You are who you are at home.
Unknown
What’s going on behind all the doors closing out disease across the globe right now?
Few things weigh on me more than ongoing stress and strife with family. I thank the Lord for peace in my home as of today, Good Friday, 2020. There are moments of fear and tension and panic for us, but mostly we want to support each other and stay calm.
So far.
We are human. It wouldn’t take much for things to change. A major setback with my health, as I had in December, would change everything. If you are anything like me, then our worst behavior comes out when our world crashes in like a drowning storm. Our monstrous acts affect the ones in our home more than anyone. It gets worse when our friends, neighbors, and coworkers aren’t around to see the beast who lives inside us.
Long before we heard of COVID-19, another pandemic was going on around the world today. The disease is prehistoric and commonly goes by beastly terms such as SELFISHNESS, ENTITLEMENT, PREJUDICE, ABUSE. These, among others, are the various strains of the original infection I prefer to call…
PRIDE.
Pride may not strike you as a disease at all, but more like a positive emotion. The term pride has developed alternate definitions over the years and lost much of its primary meaning. Perhaps that’s why most people use the names of its various strains.
The Bible refers to pride as the condition of seeing yourself as more than you are. It speaks of pride as the first sin that leads to all other sins, the first step out of heaven into hell, from the Garden of Eden into the world we know today.
Since pride entered the picture, many other conditions have evolved under the category the Bible calls sin. All sinful conditions attack a person by distorting their brain, altering the condition of the heart, and destroying their soul to the point of turning into something other than God’s created intent. The condition is deadly, and we are all born infected.
But unlike the virus outbreak today, there is a cure for pride and its various strains. There is a treatment for the ways we think too much of ourselves and mistreat the ones we love. There is a cure for missing the mark of our created purpose—to live in PERFECT LOVE with God and one another—a cure for sin.
How often is the treatment administered?
The initial dose will save the life of your soul. However, the remaining symptoms require repeated administrations throughout the day in most cases.
Are there multiple manufactures for this treatment?
No. There is only one Manufacturer and no generic.
Do alternative remedies exist?
Yes. I’ve tried many of them, and I can say they only provide a short-term placebo effect. They are not worth the risk to the life of your soul. The illness grows worse the longer it goes without the proper treatment.
What is the cost?
Everything you have and claim as yours.
Why is the treatment so expensive?
The cost is part of the cure. Everything you have and claim as your own is making your condition worse.
What can you own without making the condition worse?
There are a few things you must own for your treatment to work…
- You must own up to your infected condition – denial will kill you.
- Own the fact that your condition blocks you from your created purpose.
- Own the reality that your condition has disfigured your brain, weakened your heart, and stream-lined your soul so it only operates on temporary life support.
- Own your symptoms, the way you hurt others, the way your pride, arrogance, sense of entitlement, and prejudices cause your life, and the life of those you love, to break down.
- Own the fact that if you want to survive, you need a cure before the effects of the illness and its symptoms are irreversible.
What is the payment process
GOOD NEWS! The Manufacture already paid the price for the cure in full!
This may sound like a contradiction to the cost mentioned above, but it’s not. In reality, there is nothing you can give or do to pay for the cure on our own.
Something you should know about the Manufacture.
Providing you with a cure was so important to the Manufacturer, that he gave up everything and suffered extreme trauma to make it available to you free.
How do you receive the cure?
This is a two-step process, and it requires both steps.
Step one: Send a request to the Manufacture.
- The Manufacture will not waste the cure on individuals who will not accept the fact that they need it.
- It’s surprising how many find this step difficult. This is common because of the struggle with owning the things mentioned above. If you can’t own the things above, you will not see a need for a cure.
- The manufacturer also offers support to those struggling to own up to their condition. Ask for his help.
Step two: Sign everything you own or think you own over to the Manufacture.
- This is not a payment, but it is the moment often referred to as “counting the cost”. A moment to decide if the cure is worth the struggle.
- In reality, signing everything over is part of the cure, like surgery to remove a tumor.
- This is your chance to get rid of the things you didn’t want to own anyway and to let go of the things you don’t really own and are weighing you down.
How do you sign everything over?
- Provide permission for extractions — Give the Manufacturer a verbal consent to remove the deformative and cancer-like effects of the disease. The Manufacturer is skilled with extraction and reconstruction. He knows the exact way to handle each person’s individual condition. For most, this is a lifetime process.
- Give claim to the good in your life over to the Manufacturer — This is a cost you must count, but it’s not a payment.
- This is like a father giving his child a ball and a five-dollar bill and the child trying to pay for the ball with the five dollars. The father delights in what the child has given back, but the child has not paid for anything. We were all born with nothing but what God has given us, and there is no good we can accomplish or earn without God’s gifts.
Why do you have to give everything back to the Manufacture?
We are not good owners of what God has given us, but we still want to keep the ball and say we paid for it.
We want to own our body, our spouse, our children, our wealth, our possessions, our accomplishments, but then we manage them poorly and stress over what to do about them. We’re imprisoned by our struggles to control them.
When we give God the ownership title, he gives us instructions for loving each other and tending the things he gives back as our responsibilities. Though the world crumbles around us, love and goodness will still fill our hearts.
What happens if you refuse to sign these things over to the Manufacture?
The disease returns. You may not notice the harmful symptoms growing inside at first, but a time will come when pain and sorrow surround you and the ones you love. Eventually, all the good God intends for you will die along with your body.
What if you’re struggling to sign everything over to the Manufacture?
Even though we own nothing but what God has given, he understands how hard it is to give it back. He realizes we are not strong enough to give up everything. The Manufacturer also offers support for this process, but we must ask for help and show a willingness to do our part. The more we resist, the harder it is for our body to accept the cure. Without the cure, we will never heal and there is nothing the manufacturer can do about it. It’s up to you and me.
Conclusion
All the good in our life, and the good that has come from our actions, belongs to our Creator and the giver of all good things. We are born with a deadly sinful infection that hinders our ability to do any good on our own. Only our Creator can manufacture a cure for us. He set the process in motion when the sickness of sin and pride entered the world.
He wants us to have the cure because he loves us.
Only the Manufacturer can pay for our cure, and he did so over two thousand years ago when he gave up everything to take on the sickness of the world. He not only suffered and died a traumatic physical death, he temporarily gave up the eternal union between himself and his Father. The Father and the Son are one. Just the anticipation of this broken union created grief so deep, blood dropped like sweat from the Son’s brow.
That, and so much more, is what he did to provide a cure.
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds, you have been healed.”
1 Peter 2:24
Summary of actions
- Accept your infected condition and that you need a cure to save your soul.
- Ask for the cure, and you will receive it.
- Follow the treatment plan for as long as it takes to heal and stay well.
- Respect the price the Manufacturer paid and his love for you.
- Know what’s at stake for you, for the ones you love, and for the rest of the infected world.