Jesus – Page 7 – Scripture Thoughts

Tag: Jesus (page 7 of 15)

Suicidal Thoughts

God builds instincts within all life forms. One of the strongest is the desire to stay alive. Even plants have this. The spirit of suicide therefore must work a long time before winning the battle. This battle begins in the mind, is totally fought within the mind, and is won or lost in the mind. In reality, it is a “spiritual thought-life war.” Human beings are the only life form on earth that has this problem. This is a testimony to the fact that we are made much different from the animals and plants, and that we have an enemy that hates us.

Lying thoughts must overcome all what God had built inside us. The lies about us and this life are subtle at first. Then, if we hearken unto those voices more than truth voices (or thoughts), then we start believing lies. Demonic voices tend to say “Your life stinks, you have suffered pain for along time, no one cares about you (often the first lie), things will never change (ah, there’s the second lie), and death is better than this life” (this is THE BIG LIE). We have no way of knowing this last one is true. Moreover, life on earth is far better for an unsaved soul than the Lake of Fire that Jesus talked about. If we believe these lying thoughts to be true, especially that last one about death being better than life, then it makes logical sense to end our life. Therefore, suicidal people are not psychotic (crazy) but they have been overcome with lies. Even Job began to give way to wayward thoughts (voices). Perhaps because some of those voices did speak truth – his life, for example, did stink, but only for a while. Demons would have us believe that our lousy lives will never get better. In addition, the way his friends treated Job, it did seem like they really didn’t care about him. The truth is that thousands of people care about us, but they probably do not know what is going on in our mind.

Deception usually mixes truth with the lie so that we have a better chance of believing it. Deep inside our soul, I believe that we will believe the voices to which we give more listening time. One side will overpower the other eventually, but it takes time. We do not become suicidal overnight. This is why God tells us to dwell on things that are good, pure, honorable, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). It is also the reason I quote Scriptures back at demons when their wayward thoughts hit me. This is what Jesus did when Satan tried to get Him to throw Himself off a cliff. The Word of God is depicted as our sword and is the only offensive weapon God gives us. The rest are defensive ones (Ephesians 6:13-17).

What a person should do who is suicidal:

Pray in Jesus’ name for help.
Talk to someone who can help. Vent. Get all those feelings out. Commit to meeting with them more than once.
Learn important Scriptures that you can quote back at demons who are lying to you. Here are some good ones:

Romans 8:1 – “There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:35-39 – Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
2 Tim. 1:7 – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind.”
2 Tim. 2:13 – Jesus always remains faithful to us.
John 16:33 – Jesus has overcome the world.
1 John 3:1 – We are children of God.
Hebrews 7:25 – Jesus always makes intercession on our behalf.

How we can help someone being attacked by suicidal thoughts:

Listen, especially if you are the first person they’ve told. They need to vent.
Get further help and do not swear to secrecy (often they don’t want us to tell anyone).
Connect the person to that help (go with them if necessary).
Reveal to them that the battle begins in the mind, is fought in the mind, and is won or lost in the mind.
Encourage them to begin a believing relationship with Jesus Christ if not already.
From that relationship comes power and authority over demons who are placing typical thoughts in their mind such as: their life stinks, things will never change, no one knows how they feel, death is better than life.
The suicidal person thinks they know reality, but they do not. Their perception has been distorted by Satan, the Destroyer. Tell them of God’s reality, which is – they are precious and important to God and He has a purpose for their life (hope) and he will wipe away every tear.
Encourage them to serve others – this can be an antidote for the self-centeredness they are in.
Let the person know you are committed to pray for them and will see it through all the way until they’ve won the victory.
All these things do not have to be covered all at once. Give the Spirit time to work. Again, just listening helps them know someone really cares, and this is sometimes the initial stepping stone they need at that time.

I would like to underscore the idea that suicide battles are totally spiritual in nature. Minds are the port hole to the supernatural realm. Both God and demons will speak to us there. Some people believe that external circumstances such as poor home life, drug addiction, social rejection, or sudden loss of wealth are its cause. While these circumstances can certainly increase suicidal thoughts, they are not the real cause. If they were, every human that has experienced any of those things would automatically become suicidal, and we know this does not happen. So there must be a deeper, more insidious common cause. Jesus identified Satan as the father of all lies, a destroyer, a thief, and a murderer. Therefore, ultimately, we can identify him as the real source of suicide. People who fight and defeat the actual cause always have victory. I counsel people to rebuke demonic, suicidal thoughts in the name of JESUS! The Bible tells us that because Jesus had victory over Satan by never sinning and then offering Himself up as a perfect sacrifice for sin and then rising from the dead, He has ALL authority. Demons must obey His voice. So we all must get into a believing relationship with Him and then use His name to thwart all sorts of attacks against our minds (or souls).

