This one will be emotionally tough to get through.

This is going to be extremely difficult for you to get through but if you can make it through to the end, you will understand.

 

Bring to memory that person you hate and can never forgive for what they did………………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

I want to take you up to heaven now. Wow, there are so many people. People you recognize and others you’ve never seen before. You see so many of the loved ones who have gone out of your life. Oh, it is so good to see them. They look so very happy; involved in joyous conversations; laughing; such a pleasant thing to see. Everywhere you look, there are groups of people talking and enjoying their time together. Keep looking………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

Wait a minute! There’s that person you hate. The one you can’t forgive. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Take in your feelings you have right now; take it all in. What is your feeling towards God right now? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

I’m going to bring you back to the present now. You probably hate me right now for making you remember, but I see no other way to help you understand.

 

Try to get rid of your anger now. I know; it is so hard.

Stop reading; don’t continue on until you are at a state of mind where you can evaluate every person by their present character. When you are ready, continue. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

I’m going to bring you back to heaven now to that last scene where you saw that person. Look at him and listen as he’s involved in the group conversation. He’s laughing and the others around him are laughing too. You scan each person in the group to see if any are showing an uneasiness; maybe someone knows him like you knew him…………………… No, everyone looks to be legitimately happy. From the conversation, you can even tell that they know each other intimately. …………… What has happened to this person? He isn’t at all like you remembered him. You can see yourself almost liking him now. Why couldn’t he have been this way when you knew him? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

I’m bringing you back to the present.

Someday God is going to cause something to happen with everyone, even those who have passed on. He is going to let all of us see ourselves through the eyes of those who hate us for what we did to them. He loves us so much that He is waiting for just the right time to do this; when everything is in place. When we experience this, we will have such shame that, like Peter, we will weep bitterly. I will turn to God, our Father, and ask, “How can you possibly forgive me for what I’ve done; I can’t even forgive myself.” His eyes turn toward His Son, Jesus, and say, “I can forgive you because of what He has done. He has paid your punishment and taken your shame.”

 

Jesus wasn’t chastised and condemned by God or by those who did not know Him. All that He suffered was from those who knew Him. He had crossed paths with them all. All the things that was done to Him are the things that those who hate us, want to do to us. The next time you read the story of His crucifixion, picture yourself in His place. He took that for you: for me.

 

 

Remember where the Bible says that every knee shall bow to Jesus? We will all gladly bow to Him!

 

God wants us to forgive and seek forgiveness. I think you can see now why it’s important to do this.

Shame

I’ve been talking about how I believe that shame could actually be identified as hell. Let me see if I can explain my reasoning and what I believe God is revealing to me.

First, God, the Creator, designed us with emotions. So, if He built us with emotions, there must be a reason for each one.

There are a lot more emotions than what I first thought, however Wikipedia lists only six primary emotions; Love, Joy, Surprise, Anger, Sadness, and Fear. For reasons of trying to explain things here, I want to talk about the last two, the Shame part of Sadness and Fear.

Wikipedia breaks down the primaries further.

Primary emotion	Secondary emotion	Tertiary emotion
Sadness	Suffering	Agony · Anguish · Hurt
	Sadness	Depression · Despair · Gloom · Glumness · Unhappy · Grief · Sorrow · Woe · Misery · Melancholy'
	Disappointment	Dismay · Displeasure
	Shame	Guilt · Regret · Remorse
	Neglect	Alienation · Defeatism · Dejection · Embarrassment · Homesickness · Humiliation · Insecurity · Insult · Isolation · Loneliness · Rejection
	Sympathy	Pity · Sympathy
Fear	Horror	Alarm · Shock · Fear · Fright · Horror · Terror · Panic · Hysteria · Mortification
	Nervousness	Anxiety · Suspense · Uneasiness · Apprehension (fear) · Worry · Distress · Dread

Shame is the only emotion having to do with sin where you regret ever doing it and wished you could take it back; live that part of life over and don’t do that on your second try.

In the book of Genesis of the Bible, it says this about Adam and Eve:

Genesis 2:25

New International Version (NIV)

²⁵ Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

They had no shame before their fall. I wondered if they experienced shame afterwards but I don’t see that they did.

Genesis 3

New International Version (NIV)

The Fall

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

I see no evidence of them having shame; they were afraid but didn’t seem to have shame. Instead of accepting their guilt and repenting of it, they blamed the other.

When I looked at the story of Cain and Abel, I saw no shame in Cain either; for killing his brother. Even after the Lord told Cain that Abel’s blood cried out to Him from the ground and the Lord announced the curse, he still had no shame. He was concerned about his well being and said the punishment was more than he could bear.

