As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
This teaching concerns those of you, who are beating yourselves up, for your past sins which you obsess on, and keep telling yourselves how worthless you are, because in reality you are worthless and should be obsessed on the heinous things you did.
This flies in the face of everything the "whipping boy Jesus" dogma is taught in pulpits now, as you are told God is love, Jesus paid for your sins, so you can just continue on being the many are called and few are chosen, going to hell.
Now that I have you exactly where the devil has already placed you, it is time to offer you a hand from your abyss, and haul your sorry selves out of your own condemning hell. I am not going to set you from from the chains you are in, because when this is over you, will be liberated in your chains and be thankful you have them.
Let us return now my children, to St. Peter in the Bible. If you need reminding, he is the disciple who bragged he would never leave Jesus, and the first opportunity he had, he saved himself by denying Christ multiple times and cursed the entire subject.
After Jesus arose from the dead, Peter was asked three times if he loved Jesus. This grieved Peter immensely, as he knew he had denied Christ and had been the absolute coward to save himself.
There is a reason Jesus humiliated Peter and rubbed his consceince raw. For even though, Christ has forgiven Peter, Jesus never wanted Peter to forget what he did, because Peter was a man who liked acting important, brave and the leader. He jumped out of the boat and sank, pleading for Jesus to save him, and had a penchant for resisting Christ, as Peter wanted that earthly prestige, and not Christ fulfilling His mission to save humankind.
When you read that, you probably are like me in knowing what an undependable person he was. St. Paul had to scold him for acting one way with Gentile Christians and then acting another way with the Jews in Jerusalem. Peter is an exact copy of the frailty of humanity. It is why I detest him, because he represents a great deal of what I loathe about myself, and what real Christians detest about themselves in being imperfect.
I return to the reality that Jesus rubbed Peter in his wounded heart, reminding him what a denier he was. You need to know why Jesus did this, because it is one of the reasons which the hiddens sins you remind yourself you are guilty of, and are most ashamed, are not just brought to mind by satan to destroy you, but are utilized by Christ as a check, to keep you on the straight and narrow.
Everyone of us is like a car, in we need someone reminding us, that our hands on the wheel endangers us to a crash, every turn of those tires. Peter was a type of person who needed to be reminded forever, not that he was guilty of sin, because he was not, as he was forgiven in repenting. Peter needed to be reminded he had sinned, and owed Christ everything for that denial, in order to keep him steadfast. Peter owed Christ his literal life, and he knew Jesus would require that life from him as a martyr, and that is what the focus of this Apostle was, and what kept him disciplined while he carried out the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Peter knew every day, that the day would arrive, in which he would be murdered for the Gospel as Christ had. Peter required to be reminded always in the back of his mind, that once before he had bragged about being the one who would never let Jesus down, so that when the second time came, Peter would remain faithful unto death.
It is the unto death, which is vital, because if Peter had not that constant reminder to keep on the road, all God had accomplished through him, would matter nothing, because the Spiritual sin of denying God at death would have had him sentenced to hell.
St. Paul had this same burden. While Peter had joined in those who murdered Jesus as an accomplice, Paul had the forever murder, that he had stood by as the authority holding the clothes of those who had murdered the first Christlike figure in St. Stephen.
That is the kind of guilt which can destroy in the hands of satan, but in the hands of Chirst, that kind of reminder, spurred this religious genius to carry the Gospel of the Kingdom before cities, kings and queens and Caesar in Rome.
Paul proved the reminder it was, for Paul suffered death at the hands of the mob, but was revived by God, and that glimpse of Paradise, only spurred this Christian to be faithful unto death, in his own execution for being a follower of Christ.
For the True Christian, they need to understand the guidance of their past sins which still prick at their hearts and fill them with regret, even though Jesus has forgiven them. Those sins are not to be a weapon of satan used against you, but those sins are to be a reminder by Christ to stay on the straight and narrow for your benefit, so you never repeat them and have more grief to your souls or the Spirit in you. Sin from satan is meant to destroy you. Sin as a reminder from God is to keep you faithful unto death.
Sin is your NEVER AGAIN. It is the reminder of Peter and Paul to remain faithful unto death, as they had sin which involved death.
Very few of us are a St. John, who stood with Christ in the Sanhedrin and stood with Christ at the Cross, in having Jesus commend His own Mother into your care. There is a sorrow in that, but a rejoicing in there are the blessed who had believed without seeing, and who lost their life with Christ first, in not having to lay it down later to have Christ save them.
All of us though are Christianus alter Christus, The Christian is another Christ, for He is in us, and we are in Him. That is nothing to brag about as Peter did, but something to respect for Christ is the One Who never fled us, denied us or will ever abandon us. Christ is humble by character, while we find humility in necessary reminders of where Jesus delivered us from, and still carries us through, every day.
Everyone of us is the combination of the early Roman elders named as Christians in Gregory and Augustine in, "servus servorum Dei, vobiscum christianus", or All are servant to the Sevants of God while being Christians with each other.
Christians are freed in Christ from their sin which haunts them, but that sin is a reminder by Christ to keep you from falling to satan's temptation in hurting yourself or others again. That reminder when utilized as Christ intends, is your steering wheel, your GPS and your curbs to keep you on the road, protecting your life.
You have been liberated by Christ from sin, but that sin is a reminder of all you owe Christ. It is in Christ never intended to the weight to destroy you, but the curb to keep you faithful to receive that Crown of Life at the border of this life to the next in Life eternal.
Of the many who are called and the few are saved, most of the saved are not like St. John, but most are arrogant like Peter or intellectual like Paul, requiring some thorn in their side to keep humble, and a whisper in their consciences to always remind them of what Christ paid for with His Life being innocent.
Know the reminder is your curb, and rejoice in it being there, and do not dread it, because it never breaks a wheel off, as long as you stay with Jesus on the road.
agtG
