Instinct,
Reactivity and Responding – Freedom in Christ - Purity 769
Purity 769 06/28/2022 Purity 769 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of farmland and my canine companion, Harley, thrusting his
head into some roadside weeds underneath pleasant blue skies comes to us from
your truly as I captured this random photo somewhere along Waite Road back on
May 29th.
The power lines in the background that obscure the simplicity
of this pastural scene and the fact of my doggie friend’s head is in a bunch of
weeds would usually relegate a photo like this to the trash. But apparently I take more photos than I look
at and this photo remained on my phone for the last month and it is oddly
appropriate for what’s on my mind this morning.
My friend, Harley, follows his nose. Although he has
learned to respond to some basic commands, he is still mostly pure
instinct. Here his nose causes him to
thrust his head into some road side weeds possibly smelling the remnants of the
sent of a rabbit, another animal’s spray or waste, or something dead, all of
which seem to be a dog’s nose’s bread and butter. As much as I think at times
that Harley is a “good dog” who listens, sometimes his instincts kicks in and
causes him to behave in ways I wish he wouldn’t.
The Best example of this is when I began trusting him off
his leash to allow him to run free in those farmland fields unencumbered as he
on several instances would run at top speeds with the unadulterated joys of
freedom and would make his way back to me without incident. But then on Easter
Sunday, his instincts got the best of him.
While “running free” Harley discovered the delightful scents of cow
manure and out of his pure joy and instincts, he inexplicably rolled around in
said manure, putting me and him in the dog house of disappointment when his new
scent was discovered back at the house.
I could imagine me asking: “Why did you do it boy?” and
his silent unblinking response as if to say: “What did you expect? I’m a dog.” As if to paraphrase a line from the movie Animal
House, which I will edit, “You “messed” up. You trusted us.”
But he’s a dog. Right? Surely humans should know better
and learn from their mistakes and not just blindly react to situations in the
ways they have in the past, especially when they have had a measure of success
in overcoming their old patterns of behavior.
OOF, I wish I could say it wasn’t so. I don’t have to look far, maybe only as far
as the nearest mirror, to be able to testify of the difficulty of changing the
ways we behave. “Relapse is part of recovery” is a phrase
because of this tendency to react rather than respond and to go back to old
thought and behavior patterns when we are not diligent in renewing our minds
with the word of God.
Recently, I was disappointed to hear of a teen who had success
in overcoming symptoms of depression, thoughts of suicide, and acts of self-harm
had an emotional relapse and reverted to an act of self-harm, cutting themselves.
Their parent was dumbfounded because they had been doing so well, having
successfully gone through a teen mental health treatment program and been
removed from the bullying elements that had caused much of their problems.
However, this teen, who apparently only moments before been
happy and interacting with their family, went to their room overwhelmed with
emotions and shortly after emerged distraught with bleeding wounds. I don’t know the details but the trigger to
this outburst was a text message that they had received from someone from their
past. So one warped individual with no compassion or empathy decided to reach
out and touch someone, and intentionally or not, caused this teen to be dragged
back into depression, thoughts of suicide, and an act of self-harm.
It's very easy to place blame here: the texter is
obviously at fault here but without knowing the content or context of the
message we can only speculate and assume that it was a negative message of
derision. But to be honest, with text especially, the message received may be
different from the message sent especially when emotions are involved. Communication
can be a subtle thing. “I know what you meant” “I didn’t mean THAT!”
Because of the complexity of human emotions and the difficulties
of communication the possibilities for an event that would precipitate an emotional
reaction and an unwise decision are endless.
As I considered this situation, I was obviously angered by
the texter but as I contemplated the responses of this teen’s support group, I
was a little dumbfounded by how there seemed to be little consideration of the
relapsed teen’s personal responsibility in the way they chose to react to the
text.
I can only assume that somewhere along the lines in this teen’s
previous mental health treatment that they were given instruction or
encouragement to talk to someone when they were having problems. They were surrounded by family. SO why didn’t
they go to someone? Why didn’t they show someone the text? Why didn’t they tell
someone what was going on in their life? Why didn’t they stop themselves when
they had thoughts to hurt themselves?
