“I will not deal with you as your wicked evil actions deserve” Ezekiel 20.44
God forgives us and uplifts our spirit. Out of the many feelings that require inner healing is guilt feeling. Guilt feeling is a devastating punishment from God. When we persist in sinfulness, often times we have the misconception that we could defeat God. I have seen people who professed their disbelief in God. Many think that God is a myth and they don’t need a myth in life. Such people could be found in various realms in life. They even surround us. At times we ourselves are no exceptions. People pick up their dysfunctions from the existing evil order, false ideologies, erroneous teaching, customs, traditions, willful evil thinking and actions against God because of the evil insinuations. Evil is at the root of any and every protest against God. Evil is at the root of disobeying God. Evil is Satan and it was Satan who tempted the first parents. Satan spoke against God and God’s command to Adam and Eve “That is not true” Gen. 3.4. Satan called God a liar. Satan has no respect for God or God’s commands. Satan is a tempter. He tempted even Jesus. “Spirit led Jesus to the desert to be tempted by the devil” Mt.4.1. Satan and satanic forces are powerful enough ! to stand in the presence of God, the Master of the universe “ The children of God assembled again before the Lord to pray and Satan also came with them” Job 2.1. The cunning Satan who called God a lair, said to Eve, a naďve woman, “you will not die” Gen3.4 even though she eat the forbidden fruit. Satan not only insinuated Eve but also empowered Eve to do the evil act. Anything that comes from the evil one is evil action. Satan knows logic. He puts things very appealing like many of us. “Because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad” Gen.3.5. Cunning Satan knows how to present things to us. When we are tempted we fall because we have the freedom to fall or to stay. Adam and Eve succumbed to evil. They sinned against God. Many of us are good in telling lies to convince other people. We might put on a pleasing appearance and mislead people so that they may fall victims of abuse and sin. I have seen many innocent girls brought to the city of Manila and were forced to a life of prostitution and shame. Many of them died in the city itself out of shame to return to their villages and families or died of diseases or fell victims to gangs and violence. Some of them ended up in jails. Innocent looking and honest sounding evil agents bewitched them. These agents of sin lurk like Satan who might falsely convince us saying, “It is Ok. Everyone does it. You will get enough money”. “ Don’t worry about God. God will forgive later”. Many fall victims to money and fame. They like easy ways to be rich and famous. People and their hearts could be the abode of evil, if they are not filled with the Holy Spirit. “ They come and they live there. When it is all over, that person is in worse shape than he was before” Luke 11.26. No wonder Jesus has stated, “ Anyone who doesn’t help me gather is really scattering” Lk.11.23. A sinful person is not gathered in Jesus. Such a person is scattering. Scattering everything he has. He or she is scattered far away from God. When scatt! ered from God, they fall apart or break up. When one is scattered away from God, it takes a while before that person returns, like the prodigal son, into the folds of the loving Father. God allows such things to happen and we may ask why, I don’t have an easy answer for that. Who am I to question the mind of God? There could be various speculations and arguments and counter arguments but I know that God does things His own way. God is mysterious. But one thing is certain, if we persist in sinfulness, God allows us to go through stages of natural suffering and shame. At the end God will save us. God said, “ I will not deal with you as your wicked actions deserve” Ezekiel 20. 44. God inflicts wounds on the sinful people who stray away from God. “ Then you will remember all the disgraceful things you did and how you defiled yourselves” Ezekiel 20.43. The inner voice is one’s own worst enemy. Judas suffered from this inner voice. He couldn’t stand the voice of truth so he ended took his life. Jesus said about Judas “Good if he were not born” Sin begets death. God said “ you will be disgusted with yourselves with yourselves because of all evil things you did” Ezekiel 20.43 and this is what might be the guilt feeling, which punishes people. To lift the people from such a devastating predicament we need a lo! t of prayer power. Prior to dealing with issues in people I always make it a point to pray and lift them up to the Lord so the Good God will work through and miracles happen in God’s own way. God Bless you Fr Thomas Mathew/June 8th/2002 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: Click Here **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
