Under condemnation?
Condemnation special (APRIL 2009)
(16 minutes)
Are we under condemnation? Do you feel condemned, judged or even hated by God? Lindy leads us into this misunderstood topic as we delve deeper into our relationship with God and each other.
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Under condemnation ?
Submitted by guest on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 10:01.Lindy, heartfelt blessings to you for this input and for your honesty. It takes courage and real sincerity to open up, I know. We need more honesty now than ever, and Chris is right in saying our values are topsy turvy. We make so much that is trivial of importance, and what is really important is triviliased. I know exactly where you are coming from, as one who came to that point where Christ entered my life with a sword, and for over eleven years now the evil one has been using those I loved most to try to bring me down, (Matthew 10.32-39) I had to make a choice, the hardest thing any mother can have to do and the pain was, and still can be, unbelievable- - but praise God, through the strength given me by God through the Holy Spirit, I know that I am not under condemnation . The evil one is wasting his time, although he has gathered his army within my earthly 'extended' family who scoff at 'church' ,understandably, for generally speaking 'Christian' witness over the years has been pretty awful, and refuse to talk sensibly about anything, with a smugness taking the place of God's Love, and a human view adopted instead of obedience to God's Holy Word, which is tough - let's not pretend otherwise. My family now are those who do the will of God, and I pray that my 'earthly' family may yet become part of that greater family. In the meantime I seek to serve Him to the best of my ability and have made my stand (Ephesians 6.10-18). I also agree that childhood situations can affect our lives for years, leading us to wrong decisions through lack of self confidence if there is absolutely no-one who really cares, (my own mother having died during World War 2 of cancer at 43 yrs of age and my absent and irresponsible father was thankful his daughter was no longer his concern, I do know what I am talking about - the world is an ugly place . You are right to love the little ones you care for. The damage being done nowadays to our little ones is appalling and unless there is a complete review of the proper relationship between boys and girls, the outlook for children of the future is grim indeed. The growth of a 'ladette' culture among young women is perfectly understandable - it starts as a kind of self defence in imitating the behaviour of boys, but it is high time it was understood, that men and women are not the same. Almighty God is both male and female, created He them both to be equal in His sight, but to be complimentary, not competitive. As the youngest girl in a family of boys, where there was no father's discipline (he was still,a spoilt little boy himself ) it was not a very nice place to be although my mother and grandmother were wonderful women coping with so much on very little. My father, had no father's discipline himself, his own father having been killed in the Boer War when he was still a baby - and still irresponsible politicians whose lives have been pretty cosy by comparison, lead us to war and destroy families for generations, leaving the women always to carry the can! This also ties up with Chris's statement about koinonia, we need each other, but I intend to agree that Our Lord may well be saying 'a plague on all your houses'. I had to leave the church I had loved and served, because there was no understanding of what I was going through, apart from my own Pastor, no acceptance of the fact that our journey isn't all 'happy clappy' - it is real and it is hard and the BIble tells us so but we can nevertheless, with Christ, travel it joyfully and should be able to share our journey in confidence with one another - Churches don't like teaching the 'tough bits' - thank God for Pastor Mark Weeden at Worthing Tabernacle (I hope he will not be offended at the reference) who has the courage to spell out what many Ministers run away from for fear of upsetting a cosy congregation , for the evil one is crafty and finds his army even within the church through petty jealousies which are a weak point. I close by saying again, Bless you Lindy - and Chris for as usual putting a finger squarely on a button. I think as a nation we have reached the point of 'enough is enough' - it is time to move onwards and upwards, - through Our Lord and through Him alone, we have the opportunity for our national slate to be wiped clean and to begin a new chapter with a resolve to be a better people, including all colours and all creeds. May we , as true Believers, sing and mean "For this, I have Jesus". With Love in Our Lord, Enid.