網誌
2005年12月29日 下午3點49分03秒The modern Seven Deadly Sins
This is a passage taken from a book i am reading and enjoying at the moment by Philip Yancey called "rumours"
In the modern United States, at least, the Seven deadly sins might be renamed 'the seven seductive virtues':
Pride: In Music, Sports, and business, we reserve our applause for winners, and those who flaunt it with an attitude tend to garner the most publicity. We strut our medals at the Olympic Games, lavish rewards on winners, and read management books patterned after Machiavelli and Attila the Hun.
Envy: Our entire advertising industry is built on inciting envy of colleagues and neighbours, so that whatever new electronic marvel or body shape my neighbour has, I want too.
Anger: We must get in touch with and express our anger, counsellors tell us. Encounter groups, television trash-talk shows, town meetings and political debates offer ample opportunity to do so.
Greed: The economic engine of our nation, and indeed the world, depends on a constant sense of discontent that motivates each consumer to desire ever more.
Sloth: Find an island with a beach, retire early, relax, slow down, feel good--its all part of the American dream.
Gluttony: Every year the "big gulp" drinks and supersize French fries get bigger, as do the wastelines. Currently 64 percent of Americans are overweight, with half of that percentage qualifying as obese.
Lust: From lycra-clad professional cheerleaders to dancing babes on MTV videos, lust is ubiquitous in modern America, the single most profitable industry on the internet.
In the modern world, sin approaches in camoflage. Too late do we realize that it blocks the path to shalom, to wholeness and health. We miss the hidden dangers that prompted the ancients to regard these sins as deadly.
I have learned these sins diminish me and bring disorder to my life. Pride is a kind of addiction, a yearning for ego strokes that will never be satisfied. Greed tempts me to move my focus from people to things. lust keeps me from connecting in the most meaningful way, diverting that desire in a direction that ultimately does not satisfy. God wants to set me free; evil attempts to enslave.
2005年12月5日 下午7點39分36秒Testimony of Salvation
I was born in Norwich, Brought up in the town of North Walsham by both my parents, with an older brother. My mother professed catholicism, but hardly ever went to church, my father is an atheist and he is pretty fundamental about God not existing. My brother follows my father in his beliefs, and like them I used to think the same way.
At 16 years of age, I was studying for GCSE’s at school. All the way through school I had played a lot of sport, and represented the school at most sports. But rugby was my forte. I played rugby for the local team (more often than not for the year above my own) and also represented the county teams as well. I was a gifted rugby player and was touted as possibly making it as a professional. There had been talks of possible trips away to Australia to play rugby there to mature as a rugby player.
These things got me thinking about life and what I was to do after school. The way I saw it I would go to college, continue to play rugby and eventually become a professional player. In my eyes I had it made already---Rugby was going to provide me with wealth, health, status, friends, fame and fortune. I thought it would be my key to a happy and a successful life, and as far as I was concerned I really didn’t need anything else.
The First Recollection of God’s Hand in My life.
Just a few weeks after turning 16 I went away to Lancaster for the weekend to play in a national football tourament. It was a 6-a-side competition and there were many teams involved from all areas of Britain. In the second half of our first game I received the ball and one of the opposition went to tackle me and ending up breaking my leg. I went to hospital and it was found to broken in 5 places. I had much surgery, with an illizoroth external fixator fitted and skin graphs applied to where they had had to cut my leg to relieve the pressure of the fracture.
After about 9 months of going in and out of hospital I started playing rugby again, in my opinion I was far less likely to break my leg playing rugby than football, so that became the only sport I was to focus on. We went on tour at Easter to Holland and on the first day, I was kicked in the head and had a deep cut requiring 6 stiches, and the second I broke my leg again. It was rather ironic that this particular day happened to be Easter Sunday.
(I have since come to the conclusion that Gods hand was in this in a real way. In Gods eyes I was worshipping a false God because I believed rugby would provide me with all I would need and I was basically giving my life to it. God didn’t like this and decided to show me that my chosen God didn’t actually exist. The true God of the world had other plans for me)
Things Get Dark.
I soon came to the conclusion that my chosen route in life was not going to happen and with my dreams shattered I began to search in other places in lfe that might give me the happiness that I so badly wanted and needed.
