Self-Esteem and the Bible

Hola mis amigos!   Well whadda ya know, I'm back within a week! Isn't that a surprise?

In Sunday school this morning, our teacher taught a really good lesson that I thought I would share with you.

Say you have two people. The first one looks in the mirror and says, "Oh, I'm so good-looking. I'm so athletic and talented, too. It's no wonder that everyone wants to be my friend; it's no wonder that I'm so popular. I'm just all around wonderful."

The second person looks in the mirror and says, "Oh, these braces make me look awful. It's no wonder that no one wants to be my friend. Even if I did have a friend I wouldn't know what to say to them. I never know what to say to people."

These two people have a few things in common, but I'll only mention one. Though their perceptions are different, they are both looking at themselves. There is a problem here, though. They are measuring based off of how they see themselves, and what they believe others think about them.  This is dealing with something called self-esteem.   Here's a formal definition: Self-esteem: confidence in one's own worth or abilities; self-respect.   
The person in our first example has a high self-esteem. The person in our second example has a low self-esteem.  Our world today tells us that we need to think highly of ourself, we need to have a high regard for our character and abilities. 'Our self-esteem comes from within,' they say, 'and is not dependent on others around us.' Even some so-called-pastors preach this fake gospel: that all we need to do is think highly of ourself and not let others determine what we think, we just need lots of confidence in ourself and then everything will go good and we will get what we want and be happy. It doesn't work that way, guys, just saying.

So this is what the world is telling us. As Christians, is this the way we should view ourselves?    No. We need to look at the truth of the Bible. We need to see ourselves through God's eyes, with His perception.

Genesis 1:26-27 says this: 'Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image ['our' meaning the Trinity--God, three in one], in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female, he created them.'
Truth number one: I have been created by God in His Image.    Because of this, you are more valuable than rocks, than animals, than galaxies--humans are of more value than anything else God has created, because He created us alone in His Image, and nothing else.  This also says that we do not determine our worth. Neither do the people around us.  It is God who has determined our worth by creating us in His Image. This also tells us that our worth is not based on our physical abilities or appearances. Because every human being has been created in the Image of God, that means that our worth is in God, and the fastest runner in the world is just as valuable as the person who cannot run at all. This means that the little baby inside a mothers womb, is of equal value as you and I despite their size and form, because they are made in the Image of God, and no one has a right to destroy them, any more than they do to kill the human being that is walking in front of them.

With this truth revealed, it is easy to think that, because we are His Image bearers, we are on an equal plane with God. Is this your thought process? Read on.

Acts 17:24-25 says: 'The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.'
Truth number two: I am totally dependent on God for everything.   For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? This is what 1 Corinthians 4:7 says. All we have is given to us by God. Therefore, even though we are made in His Image, we are not God.  There is no ground for boasting, here. There is no room for confidence in ourselves, or thinking highly of ourselves, as if we could give ourselves anything. Here is a quote from A.W. Pink: He who cannot do what he will and perform all his pleasure cannot be God.

Lets see what 1 Corinthians 10:31 says: 'So wether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.'
Truth number three: I have been created to glorify God.    This is my purpose in life: to point back to Him.  Glorify means to assign to God due honor and respect. To demonstrate His greatness and worth and point it back to Him. To make much of Him. To honor Him.  We exist for God, not God, for us. He should be the center of our universe.

Romans 3:23 says this: 'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.'
Truth number four: I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.    Our purpose in life is to glorify God, yet we fall short of that glory. We are totally imperfect. We, as God's Image bearers, are supposed to reflect Him, yet most often we reflect ourself. We think about ourselves the most. We are supposed to put God at the center of our universe, yet most of the time we put ourself at the center of our universe.    We fall short of God's glory.

Romans 6:23: 'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
Truth number five: I deserve God's condemnation.     It's simple. The wages of sin is death, it says that right here. The online definition of sin is this: Sin: An immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. We just saw a moment ago in 1 Corinthians 10:31, that God commands us to glorify Him in everything that we do. Have you been successful in that? I sure haven't, and I'm pretty sure you've 'transgressed against that Divine Law', too. By definition, we deserve God's condemnation--spiritual death.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's what Romans 5:6-8 says. This is the Good News, guys. We deserve condemnation. But Jesus Christ, our only hope, died for us to take the penalty for sin from us, and rose from the dead to declare that it was complete and justice satisfied. Our value is in Christ.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new-1 Corinthians 5:17.  A new self is the reality of anyone who is in Christ. Our value is in the person of Christ.

