Misery And How To Avoid It.
2 hours into my Quiet Time, this series shook me up and I truly believe that God is effecting a change from within because there are many interesting pieces of analysis here that offer a refreshing and honest perspective.
If you have serious afflictions and can identify the spiralling inflections in your life, do read this. You can be an atheist, pagan, Jew, Christian, etc. It doesn't matter. You will walk away with a new gift of knowledge.
Dear God,
You know my hurts and wounds. You know what plagues me. I pray in Jesus' Name that You deliver me from this curse in time to come. And Good Lord, I know that everything happens for a reason. I didn't stumble upon this by chance. It was the inexplicable result of googling an irrelevant topic. May this touch every individual whose eyes lay upon these words of wisdom. Amen.
MISERY AND HOW TO AVOID IT
For thousands of years wise people have pondered why we suffer so much misery. That misery we bring on ourselves or inflict on others they called "sin." Some sins seemed to be more miserable than others. These they called "deadly sins." In the 6th Century St. Gregory the Great listed them as seven. In the 13th century Thomas Aquinas noted that they were deadly not merely because they were serious offences morally but because they gave rise to other sins.
Early Christian theologians cataloged seven deadly sins. They called them deadly because they are states of mind which lead to sinful behavior: lust, anger, gluttony, covetousness, envy, sloth and pride. They are not things we do. They are things we think and feel. And they make us miserable.
1. Pride
Pride insists, "My will be done," until God finally says to the damned, "Have it your way." The thing that burns in hell is self-will. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" not because they are lightly held and weakly abandoned, but because they are stubbornly pursued until they become self-serving ends in themselves and are deified.
Pride is competitive. The proud get no pleasure from having anything, but only in having more than others.
Humility is not self-hate. Self-haters are probably the proudest people we know. They hide behind great walls of arrogance to keep us from seeing how cheap they feel inside.
Humility is self-forgetfulness. It is not a low opinion of yourself; it is no opinion of yourself.Truly humble people are not slimy individuals always talking about how terrible they are. They are unaware of their own humility because their attention is not on themselves, but on you. They are interested in what you think and feel and do. They are the most delightful people to be around.
Talent is God-given, so be humble. God's gifts are not on shelves one above the other so that the taller you grow the easier you reach them. They are on shelves one below the other so that by bending lower you get his best. "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will lift you up in his good time."
J. D. Teague wrote this prayer: "I was a child playing hide and seek with You. And You caught me hiding in the silliest, saddest places, behind old grudges under a ton of disappointments, tangled in guilt, smothered with success, choking on sobs that nobody heard. You found me and whispered my name and said, 'You're it!' And I believe You meant it." 2. Greed
Greed is a one syllable word for the sin of covetousness. It comes from a Greek word meaning "to have more." Greed is a demon within us that whispers to our heart, "You ought to have more than you have."
The Bible identifies greed as a form of idolatry. An old joke claims that a miser makes a terrible neighbor and a wonderful ancestor.
Greed has been renamed, "enterprise." It swaggers forth proclaiming a new virtue called, "profit motive." It looks so clever and sophisticated that nobody can believe that its heart is cold and calculating. Besides, where is its heart? Greed has been institutionalized into the joints and marrow of our corporate society which, unlike individuals, has no heart to hear appeals and no soul to be damned.
Have you learned it? You may not have traveled as far down the slope of self-interest as he. But consider where you are headed. Sooner or later you will get so tired of drinking cups of sand, you'll say, "I'm ready for some living water."
The issue is not right and wrong, but good and bad. Jesus illustrated this principle with a parable about a rich fool whose money cost him everything he had. God called this man a fool because he wasn't smart enough to ask, "What is good?" He only knew what was right.
Greed seeks what is right. Generosity seeks what is good. What are you seeking? And when you finally get what you want, will you want what you have? 3. Lust
Thomas Traherne said, "As nothing is more easy than to think, so nothing is more difficult than to think well."
You are responsible for what you think as well as for what you do.
Our modern world has separated thought from behavior, attempting to give freedom to what we think and restraint to the way we behave. With uncensored liberty, our advertising, entertainment, art, literature and movies inflame our appetites and suggest that discipline and self-control are unhealthy, if not downright unamerican. Meanwhile our crowded jails and mental hospitals collect the casualties of our moral disintegration.
Nobody should feel guilty for having a sexual appetite. But only a fool would deliberately intensify an appetite for what is forbidden. Uncontrolled lust is a cannibal committing suicide by nibbling on himself.
