Christ_empowered
Member
- Oct 23, 2010
- 14,242
- 10,722
I know...that's Christianity 101. Its one thing to hear it and memorize it...Jesus saves us from sin, satan, self, death and the world...its another to feel it, to know it.
Its dawned on me that, until I got saved, I was about all the world was gonna let me be...a wretch who had too much shock because of "poor life choices," living off his people. Done.
Not that I was sinless, or blameless, just...wow. The World really does help create deviants, criminals, "mental patients," etc. I made mistakes and committed terrible sins in my late teens. I was already considered a "loser" by most of the world, and...that was that. Labels, diagnoses, pills, stigma...that's it. I used to think Mental Health, Inc. was --the-- problem. Turns out...Mental Health, Inc. exists, operates within a social context. Our fight is not against flesh and blood, our fight is against powers and principalities. Satan can work through wayward "professionals" just as surely as he can through anybody else in and of the world.
And now? I read some CS Lewis for a class recently. Something to the effect that sinners are pretty much the same, but Christians are unique. Ties in with his idea that only Christians are fully, truly human. Now...I agree. Wholeheartedly.
Jesus has already been extraordinarily kind to my family and me. Before I miraculously "recovered" from...life, brain damage, personal sin, everything...I was a broken, angry weakling. Now...I've been made whole, a new creation in Christ Jesus. I find that I struggle with sins, sin patterns, human frailty, flaws, etc...but I'm remarkably normal, not nearly as bitter+angry, lucid, and...I'm genuinely maturing, at long last.
I'm thinking of this because of the way people around here talk about me. I walked into 2 Quik Trips recently, one here in my town and one in a nearby city...both times, I heard people talking (thankfully in low-ish voices) about me. Not nice stuff, either. Oh well. I'm the pariah, I get it...
...thing is, everybody criticized me for being a "loser," for being a "flamer," etc., when really...that's all this community--and, by extension, society as a whole--was going to let me be. The real "game changer" was+is Christ. Again, I am not and was not blameless, sinless, all that....but I do think I was especially 2-dimenstional, very much conformed unto the ways of this world, because of satan's work in this community. --sigh--
This is a praise report, believe it or not. New Age-rs talk about "spiritual awakenings," but I think getting saved has been the ultimate "spiritual awakening," and is for others, too. I've been set free from all kindsa bondage, and now...I see that I wasn't awake, truly conscious of everything, living until Jesus saved me.
So, yeah. Lesson learned: The World reallly is fallen, terrible, no good, very bad, marred and scarred by sin. Thankfully, as a Christian, I can honestly say...this world is not my home ((and neither is this town)).
Its dawned on me that, until I got saved, I was about all the world was gonna let me be...a wretch who had too much shock because of "poor life choices," living off his people. Done.
Not that I was sinless, or blameless, just...wow. The World really does help create deviants, criminals, "mental patients," etc. I made mistakes and committed terrible sins in my late teens. I was already considered a "loser" by most of the world, and...that was that. Labels, diagnoses, pills, stigma...that's it. I used to think Mental Health, Inc. was --the-- problem. Turns out...Mental Health, Inc. exists, operates within a social context. Our fight is not against flesh and blood, our fight is against powers and principalities. Satan can work through wayward "professionals" just as surely as he can through anybody else in and of the world.
And now? I read some CS Lewis for a class recently. Something to the effect that sinners are pretty much the same, but Christians are unique. Ties in with his idea that only Christians are fully, truly human. Now...I agree. Wholeheartedly.
Jesus has already been extraordinarily kind to my family and me. Before I miraculously "recovered" from...life, brain damage, personal sin, everything...I was a broken, angry weakling. Now...I've been made whole, a new creation in Christ Jesus. I find that I struggle with sins, sin patterns, human frailty, flaws, etc...but I'm remarkably normal, not nearly as bitter+angry, lucid, and...I'm genuinely maturing, at long last.
I'm thinking of this because of the way people around here talk about me. I walked into 2 Quik Trips recently, one here in my town and one in a nearby city...both times, I heard people talking (thankfully in low-ish voices) about me. Not nice stuff, either. Oh well. I'm the pariah, I get it...
...thing is, everybody criticized me for being a "loser," for being a "flamer," etc., when really...that's all this community--and, by extension, society as a whole--was going to let me be. The real "game changer" was+is Christ. Again, I am not and was not blameless, sinless, all that....but I do think I was especially 2-dimenstional, very much conformed unto the ways of this world, because of satan's work in this community. --sigh--
This is a praise report, believe it or not. New Age-rs talk about "spiritual awakenings," but I think getting saved has been the ultimate "spiritual awakening," and is for others, too. I've been set free from all kindsa bondage, and now...I see that I wasn't awake, truly conscious of everything, living until Jesus saved me.
So, yeah. Lesson learned: The World reallly is fallen, terrible, no good, very bad, marred and scarred by sin. Thankfully, as a Christian, I can honestly say...this world is not my home ((and neither is this town)).
