16/03/2021
Hellish Help
You know that feeling where you feel disconnected from those around you, when no one understands your heart or intentions, where you feel accused, misjudged, attacked, unsafe. When you feel that no one sees your value or allows you to be your worst self and let it be ok. When no one gives you the benefit of the doubt and every tiny thing you do is under a magnifying glass and scrutinized. You feel fragile and exposed but even when you seek God in that moment you can’t seem to truly connect to Him. It’s enough to make the best of us shut down, or crumble into a puddle of tears, or erupt in a cyclone of unpredictable emotions.
These feelings all bubble to the surface because deep down you feel you’re not good enough, no matter what you do, or how hard you try, there’s always a critic, waiting to pounce on you for pulling a facial expression you didn’t know you were pulling while a torrent of emotions overwhelm you… I’m mean it’s not like we can see our own face looking out at other people… right!
Most of the time you try to press those feelings down and say “I’m fine” to anyone who asks. This is a protection strategy, because during these dark times you are extremely vulnerable. You know you can’t trust yourself to be in that state around other people because all self-control and self-esteem has left the building. You know from past experience that you can’t trust others to get it, to give the validation, compassion and empathy you crave, and adding their misunderstanding to that level of vulnerability is like a Molotov Cocktail for your sanity!
This my lovelies is HELL… It’s a place filled by these fearful voices of the enemy deep inside us. I’ve be writing about Hell for a long time, about the sanctifying process it holds, bringing to light our fears from deep within so they can be seen and then cleared out, so they won’t unconsciously pollute our behaviour and our faith. But I’ve only just realised what others can do to help someone who is in Hell.
So this post is for me to learn and practice more than anyone, because I’m so sensitive to their hell I want to fix it. The closer you are to me, the more I want to stop your tears, but I now realise that these tears are precious, and necessary, and being “Happy” all the time is disingenuous and unable to bring growth. If we aren’t growing we are just dying, if our loved ones aren’t growing they are dying. So encourage the tears to fall, to water that authentic growth. God wants us to be authentic and healthy and free from the lie that we aren’t good enough. So we all must give our loved ones a safe place to unload their tears so they can get the relief and the lessons and eventually the blessings that Hell brings.
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:2
How to Handle Hell
1.Never give Advice to someone in Hell. They can’t do shit in that moment… Nothing. If you understand what hell is like, then imagine someone giving you advice, you’ll probably understand why it made the top of my list. Wait until they ask “What should I do?”
2. Listen with eye contact if possible, and stay engaged with sympathy sounds, hmmm…Yeah… tutt… Oh.. geeze…
3. Ask them questions about their pain. Allow them to lean into the discomfort and have empathy (even if they are upset because of you). “Do you feel … Misunderstood? Attacked? Blamed? Like nothing you do is good enough? I hate that.. it sux to feel like that”. As I mentioned in a recent post…Validation is vital.
4. See their truth… This is so important… Look past your own fears, needs, desires, self talk, and try to truly see them, to feel their pain, to give them grace to pull faces and say nasty things and recognise they don’t mean anything by it, they aren’t to blame, they are just in hell. They are frantically battling demons and you are just getting hit with friendly fire.
5. Never talk about yourself or say “I understand” before they’ve unloaded. Saying ‘I understand’ or “I’ve been there” or “same” cuts them off so they can’t explain any more. They don’t get the freedom to ramble about it, to unload, to cry deeper and release more pain from within. We learn heaps about ourselves when we talk about ourselves. Wait until every question you can think to ask has been asked, and they begin to feel better, then say “I can’t tell you what to do but if you like, I can tell you what I did in a similar situation?”
6. Watch for your own fears. Often when we see someone we care for going through something difficult we get triggered too. Especially if it is our child or spouse, because we immediately take on some guilt that we were unable to protect them from such pain. When our emotions become fearful, we automatically go into control mode, we want to fix it. This is why we try to give advice like in lesson no.1. It’s also why we start talking about our own pain in no.5 and no.7, because we can so easily relate to theirs. But that makes the situation and conversation about us and that doesn’t help them.
7. Remind them that the enemy is up to his old tricks, lying to them in their thoughts and using their emotions of shame, telling them they aren’t safe, or aren’t good enough. Give them countering truths against these lies. Reassure them that they are more than good enough and loved even at their worst… Jesus made one hell of a journey just because he loves the worst of us most! Encourage them that the enemy has been defeated by the cross and this will pass and bring amazing interactions with God and huge growth of faith.
