HOLE in SELF Vs WHOLE SELF
SAM (not his real name), is a man, I met some years ago while teaching Sunday school in the church that I was attending at that time. I was a newborn in the Faith of Christ and a new member to that particular church. Even as a new child in Christ I knew enough to teach a men’s Sunday school class. Sam came in to the class room and sat down, he and I were the only two in the room and I began to teach him. As we started Sam interrupted me and said that I needed to go slow and attempt to teach in a VIDEO type format?
I was dumbfounded in this as I had never heard of such a thing before. So, I asked him what he meant and he said I was to teach in words that drew living messages. When I asked Sam about this he simply told me that he suffered from dyslexia. I asked Sam what that was and he said that when he reads a book or something the words are all jumbled up and hard to understand, and so the only way he can grasp what I was teaching was to make it seem real. Needless to say I was taught something new that morning.
Sam went on to tell me that he grew up as a “gay” man and during his life span as a child and young man he was abused and despised due to his choices and disabilities. Sam said that he spent much of his life seeking and searching for answers to his troubles, and that he looked everywhere he could but never received and answers. Then one day Sam felt the need to leave his home area and venture out into new lands seeking answers. He said he felt as though there was someplace he needed to be and set out to find that place.
I asked Sam if he felt like there might be a hole in his soul and he said Yes, and that is what made him leave his home. Sam felt as though his lifestyle as a “gay” man was wrong but could not grasp why he felt that way. I asked Sam how much of the Bible he knew or understood and he said very little. So I took him to the Word of God to explain where he had been and where he was at that time. I began with “UNDERSTAND SAM” the Bible says:
ROMANS 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered Into the world, and death through sin, and so Death spread to all men, because all sinned – 13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but Sin is not imputed where there is no Law.
I told Sam that mankind in the beginning only had one Law from God and that was, “DO NOT EAT FROM THIS ONE TREE!”
However, Adam and the woman did just what God said not to do. Thus sin entered into the world. Since that time sin runs rampant in life and man lives in that sin. So, Sam, what is sin after all? It is the act of disobedience to the Word (instruction) of God. We are all born of woman, into a world of sin, and thus we are sinners by the mere fact of sin is in the world. So, what must one do since they are sinners? The answer to this is found in Romans 10.
ROMANS 10:8 – 10
8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” – that is, The word of Faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, And believe in your heart that God raised Him from The dead, you shall be saved; 10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in Righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, Resulting in salvation.
After having taken Sam down the Roman road he felt the need to say the sinners prayer, and so we did. Sam surrendered his life to the Lord that morning in that Sunday School class. It was then that he informed me that he felt the HOLE in his soul become satisfied and filled. Sam said he now knows that God had brought him here for the time such as this one to redeem him from that life he had so long lived, and that he could feel free at last.
MATTHEW 9:22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “DAUGHTER, TAKE COURAGE; YOUR FAITH HATH MADE YOU WHOLE.” And at once the woman was made WHOLE.
Sam began to understand at that time the difference between saved and made WHOLE. The HOLE in his soul had been filled and he was no longer having to search for something to fill it because it was filled and he was made WHOLE.
There is more to this story of Sam and our Sunday school class, but I will write about that later because Sam brought insight into what he believed during his time as a youth and young man, and with his permission I will share that later on. In the mean time, if you feel that there may be a HOLE IN YOUR SOUL, read on:
PRAY THIS PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I feel that my life is not complete, And that I need something to fill the hole in my heart and soul, that I might be made WHOLE and know what You have in store for me. Guide me in my pathway, That I might not detour from You and Your Truth. Redeem me O Lord and I will be redeemed, save me And I will be saved, Love me Lord and I will know Love. I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ the Only Begotten Son of the Living Loving God.
AMEN!