I
FEEL A FAILURE
(OR
I really must do something
about
my self-esteem!)
******************************************
Do
you feel a FAILURE?
.....excellent! Do you have NO SELF-ESTEEM?...
that's
even better!
Do
you think you're WORTHLESS?...
praise
God!
AM
I NUTS? NO! THE BIBLE SAYS WE ARE FAILURES, WORTHLESS
AND
TO HAVE NO
SELF-ESTEEM!
All
that you have ever heard about self-esteem, self-worth and self-love
has been
a
lie THAT YOU HAVE BELIEVED.
God
doesn't want us to feel good about ourselves, have good self-esteem or
be
our
own best friends.
IF
YOU KNOW ANYTHING OF WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT MAN,
YOU
DON'T
CAN
GLORY IN!
NOT
ONE SOLITARY, LITTLE THING!
.....
AND UNTIL you see what the Bible says about the nature of man AND
BELIEVE
IT,
AND ACCEPT GOD'S REMEDY, your life will be one
long, rocky and arduous journey of heartaches, pain, whining, upsets,
blame,
insecurities, torments, fears, sinning, murmuring, complaining,
arguing,
anxieties, visits to
THE BIBLE
CLEARLY
DESCRIBES
MAN IN NO
UNCERTAIN
TERMS.
IT
GIVES HIM A SERVE AND PINS
HIM
TO THE WALL. LET ME
GIVE
YOU A PREVIEW....
Think
of the worst person you've ever known and multiply that by one hundred.
Combine
all the characters Idi Amin, Hitler, Pol Pot, murderers, rapists and
child
molesters and you'll start to get the picture of what the Bible says
what the
best of us are. Take the worst fifty words in the human language and
apply that
to yourself ... can you do that? If you can't, you still don't know
what the
Bible says about you.
Filthy,
rotten, wretched, vile, lying, deceitful and foul smelling sinners is
how the
Bible describes the best of us.
"Our
RlGHTEOUSNESSES are as filthy rags." Isaiah 64:6.
Does
the Bible say our "badness's" are as filthy rotten rags? No my
friend, IT NAILS YOU TO THE FLOORBOARDS when it says the very best,
righteous,
holy and most perfect thing that you ever did is nothing more than a
pile of
pus contaminated, TB infested and blood soaked pile of rags!
As
you've probably gathered, the Bible doesn't have a very high opinion of
man.
You've got to hand it to the Bible ... it doesn't muck around. This
goes
against every popular feel good and Christian psychology book ever
written.
This is why men are against the Bible ... because it describes them
with
pin-point accuracy.
Now,
not only does the
Bible say that we could never, can't now or ever will be able to do
anything of
worth, but it goes even further to insult us and say that WE ARE
BORN LIKE
THIS. We are not born good! Contrary to modern psychology, man
isn't born good
and worthwhile.
The Bible says that WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE BY NATURE SINNERS (not sinners because we sin). "Oh No! Oh No! you may be saying, that's not me, I'm not as bad as that person, I try to do good, help others blah! blah! blah!" The Bible clearly states that we're not to measure and compare ourselves to others (2Cor 10:12).
But
people don't want to read the Bible and believe what it says about man
but
instead prefer to make up their own version of what they think it says.
THE
SELF-ESTEEM MOVEMENT
Over
the last twenty years, we have seen the rise of a very powerful
movement both
within and outside of the church. It can be identified by various
labels such
as "self-esteem, self-worth and self-love" Regardless of the
terms used, THE EMPHASIS IS ON SELF.
People
talk about feeling good about themselves, gaining a sense of personal
value and
worth and achieving their potential. Their seemingly common enemy is
that of
low self-esteem. This has infiltrated society and the church to such an
extent,
that this is the accepted way of thinking.
Anyone
who is talking like this is lying to you. They haven't read their
Bible. Run
away from them and leave your church if that's how the Pastor is
talking to
you.
UNTIL
YOU GET THIS YOU WON'T UNDERSTAND
THE REST OF
THE PAPER .
BEFORE
YOU READ ANY FURTHER,
put this paper down and go to your
bookshelf and collect all of your books that you have been reading over
the
last few years, trying to make yourself feel good and loved and
worthwhile and
special and TOSS THEM STRAIGHT INTO THE WHEELIE- BIN.
That's
right, all those "love yourself authors" that you've spent hundreds
of dollars on - the psychologists, psychiatrists, Peck, Copeland,
Dobson,
Schuller, every motivational tape, Hagin, "smooth talking feel-good"
speaker, Lawrence Crabb, "Boundaries" by Townsend and Cloud,
Narramore, Hinn, Browne, the Christian psychologists, Joyce Meyer,
Napoleon
Hill, pop-psychology book, "Ten Minutes a Day to Perfect Well-being"
book,
"God Wants You to Feel Good about Yourself" book, "Think Who You
Want to be" book, "Jesus Died for You and You're Special" book.
