Resurrection
Spiritual renewal is the starting point for healing. It gives us, if nothing else, a reason for change. A motivator. I think it also gives us the power to overcome our addictions and old habits.
Many times we struggle with sex outside of God's designed context because we are trying to replace His influence on our lives. Whatever the reason — we may think God doesn't care about us, given up on us, is against us ... I believe that God is for us, not against us. The evidence is that he went to pretty extreme measures just to hang out with us.
I believe God is very personal. He wants a relationship with us. It's a deep combination of Father figure and friend. This is where many of us get hung up because we have had negative experiences with our fathers and/or our friends and we're just trying to protect ourselves from feeling that pain again. I believe God is different than our fathers and our friends.
So, God made us, right? I think he wanted to make us. I think he wanted to make us because he just wanted some company. He made us like him (in his image has a lot of different interpretations, the specifics of which are sort of irrelevant for this discussion). But in a shocking turn of events, there came to be a rift between us (whether you believe the Biblical Creation story is literal truth or symbolic, the main idea is that there is division between God and man, and that is not what God originally intended).
The consequence of living outside God's guidelines is separation from God (or what is referred to as death in the Bible), because God is so good that he can't be in the presence of things that are even slightly ungood. Ungood things are destroyed by his presence. So what does God do to bridge the gap? He breaks the power of death.
God put on some skin, but not in that creepy Silence of the Lambs way, I promise. He lived a while, like we do, then he died (a criminal's death mind you — short tangent ... if you were to update those cross necklaces to the modern equivalent, they would be electric chair necklaces: discuss) then he spent some time in hell.
But he didn't stay there. That's what is truly incredible. He's the only person to ever rise from the dead on his own power. So essentially, he overcame the power of death, which is pretty significant in the spiritual realm, from what little I understand about the spiritual realm. On top of that, he predicted he would do it and came through. That helps me trust him.
Because God broke the power of death, we no longer have to spend any time apart from him. He has said, 'Hey, I want you.' All we gotta do to hang out with him is say, 'Hey, I want you, too. You're pretty cool, actually.'
God is for you, not against you. I know it may have felt the opposite to you for a long time. But he wants you. You are valuable to him. Precious is a good word. He went to pretty extreme measures to let you know.
Many times we struggle with sex outside of God's designed context because we are trying to replace His influence on our lives. Whatever the reason — we may think God doesn't care about us, given up on us, is against us ... I believe that God is for us, not against us. The evidence is that he went to pretty extreme measures just to hang out with us.
I believe God is very personal. He wants a relationship with us. It's a deep combination of Father figure and friend. This is where many of us get hung up because we have had negative experiences with our fathers and/or our friends and we're just trying to protect ourselves from feeling that pain again. I believe God is different than our fathers and our friends.
So, God made us, right? I think he wanted to make us. I think he wanted to make us because he just wanted some company. He made us like him (in his image has a lot of different interpretations, the specifics of which are sort of irrelevant for this discussion). But in a shocking turn of events, there came to be a rift between us (whether you believe the Biblical Creation story is literal truth or symbolic, the main idea is that there is division between God and man, and that is not what God originally intended).
The consequence of living outside God's guidelines is separation from God (or what is referred to as death in the Bible), because God is so good that he can't be in the presence of things that are even slightly ungood. Ungood things are destroyed by his presence. So what does God do to bridge the gap? He breaks the power of death.
God put on some skin, but not in that creepy Silence of the Lambs way, I promise. He lived a while, like we do, then he died (a criminal's death mind you — short tangent ... if you were to update those cross necklaces to the modern equivalent, they would be electric chair necklaces: discuss) then he spent some time in hell.
But he didn't stay there. That's what is truly incredible. He's the only person to ever rise from the dead on his own power. So essentially, he overcame the power of death, which is pretty significant in the spiritual realm, from what little I understand about the spiritual realm. On top of that, he predicted he would do it and came through. That helps me trust him.
Because God broke the power of death, we no longer have to spend any time apart from him. He has said, 'Hey, I want you.' All we gotta do to hang out with him is say, 'Hey, I want you, too. You're pretty cool, actually.'
God is for you, not against you. I know it may have felt the opposite to you for a long time. But he wants you. You are valuable to him. Precious is a good word. He went to pretty extreme measures to let you know.
posted by Pack Time at 9:48 AM
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