As I mentioned before in this blog and many others, there is a very important purpose to Hell, and there is no avoiding it, even if you’re “saved”. Hell is the furnace that purifies the flesh and soul. It reveals our worst selves so that we know where the enemy is getting in and that helps us know where to direct our attention as we grow in faith and towards the best version of ourselves. So the next time you or a loved one are going through a season of Hell, get out this blog, and use these tips to support each other through it. It just may help the Hellish phase pass far more quickly than resisting it, because in that moment you get to be the arms of Jesus, holding your loved one and helping them find the light at the end of the tunnel.
Every time I learn something cool about God or understand a little more how much the devil sucks, I write a blog so I can treasure the lesson. This lesson is huge! Its a game changer and it effects every single one of us. Thank you Lord for sharing your wisdom with us!
04/07/2019
Folau’s Poor Doctrine & a Media Shit Storm!
I know I know, If you’re an Aussie you’re probably sick of hearing everyone voice their opinions on the recent scandal surrounding Australian Rugby Player, Israel Folau.
I’m sorry, but I promise this won’t be like any of what you have heard so far!
But for those of you across the pond around the world who are unfamiliar, here’s the highlights as far as I can tell.
- He had a contract to play Rugby Union for Australia.
- He used his position as an influencer to share some meme’s on social media that were deemed homophobic, hate speech.
- He was warned he would lose his contract if he did it again.
- Oops, He did it again.
- He lost his $4million contract.
- He started a #gofundme page to raise the money to fight Rugby Australia in court under grounds of Religious Expression.
- #gofundme closed his page and refunded all his donations to the contributors.
- Most of Australia laughed at his page closure, saying “serves the homophobe right”.
- Australian Christian Lobby used their platform to reopen his campaign. Folau received more than triple the refunded donations in two days (over 2 million AUD).
- Rage ensued across our nation as arguments were voiced on either side, for Freedom of Religious Expression and Freedom of Speech vs Hate Speech, Homophobia fury and defense of Contractual Law.
So what did he post that sparked this media fire?
I’ll not bore you with the typical arguments that “he broke the terms of his contract” vs “Religious Expression is Constitutional Law and therefore overrides contractual law” and I won’t get into the fact that the word “homosexuals” was picked up and ran with as “hate speech”, when clearly the message was for everyone, as ALL of us are guilty of at least a few things on that list.
Even one Atheist was quoted saying “Folau’s post was no more filled with hate than smoking warnings on cigarettes is hatred against smokers”.
Yep as you can see, Everyone has an opinion!
This blog is called Inner Angels and Enemies, So I’d like to take a deeper look under the hood of what’s really going on here.
This meme is a classic example of poor doctrine, and theological ignorance, and clearly touches on a sore spot in our current societal climate. However, as I’ve written many times before, in my posts The Beauty of Hell and Are You Chasing People Away? and Religion Vs Relationship, if you want to be obliterated in open debate, then tell someone they’re headed for Eternal Burning Hell in front of me!
We are not in the dark ages anymore people… Most of us are more scared of what our friends and peers think of us, than where we will spend our eternity after this life.
It’s time we realised that manipulating and blackmailing people into the Christian faith is a cheap trick which fills church pews with inauthentic mask-wearers who become the very reason people are flooding out of the church and away from God in droves, and lets face it, these threats are not Christ-like in any way, shape or form.
Yes I know that the scripture’s talk of ‘Hell’ where the ‘worm never dies’ and ‘eternal fire & brimstone’, but until we actually die, we don’t really know what comes next. Surely, if your a genuine believer, who has a true relationship with God, then you will have plenty of actual personal testimony to encourage people into the fold, without needing to resort to playing God!
Yes it is playing God!
The exact thing that apparently got Lucifer kicked out of the heavenly courts.
No wonder, institutional faith is riddled with so much corruption.
We are all human, and God alone is God who reads the human heart and looks not to external behaviour. Lets leave the big rulings to Him hey!
Folau didn’t exclude anyone and he doesn’t have the keys to the kingdom so lets drop this ridiculous argument! PLEASE!
