A man who stands for nothing – falls for anything!

 

 

 

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It’s the type of question we’ve all asked ourselves at some point or another.

More of a ‘self-contained’ enquiry than your average dinner table conversation, the question of our identity is nonetheless never far away from our daily thoughts.

If only we would all take some time to talk about it a bit more openly.

If only we would actually see the world around us, and feel the world within us – bring the whole conversation out into the light of day.

If only we would give some recognition to the common threads at play.

To the rhythm and the rhyme of life.

To our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our noses, our hands and feet.

Billions of us have them.

What about the air that fills our lungs?

We all breathe it.

The joy of birth, the grief of death – we all feel it.

So many shared visible attributes and collective talents.

So many invisible bonds.

Have you ever wondered how it all came to be?

Did you make yourself?

No?

Then who did?

If you want to go through life shrugging your shoulders, then shrug away.

That’s your right.

But if you do feel the need to ask the question of yourself, no matter which way you come at it – there are really only two possible options.

The second option is that you and the world you live in are both the results of chaos and coincidence.

It suggests that life came forth out of nowhere, without a reason, without a purpose, without any input from anything or anyone.

In short, it tells you that you’re merely some cosmic concoction of no real value – an insignificant collection of particles thrown together at random in some meaningless, supposed evolutionary soup.

The first option (the only answer that makes any reasonable sense) is that you and the earth that sustains you were both carefully created specifically by someone Who loves you beyond words.

To Him, you are priceless.

What does your gut tell you?

Are you here by accident or by design?

Are you the by-product of some cosmic collision or are you a human being created by God?

What rings true in your belly?

Look at your hands and find your fingerprints.

Do you realise yours are unique?

The result of some cosmic explosion?

Or the handiwork of a Master Craftsman?

Love – now there’s something you know to be true!

You know love because you’ve felt it.

You can’t bottle it, yet you know it’s real.

You also know firsthand the reality of tears.

What else do you know for certain through experience?

Scripture tells us that God created man.

God gave man a body - a skeletal frame, clad with flesh.

A body fully equipped to sense and experience life.

You know this body – you’re living in one now yourself!

God gave man a soul.

What is soul?

Soul is mind, soul is will, soul is emotion – soul is identity.

Intricately weaved together, the elements of our souls enable us to encounter life at every possible level.

But who are we?

Who is it that God gave both body and soul to?

Man (Humanity) is spirit.

SPIRIT IS LIFE – the inexpressible, the indescribable, the indefinable, without which neither you nor I would exist.

Who are you?

You are spirit, living in a temporary body of knitted flesh, fully equipped with decision making abilities and a sensory system that enables you to come into contact with the consequences of your own choices.

Do you know the source of the spirit you are?

Who gives the life that now animates your being? 

God’s Spirit is True Life.

And that certain emptiness in the pit of your stomach, that gnawing sense of discontent, of constantly being hungry for something you cannot define, is the void left behind where God’s Spirit once dwelt.

Disconnected from God’s Spirit, the spirit of humanity is suffocating!

We’re not talking here about manmade religion.

We are talking here about God-made reality.

We’re not talking about ritualistic entanglement.

We are simply talking about the artless act of knowing (and cherishing) the One Who gives us life – no strings attached.

Not about scaremongering – but about love.

About spiritual restoration, revival, and renewal.

So how do we get re-connected?

How and why did we sever ties with God in the first place?

Living is a practical thing.

If you exist – you know it.

And if you know you exist – surely you would want to know why.

Who you are and why you are alive are both questions with ‘understandable’ answers.

But first, you’ve got to stop, be still and decide to decide.

Take a stand and make a choice.

Exercise the free will God gave you to acknowledge and accept the reality of who you are;

1. You were made by God

2. God loves you

3. God created you as spirit + (soul and body)

Entrench these three rock solid facts into your heart.

Resolve to accept them without doubt.

Acceptance and resolve are decisions of the soul.

Take a stand, make a decision, and have faith in who it is you really are!

For then, and only then,

will the bigger picture

 

open up in your mind. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image by Dawn Hudson Thankyou 

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=130424&picture=archery-target 

 

 

By now you’re probably wondering, if we were all made by God, and He loves us so much – why is there so much trouble in the world?

You’re no doubt thinking to yourself – if I belong to God, why do I feel so distanced from Him?

Why do I sometimes feel so lost?

Let’s take a look at the word ‘sin’.

It’s noteworthy to see that in Hebrew, the word sin originates from an old archery term and literally means to miss the ‘gold’ at the centre of a target.

Greek sources quote the word as meaning ‘to miss the mark’.

In so many ways, we have all missed the mark!

We’re told in GENESIS 2:15-17 that not only did God create the human family, He also gave us freedom of choice.

The only thing He warned our ancestors against was “the knowledge of good and evil”.

So, why the counsel?

What was God so concerned about?

What was He saying?

Obviously, God was telling man to keep his aim in life true.

He was cautioning man against the perils of missing the mark – that is to say missing the purpose and pleasure to be found in living a life that is real and genuine, active and vibrant, overflowing with abundance.

He was telling the human family that in order to experience a fulfilled life, all we need do is keep God at the centre of everything!

Nonetheless, we ignored Him.

Prodigal to the core, we turned our back on the very One who offered us everything – choosing instead our own independence, our own ways, our own ceaseless striving to be bigger > better > best.

The discarding of God’s counsel in favour of our own misguided pride (sin) entered the world, and took over the steering wheel – bringing with it a host of passengers, all hell-bent on spreading false values, fear and destruction.

So, why did God allow it?

