Omega Message – August 2001
Cecil J. duCille
The term “suicide” means the act of intentionally taking one’s own life. Any behavior or policy that exposes the individual, group, or even a nation to ruin or destruction by one’s own actions can be said to be suicidal. The term “partial suicide” refers to a non-fatal self-destructive act, such as self-mutilation; and “chronically suicidal” describes an individual who repeatedly engages in life endangering acts of suicidal behavior. In view of these definitions of what suicide really is, no accurate statistics can be given concerning suicidal deaths. Those who succeed in killing themselves are but a small proportion of those who really intend to commit suicide but are unsuccessful; and most of the time the individual committing the act of suicide takes pains to disguise the intent so that many of these deaths are not recorded as suicides.
In a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), suicidal deaths for the year 2000 were estimated worldwide at approximately one million persons, which is a global mortality rate of 16 persons per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds. Additional information provided in this report states that suicide rates in the last 45 years have increased by 60% worldwide, and suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among both sexes aged 15-44. Traditionally, suicide rates have been the highest among elderly males, but the rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at the highest risk in a third of all countries. The number of attempted suicides are estimated to be up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicides.
Historically, suicide is a part of decadent human behavior that has its roots deep in the soul. The pattern of one’s thinking is the chief cause of suicide. In Judeo-Christian thinking, suicide is both legally and morally wrong. Islam also is against suicide except for the teaching that suicidal action in battle will reward the fighter with a special place in heaven and with rewards in a reincarnated life. These teachings are not Christian and are some of the most blatant differences between Christianity and the Moslem religion. Most religions that do not worship a supreme God are subject to suicidal teachings.
Ancient Greece allowed criminals to commit suicide, and in both Greek and Roman cultures it was honorable for the defeated to fall on his sword instead of being taken by the enemy. Roman law eventually came out against suicide because of the economic loss they suffered when their slaves committed suicide. The Japanese have what they call “seppuku” or “hari kari” (which is suicide by disembowelment). It was practiced by high-ranking Japanese (samurai) in lieu of execution or to avoid disgrace. Although this practice was outlawed in 1873, we found the spirit of the hari kari alive and well in the Japanese airmen who attacked American ships in WWII, using their planes as missiles and themselves as the guidance system. To this day Buddhists commit sacrificial suicide by burning themselves alive as a social protest; and is Israel, even in recent days, the Palestinians use themselves as human bombs in their war against Israel.
In some African cultures, under certain circumstances, the council of chiefs can order the chief to commit suicide. Under many ancient cultures, people were expected in certain situations to commit suicide.
One thing is certain, and that is that all those who commit suicide or attempt suicide are suffering from some psychological damage, and need the help of some qualified person. They are suffering from stress, but choose a most abnormal way of handling it.
Suicidal behavior can be observed even in children. It is deep rooted in the way a person thinks, and a trained observer can detect its roots even on the play field, for it manifests in every facet of the individual’s activity. Anti-social thinking is one of the signs to look for. Also, feeling that one is different or an outcast is almost always present in the suicidal profile.
Many famous people have committed suicide. Marilyn Monroe, one of the most glamorous film stars, overdosed on sleeping pills and died by suicide. Many other movie stars are known to have committed suicide. The famous American novelist Ernest Hemingway, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 and whose prose style seemed to have set the trend for world fiction writing of the twentieth century, was another who ended his life by suicide. He was fascinated by war and as a journalist he made his way to London during WWII and flew several missions with the Royal Air Force, and went across the Channel with the American troops on D-Day (June 6, 1944). He attached himself to the 22nd Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division and saw a good deal of the fighting in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. (This was a battle in which the Allies suffered very great casualties.) He participated in the liberation of Paris and never was wounded except for being hurt in a plane crash in Africa 1952. The psychology of such a reckless adventurer tells us something about his propensity for self-destruction. In 1961, in a fit of depression, he took his life with a shotgun.
Hemingway was one of the greatest communicators of our time. He was endowed with all the attributes that pertain to living, but was fascinated by death. He eagerly participated in wars all over the world, and was involved in big game hunting and bullfighting. He had a fascination with death, but did not believe in God. The result of this equation spells SUICIDE.