You are not what you think you are. But what you think, you are! The wise Solomon said, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7).
Self-serving lust can be dethroned only by a stronger love which seeks the welfare of others (See Matthew 12:43-45). Lust is not love. Lust wants it, the thing itself; love wants the beloved. The thing is a sensory pleasure that occurs within one's own body. It has often been said that a lustful man wants a woman. But that is not what he wants. What he really wants is a pleasure for which the woman happens to be a convenient piece of apparatus. Lust is what makes people want sex even when they have no desire to be with each other.
"Fill your minds with those things which are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and honorable" (Philippians 4:8).
You are what you are and where you are because of what goes into your mind. Garbage in, garbage out applies to your thinking. That should make a difference in the kind of movies you see and the videos you rent. 4. Envy
Every sin carries with it its own punishment. This is especially true of the sin of envy. Envy takes many forms, of Possessions, Position, Privilege and People.
Poverty is a state of mind induced by what our neighbour has. Envious people count other people's blessings instead of their own. Envy is the mud that failure throws at success. Envy begins by asking, "Why shouldn't I enjoy what other's enjoy?" and ends by demanding, "Why should others enjoy what I can not?"
Envy is a great leveler. If it can't level things up, it will level them down. At best it is a social climber; at worst it is a destroyer. Rather than having someone happier than itself, it would make us all miserable together.
Envy sees other people as competitors for prominence instead of companions in progress. Envy creates hell in the human heart. It allows no satisfaction, no security, no peace — only the constant discontent of selfish desire. It is a deadly sin and a miserable punishment. How, then, can we get free from envy?
A wise man prayed, "Give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs! For if I grow rich, I may become content without God. And if I am too poor, I may steal"
[Note : Amen. Mich has prayed this all the while - to be self-sufficient and abundant within wise limits so that she can support her mum and soon, Big Koo and Big-Ee who have contributed greatly to the nurturing of her mind and self since childhood. It is the least that Mich can do to repay their love with gratitude. Mich's biological father may have been absent since 2000, but Big Koo was more a father than her own dad had ever been. Mich has always been very grateful for this undeserved compensation. She has also learnt the value of Sacrifice through the acts of Mummy & Big Koo. For the sake of our family, as Big Koo is the eldest on the maternal side, he turned down the opportunity to be a politician. He had been serving in politics for decades but bowed out for us and instead, intensified his leadership in church. Truly, I am very proud of Big Koo, whom I regard as my father figure.]
Contentment can come either from having more or wanting less. The contentment provided by the latter is seven times more durable than the former. We must learn to be satisfied with our lot even when we don't have a lot.
Love makes us content with what we have and discontent with what we are. Those who are content have enough. Those who complain have too much.
To move from the sin of envy to the virtue of contentment we must first become moderate in our wishes. Second, we must become adaptable in our circumstances. Paul said, "I have learned to be satisfied with what I have… I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions [How?] by the power that Christ gives me" (Philippians 4:11-13 TEV).
God has made us what we are and placed us where we are. Envy is a sign we think he made a mistake. The wise Elihu said, "Since you object to what God does, can you expect him to do what you want?" (Job 34:33 TEV)?
Envy is a deadly sin and a miserable punishment. Always be content with what you have, but never be content with what you are. Free from envy, count on Jesus Christ to complete his work in you, "working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever" (Hebrews 13:21 KJV). 5. Gluttony
Gluttony refers to more than just food. A gluttonous appetite for food destroys our physical health, but a gluttonous appetite for things destroys our economic and spiritual health.
Ever since Adam and Eve fell for the first food commercial we have been in deep trouble. The wise Solomon said, "Put a knife to your throat if you are man of great appetite" (Proverbs 23:2). Paul denounces those "whose god is their belly" (Phil. 3:19 KJV). Their kitchen is their shrine, the cook their priest, the table their altar, and their belly their god.
Gluttony is not only sinful; it is expensive. It costs us our health. Food addiction shortens more lives than drug addiction.
Gluttony, like lust and anger, is an attitude problem. Why do I continue to eat after I am comfortably full? Why do I eat snacks when I'm not really hungry? It must be that I am trying to feed a hunger that isn't physical. It doesn't work. It is bad for both the body and the spirit.
Why do I continue to eat after I am comfortably full? Why do I eat snacks when I'm not really hungry? It must be that I am trying to feed a hunger that isn't physical.