Feedback:

NF – Wow what a excellent lesson here–really opened my eyes to how to deal with suicidal thoughts- thanks for sharing! (this dear friend of mine has dealt with this problem more than once, but has not had the problem for many years now).

PT – Dave, great topic and a difficult one. And as you mentioned Christians, including “mature” Christians, are sometimes tempted to commit suicide. The apostle Paul even despaired of life in the Book of Acts and the great prophet Elijah (or Elisha) even wished for death. I think your counsel is good counsel on the topic and I would add that suicide is very difficult for survivors (myself being one). The many unknowns surrounding suicide can be very difficult.

Why Did God Make Us Knowing All Would Fall and Many Would go to Hell?

February 20, 2018 / dscheer / 0 Comments

I am not a super smart guy but I like to think, especially about God and His Kingdom. When I was very young, I asked someone why God made us. They said because He was lonely. Years later, I read the Scriptures and found no hint that God was ever lonely. In my early Christian days, I thought that God just wanted to share a good thing, namely, Himself and eternal life in bliss. Later, however, my thought process deepened when I realized how bad the Jewish nation was and how bad all mankind has been, including myself. My teacher colleague who was somewhat religious but wanted nothing to do with following Jesus, kept throwing this question in my face – Why did God make us knowing that people would go to hell? Jesus did say many would travel down the wide road of destruction and few will find the narrow road to life (Matthew 7:13-14). So now there was more to contemplate. God does know the future and would have had to do all His creating knowing about the impending pain and suffering on earth and beyond. How then can we proclaim that our God is a loving Master? (Note: an essential side issue is whether or not Hell is eternal torment for humans, but that discussion is too long of a rabbit trail for now, so I will sidestep it for now).

I began to search for an answer based upon what I saw in His Word. For starters, Psalms 40:7 reveals that God comes in the volume of the Book, so I begin all thinking based on the Bible. The only way I can know God intimately is to know His Word, understand it, and meditate on it (unless He appears to me in a vision and talks for hours which has not yet happened – and even then, He will not contradict His written Word to us). I hold the Word in awe as well as God Himself. Even God magnifies His Word (or promises) to the level of the honor of His name (Psalms 138:2). In this awe of respect for God and His Word is the beginning of wisdom, and for this issue, I need a lot of wisdom.

I also learn from the Book of Job that I need to assume that God is perfect and all that He does is right. I believe that God has always existed in eternity because the Bible says in John 1:1 that He and His Word were already existing at the beginning. He has no beginning. After all, there must be an uncaused cause to get everything in existence going, right? Once we transport our minds into the eternal realm, we lose something from our frontal lobe. Try as we may, we can never wrap our brains around the concept of eternity. Nevertheless, the answer to the question must begin in this unfathomable arena.

I also believe that all angels were created in righteousness. If Ezekiel 28:12-17 is referring to Lucifer as many Bible scholars believe, then he was in the Garden of Eden still in a perfected state then fell shortly after. I also believe that time was created sometime during the creation (oops, I can’t have “some time” before time was created, but please just bear with me a bit). Now I have set the stage for my thoughts about why God created everything knowing that devastating results would be incurred.

My logic says that if there is such a thing as righteousness, then there must be its antithesis. After all, how can there be good without the notion of evil? In other words, if there is the concept of “good,” then there has to be the concept of “not good.” If evil is only a concept, then it is not actually in existence…yet. It is this notion of “not good,” later emerging into reality, that God may have been targeting to conquer, not just once, but forever! How could He do this? He would have to allow it to emerge from concept to reality and then conquer it with perfected love.

What is perfected love? It is not only a willingness and a commitment to experience the ultimate pain and humiliation for the sake of something or someone that is totally evil (undeserving of salvation) and not able to help itself. It also becomes action (Rom.5:8). Merely saying we love someone without any demonstration of that love is shallow at best. At worst, it is a lie. Our fall enabled God to perfect His love, i.e. to demonstrate what was already in existence (His love was always perfect). His Word states that His love is perfected in us (1John 4:12,17). I think this means His love can now be seen by all the angels and humans. It is the deepest that a love can be. This is why He wants us to love our enemies and not limit our love to only those who love us (Matt.5:44-46). This is one of many hints He has given us as to His reason and plan for our existence. It reveals our Father’s “heartbeat.” If we desire to be close to God, we need to embrace this love lifestyle in order to reflect Him to others.

