2nd Corinthians 5: 1 declares, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Verse 6-8 goes on to say, “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
As believers in Jesus and having had the true “born again” experience based on John 3: 3, then we know we are never actually absent from the Lord because of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 6: 12, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.”
Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and grace does allow for us to be in a place of repentance. Not to take God and His grace for granted though.
So, what about the spiritual baggage?
Emotions cannot be managed. Having any control over our emotions is only accomplished by walking in the Spirit and denying the fleshly attributes that seem to control our lives at times. It is like a spiritual roller coaster that we climb on and go along for the ride. Up and down. Happy and sad. Twists and turns. Anger then joy. Upside down, loop to loop, in a depression that the world deems as Bi-Polar. This may be a real neurological disorder with wires crosses in our brains that medication can help with.
But I am talking about getting on a ride like a roller coaster that we had no business getting on in the first place. Why do we wait in line at theme parks for hours, just to ride a ride that lasts less than one minute?
That cost us a bunch of money for a quick fix of adrenaline.
Attributes and characteristics of “baggage” in our emotions are as follows:
Mood swings, anger, out of control verbal rantings, isolation, fears, anxieties, anxiousness, nervousness, and many others, are sometimes a result childhood trauma. Not all, but some.
How then can we be led by God and His Spirit if we never get the baggage out of our emotions? They live there in the small zipper pouches like in regular luggage. They are hidden in small pouches tucked away in our deepest part of the luggage, hoping they make it through security at the airport.
Rather than “check” this baggage, how about throwing them away in the nearest recycle bin. Better yet put it in the landfill can so it can’t be recycled into another vessel down the road.
Perhaps it is time to get off that roller coaster and get out of that theme park forever, and do not go back.
There is no thrill in being tormented by emotional baggage. I know from all my past life experiences how easy it is to allow them back into my carry-on bag.
Ephesians 4: 30-32, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Hold on. “You mean I have the baggage of bitterness in my heart?”
Is this why I have a tough time forgiving the ones who hurt me? Even if they are dead and gone, I hold on to grievances towards them?
Yes, yes and yes.
We do not want to admit this as a Christian, but it can be true when the right stressors in life hit us between our eyes like a bullet shot from the rifle of our memory banks in our heart.
We act, react, respond and then renew that pain by reliving it over, and over like that roller coaster with its twists and turns and loop-the-loops. Vomiting comes after that ride, or even during it.
1st Peter 5: 6-8, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober and vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
It is like someone at the airport, before the security checkpoint, who slips a handgun in your carry-on luggage while you are not looking because you are too busy in line at Starbucks lusting for that tall Americano with two shots, foam and creme on the top.
Handguns at the airport seem like the extreme, but the devil is always looking for an opportunity to “slip” something by you, near you or even in your thought life. Baggage.
An arrest is forthcoming at the airport for a gun in your bag. Just try to explain that one away. “Officer, I did not know it was in there.” (It is not the Americano’s fault either. Should have been sober and vigilant.) We had a part to play in the baggage at this point.
You can’t explain away a former hurt that turned into a revolver in your own hand, pointing it at yourself daily. Whether the chamber is loaded or not, it is the fact that you are unable to let go and let God disarm you. Your spirit is crushed, and your emotions are Topsy-Turvey, and you want to get off that ride, even if you must jump off.
Death is imminent either way. God does not want you to die spiritually or even be sick. He wants you to recognize your baggage for what it is. It is old, rotten, tattered and filled with the ugliness that it was meant to be for. It may not have been your fault either.
People can be mean and disgusting. Parents too. Look out for your own self and be healed and trust the process of God helping you humble yourself. Humility is an attribute of the Holy Ghost. Bitterness will go away in time, and you will receive the joy of the Lord. In the way He wanted for you all along.
