The Wisdom of Patience

Written and published by Jean-Louis. 4/2012


He has made everything beautiful in his time.
The end of the matter is better than its beginning
and patience is better than pride. Ecclesiastes 3:11; 7:8.

A few years back a Kraft commercial for their Parmesan cheese attracted my attention. I love the way Jewish, Italian, French or Brazilian families to name a few make the dinner table a place of great communication in sharing political debate, loud banter and laughter while at the same time respecting the experience and wisdom of the elders in the family.

On the screen a wonderful long table was set with all the delicious dishes cooked by the Mama for her Italian family. In the middle of the table a small child was sitting next to his grand-pa, anxiously waiting his turn to devour the delicious spaghetti with an appetite already stimulated by the wonderful aroma of the marinara sauce.

His big round eyes were following the can of parmesan cheese as each one was passing it around the table. He was so eager to start eating that he lifted his eyes and asked his grand-pa permission to start: “now, Grand-paw” who was answering: “not yet”. Then the same questions and answers were shared just by an inquiring glance from below and a negative movement of the index finger above. Slowly everybody was shaking the can in a heaping serving of grated cheese on their plate. 

You could see the impatience grow on the kid´s face and in his eyes imploring his grand-father to give him the signal. Nobody else seemed to pay attention to the silent complicity between the oldest and the youngest member of the family. Finally after the can had made the rounds to his grand-paw and the child had victoriously shaken the container onto his plate, (there was enough left!) one last time he obediently raised his eyes and with a grin waited for the green light from one he respected and that he knew loved him enough to teach him the important lessons in life. The grandfather, an affectionate smile on his face released the hungry boy with a simple nod.

This beautifully thought and presented commercial reveals a spiritual lesson that the Lord was trying to teach me.

How many times when we pray asking our Father in Heaven in faith and according to his will knowing that he will answer us do we then grow impatient when the answer doesn´t come right away? 

Do we understand the number of levels the Lord works on?

Do we know that He has already answered us, but that we are not the only ones he wants to bless? 
Do we realize that he may be sending his messengers, be they man or angels to affect the lives of people half way around the world and connecting events that took place 40, 50,100 years ago to bring about his desired end according to his will and his purpose?

To everything there is a season and I would add a “Seasoning”. To read about seasoning with salt in the season of brokenness click: Here

So next time you are tempted to reach and grab for the Parmesan cheese across the table, be patient and remember the wisdom of the elders.

 Jean-Louis.

How do we measure success?

Written and published by Jean-Louis.3/2012
 
"An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by fullness, not by reception." Harold Loukes.

Have you ever felt a little sad or ignored when your hard work for the Lord was not producing fruit that was tangible in the lives of people you serve? Have you wondered if there was something wrong in your methods or even that the Lord was not blessing your efforts and doubted that you were in His will? Have you felt discouraged by the apparent failure of your ministry?

Or your self-inflicted criticism could turn into an understandable self-justification into accepting a self-imposed defeat and throwing down the gloves. "After all the Lord has not blessed me with the gift of evangelism", you might argue. Look at all the successful ministries with crowds waiting in lines to participate in the latest human-crowd-baiting nets operations.

Not all fishermen are in the fishing business equipped with huge nets and fleets of boats to carry all the catch. Big fishing ministries might not start with the initial call, blessings of God  ending up with the final rewards for faithful service but you surely can if you are fishing for God, with God and in whatever pond, river or sea the Master has called to be.

"But wait a minute, what about me?" you might retort. All I have is two hands, one mouth and the Word of God to help me. My friend, you have all you need to be, maybe not as an apparently successful captain of a fishing boat fleet, but as a faithful angler because God has called you to cast your bread on the waters and not to worry about the size of the catch.

Conversely, you might be gifted by the Lord to feed the fish instead of catching it. We are not in the business of killing the fish. The fish is already dead. Sure, physically, it jumps, swims, eats and reproduces just any normal fish. So why are we surprised when the fish escapes the hook and swims away?

Do we think the hook is as important as the bait? Are we sorry that the fish got away? Maybe we have it backward in our attempts to draw people to Jesus.
We should rejoice when the fish gets away with the bait, the Word of God, the real food that will one day give them life and imperceptibly but surely help them to get closer to the day when the Word of God will produce its work of new birth and eternal salvation. Then, they will grow bigger and stronger and reproduce.

Paul in I Corinthians said that one plants the seed, another waters it according to the task assigned by God. “Neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose and each will be rewarded according to his own labor”. I Corinthians 3:7-9.

