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Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
The above passage (Matt. 10:34) is one of the least preached passages in the New Testament. Why? Simple. The people are used to assuming that Jesus came to bring peace - He did not! He came to bring a sword to separate His Bride from mother, father, brother, sister, children, or any other relationship that interferes with our intimacy with our Husband - Jesus.
The millennial suicide rate is up! Suicide is an external temper tantrum after realizing that few love the victim and that humans cannot meet that deep need of needing to be loved. 1 John tells us that "God is love" and any other form or hunt for love is "selfish love." Suicide is the outward reaction to that reality. Statistics show us that almost 90% of surviving victims (even dead ones) were known for throwing temper tantrums when they were children (externally or internally). Suicide is the adult version of "give me what I want, or I will kill myself." Facts: God offers them what they want AND a new life to follow - it is a self-love problem.
GO AHEAD AND DIE | GOD WANTS YOU TO:
He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. (John 12:25)
Most indwelt Christians neglect to see the need for hatred! When you really hate something, you want to die to escape its hold on you. Hatred is just as important as LOVE - after all, hatred becomes the pathway to a new LIFE that ultimately preserves us!
Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? (2Cor 3:4-8)
TOO BAD THE MILLENNIALS ARE SO ADEQUATE
Seriously - we are not adequate in ourselves to consider anything. Yes, I know, WITHOUT DOUBT, this is true! The victims of suicide are/were trapped in the lie that 'something good should come from the inner man.’
As with all humans (saved or not), the basis of all flesh is inadequacy. Not realizing, of course, that INADEQUACY is the primary component needed to kick the 'lover’ (flesh) out of our temper tantrum. Problem: Millennials take pride in the fact that they are ‘the adequate generation.’
Secondly, God wants us to feel inadequate every time we lean toward attempting to find something good in the inner man - outside of Jesus's indwelling Life. Jesus is a jealous God and wants nothing, nor anyone, to get in the way of His relationship with His Bride.
In this Millennial Generation, suicide rates are going through the ceiling. One of the key traditional doctrines that Millennials resist is - that of being a slave or servant. The Word makes it clear that we are not only to be slaves to Christ but also called to be 'servants of a new covenant' & one cannot demonstrate sub-servant loyalty unless one believes he/she is a slave. This ideology is the same: 'One cannot be a boy unless he is born a boy.' The difference is the 'letter of the law' (slave) vs. the 'letter of the Spirit' (bondslave).
It is critical that true teachers of the indwelling Life of Jesus need to restore the foundational doctrines that Jesus is God, He is the first and only born Son of the Living God & that He has full control of the earth and all its inhabitants.
The Son of God Is Not Confused
Jesus, in His authority, is never confused about the love the Father has for Him--that special, ineffable, infinite love, which only God has for His only begotten Son--a love which can be feebly and dimly illustrated by the love an earthly parent has for an only child. The Father has a love for His Son is directed solely toward His only Son (John 5:20). We are given the privilege to embrace the love of God because it was first given to His Son. Jesus was then given the commission to express that love toward us through the ministry to which His Father called Him. The love a parent has for a firstborn is not as significant today as it was back in the Hebrew days. Nonetheless, God doesn’t alter His doctrines for the contemporary changes of mankind. God loved His Son first, which keeps Christ in first place for eternity.
“For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel” (John 5:20).
The best way to mess this up is to cultivate a confused society or culture. Today, this is our reality.
This is truly worthy of an Amen!
Dr. Stephen Phinney
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