DISAPPOINTMENT WITH OURSELVES

 

 

We, who have the Spirit, will face painful disappointments in ourselves until our Lord returns (1 John 3:2; Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:18-20, 25). In order to make us more like His Son Jesus, we must be humbled of our self-trust and self-righteousness. This will be painful. We have learned to trust and to believe in ourselves. Therefore, we need a new way to understand our lives (Romans 12:2).  The Spirit calls us to die to ourselves and to live exclusively for our Lord and to trust in Him alone.

 Consequently, our brokenness is beautiful and blessed:

 ·       Matthew 5:3–6 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

 How can our poverty in spirit be blessed? We are all poor in spirit. However, those with the Spirit of God have been forced to face our neediness and unworthiness (Luke 17:10). Others, who have rejected the Lord, have little choice but to believe in their own worthiness, even that they are more worthy than others. Consequently, they continue to deceive themselves that they are right while others are wrong.

How can morning, meekness, and our maladies be anything but painful? The Lord assures us that these are His chosen means to blessedness. Therefore, we should rejoice in these:

·       Romans 5:3–5 …we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

If we know this, we need not despair. Instead, we can reassure ourselves that the Lord knows exactly what He is doing with our lives. Even the most mature are not exempt from suffering. Paul has given us a close-up example of this:

·       2 Corinthians 12:7–10 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Consequently, strength in our Lord becomes a matter of regarding our weaknesses and afflictions as blessings, even things to boast about, and even for Paul. This is a vital part of the Good News of Jesus. He is at work in our lives and comforts us in our humility and brokenness (2 Corinthians 1:3-5):

·       Psalm 34:17–19 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Here is our fate without the work of the Spirit:

·       Psalm 36:1–4 (NLT) Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts. They have no fear of God at all. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are. Everything they say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do good. They lie awake at night, hatching sinful plots. Their actions are never good. They make no attempt to turn from evil.

We too are unable to see beneath the face of self-righteousness and even the work of the Spirit in our own lives:

2 Corinthians 5:16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

WILL LOVE CONQUER ALL?

 

 

 

What we believe can kill us, or it can nurture us. If I believe that my wife is having an affair with the neighbor, this belief will severely affect me. However, if I believe that I can completely trust her, this will have the opposite effect.

 The same principle applies to what we believe about our fellow human beings. I had been supervising a unit of probation officers who only received sex abuse cases. Therefore, I was required to attend a training session. One intervention sounded particularly promising. Abused women would address sex offenders in prison about how being raped had devastated them.

 Certainly, this would sensitize these offenders to the horrors of what they had done, right? However, it was later found that a significant number had been encouraged by their victims suffering to seek the pleasure of raping again.

 This finding highlights the need to understand those we are supervising and even the one we intend to marry. It also should cause us to question, “ Love conquers all.” This adage takes many forms—“They need therapy not punishment,” or , “Kindness has the power to change the world,” or, “All you need is love.”

 No wonder the recent movement to defund the police! If love conquers all, then we need more lovers not punishers. Instead, if some are incurably attracted to evil, perhaps police are necessary, and perhaps without them, evil becomes even more alluring.

 Perhaps also we cannot lump everyone into this narrow adage, “Love conquers all.” Clearly, some indulge their evil tendencies while others restrain them.

 While it might be hard for the idealist to acknowledge this, evil is so deeply entrenched in many to the point that they are irredeemable, apart from a miraculous Hand from above.

 My years at probation and parole taught me many illuminating lessons about humanity. Those offenders, who I had trusted, most often turned out to be the most dangerous and manipulative. Some were so cunning that they were even able to deceive the police and the judges. One, who I had arrested and visited at the police jail, was even able to take it over. One day I even found him sitting in the chief’s swivel chair. He had the office to himself, where he was pursuing his crimes non-stop from his lofty perch. The police would even grant him leave to see his girlfriend. Without her permission, he began taking photographs of her in the nude, which he planned to sell. She had heard the stories about her “beloved,” but she refused to believe them.

 We are easily deceived, especially as our feelings and faulty worldview prevent us from seeing.

Why are many Jews Leftist, Pro-Hamas, and Anti-Israel?

 

 

Many are asking this question. Some associate it with the Stockholm Syndrome. The Jews fear another Holocaust. Therefore, they feel that their best bet is to identify with those who wish to do them harm.

 

I think that there is a better explanation. One highly educated Jewish woman had unduly been criticizing Israel. I countered by saying, “But the Muslim nations are far worse in every respect!”

 

Her response was illuminating—"I expect more from Israel.” I responded that she had an unfair double standard.

 

Actually, I think I understood her biased response. Israel had failed to live up to her inflated Leftist ideals and Jewish pride. Therefore, she would punish Israel for its failure to support her unrealistic expectations. But what could she expect from a nation fighting for its existence even prior to the UN vote to partition the land into both a Jewish and a Palestinian state!

 

But why her blinding pride? Sadly my Jewish people have rejected their God despite all His benefits—establishing the Jewish State for the third time, an historical anomaly, and enabling them to be successful wherever they have gone. However, their God had also warned them about taking credit for all their benefits:

·       Deuteronomy 8:17–20 “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.”

 

Once Israel had rejected their God, they had to fill the vacuum with other gods, which they found more appealing and which would offer them an alternative sense of righteousness, a self-righteousness attained by championing any one of several Leftist causes and the “oppressed” even if they were more oppressive than others. After all, they had merely become oppressors because of their oppressed circumstances, right?

 

I am convinced that more carnage has been caused by such idealists seeking to establish their significance than all the common criminals. The late poet T.S. Elliot observed:

 

·       Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. 

 

Idealism and the pursuit of feeling important can prove costly even when the idealist is seeking to do good. The noted Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, recognized the threat of idealism when untamed by wisdom and humility:

 

·       Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

 

Another compassionate Jewish woman told me that she favored a two-state solution. I responded that this could never solve the problems:

1.     It has already been tried and failed.

2.     Muslims do not want a two-state solution. Instead, they have made their intentions clear to destroy the Jewish homeland and to murder the Jews. Why give them a foothold to accomplish their dreams!

 

She admitted the problems but confessed, “There must be some way forward. I have to hope in something.” This was my opportunity to turn her attention back to the God who had often saved Israel from hopelessness. However, she had to leave.