To go back to the initial quote above, if your service to God and your fellow human is an act of love accomplished in faith and obedience to our Lord Jesus it might seem to you as a failure because of the seeming lack of immediate results, it might be that the person that was the object of your love did not receive it, but that does not take away your unwavering commitment and your acting in faith and love. It just might be a matter of time. Sooner or later, up or down the stream of life, another angler will build on your faithful work and bring the fish home hopefully without the wounds of unscrupulous fishermen using false bait and using big hooks and harpoons that hurt the fish.

Take the example of the great missionary to India, William Carey whose biography I recommend reading: “ after seven years of tireless toil in India Carey still did not have a single convert!” However he trusted in the Word of God for his life and he quotes it in the text of a historic sermon in Isaiah 54:2-3: “Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes! For you shall expand to the right and to the left and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make desolate cities inhabited.” And this is exactly what he did.

Paul, Apollos, all the disciples and great men of God throughout history can be used as good examples to emulate (see the list in hall of faith in Hebrew 11).

However the best and supreme example of somebody who acted with the highest disinterested kind of love who could have been seen as a failure was our Lord Jesus-Christ. He spent the 33 years of his short life being rejected. He was not attractive or beautiful in his human form, had nothing that would make man desire him, a man full of sorrow, despised. Talk about a failure in the eyes of the unbelieving world. He was oppressed, afflicted, and did not complain. He was betrayed, died through the false testimony of lying witnesses. He dies the death of the worst criminals. And he did it for the love of his Father and love for you and me. He labored and was faithful even to his death but not in vain, because look at what beautiful inheritance -- salvation from eternal death and the promise of the Spirit and eternal life with him -- he won for the millions of believers who trust in him. This is the great victory brought by his sacrifice on the cross.

If you trust him with your life he can turn your apparent failures into victories. Don´t look at instant results judging your performance by the way people react to your sharing the truth with others. “Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. I Timothy 4:15,16.
God is a good and tender loving Father who likes to reward his faithful and obedient children with surprises big and small in answer to our prayers.

This is what the Word says concerning fullness, love, faith and works. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, Col 1:19; For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form and you have been given this fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. Colossians 2:9, 10.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Gal. 5:6.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.. It is the Lord Christ whom you are serving. Colossians 3:23.

Jean-Louis.

What time is it?

For a French translation of this text by the author, click on the following link:
http://thelightseed.blogspot.com/2010/08/quelle-heure-est-il.html

Written and posted by Jean-Louis.

Since I wrote this reflection 3 years, things have changed at a mind numbing pace. Now almost anybody around the world can experience first hand or by the proxy of television or one of the many means of communications the latest events that are tearing the fabric of life apart and spelling doom for humanity. 

Governments, citizens of all countries are perplexed trying to find a viable solution to the insurmountable problems facing mankind and unfortunately coming short of a solution that would set the earth and its population on the right course, avoiding a final global catastrophe that threatens to reduce our once habitable planet as the Lord creator made for the human race as wonderful abode, into a ruinous heap of nuclear ashes. 

From looking at the Doomsday clock that signals our eventual obliteration,  even concerned eminent scientists have not moved the minute hand from 5 minutes away from midnight in an attempt to warn earth people to change their ways or else.  (Update: Just a few weeks ago they updated it to 3 minutes till midnight). Of course, the Lord GOD is the ones who rules over time, space, matter and the affairs of men.

Long before there was a Doomsday clock, God provided a way for men to examine his ways and provided a solution in the scriptures to remedy the terminal disease of sin or suffer the consequences. He has told us in no uncertain terms through the prophets  and the scriptures concerning the end times that if we do not heed the warning, the consequences will destroy the earth like clock work in incremental steps. 
    
Problems might be complex and seemingly unsolvable but the solution is simple. Sin is universal, so we are all guilty. so we all have our part in the solution. God´s message doesn´t change. If we persist in our sin, we die, if we repent and turn away from our sins towards him, we live. Repent and turn to God has always been the remedy.

Here are a few scriptures about turning back to God:
(Isa. 6:10 ; Jer. 3:1; Hos. 6:1; Mal. 3:7) 

Actually, since time is so short, we should all consider what we should do if there was an emergency so great that needed an instant response. We should ask the question: what would I do if the flames of a raging fire were leaping across my property and threatening to engulf my house and my family? This is not indulging in cheap fear-mongering but trying to wake the sleeping, blind, unaware persons that will have a rude awakening when it all happens. 

