Hello everyone. I wrote this short article a bit ago, not originally as an article, but to those who I shared it with said they got alot out of it. Enjoy. There aren't any scripture references posted, because I thought many were self explanatory...But if you would like to know where I based some of this from, please inquire.

The Urn of Humanism
Or
The Sickbed of Selfishness
By J.A. Olver

I have found myself so molded and pounded into shape by God and I cannot recognize myself. What I was in the past, that period before the Blood is nothing like I am now.

Me, the god, was dethroned, exiled and executed – in a fierce, brutal bloodbath he was beheaded and the corpse was burned. The ashes were then taken and cast into the wind which blew the residue as far as the east is from the west. All that was left was a wounded and lost soul and a raw, wounded heart. Blood was poured over this filthy heart and shady soul, and it was purified – healed! From there I grew in weakness, so the strength of my Lord would be made perfect.
I stand today, washed and purified. I have been (and still am) under the blows of the blacksmith’s hammer and I have been tempered in His furnace. What walks this earth and breathes this air today is something new – something the world has never seen before and shall never see again. Exiled, executed, purified, burned and pounded, I stand today longing for more, desiring to be conformed to His deign.

And I am angry at – and sorry for – and pleading for those who have gone through the same process: who have died to themselves, and have been molded – but resisted.
Who decided to be the obdurate rod of iron.
The capricious lump of clay who dares talk back to the Potter
Who refuse to want what He wants.
Who want to be an ashtray, rather than a cistern.
Who want to be a firebrand rather than a blade.

They are selfish! No trace of altruism is in their character. All things, no matter how philanthropic they may seem are for themselves and themselves alone. They may even be deceiving themselves. The rust, the mold, the infection of Humanism has plagued them and they are being poisoned. Many of them rant and hide themselves behind dark veils. They delude themselves and are delirious. Unwilling to lie in their self proclaimed deathbed alone, they pull others in and infect them as well.

Much of this is looked at as ‘soul searching,’ or ‘finding themselves,’ or ‘discovering their niche.’ I submit that it is self inflicted brainwashing to justify their selfishness! They lust to sit on the throne of their own heart. The sole purpose of their ‘sovereignty’ is to dictate how they feel good when they want to. It is to be happy through any of the means they deem fit. When truly those who have been broken, those who have been passed through fire, those who have been molded scrapped and molded again, those who have been pounded between the anvil and the hammer, those who retain the shape they are made in and yield to the hands of the Artisan whenever He wills are the ones who have hope. They are the ones whose faith does not fail, for they are confident in the skilled hands of their Maker. They know that whatever the next shape may be it is the one that has been designed for them – that there is some great purpose that is beyond their understanding. Whether it is an extra edge or fold here, or a new crease or crevice there – they yield. YIELD! And they fulfill their service.

They will receive their just reward, those who only give the appearance of being molded into a vessel for God to pour His purposes in to. When on the inside they contain the ashes of their beloved, tyrannical monarch.

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Jeffrey

Like Paul, you warn of consequences without delighting in the suffering that the unsaved will be subject to, and I think that is wonderful.
We cannot make disciples while taking any happiness in that those who do not find the truth will be cast into hell. God will judge those who succumb to the evil of enjoying other's calamity. David recounted how his enemies exclaimed 'aha!' at his troubles and worries, and we know Who's Heart he was 'after'...
Our war on world jihad seems to exhibit this nasty trait at times, so it is no wonder much of the world resents us, beleiving or unbeleiving.
Thanks.

I hate to imagine the harsh judgment facing those certain individuals who DO find pleasure in the poor souls damned for eternity, forever seperated from God.

Whenever I see those who are mislead, or outright deny the truth I am reminded of Psalm 35:11-14...
"11.False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not. 12.They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. 13.But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. 14.I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother."

The exact OPPOSITE is found in such horrid fanatical "ministries" of which I won't name for the sake of staying away from gossip. These ministries try to errect monuments CELEBRATING the fact that certain individuals died in sin. Never weeping with those who weep...coming along side morning family members to minister and aid in healing. Rather they pour salt in the wounds left by the death of a lost individual and rub in the fact that THEY are going to heaven, and the 'poor sucker' that died never had a chance.

