A Long Time Ago When We Were Young and
Healthy
Barbara Henderson
I was thinking about 'a long time ago
when I was well'. I was thinking about before cancer. But with thinking about
it a little more I came up with two thoughts that indicate clearer thinking,
First, I was never well. I have had
fragile health my entire life. First my doctor bills practically put my parents
in the poor house. Then a few good years as a young adult, and then back to
sick all the time. No matter what I do or how hard I try to 'feel good'
physically I still have health problems. Fortunately, I usually feel good
emotionally.
Second, no one is ever actually well. We
are all born with the sin nature. We are all born to die. Some have longer life
spans than others. There are reports today of people living into their early
100s and still having relatively good health even in this day and time. Some
are blessed with a short illness before they pass into eternity. But everyone's
body eventually lets them down. It fails to do what the mind wants the body to
do. Everyone has limits on what their body will do even from the time of their
birth.
So, 'a long time ago when I was well'
should be stated like this: 'In eternity I will be completely and eternally
well in both mind and body.'
Heaven is for real. Hell is also for
real. You can know where you will spend eternity. Let me help you if you are
having problems being sure of your future.
First, being saved is not a feeling. It is
turning your future over to Jesus Christ. Being saved usually brings about a
feeling of relief and joy, but not always. The devil and his angels can copy
any emotion. How easy it would be to give people the 'feeling of being saved'
when they are still far from Christ. So,
the question is simply to ask yourself if you sincerely turned your life over
to Christ. One indicator is to be
baptized. That isn’t what saves you, but
it does tell the world that you have become a follower of Jesus Christ. Eventually joy in your salvation will
come. As I already said it most likely
will come with your initial surrender of your life to Christ. That is what happened to me, but I was
tormented by fear of hell later which caused me to doubt. Eventually I talked to our preacher who said
that since I prayed to be saved several times, perhaps I was saved at a later
date than my first prayer. He suggested
that I be rebaptized. So, I was
rebaptized. I felt wonderful for about a
week. Then doubt hit me again like a ton
of bricks. Then I realized that it was
just the devil up to his old tricks.
If you are having doubts about your
salvation you need to talk to a pastor or someone you trust regarding spiritual
matters. You should either decide you
are saved and the devil or your own sin nature is tormenting you, or you will
decide that you do indeed need to get saved.
Once you have the matter settled you need to determine that you are
going to go by faith instead of feelings.
It is very simple. When doubts
arise ask yourself,
‘Do I believe God?’
‘Did I follow His instructions to get
myself adopted into His family?’
If you can truly answer ‘YES’ then you
are saved.
If you are troubled with doubt:
Confess doubt as sin.
Pray for faith to grow.
Second being saved opens yourself up to
attacks from the devil that are different than attacks previously. Doubt is just something that everyone
experiences. Temptations of various
kinds are also new. To me and I think
most people the two major temptations are
pride
about one thing or
another and
lying.
Personally, I never was a big liar when it came to lying to others
(except my mom as a teenager – and I eventually decided that even that was just
too big a burden to carry. I just told the truth and faced the consequences.) My tendency when lying was/is to lie to myself. I just twist things slightly in my favor. I
know this is wrong. The Holy Spirit
convicts of that being a sin whenever I give it a try. Sometimes I have almost
convinced myself that a still small voice said, ‘BARBARA – you KNOW that isn’t exactly
how that happened.’ I think
that is how people often begin to twist the truth. They just lie to themselves a tiny bit at a
time. In the course of a few weeks or
even years of going over the ‘event’ that ‘wasn’t your fault’ it can go from
you being the most innocent of two people to you being a martyr and the other
person being a direct tool of the devil.
Far more important than keeping your
body healthy is to keep your mind healthy.
I think a key factor in a healthy mind is to tell the truth to
yourself. God gives the gift of a sound
mind, but that gift can be sealed away from your thoughts if lies are how you
justify wrong doing (sin) on your part.
Don’t shoot yourself in the foot so to speak by lying to yourself. That is ‘giving place to the devil’.
