What glory belongs to God?                     

Spring 2017  
    

"For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen."  Romans 11:36 

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The general theme of Networks Ministry (our 3 websites) for Spring 2017 develops around the significance of our seed and what we should do with it. It is one thing to get recognized for planting the seed, and it is totally a different thing to get credit for creating the seed. So whom should get all the glory, the Provider of that seed (opportunity) or the Custodian of that seed? I strongly believe to give credit where credit is due, but giving more credit than what we should, it only inflates or “pumps up” the lesser one. Our problem has never been about not giving ourselves credit, or to our “self” labor, care, and safekeeping of the seed, but we must see how “self” evolves with self-praise in order to understand its implications.

The self has many facets that help make up integral parts of it, such as self-awareness, self-esteem, self-knowledge, and self-perception. All parts of the “self” enable people to alter, change, add, and modify aspects of themselves in order to gain social acceptance in society. There have been a lot of studies done on the psychology of our “self” being. Some argued that when the child's ambitions and exhibitionistic strivings were chronically frustrated, arrests in the grandiose “self” led to the preservation of a false, expansive sense of self that could later manifest outwardly in the visible grandiosity of the frank narcissist, or remain hidden from view, unless discovered in a narcissistic therapeutic transference (or what they say it is a “self” object transference) that would expose these primitive grandiose fantasies and strivings.

"Self” objects are objects which we experience as part of our self; the expected control over them is, therefore, closer to the concept of control which a grownup expects to have over his own body and mind than to the concept of control which he expects to have over others.

Others claimed a distinguished difference to what they called the "true self" from the "false self" in the human personality, considering the true self as one based on the individual's sense of being, not doing, something which was rooted in the experiencing body. Nevertheless, did not undervalue the role of the false self in the human personality, regarding it in fact as a necessary form of defensive organization – a kind of caretaker, a survival suit behind the protection of which the true self was able to continue to exist.

But all of these theories (philosophies) are good material for those who like to brainstorm on philosophical concepts. At the end of the day, whatever idea (concept) you are personally promoting (or endorsing) that’s what eventually will grow to maturity, it is the same principle what the Bible speaks of "Concept upon Concept," "Precept upon Precept." If we stimulate our spirit by giving glory to the Spirit, we will see its development throughout our journey, and if we stimulate our ego or “self”, we will also see its development from a child stage, to and an adolescent stage until it grows to its maturity.

And how do we stimulate these two different entities, spiritual and self? By giving them the glory, praise, credit in everything we do.

Haven’t we heard that we become what we worship?

Did you know that memory and the self are interconnected with each other? That combined, can be defined as the Self-Memory System (SMS). The self is viewed as a combination of memories and self-images (working self).  Did you know that consciousness is the total result of concept after concept that we form within?  Both memory and consciousness (some people refer Consciousness as Awareness, but I don't agree with it) have been proposed to generate a sense of self-identity.

No wonder One's self-perception is defined by one's self-concept, self-knowledge, self-esteem, and social self. Don’t get me wrong, I am not condemning our “self”, the self is an automatic part of every human being, in which enables people to relate to others. But this self is more complex than what people think, it is made up of three main parts that, incorporated, allow for the self to maintain its function. The parts of the “self” include: Self-knowledge, interpersonal self, and the agent self. Self-knowledge is sometimes referred to as self-concept. This feature allows for people to gather information and beliefs about themselves. But what if this information or knowledge that has been gathered is accurate and correct?

A person's self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-deception all fall under the self-knowledge part of self. We learn about ourselves through our looking-glass selves, introspection, social comparisons, and self-perception.

And what if our “self”-awareness, “self”-perception, “self” -esteem, “self” -knowledge, social- “self”, is inadequately nurture and wrongly encouraged because this information also depends on exterior factors that we cannot control? Wouldn’t we be feeding or creating a beast that we won’t know until this one matures? This is where my concern rests, that while we are on our journey to our development, we are encouraging concepts, precepts, principles, and ideologies that have very little and unreliable foundation, it is like giving the glory and praises to something we are risking our entire life to. It is similar to building our own savings account, which creates interest,  but while we are building (encouraging) our own assets (properties) we are expecting high dividends in return. But what if this account (self) that we are working on, brings more dramatic difficulties and collapses, instead of bringing significant profits? That's why, in all we do, we must honor God.

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Author: Hiram Dorado

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H.E.

Networks Ministries      
   
    
    
   

                             God is with us!