Who are you ? - 4

Who are you ? - 4

How do you feel about yourself ?

This is a relatively taboo question to be asking in
Christian circles today,
yet in the secular domain
it is one of the main questions being asked .

If you believe that you are "corrupt by nature ",
as some Ministers teach,
you are going to have a hard time feeling good about yourself.
One of the main reasons Christians began to be called "wowsers",
is because we were telling everyone ,
" Don't do this , don't do that,
   don't sin, don't have fun ,
   Movies and RocknRoll are evil,
   don't do ............... "
and on and on.
The problem is that most of the "wowsers" looked desperately unhappy,
and seemed to be envious of the sinners who were having all the fun.

The Wowsers love to brag that ,
" I'm just a lonely sinner ,
   corrupt by nature,
   tainted by sin ".
But , should we be unhappy with ourselves.
The Wowser feels that it is sinful to feel good about yourself,
Why ?,
because they think that we are still "corrupt by nature".

I realize that the "corrupt by nature " theology is inherent
in Protestant tradition.
I am thankful that I was never indoctrinated
with any thelogical tradition.
If you believe that you are
" corrupt by nature , just a lonely sinner ",
you are going to completely miss the whole point of
Paul's letter to the Romans.

For this reason we are going to start our discussion of Romans
at the end of the Letter.
Romans Ch16V25 KJV,
" Now to him that is of power to stablish you
   according to my Gospel,"
Notice first of all that he calls this message
"my Gospel".
This means that he was Teaching something
different to what others were Teaching before him.
This is why he was confident to confront Peter,
and call him a hypocrite,
when he seperated himself from Gentile believers.
It would have taken incredible boldness at the time
to declare that what he was teaching was
"My Gospel",
when the Apostles who walked with Jesus
were still Teaching.

What makes Paul's Teaching different ?

Romans Ch16v25 ,
"And the Preaching of Jesus Christ,
  according to the revelation of the mystery"
So Paul is elucidating the point that he
has revealed this Mystery in the letter.
If it is therefore a Mystery,
it may  not be perceived by everyone.
The mere fact of Paul calling his Gospel
the revealing of a Mystery,
means that every listener may not get it.
Otherwise he would have called it
"the revealing of the blatantly obvious".
Hence Paul deliberately chose the word Mystery
for an exact purpose.

Can you imagine Paul standing up to Teach
"My Gospel ",
his exciting new revelation of the Mystery ,
which he received directly from Jesus Christ
and not from another Apostle,
and saying ,
" I've got bad news for you all ,
   you're all still sinners by nature,
   just unworthy sinners,
   tainted by sin,
   corrupt to the core,
   but hold on to the bitter end
   so that you might be saved,
   You dirty rotten bunch of sinners,
    I told you all repeatedly to stop sinning,
    naughty , naughty !
    You ought to feel very guilty,
     and bad about yourselves ".

Yet , this is essentially what many believe that Paul taught.
Is it any wonder that the secular world and many psychologists
believe that this Sin Consciousness  is what we actually Teach,
and make a mockery of the 'wowsers' because of it?

What do you think ?

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Copyright - Craig Holme - 2013

 

Who are you ? - 3

Who are you ? - 3

We are surrounded by identity crisis
in today's western society.
Depression, Anxiety and other emotional problems
are on the increase.

Psychologists have coined a phrase ,
"I'm Ok , you're Ok",
to summarise a psycholgical discovery.
This principal basically states that if I feel that I'm Ok,
then I am going to see you as Ok.
If however I feel bad about myself,
or if I see flaws in my personality,
or I am unhappy about some aspect of my appearance,
or I am in some other way negative about myself,
I will therefore see flaws in you.

How does this concept relate to
Who  we say we are as Christians ?
Often we hear the following being taught ,
" I'm just a lowly sinner like everybody else,
   corrupt by nature,
   a humble sinner saved by Grace,
   an unworthy sinner,
   rotten to the core with sin,
   flawed by the nature of sin. "

Is it any wonder that Psychologists offices are packed with Christians ?
If I see myself as " corrupt by nature",
then that is what I am going to act out.
I will be forever battling secret sins
and will be riddled with guilt,
and subsequently I will be calling the Psychlogist for a panacea.
If I see myself as essentially " corrupt to the core",
I am not going to be able to receive God's Grace,
because I will feel unworthy of His Love.
To say that you are still "corrupt by nature",
is to deny the Power of the Cross ,
and relegates Christianity to be classified
as another "religious opiate of the people".
To declare that you are " corrupt by nature",
will enslave you to the gravity of sin,
and ensure your inability to overcome secret sins.