If you are a Christian believer, then The Lord Jesus is your refuge that never fails. Believers don´t even have to think about what they would take in case of an emergency. The Lord Jesus in Revelation 3:11 told the Church in Philadelphia (the raptured church): 

"I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown."

We find the same counsel in Rev. 2:25. and II Tim. 1: 13-14.

What do we have that we can hang on to? We have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, His seal guaranteeing our secure position in Him now and our future eternal security with Him in His Kingdom, the love of God that no one can separate us from, the promises of God that are sure, the Word of God trustworthy and true and all the privileges and benefits our inheritance as adopted children of our beloved and gracious Heavenly Father. 

So we have all we need already bestowed on us, inside of us and we have no fear of losing anything material if our treasure is in Heaven kept for us. 

So where is our heart? Jesus said in Luke 12:34:  For where your treasure is, there your treasure will be also.

What do we dwell upon when we go to sleep at night and we wake up in the morning? 

So here is the question again, what would you take with you if you had a few seconds to evacuate your house? What are we so attached to? 

I hope we would have enough time to pick up a Bible. and if not that we have enough of the scriptures in our heart that in case of widespread persecution, we would be able to provide spiritual help and nourishment to others.   

I didn´t intend  to write such a long introduction, but this is the place where I have been dwelling lately, following the advice of my Pastor´s message a few weeks ago that it´s better to dwell in the house of mourning. 

Eccl. 7:2-4 "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."   

I personally believe after re-reading the post about What time it is? that now the main concern of the Church should be ( as it always should have been) to proclaim the true, pure Gospel that the Lord Jesus came to preach because only the Gospel has the Power to change the hearts and minds of man, to bring reconciliation between man and God and peace with HIm and his fellow man.

The Gospel in its essence is found in I Cor. 15: 3-11:
 For I delivered to you ^[b]as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; ⁷ then He appeared to ^[c]James, then to all the apostles; ⁸ and last of all, as ^[d]to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, ^[e]and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

The next important question I would ask myself is: 

Does my life exemplify the ways, the thoughts, the heart and the  walk of Christ so that people around me can really understand what time it is on God´s clock and turn to him with broken heart and a humble willingness to obey His commands and be set free for the power of sin that keeps them in slavery. 

  

Who are the lost people going to turn to and ask for help if we ourselves do not know what time it is or we pretend not to know because in reality we don´t care?

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WHAT TIME IS IT?
10/17/2010

A teacher gathers his students around a fancy chronometer watch that indicates everything about time that 21st century man needs to know in order to live a full life. He has removed carefully the crystal in the front and is showing the face with all the many different hands.


What time is it ? he asks the young people. Everyone gives the right time in unison.
How about now ? removing the tenth of second hand. Still the same answer.
Then, he removes the second hand and the students can still give him the correct time within a minute.
Now he removes the minute hand, leaving only the hour hand. Can we still tell the time ?
Yes, of course, respond the students. It is sufficient to indicate the hour.

I know this might sounds trite, but have you noticed that when someone asks for the time, the question always is: what time is it ? The French are even more to the point; they say : What hour is it ? as do the Spanish speaking people. Have you ever heard someone ask: what minute or what second is it since we live in a world in which our lives depends of decisions made with the help of computers capable of functionning at the speed of a nanosecond ?!

If we apply this lesson to the Bible, who created time, dividing the day and the night with the sun, the moon and the rotation of the earth in 24 hours from which we get the time zones each of which measuring one hour?
How could our ancestors live simply with the help of a solar dial or an hour glass or later with a clock indicating only hours and minutes ?


Now let us think about Jesus when he criticized the pharisees for focusing their attention and judgment on small unimportant details that they elevated at a level that God himself did not require, when at the same time neglecting the more important and essential commands.
Nowadays as always, there exist in some churches or denominations persons intent on making splitting hairs a pastime, concentrating their attention on difficult to understand or explain bible verses or controversial and debatable non-salvation subjects in order to validate their viewpoint or to justify a false doctrine.


This pharisaical attitude makes me think about a watch with the tenth of a second hand, or the minute hand that are obviously practical, but are not really essential when it comes to know what hour of the day or night it is. Could we compare the hour hand to the great essential doctrines of the Bible and the fundamentals of the faith without which nobody could understand the existence, , nature and character of God, the works of God,  the prophecies, salvation and the forgiveness of sin, His will and his commands that he gave us for the benefit of mankind? The others isolated and very few verses are certainly a part of the biblical canon, but when we use them to divide the brothers and poison the Christian discourse, we are entering into a dangerous territory. Paul warns about the danger of being sectarian.