And then I thought about it. We only learn what we choose to learn. We only do what is required. To get out of a
mental health hospitalization, all you have to do is demonstrate that you are
no longer a danger to yourself or others. You have to demonstrate through your affect,
you mood, that you have stabilized and can verbally express your intention not
to harm yourself or others, verbally, and agree to seek help if you are in crisis. That’s it really.
The hospital and mental health systems don’t exist to
imprison people and they can not read the thoughts and intentions of the people
they treat. Unfortunately, most of modern psychology has an atheistic world
view and the relativistic morality that it brings paints the world in shades of
gray and is hesitant to instruct clients with the wisdom of good and evil and
the basic tenants of problem solving.
While the world and all that is in it, including malicious
texters, is a big problem, it isn’t the problem we should try to resolve. The problem in mental health is in self
perception and the way we interact with the world. A Christian worldview would insist on each of
our personal responsibility for the things we say, think, and do and how that
lines up with the very black and white moral principles that God establishes in
His word.
Our guilt feelings, depression, and low view of ourselves may
be a result of the fact that we are living independently from God and have
ignored all of His wisdom and have instead decided to live by the world’s “dog
eat dog, it’s a jungle out there, “I’ll do what I want” mentality.
In this instance, whatever was sent in the text and
whatever it said about the teen who received it, whether it was based on facts
regarding the teen’s appearance, behaviors, or past, wouldn’t overrule what God says about that
teen. The “Who I am in Christ list (https://www.mt4christ.org/2022/06/celebrating-life-and-freedom-purity-766.html)
which I shared recently and am sharing a link to the post in which I shared it,
spells out what God thinks about us when we are in Christ. In Christ, we are accepted, significant, and
secure.
If this teen knew this, they disregard the opinions of
men. They disregard the opinion of some
teasing adolescent bully who undoubtedly has some unresolved issues in their
life if they feel the need to build themselves up by tearing someone else down.
So as much as the world sucks, and as much as people can
suck, it is up to us to know that it is not the world that defines us.
Of course, this all presupposes some knowledge of, and
faith in, Jesus Christ.
While we can use cognitive therapy from the world to develop
better strategies to employ when we face triggers. Those strategies won’t set you free. The world’s
positive affirmations are usual pretty general and won’t give you any authority
to based your positive affirmations on other than man’s logic which can so
easily be derailed in a world that is quite often irrational and chaotic.
So with out peace with God, through faith in Jesus Christ,
there is only so much you can do: thus relapse is a part of recovery. This seemingly contradictory statement is
accepted wholesale in the world because: What did you expect? You messed up.
You trusted us.
Without Christ, we are in bondage to sin, we are separated
from God, and all those good things that the “Who I am in Christ” list says
about us, isn’t true for those without Christ, and they don’t have the
authority of the maker of the universe to tell them that they are loved, significant,
secure, or accepted.
Christ gives us the forgiveness of sins and life eternal
but He also gives us the power to overcome. Through the indwelling presence of
the Holy Spirit, the power of Christ in us, we can say no to sin. With the word
of God, we can renew our mind to change our thoughts and emotions. And we can
stand on the authority of the maker of all things, to know the truth and to see
it grow in our lives.
So, stop acting on instinct, stop reacting, and start
responding by seeking the Lord and His ways for our lives. Step 1 is surrendering to the Lordship of
Christ by making Christ our Lord and Savior. Step 2 is to surrender to the
truth of who you are in Christ. Step 3 is to start living according to who you
are in Christ and by the wisdom of God’s word.
While we may run off from time to time and make a mess of
ourselves, when we are in Christ we know always have a home and we always have
peace with our Master. And we start obeying Our Master by believing what He says
about us and by doing what He would have us do, we can have one dog-gone good
life in the peace of His presence.
______________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT2)
18 So all of us who have had
that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who
is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his
glorious image.
Today’s
Bible verse speaks of receiving spiritual sight and the process of
sanctification.
Here
the Apostle Paul describes our new life in Christ, our transformation. We see the truth of God and then we become
more and more like Him.
It’s
not about perfection, it’s about progress and the more we seek to see and
reflect the Lord’s glory we become more and more like Him.
Our
faith was never supposed to be spent sitting idly in worship services remaining
more or less unchanged. Our faith is
process of change, a process of transformation that brings us closer and closer
to God until we reflect His goodness, His character, and His glory.