In recent times, there is the case of Jim Jones, and the “Jones Town massacre” in Guyana, where in 1978, Jones had 913 persons (including 276 children) commit mass suicide by drinking cyanide-adulterated punch. This kind of tragedy conclusively proves that there is a spirit associated with suicide, for how do you get 913 people to drink poison after they observe the effect it had on those in the front of the line?
Jim Jones started out in 1950-60 in Indianapolis, Indiana as a conventional mainstream Protestant (Disciple of Christ) pastor. He then became a charismatic churchman, and after moving his church to San Francisco, he gradually became obsessed with power. We had a group located close to his church that would rescue many defectors from his authoritarian rule. In Matthew 20:25-27 we are told that God is against this type of pastoral domination over his flock.
“But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister (servant); And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant (slave):”
In Revelation 2, the Lord is speaking, and in Verses 6 and 15, the terminology “Nicolaitans” is used. This word in the Greek is “Nicolaites,” which comes from the two Greek words: “nikos” (rule, or victory) and “laos” (people). Consequently, the word means “ruler over the people,” and in these two verses, this word “Nicolaitans” is used to describe how much God abhors this kind of rulership in the church.
Verse 6, “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolatians, which I also do hate.”
Verse 15, “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.”
Opposition began to mount against Jim Jones from the public as well as from some of his members. He promised the people a utopia in Guyana and moved hundreds of families to a type of camp situation carved out there in the jungle. When a suicidal person is on the edge, it takes very little to set them off, and this happened on November 14, 1978. U.S. Representative Leo Ryan of California arrived there in Guyana with a group of newsmen to investigate certain alleged abuses. When they tried to leave, they were gunned down. Jim Jones then ordered a mass suicide in which he himself was killed.
It is easy for the leader of a cult to move his people to mass-suicide. Because Mass-suicide generally takes place in a “cult” group, it is necessary for us to make it very clear what is the meaning of the word. The Oxford dictionary defines “cult” as:
- A system of religious worship, especially as expressed in ritual.
- A devotion of homage to a person or thing.
- A popular fashion especially followed by a specific section of society.
A cult group then, means simply a group of people where allegiance to a man or woman takes the place of God in their hearts even unto death.
Cult leaders generally lead their followers into a little truth mixed with some illusion – either from their own psyche or from some demonic source. In Waco, Texas, David Koresh was brought up in orthodox Seventh-Day Adventism. He used the Bible, but added to it an anti-Government slant. He armed the people and mixed his knowledge of the Bible with his special brand of doomsday doctrine. Whether right or wrong, the Federal officials seemed to have misinterpreted what they knew about Koresh, and in 1993 attacked his enclave. A gun battle ensued and it was reported that the Davidians committed suicide by setting fire to their compound. Over 70 persons died in the fire, including David Koresh.
In 1995, Shoko Asahara (founder of the Aum Shinrikyo group in Japan), because of his doomsday predictions, along with several of his followers who were willing to die with him and for him, made several attempts to kill innocent people, and in one case used a deadly gas which killed several people in a Tokyo train station. He and several of his followers were arrested and tried for murder.
In 1994, a feminist apocalyptic group called “The Order of the Solar Temple” in Quebec and Switzerland committed suicide.
The suicidal cults are too many to outline, but we will just mention one more – the group called “Heaven’s Gate,” whose members believed that a space ship, hiding behind comet Hale-Bopp, would deliver them to the next phase of their lives after they committed suicide. Their two leaders were a man and a woman who called themselves “Bo” and “Peep.” Bo was a man named Marshall Applewhite. He persuaded his followers to live together in a single community, and in 1997 he and 38 of his followers died together by suicide.
