Monthly Archives: July 2021

Christian Soapbox

7 – 31 – 21

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When bitter coffee tastes’ sweet.

It might have been a 6th generation blue mustang parked with the lights on at 0200 not far from the site I was guarding. The distance between my golf cart and location of the mustang was about 200 yards. It was reported that a truck was stolen not many days ago from this site, and although that incident was in the middle of the day I wasn’t about to be passive. I was not able to make out the person or people inside the mustang, but they for damn sure could see me flexing, and now we wait…

These past few days have been heavy for me to say the least, and this morning the meaning of repentance settled deep within the bitter coffee of my soul. The reason I believe Jesus identified the Holy Spirit as the Helper—according to the book of John chapter 16 in your bibles—is because there is no repentance from sin nor significance to repentance without faith in the sweetness of Help. It doesn’t take 2 sugars and a creamer to make bitter coffee, sweet; it takes a wooden stirrer and metal spoon. The salvation of my soul took a wooden cross and metal nails. It’s the Helper of discipline from a Holy Father of love sent by the resurrected Jesus Christ that makes bitter coffee taste sweet.

Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.

Job 2:4 

Whenever sin is treated passively, the devil is prepared to take my soul. Whenever suspicion is treated passively, your truck gets stolen. The blue mustang has horse power over my golf cart, but the blue mustang met my God and left the site—my golf cart then proceeded to cut the head off the blue mustang. Satan is testing mankind to the limit, and if I don’t lose myself for the sake of Christ and the gospel… there is by no other means to experience salvation.

DISCLAIMER:
This is Nathan Psychology. What you read is my discipline of edification to sanctification. What I write is from my perspective as I learn more and more each day with you.

Christian Soapbox

Nathan Psychology and The War Against Pride

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DISCLAIMER:
This is Nathan Psychology. What you read is my discipline of edification to sanctification. What I write is from my perspective as I learn more and more each day with you.

I was dressed to the nines looking like I owned the place. People were seated around tables talking life, eating and drinking; the bride and groom just finished their dance and it was time to give my speech; I was handed the microphone, got up from my seat and…

For some odd reason my former best friend chose me to be his best man, and I should’ve listened to my wife in preparing something for the best man speech. The consequence of pride is the fall, and when you haven’t hit the ground hard enough to realize the wisdom to the 5 “P’s”: Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. You’re liable to make another mistake of pride in a way you won’t forget, or,… your wife won’t let live down. So there I was with a microphone in hand and… nothing. Shock! Is probably a better word. But everything from disoriented speech to cringing embarrassment at the confused claps of the audience, ‘clap here clap there’, until finally they decided to make me feel better by booing me into a dark corner as my wife joined in on the action by hitting me in the face with wedding cake. The scars are no joke, and I still have nightmares. It’s no wonder he’s my “former” best friend.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

1 John 2:16

Okay, he’s still my best friend and even helped me recover from my failed best man speech by his unique style of dancing—if we should call it that. I mean… the guy stands at about 6′ 4″, and if standing is the new dancing. Shoot, he danced like no ones business. He raised the bar of wedding dancing to a whole new level, I’m talkin 6′ 4″ level baby! Anyway, the occasion provided this opportunity to describe the nature of pride and how it can destroy the soul if I—or quite possibly, you—let it. No I wasn’t actually booed or curled up in a dark corner, but my wife did remind me of her wisdom… thanks, I guess. No, but seriously, I really should’ve listened! She wasn’t just right, but dead on.

The war against lust and pride are at the core of my soul to experience and overcome.

Christian Soapbox

Nathan Psychology and The War Against Lust

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When reading, “…the lips of an adulteress drip honey…”, two emergent thought processes take shape and form instantaneously. The first is of a worldview that symbolizes a woman’s anatomy part. The second is to stop thinking.

For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, And her speech is smoother than oil;

Proverbs 5:3

That verse is my next I die devotional, and I’m still working on it for—what might appear to be—obvious reasons. Let me be clear, how I interpreted the first part of that verse was not necessarily because I’m male; when I’d read it to my wife, she also thought what I thought without me preluding to it. So then it became about understanding the nature of why, and I asked my wife about what she experiences when ovulating. It was very enlightening to say the least and helped me better understand the why of an adulterous although not excusing the behavior nor saying my wife is an adulterous.

DISCLAIMER:
This is Nathan Psychology. What you read is my discipline of edification to sanctification. What I write is from my perspective as I learn more and more each day with you.

My experience to this war against lust is real, but to describe the nature of it I find to be challenging because I overthink. I get anxious by the idea of someone else on the other side of this screen similar to feeling anxious when face to face with a soul just as susceptible to sin as I am. Thinking on that verse, there is an enemy most attractive. But it’s not an adulteress from my point of view. The most attractive creature that rules this world is one not seen, but experienced. A snake knows how not to be seen, and while they might have aesthetic features… they’re not exactly attractive. However, the attraction of a ruler—much like a snake—is in their capacity to be ascetic (powerfully self-disciplined). An adulterous doesn’t exactly sound like someone who is self-disciplined; a person with raging hormones will cause an untamed response. The natural response to procreate can be so demanding that the experience of its intoxication will devour God given senses—unless disciplined in the fear of the Lord. That said, just because someone is self-disciplined—even appearing as though disciplined in the fear of the Lord—doesn’t mean they’re not the enemy of your soul. The ruler of this world is one that is ascetic while preying on the vulnerable.