The question is a valid one: What time is it in the church today?  Is it Martin Luther's time? do we live in the era of Calvin, of the Wesley brothers, of Charles Spurgeon or any other great man of God, even a founder of a denomination or do we live according to God's time? Granted, these men were powerful instruments in the hand of God and in the propagation of the Gospel, but they are not the ones on whom, neither are their thoughts on which our salvation depends.


The Bible is always the up to date and eternal word of God. What does God say of his salvation, the greatest manifestation of his love for mankind:
"As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says: "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.” II Corinthians 6:2.


Again in Hebrews 4:7-11, Paul declares: Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”


Let us live in the eternal present of God and let us beware of becoming slaves of a time imposed by man and believe that we are going to miss the rewards of the frantic modern life if we do not follow the patterns of a world which does not even know where it is going, neither knows what hour it is in the time allotted to it by God, the sovereign Lord and Creator on this earth.


Jean-Louis.

Descartes, me and God

Written and published by Jean-Louis 

 

 Jesus Expels an Unclean Spirit
21Then Jesus and His companions went to Capernaum, and right away Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. 22 The people were astonished at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

Descartes said: I think, Therefore I am. 

 

I say: Tell me what you think,

I'll tell you who you are.

 

God says:

Before you can think,

I'll tell you who you are.

 

Think about it!

 

Therefore, let's be careful and understand

Who is the One who alone

can define who we are

And then tell us what to do

by His own kingly authority.

Dr. Ben Carson Revisited - Update

Written and published  by  Jean-Louis. March 2010
Updated: 2014, 2019

Roe vs. Wade and Penumbra

Yesterday, Sunday, my family and I were watching a movie depicting the life of Dr. Ben Carson, the world-renowned brain surgeon. When Dr. Carson was asked by his superior to push for the separation of Siamese twins joined at the head, he asked for more time.
What really struck me is the wisdom and the courage with which he approaches this very portentous decision. After all everybody knew that if he failed and one the twins survived he would have at least saved one life. But there was something else at work in the mind of this brilliant man. He knew because of his deep trust in God that if it was God’s will, the Lord would empower him to do the impossible. He was waiting patiently and prayerfully for the Lord to give him the green light regardless of what others might think. He was no people pleaser! And when the right time came for him to act, the operation was successful.

Never was the divide between good and evil so visibly manifest. Here we have a man educated in the land of opportunities, where hard work and perseverance are rewarded. A land in which more people are blessed with access to the education and careers of their choice. The examples abound: poor, black people, Latinos, immigrants of all nationalities, reaching the highest positions as CEOs, Supreme Court justice such as Justice Clarence Thomas, doctors such as Dr.Carson, and lawyers, and now even a president -- the long list shows the blessings that this country bestowed on its population when the people were faithful to our God and creator the Lord Jesus Christ. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. ” Psalm 33:12-22

Do you ever wonder what kind of schizoid country this has become when you wake up in the morning? How is it possible to witness such a contrast between the miracle working of the love and power of our God through the gifted hands of a brain surgeon and the total disregard for life in its most vulnerable moments as manifested in the abortion murder of growing millions of unborn, partially or even out of the womb babies? What is even more revolting is that a group of men and women whose life is dedicated to equal justice could grant a legal "Carte Blanche' encouraging doctors and women’s organizations to make huge profits from their trade.

The Bible talks about such divide in the following terms in Malachi 3:16-18:“Then those who fear the Lord talked to each other, and the Lord listened and heard… A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. They will be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in the day when I make I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his own son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve the Lord and those who do not.”

At this point I would like to quote from an article I read this morning written by Joseph Farah in World Net Daily; Roe v. Obama, Pelosi, Reid et al. Posted: March 29, 2010.

"Have you ever noticed the way certain people selectively apply what they claim as "constitutional rights"? This question occurred to me as I thought about the actions of the Congress and president last week. But, before I get to that, a little background is in order.

Back in 1973, a Supreme Court at the height of its activist history wrestled with a constitutional justification for allowing the indiscriminate slaughter of unborn babies in the infamous Roe v Wade case. "We, therefore, conclude that the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision," Justice Harry Blackmun wrote in the majority decision.

