January 11, 2020 (December 31, 2021)
I found this post that never got published, so here it is.
I read a book once, it was called 'the dark night of the soul' or something like that; it was written by an old monk hundreds of years ago, I think his name was St. John of the Cross. In this book he described the process that his soul went through to get to what he called 'union with divine love'. It was mainly a poem, written in stanzas, it was very cool.
I was thinking about that today, how God allows certain things and events to happen with the sole purpose of purifying my faith; I guess that is what I was tripping about in the last post, was it yesterday? Maybe not. Very similar to what this old saint says in his book.
I read a book once, it was called 'the dark night of the soul' or something like that; it was written by an old monk hundreds of years ago, I think his name was St. John of the Cross. In this book he described the process that his soul went through to get to what he called 'union with divine love'. It was mainly a poem, written in stanzas, it was very cool.
I was thinking about that today, how God allows certain things and events to happen with the sole purpose of purifying my faith; I guess that is what I was tripping about in the last post, was it yesterday? Maybe not. Very similar to what this old saint says in his book.
As you can see I'm still thinking about it, mostly because I feel sick today. You must get the impression that I complain a lot, but I really don't, I just like to talk about misery in general, just to make you realize how blessed you are if you are healthy, enjoy it while you can.
Life is very strange sometimes, isn't it? I say this as a Christian man who believes that God is in control of all things (here he goes again with the sovereignty of God), and of course He is in control of all things in my life. God can do whatever He pleases, that is a fact, the bible says so, in those words; He can do whatever He wants with me, He doesn't need my opinion, nor does He need to ask if I'm OK with it. He just does what He does and there is nothing anyone on this earth can do to prevent Him from doing it.
Life is very strange sometimes, isn't it? I say this as a Christian man who believes that God is in control of all things (here he goes again with the sovereignty of God), and of course He is in control of all things in my life. God can do whatever He pleases, that is a fact, the bible says so, in those words; He can do whatever He wants with me, He doesn't need my opinion, nor does He need to ask if I'm OK with it. He just does what He does and there is nothing anyone on this earth can do to prevent Him from doing it.
Then the inevitable comes. Just like king David, I start looking at those who could care less about God, He is not in their thoughts at all, they really don't care if He is real or not, they sin with impunity, or at least it looks that way; then there are others who know who He is, and even know what the bible says about their sin, but they still continue to sin the same way they have always sinned, and they don't care; what makes it worse in my mind is that they appear to have all the success of this world and everything goes their way, the only time they think about God is when something bad happens.
That is what I mean when I say this life is very strange, I bet you see it the same way. Reality says otherwise, at least my reality does, and if the bible is true, then your reality is the same as mine, and your reality says otherwise too.
The Christian life is not strange at all, it is the real reality; it is salvation, regeneration, sanctification, glorification; life eternal in the presence of God the Almighty, a life without end in eternal bliss and union with God; that is the real reality for those who love God and have been called according to His purpose, which He will accomplish without our help.
Now imagine living a life where you deceive yourself without knowing that you are deceiving yourself; that sounds really strange, but that is the life of a person who has no idea who God really is; some people live this kind of life and they call themselves Christians; churches are filled with this kind of people on any given Sunday, they are everywhere, even if they do not go to church.
The self deceived are those who think that because they said a prayer they now have a ticket to paradise, or as they say in christianeese, fire insurance; they were led to believe that God wants them to be successful in this world and they are convinced that God is going to make them rich, or help them to accomplish all their goals; they think that they need to go to church because that appeases God and it is a brownie point for them, but they really don't go to church that often. They usually have a list of things they should do to get God on their side so they can keep on climbing the ladder of their dreams.
Some of them even get involved in different ministries because they feel it is their duty to help out, it makes them feel better about themselves after they sin during the week, some of them have the Muslim mentality (the religious mentality I should say): your good deeds must be more in number than your bad deeds; they've got to make sure the balance is always tipped toward the good deeds side, it is the only way to prevent hell from happening to them, basically life is always about themselves and about what everyone else thinks about them.
There is more though, and I mean more deceived people. The cause of their deception is the deceitfulness of sin itself, even more than their own flesh; these are the ones that are in even more danger (as if that is a possibility, which is not), they are the ones that can justify their sin at any cost; you probably know some of them, they even go to the same church you go to but sitting on the pews they look like they are at home.