So then, men of twisted views from time immemorial have injected into the human realm destructive elements of murder and suicide. Adolph Hitler was a diabolical suicidal maniac from the beginning. Paradoxically, he was a political and military genius. He absolutely loved war, murder, and death more than any other person in living memory. History records that he was responsible for more death and human suffering than any other person that ever lived. He built a war machine second to none at that time and waged war against peaceful neighbors without provocation. First, it was Austria, his homeland; then Czechoslovakia and Poland, which caused France and England to declare war against Germany. It took the concerted might of the allies to defeat him after countless millions were killed and Europe laid in ruin. His death toll included over six million Jews, starved and emaciated, burned in specially constructed incinerators; women and children together, mercilessly herded into killing camps.
Finally the spirit of suicide caught up with him and in a gesture as if to placate a conscience which was long dead, he had a wedding ceremony with Eva Braun, his mistress, who took over from his previous mistress (his sister’s daughter, who committed suicide). He then gave her the cup of poison, and made her wedding gown into her shroud. He himself put a bullet to his head and committed the final act, which opens the door of hell to those who hate God.
“Doctor Death” Dr. Jack Kevorkian earned this name when as a pathology resident he lobbied for carrying out medical experiments on death row inmates. Next, he advocated establishing suicide clinics. In 1982 he retired as a pathologist and then devoted all his time to assisting terminal patients to commit suicide. In the space of about three years, he had succeeded in assisting 21 people to commit suicide. In 1993, he assisted another doctor in committing suicide. At this present time, he is in prison for personally killing a patient instead of just assisting him to die. Although he is still alive at this time, he carries with him a spirit of suicide and has threatened to take his own life. It will not be surprising if sometime in the future he also will go to a suicide’s grave.
In 1993, the Netherlands legalized physician-assisted suicide. They put men in prison for hurting cats and dogs, but legalize self-murder of humans.
The person who commits suicide intends to be rid of certain circumstances that he/she is faced with, and suicide is an attempt to escape and find some respite. Although most people who commit suicide would prefer to find another way out, they feel that they have no choice. This, of course, is a lit. The effect of suicide is just the opposite to what the person committing the act believes it to be, for in death he/she is denied the privilege of making any further rational decisions. Even if the person contemplating suicide does not even believe in life after death, it is well for him/her to consider that the act of suicide robs one of the possibility of making any further decision, forever. I am sure this is not the intention of those who commit suicide. There is the possibility, in most cases, that those who commit suicide go straight into hell, and hell is much worse than any condition that can be here on earth. The circumstances that caused the suicide are but minimal compared to the terror of hell. No one is beyond help. This message will help you and lead you to those who can help. Suicide is a one-way street, and once done cannot be undone.
I know a man who was one of the more fortunate persons, who actually committed suicide and lived to tell the tale. He put his head over the gas stove and turned it on. As the gas began to take effect on him, his limbs stiffened and he began to lose control of his mobility. He said that as the cold fingers of death grabbed hold of him, he wanted to reverse his actions, but that he fell to the floor. The terror of losing everything came over him, but he could not move. At that point, he said that he saw a man standing over him and he recognized the person as being Jesus Christ. He began to apologize for having tried to kill himself, and asked Him to give him another chance. It was then that he found enough strength to lift himself from the floor and to try unsuccessfully to turn off the gas. He then hauled himself across the room and fell upon the window that flew open, where they found him half hanging out.
I Corinthians 3:16-17: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile (destroy) the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
Every human being can be saved and live eternally in heaven with God, no matter how bad he/she might think himself/herself to be. Proof of this is that Jesus gave the thief on the cross eternal life, although He knew that this man had spent all his life killing and robbing people. In one moment of consciousness of his eternal soul, he asked for mercy, and mercy he received. God made humanity with the intention that He might dwell in them, therefore, anyone who destroys his or her body is frustrating the plan of the Almighty.
The above scripture is not just speaking to Christians, although it might seem so at a casual glance. The word for “defile” has a wider meaning than just “corrupt.” It also means, “destroy.” If a person must repent of his sins, then he must be alive to do so. He cannot repent if he is dead. Therefore, if he dies in his sin, is it not then simple to see that because he cannot stand in the presence of god then he must go to hell. This word to the Christians that says that God dwells in them is also to those who are not Christians, saying that all humanity was designed of God to be the dwelling place of the Holy Ghost.