God created and cares for the whole person — not just our soul, but our body too. It is, in fact, the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:12-20). It is where he lives. He wants us to keep it clean and in good repair. The Bible says, "Listen, my son, be wise and give serious thought to the way you live. Don't associate with people who drink too much wine or stuff themselves with food. Drunkards and gluttons will be reduced to poverty" (Proverbs 23:19-21 TEV).
Gluttony costs our happiness. How ironic! Happiness is the very thing the god of gluttony promises to give us. There are few pleasures more wholesome and innocent than moderate eating of good food. But overeating does not increase pleasure. It decreases it. The cure-all for every human ill is consume. Are you depressed? Go shopping. Buy a pill, or a boat, or a car, or a house. Buy something and you will be happy.
We are looking for happiness in all the wrong places. The centers of our most gluttonous pursuits are also the centers of human failure.
SIMPLICITY IS A SENSIBLE VIRTUE.
Hassled by a defective dishwasher, we forget what Jesus said about laying up treasures where rust corrupts and circuits break down (Matthew 6:19). Alarmed by next week's mortgage payment and utility bills on our air-conditioned homes, we seek divine assistance from One who had no place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20).
To simplify life does not mean we forsake our lamps, but we focus on the stars.
Ernest Hemingway said, "The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without."
"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good." (Isaiah 55:2).
Unlike negative diets, the scriptures focus not on what you have to give up, but what you have to take in. 6. AngerFredrick Buechner wrote, "To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontation to come—to savor the last toothsome morsel of both pain you are giving and the pain you are getting back, in many ways it is a feast for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton of the feast is you."
The Old Testament restricted the end of violence: "Thou shalt not kill." The New Testament restricts the beginning of violence: "Thou shalt not get angry."
Some Christians can be as mad as a pit bull chewing bumblebees and still excuse their temper by saying that it is just the way they are. They take a perverse pride in being outspoken and honest.
When the weak suffer at the hands of the strong, when the poor suffer at the hands of the rich, we may have to answer for the sin of not getting angry. Without anger the money changers would still be in the temple, blacks would still be in the back of the bus, and women would still be barefoot and pregnant.
Not all anger is sin, but some is. The two sides of anger are often misunderstood. Anger is a powerful emotion of resistance which has two sides: selfishly gaining something and selflessly giving something. Both sides, however, are expressed by the same word.
There are 3 degrees of hostility :
(A) Anger - The true test of Christian charity is not whether we can get along with atheists or Islamic Fundamentalists but can we get along with the people in our own household. Some Christians are gentle and respectful to neighbors and friends, but mean-spirited to their own family members.
(B)Personal Contempt - "Raca" is the sound people make when they get ready to spit. It was originally spelled hraka. It is an ugly word. Jesus is talking about the sin of treating someone with non-verbal contempt. There is no defense against that. The angry person hasn't said anything, but is ready to spit in someone's face. Such contempt is condemned by the supreme court of heaven.
(C) Verbal Insult - There is a common notion that words don't hurt. We say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." But they do. Especially do they hurt when they come from the mouths of brothers, sisters, parents and children. Some children need to be spanked, but no child needs to be insulted. The most damaging thing a parent can say to a child is, "You're stupid!" Children grow up in homes where they are made to feel dumb. No wonder they lash out in anger themselves. They soon learn to say abusive things to their brothers, sisters, friends and parents. Child abuse is not just physical. Verbal abuse is the most common form.
Husbands and wives, be careful how you speak to each other. If you try to make your spouse feel foolish, you will answer not only to him or her, you will answer to God. "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (Proverbs 15:1). If you speak in anger, you will probably make the best speech you will ever regret.Watch your words. "Speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). If you can't say it in love, you had better hold your peace. "Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires" (James 1:19 NIV).
Many people think that hell is only for monstrous people like Hitler. Jesus says its fires torment respectable people who engage in verbal violence. Some are already suffering a kind of hell on earth. They are imprisoned in a vicious cycle of grievance, insult and anger… grievance, insult and anger… ad nauseum.
Jesus did not address these words to pagan sinners, but to self-righteous fanatics who were proud they hadn't murdered anyone, but who cut others down with their tongues instead of their swords. Jesus said such behavior is Sin.