Throughout the Old Testament, there are many references of God reducing the wicked to shame and keeping shame from those who trusted in Him.

Shame seems to lead to repentance. I have also noticed that those who were shamed leading to repentance wore sackcloth and ashes. Doing this was the same as saying, “I am shamed to the point of death;” or “I am as good as dead.” We also see references of going down to the pit. I believe the pit is another word that is used for grave or death. Sometimes it’s used in a way as saying, “I am so bogged down in my sins;” like being in quicksand.

In the New Testament, there are many warnings for the believer to stay in Christ and Christ in the believer; to avoid being put to shame at judgment time.

Why is it that so many people of today that do such terrible things don’t seem to experience shame? It looks to me like shame has to come from God. God has to open the eyes of our heart to see the sin and how depraved we’ve become.

When I was very young, my family went to visit the family of one of my cousins. My cousin and I were playing along in one of the bedrooms. I had this desire to see what a girl looked like down where we boys don’t get to see. I made up a game called PDP and convinced her to play. We went into the bedroom closet where she pulled down her paints and I got to see her. We weren’t caught in the act but somehow both our parents found out what we did. I was questioned repeatedly if we did that and every time I denied it. I think I went so far as to call my cousin a liar. (I just recently asked forgiveness of those I lied to, the ones still alive.)

I was afraid, probably like Adam was when God asked him. I really don’t know exactly what I was afraid of; I guess it was afraid of being found out. I wasn’t ashamed; I was afraid. Shame didn’t come until many years later after repenting of my sins and asking Jesus to come into my life and take control. I finally felt the need to go to my cousin and ask for her forgiveness. She didn’t remember anything about it but she offered her forgiveness because I asked.

This brings me to another point. When Jesus was with His disciples, He asked them who the people say He was; they gave Him many answers. Then He asked the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter was the only one to speak up and he said. “You are the Christ; the Son of the Living God.” Jesus told him that no flesh and blood had revealed that to him. In other words, it was God who had revealed it. Jesus goes on to call Peter a rock and He said. “Upon this rock I will build my church.”

This was also the time when Jesus explained to His disciples what was about to happen; that He would suffer much and be put to death but would rise to life again on the third day. He also said that they would all run away and desert Him. Peter was puffed up with pride and said that the others might all run away but he would never leave Jesus’ side. Jesus revealed to Peter that before the cock crowed he was going to deny even knowing Jesus three times.

Peter tried to be strong. As Jesus was being lead away as prisoner, Peter followed at a distance but never close by. Three times someone in the various groups he sat with recognized him as being with Jesus and all three times he denied it. After his third denial, he heard the cock crow and remembered what Jesus revealed to him. The Bible says that Peter’s shame was so great that he went outside and wept bitterly.

What Jesus is revealing to us is that it is God who reveals sin to us in such a way as to bring shame which leads to repentance; this is how Jesus’ church is being built.

I would like to say something to you who belong to God’s church. None of us are exempt from sinning once we are a member. There is a daily battle going on but we now have help to overcome it. All sin starts with a thought. God sees that thought just as soon as it enters your mind. I have found that just as soon as I have a wrong thought, I tell the Lord, “I know you see this too and it is not a good thought. Please take this thought away and clean up my thinking so I don’t get these kinds of thoughts so easily.” The faster you can get rid of the thought the better.

What should you believe?

My cousin and I have been getting together for Bible study for quite a while now; once a week if we can. We've been meeting on Mondays lately and since this is Monday, we just finished up a little while ago. We agreed to work in the book of John but we haven't been able to make much progress. Before my vision, the one I explained in my post "My beliefs have changed," we probably would be in great harmony in our beliefs and therefore been able to sail right through John and be done with it, not saying that John is the problem; it's been my sidetracks.

I used to fit into the "Once saved always saved" group, I guess you might say. If you had to fit my cousin into a group, I believe He would agree that he fits this group right now because of his present beliefs.

I hate to try and get into a discussion of trying to define this group because there are variations within this set of beliefs too. I guess, in a nutshell it is a belief that once you are in God's grace, you can't get out of it.

Most faiths are looking to some sort of life or maybe I should say an existence in one of two places after this one is over. Some of us will go to heaven and some will go to hell. Either place is a place that will never end and there is no way out once you get there. It is a matter of our choice, in a manner of speaking, where you go. It will be determined by what you do in this life; how you live it. "God doesn't make robots"; as we so often hear........... I used to believe this too; in two separate places.

The Bible talks about hell being a place of great torment. I used to not like to think about hell much and I certainly didn't want to go there. I had all kinds of visions of this place called hell and none of them good. Even though I could not believe that God of Love could have such a place, I was willing to accept it; to the reasoning of there are just some things beyond my understanding.

