No one would ever admit it in Sunday school, but I have come to realize that it is awfully easy to have a back up savior, a plan B for life, just in case this one falls short.
“Yes, Jesus is enough for my current happiness and for eternity, but I am going to also seek pleasure and a sense of being in control and being secure by….!
For example, Demas hung out with the apostle Paul and with Luke and was listed as a fellow labourer with Mark and Aristarchus but then he forsook Paul, having loved this present world. When things seemed to be going well he was all gung ho! Then he was gone when things were seeming to fall apart. Lots’ wife came along with him as he was fleeing sinful Sodom, but she looked back and wham! Salt pillar! Boy am I glad that God doesn’t treat me the way I deserve as an example to others. Paul complained that he had almost no one to send to the Philippians because, “all seek their own and not the things of Christ”. Three people offered to become followers of Jesus, (The master and creator of the universe) BUT first they wanted to do something else or couldn’t bear the thought of sleeping on the ground with no pillow but a stone and no where to call home. So, they lost the chance to follow the master and support him. Phygellus and Hermogenes went down in history because they turned away from working with the Apostle Paul.
The word worship derives from the word worth and one would refer to someone of worth as “your worthship”. Worship is seen and experienced in whatever grabs my time and thought and money and heart. I need to guard my heart and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5
I need to practice the “grain of mustard seed faith” which Peter voiced in John 6:68 When Jesus asked him if he also would go away, Peter said, “To whom shall we go?” He understood that there are NO back up saviors, no other sources of life truth and no alternatives.
I remember a patient that was not making much progress on the problems in his marriage. Come to find out, he had a girlfriend in the wings waiting for him if his marriage efforts failed. The Bible says that I should make no provision for the flesh, if I want to overcome it.
Jesus says to me, “Verle if you don’t come to me, and hate your father, and mother and wife, and children and brothers, and yes your own life also, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not bear your cross, and come after me you cannot be my disciple. So likewise, if you do not forsake all that you have, you cannot be my disciple.”
“Dear Lord, help me to see any hidden back-up saviors or plan B’s and love you so much that I hate any attempt by any other good person or good thing to get between us.”
verlebellmd.com 
2 replies on “A BACKUP SAVIOR?”
I have this thought toward Psychiatry as a savior.
I am in the middle of mental and emotional unrest and duality in relationships with family. I am off track without a rhythm and routine feeling feeling out Of sink.
If I call my psychiatrist for answers is that putting Jesus as B – savior ?
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In I Corinthians 1:12 the people were dividing into groups following earthly teachers. Each teacher had been used by Christ to help the people but the one working through them was Christ. The Lord uses caring trained skillful people to work through but our eyes should stay on Christ. A Psychiatrist can help the parts of the brain which are racing or burned out to slow down or perk back up. You need to ask God to guide your doctor, follow their advice, and also work at healing your brain with improved resting in Jesus, casting your cares on him. If your gall bladder was acting up you would go to a surgeon and get it fixed but you would not shift your focus from Jesus but rather you would see the doctor as an agent of God to help you. Psychiatrists nowadays tend to limit to diagnosis and medications. You would benefit from a counselor and again resist the temptation to deify them but rather listen to God talking through them and take every idea to the Bible to see if it fits.
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