Anger is just one letter short of danger. The danger is not what we do to those who anger us, but what they make us do to ourselves. Hate hurts the hater more than the hated. Forgiveness is a favour we do ourselves. In rejecting our brother in Christ we lose more than our brother. We lose our Heavenly Father (1 John 4:20-21). We lose our Christian fellowship. We excommunicate ourselves from all we claim to love.
Still there are many who try to justify their anger as "righteous indignation." On closer inspection, however, such righteousness indignation turns out to be only hate with a halo. They hide malice under a zeal for orthodoxy or lofty resolution to expose scandal. Their intention is not to correct an offense, but to punish an offender. They would rather the offense were not ended than that it be ended quietly without violence.
"Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent" (Matthew 5:25-26). There are two interpretations of this statement. Some think Jesus is giving us practical advice: when interpersonal relations are torn, immediate action will mend them. Delay will cost you dearly. Others think Jesus is giving us theological advice: put things right between ourselves while life lasts, before we stand at the judgment bar of God. Both interpretations may be right. If we want happiness now and forever, in time and eternity, we must never leave an unreconciled quarrel or an unhealed relationship. It is far better to forgive and forget than to hate and remember. The one who angers you controls you.
Junior sat down at a picnic and suddenly cried out with pain.
"What's the matter?" his mother asked.
"I'm sitting on a bee," he sobbed.
"Why don't you get up?"
"I figure I'm hurting him as much as he's hurting me!"
That might be true in the case of the bee, but it is rarely, if ever, true in the case of those who hurt you or anger you. Get up and make your peace. The relief you bring will be your own. Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy. Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
Even the most diligent among us usually have some areas of laziness in their lives. There is certainly no pleasure in having nothing to do. The real pleasure is having lots to do—and not doing it! We are all lazy — only in different ways! Some are physically lazy, others are mentally lazy and others are spiritually lazy. And still others are just plain lazy.
(A) Physical Sloth -
In the Old Testament we read: "Go to the ant, O sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest. How long will you lie down, O Sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? 'A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest' — and your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man" (Proverbs 6:6-11).
The pace of life is set by what is in us, not what is around us. Everywhere I have lived there have been lazy people who never got things done and diligent people who tried to do more than was good for them.
Laziness is a sin against God who called us to work.
It is a violation of the ten commandments to rest six days and work the seventh. God means for us to work six times more than we rest. He gives us work till our life is done and life till our work is done.
Everyone to whom God gives breath he also gives something to do. The fact that a Christian is on earth instead of heaven is proof that there is something important for him or her to do.
Jesus didn't save us just to get us to heaven, but to change us into the kind of people who make a difference in the world. What on earth are you doing for heaven's sake? That is, what are you doing on earth for the sake of heaven?
You are not saved to sit; you are saved to serve. God hasn't called you into his vineyard just to eat grapes, but to get busy and hoe. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17).
It is the sin of omission.
Busyness is not necessarily the cure for laziness. Socrates said, "He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed."
"In all things, whatsoever you do…"
1. "Do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31)
2. "Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Colossians 3:17)
3. "With all your heart as though working for the Lord" (Colossians 3:23).
Consider what you did last week and plan to do this week. Ask yourself, "Am I doing this to the glory of God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, with all my heart as though working for the Lord?"
(B) Mental Sloth -
Johann G. Seume said, "Idleness is the stupidity of the body, and stupidity is the idleness of the mind." One may be physically ambitious and mentally lazy. I remember seeing this sign: "When I works, I works hard; when I sits, I sits loose; and when I thinks, I falls asleep."
Some Christians get bedsores on the brain. They haven't read anything weightier than the morning newspaper or worked through a fresh new thought in years.
Their ceaseless activity may actually be a false escape from the horrors of mental sloth. With empty hearts and vacant minds, they cram their lives with mindless busyness. They refuse to stop for quiet moments when the hollowness within rings with an echo of despair. They are busy because restful contemplation terrifies them. They are physically active and mentally slothful.
Mental sloth wears many disguises. Sometimes it takes the form of tolerance that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing — and only remains alive because there is nothing to die for.
Sometimes mental sloth takes the form of conviction that jumps to conclusions instead of digging for facts. Lazy thinkers save time and effort by simply parroting what someone else has said. They are intellectual sluggards.
(C) Spiritual Sloth -
The ancient Latin theologians called this the sin of Accidia or Tristicia (despondence). It is the kind of indolence which comes from indifference to the good. It is the mood in which when good tries to play on us we have no string to respond.
The effective antidote for the poison of sloth is faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13):
= faith in God's sure word,
= hope in God's firm promise, and
= love for God's eternal kingdom.
