The Straight Testimony Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jeffrey Dorval
Christianity is overcomplicated these days. Here, the Bible is made simple and I give it to you straight. Enjoy.
Self esteem. What is that anyway?
Self esteem is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. So, basically how you value yourself. How much you think you're worth.
I found out that 85% of the population suffer from low self-esteem. 85% of the population believe they don't amount to much in life.
And that's sad. That is very concerning. And you know what, I wouldn't be surprised if many of us are living with this without even realizing it.
Here's a couple questions that might give you some insight as to if you have low self-esteem.
Do you feel unloved, like you're not good enough, or useless? Are you afraid of failure or making mistakes? Are you afraid of letting people down? Do you try to avoid criticism?
Now I'm not a doctor, but if you answered yes to all these questions, I'd say it's very likely you have low self-esteem. But thank God I know a good way to beat low self-esteem. And you can do it in just 4 steps!
STEP 1 - Ascertain the Cause
The first thing you wanna do is figure out the underlying cause of your low self-esteem. It may seem a bit tricky to narrow it down, but don't worry. While the cause may manifest itself in different ways, it doesn't fundamentally change. The root cause for low self-esteem is a weakened mental state. All those negative things you think about yourself are in your mind.
It's time to accept the reality. In your mind, you have little value; in reality, you're invaluable. You are worth what Jesus says you're worth; His life!
STEP 2 - Change Unhealthful Conditions
Of course now that you know the cause of your low self-esteem, you have to do something about it. The next thing you'll want to do is change the unhealthy conditions. So much as is possible, limit the exposure you have to the factors which don't promote a healthy mindset.
That would include things like cutting off fake friends, cleaning up your personal space, avoiding problematic people, places, and things. The point is to be in an environment where you are growing. And this step goes right into step three.
STEP 3 - Correct Wrong Habits
You then want to work on breaking your bad habits. You need to start taking care of yourself. Stop smoking, drinking, binging on whatever! Stop looking for attention from others, etc.
STEP 4 - Help God Help You
This last step may arguably be the most important. Help God help you. Neglecting this step is detrimental for your mental, because you would end up right back where you started! God wants to renew your mind, to change your character. Why not help by developing a deeper relationship with Him? Daily prayer and Bible study are key elements here. Also, take your mind off of yourself. When Jesus was on earth, He never thought about Himself or His own problems (and boy did He have a lot on His plate!) Instead, He could only ever think about others and what He wanted to do for them. Even as He was being crucified, the pain He felt wasn't from the nails being driven into His body, but He sorrowful for the people who were in darkness. This is selflessness, or true love. God wants you to grow to become like Christ. Just cooperate.
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We talk about the boldness and the courage we need to stand for what we believe in. We talk about having the boldness to endure persecution, or abuse, for the gospel's sake. We learn how bold we need to be to proclaim this gospel message to a dying world. But not nearly as often do I, personally, hear about the boldness we need to have before all these things. And that is the boldness to believe.
Romans 1:16, 17 point out the audacity of faith. The gospel of Christ is salvation to the believer because in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. In other words, if you do not have faith, you will not be able to discern the goodness of God. So what does faith do? Why is it a key factor? Faith demands God to reveal Himself. Faith demands God to move on your behalf! The audacity, right?
Therefore, the righteousness of God is revealed to those who are bold enough to believe.
There are two instances recorded in the Bible where Jesus marveled and they both have to do with a display of faith. The first is in Mark 6:1-6. Jesus went to His hometown with intention to do great things for them. However, the people did not believe in Him. This unbelief made it impossible for Christ to do any mighty works there. So, it's made apparent that a lack of faith in God can prevent us from receiving certain blessings.
The second time Jesus marveled was in Matthew 8:5-10. A centurion (Roman soldier), came to Jesus because his servant was a paralytic in need of help. Jesus says he will go to heal servant, but the centurion opposes His idea and tells Jesus to just say the word instead. This Roman soldier exemplified what Jesus described as "great faith". Judging by the centurion's response, we can deduce that faith is expecting the Word of God to fulfill or accomplish whatever it says. We need to have this kind of faith also. Without it, we would not be able to boldly defend or proclaim the gospel. We wouldn't be able to take a bold stand in the midst of persecution.
This boldness to believe in God requires total surrender. When we make it to that point, we will have zero trust in ourselves and our minds.
Are you bold enough to believe?
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I was reading through the book of Numbers and couldn't believe how ungrateful the people were towards God. He literally liberated them out of slavery and was guiding them to a place they would be able to call home, but they were too busy complaining about their circumstances to notice how God was working for them. It got so bad they eventually were denied access to the Promised Land and had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
Then it hit me, many of us are going a "wilderness" experience. Things are happening around and to us and we complain or even lose faith in God. We need to come to terms with who we really are and allow God to do what He promised He would. It is not easy, but God didn't promise an easy life. Tune in as we learn how to get out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land!
In our system of justice, if a person is guilty you, yourself, being innocent, cannot go to the judge and say, "Judge, I will take this person's place, therefore let them go free." The judge and everyone else in that courtroom will laugh you to scorn. It's just not going to happen. Much less if you yourself were guilty also. However, in God's system of justice, things are a bit different. You see when one man disobeyed God, he and his whole lineage needed to pay the price with their lives. The reason is because disobedience to God is a real sin. Now you might think to yourself, "Man, what kind of egotistical god is this who goes around killing people just because they choose to do their own thing?" And I hear you, it sounds crazy, right? When you don't understand who this God is or how their system of government is set up or even how He feels about you. You know what else sounds crazy? A man shooting a dog to death until you find out the dog was going around attacking people and needed to be put down. What I'm saying is don't jump to conclusions when you don't know the whole story or the context of something. Back to what I was talking about now. Sin is the breaking of God's commandments. Now obviously I was referring to Adam earlier. And all Adam did was eat from a particular tree which God told Him not to. Of course, there's no commandment of the 10 Commandments which says you can't eat from a certain tree. But that's because the 10 Commandments are quite broad. So when Adam and his wife, Eve, partook of the fruit they weren't supposed to, they pretty much broke the 10 Commandments in that one act of disobedience. So they had to die. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death. So it was pretty much final. Adam, Eve, and the whole human race have become subject to the penalty of sin, which is death. However, someone else took that penalty in our place. Yes, someone came to God and said, "I will go and die for these people." It's no secret, that person is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And what we're going to talk about is why He had to die.
You have a door. Beyond the door, you have God and His kingdom. And of course on your side of the door you have Satan and his corrupted system. Now it might seem unfair or rather mean that I placed you on Satan's side of the door, but I don't make the rules. Psalm 51:5 says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." And in John 14:30, Jesus refers to Satan as the prince of this world. We were born on Satan's stolen territory and with the natural inclination to sin. And! The wages of sin is death, meaning the soul that sins will definitely die in hellfire. If it weren't for Jesus, I'd say we're in a hopeless predicament. Now that you get the picture a bit better, let's dive in.
Fear is such a terrible feeling that just about everyone experiences. But did you know God never placed that emotion in you? The feeling of fear is just one the many results of sin. Fear is such an issue that it can even cost us our salvation when we become afraid to stand up for God. However, by developing a relationship with Him, and learning to live and love as God does, we may overcome all fears and be at peace knowing God is on our side!
If you were asked what is the most crucial thing for a Christian to have or be, how would you answer that? How do you know for certain you have what it takes to be a Christian in the first place? Join us as we see what the Bible has to say about the one thing that matters.