Self-awareness

[Pekoudah]

God is love. But God doesn't love us in our sin. He loves us out of our sin. Love that condones sin isn't really love...it is permissiveness. Those who count on God being permissive about sin...have not met Him.

People tend to love the hell in others...just look how many women fall in love with the basest criminals on death row! There is a wickedness that attracts people to each other...because of the flesh. But God loves the hell...out of us. As we who are in Christ also should love. God loves the death out of us by offering us to partake of HIS life. God stands for, as we also should stand for...only that which is eternal and gives life.

But there is a love and fascination with death in the world. All who turn their backs on God, even for a moment...are attracted to death.

Self-awareness doesn't mean we are without the love of death and the world. It means we are aware of this pull within our hearts and minds.

The righteous are they that hate their sin natures. These make no excuses nor are they trying to get away with their sins. Just like the publican who beat his breast and couldn't even look up to heaven...such was his shame and disgust at his own inclinations towards sin and wickedness.

God justified this appeal since it is only right to come clean with one's sins. The righteous take responsibility for their sins with self-loathing. God is then free to love and justify such a one...since the truth is already being embraced. God is love IN truth. Not away from truth.  Likewise we are to speak the truth in love.

Jesus said.."I did not come to call the righteous to repentance"...since they are already self-aware and esteem their sinfulness correctly.

But then there is the rest of us...and among us many who are looking to get away with their sins. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, they who are called to repentance....so that we might go to God for forgiveness and a change of heart. (The human heart is very wicked and selfish of itself)

But in today's society and churches...we see something else.  We see self-love promoted as if it was a requirement to higher virtues.

When a person is "loved" just as they are...without the change of heart in a deep repentance...and offered a religious justification IN their fallen sinful state...a worse situation is created. Jesus said to the Pharisees ...

Mat. 23:15 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."

It's one thing to justify the wicked OUT of their sins...and quite another to justify the wicked IN their sins.

Add to this the desire to fill the pews for human purposes such as success in ministry and increased finances...and we get the perfect storm of wickedness and iniquity whereby we do exactly as the Pharisees that Jesus condemned so roundly. Actually we become worse than the pharisees because we have the bible as a testimony to the truth.

Repentance is not popular any longer...as if it ever was. But today this is seen as disrespectful and intolerable. Even in the churches. There is a lack of taking responsibility for one's own sins and general behaviour....using Jesus as a license to remain carnal...based on this notion of preemptive forgiveness. (Actually a blatant disregard for the serious nature of sin)

So then people don't realize how evil they really are. Many have become much worse than before and under a worse judgment...all the while claiming to be saved.

The spiritual battle that was once outside the church..in the darkness of the world...has now entered into the church. The inconceivable has taken place. The light has been quenched by the darkness. The devil has penetrated the defenses and is in the courtyard. Are we his unwitting slaves who have not gone to the cross to be liberated from the sinful nature so as to become DEAD to sin? Are we so self-absorbed that we can't see how the devil uses us to bring divisions and death to the brethren?

There is an urgent need for repentance in the churches of today. We have been caught trying to serve more than one master. And that other master...the one who hides insidiously in our own self-love....has come to collect his due.

 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Pekoudah

[Not me]

1 hour ago, Pekoudah said:

God is love. But God doesn't love us in our sin. He loves us out of our sin. Love that condones sin isn't really love...it is permissiveness. Those who count on God being permissive about sin...have not met Him.

People tend to love the hell in others...just look how many women fall in love with the basest criminals on death row! There is a wickedness that attracts people to each other...because of the flesh. But God loves the hell...out of us. As we who are in Christ also should love. God loves the death out of us by offering us to partake of HIS life. God stands for, as we also should stand for...only that which is eternal and gives life.

But there is a love and fascination with death in the world. All who turn their backs on God, even for a moment...are attracted to death.

Self-awareness doesn't mean we are without the love of death and the world. It means we are aware of this pull within our hearts and minds.

The righteous are they that hate their sin natures. These make no excuses nor are they trying to get away with their sins. Just like the publican who beat his breast and couldn't even look up to heaven...such was his shame and disgust at his own inclinations towards sin and wickedness.

God justified this appeal since it is only right to come clean with one's sins. The righteous take responsibility for their sins with self-loathing. God is then free to love and justify such a one...since the truth is already being embraced. God is love IN truth. Not away from truth.  Likewise we are to speak the truth in love.

Jesus said.."I did not come to call the righteous to repentance"...since they are already self-aware and esteem their sinfulness correctly.

But then there is the rest of us...and among us many who are looking to get away with their sins. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, they who are called to repentance....so that we might go to God for forgiveness and a change of heart. (The human heart is very wicked and selfish of itself)

But in today's society and churches...we see something else.  We see self-love promoted as if it was a requirement to higher virtues.

When a person is "loved" just as they are...without the change of heart in a deep repentance...and offered a religious justification IN their fallen sinful state...a worse situation is created. Jesus said to the Pharisees ...

Mat. 23:15 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."

It's one thing to justify the wicked OUT of their sins...and quite another to justify the wicked IN their sins.

Add to this the desire to fill the pews for human purposes such as success in ministry and increased finances...and we get the perfect storm of wickedness and iniquity whereby we do exactly as the Pharisees that Jesus condemned so roundly. Actually we become worse than the pharisees because we have the bible as a testimony to the truth.