Search the Constitution as you might for the word privacy or any synonym and you will come up empty. But seven justices were determined to overturn duly enacted abortion laws throughout the United States, so they located this right in the due process clause. Ironically, it is the due process clause that forbids the taking of life, liberty or property without an impartial hearing. Yet, this decision ensured tens of millions of lives would be snuffed out with no due process. But the court found support for this "privacy" argument in the "penumbra" of the Bill of Rights.
In case you are unfamiliar with the term "penumbra," perhaps a dictionary definition will help you:
1. "The partial or imperfect shadow outside the complete shadow of an opaque body, as a planet, where the light from the source of illumination is only partly cut off."
2. "The grayish marginal portion of a sunspot."
3. "A shadowy, indefinite, or marginal area."
Does that help?

In other words, the court understood it was dealing in the realm of shadowy, indefinite and marginal areas of the law – but it was still, on this admittedly shaky basis, willing to pronounce death sentences on millions.” (End of quote)
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It is in fact so simple to see and show that this use of the gray area is a bogus argument that doesn’t hold water. And it really takes a spiritual blindness to not see the self-deceit from some of our elected representatives in the government and nominated officials who are supposed to protect the freedom and lives of all citizens, born or unborn with making just and right decisions and application of the laws.

If we find ourselves in a gray area, to know our destination, it is a matter of knowing in which direction we are walking.
This is the course of action Dr. Carson recommends. I posted this commentary from WND, written by Star Parker in 2007 in which she quotes him as recommending the following:

"In his new book, Carson discusses his approach to dealing with risk, a core issue for exercising personal responsibility. He has a simple but effective approach that amounts to examining the best and worst outcomes that can result from a given course of action."

It is very clear. If you don’t know where to go, ask yourself if you are going towards the growing light or towards the growing darkness. Here is what God says in his Word:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.
Who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Woe to those who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
But deny justice to the innocent.” Isaiah 5:20, 23.

“When the Lord stretches out his hand,
He who helps will stumble, he who is helped will fall;
Both will perish together.” Isaiah 31:3.

In Luke 6:39, " He, (Lord Jesus) also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?

I John 1:7 gives us the only solution when we have lost our way in the uneasy, undefinable, treacherous gray areas that relativists enjoy so much dwelling on.  “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all… But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son, purifies us from all sin.” 
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In His devotion on the subject of "Gray Areas" Ray Stedman offers an insight on the impossibility of mixing Truth and lie according to 1 John 2:21: " You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I have not written you because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you have it, and because no lie comes from the truth."

Have you learned yet that no lie is of the truth, that there is no possible harmony between a lie and the truth? In other words, that there are no gray areas in life; that a thing is either black (a lie) or it is white (the truth), and there are no gray areas, though there may be a mingling of black with white.

Every Christian has an ability to exercise moral judgment to distinguish right from wrong. It is amazing how many Christians have not learned this yet and still go on echoing the lie of the world, that there can be a blending of truth and error.

John utterly cuts the ground out from under that. I wrote to you, he says, because you have found this out, if you know Jesus Christ. You may not have thought through the implications, but you must know that there is no possibility of blending a lie with the truth.
One of the glorious things about God's secret purpose, which is the restoring of the life of God to the spirit of man, is that it also reestablishes standards of absolute values and makes moral judgments possible.  It shifts us from control by a conscience of convenience to control by a conscience of conviction. These days we are hearing much about situational ethics, relativism in the realm of moral judgments. 1.
 
What are these? If you cheat on an examination because you do not like the teacher, that is wrong. But if you do it because you are desperate to get a good grade and there is no other way to do it—you have been letting the whole thing slide until exam time and there is no other way but to cheat, then, that is right. (Excerpt from Ray Stedman´s May 10th Daily Devotion)

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1. (Note from the Light Seed: In 1966, the book "Situation Ethics: The New Morality", by Joseph Fletcher was on my Psych. 101 required reading list)

N.B,. Interestingly enough, the commentary on the life of Dr. Ben Carson is the most sought after article on my multi-lingual blog. It goes to show that people are still thirsty for truth and righteousness and searching for a few good examples to emulate. I hope that his words and deeds will not fall on deaf ears and will encourage our hearts to follow his leading example.

Emotional Amputees and Forgiveness

Another aspect of hurt and forgiveness.
Written and posted by Jean-Louis

Note: I am not a doctor or a professional counselor. My reflections on the subject of pain and hurt stem from meditating on the Word of God and my own observations and experiences.
                                             ---------------------------------
Our physical senses are designed in such a way that the signals they provide help us in gathering information to apprehend the world around us and to function in it.
At the physiological and neurological level, if a limb or a finger is amputated, the amputee can feel physical pain where there is no more limb.

