Comments on: Circle of Despair

By: pegramsdell

pegramsdell — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:43:40 +0000

Maybe you can volunteer at a school or hospital. You can have a ministry there. Just a suggestion. :)

By: foreverblessed

foreverblessed — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:28:07 +0000

Just to join in the discussion of owning a house on the basis of one salary. I am very thankfull that we could buy a house on one salary, I did not have to work in order to pay the mortgage. Before we could buy a house we rented one, when we first got married, it happened to be a very cheap rent. But slowly the rent would go up and up.
If you can plan wisely, it is better to do so.
I was happy not to have to work, and stay home with the kids. Besides, the work load of my husband was sometimes enormous, and he didn’t come home till very late. It would have been very hard for me to take care of the kids, and have a job. It is very hard work for working mothers. It should be avoided if possible.
That’s also a cycle which can become a cycle of despair, the mortgage which is too high.

Years ago I saw it as sin when mothers would go to work, just for the sake of having a career. That is like judging other people, and is not good.
Now I think it is better for the mother to stay at home if she can, the kids need someone around them.

My youngest son left home a few weeks ago, for his studies at university. It feels a bit empty, what is my job now?
(That’s maybe why I started to post on this blog.)

But I do not want to come in a cycle of despair again, pray this over with God, He will give an answer. And in the meantime I think it is good to be a housewife and enjoy it too. Enjoying sweeping the dust, can you imagine? I found out that is is possible, if you start the day with Jesus, and remeber who you are in Him.

By: foreverblessed

foreverblessed — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:20:21 +0000

I say a big YES to the above post: the just shall live by faith.
The other verse which was metioned here:
Faith without works is dead
It haunted me in my younger years at church, to afraid of living in faith, there might not be works.

After thinking it over and praying about it last weekend, this thaught came in my mind:

When there are no works: the faith is dead!

Look at your faith, why is it not alive?
Do not start to work, because if your faith is alive, you will do works, because God will show you things to do. The Holy Spirit will do that.

It’s like a horse and carriage: do not put the horse behind the carriage. (that’s a saying in dutch)

By: bravjim

bravjim — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:08:35 +0000

This is something that I used to struggle with myself. It is a matter of not understanding or knowing who God is; the lovingkindness He showed to us through the cross. Learning about Luther’s struggle, and his breakthrough helped lead me to a point where I grew to understand for the first time the true meaning of God’s love and grace. That He is able to forgive me not because of anything that I’ve done, but through what He did on the cross and having faith in that work alone as the sole source of my salvation. It is His grace, which is a work of love, that freed me from my prison of a cycle of despair.

Understanding the words “The just shall live by faith”; coming to realize that it was important enough that God used that phrase 3 seperate times in 3 seperate sections of the bible in order to get it into our heads drove home the fact for me how important it is that we not try to justify ourselves; it only leads us into a prison of despair and sadness. We received His Spirit so that we could experience His joy. It does not make sense that we should squander the joy that He has given us by falling into such a cycle. After all, he died to set us free from our bonds, not to bind us in despair.

By: poohpity

poohpity — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:11:10 +0000

It is not extreme, it is you and that is OK. I think you are gallant in your beliefs.

My point being that material things do not bring security to any human being in Christ unless their focus is truly not in Christ. Our security is in Christ alone. I maybe from another world but that is what I believe.

By: xrgarza

xrgarza — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:37:34 +0000

Deborah,

I agree with you to a sense and the only reason women would feel different is because our society has changed so much since the scriptures have been written they haven’t always been this way.

I may sound a little extreme, but I have the time to be, I am in no rush and there is no lady in my life currently so do I shoot for a personal goal and if I meet a lady, and we marry hopefully we could live in a home that would not require her income and be able to live within our means that paycheck to paycheck stuff is for the birds.

If I fail to plan I should plan to fail. I don’t like failing just for the sake of failing. I want to be prepared as much as possible. And if the Bible is a book of principles and if I can in fact apply them to my life on a day-to-day basis, why not?

Deborah, you don’t have to agree with me or any other woman for that matter,….. But I know I’m right :)

Xavier

By: poohpity

poohpity — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:25:01 +0000

As a woman my security would be in the fact that I would feel protected and honored by my husband. Security also in the fact that He puts God above me in everything. It would have no security for me in knowing that we rented or even owned a home. A tent would be nice but not mandatory that was a little humor. :-) As far as having a place prepared for us by the Lord that is something that is all together different since the bride is both male/female folks. Someone who loved you would be willing to live in the back of your truck if it meant being close to you now that is security. Knowing that someone would never leave you for no reason whatsoever, talk about security.

If that is how you feel Xavier and what you hold to as security that is OK but I believe a lot of women would feel different.

By: xrgarza

xrgarza — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:46:28 +0000

foreverblessed,

Yes I could not agree with you more. I have this theory that the Lord often refers to us as His bride and he has gone to prepare a place for His bride, He is returning one day for a bride without spot or wrinkle.

My question shouldn’t this be my example as well? The church is also described as sheep, so for one we are not very smart like the sheep and two our number one priority is our security like that of a woman.

So as a man before I think of marrying a lady I should have a placed prepared to bring her to, not a place that is going to require her income to be able to stay there, if so then I am using her. I am not saying that she should not contribute, but it should not be her primary responsibility.

The Bible says if I owe anyone anything I am a slave to them, If I owe on a house so much that I need my wife’s income to pay for it am I not subjecting her to this bondage?

I know that many will disagree with me, but I am not here to force my values or principles to anyone but if I could influence someone along the way, Praise God!

Xavier

By: francis somerwell

francis somerwell — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:45:53 +0000

Dear Mart,
thanks for this article, recently i had to encounter with people who take the generational curses more serious and undermine the ‘Power of Cross’ and ‘Grace of Christ’. this clearly supported my thought and i passed this message to them.

By: foreverblessed

foreverblessed — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:02:06 +0000

Xrgarza, thanks for your comment:
-See when I don’t understand a spiritual principle I bring it to the natural and vise-a-versa. -

So this is what I thought:
Think of a man who is engaged to a woman. He really loves her, but then finds out that she is in fear of not loving him enough, in fear of hurting him.
Do you think he wants her to marry hin like that?
No, he will spend much more time with her, so she will relax being with him, not walking on her toes all the time. He will show how much he loves her.
His banner over me is love Song of Solomon 2:4
He sais to her: Arise, come, my darling my beautiful one, come with me.

Christ as the bridegroom, and the Church as the Bride.

Yes I think you are right about Paul, he was busy most of the time, explaining that the OT must be seen in the light of the new Life we now can have in Jesus. And that that’s what the law was looking forward to.
The law leads us to the knowledge of sin, once we know what sin is, we do not have to look for guidance to the law, that’s not why it was made for.
And I get the idea I am busy right now, explaining that again:

DMG, I am realy suprised by your answer, and when you would have looked at my last post carefully, how can you say that hanging on to Jesus is faith without fruit? I was describing how God filles you with His love when you hold on to Him, when you are praying for each other. Did that sound like a fruitless life?

God will give the fruit. Like the branches of a grapevine, when it holds on the the trunk the fluids will flow through it, And the flowing will result in fruit.
The effort is afcourse in holding unto the trunk.
And yes , we have to say NO to sin, but do we do that out of fear?
Maybe we will start of with Jesus because of fear.
But when we feel the gentle lead of Jesus, His immensly great love, we do not have to fear.

Fear has to do with punishment.

We no longer have to be afraid for punishment, because we are forgiven, And we know what sin is, we do want to stay away from that, because we have gone over to the kingdom of light. The kingdom of darkness we have left, we do not want to go back to it.
We know we should not lie, steal, covet, kill, be sexually immoral. Be drunkards. (If you cannot stop these things you might need deliverance, or you have not resisted it to point of blood Hebrews 12:4)

But we are now doing business with Life. And our cup which was empty, is now being filled. After the discussion of the cup half full, I begin to realise, that it is the goal of our life with Christ, that our cup is getting fuller and fuller. Over the top, filled with life. Focus on what is lasting, go on to the real thing: compassion, love, modesty, gentleness, endurance, perseverence,
And we know that these things we do not have of ourselves, we have to hang on to the tree in order to be filled like that.
That’s why Paul almost begs his readers:
When you live in the Sprit, you will have fullfilled the law, then he names all the fruit, and then he asks, against such things there is no law.
Live by the Spirit, and you will not satisfy the desires of the sinful nature.
Galatians 5.

1 Jof 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

So we see here, that Jesus is perfecting His love in us, like a Bridegroom preparing His Bride.

But maybe you want to say that your fear is like deep respect, and reverence, then we talk about the same thing.

Let me add one more thing. When the gospel is first preached in an area where there was widespread immorality, then the teaching of the new life in Christ must be very direct and strict. No more sexual sins, no more alcoholism, no more you name what sort of practices, whitchgcraft
When the monks from Ireland and England invaded the continent of Europe in the dark ages, when the continent was recovering from the devastation of the huns and the catholic church was very weak, they started monastries with very strict rules. Maybe that was the best thing to do.
But these strict rules are meant as a start. To break with the old habits of a sinfull life. Nobody knows they have to stay true to one peson in marriage, do not have to get drunk every night, do not have to ask the spiritual world for guidance, like following druids, whitches. Pacifying all these gods with sacrifices.
But the strict rules are of no use for the real life God wants us to have in Christ. And that is what Paul is trying to tell us, and what Maarten Luther found out.