The simple answer is, He allowed it to happen out of Love!

He allowed it to happen for the very same reasons that any loving parent grants their child enough room to learn from his or her own mistakes.

Life experience has no substitute!

To be told something is one thing – to live it, another thing altogether.

To know something for certain is to breathe it – to feel it, to let it be engraved upon your soul.

To know is to grow! 

Without free will, we are nothing more than puppets.

True love is only possible where there is full freedom of choice, and any choice to love and honour the Father has to be made without coercion.

Free will, the overriding attribute of our soul, was given to all of us for this very reason.

When we made / keep on making our choice, the human family in effect chose / chooses neither to love nor honour the Father.

It’s important to recognise however that God did not withdraw His Love from us – it was (and still is) us who withdraw our love from Him in favour of what we perceive to be a better way.

What is that better way?

“My way!”

To this very day, isn’t that what we still tell ourselves?

“My way is better!”

Referring to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in GENESIS 2:17, God told the first man and woman, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”.

So, who died?

The first man, Adam, lived 930 years?

Created as spirit with a body and soul, the spirit died, the connection to God died.

It withered, just as God had warned!

When man turned to walk down his own path, he did so in body and soul, both driven by a perishing spirit.

His source of completeness now forfeited – his world became ruled by the very things God tried to warn him against.

You already know that;

1. You were made by God

2. God loves you

3. God created you as spirit + (soul and body)

Through faith (which itself is given by God) you need to understand and believe with all your soul (with all your mind, all your strength, all your heart) that True Spirit is True Life – that the Spirit of Truth is a gift made possible only by God – a gift without strings – a gift extended to anyone with ears to hear.

Yes, rebellious creatures we undoubtedly are, beings who always think we know better.

Stiff necked people who prefer the sound of our own voice to the voice of conscience (the voice of God) Who, out of nothing but love, tells us what not to do for one simple reason – to protect us from our own fallen predisposition.

Sadly, we just keep on ignoring Him.

Even so, the Father continues to call.

This is the one truth you need to hold onto.

Grasp it with both hands – never let it go!

Understand and recognise (know for certain) that despite His righteous indignation, God never gave up – and He’s never given up on you.

Stop, be still, hear and acknowledge your Father’s call.

Forego your preoccupation with the unimportant.

 

Stand firm in the Love of He Who made you! 

 

 

Copyright © W.L.Sorrell 2015

mentalflush.com

 

 

 

 

Image by George Hodan Thankyou 

https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=35663&picture=silhouette-faces 

 

What was the consequence of turning our backs on God?

Imagine falling into a pit.

It’s a deep pit.

It’s a steep pit.

It’s a pit you’d never climb out of.

It’s a dark pit, filled with quicksand.

Every move you make sends you deeper. Unable to secure a firm foothold, inch by inch you sink – piece by piece, the gaping mouth swallows you.

Trapped in the pit’s belly, you rub shoulders with all the others who fell before you and hear the thud above of all those still falling.

It’s not a pleasant image.

It’s the stuff nightmares are made of!

But it’s the sort of sinking feeling we’ve all experienced at different times in our lives.

If you’re completely honest with yourself, you know this to be true!

When man turned away from God and began to rely on his own judgement, his own abilities, and his own ideas on life, he in effect stepped into such a figurative pit.

In what is commonly referred to as ‘the fall of man’, he in effect drew a sword and severed the umbilical cord which tethered him to his Father.

Of and by himself – there was no way back!

This is a picture of the human family’s history.

This is a picture of your history.

It’s a picture of one minute genuinely having everything we ever needed and the very next having nothing of any real value at all.

Not only did man fall, he became deluded.

He became convinced that toil and struggle, that trouble and conflict, that uncertainty and fear were all that life had to offer.

Filled with vanity, he did whatever he needed to do to claw his way to the top of the heap.

He became lost in an ultimately meaningless mire, a sludge defined by pure deception.

And we are all still clawing away to this very day!

So, what are we to make of all this talk of pits and futility?

Are we to take it all literally?

In no way!

Be that as it may – how true this image resonates with our inner brokenness.

The word ‘depression’ is used to describe a state of mental health.

But look up the word in any dictionary and you’ll find it also defined as a ‘pit’.

Regardless of the underlying cause (and there are countless) the ‘pit’ is a tragic place to find yourself.

The spirit you are is not just someone close to you – the spirit you are is you.

The degeneration of your spirit is real.

Not unlike an unwatered flower that withers through lack of light, so too the soul wastes away – all the while thirsting for something it cannot identify.

The condition of your spirit is made visible by the fruit of your soul.

Would you say your spirit is alive and well?

Or would you say there is a certain hollowness within your being that no amount of logic can explain?

Not unlike a tripod which relies upon all three legs for stability, our main support (our spirit) is so often ignored.

Put plainly, without God in your life, you will never find inner peace because the most important piece of you is missing.

God challenges you to stand before a mirror and look yourself squarely in the eye.

Peer deeply into the portholes of your being, place your hand on your heart, and there is no way you can possibly deny your own dispiritedness.

Remember.

1. You were made by God

2. God has never stopped loving you

3. God created you as spirit + (soul and body)

4. God’s Spirit is Life.

Without God’s Spirit, we are lifeless.

Being lifeless means having less life than we need to truly LIVE.

Being lifeless means being incomplete – being less than whole.

It’s not a question of what we’re missing – it’s a question of Who we’re missing.

 

His Name Is The Holy Spirit (aka the Helper, the Comforter, the Gift of God, the Spirit of Jesus).

 

Copyright © W.L.Sorrell 2015

mentalflush.com

 

 

 

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