This woman, that is all grown up now, sighs
heavily when she gets to this part of her story. If you were to look at the remnants of her
past through any other lens, some elements appear to be normal growing pains of
any human being. Anyone, looking at the fringes,
can see that hers wasn’t a silver spoon kind of life; it wasn’t a worst case
scenario either.
~Everyone born
suffers long~
Satan’s full agenda would peak to a
boisterous crescendo, revealing what he really intended when he had set this
entire array of conditions in place, against one person, against her. Coming to a full circle (illumination), when
she had turned the ripe age of twenty-two and had met her first legitimate
boyfriend.
Determined and self-sufficient. Living on her own in her first apartment,
financed by her first job, enabled by her first car. There were many first-time crossroads and
decisions to be made along the way. And
it would be the first time that she had decided to engage in a sexual
relationship with this young man that she had met. She meets him some years after she has left
the ‘nest.’
Everything in her life went steadily
initially. She was getting along,
regardless to the fact that there were no adult mentors accounted for who could
have offered counsel or given good advice about some of these major ‘firsts’ beginning
to take place. What’s more, she had not
learned any relevant life skills for all of eighteen years or so, under the
guardianship of her great-grandmother, outside of cooking and cleaning house. And the church that she had attended since
she was eight years old proved to be too evasive in most of their views, or
perhaps they were too invasive. Either
way, those Moses on the Mountain, Moses Parts
the Red Sea sermonettes did
not help to prepare her for the real world.
Although, her choices were not reckless,
they did hasten the upcoming troubles that were to implode later. She was a most naïve, gullible, misinformed
young lady, and on her own.
~As ignorant as can be~
Exhibit A. She was most thoughtless as it regards this first
real relationship. She knew nothing
about men or relationships. Her first
date with him was a disaster in her opinion.
She thought he would not be calling on her for a second date, but he
did. On top of that, her religious,
antiquated, Victorian views influenced indulgent thinking, supposing that he
might be the one. He simply had to be
the one, since he was the first. A heart
led by blind religion determined this.
Ironically, she had not heard from the
still, small voice, which had been her childhood comrade, for quite some
time. For some years. Now that she was no longer a member of the
church (shunned it) and had shelved her Bible (rejected it), she did not expect
to hear. She was on a quest during this
time of her life to kindle a normal, traditional relationship. She wanted tall, dark, and handsome. She wanted three boys and three girls like The Brady Bunch. She wanted the white picket fence. Sadly, this genie in a bottle approach of
wishing would gain little.
~Now, back to the voice~
It was a most inopportune time. She had made the decision to say yes to the
request that her boyfriend had been making for the last three months. This was certainly not a lot of time to get
to know him. Somehow, she felt
obligated. She was afraid that he would
not want to be with her anymore, especially after he made that point
clear. This was that world where she was
extremely inadequate while under the veil of the church and her childhood
upbringing.
~Welcome to Rome!~
On
this night, the scene is set. The starry
skies are aligned. The boyfriend is
there; she’s there. The lights are dim
in the bedroom. Ambiance, right? Right.
It was more like a scene from Cooley
High. But here goes. He sits on the bed with a come-hither look in
his eye. And ring!!! It’s the phone. She rarely received phone calls, and never at
night. She surmised that maybe there was
a family crisis (they thrived on those).
She could hardly believe it! It is an
elder from her church, the one not attended for about two years. It was explained how they had recently gotten
hold of her contact information and how they had only called to see how she was
doing. They all chatted back and forth;
first chatting with the minister and then back with his wife. A thorough, genteel, composite on the status
of every known acquaintance one could think of was reported on. The
conversation lingered until reaching an awkward pause. As Expected, it ends with the Elder reciting
a lengthy, protocol prayer. Of course,
this interruption does not work to distract the cards that had been dealt on
that fateful night. So, after she is off
the phone, the couple proceeds. He is
progressive with his affections, while she is enthralled to say the least,
quite impressed. And in an instant, she
hears in a clear voice:
“WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT SLEEP WITH THIS
MAN!!!”
Huh?
Naturally, her eyes dart around the room and then back at her soon to be
lover who is oblivious to anything else right now. She is, on the other hand, feeling
vulnerable. There is no urge to push back.
She doesn’t want to say no right in the middle of ‘it.’ Had waited a
long time. No! She was not going to allow Him or any voice
thwart her potential to find first love.
Defensive impulses trigger inside her, against the voice of God. Instead of halting, her bravado issues an
affront as clear as crystal toward the interfering voice,
“YOU KNOW THAT IF I DO NOT SLEEP WITH HIM THAT HE WILL
LEAVE ME! YOU KNOW THAT’S HOW IT
WORKS! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME!”
There, there now. She gets it all out in one breath. And
Immediately after. IM-ME-DI-ATE-LY after! There
rouses a silence (not in the room per say, but in her soul). Eerie and final would be an
understatement. It was a silence that one
could feel. The voice was gone from her
heart. So would be gone her
virginity. So would be gone her
peace. From here, nothing (meaning, no
thing) would happen as it ought. The
dreamy life that had been her fantasy would soon spiral downward. Somehow the letters in her L I [f] E had begun to rearrange. She still wished for God to be there as He had
always been, on the sidelines, waiting for her when she needed Him. Helplessly, a bellow rises from deep within,
“Waaiiit! Don’t goooo!”
