsel A Person Like This?

I am going to post part of a person's testimony of how she was redeemed in a glorious way, set free and delivered from being trapped in a Satanic cult. How would you counsel a person coming into your church with such baggage? What kind of patience would be necessary to work with such a person in order for them to have all ties cut off from the effects of being part of the cult? Remember, most of these people did not choose to be born into a family of Satanic worshipers. They are fed lies from the time they are born. The lies need to be exposed and removed and replaced with the Truth of God's Word.
   When I think of counseling a SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) survivor, it reminds me of how Anne Sullivan worked with Helen Keller many years until success was finally achieved. Working with an SRA survivor is not a piece of cake. It takes work and a lot of patience. We have the advantage of calling on God's name for help. We have to constantly point people to the True and Living God, and they will eventually experience the deliverance they are seeking.
Here is the url for the SRA survivor:
http://crosswalklife.com/ls.dissociative-identity-disorder.htm

I think we used to be taught that there is no such thing as the 'healing of memories'. I am not sure what that meant, or what that applied to, but it seemed to have some association with the Therapeutic Movement, which has a philosophy that is based on solving problems by using the person's ego as the foundation for their help, rather than the Scriptures. Perhaps this thinking of the 'healing of memories' has to do with the fact that SRA survivors were just starting to tell their stories, and those who heard their stories thought they were making them up. Well, since there are more and more of these bizarre stories surfacing, there must be something to it. The only other alternative would be that these SRA survivors are plotting something like a conspiracy, which really doesn't make any sense. So their stories of having terrible memories must be true, and we need to listen to them in order to help them get well.
   God is bigger than any of their difficulties, and there is nothing too hard for Him. 'With God, all things are possible..' even recovering from SRA, which includes dealing with the humility and shame from rapes, electroshocking, threatenings for telling on the cult and their shameful acts, having to take vows in order to survive the cult, and the list goes on and on. It is unbelievable stuff that takes place in a home where SRA is active. And the most difficult part is, these people keep it so well hidden (the word for occult) that no one on the outside even has a clue they are doing these things. Let's pray for God to expose the works of darkness and let's minister with love and patience to these people who are trying to come out of this.
Here is an excerpt of a person's testimony of coming out of darkness into God's marvelous light:

TESTIMONY:
I've known suffering for 47 years. After surviving 3 abortion attempts by my mother, I was born dead, strangled by the very cord of life. After resuscitation, I was left stone deaf. But my mother's mother hounded heaven for my hearing. When I was 9 months old, my praying grandmother called my mother to check my ears; God told her they were healed. I've had perfect hearing ever since. What a life God saved me from once again!  My young parents consequently believed in Jesus and redemption started in my generation.

But -- the lingering curses of sexual abuse, satanic loyalties, rituals and incest came down through the generations on my father's side and assaulted my soul from birth to 18 years old.  My paternal grandparents secretly schooled me in satanism since I was one year old.  My tiny heart was unable to contain the pain; I began to dissociate over and over, in order to survive.  I ran away from home by the age of 4--and got a mile away when I was 6.  After an unsuccessful suicide attempt at 14, Jesus reached out to me, offering His gift of unconditional love and salvation. I understood my sin and my need for His forgiveness and salvation--but not His Lordship.

Shortly after, when I was confronted with my grandfather's sexual desire, I spoke from the heart of a child: "Jesus lives in my heart now. You can't do this anymore." He never touched me again. (I thought he was such a powerful man -- but it only took that one "no" from a child to keep his hands off of me.) But the sibling incest continued until each of us girls left home.

You can read the rest of this story at the above URL. Please realize that these people are all around us. Hidden but there. They need help. We are God's agents to help them. Let's be faithful to God and follow His calling to love and help these people. If the church doesn't help, they will either go back to the cult or they will commit suicide. That is the only alternatives they know. Let's pray that God help us to be the church. 

