#1 WHEN GOD SAYS: NOT GOOD? THE BUILDING OF ISOLATION WALLS… THE FEELING OF ISOLATION
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
In the last days we will face the giants of isolation, fear and loneliness.
I was teaching school. The staff at the school were so nice and encouraging to each other. A new lady started teaching. She would not eat lunch with the other teachers. She took her lunch in her room. All the teachers would visit in the halls and had good rapport before and after school. This new teacher never smiled, she never said hello or had a kind word to say. One day the lady went stomping in the office and complained: NO ONE LIKES ME! The principal jumped to his feet and responded in anger. He said: You never fellowship or talk with anyone. He said: Get your head out of your tail and be friendly. The staff here is wonderful. She had the same problem at a previous school.
Proverbs 18:24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Ephesians 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
COME LET US REASON TOGETHER… ISAIAH GIVES US A GREAT ADMONITION AND INVITATION…
COME NOW, AND LET US REASON TOGETHER… BEWARE OF EXCESSES…
WE MUST STUDY AND PONDER BALANCE. JESUS SAID: LET YOUR MODERATION BE MADE KNOWN TO ALL MEN…
ARISTOTLE TAUGHT THE BALANCE OF THE GOLDEN MEAN --- EXCESSIVENESS IS DANGEROUS.…
IT IS VERY GOOD TO HAVE LONE TIME … COME APART OR COME APART? But to stay isolated and alone are not healthy.
Luke 5:16 And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.
GOD SAYS OVER AND OVER: IT IS GOOD…
God made light. God says: IT IS GOOD. God made heaven and earth, separated water from land: IT IS GOOD. God made plant life and said: IT IS GOOD! God made the sun, the moon and the stars: GOD SAID IT IS GOOD. God made fish and animals, it is good. God made the beast of fields and said: IT IS GOOD… GOD SAYS OF HIS CREATION: IT IS VERY GOOD…
GOD’S DESIGN IS PEOPLE COME ALONG SIDE OTHER PEOPLE. WHAT IS GOD’S FIRST WORDS OF “IT IS NOT GOOD?” WHAT IS NOT GOOD? GOD HAD DESIGNED A PLAN FOR HIS CREATION. THERE IS GREAT PAIN AND HURT IN FEELING ALONE.
This discussion does not mean God has planned every person has to be married to a spouse. God tells us it is not good to feel lonely, isolated and separated from God or His creation.
Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
THE ISOLATION OF SPITE FENCES…
Years ago I build a very close relationship with a pastor in our community. We often visited and had sweet communion together. We would exchange ideas and notes with each other. Our friendship grew. This man pastored a larger church than I did. His church was in the middle of the business district. The church property bordered a huge grocery chain store. Often times the customers and the delivery trucks would park in the edge of the church’s parking lot. The pastor would get so angry that people parked in the churches parking lot. He went to the manager and the owner of the store and demanded the parking on the church’s parking lot had to stop. The manager reminded the pastor that they were closed on Sunday and Wednesday night and that the church people parked in the business’ lot.
The pastor did not care. He demanded the parking in “HIS LOT” stop.
After several months the pastor was so angry he approached the board and again demanded they do something about the parking in their lot during the week. The board voted to build a large concrete block fence down the property line to stop the parking once and for all. Several men volunteered and the pastor and his friends dug a footer and mixed the concrete and started laying the block. They would lay a block, leave a space, then another block. The customers and the delivery trucks could no longer park in the church’s lot. This made the pastor so happy. He finally stopped the parking and isolated his parking lot.
Several months later the Pastor purchased a shiny brand new beautiful Lincoln Continental. It was so beautiful. Several months went by with the pastor coming and going. There was no business parking on the church lot. But Sunday morning found a new problem. There was not enough room to park for the church attenders. The pastor never considered this.