Put them all into a big lead box, padlock the lot and heave them all
into the
nearest lake.
"SHOCK!
HORROR! I MUST BE O.K. JESUS DIDN'T DIE FOR TRASH DID HE?" (you say
clutching your heart as you sink to the floor with a mild apoplexy)
Yep!
Yessiry! Absolutely! No doubt about it! One Hundred percent! He sure
did!
There
was a book written called "Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen to Good
People." One big problem with the book - there are no good people,
never
was or ever will be.
HOW
DO WE TRY TO
FEEL BETTER ABOUT OURSELVES?
We
go to some "Christian" motivational seminar, attend the week-end
workshop on "How to Love Ourselves" or get on our knees and plead to
God to give us a break. We read "God Says You are Worthwhile" books
or undertake some mind re-programming course. What's even worse is that
we grab
a bedside devotional volume ("Five Minutes a Day with Kelwyn") and
attempt to soothe our damaged egos into some sort of fitful sleep.
The
whole rigmarole amounts to spraying some perfume onto a ten day old
corpse to
take the foul smell away! Result? Mission Impossible!! Why? It can't be
done.
Your
attempting to make
"gold" out of yourself when by nature, you're made of base, worthless
metal. It can't be done. There were alchemists who tried to make gold
out of
lead. They couldn't do it then and similarly you won't do it to
yourself now.
IT
SHOULDN'T COME AS ANY SURPRISE TO YOU THEN, THAT YOU FEEL A FAILURE.
THIS IS
THE CONDITION OF MAN, ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE.
You are railing against God if you feel anything else.
WHAT'S
THE CAUSE?
Simple!
It's sin. When Adam sinned, it passed down through the whole human race
like a
computer virus that spreads through all computers everywhere.
BUT!
BUT!....
1.
AREN'T WE MEANT TO LOVE OURSELVES? NO. The Bible never says that.
Jesus
assumes we love ourselves enough already so that's why He says we're to
show
this same kind of love to others.
2.
But all the pastors and youth leaders can't be wrong telling us to love
ourselves can they? YES, THEY ARE!
WHAT'S
THE SOLUTION?
READ
ROMANS CHAPTER 7 and you'll see how the man who wrote 14 books of the
New
Testament saw himself.
My
dear friend, if you're a Christian, give up all hope of ever feeling
good about
yourself ever again. YOU'RE TO GET YOUR MIND OFF YOURSELF AND ONTO
JESUS CHRIST
AND HIS SHED BLOOD.
If
you're saved you've been lied to if you think that the Holy Spirit
makes you
feel good about yourself. This is the lie of the Pentecostals and
Charismatics.
The Holy Spirit's job is to convict of sin. No amount of trying to fill
yourself with the Holy Spirit to feel good about yourself will ever
work in a
million years. God wants us to feel good about the Lord Jesus Christ
and what
He has done.
God
wants you never to think about yourself ever again. He wants you to:
1.Think
about and love Jesus Christ because of what He has done.
2.
Love Himself (God the
Father) for forgiving.you because of
Jesus
Christ.
3...Study the word to show yourself .APPROVED UNTO GOD & teach
others.
4.
Witness to others
& preach the gospel. Instead of going to a counsellor and trying to
force
the line upwards on your "I'm a Success" graph, go to God admit
you're a sinner who deserves hell and thank Him that Jesus Christ died
for your
sins (failures) and take Him as your Saviour (if you haven't done so
already).
Then
get to a church
that preaches the CORRUPTION OF MAN - both pre-salvation and POST-SALVATION
and get out of the happy-clappy, hand waving set.
The
blood of the lamb
saved you but now your flesh has to be dealt with and the further down
the
Christian life you go, you start to see what a putrid and foul mess you
really
are - full of sin & no hope but Jesus. The Holy Spirit's job is to
convict
of sin and this is what great men and women of God, who achieved great
things
for Him, found. NOTHING BUT CORRUPTION AND FAILURE INSIDE OF
THEMSELVES TILL
THE DAY THAT THEY DIED.
SO
MY FRIEND YOU'RE IN GOOD COMPANY IF YOU FEEL A FAILURE. THIS IS A VERY
HEALTHY
FEELING FOR A CHRISTIAN. YOU WILL FIND WHEN YOU GET YOUR MIND OFF
YOURSELF AND
ONTO THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS CHRIST AND HIS SHED BLOOD, YOUR FAILURE
FEELINGS
MUST DISAPPEAR! GUARANTEED!
By
Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