So perhaps you might be thinking after reading all this, that because I’m against Folau’s meme that I must hope he loses in court? Just as the rest of the haters do!
But you couldn’t be father from the truth.
For some time I have noticed a hidden conspiracy, lurking under the surface of this world, deep in the spiritual sub-structure of weak men’s hearts.
It is a war against words.
The word LOGOS is the Word of God, which in spoken form, has the power to bring creation into existence. His word in written form, or scripture, has the power to overthrow strong holds, divides soul from spirit, and discerns the intentions of the heart. Scripture explains that the power of life and death are in the tongue.
Words are a mighty and powerful weapon!
As Voltaire said so beautifully “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” I may not agree with what Folau said, but I will defend his right to freedom of speech, even if it severely damages the reputation of the God I know and love, even if I believe he has missed the truth entirely. I just simply trust God to sort each of us out and I know I will be in agreement with whatever He decides, even if its at my own sufferance.
I defend Folau’s right to speak because I feel with all the attacks against freedom of speech, and the increasing limitations due to shifty concepts of “hate speech”, before long none of us will be able to voice our beliefs, our opinions, and debate the very issues like this that need some discussion!
As someone who has spent their entire life trying to stop speaking my opinions and having no such luck, if I don’t speak now while I still can, very soon I too will be silenced, and so will you.
This Folau incident was nothing more than a media propaganda shit storm trying to incite anger within the LGBT community so they will fight to change laws, handing over more and more rights to our government, and less rights to the people, because of nothing more than a knee jerk, emotional reaction, without any genuine freedom for ALL in sight.
The LGBT community might recall that it wasn’t so long ago when they weren’t allowed to speak their opinions and belief’s in public, or how many Christian’s actually died to fight for their right to share their faith publicly, but oh how quickly the rights of others become fodder for the crowd mentality when you’re on the other side of the argument!
06/11/2018
The Beauty of Hell
Aren’t you tired of hearing the warning and seeing the cartoons of “Eternal Burning Hell” as the place for those who aren’t righteous and ‘saved’? Those who know me know I get wildly angry around this threat!
Let’s at least agree to the fact that NO ONE actually knows what happens after we pass through death, except those who’ve died, but we can’t really ask them can we? Scriptures give us some hints, but it keeps its secrets hidden for a good reason. If we’re honest, all of us have an idea in our heads of what we would like to happen to the very worst of mankind, but we have to recognise that we DO NOT KNOW! Its not a good look, trying to scare people with some words in a book they don’t value.
“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” Ecclesiastes 11:5
To be frank, I prefer to leave the things I can’t possibly yet understand to God and trust Him that the end result will be fair.
FIRE & BRIM…… What?
While that fantastical threat of ‘Fire & Brimstone’ (what the hell is brimstone anyway?) has been a worthy motivator for conversion to Christianity for millennia, I find the afterlife less motivation than the “Hell on Earth” that we are all familiar with in the here and now.
In this life I’ve had a taste of how horrible Hell on Earth is without my Saviour by my side. That Hellish feeling where everything becomes overwhelming, and fear takes hold, that state of hopelessness and lack of feeling God’s love is unbearable. It’s the place of our crucible, which according to Merriam-Webster means; “a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development“. The truth of this Hell I speak of, didn’t become a distant memory once I asked my Lord to take hold of me and never let me go. Not at all, now He just goes to Hell with me, and because He’s been there before, He can show me the way out, time and time again. Hell still holds its usual bite, but these days I know there is much more than suffering going on.
Even the best of us will go to this Hell at some point, ‘saved’ or not, but the deciding factor as to whether you stay there, or find God and follow His guidance to get out, is not simply a religious act. It’s a conversion of the heart, a listening for His voice in the core of your being when everything around you is in turmoil. Its the very act of being able to identify your own sinful motives, find and trust God personally, gain the lesson and then see the beneficial evidence in the aftermath of that heart transformation.
Then you are resurrected out of hell and into hope, unity, love and peace with God.
Or in other words, you get a taste of absolute HEAVEN on EARTH!
From this perspective, sending someone to Hell is a divine and loving act, remember He sent His own SON there! For it’s the birthplace of freedom from sin!
Some of you won’t follow me from here on out, so before you leave me mid-paragraph, just know that there is no need to keep using your imagination and Scriptural threats to ‘encourage’ people to turn to God. You can use Scripture to confirm your own personal experiences of Heaven and Hell on Earth and share them, at least then your warnings don’t seem like idle threats you can’t back up with priceless tangible experience.