Paul concludes his great chapter on our final resurrection with these words: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Those who believe there is nothing beyond this life could easily despair of human effort and fall victim to sloth. "What difference does it make?" they might ask. But those of us who believe heaven awaits our coming have an unshakable reason for diligence. Nothing we do for God is in vain.
Let none hear you idly saying,
There is nothing I can do!
While the souls of men are dying,
And the Master calls for you.
Take the task he gives you gladly,
Let his work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when he calleth,
"Here am I; send me! Send me!" (author unknown) [ Source : Christians.org, Douglas Beyer ]
If you have serious afflictions and can identify the spiralling inflections in your life, do read this. You can be an atheist, pagan, Jew, Christian, etc. It doesn't matter. You will walk away with a new gift of knowledge.
Dear God,
You know my hurts and wounds. You know what plagues me. I pray in Jesus' Name that You deliver me from this curse in time to come. And Good Lord, I know that everything happens for a reason. I didn't stumble upon this by chance. It was the inexplicable result of googling an irrelevant topic. May this touch every individual whose eyes lay upon these words of wisdom. Amen.
MISERY AND HOW TO AVOID IT
For thousands of years wise people have pondered why we suffer so much misery. That misery we bring on ourselves or inflict on others they called "sin." Some sins seemed to be more miserable than others. These they called "deadly sins." In the 6th Century St. Gregory the Great listed them as seven. In the 13th century Thomas Aquinas noted that they were deadly not merely because they were serious offences morally but because they gave rise to other sins.
Early Christian theologians cataloged seven deadly sins. They called them deadly because they are states of mind which lead to sinful behavior: lust, anger, gluttony, covetousness, envy, sloth and pride. They are not things we do. They are things we think and feel. And they make us miserable.
1. Pride
Pride is competitive. The proud get no pleasure from having anything, but only in having more than others.
Humility is not self-hate. Self-haters are probably the proudest people we know. They hide behind great walls of arrogance to keep us from seeing how cheap they feel inside.
Humility is self-forgetfulness. It is not a low opinion of yourself; it is no opinion of yourself.Truly humble people are not slimy individuals always talking about how terrible they are. They are unaware of their own humility because their attention is not on themselves, but on you. They are interested in what you think and feel and do. They are the most delightful people to be around.
Talent is God-given, so be humble. God's gifts are not on shelves one above the other so that the taller you grow the easier you reach them. They are on shelves one below the other so that by bending lower you get his best. "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will lift you up in his good time."
J. D. Teague wrote this prayer: "I was a child playing hide and seek with You. And You caught me hiding in the silliest, saddest places, behind old grudges under a ton of disappointments, tangled in guilt, smothered with success, choking on sobs that nobody heard. You found me and whispered my name and said, 'You're it!' And I believe You meant it."
The Bible identifies greed as a form of idolatry. An old joke claims that a miser makes a terrible neighbor and a wonderful ancestor.
Greed has been renamed, "enterprise." It swaggers forth proclaiming a new virtue called, "profit motive." It looks so clever and sophisticated that nobody can believe that its heart is cold and calculating. Besides, where is its heart? Greed has been institutionalized into the joints and marrow of our corporate society which, unlike individuals, has no heart to hear appeals and no soul to be damned.
Have you learned it? You may not have traveled as far down the slope of self-interest as he. But consider where you are headed. Sooner or later you will get so tired of drinking cups of sand, you'll say, "I'm ready for some living water."
The issue is not right and wrong, but good and bad. Jesus illustrated this principle with a parable about a rich fool whose money cost him everything he had. God called this man a fool because he wasn't smart enough to ask, "What is good?" He only knew what was right.
Greed seeks what is right. Generosity seeks what is good. What are you seeking? And when you finally get what you want, will you want what you have?
You are responsible for what you think as well as for what you do.
Our modern world has separated thought from behavior, attempting to give freedom to what we think and restraint to the way we behave. With uncensored liberty, our advertising, entertainment, art, literature and movies inflame our appetites and suggest that discipline and self-control are unhealthy, if not downright unamerican. Meanwhile our crowded jails and mental hospitals collect the casualties of our moral disintegration.
Nobody should feel guilty for having a sexual appetite. But only a fool would deliberately intensify an appetite for what is forbidden. Uncontrolled lust is a cannibal committing suicide by nibbling on himself.
You are not what you think you are. But what you think, you are! The wise Solomon said, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7).