What were the two people in our beginning examples missing? In three letters: God. More specifically, they were measuring themselves based on their own perception, and the perception of those around them, rather than measuring themselves through God's eyes and through the truths that His word tells us. They are both of equal value because each of them were made in the Image of God, and have been so loved that God left His throne above and came to earth to die for each of them. One of them is not more valued because he/she is is more popular and good-looking and talented, and the other not less valuable because he/she has braces and is socially awkward.

Is this the way you see yourself? Perhaps you are guilty of all or part of what the person in each scenario was thinking about themselves. I am guilty of it. It was a challenge to me, today, to hear these truths, to see myself as having worth because of the fact that God created me in His Image, and yet be shown the side that leaves no room for my ugly pride in the facts that I am dependent on God for everything, my purpose is to glorify Him, yet I fall short of that purpose and deserve God's condemnation. But, that, again, Christ has died for me, releasing me from His just condemnation.
You see, it's all God.  Everything points back to Him. I can't go around boasting about myself, because I am of equal value as everyone else--no more valuable--and at the same time, I can't go around getting down on myself and saying I am worthless, because I was created in God's Image, and am just as valuable as everyone else--no less. I can't go around boasting about my goodness and righteousness or talents, because first of all, I have failed my purpose in life, and second of all, because everything I am able to do, is given to me by God Himself.  I have failed my purpose in life, but, glory to God! He has redeemed me and given me a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  You see, all glory has to go back to Him. I can take no credit, and I can't live my life in pride. Hopefully this mindset would lead to a life of sincere service to Him.

It still amazes me every time I can see an individual snowflake like this. I mean, the things are SO tiny, and yet God created each of them so distinct and unique from each other!

Tomorrow when we wake up, lets start our day by looking to the Creator, not the creation.

Blessings,
Jewels <3

Christ's suffering

And I'm back again! 

When you think of Christ and what He did for us on the cross, what do you think of? Usually the suffering He went through, the pain and agony He suffered on our behalf. But don't you usually focus on the physical pain of the cross? The physical torture that He endured? There are many other people who have suffered this physical pain, so what makes Christ's suffering so different, aside from the fact that He was undeserving of it? 

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ cried out to His Father, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." And, "O my Father, if this cup many not pass away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done." 
In essence, "Father if there is any other way than the cross, let it be done that way." What was it that Christ was dreading? Was it the physical pain that was coming? Was it the shame, shock, and humiliation that the death on a criminal's cross was designed to bring? I am quite sure that He was dreading that to and extent--He was fully God, yet fully human, and it is natural for a human to not look forward to pain and suffering. But there was something different that He was dreading. Experiencing the punishment of sin. What is the punishment of sin? The wrath of God. The turning of the face of God from extending the arm of mercy. The inflicting of an eternity of His full judgement. If Jesus Christ was taking the punishment of all of our sin upon His shoulders, this is what He must experience.

On the cross, Jesus suffered all of these things--the wrath of God, the turning of His face from extending the arm of mercy, the inflicting of an eternity of God's full judgement--the equivalent, of what the necessary punishment was for the sin of all human beings--along with the physical pain and torture that comes with death on a cross, all in just a few hours. Imagine an eternity's worth of judgement for every sinner in the entire world, past present and future, being inflicted on you in the span of just a few hours?  When He cried in agony, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He was experiencing God the righteous Judge. Someone mentioned that up until that point, Jesus had always spoken of God as His Father. Now, He refers to Him instead as God.  He is experiencing the wrath of a holy and just God. 

But isn't this cruel? you ask.  God the Father willingly and actively delivered up His only begotten Son to endure the punishment of sin.  Cruel? Yes, that's what first comes to my mind when I think about this.  But lets step back and consider the situation from both perspectives--that of the Father, and that of the Son.

Think of the Father. His only begotten Son, a Son who is perfect, whom He loves more that you and I could ever imagine. He loves Him more that Abraham loved Isaac. More than Rebecca loved Jacob. More than Jacob loved Joseph and Benjamin. More than even Mary could have loved her own Son, Jesus in the flesh. We don't have the capacity to love as the Father loves. We simply don't. And God the Father loved His Son more than anything. I think it's safe to assume it grieved Him to think about delivering up His Son to be crucified and to endure the torment of His own righteous and just fury that was destined for all the inhabitants of the world because of their sin. If you had a child that you loved as much as He, it would be by no means an easy or simple thing to deliver up that child to be hurt and shamed and humiliated. It would likely be the hardest thing you ever did in your life. Your heart would cry in love, 'No! don't let it be!' But because God the Father had someone else in mind--filthy, rebellious, disobedient, wicked, evil little sinners called You and Me--because He loved those filthy little sinners so much, He was willing to do it. He loved You and Me so much, rebellious and sinful and wicked as we are, that He couldn't bear to see us have to endure the punishment that we deserved, so, being a Righteous Judge who cannot leave sin unpunished, He made a plan to relieve that debt. The payment of the debt included the inflicting of God's wrath on a perfect, sinless person, and that person was Jesus Christ. It was the only way. And God the Father was willing, on our behalf, to deliver up His only Son whom He loved, to be the payment for our sin, to endure the full torment of His wrath in place of us. So that we don't have to experience that righteous wrath and fury that we deserve. 

