BULLSEYE I FEEL A FAILURE OR IS IT JUST LOW SELF ESTEEM?

OR IS IT JUST LOW 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!

WHAT ARE YOU NUTS?
Am I nuts? No! the Bible says we are failures, worthless & to have no self-esteem! All that you have ever heard about self-esteem, self-worth and self-love has been a lie 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 HAVE A SINGLE THING THAT YOU 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 psychiatrist / psychologist / therapist, grumbling, tears, crying, boring your friends stupid, depression, suicidal feelings, broken relationships & suppressed violence ...... got the picture? Now please read on...

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”.

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 BROCHURE.
Before you read any further, put this brochure 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 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 Your Special” book.

Put them all into a big lead box, padlock the lot and heave them all into the nearest lake.

“SHOCK! HORROR! BUT 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! Yessireee! Absolutely! No doubt about it! One Hundred percent! he sure did! He died for worthless, sinful trash. There was a book written called “Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen to Good People.”

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 Kelvin”) and attempt to soothe our damaged egos into some sort of fitful sleep.

The whole rigmarole amounts to spraying some perfume onto a thirty day old corpse to take the foul smell away! Result? Mission Impossible!! Why? It can’t be done. You’re 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, 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.

BUT ALL THE PASTORS AND YOUTH LEADERS CAN’T BE WRONG TELLING US TO LOVE OURSELVES CAN THEY?

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 to stop thinking about yourself. 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.

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!

Australian Bible Ministries, PO Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com