In Search Of A Better Tomorrow

Christian article, “Houses”, part 3

Point 3: Billy Graham once said, “Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness.”

3.A, “Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles” (Harry Truman).
Selfishness and greed are problematic when the desire of attaining something leads to personal injury of another, inclusive of self. For example, if someone selfishly rapes a girl to satisfy his greedy, lustful, sexual desires for sex; the consequence is that the woman now struggles with PSTD her entire life as her world is now scarred, Selfish acts can definitely have negative consequence to man.

“Divisions in mankind are unnatural. They are man-made” (D’Andre Lampkin). When man first sinned, he felt shame, rejection, and unworthiness as sin separated him from God. This separation between man and God is the prime division of all man’s divisions; once it is properly taken care off, then all the other ones in time presumably will fall in place. For when you are right with God, then you are right with your neighbor, since LOVE (God) is not happy when human relationships aren’t right.

Man is often faced with life struggles. Trying to overcome this is very hard, especially when the circumstances require much faith and perseverance. If someone greedily injures the life struggler for personal gain, then the loss suffered by the injured party can potentially cripple the individual’s chance of freedom and morale, to continue on.

Many times we are like a “spiritual wanderer” who roams about place to place, trying to find closure from a dark past, influenced by selfishness and greed. Taking a chance, risking what you have, and placing your faith in hope of a better life occurs – until someone’s sin (or your own) sabotages your chance of freedom. So you try, try again until you get hurt by another sin, and so on.

Williams Shakespeare once said, “In time we hate which we often fear”. After repeated injuries, man becomes fearful, anxious, and vigilant toward potential sources of harm. Soon after man becomes hateful, angry, bitter, and possibly retribution. What we do next determines the fate of man.

Man is greedy because of perceived unmet needs. He is selfish when he thinks more about self than others. Sin not only separated man from God, but also man from man. Getting hurt by another often leads to isolation and then selfishness. “Why should I trust someone to help me when the chances I will get hurt in doing so?”, says the injured person.

Margaret J. Wheatley once said, “There is so much anger, distrust, greed, and pettiness that we are losing our capacity to work well together”

“Hate is a cancer that spreads one cell at a time.” (David Pelzer). It grows when God’s Love is not present, and multiplies when children are not taught responsible living. The more people in this world who sin and harm others, the more angry people get in this overpopulated world. Without being filled with the Spirit, anger leads to bitterness, hatred, destruction, and retribution. Houses cannot continue to be erect if retribution continues to become the habits of life.

In our own capacities, man is unable to love and forgive the ways he should. Daily we should pray for God’s empowerment to love and forgive the persons who have hurt us in the past. With our sin natures potentially creating havoc on other’s lives, we need to be filled with the fruit of the spirit, in order to love and forgive properly.

Once we realize this, and become dependent upon the work of the Spirit, we will find victories in our battles versus for retribution and forgiveness.

In Romans 12:17-21, it says:
“Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, ‘I will take revenge; I will pay them back, says the Lord. Instead, ‘If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, given them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.”

Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Harry Emerson Fosdick

Point 4 “Love is the only sane and satisfactory solution to the problem of human existence”. Erich Fromm

Point 4A: “The presence of the Holy Spirit is the keystone of all our hopes.” – John Nelson Darby

Man desperately needs his broken, evil broke heart fixed. He has a spiritual thirst that only Christ and the Holy Spirit can correct. In John 4:114, it says “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Rivers of living water shall flow from his heart.

When the unbeliever becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit now resides in his soul, giving him everlasting life. When the new believer daily surrenders his life to the Spirit, will produce “godliness and contentment, leading to great gain”. (1 Timothy 6:6).

The Apostle Paul experienced joy in spite of the fact that he had no possessions, and that he suffered greatly. The conversion of Saul, a heinous Christian murderer, to the Apostle Paul, one of the greatest saints ever, proves that God can make hearts of evil into good.

In 2 Corinthians 6:4-10, Paul “patiently endured troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. He was beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. . . He was ignored, even though well known. Paul lived close to death, but was still alive. Beaten but not killed. In spite of all that, Paul writes: “Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.”

POINT 5: THE SECRET OF EXPERIENCING JOY

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15:9-11

Man experiences the joy of Christ when man “remains in God’s Love” and “obeys God’s commands”. The command God has for us – “Love one another as I have loved you”.

Love and obedience is the key to freedom. Without the Holy Spirit, we are unable to Love like we should.

God gives us a command which is impossible for us to do alone in our own strength – to love unconditionally like Christ. Only when the Holy Spirit is present inside us and is given permission to spread to those in our sphere can man have the capacity to love like Christ. It’s man’s responsibility to choose to love like Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit responsibility to put it into action, by producing fruits of the spirit, revealed in our actions. “With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

Holy Spirit only exists in the lives of the believer, which takes place at time of spiritual conversion. Thus, if the majority of Christians would only surrender to their life purpose of leading people to Christ, and daily allow the Holy Spirit to implement that God-given dream into action, many of the problems of hate, etc. would go away, as the Spirit and his fruit of the spirit would be in their hearts. Then through sanctification, the Holy Spirit can daily work to make us more obedient and Christ-like, so the Trinity can use us more in His work of transforming this world.