I began to try drugs to try to make myself happy and for a while it did, but it gradually became less and less enjoyable, and so I kept looking. I looked into body building, intellect/education, looked at other people and tried to find solutions from inside of them, I became a fighter and was know by most people in the town as notorious for it, I looked inside my own soul too --- these are just a few of the areas I looked in for a solution, but my condition had got quite bad---I was becoming very paranoid and depressed and thought I was losing my mind, I so desparately wanted to find a solution, but everywhere I looked just lead to despair and further pain. Eventually I went to see the doctor and he tried to help me with his advice and his medication, but even that made me feel worse stilll. I dropped out of college after the added pressure of my best friend betraying me with my girlfriend. I had hit rock bottom.
Hope Arrives.
I started working at an industrial laundry. It was a horrible place, they washed the sheets from the hospitals in the county. As I went on trying to do this job, I met a Christian woman who worked there. We began to chat about things, at first it was just general chit-chat, but as we began to talk on a day to day basis she could see that I was desparately unhappy and was searching for a solution in my life..She began to tell me about a man who had really helped her out. She said he had done a lot for her and was always there for her. She told me his name was Jesus. She explained who He is and told me what He had done for her. I could see in her eyes how content and happy she was. So I began to think about it and came to the connclusion that I had nothing to lose by finding out more---perhaps it would provide me with a solution.
We began to read the bible together after work and she began to explain the gospel to me and it really got me thinking. We read about the many miracles Jesus performed--making the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the sick well again (now this appealed to mebeing once who had an illness of sorts which any normal doctor couldn’t cure), we read about Jesus being crucified as an innocent man and how he rose again from the dead and we read many other things. Eventually we came across tha parable of the prodigal son and I saw much of myself in him. It struck a chord within me. I was starting to really desire this cure that Jesus seemed to have the power over and I began to really want to be a Christian, but the only problem was I couldn’t force myself to believe it. We read on further in the scriptures and came across a little passage in Matthews Gospel ch 17 v 24-27. It is about when the people came to Jesus and his followers to collect the temple tax. Peter asked Jesus what they were to do and Jesus instructed Peter to go to the river to catch a fish. In that first fish would be enough temple tax for both Peter and Himself. Peter did as Jesus said straight away and it was as Jesus had said. Now that amazed me how Peter just went and did it. He just believed What Jesus had said without question. He didn’t say “look mate, that’s just silly. What are the chances of me throwing a line in and catching a fish with money in its belly and that money being exactly the right money. That aint gonna happen mate” no he didn’t say that he just BELIEVED and went and did it. I marvelled at this. I needed that sort of faith and I really wanted it too.
Conviction, Repentance, Salvation.
After reading the bible that evening we began to talk again. The Christian woman began to question me “have you ever killed anyone in your life?”(referring to Christ and me nailing him to the cross, hoping God might use it to convict me of sin) suddenly something occurred to me (or rather God pointed out to me).
I remembered that one time when I had had a fight with a bouncer in a night club. I had hurt him pretty badly and he needed to have facial reconstruction and had his eye re-set. They say he had problem seeing out of that eye afterwards. Soon after he came out of hospital he was out riding his motor-bike and whilst turning a corner he was hit by a car. Apparently he didn’t see the car coming as it came from the direction of his bad eye. He died due to this accident. And I fealt personally responsible.
It was at that moment I knew I was going to hell and I fealt really vunerable, but almost immediately I trusted that Jesus could save me and he came into my heart and I believed. I knew that he had died for MY sins and that I was forgiven. It was almost like for a moment I was falling and Jesus was there to catch me and I trusted that he would---and he did.
(it was really strange. After the point of conviction and realising I was a sinneri actually fealt the holy spirit come into my body and it physically moved me slightly upwards and backwards off the seat)
I now knew the bible was completely true and Jesus was now my Lord, bringing me into a real relationship with God.
That all happened on 2nd October 1999 at 2am, which was a Saturday. I went to church for the first time on the Sunday following.
Since being saved God has changed my life for the good of everyone around me. I don’t have dependencies on drugs and fighting is something I don’t like to do any more. God has given me the happiness I was looking for for so long, and I now know that true joy can only be found in Jesus.
it is much better is live a life in the love of God than in the anger of God's wrath.
I endevour to be used by God as he sees fit. His way is the only way, the only truth and the only life to live.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life