BARKING DOGS
August 11, 5:53 pmI would just like to take this blog and offer some musings of mine. I was thinking the other day that so much of our thought processes are completely backwards. Sometimes backward thinking causes no harm: yet, there are other times when it can be deleterious to an individual or even to much larger groups. I am going to write a little about barking dogs and Obama.
I thought I would like to offer a few test questions to see how you think about things. "Why does a dog bark?" Seriously, consider the question.
Do you believe that you are a "body that has a soul?"
Do you believe that "sin causes a lost condition?"
I enjoy watching God's creation (both people and animal) and seeing what I can learn from them and to see if there is anything I have learned which I can pass on to others. A week or so ago (while walking Virgil at the park) I stopped to study an incredible spider-web that had been spun only the night before. It is not that I am a complete rube, I have seen spider-webs before. It is just that this one had been spun from a height of about 12 feet off of the ground: one end was hooked to an overhanging tree branch and the other end was hooked to several blades of grass; in the early morning light with the dew still on the ground... it was a work of art. Virgil and I walked completely around it while I took it all in.
I learned several lessons from that experience: perhaps the most important one was the fact that I was again reminded that all of our earthly labors are in vain; at least anything which we do that has no eternal benefit. Now, I told you that story so you might be able to appreciate a lesson I learned from watching my dogs bark. And if you believe nothing else I write... believe this... I have seen a lot of barking dogs!
I have learned the fact that a dog barking is not what makes him a dog... rather, he barks because he is a dog.
In my lifetime I have learned that many people give in to sin because they believe that we are a body which has a soul: in reality that is backward; we are a soul which has a body.
I have learned that many people think that sin causes a lost condition, and that is wrong. I have been witnessing to a particular individual at work for a long time: this person is actively engaged in an ongoing sin. Many, I think well-meaning but misguided people have told her that if she doesn't give up this particular sin, that she will go to Hell. I patiently explained that if she gave up this sin... and a thousand others, that would not spare her the torment of Hell. She has been steadily fed with backward thinking. You see, comitting sins is not what makes her, or any other person lost: rather, the fact that a person is lost is what makes them continue in their sin.
Please follow me carefully. A person is not lost because they are a habitual thief: rather, they habitually steal because they are lost... Obama having unborn babies killed is not what makes him a lost man: rather, because he is a lost man he has unborn babies killed. A serial rapist is not lost because he commits those terrible acts: rather, because he is lost then he commits those terrible acts. etc. etc. etc.
If you can ever fully grasp that sin is not what causes the condition... rather, it is always and forevermore the condition which causes the sin... then you will be able to see people in a different light. God did not say that "you are dying in your tresspasses and sin... He said: (Ephesians 2:1) "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:" Again, the fact that people are lost (dead) is what makes them continue in their sin.
The fact that people believe they are a body which happens to have a soul, makes it more likely they will feed the flesh... yet let them understand they are (in reality) a soul which happens to have a body: then they are more likely to feed the soul. You see, God fashioned from the dust of the ground our temporary earthly body, but it is the soul which is living. (Genesis 2:7) "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Before ending this I will finish telling you what I told the young girl at work. "Sinning... in and of itself is not sending you to Hell: rejecting Christ and His mercy is what will send you to Hell." Please don't get it backward. Cleaning up your own life and trying to do better... will benefit you not at all. Trust Christ first... then allow Him to do a work in your life and clean up what needs to be cleaned up.
You can always email me at clarkmatthews1@aol.com
posted by Robin Johnson @ 5:55 PM
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