Self-serving lust can be dethroned only by a stronger love which seeks the welfare of others (See Matthew 12:43-45). Lust is not love. Lust wants it, the thing itself; love wants the beloved. The thing is a sensory pleasure that occurs within one's own body. It has often been said that a lustful man wants a woman. But that is not what he wants. What he really wants is a pleasure for which the woman happens to be a convenient piece of apparatus. Lust is what makes people want sex even when they have no desire to be with each other.
"Fill your minds with those things which are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and honorable" (Philippians 4:8).
You are what you are and where you are because of what goes into your mind. Garbage in, garbage out applies to your thinking. That should make a difference in the kind of movies you see and the videos you rent.
Poverty is a state of mind induced by what our neighbour has. Envious people count other people's blessings instead of their own. Envy is the mud that failure throws at success. Envy begins by asking, "Why shouldn't I enjoy what other's enjoy?" and ends by demanding, "Why should others enjoy what I can not?"
Envy is a great leveler. If it can't level things up, it will level them down. At best it is a social climber; at worst it is a destroyer. Rather than having someone happier than itself, it would make us all miserable together.
Envy sees other people as competitors for prominence instead of companions in progress. Envy creates hell in the human heart. It allows no satisfaction, no security, no peace — only the constant discontent of selfish desire. It is a deadly sin and a miserable punishment. How, then, can we get free from envy?
A wise man prayed, "Give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs! For if I grow rich, I may become content without God. And if I am too poor, I may steal"
[Note : Amen. Mich has prayed this all the while - to be self-sufficient and abundant within wise limits so that she can support her mum and soon, Big Koo and Big-Ee who have contributed greatly to the nurturing of her mind and self since childhood. It is the least that Mich can do to repay their love with gratitude. Mich's biological father may have been absent since 2000, but Big Koo was more a father than her own dad had ever been. Mich has always been very grateful for this undeserved compensation. She has also learnt the value of Sacrifice through the acts of Mummy & Big Koo. For the sake of our family, as Big Koo is the eldest on the maternal side, he turned down the opportunity to be a politician. He had been serving in politics for decades but bowed out for us and instead, intensified his leadership in church. Truly, I am very proud of Big Koo, whom I regard as my father figure.]
Contentment can come either from having more or wanting less. The contentment provided by the latter is seven times more durable than the former. We must learn to be satisfied with our lot even when we don't have a lot.
Love makes us content with what we have and discontent with what we are. Those who are content have enough. Those who complain have too much.
To move from the sin of envy to the virtue of contentment we must first become moderate in our wishes. Second, we must become adaptable in our circumstances. Paul said, "I have learned to be satisfied with what I have… I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions [How?] by the power that Christ gives me" (Philippians 4:11-13 TEV).
God has made us what we are and placed us where we are. Envy is a sign we think he made a mistake. The wise Elihu said, "Since you object to what God does, can you expect him to do what you want?" (Job 34:33 TEV)?
Envy is a deadly sin and a miserable punishment. Always be content with what you have, but never be content with what you are. Free from envy, count on Jesus Christ to complete his work in you, "working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever" (Hebrews 13:21 KJV).
Ever since Adam and Eve fell for the first food commercial we have been in deep trouble. The wise Solomon said, "Put a knife to your throat if you are man of great appetite" (Proverbs 23:2). Paul denounces those "whose god is their belly" (Phil. 3:19 KJV). Their kitchen is their shrine, the cook their priest, the table their altar, and their belly their god.
Gluttony is not only sinful; it is expensive. It costs us our health. Food addiction shortens more lives than drug addiction.
Gluttony, like lust and anger, is an attitude problem. Why do I continue to eat after I am comfortably full? Why do I eat snacks when I'm not really hungry? It must be that I am trying to feed a hunger that isn't physical. It doesn't work. It is bad for both the body and the spirit.
Why do I continue to eat after I am comfortably full? Why do I eat snacks when I'm not really hungry? It must be that I am trying to feed a hunger that isn't physical.
God created and cares for the whole person — not just our soul, but our body too. It is, in fact, the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:12-20). It is where he lives. He wants us to keep it clean and in good repair. The Bible says, "Listen, my son, be wise and give serious thought to the way you live. Don't associate with people who drink too much wine or stuff themselves with food. Drunkards and gluttons will be reduced to poverty" (Proverbs 23:19-21 TEV).
