The goal of the Gospel is not to affirm you, celebrate you, and accept you. The goal of the Gospel is to rescue you, transform you, and redirect you. Shane Pruitt
Some people want liberty yet choose to be imprisoned by pride, entitlement, and discontentment. This generation teaches us to value ourselves more, to heighten our feelings and emotions, to go on our way, and to be merry and proud. After all, we all have one life. We're so knowledgeable in many things but easy to fall into the sense of fear and deception.
Now that everyone has the privilege to voice opinions, we educate one another based on our expertise and experiences. That's so great, but we're saturated with so much information yet most of those outnumber the way of wisdom and lead to destruction. Promoting one's self instead of God's ways.
I watched a documentary about gender transition; young girls and boys were taking puberty blockers, having surgeries at a very young age, and labeling them as "trans-kids." If the environment is suggesting these new ways of living, new ways of childhood and puberty, this should be given much importance. Working with children for a longer time and being with them, this alarmed me. It seems so ordinary now, social media, commercials, and movies are arousing the curiosity of lil ones and affirming these mindsets.
I remember in our Psycholinguistics subject before, we study the cases of feral children. Psycholinguistics investigates and describes the psychological processes that make it possible for humans to master and use language. It simply means the psychology of language. I was so hooked when we studied the case of Genie Wiley, a feral child. A feral child is a young individual who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, with little or no experience of human care, social behavior, or language. Genie Wiley experienced the worst kind of child abuse, her insane father had chained her to a chair and placed her in a quiet room in a suburban home. She was starved to death, and treated like a dog, and she was forbidden to cry and to speak. She was rescued and taken care of in the foster home then linguists, psychologists, and researchers gave so much attention to her case. Yet the damage has been done and if she was able to speak, her case was closed to the public.
There are many theories of language acquisition on how a child acquires a language. In the same manner, the environment reinforces a child and nurtures one's mind and heart. And if society now is reinforcing those kinds of mindsets, possibly in the next few years, this would be a norm, a complete transition 'cause we compromise, we don't mind, we ignore, and we shut our mouths. We put our Biblical convictions in our closet because we're bombarded with many issues in our lives and we're afraid of being canceled so we affirmed at some point.
"To love your neighbor doesn't mean to endorse their sin. It simply means you love them enough to share the gospel. Loving them enough to help them rather than condemn them." Godly dating
The goal of the Gospel is not to affirm you, celebrate you, and accept you. The goal of the Gospel is to rescue you, transform you, and redirect you. Shane Pruitt
And if you're a younger one who's confused about what's going around, searching for your identity and value from this world, you won't find it from this world. I want you to know that God loves you unconditionally and He doesn't want you to live in deception and the way of destruction. For God so loved the world, He gave his only Son that so whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ( John 3:16-18) Jesus Christ was crucified at the cross as the penalty of our sins and God hates our sins and the only way to freedom and liberty is Jesus himself. He saved you from the fury of hell so you can experience the fullness of life, life with a purpose and meaning. He's the truth and life and no one can come to the Father except through Jesus.
A true repentance of your sins, accept Jesus as your Lord, and have faith in him that he can change you and transform you into the person he intended you to be. And if you choose him right now, at this moment you will have relationship with him, unbreakable covenant, enduring and lasting love that no one can ever give to you. Surely he will be with you at the end of the age, the path that you choose might be narrow but you won't be alone, the narrow road is the way of wisdom, path to righteousness, godliness, and holiness that was called unpopular this time but you choose the best choice.
One of the great poets Robert Frost wrote the "The Road Not Taken." I remember we did a lot of literary critics, oral presentation, and reports in this poem way back in college thus this is so close inside my heart. Try to read this;
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Liberate yourself from the things that constantly imprison you, flee from them and run with perseverance, courage, faith, love, and hope to the path of life. It may be full of twists and turns and it might be narrow but His grace is enough to carry you until you finish the race.
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
The Way of the Cross
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Mark 8:34-37