The reality is that we are no longer "corrupt by nature",
we are now New Creations in Christ Jesus.
To believe otherwise is to contradict
the clear message of Paul's letter to the Romans.

It is absolutely ridiculous to believe that Jesus
would be Crucified and Resurrected ,
only to leave us "corrupt by nature".

We will continue with this Series in the next Part.

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Who are you ? - 2

Who are you ? - 2

In this Series we are going to examine the role of the Ego
in determining our Self Identity.

Recently I was watching a prominent American Minister
on a Christian Channel,
espouse his idea of Who he thought he was.

He related,
" I am just a loser like everyone else,
   a hopeless sinner with a corrupt nature ,
   tainted by sin ."

I can understand why this Minister gave this response,
as he is trying to impress his audience with his humility.
He wants to give everyone the impression
that he is just like everyone else,
and is not trying to put himself above anyone.

In this sense it is commendable,
but it is not Who the Scripture says we are,
and therefore is false humility.
Essentially these outbursts are in reality
just boasts of the ego.

In order to determine Who we are,
we must uncover the Secret in the Book of Romans,
which we will begin to uncover in the next Part of this Series .



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Who are you ? - 1

Who are you ? - 1

The rock band The Who had a famous song called
" Who are you ? ",
raised the primary question as to Who we are .
Identity confusion can be an underlying cause
of many other psychological problems,
such as depression, anxiety
and eating disorders.

There is a very clear solution to this identity crisis
in the Scriptures.
If you visit a Doctor who cannot diagnose your problem accurately,
what would you say ?
Psychologists have discovered many truths about
the human psyche.
For example ,
those who have a healthy Self Image
tend to feel better about themselves ,
and as a result are happier with their lives.
We are going to see that this is part of the Creators plan,
and is very clear throughout the Scriptures .

If we were to go into the office of most Psychologists in Western nations,
we would see an unusually high proportion of Christian patients.
These Christians are plagued by guilt,
and this is causing an array of associated psychological issues.

In this Series we will discuss the answers that our Creator
has given to us for Indentity confusion,
and guilt .



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Why do we need House Churches ? - 1

Why do we need House Churches ? - 1

Recently the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me
what is His plan and purpose for House Churches.
Previous to this I had no interest in House Churches,
since my only sparse contact with them was all negative,
spiritual weirdos who met to 'prophecy' over each other.

I have no background with House Churches,
but I am greatly encouraged by what I have received.

Firstly, the Holy Spirit has changed my perception
of what the Church is ,
and how it should function.
In the following Parts of this Series
I am going to unfold my story
of how I began to discover the
Holy Spirit's plan for House Churches .

In the Book of Acts we can see
the foundation for House Churches ,
Acts Chapter 1 V 3-5 The Message ,
" After his death,
   he presented himself alive to them in many different settings
   over a period of 40 days.
   In face to face meetings,
   he talked to them about about things concerning the kingdom of God.
   As they met and ate meals together,
   he told them .."

Compare this with the way we do things in the Western Church today,
" he spoke powerfully at the Conference,
   but refused to meet with anybody
   as he was very busy and had to catch a plane."

I am not against corporate meetings ,
or large Church meetings in any way.
but we are going to see that in order for
the Church to grow effectively
the Structure of Ministry needs to change.

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Encounters with God - 3

Are you ready for an encounter with God ? - 3

After my experience of being prayed for in a Christian home group,
I went back to my life as per normal,
with zero understanding of what I had experienced.
I had an encounter that was beyond my comprehension,
and I simply added this to my eclectic spiritual collection.


I had no idea that this encounter with the Eternal Spirit
would be revolutionary,
and
was going to pursue me ,
and change the course of my life
in a radical way.

Would you like to encounter this spiritual being ,
this person the Eternal Spirit ,
the Holy Ghost ,
the Holy Spirit ?

I went back to studying
Sigmund Freud
and
Margaret Mead ,
as per normal.
As I had no understanding of my Christian spiritual experience,
I was still open to deception.
I continued being influenced by Freud's materialistic outlook,
and forgot about God for a few months at Uni.
During this time I found that some of what I was studying previously,
was now starting to depress me.
Nietzsche and Bertrand Russell
mysteriously didn't have the same appeal anymore.

I found myself becoming very angry about the content of my studies,
as I perceived that many of these authors 
that I was forced to study at Uni were like
" blind men searching for a black cat in a dark cellar
   that wasn't there ."
I became even angrier when I researched the private lives
of these philosophers and found nothing but
alcoholism , family neglect ,
suicide, drug addiction,
and despair.