Gluttony costs our happiness. How ironic! Happiness is the very thing the god of gluttony promises to give us. There are few pleasures more wholesome and innocent than moderate eating of good food. But overeating does not increase pleasure. It decreases it. The cure-all for every human ill is consume. Are you depressed? Go shopping. Buy a pill, or a boat, or a car, or a house. Buy something and you will be happy.
We are looking for happiness in all the wrong places. The centers of our most gluttonous pursuits are also the centers of human failure.
SIMPLICITY IS A SENSIBLE VIRTUE.
Hassled by a defective dishwasher, we forget what Jesus said about laying up treasures where rust corrupts and circuits break down (Matthew 6:19). Alarmed by next week's mortgage payment and utility bills on our air-conditioned homes, we seek divine assistance from One who had no place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20).
To simplify life does not mean we forsake our lamps, but we focus on the stars.
Ernest Hemingway said, "The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without."
"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good." (Isaiah 55:2).
Unlike negative diets, the scriptures focus not on what you have to give up, but what you have to take in.
The Old Testament restricted the end of violence: "Thou shalt not kill." The New Testament restricts the beginning of violence: "Thou shalt not get angry."
Some Christians can be as mad as a pit bull chewing bumblebees and still excuse their temper by saying that it is just the way they are. They take a perverse pride in being outspoken and honest.
When the weak suffer at the hands of the strong, when the poor suffer at the hands of the rich, we may have to answer for the sin of not getting angry. Without anger the money changers would still be in the temple, blacks would still be in the back of the bus, and women would still be barefoot and pregnant.
Not all anger is sin, but some is. The two sides of anger are often misunderstood. Anger is a powerful emotion of resistance which has two sides: selfishly gaining something and selflessly giving something. Both sides, however, are expressed by the same word.
There are 3 degrees of hostility :
(A) Anger - The true test of Christian charity is not whether we can get along with atheists or Islamic Fundamentalists but can we get along with the people in our own household. Some Christians are gentle and respectful to neighbors and friends, but mean-spirited to their own family members.
(B)Personal Contempt - "Raca" is the sound people make when they get ready to spit. It was originally spelled hraka. It is an ugly word. Jesus is talking about the sin of treating someone with non-verbal contempt. There is no defense against that. The angry person hasn't said anything, but is ready to spit in someone's face. Such contempt is condemned by the supreme court of heaven.
(C) Verbal Insult - There is a common notion that words don't hurt. We say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." But they do. Especially do they hurt when they come from the mouths of brothers, sisters, parents and children. Some children need to be spanked, but no child needs to be insulted. The most damaging thing a parent can say to a child is, "You're stupid!" Children grow up in homes where they are made to feel dumb. No wonder they lash out in anger themselves. They soon learn to say abusive things to their brothers, sisters, friends and parents. Child abuse is not just physical. Verbal abuse is the most common form.
Husbands and wives, be careful how you speak to each other. If you try to make your spouse feel foolish, you will answer not only to him or her, you will answer to God. "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (Proverbs 15:1). If you speak in anger, you will probably make the best speech you will ever regret.Watch your words. "Speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). If you can't say it in love, you had better hold your peace. "Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires" (James 1:19 NIV).
Many people think that hell is only for monstrous people like Hitler. Jesus says its fires torment respectable people who engage in verbal violence. Some are already suffering a kind of hell on earth. They are imprisoned in a vicious cycle of grievance, insult and anger… grievance, insult and anger… ad nauseum.
Jesus did not address these words to pagan sinners, but to self-righteous fanatics who were proud they hadn't murdered anyone, but who cut others down with their tongues instead of their swords. Jesus said such behavior is Sin.
Anger is just one letter short of danger. The danger is not what we do to those who anger us, but what they make us do to ourselves. Hate hurts the hater more than the hated. Forgiveness is a favour we do ourselves. In rejecting our brother in Christ we lose more than our brother. We lose our Heavenly Father (1 John 4:20-21). We lose our Christian fellowship. We excommunicate ourselves from all we claim to love.
Still there are many who try to justify their anger as "righteous indignation." On closer inspection, however, such righteousness indignation turns out to be only hate with a halo. They hide malice under a zeal for orthodoxy or lofty resolution to expose scandal. Their intention is not to correct an offense, but to punish an offender. They would rather the offense were not ended than that it be ended quietly without violence.
"Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent" (Matthew 5:25-26). There are two interpretations of this statement. Some think Jesus is giving us practical advice: when interpersonal relations are torn, immediate action will mend them. Delay will cost you dearly. Others think Jesus is giving us theological advice: put things right between ourselves while life lasts, before we stand at the judgment bar of God. Both interpretations may be right. If we want happiness now and forever, in time and eternity, we must never leave an unreconciled quarrel or an unhealed relationship. It is far better to forgive and forget than to hate and remember. The one who angers you controls you.
Junior sat down at a picnic and suddenly cried out with pain.
"What's the matter?" his mother asked.
"I'm sitting on a bee," he sobbed.
"Why don't you get up?"
"I figure I'm hurting him as much as he's hurting me!"
That might be true in the case of the bee, but it is rarely, if ever, true in the case of those who hurt you or anger you. Get up and make your peace. The relief you bring will be your own.
7. Sloth
Even the most diligent among us usually have some areas of laziness in their lives. There is certainly no pleasure in having nothing to do. The real pleasure is having lots to do—and not doing it! We are all lazy — only in different ways! Some are physically lazy, others are mentally lazy and others are spiritually lazy. And still others are just plain lazy.
(A) Physical Sloth -
In the Old Testament we read: "Go to the ant, O sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest. How long will you lie down, O Sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? 'A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest' — and your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man" (Proverbs 6:6-11).
The pace of life is set by what is in us, not what is around us. Everywhere I have lived there have been lazy people who never got things done and diligent people who tried to do more than was good for them.
Laziness is a sin against God who called us to work.
It is a violation of the ten commandments to rest six days and work the seventh. God means for us to work six times more than we rest. He gives us work till our life is done and life till our work is done.
Everyone to whom God gives breath he also gives something to do. The fact that a Christian is on earth instead of heaven is proof that there is something important for him or her to do.
Jesus didn't save us just to get us to heaven, but to change us into the kind of people who make a difference in the world. What on earth are you doing for heaven's sake? That is, what are you doing on earth for the sake of heaven?
You are not saved to sit; you are saved to serve. God hasn't called you into his vineyard just to eat grapes, but to get busy and hoe. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17).
It is the sin of omission.
Busyness is not necessarily the cure for laziness. Socrates said, "He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed."
"In all things, whatsoever you do…"
1. "Do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31)
2. "Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Colossians 3:17)
3. "With all your heart as though working for the Lord" (Colossians 3:23).
Consider what you did last week and plan to do this week. Ask yourself, "Am I doing this to the glory of God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, with all my heart as though working for the Lord?"
(B) Mental Sloth -
Johann G. Seume said, "Idleness is the stupidity of the body, and stupidity is the idleness of the mind." One may be physically ambitious and mentally lazy. I remember seeing this sign: "When I works, I works hard; when I sits, I sits loose; and when I thinks, I falls asleep."
Some Christians get bedsores on the brain. They haven't read anything weightier than the morning newspaper or worked through a fresh new thought in years.
Their ceaseless activity may actually be a false escape from the horrors of mental sloth. With empty hearts and vacant minds, they cram their lives with mindless busyness. They refuse to stop for quiet moments when the hollowness within rings with an echo of despair. They are busy because restful contemplation terrifies them. They are physically active and mentally slothful.
Mental sloth wears many disguises. Sometimes it takes the form of tolerance that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing — and only remains alive because there is nothing to die for.
Sometimes mental sloth takes the form of conviction that jumps to conclusions instead of digging for facts. Lazy thinkers save time and effort by simply parroting what someone else has said. They are intellectual sluggards.
(C) Spiritual Sloth -
The ancient Latin theologians called this the sin of Accidia or Tristicia (despondence). It is the kind of indolence which comes from indifference to the good. It is the mood in which when good tries to play on us we have no string to respond.
The effective antidote for the poison of sloth is faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13):
= faith in God's sure word,
= hope in God's firm promise, and
= love for God's eternal kingdom.
Paul concludes his great chapter on our final resurrection with these words: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Those who believe there is nothing beyond this life could easily despair of human effort and fall victim to sloth. "What difference does it make?" they might ask. But those of us who believe heaven awaits our coming have an unshakable reason for diligence. Nothing we do for God is in vain.
Let none hear you idly saying,
There is nothing I can do!
While the souls of men are dying,
And the Master calls for you.
Take the task he gives you gladly,
Let his work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when he calleth,
"Here am I; send me! Send me!" (author unknown)
posted by whimsical_fantasies at 1:11 AM
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