I know what it is to be MY own worst enemy. If I could blame someone, or somebody that would have been the easy way out for me in1971 when mom died. I could blame it on the drugs. Yes, drugs open the door for the devil, but the devil did not open my mouth and drop the LSD I took. He did not open the can of beer. I did. I am the one who put a funnel in my mouth and poured the gallon of alcohol down the gullet of my greed and addiction.
I did it to myself, and I am responsible for my actions. All of them. Daily and hourly. Today is much different than back when mom and daddy died.
I am a new man in Christ thanks to the Texas penal system and the felonies I committed. Sounds weird that I would thank my felonies. I am not thanking them the way most would think. I am thankful that my sin did not kill me before it was too late. Prison saved my life. Jesus Christ, while I was in prison, opened my bags inside my heart and mind and unzipped them for me. The release from my emotional bags full of demons and desires, left me. Once and for all.
I only remember and write about and preach about my past for ONE reason. So that I can win some to Christ. No more. No less.
I hated my past sin-filled life. I am a forgiven man, who does recognize my current frail moments. I need forgiveness from God and the ones I love for the moments of stupidity and sin that I do from time to time. If you are perfect, or perfected, please turn down the light from your Halo, it is blinding me, okay?
Emotional baggage can be psychologically evaluated by a professional doctor. You can be determined to be “reactionary” and obsessive. You can be diagnosed as compulsive and deemed to have a disorder. With grandiose thinking too.
My disorder was physical, mental, emotional and spiritual at the same time.
If the State Hospital I was in before prison was right; I would have never went to prison.
Facts are facts. If the psychosis medications given to me for depression and delusional behaviors were diagnosed correctly, then the medication would have worked.
The meds did not work. Try and understand that the Hospital did their best under the circumstances. I was no different than other patients in there who were diagnosed the same.
It was not because I was not depressed. It was not because I did not have demons and desires to kill. It was not that I didn’t hate myself and God. I hated everything.
It was not because I did not want to live and was determined to kill myself over my rotten life at age 20 while in the State Hospital. This nut house had different varieties living there. I was in the Adolescent Unit, housed with 18–22-year-old mental patients. I was a drug addict out of control.
There were more prescriptions drugs inside this hospital than I had ever seen. If the Thorazine and Lithium meds had not turned me into a zombie, I would have robbed the nurses at the nurse's station and overdosed to put myself out of my miseries.
I could not rob them because I would have slipped on the tile floor beneath me because of the gallons of my own slobber drooling out of the side of my mouth from the medications.
I am not insensitive or trying to blame anyone for my behavior. I appreciate what the doctors tried to do for me. They are the professionals, not me. I am revealing what happened to me with no blame given to anyone or any State facility including the prison I was in. I DID what I DID to MYSELF. I am the only one to blame for my sin. Jesus forgave my sin and gave me a new life.
Emotional baggage along with many other pieces of my luggage hidden between the layers of my insanity. Deep zipper pockets in my baggage. It was not a tiny shave kit bag. It was a full set of Samsonite, indestructible, dent free baggage.
Reality was, I needed to go to prison. I deserved to go to prison. I had to go to prison for my life to be spared and my soul delivered from hell.
Prison was a result of my felonies, but more so it was part of God and His redeeming power. To take what Satan had meant for evil and turn it around for the good of my life and God’s will for me to be the preacher he desired me to be. In Him, I have fulfilled His purposes. His will, not mine be done. Now, for almost 40 years I have been drug free, medication free and the joy of the Lord Jesus is my daily prescription.
I am 69 years old now. When I was in prison at age 20, I was never given medication. If the State Hospital was correct in their treatment plan for me, then I could have continued in prison, on medication issued from the prison doctors, and being happy, happy-go-lucky shouting, “HIP-HIP-HORAY" while in the cotton fields picking cotton. That was not the case file written on me.
My case file said, “Convicted Felon.” End of that story.
Statistics regarding inmates in jails, prisons and detention centers in America are that 54% of State Prisoners, and 45% of Federal Prisoners have some sort of mental health issues.