But isn’t it cruel for God to put mankind (and animals) through all this pain and suffering? No, He knew what was necessary to bring about perfection forever. He told us this fallen life would be sorrowful, but that the joy later will be so wonderful that we will not remember the earthly woe (John 16:20-22). It’s kind of like what a physical therapist does to a patient needing rehab from surgery. The contortions may cause pain, but it does prevent scar tissue from forming and promotes healing and prevents pain in the future.

Therefore, God allowed His human creation to fail and fall into sin and be captured by evil power. This may explain the troubling Scripture in Genesis 6:6 when it is revealed that God was sorry that He made man. At first glance, it sounds like God had wished He never made us, but I think it means that He simply went through a temporary mourning period when He saw evil take over His creation. God had a similar experience in Jesus when He wept over Jerusalem as that nation was poised to reject Him.

God could have created more angels to replace Lucifer and his cohorts (fallen angels), but these newbies could rebel sometime later in eternity. I believe God’s plan was to do something so that evil and rebellion could never occur again. Therefore He made creatures (humans) lower than the angels and allowed them to fall into darkness (we cannot see God like the angels can) so that He could put an end to evil’s claim on those souls of those humans by stepping into His own creation and paying the price Himself. He bought us back (1 Cor.6:20) from the sentence of the Lake of Fire (Eph.2:1-7) where unredeemed souls would die a Second Death (Rev.20:6,14), thus ridding His universe of all evil and bad things forever. Immediately following this judgment, the new heaven and new earth was seen by John in Revelation 21. Perhaps the concept of evil will not be erased but certainly its power to appear again will be gone forever. Scripture definitely states that God knows good and evil, so I assume this knowledge will not be erased. As a result of the Fall, humans know about good and evil, but I’m not sure if the redeemed will have this knowledge in eternity. Certainly temptation to do evil will never occur again, thank God!

During the suffering years of earth’s history, He also formed a Bride for Himself which is a central theme throughout both Testaments. This may have been the prize that Jesus looked forward to just prior to His crucifixion. At the center of the new heavens and earth was His Beautiful Bride – all the believers who ever lived on earth as fallen people but now without blemish. What a sight for His sore eyes!

Romans 12:21 – “Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is what our Great Creator has accomplished in Christ and why I think He made everything knowing what would happen.

End Note: I believe all human history is just “Phase One” of God’s plan for us. Scripture states that His government (Kingdom) is everlasting and ever expanding (Is.9:7 & Dan.2:44). Currently, we are in what is called the “Church Age” or “Age of Grace.” The Bible speaks of “ages to come” in Ephesians 2:7 and Daniel 7:18. The teaser is that we cannot imagine what will occur in those ages (1Cor.2:9). The Bible gives use some hints, however:

We will not remember the former things (Isaiah 65:17),
All rule, authority, and power will be abolished (1 Cor.15:24),
No suffering or death (Rev. 21:4),
Sunlight and moonlight are not needed (Rev. 21:23),
No night times (Rev. 21:25),
We will see God face-to-face (Rev. 22:4),
No Temple needed because Jesus is the Temple (Rev. 21:22),
We will rule (something) forever (Dan. 7:18 & Rev. 22:5) – I guess #2 above refers only to worldly powers,
We will judge the world and the angels (1 Cor.6:2-3).

I think our afterlife experience may feel like being catapulted into the stratosphere. Whatever is in the works for the redeemed souls could not happen until evil was done away with first. Then we will be ready for “the booster rockets” necessary to usher in the other ages to come. Wow!

Feedback:

CL – very understandable – well done

NF – Wow– what a deep lesson really made me stop and think about the future and the past–thanks so much for sharing it!

Was Adam Literal?

February 20, 2018 / dscheer / 0 Comments

Science indicates Adam was not a literal man as revealed in Christianity Today, “The Search for the Historical Adam,” by Richard Ostling, June 8.2011. This is not to say that this Christian magazine is advocating this view, but rather it is showing what “science” claims. I put the word science in quotation marks because this segment of the scientific community is simply voicing opinions based on what they believe from current data. I maintain that their interpretations are in serious error. Not all scientists agree on this issue. You might want to read the article first before reading further: The Search for the Historical Adam – Christianity Today

It is so sad to see men “out thinking” the Holy Scriptures. When they made their points, they quoted scientists. When a literal Genesis view was presented, they quoted pastors. From a scientific viewpoint, how fair is that? They never included scientists who believe in a literal Adam, and I have a long list of those who do, and they all work at major universities such as Cornell, Penn State, Princeton, and many more. (see http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/100ScientistsAd.pdf). LINK UNAVAILABLE