Well, because of that vision I spoke of, I now had to deal with this concept of hell, after all my vision put me there in it. At first, I tried to search scriptures and see what others had to say about it. I came to realize that what I was getting from others was just what they believed and when I searched the scriptures, I was seeing different things and getting confused.

Remembering the scripture that says that we have but one teacher, and that is Jesus, I resolved myself to God's word and much prayer. I've had to keep asking Father God to paint the picture of my understanding in my mind clearer. I am the type of person; if I can't picture something in my mind, I can't understand it. Little by little He is painting my picture clearer.

I no longer believe in that place of hell that I used to believe in. I believe it will be the shame I will feel for my unreconciled sin when the veil is lifted and He writes His laws upon my mind and upon my heart. I will either see Jesus taking that punishment of shame in my place or I will have to experience the shame myself.

God has made every effort to keep me from that shame. It is up to me to let Jesus take my punishment or not.

All I've said in this blog are what I believe God has revealed to me. Are they God's truth? I believe they are but doesn't all faiths believe theirs to be the right one. What I can tell you with certainty, is that whatever is in God's plan (His will) that is what will come true.

I believe that God Jesus is the only one who can reveal the truth to you through the work of the Holy Spirit, so please do not just accept these things I've said. Ask God!

I hope some day my cousin and I will again come into agreement in our beliefs. I love him and do so enjoy our talks even if we don't see eye to eye on things. We'll just have to wait upon the Lord; in one way or the another, if you know what I mean.

Where's God?

Do you ever think about or wonder if God is around only when you ask Him to be and steps away to leave you on your own at other times? Or, that He only reacts after the fact; like He knows only after something happens? I’ve wondered about this.

 

I believe that God is at work all the time doing his will and doing it not only in the lives of believers but in non-believers lives as well. What I’m saying is that everything that happens, happens within God’s will.

 

So often we can’t understand why bad things happen; how can that be in God’s will? I don’t believe things happen for our harm or that God wants to get back at us for not shaping up into the character He wants, or for doing something He didn’t like, or not doing something He wanted us to do.

 

All of our lives’ stories have already been played out for God. In His for-knowledge of our stories, I believe God makes, actually has already made, tweaks along our paths to yield the best for each of us; How could that person just happen to be there to give you food when you were so hungry, or give you a place to stay when you had no where to go, or give you money when you most needed it? How did that special person come into your life when he/she lives so far away? How come that book showed up in your life just when you needed it? How do you explain when things happen that you think were bad at the time but latter see how it was actually for your good?

Isaiah 25

New International Version (NIV)

Praise to the Lord

25 Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done wonderful things,
things planned long ago.
² You have made the city a heap of rubble,
the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
cities of ruthless nations will revere you.
⁴ You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
is like a storm driving against a wall
⁵ and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

⁶ On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
⁷ On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.

⁹ In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

My beliefs have changed.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts about having a vision. This was not in a dream. It was during my talk with Jesus. As I was talking to Him, in my mind as I most often do, I felt as though Jesus and the Holy Spirit just got up and left my presence without saying a word. To help you understand the feeling I had; imagine yourself in front of a group of people talking to them and without a word, they all just stand up and leave. It took me some time to digest what had just happened. How could Jesus do that, just get up and leave me and not tell me why or say anything at all? I knew that there was no use in talking any longer because there was no one there. The next thing I felt was me standing in a completely desolate lonely place. To give you an idea of this place, imagine a place that’s totally void of everything except for what looked like sand to stand on and light for vision (to see that there was nothing.) There was absolutely nothing of God’s creation, not even God was there. I was totally alone. I wanted to cry out to Him but knew there was no use. I started thinking about the Bible saying that hell was everlasting and I thought, “Oh my God, is this the place I will go when I die?”

 

It took me a while to get past the initial shock of the moment. I first tried to reason things out; was this real or some sort of figment of my imagination? I had no answer. Then I thought, “Can I talk to God now;” Just moments ago I didn’t feel I could; can I now? I slowly started talking to God. I asked many questions; was this real; what does it mean; is this where I will end up, forever? So, so many questions. Even though I wasn’t getting any answers and it frightened me to think of going to a place like that for eternity, I still felt God listening and a kind of peace about it. I noticed a change in my talks with God. My talks with Jesus before seemed close by, as two friends would talk. Now they seem farther off as though I’m now talking to Father God.

 

Sense that day, I’ve asked Father God questions about many things that I don’t believe I would have even thought to ask before my vision: Can one loose his salvation; what is hell; what is salvation; what did Jesus do for me; who are God’s children; are those who God chooses the only ones who go to heaven and the rest go to hell, what happens to those who’s hearts are hardened by God; what is heaven, do we go to heaven or do we go to the new earth when He creates the new heaven and earth? I’m sure I’ve not named all my questions but you can see how these questions stemmed from having that vision.