Now, let's think about the Son's perspective. After considering the perspective of the Father, it makes it a little easier to understand, but it would still seem cruel if the Father delivered up His Son without His Son's consent or agreement to the plan. "Easy for the Father to do," we think. "He's not the one experiencing the pain." What if Christ didn't want to endure the punishment of our sins? I am quite sure that He didn't want to, either. I am quite sure that He thought of the punishment with extreme dread and trepidation. No one in their right minds would enjoy that wrath of God. Would it be safe to say, even though He is God and not merely human, that God the Son did not look forward to being the payment for our sins? Yet He, too had someone else in mind. Those filthy, rebellious, disobedient, wicked, evil little sinners called You and I. And because He saw us even while we were still in rebellion and sin, and He loved us so much that He couldn't bear to see us wretches experience the wrath of His holy and just Father, He willingly gave Himself up to the Father, to be delivered up, taken from His glory and relocated to a filthy, wicked earth, to live among and be rejected and mocked and shamed and spit upon and persecuted by the filthy little wretches He had come to save, all His life, to go to the cross and be mocked and shamed and spit upon and beat some more,  and then experience the torment of the full wrath of God as punishment for, not His sins, but the sins of all the people of the world, people who even now spit upon Him and laid the whip to His sides and nailed His hands to the cross and mocked Him and placed a crown of thorns upon His head and tore His clothes from Him. He was dying for these people. Not because we deserve His love and forgiveness by ANY MEANS WHATSOEVER. We deserve the  full wrath of God, inflicted upon us for an eternity of eternities. But because He loved us. Don't ask me why. There isn't an answer. He simply loved us with the love He has that is unexplainable. 

So, there. After considering both perspectives, what do you think now? God the Father did not give up His Son because He didn't love Him, He did it because He loved us SO much, that He was willing to deliver His Son up and inflict the judgement on Him, because there was no other way. Jesus Christ is the only perfect One who has ever lived and ever will live on this earth.  And God the Son wasn't forced to go to the cross; I'm sure He didn't look forward to it, but He did it because He also loved us SO much, that He was willing to deliver Himself up to the Father's hands to become the payment for our sins.  Does that make a difference in how we view Christ at the cross? 

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" ~Romans 8:31-32 

*And, by 'all things', this verse does not mean a luxurious house and wealth and everything you could want.  Those are things material. This means things that are eternal. It means, if God has not even withheld His own Son, but has delivered Him up to be crucified, what else would He not do for us? It's like a boss saying to his employee, "We have decided that we want to bestow you with a great gift. We are going to pay for you to fly to any place in the world, no matter how expensive it is, and we are going to pay for all your expenses--your food and lodging and anything you would like to do or buy while you are there." And then, after expressing his gratitude over and over again, with tears of joy, the employee asks for a tissue and the boss denies it to him. If God has done so much as to give His own Son, is He not also going to provide for us our daily needs and be faithful to grow us into the likeness of His Son, be with us through everything and bring us home to glory when we have been laid to our rest? These things are trivial in comparison. Just wanted to clarify :)

Now, as you go about your day--or night for that matter--think of the suffering of Christ in a new light. Not just the physical pain He endured--the nail pierced hands and feet, the lashes, the crown of thorns, the shame, shock and humiliation. Think also of what He endured more than that. The torture of all the wrath of God designed for every sinner that ever lived, inflicted upon Him in a matter of three hours.  And He did that willingly. For you. You may not think that you are wicked. But you are. Trust me, you are. 

Blessings,

Julia <3

Fourth of July

I'll make this short and sweet:

Happy Independence day all you American readers!!  Praise the LORD for the blessings we can enjoy.

And as said on my Memorial Day post, thank you again to all who have and still do serve, helping to purchase and preserve our freedom! 

"It was for freedom that God set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." ~Galatians 5:1

Blessings to you all,
Julia <3

Memorial Day

Hello everyone!
This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but, as usual, I'm late for everything :)

Recently I watched a documentary, chronicling the journey of a man who visited a missionary, and traveled with him around Albania, Montenegro, and Kosovo. Many of the villages they visited were war torn, desolate, lots of depression and darkness surrounding them, places where violence is not uncommon. There was one village where every single man and boy living there were taken and shot all at the same time. Every man and boy died that day and were buried where they lay, in mass graves. What devastation! 
They went to villages that had been bombed and every single building damaged in some way. The village was just getting back on it's feet and some of the buildings still destroyed from the bombings. 