In the 28th Chapter of 1 Samuel in the Bible, Samuel the prophet prophesied to Saul that he would be in hell the next day, and Saul committed suicide the next day after he was wounded in battle, and fulfilled the prophecy as stated in 1 Samuel 28:19.
Jesus Christ predicted that Judas would lose his soul and go to hell in John 17:12. Judas committed suicide and fulfilled this prophecy in Matthew 27:5.
It is important that we note that the two scriptural references made here in the Bible of those who committed suicide represent persons who were against God and who perpetrated crimes against God and Christ Jesus Himself. Nobody that I know wants to go to hell, and if you are not even sure that what I am saying is right, would you want to run the risk of an eternal hell, as against my being wrong? I know that I am right, because I am a rescued suicide. Let me tell you a little of my story:
I was born of parents who had a mixture of French and African. My father’s family were slave owners in Westmoreland, Jamaica, and my mother’s family were from African slaves. We inherited the spirits of violence, and fighting was as natural as the air we breathe. Fighting one another at home was more like practice to fight the enemy, who was anybody who crossed us. The death wish was a necessary part of our equipment. I, for one, was not happy in a fight unless I was hit, and I had to be hit hard enough to give me the necessary excuse to want to kill the foe. Being maimed and killed was not for me. It was for the other person. I was deceived, but then, that is part of the work of the spirit of suicide.
Deep chasms of despair would sometimes come over me. The world and everything in it seemed doomed and hopeless. I would think, “Nobody cares,” and after all, “Why should they?” “They are all selfish creatures looking after their own business!” I would ask myself, “Whoever chained me in this hell, anyhow?”
There must be a living devil, for hopeless despair turned into thoughts of self-destruction, and thoughts became actions. In a game of football, cricket, or in boxing, the opponent became the enemy. I could not understand why no one wanted to play against me. Injuries were common among my opponents. The deep despair of my own soul was communicated to all those around me in the form of the lack of value that was placed on human life on the whole, and on my own life in particular.
A girl friend had been unfaithful. The spirit of suicide told me to go to the beach and pretend I was just having a swim and to swim out to sea until I was exhausted; and so I did. The day I proved that there is a God.
As I calmly swam out into the deep, past any distance I had ever gone before, I began to gloat how they will read in the newspaper next morning the headline, “Swimmer drowned at Greenwich Farm.” “Oh,” thought I, “They will not know it was a suicide.” A great voice shouted in my ear: “You fool! GOD KNOWS.” It was like waking up out of a dream. Here I was, out in the ship channel in Kingston harbor, and suddenly realizing that I was a fool, and I was heading for hell. I did not know what hell was then, but I do not think that anyone, whether you have a clear idea of hell or not, wants to go there.
I turned around, wondering if I could make it to shore. Upon the swells, I could see people on the shore; they looked pretty small to me. “If You will save me, God,” I said in my heart, “I will serve You.” I had no idea of what “serve You” meant, or Who God was. At that moment, it did not really matter. I had made it to about half a mile to shore when suddenly there was a contraction in my right leg. It got so bad that I could not swim with that leg any more. The next thing I knew, the whole right side and the right arm contracted with severe pain. I kept on swimming with my left arm and leg alone. Then the muscles in both my left arm and leg contracted, and try as I may I could not keep afloat. I went under. Something touched my feet and I stood up with my head barely above water. I never knew it was there before, neither did I find it after, but it was a sand dune. It saved my life.
After this, many attempts followed, until the day I took a gun and was to die at six in the afternoon. In spite of all that happened over the years, I was not sure that there was a God who cared for humans. I walked out in the fields to take a last look at the world before putting that gun to my head. A lady sat on the porch of an empty house; she was there for me, but she thought she was there to welcome a bride and groom. I spoke to her and then asked her if she was a Christian. She answered in the affirmative. Then, all the vengeance that was in me broke loose upon her and she began to cry. In her tears, she said, “I challenge you!” These three words bound me immediately to a fight. I could not back off from a challenge. She said that I should go to my room and tell God that she said He is to same me by the blood of Jesus Christ. It was all foolishness to me. However, she was deadly serious, and if there was the slightest possibility that something would work, I would have to try it.