I think we would see a big difference in the ministries to such hot-zone areas such as homosexuality, abortion, etc. if the people who truly felt called to minister in those areas would sincerely humble themselves and pray, as David did in that Psalm.

_________________
Jeffrey

"Never weeping with those who weep"

I don't believe we will ever reach the un-reached, or the un-reachable, until we sail to them on the rivers of our own tears.

Wow, you guys are rolling!
Tell it!

Trouble is, maybe I commit the same sins we mention when I even take note of their foibles. Like I don't ever take glee in the apostate or huminist's mis-steps (Dohh! sarcasm showing again...).

tks again! working on those tears; maybe tonight's Advent service will be an op... 8-)

Dian

Quote:
I don’t know if I’m a bad person or if God feels the same…

Well I hope I am not becoming to familiar in my replies Ms Dian but on the question of being a bad person, you definitely are, as am I, but this is the nature of anybody born. I did not need to read this post to know that:

Romans 7:14-25 14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin's power. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this principle: when I want to do good, evil is with me. 22 For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God's law. 23 But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.

This is a powerful truth and at the heart of overcoming the flesh. I type this with some reservation because Romans 7 is the subject of much debate amongst Christians and I do not want to start strife over this doctrine. If there had been a more appropriate scripture, I would have avoided this altogether…

It is absolutely no good for us to realize this from Romans 7 merely. We must discover this for ourselves that there is a problem in our nature, which cannot be “unlearned”. It is supernatural and it requires a supernatural solution. I say it is “supernatural” because Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit changed the nature of man supernaturally…they died. We became the walking dead. We knew good and evil all right, but the problem was that our definition of good was different to that of God. Everyone born has this defect and it has different manifestations in everyone. It is more blatant in some people and more subtle in others but the problem is there. The problem is sin- the inability to be in the will of God. It is not evil in the normal sense of the word but there is something very mysterious about sin (please notice I use the singular, “sin” and not “sins”). Those who have a more subtle manifestation of sin in their lives have generally a more difficulty accepting that they are bad.

Let me explain what I mean when I refer to “sin”. I will use the book of Romans as a point of reference. You will notice that when Paul begins the book of Romans he refers to “sins” up until Romans 5. These are the transgressions of the law, the breaking of the commandments. After that, it is a question of sin, the heart of the problem, the indwelling nature. You can get rid of a lot of sin simply altering your behavior; you do not even need Jesus for many (please note I said “many”) of those things. You do not have to be a Christian to join a good rehab program that will get you off almost any lustful addiction. This is not what Paul is talking about here however. Paul is describing that which is in this body which declares that it is in the right, and that it has the right to make its own decisions. Bear with me as I elaborate from the following text:

Romans 7:7-13 7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet. 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. 13 Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.

A man by nature believes he is more good than bad. He believes there are a few things he could change but overall he has the “I am not quite as sinful as those guys” attitude. This is our biggest hindrance to spirituality. We must come to the point that Paul did when he said, “O wretched man that I am…”

Paul says, I had not known sin except the commandment came. Therefore, I can look at the commandments and consent that they are good but when I find that I am, unable to achieve all of them I must realize that I am sinful. If I am unable to stop coveting by my own power and I now that it is bad, I must concluded that there is something in me that is bad…this something is sin (singular).

Now many Christians have justified sinfulness by Romans 7 but this is not where the story ends. There is a solution to this indwelling problem and this solution, funnily enough, is the indwelling Spirit described in a chapter in the Bible, which happens to be called Romans 8. The problem of sin, exist with or with Romans 7, the Holy Spirit quickens us with or without Romans 8. Please realize that these are merely texts and without revelation from God, they are not reality. We must pray to ask God to reveal truths to us that we may be more effective for the glory of his Kingdom. Have you realized the problem of indwelling sin? It is not enough to see it Romans 7 alone, we must see it in ourselves by the revelation from God.

James

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James Gabriel Gondai Dziya