There are plenty of these people from which to choose. One comment in this article was, “there is nothing that insists on a literal understanding of Adam in a passage (Gen. 1-3).” Really?! What about Jesus talking about Adam as being a literal person? They talked about Paul perhaps “not understanding the scientific knowledge of today,” but they dared not include Jesus with that arrogant statement. The truth is that scientists are just scratching the surface with this new human gnome DNA research, and to draw these outlandish conclusions (to usurp the authority of Scripture) is not only arrogant, but foolish and extremely short-sighted. In ten more years, they will know more about the history of human DNA, and what they’ve prematurely concluded now may very well be abandoned then. God’s creation is so complex, but knowledge does puff up and these guys think they know so much when they don’t. So much of science today is adulterated with man’s own thinking and spiritual biases. The scientists do see facts, but they have their own spin put upon those facts, and they falsely call it knowledge (1 Timothy 6:20-21). These modern-day interpreters of Scripture should go back and read God’s rebuke to Job about his apparent lack of scientific knowledge about how and why God made things.

Ironically, science has come up with a “Mitochondrial Eve.” This refers to the matrilineal most recent common ancestor of modern humans. She was the most recent woman from whom all living humans today descend, on their mother’s side, and through the mothers of those mothers and so on, back until all lines converge on one person. In other words, science is thinking that evidence exists that strongly indicates that all humans can be genetically traced backward in time to one woman.

The Bible claims that the fool in his heart says there is no God (Ps.14:1-3). But the devil is no fool (Gen.3:1). He believes in the one true God and trembles (James 2:19). But he knows how to deceive (2 Cor. 2:11). If he can wipe out a literal Adam from modern minds, then what happens to original sin? That’s gone as well. If that is gone, what is the meaning of the Cross? Not much. The spirit behind evolutionary thought is to first undermine the very core of Christianity, and many believers have not looked seriously into this issue unfortunately. The more we ignore it, the more ground it can gain.

Consider these quotes:

“Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization.” – Dr. Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, 1977. This resembles something that Screwtape would say to Wormwood (if you are familiar with C.S. Lewis’ classic book).

“Christianity will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly the very reason for Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and original sin, and in the rubble you will find the remnants the son of god. Take away the meaning of his death (if Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means), then Christianity is nothing.” – G. Richard Bozarth, “The Meaning of Evolution,” American Atheist, p. 30, 9/20/79.

“You are an animal and share a common heritage with earthworms,” – Biology: Visualizing Life, Holt, 1994. This is a typical statement in all government-run high school science textbooks. Notice how it is stated as a scientific fact despite evolution being only a theory. This is indoctrination and suppresses critical thinking skills. Our tax dollars support this.

I did like South Carolina pastor Phillips’ comment at the end of the article: “Can the Bible’s theology be true if the historical events on which the theology is based are false? If science trumps Scripture, what does this mean for the virgin birth of Jesus, or his miracles, or his resurrection? The hermeneutics behind theistic evolution are a Trojan horse that, once inside our gates, must cause the entire fortress of Christian belief to fall.”

In conclusion, I am thankful for what Jesus told us – “…I will build My church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it” (Matt.16:18). Some believers, however, may simply sit back in peace with this knowledge, but there is an ongoing war for the souls of people and there is a “Goliath” here strutting arrogantly in front of us ridiculing our God with the same demonic spirit in that ancient Philistine. Rather than just resting in the knowledge that Christ will triumph in the end, we should also heed 1 Peter 3:15 – “…but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence….” Sooner of later, the subject of evolution will confront you. My advice to you is to first repent of the fear of man (which I had to do and still battle to this day). Second, embrace this motto – “It is not about us, it is about Him.” Third, depend on the Holy Spirit to give you the right words.

Feedback so far:

NF – You are so right on Dave—it’s all about Jesus living in your heart –trusting and believing and letting the Holy Spirit speak the needed words to say when meet such folks–glory to His Holy Name forever!

GR – Brother Dave, when will man, atheists, amateur theists, pastors, etc STOP trying to manipulate, change, analyze, question the Word of God. REALLY! If people would stop trashing the Word of God and READ the Word of God and LIVE by the Word of God, all the problems in the world would be gone. I guess its just too easy and man’s PRIDE always gets in the way.

CL – I tried reading all the way thru the Christianity Today article but I couldn’t even finish it – not worth the time I even spent! I would love to be able to see the faces of the “scientists” when they die and meet the One True God…or maybe even Adam (or Eve).

AR – I agree with CL – that article is ridiculous! However, I’m sure some who read it could have been swayed if they didn’t do as GR suggests READ and LIVE by the WORD.

Scripture Thoughts

Tag: Jesus (page 7 of 15)

Suicidal Thoughts

Why Did God Make Us Knowing All Would Fall and Many Would go to Hell?

Was Adam Literal?

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