I went to my room, spoke to God, and an everlasting change came over me. The first feeling I had was a shame for the gun of the bed, and the knowledge of being a fool for wanting to kill myself.
The change in my life was so radical that everybody around me immediately saw that something wonderful had happened. There were many of the men with whom I worked with on the Government Experimental Farm, Grove Place, Jamaica, who were relieved when the terror that I was changed overnight to the love of God.
The spirit of suicide has been allowed to run rampant in our society, and as the casualties mount, humanity seems helpless in the hand of this mighty giant of destruction. There is, however, hope; and this is the reason I am writing to the “flock of the slaughter” (Ref. Zechariah 11:4).
The statistics show that every twenty minutes someone in this country commits suicide; but these statistics are much too low, because most of those who succeed in committing the act have designed it to look like an accident or like something else. The truth is that it is more like about every one to two minutes that someone commits suicide. In addition, some estimates put in at there being some 50 to 150 attempted suicides to every death caused by suicide.
The tendency of those who are addicted to suicide is to keep company with other suicidal persons, but the only one who can really help a suicidal person is a person who is himself/herself free from the suicidal spirit.
Whenever a person begins to belittle himself/herself, it means that the suicide spirit has gotten hold of him. This spirit takes many, many different forms of expression, and there are many people who live with it rather than overcome it. In this short little message, we trust we will be able to discuss this and help many, both young and old, to overcome this evil invasion.
There is a spirit that moves among humanity, which creates in us an abandon in dangerous endeavors. So then, an outward bravado, or a carefree spirit, might just be a cloak under which the seed of death is hiding. Driving recklessly or taking unnecessary risks of any form are also manifestations of the death wish. A desire to destroy others is in itself a wish to die. The worse statistic of all is that every human being has been or is being attacked by this monster. Let us declare war against self-destruction and show it up for what it really is.
You can see this type of spirit manifesting in men like Evel Knievel. Risking death and serious injury hundreds of times, he jumped his motorcycle over so many vehicles until a horrible crash in 1968 and numerous other injuries he incurred ove4r the years eventually put an end to his career as a dare devil and stunt man. He one time even tried to jump the Snake River canyon with his motorcycle. Many of us have a little bit of this in us.
Taking drugs and seeking for a “high” in itself would be a form of suicide. Sometimes we ask ourselves, “Why would anyone want to take a dangerous acid or substance into his or her body?” The answer is that there must be a secret death wish, a self-destructive desire, somewhere in the person’s mind.
Against the young and the old alike, the power of “peer-pressure” is devastating. It causes us to want to conform to every ordinance of man. The styles, which are created through two basic motivations, are designed to force us to conform to modern look, which is not modern at all but is as old as the hills. The two motivations are human greed, and sexual attraction. We are no better than the peacock that struts around with a show of the beauty of its feathers to attract the female. Our females must paint their faces, wear clown-like shorts, or little pieces of skirt or bikini-like loincloths, or fix their hair in riotous styles — all this to attract the opposite sex. The wild ravished look, inciting the predatory instincts in men. The men, likewise, see nothing wrong with it, and must wear short-reach pants, drop their belts low on their hips, and look like ballet dancers, to attract the opposite sex and to assert themselves in society as “modern.”
Some people commit suicide because of peer-pressure. They desire so badly to impress their peers and to be one of the crowd that when anything goes wrong they lose the desire to live.
HOWEVER, THE THING WE NEED TO REALIZE IS THAT WHEN ONE DIES, YOU ARE LOCKED IN AN ETERNAL POSITION. What this means is that whatever your status is at death, it cannot be changed in the other world forever.
“…It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
Everyone who contemplates suicide should know that once the deed is done you are ushered into a hopeless eternity, and nothing or no one can help you again. YOU HAVE ENTERED THE PRISON HOUSE OF SATAN FOR ETERNITY WITHOUT PAROLE. The Catholic teaching of purgatory is a trick of Satan to get you into hell. There is no purgatory, no reprieve, no parole, and no annihilation. Those who are in hell have rejected Christ eternally and permanently. Satan preaches that there is no hell and there is no devil. Those who believe this lie, decrease their chance of heaven.
