1-21-07
Dear Friend,
I feel compelled to share some thoughts with you based on my own life’s experiences and based on eternal truth.
You see, I spent many years of my life in the "fast lane", {I’ll spare you the sordid details for now}, actually off and on from the time I was about 19 or 20 years old, up until I was 46 years old. I am now 52 years old.
The great lie imbedded in this world’s thought processes would lead us to believe that if we fill up our life with sensual pleasures, other experiences and perceived successes, family and other relationships, accumulation of riches and wealth, recognition from others, careers, and any other tangible or intangible offering of this world including solitude or simplicity of life, then we will surely find a deep and lasting sense of peace and fulfillment. But nothing could be further from the truth. No matter how complex or simple our experiences, how stimulating our relationships, how rewarding our family life, how much wealth we end up with whether ill gotten or by honest gain, how much we are honored and acclaimed, and no matter the simplicity or solitude of the life we have found or developed, whether through our own efforts or by shear “good fortune,” when we look inside ourselves in honest self-examination, we will still be empty and void and restless. If you could fast forward your life after having filled it will all the desires and cravings of your body and your mind, even to the extreme of gaining the whole world with all of its riches, all of its sensual experiences, and all of its honor and acclaim, I can promise you that you would still have an emptiness deep within your eternal soul that would not be fulfilled and would keep you restless and unsatisfied, and perpetually seeking for “more.”
For our own eternal welfare we must understand something very important that hardly anyone seems to know or will share with others about life. See, the human race was created by a loving God who wanted to have fellowship with the children He created. And that fellowship was to be a spiritual relationship in which God would share His very own nature of self-less love with His creation through the part of our being that is spirit, which in turn would keep our bodies {the physical part of us} and souls {our mind, our will and our emotions are part of our soul} under God’s dominion. And that nature of God's love contains a very special quality of life! So special in fact that it meets all the demands of our soul and spirit, as deep and mysterious as those needs are.
But the parents of the human race, Adam and Eve, choose to separate themselves from God's life of love through disobedience to their Creator. They were deceived by our spiritual enemy, Satan, who beguiled them, meaning he purposely tricked and misled them into choosing to be the god of their own life by telling them that it was a better way to live. But it was all a lie. And so by making the choice to partake of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," the "human opinion tree," man began to choose for himself individually what would be the best way for him to live. And the rest is history as they say. The evidence of how that choice was based on a lie is all around us. Look at all the suffering, corruption and all other injustices in the world, all hostility, envy, strife, greed, all unrest, frustration, boredom, worry, fear, anxiety, loneliness, and depression. It is all the consequence of believing that first lie that was introduced into the world by Satan who was representing himself as an agent of “enlightenment.” He is still working in this world and often operates through false teachers as an “angel of light,” mixing some truth with his lies. He wants us to believe that God does not really mean what He says to us in His written word, the Bible, and through the Holy Spirit’s operation in our conscience, and that it is okay to live by the lust {desires} of the flesh, the lust {desires} of the eyes, and by the self-elevating “pride of life,” as long as we don’t take them to extremes. And tragically, most people are still choosing to operate their lives under the influence and dominion of that lie.
And as a result of mankind making the choice to step out into self-will and begin directing his own life, a perfectly just and righteous God had to withdraw His spiritual life from the human race and mankind began to experience spiritual death. Everyone born into this world since the parents of the human race fell into a self-centered way of life is now born with an emptiness deep within their inner being. It is missing the presence of God. And almost all of the human race spends their days on this earth seeking for something to fill that emptiness, even though most of them don't even realize that is what they are doing. But there is NOTHING in this world that can satisfy that deep inner emptiness – NO RICHES, NO FAME, NO RELATIONSHIP WITH ANOTHER HUMAN BEING and NOTHING ELSE this world system has to offer its children.
There is only one way to be totally and eternally fulfilled. That is by coming back into a right relationship with God the Father through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. And that begins by acknowledging that we are sinners {live by our own will fulfilling our own desires}, genuine repentance {turning from pleasing self to pleasing God} which is a change of heart and mind toward God and a turning away from our rebellion against God’s ways, and looking to Jesus Christ’s shed blood that He shed on the cross for forgiveness of our sins and for our rebellion against God’s plans for us, then consciously choosing to step out and follow Jesus Christ wherever that may lead or whatever that may mean to our “self” life, which then allows the Holy Spirit of God to begin the process of emptying us of our “self-willed,” “self-seeking,” and “self-sufficient” existence so He can ultimately fill us with the love of Christ, a self-denying love that pours itself out for the good of others with no concern for itself because it knows that its heavenly Father will keep it fulfilled with His spiritual life, no matter the circumstances of life we may find ourselves in. But we must yield to His way of life by giving our consent each step of the way because God will not force Himself on anyone. He wants a family of children who will follow Him voluntarily out of love for Him. A family that recognizes the beauty of His ways and commandments and who will follow in the steps of His son Jesus, who when He walked on this earth, demonstrated in a human body how God’s children are to live – a family of dependent {no longer independent and self-sufficient} and obedient children!
I am happy to report that this spiritual life is available to you and everyone else in this world who will follow God's plan. We now have the opportunity to enter back into the spiritual life that Adam and Eve turned away from in their deception. And I can tell you from experience that it is a place of abundant spiritual blessing, fruitfulness, peace, joy and fulfillment, even in the manifold trials and unpleasant circumstances inherent in this present world system.
I can also promise you from personal experience, and that after drinking heartily from this world's pleasures for most of my adult life, that in full surrender to God the Creator of all life, I have only traded trash for true treasure – the life of God in the soul of man – not as a theology or a theory or a wishful longing for, but as a PRESENT AND CONCIOUS REALITY! And it is a treasure that will last throughout eternity, with no end! I pray that you too will step out and follow my Lord – Jesus Christ!
God's love to me, and now in me, compels me to spend the rest of my life helping anyone in the human race who will listen to the truth, who feels the need of, and who sees the value of following God in His prescribed way of total abandonment, to find that glorious spiritual life. If you are interested in knowing God, which will demand a full surrender of your will to the will of God, I will be thrilled to share more truth with you! Also, I would like to invite you to visit the website www.authenticchristianity.net to listen to the audio lessons as well as read some of the material there. And finally, if you ever wish to talk about your spiritual condition or have prayer together, please contact me. My e-mail address is jmbs99@comcast.net.
Sincerely,
Joe
No comments:
Post a Comment