Jail statistics vary from state to state. If this is the case and some of these prisoners are medicated, then the statistic would change over time if the mental health would improve. There would be tangible, documented and verified results showing improvement.
Incarceration and medicated prisoners are a slippery slope to analyze.
I am not a doctor or a statistician. I am an ex-convict saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. I can only speak for myself and my experience. Including preaching the Gospel for almost four decades primarily to inmates.
I have seen men change and go from depressed to the joy of the Lord. I have watched statistics change and true revival break out in various prisons in this nation. Jesus is the cure for all that ails mankind, but strongholds exist, and prayer is very much needed to save America.
When inmates are released, within three years of the release date; 67.8 percent of the ex-offenders are rearrested. Within 5 years, the percentage goes up to 76.6%. What is wrong with this picture?
There have been many rehabilitation programs, training schools, trade schools and the like in prisons all across this nation. I was in machine shop in prison in 1977 after I was saved by Jesus.
We had an upholstery class and another optional class for beginning welding. We had school to get our General Education Diploma.
There is only one excuse for a man to re-offend after prison.
He likes his sin.
He, or she, enjoys doing what they do and perhaps they are so institutionalized, that prison is the only place these prisoners can function and live out their days.
This is not because the States failed to rehabilitate. In my case, it was called Department of Corrections. I was corrected in many ways in the cotton fields by the Boss Man. That story is for another time.
Without a complete heart-transplant by Jesus called a transformation from death unto life, then human beings will reoffend. A new mind in Christ is needed to understand that without Jesus intervening for a person, they may continue in the lifestyles that are causing them to be in prison or jail.
Even more, there are thousands of “normal” people functioning in America without medication to keep them happy.
They are not in a physical prison. Thank God. But the prison they live in with the baggage of their emotions, has many on a spiritual death row. They are dead men and women walking. Meaning that they, like a real death row inmate, are just waiting for the moment when they are put to death. Not by the State with the death penalty in a real execution. But in a different “lethal injection” spiritually. No Governor to call at the midnight hour for a stay of execution.
No attorney to hold back the legal consequences of the crime.
More hardline statistics.
One out of four Americans will have their savings accounts destroyed. Primarily because of their mishandling of money.
One out of four continue: deaths related to tobacco. High Blood pressure brought on by stress. Babies in America will die because of the “shaking” of the caregiver. One out of four Americans (adults and teens combined) will die in their depression and anxiety. Either by a self-inflicted way, or through means like “Death by Cop.” Purposely pointing a loaded gun at a police officer so the officer will shoot them, rather than them taking their own lives.
So, basically 75% of Americans are okay and happy and healthy people. But are they saved by Jesus and born again?
What about the 25%?
If our emotions do not get handled and managed, this statistic can climb.
The Demonic realm is real, and we must fight it with prayer. There is a war going on that you can’t see with the naked eye. It is absolute and in the Bible. The Devil is out to KILL, STEAL and DESTROY lives.
“We battle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in this age; against spiritual hosts of wickedness in Heavenly places.” Ephesians 6: 12.
The battle belongs to the Lord of Hosts. The Most High is in charge, but we have a part to play. It is called prayer, pray and pray some more.
Like going to a hotel after a long flight to your destination.
You arrive and set your luggage on the luggage carrier you found in the little closet.
You unzip it and pull out your toiletries and arrange them neatly on one of the small towels in the bathroom
Obviously, you used some sort of antiseptic wipe to wipe down the counter tops and light switches.
Once this is done, you open the garment back and hang the clothes up.
Finally, you change into comfortable lounging clothes and relax after that long flight and shuttle to the hotel.
All is well.
The only problem is you forgot to pack your Bible.
Yes, online reading the Bible will work as you plug in your 47 devices you brought with you. It is not a business trip, but a vacation. Got to have all the gismos and gadgets or you may get depressed. God forbid your batteries run down.
The Bible.