At this time in the history of the world, hell is a state of existence. Just as we exist now on the natural plane, hell exists on a spiritual plane. Let me see if I can make more sense than just using the word “plane.” As you read this word, even at this very moment, there are many activities going on around you which your senses cannot discern. For instance, in the realm of sound, there are sounds both in higher frequencies and some in lower frequencies that you ears can pick up. If you should switch on your radio, it would bring into your room sounds, voices, and activities that your ears were not picking up. The television would bring in pictures and activities that your eyes were not picking up by themselves. There are activities going on all around us in the spiritual realm of which we are not aware. There is a realm called “heaven” on a very high frequency, and there is one called “hell” on another very low frequency.
Natural things exist on a frequency between the high frequency of heaven and the very low frequency of hell. We have the ability to either rise to the higher frequency of fall to the lower frequency. The power to do this has been given into our hands, and we can possess, inherit, or abide in either of these realms at our will. We were made to be creatures of light, which is the high realm. Therefore, when we digress and fall into the lower frequencies, we suffer greatly. Our spirits are on a high frequency. Our souls are on a frequency that is higher than the body but lower than the spirit.
Our minds and our bodies both have agents who are catering to them. When we submit to the agents of heaven, then our spirits are lifted and even our understanding is enhanced to understand things on a higher level. This is the reason that the Word of God cannot be discerned by the carnal (natural) mind. When we submit to the agents of the lower realms, then they amuse our lower instincts – we see visions and dream dreams of other people’s sins. We become super-righteous and carry out slander without even knowing it – all in the name of the Lord. Continuous action on either part will recreate us into either beings of light who can only dwell with the Lord, or beings of darkness who prefer darkness to light, lie to truth, and who call sin righteousness and righteousness sin. God in His goodness has created a realm of darkness, suitable for devils and demons of darkness, unhindered and undisturbed by the light of God.
[In John 8:32, Jesus said these words as a promise to those who would be His disciples],
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
We were not created by chance. In addition, every human being is a peculiar part of a great Diving plan. God knows every hair of your head and every thought of your mind, and He has answers for all your questions. The discouraging thoughts that come to you are common to all men, and there are some that have gone through the exact circumstances that you are in and have survived and found happiness. Happiness is just around the corner waiting for you.
One of the discouragements that comes to you is that, “Nobody loves me.” “Nobody cares.” This is a lie! There are people who love you and if you continue to live, you will find this to be true. If I had succeeded in eliminating myself long ago, my wife would not have found her true love, and so many people would be without the blessings that God had provided for them through me. The real truth is that everything and everyone who is evil, hates everything and everyone else. The word “love” does not always mean what it says. For instance, there are many people who “love” chicken, but that love wants the chicken dead and fried up and on a plate. From the chicken’s point of view, when you love him, then his is in real trouble. Many people love you because you are good for them to use, but they are no good for you.
There are people who genuinely love people and are seeking for the opportunity to help you. As soon as you notice thoughts of suicide, or symptoms as mentioned above, find someone to talk to about it. It must be someone with whom you have rapport. The tendency is to discuss it with others of your own peers who probably are going through the same problems. Sometimes this serves to make the problem worse rather than to cure it. If you talk to someone and find this to enhance your problem, then seek help from some counselor. Find a counselor who is on a level that he can really understand your problem. For instance, if you have a drinking problem and you take it to a doctor, he might just give you some substance to stop you from drinking, which, however, leaves a void in your life; because human problems are not only physiological, but sometimes psychological, and sometimes spiritual. Everything that is spiritual eventually affects the physical, so that the whole man must be addressed or one type of imbalance will give way to another. If, for instance, a person is a homosexual, I could readily say it is a spiritual oppression or possession; but if the spiritual aspect is discharged, then the rest of the human needs must also be addressed. Invariably God prescribes a strong loving wife and children to a person who is delivered from this perversion. In the case of a woman, then, of course, she would need a husband.