For those special few who grasp this and are hungry for more, lets dig into this together….
PACK YOUR CROSS & GO TO HELL!
Now that we’ve gotten rid of any fakers, let get real. Just because I said the sinner’s prayer and I completely believe that Jesus died for my sins on the cross, went to Hell, and was resurrected, (Yeeew AMEN!) doesn’t mean I have never again sinned or had to suffer the consequences for my sins. I may not need to worry about what comes after my death, but while I’m still here there is still plenty of work to be done, and plenty of unrighteous motives still hidden in my heart that need to be purged. And yours too…. even if you’re not aware of them.
Thankfully I know just the guy to help ‘burn off the dross’ Psalm 119:119 and purify my heart and yours. Please don’t fall for the illusion, it’s a life-long process, and while I more often experience Heaven on Earth since falling in love with Yahweh, than periods of Hell, doesn’t mean I don’t still need to go there from time to time and kill off a deeper level of sin.
“The Son of Man must suffer many things,” He said. “He must be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.…” (Luke 9:22-24)
I don’t believe Jesus was being facetious for dramatic effect or simply referring to the direction of our physical lives. There is a clear message in this Scripture that has helped me find comfort in my own personal experiences of Hell. That, regular awareness of my current and hidden sins will bring me to the cross in deep remorse, where I am willing to give up the sin I was poisoned by, which will take me into a season of Hell, in which I will depend completely on my Saviour to bring me out and then experience the wonderful benefits of the “Born Again” condition on the other side of it all. That’s exactly how I feel. I feel renewed, free from the burden and influence of that sin, a new creation, and deeply in love with my Lord more than ever before…. If that’s at all possible.
Most of you who have stayed with me thus far will know this isn’t a one-time event, and it hasn’t been done ‘for you’ so that you can ignore your sins or pretend they aren’t there. This is a systematic and vital part of the faith journey. In fact, the more sins you identify… THE BETTER! Sure, you’ll go through Hell, but there is no avoiding it, and you don’t have to stay there! You don’t have to go alone! And the Heaven on the other side is incredibly worth it!
“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.”
2 Corinthians 7:10
HELL ON EARTH IS ENOUGH MOTIVATION
Perhaps those of you who value this process, will now be more comfortable using your own admission of purging sin, of Hell on Earth, and the brilliance of the Cross, to encourage others to connect with Christ.
Not because of the fear of some unfathomable place after you die, but because suffering here is real and it can be Hell: If its not a matter of if I go to Hell but when, I’d rather not go alone. Would you? We can carry our cross in one hand and hold our Saviours’ hand with the other. There is more than enough motivation in this to fall head over heels in love with our Lord once He meets you in Hell and shows you the way out. … because you never know, if you go alone you just may find yourself stuck there for what feels like eternity.
01/10/2016
Overturning Tainted Love
I have held two completely opposing views of Love throughout my life. In my youth one version took the lead role, to put it bluntly this version was selfish and unstable. In my adult years my Dad introduced me to the other version, the selfless, unwavering Love of God. It took a great deal of effort, self-awareness, and many prayers to undo some of the automatic thinking patterns that my misguided version of Love had established inside my heart, and in my behaviour. Even after 17 years of walking closely with God, straining in pursuit of Christ-likeness, I still battle over which version of love will show up. I am astounded when I unconsciously perform acts of unselfish love, because I recognise it is really Christ working in me, changing me. And yet I am still aware and filled with regret over the times my selfish love rears its ugly head.
This battle between the two versions of love, is as old as time itself, and the biggest misconception of love has been applied to the character of God, God who not only is the very source of all pure love, but who in fact IS LOVE. I feel an enormous amount of urgency to restore the reputation of God, and overturn our understanding of Love, love without coercion or expectation, the freedom and peace true love brings, as opposed to the selfish version the enemies of God have flooded throughout the world. These enemies deny the very existence of love, replacing it with obsession, possession, lust and self-satisfaction, in complete apostasy to the self-sacrificial heart of Christ. Christ came to show us what God’s love looks like, for we unconsciously accepted the falsehood that the enemy was spilling across the earth.
