Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Who’s Navigating Whom?

Values Education
Character Building
Character Education

To me, all the above are nothing more than a smoke screen for the age-old scam – Satan’s diabolical scheme to convince us that we don’t need God.
(By our own self-effort, we can manage just fine, thank you. Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God).

‘Values Education’ would have us focus on improving our self-esteem, our self-worth, self-respect, self-image, etc. Hmmmm…I seem to detect a common thread here: SELF! Contrary to what God says, we are NOT flawed beyond repair. We were NOT ‘born in sin and shaped in iniquity’. We were born good! All we have to do is work on our bad points. We do NOT have to depend upon God because we have it all within our own grasp. By our own self-effort, we can BE LIKE GOD.

My wife often sees what she is doing as a junior and senior kindergarten teacher as merely civilizing them (aging from three and a half to five) and setting up with what she is permitted to do to help them navigate through life.
According to someone, God was supposedly removed from the class room, funny how He is still very much there in the lives of so many teachers, simply being Jesus to whomever.

I find it interesting the wording Paul uses in the New Testament, Ephesians 2:3, ‘By nature we were children of wrath.’

My perception on the whole garden scene was allowing Adam a choice represented by the two trees. Each tree represented a nature, why?Is it possible that man (all those in Adam) were created without a nature? Man was going to be governed or ruled by a nature, God or Satan.
(I love the song by Bob Dylan, ‘You’ve got to serve somebody.’)In choosing to disobey God, man, in eating of the wrong tree then became at that moment one now possessing a nature of a father, but sadly, the nature of one whom Jesus called, ‘the father of lies.’

Sadly in my opinion what we have mistakenly adopted and adapted to is an erroneous name given to our nature as being human.Maybe what happened was the prince of this fallen world Satan himself became cloaked in a stealth mode totally invading man disguised as human nature?

I think it is a pretty normal thing for anyone who has ever had to go to the hospital to have an x-ray taken, and seen the results come back showing clearly what was not seen by the naked eye.Is that what happened for instance when Jesus said, ‘You are of your father the Devil?’
The heart surgeon specialist Jesus, seeing and revealing clearly what in fact was mans true nature, not human but indwelt by Satan himself.This robber, killer, destroyer and liar was being exposed for who he was, and consequently caused a vicious attack by those Jesus addressed as having Satan as their father.

These people that came apart at the seems in hearing Jesus calling them sons of the devil were in fact religious and outwardly good, nice, fine upstanding folk, but don’t look inside, you won’t like what you see. (Pay no attention to that liar cloaked in human flesh)All have sinned and fallen from His glorious purpose, there are none that seek Him-none!

I see Satan being the master architect of all religion and although it wasn’t clearly being presented this way to Adam and Eve in the garden, Satan desired, craved to be worshiped.

There has been birthed within us a whole army of coping tricks (props) and man has become successful in learning and applying them to his living in this world, but at his core apart from the rebirthing there is the illusion of grandeur and superiority of some flesh being better than others.
Flesh is and always will be only flesh Jesus said. In His partaking of and becoming flesh, maybe by experience He discovered that apart from the nature of the Father within him, he could not do anything of himself as he continually reminded us.

It is this very subject I long to see in greater clarity and will share as further light is given to me.
Our enemy Satan has been stripped of his power over our lives, which is all part of the Message of life and hope freely given to us in Christ Jesus, but, there is still a cloaked hidden enemy within our and all flesh. It is the progressive and continued working of grace being applied to our souls that continues to free us from Satan’s influence.The spirit of this world (age) has one intention, to conform us, to shape us from within our souls as if we were play dough and the father of lies Satan displaying an expression of humanity that has become its own god.

Maybe Paul clearly saw through the smoke and mirrors of deception, when he said, ‘Don't be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're animals. Stay clear of these people.’

I hope to continue on this theme as I am further directed.

Rich