Today we see half of the USA caught up
in Delusionalism. They have convinced
themselves of many lies. Evolution is a
big lie. It couldn’t possibly be true,
yet so many in the world believe it. It
is practically a religion. Let me change
that. The pseudo-science of
Evolutionalism is a religion. It is an
offshoot of Delusionalism. You have to
be able to lie to yourself before you can believe evolution has the slightest
hint of truth to it.
People are making up religions:
Wiccan
– witch craft for
good.
Mormanism – invented by one delusional man and
followed today by many.
Islam – invented by one very evil delusional
tool of the devil named Mohamad.
Feminism – not labeled a religion – but still a
deeply held belief.
Within feminism is the worship of abortion – that is the most deeply
help belief of feminists, with misandric treatment of all men as a close
second, and the ultimate superiority of women over men is the final plank in
their belief system.
Jedi-ism – following a pseudo religion from a
movie! (Think ‘Star Wars’) This is true – people are following this a
legitimate religion.
Jedism (with one i) – worship of Jed Clampet –
which makes more sense than following Jedi-ism, and it is has just as much
chance of getting a person into heaven as all the other man made religions.
Today very few seek the ultimate
truth. They look for something they like
and label that as the truth. It is
really a form of self-worship.
Adherents
to these pseudo-religions make up a god that:
requires
no sacrafice of them of which they do not approve,
doesn’t
see their sin,
and
is basically made in their own image.
But as Christians we are to seek
ultimate truth. It isn’t our job to add
or subtract any teaching from the Bible. It is best to read and study an entire
book of the Bible at the same time.
Remember
the Bible is:
Inerrant – without error
Sufficient – everything necessary to come to a
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is presented in the Bible. Any other knowledge – no matter how true – is
just a human interest story.
Relevant – the problems facing mankind are the
same basic things that have faced them from the beginning. Satan’s lies are presented as the truth by
gullible adherents to any silly pseudo-scientific manmade belief. Mankind falls for these lies because he/she
is prideful and often willingly ignorant of the truth. Galatians 3:1 reminds us in chapter that even
the saved can be bewitched or led astray.
‘O
foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you, that ye should not obey the
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you?’
It is much
harder to bewitch a Christian, or lead them astray initially if they know sound
Bible doctrine. Even knowing just the
basics will allow a believer to spot many lies when initially presented. They won’t be fooled by new revelations or
subject matter that promises personal prosperity or something that may be
contrary to what God says. Sound
doctrine doesn’t allow you to break the commandments because ‘God wants you to
be happy’, or because ‘it feels right’.
Pay attention to what the Bible does teach. Believers
today are no better or smarter than the foolish Galatians who allowed
themselves to be led astray by false teachings/bewitchment. We are without excuse because we have the
Bible in our hands, on line, on cd, and since we have heard so much of the
Bible repeatedly much of it should also be in our memory.
‘O
foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you, that ye should not obey the
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you?’ Galatians 3:1
The
Bible teaches:
Inerrancy
of scripture
Glory
to God alone
Deity
of Christ
Bodily
death and resurrection of Christ
Bodily
return of Jesus Christ.
Anything that teaches anything apart
from the most basic Bible truths is not going improve over time. It will only get worse. So, start your Bible studies with these
things in mind. Then choose a good study
Bible.
I like the Thompson Chain Reference Bible.
It
gives you a lot of information regarding:
who
wrote the book,
to
whom it was written,
the
subject/reason the book was written/ and
an
outline of the book/sequence of events in the book
and
massive concordances and references.
Sometimes I read just the outlines of
the Bible books. This will familiarize
you with the books when you don’t have the urge for deep Bible study. This may actually give you the urge to study.
As you begin to study the Bible in depth
you begin to see heaven. You begin to
understand that while we don’t have the capacity to understand heaven, we can
grasp to some extent that heaven is wonderful beyond our imagination. As you think about a future that is
unimaginably wonderful you start to think about the eternal future that awaits
you. You thank God that your future is
so much better than you past, no matter how wonderful your past may have
been. You begin to think about your
future where you are eternally healthy in mind and body and with loved ones and
friends who are also believers.
‘He which testifieth these
things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord
Jesus.’ Revelation 22;20
Dear Reader,
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Thank you for reading my article
Barbara