They went and visited Gypsies, who lived on the outskirts of town and were forsaken, looked down upon and lived in makeshift tents. 
They visited many villages where there was not one believer living there. Places where there was constant unrest, where believers had to meet quietly and secretly and be baptized in the same way, because false rumors about the Christian faith had spread and the lives of the believers were in jeopardy. 

I can't imagine what it would be like to live places like these! I can't imagine living in a place where I had to fear for my life because I was a Christian, or because of the unrest between various parts of the country, or because it's not uncommon for a person to be shot on the side of the road. I can't imagine living in a place where every man and boy had been lined up and horrifically murdered in one day, with the fear of what if it happens again. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a place where I had to gather in secret to worship God or to be baptized, because my life and that of my fellow believers would be in danger if we didn't. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a place where, if I spoke out of Jesus Christ, I could be killed or rejected and abandoned by family and friends alike. 

Do I fully realize what if means to have the kind of freedom I have? No. I don't. And that is why we need days like Memorial Day, where we specifically remember and meditate on the great gift of freedom that we have. To remember, and not forget, those who have lived and died to give us our freedom, and to preserve it. The blood of many a brave soldier has stained our ground, the bodies of many brave soldiers buried beneath our soil, the tears of many a torn family soaking our earth. All to give us leisure, security, freedom. No, folks, freedom is not free. We must never forget that. But we do. We do so easily. Tomorrow, we probably will forget what today has been all about. If not tomorrow, surely next week will it make no difference. Why are we such ignorant, ungrateful, prideful people? We really are. 

We have a duty to preserve and protect our freedom. If a gift is given us that was purchased at so great a price, it would be shameful of us to take it for granted, throw it away, and not keep and preserve it. When the lives of so many have been given on our behalf, to give us what we enjoy, it is shameful of us to not preserve, keep, guard, find great value in and be grateful for the gift we have been given, is it not?

There is another memorial today. It is a memorial, a remembrance of One who sacrificed His life to give us as believers in Christ, ultimate freedom. Freedom from our bondage to sin and death. This One who gave His life on our behalf, is Jesus Christ. But this memorial is a little bit different. Because Jesus didn't stay dead, He did more than that. He rose from the dead, triumphing over death.
But just as we have an obligation to give thanks to and for all those who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom, and an obligation to preserve and keep that freedom, so we have an obligation to Christ, to give Him praise, honor and glory, and to live our lives according to the freedom that He has given us as believers. Freedom in this sense doesn't mean that we are free to think say and do as we please. This freedom is from our slavery to sin. 

Before salvation, we, in a sense, had an obligation to sin. We were bound to sin and governed, controlled and characterized by it. In a way, we couldn't help it. We could not be good and righteous on our own. Sin is ingrained in us. But, the difference is, we served it willingly. We were happy to be enslaved to it. We are naturally rebellious people. We willingly rebelled against God and His design and character.  

But, in Jesus' death, we have been forgiven of our debt, freed from it, freed from our bondage to sin and death, and now we have a spiritual freedom to live for Christ. That is the key--to live for Christ.  If you have accepted God's gift of freedom, you have an obligation, in a sense, to live for Him. It would be shameful for you and I to throw that gift out the window. Same with the freedom we enjoy in America, it was bought with the blood and life of another, therefore, it should be extremely valuable to us, and we should not live in ignorance of it. We have an obligation to live up to it, to enjoy it at it's fullest potential, to preserve and keep it. We need to live with our lives characterized by the freedom God has given us, characterized by the Holy Spirit that He has given to us to guide us and empower us to live for Him.  If we are truly saved, we need to live a life that gives evidence of that spiritual freedom.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all those who have served, and are still serving our country.  I don't think any of us, except those who have actually been a part of the battle for freedom, really know how expensive our freedom is, and the great sacrifice that has been, and continues to be made, to purchase and preserve it, the grief that the families of those who have given their lives on our behalf, have experienced, or what Veterans have and do experience, physically and emotionally, and I'm sorry that we have not been more grateful and respectful of the price that was paid for our freedom. May God forgive us for our ignorance and arrogance, for taking for granted and so easily forgetting the sacrifices that were given on our behalf, to purchase this great freedom we enjoy.
                                                                                                                                                                   
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own     inheritance." ~Psalm 33:12                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." ~1 John 3:16                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
 Blessings in Christ,                                                                                                                                  
 Julia <3                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

*The photos in this post are mine; please do not use without permission*