Learning of God’s love revolutionised my life, and I pray my words don’t fall on deaf ears as I hope to shine some light on the battle between deceptive versions and the incomparable version of true love, God’s love.
Love yearns for deep truthful connection, with no equivocation, no hidden secrets, no self-serving agenda. It waits patiently for the chords of love to grow in secure freedom, with loyal untainted unwavering hope. The love that Yeshua imparted to the world took nothing but gave everything. It held nothing back for itself, almost as if love was worthless without loving us perfectly and completely.
Human nature convinces us that we are loving when we feel the desire to connect with others, and yet we have little concept of gaining nothing from it. We push for it because in some way we expect it to satisfy us. We make promises founded on our fragile willingness to hope, then at the first sign that our expectations won’t be met, our promises disintegrate into dust. God’s love keeps its promises because it has no alternative. This is founded in the fact that His promises are based on His character and not on our ability to deserve them, to earn them, or even request them in hope. We only need accept them, trust them, believe in them.
So what about that flood of misguided love that has misrepresented the character of God? What about all those scary threats in the Bible that religious institutions have been using as a means to coerce the world into crouching into a position of slavery and fear under the hypercritical God we’ve all heard about?
The warnings of Hell or Destruction are not threats of punishment. They are a sign post, severely cautioning us as to the unavoidable results of a life separate from God’s love. For He can not protect us from the hellish suffering we are reaping upon ourselves by keeping our hearts and souls hidden from His grace-filled love.
If our souls are energy and energy never dies, but only changes form, then what else is to be concluded but an eternal existence for our souls? What kind of eternal existence our souls obtain is completely up to us. And because True Love doesn’t coerce, God gave us a choice. He gave us the freedom to choose His loving protection and freedom from slavery to sin, or to continue on believing the deceptions. Deceptions which taint our understanding of love and keep us trapped within the selfish empty character of our human nature. A nature that causes us to act in ways that have negative consequences, consequences we then blame God for even after professing that we don’t believe in Him.
The world system sees might, muscle and domination as powerful, and yet the power of God’s love restores what the worlds ‘power’ has destroyed.
God uses the world stage as a template of what eternity will look like without being connected to God’s love. This place is a temporary speck in time compared to the infinite permanent Love of God. His ‘wrath’ is a perfect response to His perfect assessment of who we become when selfishness taints the love He created us to need. His response shows His intense concern for our souls. In His omnipotent wisdom He knows that our desires and self-indulgent hearts are not only taking us away from His love and Blessings, but leading us into the toxic wasteland of Satanic slavery and encouraging others to join us, our children included.
God’s wrath against sin doesn’t come from hatred or impatience or cruelty, as it would from our tainted versions of love. It comes from an all knowing concern for us and our impending existence without the abundant gifts, the eternal freedom and peace that only His love can give. Our belief in His love transforms us, making us able to truly love as Christ loved.
God’s love is made available to us and through us, a free gift offered, wrapped with drops of blood shed to prove its authenticity. The most beneficial thing we can do for ourselves is to look upward, let His love change us and set us free, so that we can reciprocate and share that Love with our own overturned love, no longer tainted.
“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” Ezekiel 36:26 (NLT)
05/06/2015
It’s Time Humans Stopped Playing at Being God!
My heart broke earlier this week…… It was broken by someone using God’s name.
I had the privilege to speak with a young girl a few days ago. A girl with faith and a deep love to please her Heavenly Father. However this gorgeous young girl, not yet even a teenager, expressed how she felt torn and sad. You see her parents are separated and while her Dad went off to find his faith within the church, her Mum has no religious inclinations. One day the young girl had returned home in tears after time at her Father’s church, she was completely distressed after being told that her Mum was going to hell because she wasn’t a professing Christian. She was also told to remove the new earrings she had just recently had pierced (and therefore shouldn’t be taken out for 6 weeks) or she would also be going to hell.
Hearing this atrocity made my heart break.
I am not sure who within their church thought it reasonable to play God, but I am convinced that they are guilty of something much more offensive than wearing earrings!
I felt a weight on my heart to help this young girl grasp what I believe to be the cornerstones of Christ’s message. Truth. Grace. Mercy. Glory. Love.
So I asked her, “Who is the only one who knows for sure who is going to Hell or who is going to Heaven?”