Repentance is not popular any longer...as if it ever was. But today this is seen as disrespectful and intolerable. Even in the churches. There is a lack of taking responsibility for one's own sins and general behaviour....using Jesus as a license to remain carnal...based on this notion of preemptive forgiveness. (Actually a blatant disregard for the serious nature of sin)

So then people don't realize how evil they really are. Many have become much worse than before and under a worse judgment...all the while claiming to be saved.

The spiritual battle that was once outside the church..in the darkness of the world...has now entered into the church. The inconceivable has taken place. The light has been quenched by the darkness. The devil has penetrated the defenses and is in the courtyard. Are we his unwitting slaves who have not gone to the cross to be liberated from the sinful nature so as to become DEAD to sin? Are we so self-absorbed that we can't see how the devil uses us to bring divisions and death to the brethren?

There is an urgent need for repentance in the churches of today. We have been caught trying to serve more than one master. And that other master...the one who hides insidiously in our own self-love....has come to collect his due.

 

Very good  read Pekoudah. Blessed me greatly, words spoken from one’s personal relationship with Christ are such a pleasure to read and get fed from. 

Blessings, 

Much love in Christ, Not me

[shortangel]

Amen I agree

[turtletwo]

1 hour ago, Pekoudah said:

God is love. But God doesn't love us in our sin. He loves us out of our sin. Love that condones sin isn't really love...it is permissiveness.

@Pekoudah Thanks for this much needed post and for speaking the truth in love. When we are saved there is a transformation which is to lead to growth.

2 Corinthians 5: 17 - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

1 Peter 1: 14-16 

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

It is out of His great love and for our protection (our own good) that God sets boundaries for us to lead lives that please Him. A human parent who truly loves their child will not be permissive with them. How much more a perfect heavenly Father! Thanks again for this topic.

[frienduff thaylorde]

As it is said Today if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts as they did in the provacatoin , when by their SIN they provoked GOD to anger and HE destroyed many .

 

What hardens a heart .  SIN DOES .

And its why PAUL said , CHURCH you do all to exhort daily , lest any of you does become hardend through the deceitfulness OF SIN .

WARN THEM ALL .    Warn and remind daily , like the apostels did and others .

A man in sin , WONT be comfortable with these continual warnings ,    They will either turn against you and accuse you of earning your salvation

OR other harsh words , BUT , But at least some will hear and repent .   WE are the servants to whom we obey , wheter of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness .

 Exhort them all and do it DAILY ,    DO IT DAILY and PRAY feverently that any in error will repent and be healed .  BUT EXHORT DAILY and NEVER stop doing it

no matter WHOSE vision this gets in the way of .  FOR IT will get in the way of the vision of UNITY .     BUT DO IT and NEVER STOP DOING IT .  LET none have any

rest in any mindset that is contrary to Christ .    EXHORT daily .   OH let us flood the place with constant reminders , both warnings and encouragments .

[Pekoudah]

There is another side to self-awareness. It is the self-awareness of a saint. One who walks in the power of God realizes that it is not him...it is Christ walking in Him. No one can walk without sin...unless that one walks IN Christ. So then a person who realizes that he is walking in the light...in holiness...KNOWS it's NOT him doing it.

That's why Paul said...it is no longer I...but Christ. No one can walk like Jesus...with miraculous signs following...in his own power. So then the self-awareness of a saint is to become MORE humble than before.

In the full stature of Christ there are wings to fly in the heavens as eagles...but there are also roots that keep us grounded. Wings AND roots.

Those who deceive themselves...that claim their own connection to God...but lie...will become very proud...because secretly they ARE doing everything in their own strength. But walking with God is very humbling indeed.

So then a humble person gives the appearance of wisdom..even if that person is not walking by the power of God. But make no mistake...a proud man is NOT with God. At least no longer so.

A person who has walked with God but is no longer doing so at a certain time...in order to test the character of that person...can indeed become proud...very proud....since the person feels special...as in..."I must be very special to have walked with God"!! But that person is immature and lacks self-awareness. Returning to the carnal walk can induce a return to the carnal mind from whence we all came.

Humility is far better. Even if we have walked with God...it is by HIS strength. His grace. Nothing that we do can attain this. It is a gift. A man should never boast himself for a gift he has received.

God gives...but He can also take away. Better to remain humble and thankful for any visitation and revelation from God.

May the Lord be glorified in us all. We have this treasure in ordinary earthen vessels. It is not the vessel that is special and precious....but what the vessels contain.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Pekoudah

[Pekoudah]

Those who have a righteous disposition can react badly to a direct intervention of God. This is shown clearly in the reaction to the father's forgiveness of the faithful son towards the prodigal son. He wasn't so happy about his brothers' return. We often tend to react that way because we are not as forgiving or loving as God is.

We need to remain aware of that.

We see the same thing with Jonah....who was not desiring to be as merciful as God. Who were these Ninevites anyway to merit an unmerited favour of God?!!

Zacharias was a righteous man yet he had a hard time with God's miraculous intervention.

In the parable of the denarius...were the workers who had been toiling all day happy that the newly arrived workers got the same pay? Were they as generous as the One who hired them?

God is merciful. He judges righteously. How would we react to knowing that God will spare many non-Christians...and yet judge Christians more harshly? Would our righteous dispositions not react in a fleshly way to knowing that non-Christians may rule over us in the next age? What a shot to our religious pride that would be. Yet God is greater than we are. We tend to maintain our own idea of righteous judgment. That is, until we learn humility...real humility. We need to remain humble and tread carefully. Let's not judge others...but trust to God's judgment. Let's remain self-aware of our own tendency towards judgment.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Pekoudah