People
Suppose somebody, like a mechanic, asked you if you'd rather have your car which is starting to experience engine failure get a tune up or a new engine. You already realize certain things are starting to go wrong with your car and you have a choice to have a new engine put in. This mechanic tells you it's going to cost you so much to get your tune up. You can put out X amount of dollars periodically to get another tune up or you can get a new engine. It will not cost you anything for the new engine; however, you will have to pay all the maintenance cost for the new engine for the rest of the life of your car. By getting the tune up you are on your own with little certainty your car will make it another month or two without serious problems. By getting the new engine you'll have a master mechanic on your side to repair anything that goes wrong with your car and it's under warranty as long as you have this car.
Which would you choose? Perhaps this isn't the best analogy and I do not know what most people would choose but the Bible teaches us that what man needs is not a tune up but a new engine. He needs not an improvement but a new life. He needs not just an adjustment but a transformation. Psychology offer the adjustment and tune up. Christianity offers the new engine and transformation through Jesus Christ. People need a new heart with new affections and desires patterned after a Holy God as seen in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think alot of the self-help course, selfist psychologies, the positive mental attitude philosophy (PMA) via Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins are offering the tune-up. You know you can name a whole lot of these people. They're offering to help improve an old engine, an old corrupt and failing heart but what people need is a new engine.
The apostle Paul said, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing"
Romans 7:18 and in Romans 8:8 "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be thqt the Spirit of God dwell in you..."
Without the Holy Spirit we can not have a new heart or a new engine as it were. Without this new engine we are going to continually be going to various mechanics claiming to tune-up ourselves with psychology and self-improvement seminars which only serve to make us proud and self-confident in the flesh. God forbid that we should be so deceived by this Satanic deception.
Now we've also been told by some of these gurus that we must follow our passion. But are we forgetting God and focusing on ourselves? Self is where all our problems originate my friends.
You have to be sensitive to God's calling and leading in your life. Go with the job that God leads you into and become passionate about that. Don't stray from the course He has set for you. Focus, focus.
God opened up a hauling business for me and I became passionate about it and did very well. When I lost the passion the business floundered. If you just try to find something YOU are passionate about without praying to God for direction and earnestly seeking His will then I don't think it's going to work out too well for you or most people.
Rememeber "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might." Ecclesiastes 9:10a
The blessed Bible commentator Matthew Henry says of this verse, especially the second part, "We are all going towards the grave; every day brings us a step nearer to it; when we are in the grave it will be too late to mend the errors of life, too late to repent and make our peace with God, too late to lay up anything in store for eternal life; it must be done now or never. The grave is a land of darkness and silence, and therefore there is no doing any thing for our souls there; it must be done now or never, John 12:35
Carlton Pruitt ministers the gospel to the Los Angeles area. Formerly a Hollywood actor (SAG member)and junk removal expert he now spends most of his time studying the scriptures, writing articles, hymns and poems and doing street preaching. See all his videos on http://www.youtube.com and type in LAStreetPreacher in the search bar.
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