“God” she grinned. (I think she got my point right there but I went on…)
“Exactly” I replied “And who is the only one who knows which sins God will punish and which ones He will forgive?”
Another smile “God”
“Right again. And who is the only one who knows your deepest thoughts and reads the truth in your heart?”
Her answer was a resounding “GOD DOES”.
“Perfect! And that is why we praise Him and Him alone! That is why He gets ALL the Glory! Because we can trust Him completely to decide what is true and righteous and justice and love!”
I am glad that this young girl went home with a much brighter heart than the one she came with. I encouraged her to pray for her Mum and to trust God to pull her Mum into His loving arms, not because of fear, not because of demand, not because of condemnation. Rather because of her desire to have a relationship with her creator, rather in pursuit of the truth of the Gospel, rather because of her acceptance of the overwhelming love her Heavenly Father has for her.
Even though I had the joy of helping this young girl understand much more of the Christian faith that Christ came to bring, I am still heartbroken. I am gutted that there are still people out there comparing sins, and condemning others to Hell with no authority or righteousness to do so. We must remember that we are ALL sinners, EQUALLY! We are ALL saved by GRACE not by works! There is no way for a child to be ‘Good Enough’ to get to Heaven, it is only MERCY that gets ALL of us there. To put such pressure on such young shoulders is only going to push her heart AWAY from her Saviour not to instill lifelong Love and stability, loyalty and TRUST in Him!
We were all made by God in our imperfection and given the opportunity through Christ to be given salvation from our flesh. We must not condemn anyone because they sin differently to you or I! A close sensitive relationship with God through Christ is the ONLY way to discover which sins God wants us to focus His light upon, which sins God wants us to request His strength to overcome at each stage of our walk with Him. Only a deep sensitivity to the Holy Spirit convicting our heart can truly give us guidance as to each personal step God wants us to take along the narrow path He has assigned to us. Not everyone has the same weakness, not everyone has the same inclination of the heart, not everyone has the same narrow path to walk along. As I’ve said before, God is not so limited that He made each and every unique individual on the planet for numerous generations and then tried to fit them all onto the same narrow path! We each have our OWN NARROW PATH! And no one else knows which way God has deemed my path to go, or this young girls, or even her Mothers! NO ONE!
Does no one agree with me, that taking these decisions out of God’s hands and placing them into human hands is an atrocity against God!?!?
Does no one else see how much damage is being done to our Gracious Heavenly Father’s reputation by this constant misrepresentation of His Gospel!?!?
Christ told us not to be a stumbling block for others, and do not suffer the children to come to Him. Innocent children not even old enough to be accountable for their flesh are being scared into doubting God’s love for them and their fellow man.
God is the only one who gets to decide these things, isn’t anyone else who condemns someone to Hell simply playing at being God?
Playing God is exactly what got Lucifer kicked out of Heaven in the first place. People in glass houses…
Now I’m sure there will be those out there who will bring up our role as Christians to warn others about the dangers of a life without Christ. And that is a valid point, yes we are ambassadors for revealing the truth of salvation to those in need. In fact in this very post is a warning to everyone who is playing God. However firstly, children are easily swayed and it takes great care to encourage a relationship with God and a sense of accountability to Him for the choices they make, just as they are accountable to their parents. But can you imagine how successful a parents loving guidance would be if they were constantly telling their children they were going to send them away forever and ever to the most horrible place imaginable if they don’t act perfectly! Is there no concept of God’s love for us here!?! Teaching children about God is a wonderful addition to their sense of worth and to instill the courage to pursue truth and righteousness throughout their lives, but when it is projected in such a way as to make the child afraid of God and to insist they must follow the rules out of fear rather than desire of the heart, this is a recipe for disaster!
And secondly, even dealing with adult, immature Christians, it is certainly profitable to them to explain the risks of life without a covenant relationship with their Heavenly Father. Hell on Earth is the only consequence we humans can be sure of and therefore can warn of. (I can’t imagine anything worse than returning to the Hell I lived before I grew to know the Lord.) Yet once again, it is only an individual close sensitive relationship to God through Christ that can be certain which steps lead toward covenant protection and which steps may risk it.
We can all help the lost by showing them the grace of our Lord, by supporting them to build a relationship with God by getting to know Him for themselves. To share how loved and worthy we ALL are to Him so that we all want to grow in faith and trust towards Him.
Inner Angels & Enemies 