Dealing With Those Who Have Been Victimized

  As I research Biblical counseling, I realize that there are some people with situations that are not so easy to deal with. It is not as easy as telling them that they need to repent and put their trust in the Lord. There are some people who are so broken that you don't know if they will ever be repaired. Here is something that David Powlison said in one of his sessions on Psychiatric Disorders: "We are dealing with things that are so broken and there is no promise at all that we will make it all better."
   There are two different types of people we deal with in counseling. The first group are people who are people who are generally not ensnared in the complexity of sin that would keep them from understanding and responding to the Gospel. The second group is the group of those who have been victimized. Before I go too much further, I already know the stigma that goes with this. We think that people who are 'victims' are those who are presenting a 'victim' mentality. Yes, I think they generally do, but there is a bigger picture we have to look at. That is what I am going to cover on this blog.
     I would like to start by saying a few things. All of us are victims, in one sense. We are victims of our sin, and the sins of others. I used to think of myself as a victim. I came from a pretty average home. We went to church, so we really were fairly moral people. Although my parents didn't talk about sin or the Bible, they had many of the principles down, possibly because those principles were put into them. I had a dad who was very quiet and didn't talk much at all to his family members. Throughout my school years, I was quiet and the other kids bullied me around. The only way I responded was to them was by crying. So, as I grew up, I was affected by the way other people treated me. I came to Christ and responded to the Gospel at about the age of 16, and I thought, as a young adult, that there were too many things that were wrong in my childhood, that made it so I couldn't overcome certain things. Without realizing it, I had a 'victim' mentality. But like I said before, we are all victims of some things, but realistically speaking, I was not a victim of anything that was too difficult to work through.
   But there are people who have such complex difficulties that really are not their fault. There are people with medical conditions that affect their thinking. There are people who are schizophrenic and hear voices. There are women who were raped many times during their childhood. Do you think it is as easy to say to a rape victim, 'Just forget what was done to you when you were little. Concentrate on the Lord and it will be ok."? Her life and her whole way of thinking has been shaped by those traumatic events in her early life. Our job is to help her learn to renew her mind and learn the truths of who God is and what He is like. There is no five-step plan for doing this. It takes time and patience. It takes a lot of work. There are many things for the rape victim to overcome. If we expect her to just come out of her shell and stop distrusting God, we are losing the battle with her. Yes, the goal ultimately will be for her to be delivered and set free from everything that Satan put into her to hold her down and keep her from understanding and believing the Gospel, but it is how we go about doing that.
    Some people have such complex problems, and if you listen to their stories, you will find some very interesting things. For example, did you know that there are adults who were victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse? Do you realize what the ramifications are for a person who has come out of this horror? Some day I will have to post a message just on Satanic Ritual Abuse. It would be an understatement to say that SRA is bad. It is bad in such a way that the person who is coming out of it had strong Satanic holds on him or her that have to be broken, through deliverance, and much Biblical counseling. You will have to walk a such a person through many seasons of healing and deliverance. These people have been victimized and need help. Many, if not most, have no clue of what their families are involved in, or why they need to be set free. Let me be more specific on this issue. Children that are born into families who practice Satanic Ritual Abuse are trained or conditioned to do what the parents or perpetrators want them to do or be. If the parent wants the child to never show emotion, the parent will put electrodes on the child and shock him or her as soon as the child shows emotions. Imagine living a childhood where you were always being shocked when you did something that displeased an authority figure. This process is called 'Conditioning'. We do it with out pets all the time (not in a cruel way). For example, if the dog goes out at 9 pm every night, and gets a cookie every time he comes back in, he is conditioned to know that a cookie will be in his mouth when he comes in from his nightly outing! Some of the conditioning that Satanic Ritual Abusers do involves using rape. Not only are the SRA people into sexual perversion, but they also know that if they continually rape a little girl, they will fracture her mind and create a situation where the child will basically blank out, and during the trauma, she will create personalities with her subconscience mind that will be aware of what goes on during the trauma. The ritual abusers know that if they fracture her mind, they will basically have her as a slave the rest of her life. After they are gone, the little girl, who becomes a woman, will normally gravitate toward a perpetrator. She is told that she will need a perpetrator the rest of her life to survive. Her life now depends upon a perpetrator, of whom she will be his slave. She has been conditioned to believe this lie, and now she won't be able to get free from it unless there are compassionate people who can reach her. It will take much time, perhaps years, before she can 'get it'. Her whole thinking pattern has to be reshaped with the Truth. Unless that successfully happens, she will not ever be free. Her understanding of the Gospel will always be clouded and twisted.
   On the other hand, there are people like me, who really aren't victims of someone else's sins against them. It didn't take months and years for me to grasp the Gospel. But there were still things that held me back from growing that had to be dealt with. There are still things I need to be set free from. I understand that there are people who really don't want to be free from their sins too. They might come in for counseling. Maybe they have low self esteem. Perhaps they are out of work. Maybe they are lazy and don't want to work. Maybe they are sick and really don't want to get well, but they are tired of being sick. Some of these people will not be benefitted from Biblical counseling. Their heart doesn't want to leave their sinful pattern. They do not want to pay the price for being well. When counseling with these people, there will always be reasons why they can't repent. They want benefits from God, but they are not willing to be changed by Him. These are the people with the 'victim mentality' that are so hard to deal with. They are not trapped by what someone else did to them necessarily, but they seemed trapped by their sin. The problem is in their heart. They are not really looking for an answer for their problem, nor are they looking for an answer for their sin. They just want an open ear to listen to their complaints. When they finish telling you their sordid life tales, they will go onto another person to tell their stories to.
   So the key is to become very discerning. How do I know when I really have a victimized person or a person with a 'victim mentality'? Sometimes, it is hard to tell. You have to take time with the person and probably spend many hours listening to his story. After a while, you will be able to see some motives. You will see some inconsistencies if the person is really telling his story in order to complain. After some time, maybe a very long time, you will be able to know though. It will help you decide if you are really helping someone, or if you are just spinning your wheels. Of course, pray for wisdom and discernment with everyone you encounter in counseling. People can fool us for a while, but God is never fooled.