My dialectical reasoning was leading me to the
inescapable conclusion that the majority
of the esteemed philosophers
were sprouting complete nonsense.
But I was in a quandary ,
because I was studying for existential purposes,
not just to pass the course.
I wanted truth ,
and wasn't prepared to be a parrot of the pc establishment,
just to pass my subjects.

As I did not know at this stage
what the answer was ,
I descended into a feeling of violent rage against this hypocrisy.

By now my friends that I was living with had all embraced Jesus Christ,
and their lives had been radically transformed,
but I refused to attend Church with them,
being under a deception as to what Church was really all about.

I would be smoking dope with some of my Uni friends,
and getting more and more angry and confused,
as I saw that most of them were desperately unhappy with their lives.
Then going home to where my Christian friends
were full of joy and enjoying their lives,
and above all else happy !

The tension that I experienced at this time
was tearing me apart,
as I could make no sense of this seeming contradiction.
At Uni I was being told by depressed drug taking lecturers
that religion was the opiate of the masses,
at home my friends
were living the life that I really wanted.

In the next Part of this Series
we will continue our discussion
of the Eternal Spirit .


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Encounters with God - 2

Are you ready for an encounter with God  ? - 2

Whilst at University in the late 70's I began an intense search to
realize my nivana,
to achieve self-actualisation.
I experimented with any form of drugs that I could procure,
and whilst staying at a student accommodation College,
I became fascinated with LSD and Magic Mushrooms.

For me taking these mind altering drugs
was not just a matter of getting high,
as I was having profound spiritual experiences.
At one stage I was on the beach at nightime
with a full moon reflecting on the water.
The effect of the LSD
enabled me to have the sensation that I was melting into the moonlight.
I became one with the light of the moon,
and as I merged with this light
I experienced God in a tangible way.

However, later that evening in the early morning hours
that heavenly experience quickly turned into hell.
I found myself being drawn downwards into
a dark and terrifying gloom.

A few days later after I had recovered from this horror
I realized that it had left me with a slight condition of anxiety.
If I was in a lecture or tutorial at university,
I bagan to feel a mild nervousness for no apparent reason.
I would walk into a class completely calm,
and then suddenly have feelings of anxiety.
I had been in the same class previously without
any negative emotions.
I thought I would shake it off in a few weeks,
as I only experienced this apprehension at sporadic intervals
in the classroom.
But it didn't go away,
so I began to search for a spiritual solution.

I tried every type of spiritual experience,
and all kinds of religions.
One day I was being prayed for by Reiki Masters ,
and the next day doing meditation exercises with the Ananda Marga.
Every day I would be reading volumes on
psychology, anthropology and philosophy.

I wasn't looking for a doctrine,
I was searching for a cure for my existential experience.

During this search I found myself at a Christian house meeting,
at which the leader asked me if I wanted to pray.
Of course I said yes because I wanted to try everything spiritual,
but I had no idea what I was praying.
Wow ! This was different ,
I immediately felt an overwhelming presence.
The sensation of love and light was incredible,
and I instinctively knew that I had found what I was looking for !

The nervous condition evaporated
as I accepted Jesus Christ
and began to fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

In the next Parts of this Series
we will continue through my experiences,
and we will begin an exegesis of the Book of Romans.

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Encounters with God - 1

Are you ready for an encounter with God ?

When I was first Born Again in 1979 I joined a Church
where my friends attended.
This particular Church had a lot of American Evangelists preaching
on a regular basis. Because of this there were a lot of altar calls for
repentance of sin.
To my consternation at the time,
my friends were going down to the front altar
at almost every Service to repent of the same sins.

Being a new Christian ,
and with almost no understanding of evangelical theology,
I asked my friends why they were doing this .
I knew that their lifestyles had changed radically,
and that they were no longer committing the sins
that they were continuously repenting over.
Their answers perplexed me at the time,
" I feel guilty about the things that I used to do",
" Everyone else is repenting every Sunday , so me too ",
" I don't know, the preaching makes me feel like I'm a sinner,
   so I go down to repent . "

As this went on for months,
I became increasingly concerned,
as the Holy Spirit was showing me that something wasn't right.

When I became Born Again,
I knew that I had been set free from the Power of Sin,
and that I now had a new nature,
an entirely new identity in Christ.
I had already previously tried every other religious method,
to try to heal myself of a problem that I had got on a bad LSD Trip.
In Christ I was healed of this condition,
and I knew that I didn't have to repent of drug taking every Sunday,
because I was completely severed from it's hold over me.

To answer the Question,
" Are you right with God ? ",
we will examine very closely
The Book of Romans  in the next Part of this Series,
for the answer is clear as daylight in Romans !


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