“For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14).
Experiencing pure goodness exposes all the ‘badness’ polluting the soul and triggers the soul to scream out and earnestly seek for healing. We call that badness ‘sin’, or simply, ‘disobedience’, and want to blame outside forces for its cause when really the seed of the ‘badness’ is rooted in your interpretation of life. Life can be sweet or bitter according to the taste you desire. No, it is not that we attract ‘bad’ circumstances into our lives; some of us have even been victims of brutality and mistreatment for years. But, because of the original disobedience in the Garden of Eden, mankind can discern good from evil and has the free will to choose which one to follow.
Eventually, there comes a time when we got to make a choice to get up off that pain-filled ground, shake ourselves off, and move with determination into something ‘good’. The Lord created you ‘good’ and for ‘good’. A rich young ruler [a man at the height of his youth, living lavishly, and in a position of great authority] came running to Jesus, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Jesus saw his pure humility and felt his fervency in seeking a place of rest for his soul. So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God” (Mark 10:17-18).
It is a danger to interpret this scripture out of context. Jesus is God, Lord and Savior, the Perfect One, the image of God, Himself. It is our house of flesh, the body that challenges our purity in a war that can be unbearable at times. The Spirit of God is good. The Love of God is His Spirit, and it is good. Man was created in this image of God, and God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Good, therefore, means God, or godly, and having the Spirit of God (Zechariah 14:9). Jesus wanted the rich young ruler to give glory to His and our Father God first.
Jesus on earth experienced what it was like to be fully human and fully divine at the same time. But because ‘bad’ works of the flesh are in constant battle with the ‘good’ fruits of God’s Holy Spirit, what can a human do but groan under the agony of desiring a lifestyle free from sin? Even our thought-life can condemn us because of their impurity. Then Jesus, looking at the rich young ruler, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But the ruler was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Read Mark 10:19-31).
Though the rich young ruler obeyed the Scriptures and lived a life obedient to the traditions of his culture, the Lord lovingly looked at the one thing that was blocking his entrance into eternal life: He idolized his material possessions more than He loved the Lord. Is there anything you idolize? For some of us it can be our looks. Vanity is an inner idol so influential that it makes us visibly change (the color of our hair and skin and ‘reshape’ or remove other body parts) from the original beautiful, God-crafted artistry of your human anatomy. Another inner idol is pride, so deceptive that it controls the power of thought driving the emotional and mental state, or soul, into a whirlwind of disobedience under the guise of ‘knowledge’. It convinces the soul, “I know better than God.” And, yes, idols can be physical forms of positions, money, and material possessions. It is not that rich people can’t get eternal life, but that each one of us has a ‘thing’ that he or she must give up in order to be given eternal life, to be given a home for the soul to rest in eternally while we live in a body of skin, blood, and bones on earth and after that same body is returned to the earth.
We must all come to experience the goodness of God in order to give up that ‘thing’ that blocks us from embracing the goodness of God’s gift of eternal life, Jesus Christ.
The Lord had taken me into the pit of hell to experience its reality: a frigid, pitch-black blanket of death with an inferno of the hottest lake of fire at its center and deafened silence, torturous to the soul, a heaviness so low you can’t look up, complete despair and agony . . . forever.
Heaven is also real, where He took me out of that miry pit and lifted me into a Light and Love so dear that it healed my soul completely . . . forever; and so much so that I sing of the goodness of God during my ups and downs on life’s journey rejoicing in divinely knowing what’s ahead for those who get rid of that ‘thing’ they idolize, take up the cross, and follow Jesus.
My cross and your cross are not the same. The cross I carry each day gives me the assurance that, if Jesus could die such a scandalous death on that cross so that I could experience the goodness of God, then I shall wear it like a crown. My cross and your cross is that which is found in Mark 10:30, persecutions [the hatred meted out to those who stand up for Jesus (Mark 14:65; 15:17-20)]. But the reward for carrying your cross is also found in Mark 10:30, who shall receive a hundredfold now in this time . . . everything needed to live and exalt the gospel lifestyle and message [the encouragement, love, and resources needed to push through and victoriously overcome those persecutions]. This is called the ‘Good’ News.
One of the most famous warriors of all time, King David, wrote a song called Psalm 37 and verse three resonates, “Trust [lean on, rely on, and be confident] in the Lord, and do good; so shall you dwell in the land, and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed” (Amplified Version). This faithfulness is the promise that once you decide to follow Jesus, He will never leave you nor forsake you during times of persecution. And after you have suffered a while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you. You are complete, perfected, and established in the love of Christ eternally! You now belong to ‘the chosen’. To Him be the dominion [power, authority, rule above all idols] forever and ever. Amen [so be it] (1 Peter 5:10-11, Amplified).
Experience the goodness of God with us.
© 2024 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved. Published by The Light In Me Enterprise. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The artwork depicted in the blog article is carefully selected to draw out the points made for healing of the soul, and by no means promote any ideologies from the various artists unless they are found in the center of God's perfect will.
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