M.P.D. is Difficult To Work With

  I will just start out by saying that M.P.D. can be hard to work with. There are a few reasons for this. Mostly, it is because it is misunderstood. M.P.D. is sometimes thought of as demon possession. Others seem to think it is the product of an overactive imagination. What is it really, and why is it difficult to work with?
   One reason it is difficult, is because people who have had severe trauma seem to have a problem with memories coming up that are bad. Part of the problem with M.P.D., is that when the child is being traumatized, he or she basically blanks out. Because the child has to function, the awareness part of his being disappears. Another part of his or her mind goes into action then, to help him or her cope with the bad situation. Then memories are created, but they are hidden deep in the sub conscience mind. They usually stay hidden until this part of the memory wakes up again (which could happen in a dream). Because the traumas were so severe and bizarre, people tended to dismiss them. But now, people all over the country are finding these same memories appearing in people and are puzzled to know how to help them.
   For many years, a little girl who was raped was forced to keep it hidden (by the perpetrator) and made to feel guilty for what was done to her. She was not allowed to tell people and when she did try, people would not believe her story. Today, that happens and because we now know it actually does happen, and has been happening all along, we will believe her story. It is the same way now with ritual abuse survivors. They are trying to tell their story, but not many people believe them, yet. But, in time, they will, and these people will be able to get the help they need, if we are diligent to learn how to care for them.
   More on this later....

