Christianity Oasis Forum

[vahn]

When our Lord said "come to me you heavy laden .... My yoke is light " , we all too often forget when He also said " he who comes to me , must leave everything behind " we usually interpret it as , wealth , possessions , things we hold dear and so on and make the mistake of getting rid of the garbage as well , and we stuff the things we hold dear in that garbage bag and off we go to see the wizard , saying "I rid myself of everything as you asked , and here I am , laying my 'problems' at your feet , I put them all in one place for Your convenience , see if You can dispose of them for me , then maybe I'll be a good kid " HAH !!

Now don't get me wrong , I am not saying that He will not help us getting rid of the 'problems' that are standing in His way , but as far as the so-called 'problems' as we deem them to be such , and conveniently stick them in the same baggage as with the other trash , He would probably say "what's this ? what's it doing in this garbage bag ? Isn't this what I gave you ? now you calling it a problem ? and even worse , you giving back to Me just because it has become an inconvenience to you ? Why do you think I gave that to you in the first place ?" .

A lot of people call it "running away from" , others , "too afraid to look at them" but whatever the case may be , garbage is garbage no matter how one looks at it and I simply cannot take my garbage to His presence without at least try to first get rid of it myself and when I find out I cant then I ask Him to help me with it , not to give it to Him !

For example , Fear , all sorts of spiritual maladies stem from it right ? In fact the essence of our whole existence is shot through with it . Now , if I were to put that in a bag , am I not putting everything else in there as well ? including whatever He gave me as His will just because I am too afraid of "dealing" with and learning from and live with it according to His will , is causing me a bit of an inconvenience ?

But then again that's us , one brother put his fears (jealousy , envy , bias and preference) and the other whatever his role was to be in the eyes of the Lord including fear (awe and reverence and acceptance of the outcome of whatever tribulations he might have to suffer because of them) ended up being killed by his own brother , yes I am talking about the context of Caine and Abel . They both went to Him in and with FEAR . Because they were both begotten by the shedding of the blood (their father Adam had to kill an animal God had gave him to care for and protect , to cover his ashamed nakedness with its skin) so did his offsprings and the shedding continued since , until that is with the arrival of the second Adam , our Lord Jesus The Christ .

So , when I go in front of my Lord with my "baggage" as any loving father would do , His first question would be " What you there ?' and no matter what we call it and our own purpose of giving it to him , the next question He would ask is "Let's see what got in there , open it up ". That's why we need to sort them out (putting it on paper) , make a list of the inventory , and take it to Him ASKING "This ? ok , what about this one ? "
instead of making the decision on our own and end up being laughed at ,and scorned , and clam up , never to bring it up again and in the process go on through life pretending that just because we "gave" our problems to God , He accepted it , and keep on wondering why the same thing keeps repeating itself , and in turn we keep killing each other spiritualy , just to cover our own fears with the pelt of another .

[Mackenaw]

Hello Vahn,

Very insightful -- it appears God's been talking to you and you have been listening. God is Good.

Every experience we go through in life is recorded in our subconscious. Once when I was a teen, I went out with friends and we proceeded to drink a lot of beer. Then we pigged out on onion rings. I later got sick as a dog. It was a lot of years before I could eat an onion ring, even the smell of them cooking brought back that unpleasant memory -- to the point of feeling ill.

Our subconscious often times will put forth a memory to our mind because of a sensory reaction. A long forgotten experience sorta explodes into the forefront of our thinking -- all because of a familiar smell or sound or sight. A deja vu type thing.

Whether we have been born again 50 years or 5 minutes, God was with us from the beginning. During the sanctification process, He will often bring forth old memories to let us know..."I was with you". If those memories started us down a path of ungodly reactions -- uncontrollable emotional reactions, He will sometimes use those experiences to heal us, teaching us a better way -- His Way.

There is an old Hymn/Spiritual in which the first two lines go: "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, Nobody knows but Jesus."

Jesus is the Word. He heals. He'll heal us and empower us to overcome, steering us away from those emotional outbursts from fear and/or anger.

God bless you, Vahn.
Love,
Mack

[deetu]

When I was reading this vahn, I just kept thinking, "Dying to one's self"
To me, that means to let all the old stuff, the hurtful stuff, the garbage... let all that stuff die so that I not only don't have to carry it around any more but also to have that space open so God can now fill it with all the good stuff He wants to give me.

For example, I know alot of people have such a problem with unforgiveness. They will not forgive someone for old hurts. But usually it bothers you more then they are bothered by it. Lots of times, they don't even know you are mad at them. That's heavy baggage to carry. Some will say they have forgiven but they really haven't. That's why it keeps coming back. I found I was able to forgive when I also blessed the person. That's even harder but the best.
Joyce Meyers used potatoes as an example, carrying them around with names of burdens on them. It was a good teaching; still on her site.