One day the pastor’s wife was leaving the church and forgot all about the “SPITE FENCE?” She backed his beautiful brand new LINCOLN CONTINENTAL into the fence. Several hundred concrete blocks crumbled on his brand new car. SEE THE SPITE FENCE NOT ONLY KEPT THE PEST AWAY… THE SPITE FENCE TRAPPED limited and isolated their property. It cost several thousand dollars to repair the car and several church people complained they had backed into the wall and the limited parking… so a group of workers took down the SPITE FENCE…
*ISOLATION: Divide and conquer, to be emotionally, mentally or spiritually removed, to be separated from others, to be away from others, solitary confinement, to be alone from others, DEVELOP DIFFERENT BEHAVIORS.
*ALONE: LEFT OUT, NO FRIENDS, hermit, recluse,
*LONELINESS: without, no one is with you, FEELING SAD AND UNHAPPY. Loneliness can be a symptom of a disease.
BEING LEFT ALONE? BEING SOCIALLY AND SPIRITUALLY ISOLATED IS VERY UNHEALTHY AND CAN LEAD TO SERIOUS PROBLEMS… A 1980 study claims that the feeling of being alone with few friends and few family members is as detrimental as smoking, drinking alcohol and not exercising. YOUR CHANCE OF DYING EARLY MAY BE 50% HIGHER…
Matthew 12:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
LONELINESS DEVELOPS LOW SELF ESTEEM.
SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL ISOLATION GROWS ATTITUDES OF LONELINESS AND ISOLATION.
FEAR AND NEGATIVE SELF-ESTEEM, EXCESSIVE CONFLICT--- DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS, CAN’T GET ALONG
DISTORTION OF THE FACTS. LORD DON’T YOU CARE?
Mark 4:38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
THE BIG SANDY RIVER WAS FLOODED, WHEN THE FLOOD WATERS RETREATED MANY BIG FISH WERE TRAPPED IN SHALLOW PUDDLES. MANY PEOPLE CARRIED BUCKETS AND PICKED UP THE BIG FISH, TRAPPED OUT OF THE NATURAL EXISTENCE… catch the fish alone in shallow water?
WHAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF BEING ALONE… join, connect. WHEN A FISH OPENS IT’S MOUTH TO RECEIVE THE BAIT… the fish will soon be in the skillet.
GREAT CHRISTIAN WORKERS OFTEN FELT SO LONELY BUT THEY WERE NEVER ALONE.
Jeremiah the weeping prophet was not allowed to marry, no wife, no children… HIS SERMON WAS REPENTANCE. JEREMIAH’S MESSAGES WERE REJECTED.
ELIJAH THE GREAT PROPHET OF GOD HAD SEASONS OF FEAR, ISOLATION AND LONELINESS… King Ahab and Queen Jezebel vowed to kill the preacher before the sun went down.
MIRIAM’S BIG MOUTH IN NUMBERS 12 had her shut out of the camp 7 days…
DAVID had seasons he felt so alone.
Psalm 142:4 I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
MARK TELLS OF THE LADY THAT TOUCHED THE HEM OF JESUS’S GARMENT, WAS ALONE. THE LADY’S ISSUE OF BLOOD ISOLATED HER FROM HER FAMILY AND THE CHURCH.
CONCLUSION: THE BANANA THEORY… Once a banana is broken from the bunch it will be skinned. ISOLATION AND THE FEELING OF BEING ALONE CAN BE TOXIC BEHAVIOR… STUDIES REVEAL SOMETHING KNOWN AS THE LONELINESS LOOP. LONELINESS AND ISOLATION CAN BECOME SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY OF SEPARATION.
There can grow toxic situations that breed PESSIMISM, STRESS, WORRY, FEAR, PANIC ATTACKS AND ANXIETY…
WE ARE NEVER ALONE IN OUR LONELINESS…
JESUS KNEW WHAT FEELING ALONE WAS LIKE…
Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
WE ARE NOT ORPHANS… WHY DO WE ACT LIKE WE ARE?
Joshua 1:5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. 11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. 12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. 13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
LET NOT YOU HEARTS BE TROUBLED, WE MST DEAL WITH THE GIANTS OF FEELING ALONE…
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
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