People Really Are Broken and Need Help

    When I started presenting the Gospel to people a couple of years ago, I began to realize that communicating the Gospel to some people was not as easy as just telling them the Truth. Some people have an incredible amount of baggage that they need to get rid of, before they can even begin to comprehend the Gospel. I am amazed at how many people really do want to talk and get help. We have the answer for them, and we have the ultimate answer for them to get help. But why is there a disconnect in the church in reaching these people? There could be several reasons. One of them I think, is that when we present the Gospel to a person, we don't want to get side tracked. That's understandable. If a person is hearing the Gospel, it would be easy for him or her to want to be distracted because he or she is feeling uncomfortable being under conviction. Many people would like to put the responsibility of their sin back on to God (remember Adam, "The woman you gave  me....."?). But there is a group of people out there in the world that seem to be really disconnected from the Gospel. And they are not your typical people who are opposed to the Gospel. They are people who have been so damaged by their environment that life doesn't make sense to them, and as a result, they have believed a lie.
   Take for example, a woman who has been a victim of rape or incest. Will it be easy for her to come to Christ and let go of her sins? Her dignity has been taken away. How will she get it back? What kind of difficulties will this present to her when she tries to comprehend the Gospel? Her understanding of who God is has already been shaped by her life circumstances. And they have lied to her. How can we reach her?
   What about children who live in a home where crime is always taking place? When I worked for a drug store many years ago, a woman came up to buy several packages of nail products. It seemed kind of strange, but I didn't think too much of it until she went to pay with a check and didn't have the proper ID that she needed to have. I called the manager to find out what to do, and he came to the front and explained to me, right in front of her, that she was stealing. He already knew who she was. What was interesting, was that she had children with her. I wonder what those children thought was true about life, after they grew up. They would grow up thinking that stealing is ok. They would think it is ok to break the boundaries.
   And then there are the sue-happy families. They wait for something to happen so that they can turn around and sue people so they can make money. Or, there are people who use the government in every way they can imagine to get money or things from them. I actually know someone who lived like this for a while as a child, and now that person, as a grown up, believes that she does not have to go to work, but live on food stamps and other government offerings, while she goes down the street and gambles with whatever little bit of money she can get.
   The point is this; We are all victims of something, and we all do victimizing of some sort to others. But some people are damaged in a serious, life-hampering way, that causes them to not be able to see what is what and true. So, instead of just preaching the Gospel to them, and becoming frustrated because there is no response to it, why can't we go deeper with these people and draw them out? We might hear stories of things we never even had any idea that they existed. We might learn something new that will help us in dealing with others. Many people need someone to show them love. Some people have never learn to trust anyone, because those they lived with were untrustworthy. All these misfortunes have shaped peoples ideas about God and what He is like. Sometimes, we have to go beyond square one with these people and teach them the basics about God (much like Paul had to do with the Ephesians in Acts 17). And, we might have an opportunity to undo the works of the devil. As we take time with people, we can take steps to help them to see what is true, and eventually, what God requires of them. If we don't do this, there will be a lot of casualties in the church. We need to be loving and forbearing, and not always trying to give them a quick answer to fix their problems.
   Here is the link to a video of a dog who had been obviously hurt. Someone rescued her, and she eventually responded to love. It took a little while, but it worked! Some people are like that dog. We need to treat people's lives as we would treat fine China. We also need to prepare the way, so the Gospel can be communicated to them. That is there greatest need and we have to help remove the baggage so the meaning of the Gospel will be clear to them.
   www.godvine.com/Meet-the-Scared-Dog-That-Only-Wanted-a-Hug-1087.html

Their Blood is Crying Out

"And God said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries unto me from the ground." 

"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" (Rev. 6)