______________________________________________________________________
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from Clinton E. Arnold’s
“Powers of Darkness”
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and
encourage all to purchase Clinton Arnold’s books for your own private
study and to support his work. This resource is available on many
websites for less than $20.00.
The Angelic Fall
In
the Jewish literature of this period one of the most prominent themes was the
belief that demons came into the world as a result of unnatural sexual
relations between angels and human beings. This belief is based on an
interpretation of Genesis 6:1–2 and 4, which says:
When
men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married
any of them they chose.… The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also
afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by
them.
Many
Jewish writers interpreted the reference to “sons of God” as angels (called
“Watchers”), who rebelled against God. The disastrous consequence of this
unnatural union resulted in the birth of the Nephilim, the source of demons and
evil spirits. The Jewish apocalyptic book of 1 Enoch spends thirty-one chapters elaborating on this fall (1 Enoch 6–36). According to this
account, after the physical beauty of women on earth erotically tantalized some
200 angels, led by a certain Semyaz, the angels made a joint decision to violate
their divinely given boundaries by engaging in sexual activity with the women.
While they were occupying the earth, they taught people many evil arts,
including alchemy, astrology, incantations and warfare. The women, made
pregnant by these supernatural beings, gave birth to freakish giants. These
giants committed numerous atrocities, yet their deaths did not prove to be the
end of rampant evil—demons came from them:
But
now the giants who are born from the union of the spirits and the flesh shall
be called evil spirits upon the earth, because their dwelling shall be upon the
earth and inside the earth. Evil spirits have come out of their bodies.… The
spirits of the giants oppress each other; they will corrupt, fall, be excited,
and fall upon the earth, and cause sorrow. They eat no food, nor become
thirsty, nor find obstacles. And these spirits shall rise up against the
children of the people and against the women, because they have proceeded forth
from them. (1 Enoch 15:8–12)
It
was believed these evil spirits, which issued from the giants, would continue
to corrupt humanity until the end of the age when God would put an end to their
hostility and judge them. In Jewish literature this rebellion is referred to
many times as responsible for the presence of demons. Meanwhile, the good
angels, Raphael and Michael, have bound those angels who were guilty of this
crime against women under the earth, where they will remain until the judgment
(1 Enoch 10:1–14; cf. Jude 6; 1 Pet
3:19–20; 2 Pet 2:4).
We may wonder about
the time before this rebellion, especially in view of the Genesis account of
the serpent’s temptation of Eve. Was there some prior angelic rebellion in
Jewish belief? It is clear that the same Jewish literature speaks of the
existence and malignant workings of evil angels prior to the Fall. There is
virtually no discussion, however, about how or when Satan and his angelic
cohorts came on the scene. This literature refers to a major figurehead of evil
called “Satan,” the leader of a group of angels also referred to as “Satans.”
These Satans accuse people and lead them astray. Interestingly, according to 1 Enoch, it was one of these Satanic
messengers, named Gader’el, who misled Eve in the garden (1 Enoch 69:6). The Jews must have assumed true some kind of
pre-Adam fall in order to explain the evil character and function of this Satan
and his hostile messengers (see 1 Enoch
40:7; 53:3; 54:6).
Classes and Names
Asmodaeus,
Semyaza, Azazel, Mastema, Beliar, Satan, Sammael and Satanail are just a few of
the names used to refer to the evil angelic powers current in Judaism by the
time of Paul. While there is a certain amount of diversity regarding the
specific functions of each of these powers, there is a fairly common belief in
Satan as the chief. These powers of evil are represented as each having a
significant measure of authority within the structured hierarchy. For example,
Semyaza is identified as the chief of those angels who cohabited with women. Of
the 200 angels who came to earth with him, they were divided into groups of
ten, with a prince, such as Arakeb, Rame’el and Tam’el, set over each.
A similar concern to
name the evil angels and classify them according to their function was typical
of much of this Jewish literature. Equally prominent is the arrangement and
naming of the good angels surrounding the throne of God.
In the years
following the New Testament era this fascination with the spirit realm did not
diminish. There are frequent references to evil angels and spirits in the
rabbinic literature. Far more evil spirits are identified and described. In
fact, one scholar has counted 123 different demons identified by name in the
rabbinic literature![1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
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Encouragement for the Path of
Christian Discipleship
[1]
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness:
Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 65–67.
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