It's fun to be rebellious, especially when you get away with it. The problem is that if you are rebelling against the God of the Bible, you will be doing genuine evil and evil is self destructive. But, if you are rebelling against the god of this world (Satan), then you will find reward that is lasting with minimum if any sorrow added to it.
I have about 160 students, ages 16 and 17, in my history classes. They enjoy sneaking a look at their portable play stations, listening to their ipods, texting on their cell phones, when they think that I'm not looking. But, to a large extent, that is self-destructive. Not only are they cutting back on their achievement in class, they are creating a habit of escape.
I asked them if they agreed to the following idea. Lots of students are playing with their electronic gadgets rather than doing the assignment well. They are therefore escaping rather than first achieving and then using their gadgets as a reward for a job well done. So, what is happening is that kids are not doing for themselves what they need to do. Often, they ask for help from a friend for the answers. They become dependent upon their friends rather than indpendent thinkers and achievers. They then lose confidence in themselves not because they can not do a task, but because they have no proof that they actually do achieve the task. This is a cause of some anxiety about facing new tasks. So, they escape once more into their electronic devices, deepening the problem for them. This creates personal weakness. My students agreed by a large majority that this is true.
Did the understanding of the students help them overcome this habit of escape? Not at all. They are as involved with this escape as much as ever. This is not surprising, however. The nature of evil is that it creates a taste for self-destruction. The carnal nature within us humans needs redemption and overcoming only available through Jesus Christ. We are incapable of overcoming it by ourselves. We can reform some habits but we cannot overcome our own natures that lead us in a variety of rebellious behaviors.
No, I'm not saying that I am perfect. I suffer from my own weaknesses just like anyone else. But, I do have the Holy Spirit to help me. He leads me to repentence. He enables me to overcome temptations. He provides motivation from His nature to replace and overcome the motivations that my own carnal nature would have used to drive my actions. He is the Friend of my soul.
The Holy Spirit also helps me to enjoy a moment when I have overcome a temptation. In that moment I have just rebelled against the god of this world, Satan. The Holy Spirit motivates me to not hold grudges, not try to get even, not throw people away. Then, I watch over the months of the school year as a few of my students show changes in attitude from being rebellious against me to becoming cooperative and even supportive of me in the class environment. Once again, I have evidence of a successful raid on the evil god of this world. What fun!
How about you? Do you have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit? The only way to have one is by genuinely accepting responsibility for your sins, to ask Jesus Christ to forgive you, to ask Him to be the king of your life, to trust Him with your soul, and to believe that He will do what He has said, that is, send the Holy Spirit to be your companion. If you do, everything will change.
What you love will change. What you want will change. What seems important will change. And, everthing bad you have done your whole life long will have been forgiven. You will find that you somehow actually love God. You will find a peace when it comes to your eternal future. You will find a source of hope for your future in this life. You will find a new confidence in facing your tasks. You wil find an ability to love others with a love that God gives you to share with others.
When you pursue this new life, you will be ruining the future Satan had for you. Isn't that a kick in the pants?
The Holy Spirit and Grace and Grace and Grace
There once was this couple who were struggling with each other so much that neither one could see any way out of their misery but to get a divorce. They argued so often and so harshly that even their children, who were teenagers, told them that they should divorce. They had a dilemma though, they were both Christian. Because the Bible said that the only grounds for divorce was unfaithfulness, and since neither of them were, and since they both wanted to be true to their relationship with Christ, neither one was willing to actually begin divorce proceedings.
Finally, the husband thought, this is silly. If we just cannot get along, there is no use going down this road any further. So, he decided to go downtown the next day to the county court building and get the divorce paper work. That evening, as his wife lay sleeping on the couch and he was watching TV, he looked over at her and watched her sleep. He felt a warm love in his heart. But he also felt the fresh pain of an earlier argument when her words and harsh voice seem to feel like claws ripping his heart. He knew he had also said things that he knew would set her anger aflame. He knew that they both were just defending their own feelings and justifying their own priorities in each other's face. But he did not know any way out of this unending struggle except to end the struggle.
The next day, the husband found himself in line at the divorce papers desk in the county building. When he got to the front of the line he found himself asking the clerk, "If I divorce my wife, can I somehow make sure that she still get's the medical coverage from my company's plan?" The clerk looked up in surprise as if to say, "Why ask such a question? Aren't you divorcing her?" What the clerk actually said was, "I suppose so." When he left with the papers, he found himself asking himself the same question that the clerk seemed to ask with his facial expression. "Why did I ask such a question if I intend to divorce her? I must still love her enough to take care of her." The husband eventually threw the divorce papers away.
Some time later, the husband and wife were saying goodbye. He was going on a sales trip from their home in Fresno, California, to San Bernardino. The wife looked up from the dining table with a sad face. She expressed a love and yet a concern about their future together. He said his goodbye and got into his station wagon loaded with the textbooks he sold.
All along the way down route 99 to Bakersfield the husband was again fighting himself with mixed emotions of love and anger toward his wife. He was sometimes hoping that she would divorce him. He was sometimes thinking that he had to divorce her. He made the turn off of route 99 to go east on route 58. He was driving past a small town called Weedpatch. Then a sudden impression struck him. This was not his conscience. He knew how that felt in his senses. This was the Holy Spirit speaking to his spirit.
The Holy Spirit simply said, "If you divorce her, you divorce me." Wow! The husband took the next exit off of the freeway. He found a public phone at a convenience store and called his wife.
She answered and in a firm voice simply said, "What is it?" The husband replied, "I'm not leaving no matter what." She said, "How are we ever going to make it?" He said, "Grace and grace and grace." That ended the phone call.
They finally found a moment in time where the husband stood up for his wife in such a manner that she never again questioned his love for her. That matter is so private that it remains a secret today. However, it is no secret that today they are both in love with each other more than ever in their married life of just about 40 years.
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