   In dealing with evangelism and Biblical counseling, we have always just gotten to the point with issues. In evangelism, you just get right to the Gospel, right? You want to be careful to not get off onto bunny trails. Satan certainly uses those to distract from the message of the Gospel. But in counseling, we do the same thing. We want to fix people's problems. We give them scriptures that they can apply to their situation. We want people's problems to go away, isn't that true? Well, yes, we do want them to go away, but God wants to take that situation and work His truth in that person's heart. Counseling is not as easy as giving a five step course to help someone out of their problems, nor is it that easy sometimes when we do evangelism. Yes, the Gospel is ultimately what everyone needs to have in both counseling and evangelism.
   There are groups of people though, that are much harder to reach. It's not as easy as just preaching the Gospel to them, (although that is what the ultimate goal will be). I am talking about people, here in America today, that are in slavery. You are probably thinking, 'Wait a minute. There's no slavery in America today. That ended after the Civil War era." Well, there may be more to this that you don't know. 
   First of all, there are the cults. Take for example, the Jehovah's Witnesses. Did you know that when  a Jehovah's Witness comes to Christ and leaves the group, that they have a very harsh excommunication for that person? Not only that, but all family members are not to have contact with that person ever again.
   Coming out of Islam is even worse. It could mean your life if you were born into a Muslim family and converted to Christianity. I have known people who were in this situation and it is very hard.
  But it gets even worse. If a person is born into a Satanic cult family, that child will probably go through a life of torture. If there is any concern of that child betraying the family secret, even when the child grows up, they will deal with that child, possibly by death.
   I said all this to say that there really is slavery here today. I know it is not limited to America. People's wills are taken away from birth. Not only that, but some families will deliberately destroy their children's minds so that they end up warped when they are adults. There are more and more reports of people that have developed what is called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which is the same thing by another name. The way a person ends up with DID is this; The child is treated with trauma at a very young age. It is done deliberately in order to fracture their minds. When a child is developing this condition, they are also developing amnesia to the traumatic situations. In other words, they won't remember the trauma that happened to them, but they will end up with a fractured mind. Some types of trauma are rape, electrocution, food/sleep deprivation, and physical beatings. One reason that people would be doing these things to children could be political. I have read where there are people who are trying to 'Break the mind'. Another time I read where there were people who are trying to employ these methods to create a society of robotic people. Many of these people who have experienced this kind of trauma and have DID also have had microchips implanted in their bodies. I could go on with a whole list more of things that happen to these people, but the point is this; We have a whole group of people that are trying to get help, but don't know where to turn or how they can even be helped. We, as Christian people and Biblical counselors have to know how to help these people. Some of them are so afraid of people that they seem hard to reach. Most of them are more afraid of being caught by other family members or members of that group. We need wisdom from above and help from God.
   The verses above apply to this situation, and here's how; there are a lot of people who have died at the hands of these cruel taskmasters. People have become human sacrifices for Satan. Children that have survived this mess can't seem to get out. The blood of the people who have died is crying out to God for justice! Those who have survived are also asking the same thing. How long O Lord? How long will this go on? How long will Dads get away with incest? How long will people be taken and microchipped and get away with it? How long will this torture go on? Why do we as a people not believe that it is really happening? Why do we think humans wouldn't really be doing such things? Because we think it happens in other countries, but not here in safe America. And we fail to understand the depravity of man.
   There are other types of slavery too. There is also sex trafficking which young girls are brought into prostitution. They didn't ask to be there. Someone exploited them and brought them in, in order to make money off them. We have to deal properly with all the after effects of this crime. 
  Yes, their blood is crying out. The blood of millions of aborted babies is crying out. The blood of those damaged from being in the cult is crying out. They are not only crying out to God for justice, but they are crying out for help. Their only hope is in the Cross, and they need to have that message available to them. They will need for people (believers) to accept them. They will need to learn to trust us (which will be very hard) and we need to become trustworthy. Let's be asking for God's help and wisdom, in counseling and evangelism, and let's be careful to listen next time and not turn someone away because their story seems too bizarre. If we don't help them, no one else can. Let's be the church and let's be the advocate for those who are enslaved!

The Reality of Living in a Fallen World

   One of my favorite songs is 'Seattle', I think sung by Perry Como. The words go like this:
'The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle.'
'And the hills are green as green in Seattle.'
'Like a beautiful child, growing up, being wild.'
'Full of hopes and full of fears, full of laughter full of tears,
full of dreams to last a year in Seattle.'

  Wow. I have always loved that song and now I understand why. If you were to take the song seriously, you would probably want to move out to Seattle (unless you live there already). It appears that skies are always blue there. Green hills. Children running around having fun. No problems it appears. None of the stresses of life appear in that song. I want to live like that. I have often wondered if it were really like that living in Seattle!
   Well, reality is that that song does not portray reality in a fallen world, which we live in. The skies aren't always blue. Sometimes it rains hard and people get into accidents. People get sick. Children die. Life is really hard. Why is there such a disconnect between reality and that song?
   The reason has to do with an event that happened in the Garden of Eden, around 6000 years ago. God created man in His own image. He gave them a beautiful world, probably much like Seattle is portrayed in the song. God already warned Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. But when the serpent (Satan) questioned the goodness of God and threw questions at Eve to cause her to doubt God's goodness, she listened to the serpent and ate the fruit and gave some to Adam as well. They went and hid from God but God found them. They tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, but God covered them with an animal skin. God also told what would happen to them, because of what they did. They were banned from the Garden, and God put the earth under a curse. The earth will stay in this fallen state until the time of the renewal. Throughout History, we see wars, plagues, families breaking up, decomposition, strife, and a multitude of other bad things going on around us continually. From the time of Eve's disobedience until today, we see continual hardships and suffering. Even the earth is suffering from the curse.
   As I take this Human Personality class, I am learning that man was created in God's image and bears that image, but the image has been distorted because of the fall. How will God deliver us? Can we get out of this mess? The world we live in is nothing like the Seattle in the song with the same name. What a deception and disappointment!
   Well, God did do something and we will be restored. 2000 years ago, God sent His Son to come to our darkened world and rescue us. He did it by dying on the Cross for us. He died for our sins, but He also died so we could be restored to God. He is going to come back one day and receive us into heaven. He also will bring restoration to the earth. The Bible says that He will make all things new. He will make a new heaven and earth. No more wars! No more mental problems! No more divorces! No more children becoming slaves of pornography! God has the answer for all of this. We can experience a genuine relationship with Him now, and in the life to come, we will have eternal life. Only then will life resemble what the song indicates Seattle is like. Only the next life will even be better!
  For more information on the Gospel, go to the blog page here: www.thegospelconversation.blogspot.com
Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions or want to learn more about eternity and the Gospel. awestruck@bellsouth.net

