I want people to come to know my Lord. They will never be coerced into this belief. Therefore, I strive to understand why anyone would reject Him. Surely, some have never truly heard the message yet. They have not rejected Jesus but neither have they responded. They will when they hear of Him.
The people who perplex me are those who refuse to believe. They have a predisposition against hearing the gospel.Their minds are already made up before they have heard a word. In short, they are satisfied with their own belief. Their belief is: "there is no God."
I wonder if those who do not know the Lord are afraid of listening. And by listening, I don't mean with their ears alone. Are they willing to consider what is being said? They certainly ask if I will consider what they have said. Why shouldn't they return the favor?
Those who refuse to listen believe that they already have all the facts necessary to make an intelligent decision. They are like the person who says, "I want to buy this car. I like it and I don't want to know any of the reasons I shouldn't buy it." The decision is made. Don't muddle things with other facts that won't support the decision.
Those who refuse to listen are therefore confident of their own belief. Therefore, they have faith in it. This faith supports them when seemingly contrary facts slip through their defenses. They rush back to the safety of this faith rather than consider contrary facts.
Their faith is supported by pride. They take a great deal of pride in knowing that there is no God. Those who believe in God are ridiculed. They gather around others, who like them, support their faith by laughing at the poor ignorant believers in God. This becomes their own worship. Their pride makes them gods.
They would never seek after God. There have been too many people who have succumbed to Christianity who made an honest attempt at refuting the claims of Christianity. Again, pride comes to their rescue. An honest search is beneath them. Any search would reveal a crack in their faith. They are proud that this godless if faith is flawless.
So, they concentrate on their belief. "There is no God," they repeat again, "there is no God."
I try to understand this but I admit that I don't. Why would someone choose to live without God? Why would they choose to live without knowing the meaning for their lives? This is really more pride than I can fathom. Their pride keeps them from ever knowing Him.
So, I pray that God will soften the hearts of souls who are trying to keep Him out. I pray that I will love those who do not love Him so that they will listen and believe.
Psalm 10:4 (ESV) 4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
2 comments:
Concerning why pride features so prominently in those who want NOT to be open to the gospel, if you are like me, who believe Satan was Lucifer before his fall from grace (Eze 28), Satan fell because of pride. Satan is the Father of pride.
Father or fatherhood has the deep meaning of fathering the like, and that is why there is such saying as "Like Father like son". Therefore, in the Fall of Man, engineered by Satan, he fathered pride in Man. Pride came along as part of the sinful nature, called "Sin" or "Iniquity", which Satan fathered in Man in that Fall in the Garden of Eden. We commonly attribute "sin" or "iniquity" as the "wrong things done". I believe at the base of it all, "Iniquity" is like a living thing, first entered and lived in Satan when he fell (Eze 28). God said that Lucifer was most magnificently created and good, until Iniquity (capitalisation, mine) become found in him. That Iniquity was then seeded into Man, in that Fall in the Garden of Eden.
Satan planted the sinful nature in Man, in that Fall. It was NOT there, to begin with; God said the same thing concerning His creation of Man, as He did for Lucifer, "good", "good" and "good". God did NOT create Man with sinful nature or I called it "Iniquity"; it is Satan who seeded it in us all. What is the counter for this? Men can never be the same, even if God forgives us of our sins; yah, even when He forgives us the Original Sin committed by Adam, for something has changed. Make no mistake the Apostle Paul did NOT believe, on becoming a Christian, the sinful nature in us disappeared. It does NOT, and that was why, Paul gave us the "tug of war" depiction that we read in Romans 7.
The fruit from the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil did something to men, and Satan made use of that, and seeded Iniquity or sinful nature into us. We can never be in the exact state as Adam. Pre-Fall Adam did NOT have knowledge of good and evil, he knew not shame (for example), and he did NOT have Iniquity or sinful or carnal nature in him.
We, the regenerated men, are different. We have knowledge of good and evil in us, and we have Iniquity (from the Fall) in us. The sinful nature does NOT die or disappear with our conversion. It dwells in the flesh, and it can only die if the flesh dies, i.e. if we die physically. The other alternative is for Satan to die, for the Father of Iniquity in men, is in Satan, but Satan is NOT thrown into the Hell fire yet.
God is opposed to sin NOT just for Himself sake, but for the sake of all lives, for if the source of lives "dies", everything dies with it, and we, too (spirited souls or not). Before I forget, what is that which we now possess to counter Iniquity in us? Yes, the Holy Spirit. God puts the Holy Spirit in us to counter Iniquity or sinful nature; that was why Paul said to hark to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and listen NOT anymore to the desires of the sinful nature.
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But the non-believer, he has NOT the indwelling Holy Spirit, and so, the ugliness of sinful nature in the form of pride, rears its head often. In fact, even for a regenerate man, if he does NOT resist, pride still shows up. So, with regards to non-believers, 3 things to note:
One, God loves the sinner, hates the sins; God loves the sinner, hates the haughtiness. We were all once, there; a sinner, a person with pride, opposed to God, but by the grace of God, through the Holy Spirit, we have been regenerated, a new creation, NOT the same Adam (by the above, you now know principally, what “new creation” means). Now, we are to love with the same love of God, and we are to love the sinners, love the men, NOT their pride.
Two, the Holy Spirit is at work to break that falsehood or lie that Satan still has the real authority over men, when Jesus had already wrestled that back from Satan, and He, the Holy Spirit, is in partnership with us; we have do our part, like sharing the Word which the Holy Spirit will use to give understanding so that an unbeliever will acknowledge Jesus, and the works of Him which included the wrestling back of the authority over our lives, ceded over, by Adam.
Three, when dealing with unbelievers, know that principalities are at work, we are NOT up against mere flesh and blood; work accordingly, learn how to work, including putting on the full armor of God.
It is at times, difficult to separate the person from his wickedness (including pride), and a time will come when such separation will cease, the stubbornly wicked will go to one place, the burning fire of Hell; but until then, we love like God loves, we try to do what God wants done, help split the wickedness, and haughtiness from the person, through the Holy Spirit and with the Word of God, and NOT by our power or by our might.
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