Somehow, something regrettable, other
than the innocence of heartfelt desires would begin to unfold; her immediate
future to come would be realized.
Hellish, torment comes to mind now.
Not at first, not all at once.
Gradually. She did not have a
plan. She never had a plan. How had she skated through life without a
plan? She had only mustered girlish
fantasies in which to rely on of how she would like for her life to turn
out. Happenstance and ignorance ruled
the day. Yet, no one is exempt, including this church girl.
Satan had waited for this rank moment in
her life. He knew it was coming. Aware of what is around the bend, he bides
his time. He counts on the unsavory
alliance he has with the flesh, as he operates to exploit our natural
tendencies as humans. The flesh cannot
help itself. The flesh is weak as well
as limited. It will insatiably thirst
again and again for its every want to be acknowledged without fail. He knows well that becoming sexually involved
outside of God’s ordinance would break the hedge of protection that had been
hers.
b
This next section will entail how
spiritual authority operates once it is granted. As intimated earlier, it takes the act of sin
to reinstate Satan’s power and influence over one’s affairs. And we all have done so.
~Done what?~
We all sin no doubt. It is a well established fact that we all
have participated in a smorgasbord of lawless deeds. Let it be further known
and understood that our flesh is our weakest link to God. It has no interest in anything spirit. We are carnal creatures whose fleshly bodies
lack spiritual content. Our flesh is
only our temporary house. It is where
our spirit cohabitates with our innate selves.
That’s all. A simple vessel. A flawed vessel at best. And it requires the least amount of attention
paid to it.
Biblical law is a subject Satan
has mastered in order to point out these deeds, to lay down the law. The law of sin happens to be his
mainstay. He propagandizes massive
misunderstanding that tends to render a terrible view of God concerning His laws
and commandments. The point for
delegating His sovereign laws and commandments become distorted.
In God’s defense, although He does not need
defending, the basis for them is wholly to show that our God is holy and
just. God’s kingdom is a government. A government has official rules. These rules imply that this is how it is up
there, in His domain. And down here,
which is also His domain. He is the God
of heaven and earth. “…On earth, as it
is in heaven.”
But to finish making the point, a
mere earthen, clay man who would at all attempt to somehow become suitable
enough to approach God would need to dot and cross every iota of the law to do
so. Impossible! Precisely why God made the impossible
possible, when the Lord says in Mark 10:27, “But Jesus looked
at them and said, ‘With men it is impossible, but
not with God; for with God all things are possible.’”
Please understand that Holy is
holy. Pure is pure. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. Sin is sin.
So forth and so on. And anyone
presenting less than what is requisite would naturally disintegrate upon
entering God’s presence—becoming immediately consumed by His perfectness. You can read for yourself about how Isaiah
panicked once he realized that he had indeed entered Heaven, standing on holy
ground, unprepared, unclean, undone (Isaiah 6:5-7).
This passage in Isaiah stipulates
to us that God is a solvent. He is
Fire. There are not many things that can
stand up to direct flames or withstand its heat; the usual response is to
instantly retreat. Man absolutely cannot
abide the flame of God’s glory. The
setting where God abides is an absolute contrary proper for any of us to
maintain. Yet, God, in His mercy has
prepared us a body in addition to preparing a place for those of us who are
receptive. You see, it is His “clean
hands” which make it possible to approach.
Not ours. Again, understand, “We are not
consumed” is due to the Lord’s great mercy!
Earthly
kingdoms are modeled after this manner as well.
If you study history you know that no underling approached the king or
entered his presence without the king’s scepter. Without it, death was imminent.
~Today, try an unplanned visit to the
White House and see~
So to reiterate, God has laid out
a perfect blueprint of laws and commandments to showcase how it is in His
kingdom, which happens to extend down into earth’s realm. God’s high standards basically eliminate all
contenders wishing to reach this unattainable goal by using the Law.
We each fall into at least one or
several categories which breach, those same laws, which have been written on
our very consciences. Our enemy may
choose to famously continue using legalese whenever pointing the finger of
accusation. Go ahead! However, as a dependable Father, God has
yielded us a prolific answer to all of these sin issues. Our Father already knows it is true that we
are in violation of His perfect way of doing things. This is not shocking, ‘Breaking News’ that needs to be reported to God!
Again, no one is exempt. If you have sinned just once, consider
yourself guilty as charged. Realize it
is every human being’s birthright to be a sinner, not through error on our
part; it is passed on through birth.
Generally, people fail to
recognize that although Adam was made in God’s image, we are copies of
Adam. Indeed, copies of a copy. Any time a copy of something is made, each
new copy looks less than perfect in terms of the original. Everybody knows this.
Though, each and every one of us did start off
as “good” in the beginning, that factor is long past due, broken, trespassed,
defaulted upon. How can anyone stand on
this foundation with confidence? Funny, for some reason, we accept and identify
with this in our natural world. Here on earth, going into debt or default is nothing
new.
~See you in court! ~
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