Am I My Brother's Keeper?

And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?


  Now that's a good question. But does it apply to us today, after all, didn't God say those words to Cain after he killed his brother? If it does apply to us today, what does that look like?
  Well, first of all, people who have put their trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation, and have repented of their sins, according to the Bible, are born again. They are born of the Holy Spirit and the spirit inside them, which once was dead, is now alive. Also, they are born into the family of God. That person is now God's child. Other people who have done the same are also God's children. All people who are born again are part of God's family, with God being the Father. 
  In a human family, we have parents that watch out for the children. When the parents are around, the children should watch out for each other. That doesn't always happen because we are basically selfish and aren't mature enough to do that until we become adults (and it doesn't always happen then either). 
  In the Boy Scouts organization, they have a policy called, The Buddy System. In the Buddy System, a boy scout is always with another boy scout just in case something happens to one of them and they need help. If a boy scout is alone, it would be easy for him to be in dangerous situations. No one would know that he was in danger because he is by himself. But with another boy scout around, there is safety. 
  I think that is a good point in any relationship setting. No man (or woman) is an island. We are all together in this life. God designed us to be in relationship with one another in the Body of Christ. God puts us together and we grow together as a body of believers. If we are left to ourselves, we put ourselves in a dangerous place, spiritually speaking. 
   Yes, we need one another. If you look throughout Paul's writings in the New Testament, you will see many times the words 'one another' (note: this phrase is different in different versions). We do, up to a point, have a responsibility for each other in the church. That is why we have small groups, care groups, activities for people to engage in together and get to know one another. 
   Jesus commands us to 'love one another'. Is love just an idea, or is it something deeper. We love babies and ice cream, but what is really involved with loving someone. 1 Corinthians 13 gives a description of what that is like. It involves sacrifice and seeing the other person's needs above our own. Loving someone is caring for what is best for the other person, regardless of what it takes out of us.
   In Romans 12:5, it tells us that we are members of one another. "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."
We are not only members of the family of God, but also of each other!
  In other parts of the New Testament, we are to 'edify' one another. In Galatians 6, it tells us to carry or bear one another's burdens. Other verses tell us to admonish one another. 
  So my point is this; Are we taking care of one another, the way that it is prescribed in the Bible? Are we aware when one of our brothers or sisters in the Lord is going through a hard time? Are we letting people slip through the cracks because we are too busy with our own activities that we don't even remember there are other people in the church? What about that person who was involved in the church last year? Have we noticed that he is missing? What about the woman who was going through a terrible divorce a couple of months ago? Where is she now? Was someone there to help her walk through that dark time in her life? How about that couple whose teenage son was killed last year? Where are they now? Were we able to reach them and minister to them in their dark hour? I think you get the point.
   In 2 Corinthians 2:13, Paul was very distressed because he couldn't find Titus. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul explains the joy and comfort he had because of finding Titus. This was no small matter for him.
   Are we our brother or sister's keeper? You bet. If we don't see things this way, let's ask God to show us our hearts and give us a deep love and care for one another in the Body of Christ.