SITTING ON THE BENCH FOR JESUS

Written by Irvin L. Rozier


Many of God's servants are waiting onrepparttar bench forrepparttar 126496 Coach to put them inrepparttar 126497 game. They have prepared forrepparttar 126498 the day, time, and hour whenrepparttar 126499 LORD nods His head, points His finger, and says "Okay, it is time for you to takerepparttar 126500 position you have prepared and practiced so hard and so long for. It is your time."

Inrepparttar 126501 Bible are many examples. Joseph,repparttar 126502 dreamer, was preparing, waiting for that day, time, and hour when God gaverepparttar 126503 okay, and he was promoted torepparttar 126504 position that God had ordained for him. Moses, David, Paul, and many others wererepparttar 126505 same way. Even Jesus, who knew more aboutrepparttar 126506 Father, and had so much to share, sit onrepparttar 126507 bench until God's time was right.

The LORD has taught merepparttar 126508 value of waiting on His timing many times overrepparttar 126509 past 18+ years. I would like to give two examples.

The Holy Spirit had spoken a word to me that I would be preaching onrepparttar 126510 radio. Days, weeks, months, and a year passed. During this time, I was studying God's word, praying, preaching at some other places..yet,repparttar 126511 Holy Spirit often spoke to me on this. About 14 months after I receivedrepparttar 126512 word to preach onrepparttar 126513 radio, I was sitting on my back porch, meditating on God's word. Suddenly,repparttar 126514 LORD spoke to me and said, "Tonight, at 6:45, I want you to start preaching onrepparttar 126515 radio." It was Wednesday afternoon, about 1:30. I said, "Okay, Lord. I'll go over torepparttar 126516 radio station, and inquire about having a 15 minute program." I droverepparttar 126517 eight miles torepparttar 126518 station, went inside and askedrepparttar 126519 radio station manager about a program. He said, "Normally, we don't have preaching on Wednesday evening, but I can give you a fifteen minute slot starting at 6:45 P.M. You can begin tonight. It will be $25." So, I paidrepparttar 126520 man, and preached that night. Many who were going to a Wednesday night service heard me. This missionrepparttar 126521 LORD gave me lasted for 18 months. No one supported me (financially) yetrepparttar 126522 LORD made a way. The Holy Spirit had spoken a word to me, yet I had to "sit onrepparttar 126523 bench" untilrepparttar 126524 time ofrepparttar 126525 word came. PSALM 105 verse 19 ''UNTIL THE TIME THAT HIS WORD CAME: THE WORD OF THE LORD TRIED HIM."

The Athiest's Enigma

Written by Jard DeVille


As an ancient African-American gospel song laments, life is filled with complications, sorrows and defeats for everyone. At times life can become an unmitigated horror asrepparttar world slowly but surely converts every plant that grows and ever creature that is born into fertilizer to feed future doomed generations.

Nobody knowsrepparttar 126495 trouble I’ve seen -- Nobody knows but Jesus.

We really are finite beings adrift in an dangerous world, beset consistently byrepparttar 126496 tragic human triad of suffering, guilt and death. George Santayana,repparttar 126497 brilliant Harvard philosopher wrote;

Life is neither entertainment nor a feast but a predicament to be resolved inrepparttar 126498 face of enormous difficulties.

Most of us do indeed live out at least some portions of our lives in quiet desperation. As many as one person in five suffers from serious mental or spiritual health disorders at times. In addition, we are all caught up inrepparttar 126499 frustrations of life virtually all our days.

During my half century of psychospiritual research, this puzzle emerged fromrepparttar 126500 writings of men and women like Soren Kierkegaard, Carl Jung, Karen Horney, Otto Rank, Laura Perls, Abraham Maslow Melanie Klein and many others. Some of them started as agnostics or atheists who like Sigmund Freud thought God was a security myth, religion a fraud, worship and prayer naively subjective and faith, hope and love meaningless illusions. I understand their skepticism. How could any serious scholar want anything to do withrepparttar 126501 state controlled churches of their day -- asrepparttar 126502 clergy pandered torepparttar 126503 nobility and betrayed families into poverty and slaughter in religious and financial wars? Nevertheless, as they matured personally and professionally, when everything psychological had been researched, after they’d reachedrepparttar 126504 limits of psychotherapy,repparttar 126505 incredible insights inrepparttar 126506 following paragraph appeared regularly in many of my most influential scholars’ lectures, therapy sessions and books.

To mature beyond neurotic anxiety, to cope with existential alienation, to live purposefully and win consistent satisfaction, each person must develop a faith as if God were real. We scholars can find no God -- religion probably panders to human weakness, prayer and worship are frauds, Nevertheless, to avoid crippling our souls, we must pretend that God exists and offer devotion to this myth because doing so gives us a crucial sense of security in a dangerous world. We can then live withrepparttar 126507 illusions of faith, hope and love that are essential for a meaningful life.