These are the ones who read the bible and know what it says but they continue to live the same way they have always lived; in the surface it looks like they are godly, they keep the appearances very well but in the inside they are filled with judgment towards others, their behavior is always excusable on the basis of what others do, they're always irritated by other people's behavior but they are worse than the the people who irritate them in the first place.
I wrote a post about them in the past, about 7 or 8 years ago, they are the most sickening of all the self deceived; their excuse is always that they have been saved by grace so it really doesn't matter if they make any effort to change the things they know need changing; they think they "love" Jesus but they have no idea what loving Jesus really means, and if you tell them or mention obedience to the Lord, they tell you that you are very legalistic, impatient and judgmental. You probably know exactly what I'm talking about; some pastors fall in this category, as weird as that sounds, and it makes me wonder how they became pastors to begin with.
Going back to the dark night of the soul, I think I'm going through the soul night of the dark, dislexically speaking; just as that sentence doesn't make any sense, my life seems to not make any sense right now; it is almost like I am suspended in time, watching the days go by, totally disconnected from reality; which makes me think about my own situation. Do I love God?
Is that a question that goes through your mind sometimes? Probably not. But I do ask myself precisely that sporadically; do I really love God? What does it mean to love God? The answer is simple, from the lips of Jesus Himself: if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Or to put it in question form, also from Jesus: why do you call me Lord and do not do what I tell you to do?
Is that simple really, if I love God, I will do what He says to do. Of course this means to obey, which is really impossible without His help in the first place; no one can love God perfectly in this world, no man can obey God perfectly in this body made of decaying flesh; but the key to this puzzle is that it is not a puzzle, I shouldn't be puzzled that I'm puzzled, because it is the work of God in me that makes me love God.
Those that love God and are called according to His purpose, love God because they are called according to His purpose, so all things work together for good for them, even their disobedience. That is a very good thing.
Of course, there are people who do not believe that God has anything to do with your obedience, they think that it is you who must obey without His help, it must come from your heart and your mind, very much like a good Arminian, or should I say 'a good Pelagian'? Are there any good Pelagians?
You probably also know the type, these are the ones who come to the Bible with a set of 'teachings' and pre-conceived ideas, very much just like the Pharisees; they know what the Bible says and it says what they think it says, even if you show them the original meaning of the words in context of what those words say in context of what the book says, and so forth and so on. Frustrating.
It's frustrating because they really don't want to reason with you, they have been taught how to "interpret" the Bible and you cannot be right in what you see, even if what you see falls into the same category of their reasoning. Am I making any sense? Probably not.
What I am saying is that the Bible clearly teaches that you and I are dead in trespasses and sins, that our minds are totally opposed to God's law and anything He says or wants; the book also says that we have been saved by grace through faith and that it is not of ourselves or anything we do or have done, our salvation is the gift of God so no one can boast about it. This grace by which we have been saved includes the faith that is used as a tool that allows to see the beauty of Jesus' work, the "it is not of yourselves" refers to the grace and to the faith, it cannot be interpreted any other way, you check it out:
Eph 2:8-10
(8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
(8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Here some will argue that faith is a natural thing with man since we all believe in all kinds of things, like having faith that a chair will sustain our bodies when we sit on it, or believing that there will be light after we flip the switch on the wall; but the faith that Paul is talking about here is the same faith that he says is the gift of God in those verses above.
So since I never finished this post back in the beginning of the year 2020, I am purposefully finishing it today, the last day of the year 2021, and at the same time I ask you this question: do you love God? Or better yet, do you think you love God? Of course if you are a Christian, you will say that yes, you do love God; but before you do say it, think about where this love comes from if you have it. According to Romans 8, your natural (carnal) mind cannot be subject to God's law (His word) so you cannot love Him with your natural mind, or in your natural state, do you see it?
Rom 8:7-8 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
So if you cannot please God in your natural state, you cannot love Him, and according to Jesus the only thing that is required of me is to love God with all my soul, my mind, and my strength and to love my neighbor as myself, this is the greatest commandment you can keep and by keeping it you keep all the others. Try that in the state you were before God gave you a new birth, and see if you can even think about it.
So, another so just for redundancy, whatever makes us think we can set any goals for the new year? How about setting just one goal for this year, ok let's make it easier, just two goals for this year, love God with all you heart, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Shall be easy, right?
Have a nice new year brothers and sisters, we are all closer to being with Jesus than ever before.