Could the same be said of the emotional level? Sometimes the same thing can happen in the loss a loved one or the dissolution of a marriage relationship through separation or divorce. Or it could be the end of a long friendship in which we have been betrayed. The pain we feel is real because so much of ourselves had been invested in that person at different levels of intimacy.

The association between the person, the intimacy and the pain is present because of the chemical/electrical impulses in our brain that stimulates the cerebral cortex every time we think of the person or an event associated with the person. The Lord can heal the physical part if physical harm has taken place through prayer or the intervention of a doctor, we can grieve and time lessens the pain, but if the person has not learned to dissociate the memory in the past triggering the painful reaction in the present, emotional bondage can occur.

Is it possible to be free of our guilt feelings, of our sense of not being forgiven or unforgiving and of any of the other tricks Satan uses to keep us in emotional and spiritual bondage? This is why it's so important to keep the helmet of salvation on. Salvation in Hebrew or Greek means more than just being born again, it means health, being made whole, being unfragmented, being one in mind, body, Spirit and soul. This is the way I felt for the first time in my life when I was 22 and the Holy Spirit came and literally washed me clean of my sin with His Light and His Word.
 

It is my opinion that the invisible parts that have been cut out from us through the breaking off a relationship are similar to the physical amputation. But one must resist the temptation of continuing placing blame on the offending party for our having been cut up and having been robbed emotionally once we have forgiven. If not, we just lock ourselves into a jail of our own making with the key inside the cell ready for our use whenever we desire to be free from the bondage of unforgiveness more than our desire to see the other person suffering as a just retribution so they can understand and feel what we are going through.

Jesus commanded us to forgive. Do you remember that He also said to pluck our eye out if it offends us or to cut our hand off if it offends us? I believe He was talking about a spiritual operation performed by the Holy Spirit when we recognize our inability to do God's will without His strength and help. 

Notice that He said "one eye" and "one hand". We have two eyes and two hands, but one heart which to me means that when our heart is focused on the Lord, our eye (singular) will be full of light. Matthew 6:22. " the light of the body is the eye, if therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light".

Is it possible to exercise faith and live in unbelief at the same time, thus denying the power of the Word and the blood covenant and negating the blessing of freedom that comes as part and parcel of our inheritance? 

Our eyes can focus only on one thing at a time. James illustrates the need to warn us against being divided by the use of our tongue in James 3:10: "Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing.... Can both fresh water and salt water come from the same spring? ...Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."

Psalm 18: 28 declares: "You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning,my God turns my darkness into light". Same Psalm verse 27: "You save the humble, but bring low those whose eyes are haughty."

If we humble ourselves, stop being proud, (haughty eyes), self-sufficient and independent and focus our eyes on the Lord, by the power of His Holy Spirit, He will answer our humble request and give us a pure, undivided heart, one that will be attentive to His voice. Psalm 43: 3 says: "Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me". The truth of the Word without the Spirit to illuminate it is without effect upon the human hearts and minds. Both go together, just like truth and love.

I love this passage in Isaiah, it describes so well the one who in his ignorant condition seeks the light of God and the other one who seeks his own enlightenment because he is proud and independent.
In Isaiah chapter 50: 10- 11 the LORD says:
"Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant,
Let him who walks in the dark who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.But now all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
Go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze,

this is what you shall receive from my hand; you will lie down in torment".

Following the parallel with emotional pain, I believe that it is possible to remember the person, the memories of the time spent together, good and bad, constructive and destructive without feelings of rancor, resentment or bitterness and unforgiveness. It is as if we were observing a situation without being negatively emotionally involved. And at other times, when we find ourselves dwelling on our past and anger and indignation rise in us, it is possible at that time to stop bitterness from growing again by choosing to ask God’s forgiveness and blessing on that person’s life. We have released once again that person and used the key that God provided to keep us out of a jail of our own making. 
 

Jean-Louis.

PS: By the way, after I had already written this reflection, the testimony of a friend of mine, amputee, who lost both his legs from the hips down confirmed what I surmised in the case of physical loss of a limb. As I talked with him, I was able to get a clearer picture and distinguish between two aspects of the real although invisible presence of the cut off limb. He explained that he is aware of his limb being still attached to his body and its feelings.
However at other times, the limbs hurt and the pain is real, not imagined as we would think.