 

My beliefs have changed since that day, little by little, and they are still being molded as Father God answers my questions.

 

I believe we are all God’s children. We are made by Him; He owns us; we all are His; we will all return to Him once our oneness is complete through Jesus and peace is restored. I believe the chosen or elect who God gives the power to become the children of God are a different kind of God’s children. They are the ones to show the rest of us, Almighty God, the Great I AM; they are the true priests; the lights unto the world; the ones who have their true nature revealed to them and know their need for a savior and a Lord and have entered a marriage agreement with Jesus to teach them the way and help them stay the course; they are the first fruits.

 

No one has seen Father God. We see evidence that He exists through His creation; but because our eyes haven’t seen Him, we create gods for ourselves; gods who we give credit to for our well being.

 

In the Old Testament, the people's gods were in some sort of an idol form with a name. They worshiped these man-made things for the purpose to have many children, to have success in battles, to have good crops, to get rain, to cure their sicknesses, to put curses on people they didn’t like, and so on.

 

God wanted to show them that these man-made things weren’t gods at all. They were just something they could see but other than just take up space they did nothing more. So, to show them this, He chose the Israelites. Were the Israelites special? Well, in some ways they were; after all He chose them. He had to choose someone to show the world that He is the One True God, so He picked the Israelites. Because He chose them and because they would go through much suffering throughout the ages, He gives them special privileges and rewards. The same holds true to those He’s chosen since His Son came into the world. They too will receive special privileges and rewards because of the sufferings they experience, just like Christ did. But in both cases, it was the only way to show us Himself.

 

Today, we don’t usually have idles anymore but we still have our man-made gods. Now they are in the form of our wealth, our good jobs, our beauty, our health, our smarts, our good education, or whatever. They become our gods when we depend on them for our well being and believe that they come from our own power. Through God’s elect or chosen of today, hopefully we will come to see that all of what we thought was important to us is meaningless; and we come to know that it all comes from God’s good will to us.

 

I believe hell is grief, sorrow, remorse, regret, and shame, for unreconciled sin. There are so many references in the Bible talking about shame that to me sounds like what hell is. Instead of listing them all, here is a link: 

 

Shame

http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=shame&searchtype=all&version1=31&language1=en&spanbegin=1&spanend=73

 

We are all called to repentance and believing. Repenting means to take ownership of sins committed; be truly sorry for doing them, asking God to forgive you and to help you to sin no more. God knows our hearts. He knows if I am really sorry for all my sins or if I’m holding something back because I’m not ready to give it up to Christ. I believe that Christ Jesus bore our grief and sorrow: He took our punishment. But, it is only for the sins we truly regret doing. If I don’t regret a sin enough to repent of it, there is nothing about that sin for Christ to bear; I have no sorrow, at the moment, so Christ doesn’t need to take it away or pay for it. Jesus doesn’t really take away the sin; He takes away the grief and sorrow; He takes our punishment.

Isaiah 53:4-6

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

 

Exodus 33:19

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁹ And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

I’ve wondered a lot about this verse; what is the difference between mercy and compassion. I couldn’t see a difference until this morning. In His Son, Christ Jesus, God gives us both compassion and mercy. In His compassion for us, He sent His Son into the world to take our punishment. His mercy comes through our repenting. Let me explain this in another way. Say, you are a parent with two children of completely different personalities. You know them very well. You tell them both that they are not to do something and what the punishment will be if they do. With one, you know that when he does something wrong and is sorry for it; he means he is truly sorry and won’t do it again. So, you show him mercy and not punish him even though he deserved to be. Now your other child is a different story. You know that with him, even if he says he’s sorry and won’t do it again that he will, so you punish him. We, as a parent might want to give up on that child but I believe God never does. Think about it, He is the Creator. He knows what best to do.  

 

What does the Bible say about our Lord Jesus Christ?

Isaiah 9:6

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 

Now about when God hardens someone’s heart as He did with Pharaoh. It seemed to me that it was mean of God to do that, but I think I understand now the why. In every case, God did this to show that God was the cause. There was no way to explain it away to any other reason except that God and only God was the one who did it. So what happens to that person? Well, I came across an interesting passage.

Isaiah 40:10

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.

The word recompense means:

a: to give something to by way of compensation (as for a service rendered or damage incurred)

b: to pay for

 

The scripture verse says “his recompense.” I believe that God will compensate that person somehow for hardening his heart. You can even find this in His laws. For example:

Exodus 21:26

New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ “An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye.