To my VERY precious sisters and brothers here at the Alliance Forums. I have just not been myself lately. But that is absolutely no excuse. If I have been short with anyone, or hateful, or defensive, or conducted myself in any way other than the way Jesus wants me to treat my sisters and brothers, and even the entire brotherhood of man,......PLEASE FORGIVE ME. I ask you to please, .......forgive me. I apologize. We all have our "crosses" and mine is no heavier than any other. Alot of you gals and guys are dealing with stuff that is twenty times harder than I contend with on a daily basis. And still.....you are able to treat others well. I will work on doing that too.
I am, obviously, referring to my defensive diatribe (that thankfully was deleted) on another thread. But also...in general. I'll do better. I promise.
And now, I would like to pose a question to each of you. Answer if you will.....if you don't...no problem. I was going through the Law of Moses and counting the times that I broke a certain law that was punishable my stoning. i.e......cursing at parents, being a brat towards parents, dishonouring parents and a whole hosts of others. Hey, I started getting plum depressed...lol....sigh. I'm serious. I would have never made it to 30!!!!! I would have been stoned many times over.....although, the way I understand it....stoning was a one time punishment whose end result was the eradication of the offender...so as (I'm assuming) to keep Israel holy. Have y'all eve done that???
How does this apply to THE DEEPER LIFE??? Oh....MUCH....in every way. If I don't see myself as a law breaker....how would I ever know, or understand, that I need a Saviour. And how could I be grateful for a Saviour. I would not understand why God went to such lengths to affect a method of reconciliation.
Just think: All of this Deeper Life stuff, Redemption stuff, Reconciliation stuff......WAS GOD'S IDEA!!!!!! It was all HIS!!! Not ours.
I have come to the point to where I believe that MUCH, if not MOST, of my trouble accepting my salvation comes from a wrong perspective. All of my life...my perspective has been: What can I do today to bring self satisfaction and happiness?
When the CORRECT perspective is: What can I do today to make someone else...and SOMEONE ELSE (God)....happy and satisfied today? How can I put a smile on God's face today?
Anyway.....just rambling. Well.....the part after I asked for your forgiveness is my ramblings after prayer and Bible study. The first part? I'm dead serious. I'm really sorry that I haven't been more responsive to y'all's post. Give me time. I'll...(with y'all's help) get over this self centeredness. Good night