Number 3 of 3 Demons That Haunt Humans, Unforgiveness

Unforgiveness is something we do that God does not do.  Unforgiveness causes shame, the feeling of being guilty.  Shame is a tool of the devil because it makes us feel guilty.  Real unforgiveness is damnation, condemning to punishment for a wrong committed.

The penalty for sinning against God is death but the gift of God is Mercy, the sparing of death.

Satan, that serpent, lied and deceived Eve when he said, “You will not die” if you sin against God (Genesis 3:4).  Satan lies by telling partial truths.  He told Eve, “God knows, if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you would be like gods (Genesis 3:5)”.  Satan knew this was true, but he downplayed the major consequence for eating of the forbidden fruit, death.  He tried to get Eve to focus on the benefit, the pleasure she would experience if she partook of the forbidden fruit.

Sin can have its benefit which appears as good from the beginning but leads to dire consequences.  Satan hates, God and Jesus, the Messiah.  His way for revenge is to destroy God’s creation, God’s “stuff”, hoping to make God feel misery.  Satan knows his destiny and he has chosen NOT TO REPENT but to seek revenge by destroying and killing God’s creation.  He still has the desire to “rise up and be like the Most High”.  This is his downfall.

Satan wants us to feel shame, feeling guilty, to take our focus and attention away from God.  Satan is the great deceiver.  The best way to deceive is to present half-truth and to distract.  His goal remains the same, to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10).  He is a thief.  He is a thief because he owns nothing of himself, so he takes it from the one who owns it.

Unforgiveness leads to death.  God forgives us, so we need to pass that forgiveness on to others and forgive them.  Forgiveness does not mean the natural consequences for bad behavior is eliminated, but forgiveness can be extended.  Forgiveness, removes the shame of guilt even if consequences for bad behavior is negative.

Jesus tells us if we forgive others, God will forgive you (Matthew 6:14).  Does this mean our forgiveness is dependent on our forgiving others?  No, it’s Jesus telling us God releases us from the shame, feeling guilty.  By forgiving others, we release them from shame, feeling guilty.  There may be natural consequences for their bad behavior, but the shame is removed.  There is liberty in forgiveness and the removal of feeling guilty.  Forgiveness, pass it on.

Number 2 of 3 Demons That Haunt Humans, Shame

Shame is another term for feeling guilty.  It is not guilt but the feeling of being guilty.  This is a tool used by Satan to discredit Jesus.  It is a tool to discredit Jesus as Messiah, the one who saves us from sin.  It is a tool used to discredit Jesus as the perfect Lamb of God who “takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29).  It is a demon.

Shame is the demon that makes us feel we are the “center of attention” with all those around pointing the finger and shouting “guilty, guilty, guilty”.  We know we are guilty, but we don’t need others to “rub it in our faces”.

In essence, shame is a form of pride but from a different perspective.  It’s not the perception I am better than everyone else, the most common form of pride; It’s the perception “Why don’t people respect me the way I should be respected”.  Shame makes us feel disrespected, unimportant and not valued.

What seems to be the best defense is to shout back, “what about you?  You too are guilty”.  That reaction gives us a sense of reprieve and solace.  All that reaction does is make us like our accusers.  They are accusing us while we are accusing them.  We’re both doing the same.  This makes us equal to them – guilty!

Feeling guilty is a handicap.  It can paralyze us or make us truly ineffective and unproductive in our life.  We become focused on our guilt and our shame and takes away the focus on God.  In essence we are “missing the mark”, we are “sinning”.  The focus is oneself instead of God.  The focus is “what others think about ME” versus “What does God think about ME?”.  God is not the focus, Others, our peers, is the focus.  It is a great tool by Satan and a very effective demon to haunt us.

Shame is an energy drainer.  A lot of time and energy is spent feeling sorry for oneself, how to defend oneself, and how to avenge being accused by those who themselves are guilty.

There is an opposite to shame – mercy.  The Most High God, loves those He created and He cares.  Sin is turning away from God while repentance is turning to God.  When we turn to God, we have a better view of Him.  When we look to Him we can see His outstretched hand as He calls us to Him.  He wants to be our Father.  He doesn’t need us, He WANTS US.  Because He wants us, He forgives us by His mercy.  When we accept His mercy, there is no room for shame (Psalm 103: 12).

When Salt Loses its Salty Flavor

When a food is said to taste salty, everyone knows what that means; It has a distinct taste with a tingle.  It certainly adds flavor.

 

What gives salt its flavor?  A chemist would tell you that its unique flavor is due to it being an electrolyte but what is an electrolyte?  From a chemist’s point of view for a substance to be classified as salt it must have two charged chemicals, one having a positive charge and the other having a negative charge.  In chemistry opposite charges attract one another just like a magnet.  If you take two magnets and try to get them to come together, they will only attach when the positive side of the one magnet is positioned with the negative side of the other magnet.  If you attempt to join a positive charge magnet of one magnet with the positive side of another magnet you feel the repulsion.  They seem to not want to connect.

 

Table salt is sodium chloride.  The sodium has a positive charge while the chloride has a negative charge and when they attract and attach to each other they become the white crystals we sprinkle on our food to give the food flavor.

 

The salt we sprinkle on our food does not give its unique flavor as the crystal; It must be broken and separated.  The sodium must separate from the chloride causing an “electrical” charge, a positive charge from the sodium and a negative charge from the chloride.  This is what gives salt its flavor.  The take-home message is the salt must be “broken” to be effective.  When it is broken, the electrical charges can be felt.  Not only are the charges felt and cause flavor, but the charges also protect and make salt become a preservative.

 

Brokenness is the key, broken can mean broken from pride and self.  When we are broken, we are open to God and his strength and power.  When we are broken, we become dependent on God.

 

Another analogy of salt is Lot’s wife who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back to Sodom.  She looked to her past.  She looked back and the looking back caused her to turn into a pillar of salt.  The pillar of salt was the crystal which is not effective.  Salt as a crystal cannot perform its magic and power.  It must be broken into individually charged particles.

 

Looking back to our past failures can cause us to become paralyzed or to turn into a pillar of salt.  Brokenness is coming to an end of self and becoming dependent on God.

 

God is a God of forgiveness and wants us to look and move forward, not stop and look back as Lot’s wife did.  We have all failed and looking back at past behavior and past failure can prevent us from moving forward.  We can easily become a pillar of salt and lose our flavor.  Let’s try to look and move forward.