Posted on 06/05/2011 4:09:34 PM PDT by Gamecock
I recently read this from Steve Brown and had to share it with you:
She was only twenty-six years old. She was a Christian working in a church. After college she had served for a year on the mission field. I didn’t know her well, but I liked her a lot. She was a strong witness for Christ and she was an articulate spokesperson for evangelical Christianity. This morning I got the message that she had taken her life. I was absolutely devastated. I didn’t understand.
As if that were not enough, shortly after hearing about her suicide I got a call from a man who listens to my radio broadcast. “Steve,” he said, “I haven’t told anybody in the world what I’m going to tell you. I have decided to leave my wife and I told God that if I get through to you, I would do whatever you told me to do.”
I asked him what prompted him to decide to leave her.
He told me, “I became a Christian at fourteen and all my life I’ve been seeking to live up to the expectations of others. I work full-time in a ministry, I teach the Bible, and everyone thinks I’m the model Christian. I’m just tired of it. I’ve decided to do something for myself for a change.”
Let me share a letter with you that I received a couple weeks ago. There was no return address and the person gave me no name.
Dear Stephen,
Please pray for me as I am on the edge–a total failure as a Christian. I have failed as a husband and as a father. God has probably given up on me. I feel so very alone and abandoned. It’s a horrible feeling that words alone cannot describe. Please don’t judge me. Pray for me.
At first these three incidents didn’t seem related. They were just about individuals for whom I prayed. But in the silence of my prayer it dawned on me that they all had the same problem: They all had created a false standard of perfection (or accepted someone else’s standard) and concluded they couldn’t live up to it.
What advice would you give them? If you had talked to the young lady before her suicide, or the man thinking about leaving his wife, or the anonymous correspondent–what would you have said?
Most Christians would say that they should try harder. The problem is that all three already had–and they were at the end of themselves.
Others would try to help them trace their despair back to some unconfessed sin in their lives–drawing a straight line between their spiritual depression and their spiritual failure.
And still others would tell them to have faith. And yet, they discovered that the faith they needed couldn’t be turned on and off like a faucet.
But what would Jesus have told them? We don’t have to guess: “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Perfectionism (or performancism) is a horrible disease. It comes from the pit of hell, smelling like rotting flesh. Someone convinced these folks that they were called to measure up to an unattainable standard. They couldn’t do it and each in his or her own way simply quit trying.
Nobody told them that Jesus was perfect for them, and because of that they didn’t have to be perfect for themselves. They didn’t understand that if Jesus makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Christian, please remember that Jesus plus nothing equals everything. That,
Because Jesus was strong for you, you’re free to be weak;
Because Jesus won for you, you’re free to lose;
Because Jesus was Someone, you’re free to be no one;
Because Jesus was extraordinary, you’re free to be ordinary;
Because Jesus succeeded for you, you’re free to fail.
Preaching the gospel is the only thing that helps us take our eyes off ourselves and how we’re doing and fix our eyes on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus fulfilled all of God’s perfect conditions so that our relationship to God could be perfectly unconditional.
You’re free!
Thank you for the ping SG. That is a powerful message.
I love Steve Brown - he’s my favorite radio preacher ever.
I love Steve Brown - he’s my favorite radio preacher ever.
Thanks for that - I needed it as well.
A friend of mine wasnt saved, and I was trying to explain Gods love.
He had a 20 year old hound; bad hips bad bladder, bad everything, but he didnt have the heart to put her down.
We came in to find she’d peed the floor again. As he was mopping it up, mumbling swear words and trying not to yell at her, I asked “arent you mad at her?” “No, its not her fault. She cant help it.”
“Do you love her any less?” “Of course not!” And he was ‘bout ready to knock me out the room for suggesting it.
I laughed, “Now you understand how God feels about you every time you screw up. And when you do, you look to him just like (the hound) does at you.”
**Matthew 5:48
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.**
You know anyone, other than Jesus, who has pulled this off? Have you?
It’s impossible to live the Christian life, just as the children of Israel found it impossible to obey the whole law.
The secret is to commit the heart to Jeshua Hammeshiah (Christ Jesus) and then let Him live the Christian life through you.
Where did you get the Hammeshiah? that sounds like Persian for "always"...
Somebody’s put it very succinctly: “All the religions and cults of the world say ‘Do. Do. Do. (or ‘Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.’) ‘ Christianity says ‘Done’ “.
Jeshua has already lived the Christian life and taken our judgement (punishment) for us, and He invites us to appropriate that victory. May we be found in the Beloved.
Peace and Joy to you in the Holy Ghost.
To God Alone the Glory!
“Jeshua Hammeshiah
Where did you get the Hammeshiah? that sounds like Persian for “always”...Jeshua Hammeshiah
Where did you get the Hammeshiah? that sounds like Persian for “always”...”
It’s Messiah Jehova Is Salvation, the original of Christ Jesus’ name before Pope Damasus (Sp.?) told Jerome to change it to Latin (which is never done anywhere in translating).
The “secret” is to say I can’t do this. I am a sinner. Jesus have mercy on me.
Then the Holy Spirit WILL conform you to a life of obedience. This side of Glory we will not get there, but the Holy Spirit will move us in that direction.
Some folks there believe if they have any unconfessed sin on them (even one they've forgotten) they will go to Hell. There are Catholics that believe maybe they forgotten or missed a 'Mortal Sin' and that they will die and not go to heaven if they don't get a priest in time.
This is not Faith, this is works righteousness. It is saying "I have to maintain my Salvation and not Trust Christ or I could miss Heaven". No, Christ said "No one can snatch them from the Father's hand". Are you more Powerful than God the Father??
No One, not even you, can snatch yourself out of God's hand. Your not even close to having that power.
No, It is time to believe. Believe that God the Father chose to love you irresistibly from before the Foundation of the Word. God the Father drew you to the Lord Jesus Christ just as Christ said "No one can come to me except the Father, who sent me, draws him". God the Father, wooed folks like us and drew us to Christ with His love before we even thought of Him.
It is time to Believe that God saved folks like us by His Grace Alone and not on the basis of works (so that none may boast).
Put the Idea of Sinless Perfection and your choice of Him as earning your Salvation away. Both are illusions and only lead to despair.
Realize that your Faith did not come from you, it was a gift implanted by God just as the Lord Jesus Christ said "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life." - Not will have, but Has.
Believe.
Thank you. It’s all about Grace, isn’t it?
Finally, Pope Damasus did not do this name change as the term originates from the Greek during Apostolic times
“?Christus is a Greek term not Latin — the Hebrew term is Mashiah. The terms in English are synonymous: Christ=Messiah. However, the first term the “Christians” were called anything was named after Christus
Finally, Pope Damasus did not do this name change as the term originates from the Greek during Apostolic times”
Boy! I’m just wrong about everything, aren’t I?!
Hardly -- you just made a few slips in this -- the hammeshiah threw me off -- it looks exactly like Persian. But the word Christus is really old -- from Apostolic times and it is in Greek which was the lingua Franca (along with Aramaic) of the Middle East during the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles.
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