Sometimes the person who is oppressed with thoughts of self-destruction might find “someone to live for” instead of “something to live for.” This however, is not good enough, though it might be a stepping stone towards finding something to live for. Finding SOMEONE is a dangerous alternative, considering the possibility of human failure. FAITH IN THE ALMIGHTY GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY SURE ANCHOR OF THE HUMAN SOUL; AND HE IS THE ONLY “SOMEONE” WHO WILL NEVER FAIL.
This does not mean that you should go out and become a member of a church. This also can be devastating, when you find out that the church people are not all saints. It surely means that you should find God through Jesus Christ.
“How do I do that?”
First, you must realize that it is being done by faith. When I say, “by faith” I mean that you cannot see it, you cannot hear it, you cannot smell it, but you should believe it.
What should you believe? You should believe that there is a true and living God. You should believe that God so loved you that He sent His only begotten Son into the world. He did this, not to condemn the world, but that you might be saved (redeemed, given a new life).
Why, then, should I believe such a thing? You should believe it because it is true, and there is absolute and scientific proof of it. I believe it because the sun shines every morning; the moon comes out on time; the heavenly bodies move like a mighty clock and they represent the greatest order that man knows. They are dependable and have always been so. Somebody must hav4e set them to work and is directing them. For example, I can see cars running on the streets and highways, and so I know that there are factories somewhere making them. I have not seen all these factories, but from the evidence on the highways I know that there are factories. I KNOW IT BY FAITH!
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
In the same way, I believe in God, because I see many magnificent human bodies functioning like nothing else in creation. The evidence of God is in my own body, and mind, and spirit. I have faith in God because of this. He did not make a mistake when He made man, and I am part of His creation, and His Word says that I am His child, and I believe it. I did not become His child because I am good, but because He made me and wants me to live with Him forever, and I believe it and trust Him to do it for me.
If you can read this and trust Him now, then your whole being will be transformed and God will come to you.
Secondly, no matter what I am or who I am, I had nothing to do with making myself. God knows me and loves me, for I am His handiwork. If then, God loves me so much, how could He allow me to be subjected to this suffering? God does not look only at this present moment of your suffering, but He sees the whole of your lifetime, and He knows that the experience of suffering will in the end make you better. He did not put the suffering upon you, but He knows that there is an opening, a way, for every human being to cape and to conquer the enemy that oppresses the whole human race. He knows that it is better for you to suffer and overcome with your own desires rather than to take away the suffering from you without your own participation in overcoming evil.
God’s whole hope in you is that He might deliver you – not just from the evil outside of you that is hurting you, but the evil that is within you. SUFFERING THEN BECOMES THE NECESSARY INCENTIVE FOR HUMANITY TO RISE UP AGAINST EVIL, AND WITH THE GRACE AND STRENGTH OF GOD WE WILL OVERCOME.
If you reject God, then you reject life. He is the source of all our life and our only hope.
How then can I be sure that God loves me? The Bible is God’s written word. I can prove the love of God by reading His Word, and then afterwards I will prove it by experience. He will send people to teach you, and His Holy Spirit will give you understanding. God is always near to you, no matter how far away you feel that He is.
There is an unseen and mighty power in the Word of God. Use it. Take a pen or pencil and write in bold letters the words from John 3:16-17:
“FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON THAT WHOSOEVER (put name in here) BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH (put name in here, ‘NOR DIE PREMATURELY’) BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. For god sent not his son into the world to condemn the world (put name in here); BUT THAT THE WORLD (put name in here) THROUGH HIM MIGHT BE SAVED (put name in here, ‘FROM ALL EVIL AND DEATH’).”
Stick this up in a prominent place in your room, or on your desk or in any place where you will see it regularly. Memorize the words and speak them often to yourself. Write them down; wear them on your person if possible; and read them every time you get a chance.
I pray a blessing upon all who read this article. May the blood of Yeshua quicken your soul and mortal body. Let the peace of God abide on you and lift you up out of every trouble. I pray that as you read this that your soul will be forgiven, and that it might touch and heal you, body and soul. Amen.
Sonlight Devotional 