Oh my -- how wondrously droll, how deeply self-serving, how terribly convoluted! Fortunately, there is a much better way, for according to William of Occam, with all factors being equal,repparttar 126508 simplest solution to a problem is usuallyrepparttar 126509 best one. Soren Kierkegaard,repparttar 126510 always brilliant and forever relevant godfather of modern psychology,repparttar 126511 most equal of my score or so authors, along with Ernest Becker, saw life more clearly than most. The Danish philosopher ofrepparttar 126512 First Industrial Revolution, when writing about satisfaction reported;

The only way we humans can find contentment in a commercial society is through a self-transcending faith in God that lifts us beyond a fearful, frustrated and meaningless existence. We must become Knights of Faith.

You must understand this;

In this seminar I examine aspects of human personality and experience that are filled with painful and self-defeating elements. It is worse than useless to ignore our problems when every newspaper exposes us to a flood of human disasters. Nevertheless, my approach is spiritual and positive when followed through torepparttar 126513 end. I shall try hard to teach you how to peer into your souls, to balance knowledge and wisdom, psychology and philosophy andrepparttar 126514 earthy elements of psychotherapy withrepparttar 126515 cosmic elements of worship -- in order to deal with human suffering and to make life come out well alongrepparttar 126516 way. I userepparttar 126517 term psychospiritual with a full understanding of its dual implications of emotional and philosophical elements.

SECOND -- THE CONTRITE SPIRIT The next astonishing consensus to emerge from my brilliant psychological giants isrepparttar 126518 necessity of personal repentance inrepparttar 126519 deliverance of one’s soul.

To resolve our spiritual difficulties, to succeed in our quest for liberation, we must successfully pass throughrepparttar 126520 major emotional crisis of human liberation. During this conflict,repparttar 126521 soul with its unconscious scar tissue; repressed, anxious, subjective and frozen atrepparttar 126522 core of our being, must surrender itself. Selfishness must yield to generosity. We must mature beyondrepparttar 126523 immature attitude of I - MYSELF ALONE. The seeker after freedom, to use St. Paul’s concepts, must nurture a contrite attitude in order to regret and abandon personal selfishness. In psychoanalytic terms,repparttar 126524 self must sacrificerepparttar 126525 ego in order to become free of its tyranny. Only after we have removed our emotional armor, have matured beyond egoistic self-deception and often gone pastrepparttar 126526 assistance psychotherapy can give us to connect consciously with God, can we find deliverance. We have too many primitive homosapien traits to break free in our own strength. We need assistance to mature beyond our posturing and pretension, past our repressed killer-ape paranoia and nagging anxieties, beyond our compulsive defenses. We must abandon such baggage to escape throughrepparttar 126527 prison bars we ourselves have erected for ego protection against our anxiety and guilt. Only then can we findrepparttar 126528 courage, knowledge and wisdom to become spiritually and emotionally free as Jesus, St. Paul, Augustine, Martin Luther King and Sister Theresa among many others were liberated souls -- were Kierkegaard’s Knights ofrepparttar 126529 Spirit. .

Our search for freedom viarepparttar 126530 repentance of our failures, with sincere contrition, creates several crucial questions to be answered as we seek liberation from our homosapien anxiety and rage through faith and self-awareness. We must ask ourselves;

How can I end my self-defeating ego defenses, remove my emotional and cultural armor to becomerepparttar 126531 loving parent, supportive spouse and faithful friend I yearn to be?

How shall I courageously stand in my quaking and bleeding nakedness - my ego crying out for esteem regardless of who is abused, without being overwhelmed byrepparttar 126532 cruelties of life?

How can I, a mere mortal already living under a death sentence, in a prison of my own making, successfully make my way through this con- fusing maze of suffering, guilt and death that isrepparttar 126533 unavoidable tragic triad of existence?

THIRD -- FOREVER BECOMING I wish I could tell you that my special scholars identified two shortcuts to soul liberation that shall sweep you into happiness allrepparttar 126534 days of your life. It would also be wonderful if each person could make a single emotional adjustment, likerepparttar 126535 religious experience called being born again that is expected by many to guarantee forever each believer’s spiritual liberation. I recall, during my youth in a fundamentalist revival meeting, an enthusiastic young evangelist begging us to come forward to shake his hand and accept Christ as our personal savior. That would, he assured us, take us straight to heaven regardless of where we strayed or what sins we committed later in life. He pleased some rebellious adolescents greatly but horrified our parents by saying;

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