Originally posted by @christopher-albonIn the vast majority of cases it is a mental health issue. What does you calling it "stupid" achieve?
Is it the single most stupid thing a being can do to itself?
Originally posted by @ghost-of-a-dukeI am happy to note that you WERE motivated to engage me on this issue, however.
I was going to saying pretty much the same thing, but just couldn't muster the motivation.
Christ has made suicide obsolete.
This is because His death on the cross has not only a redemptive solution but a terminating solution as well.
When you touch the Spirit of Jesus Christ within you can not only be set free from condemnation because of His redeeming blood. You can also learn that the terminating power puts to death many negative and hopeless things in you.
The pioneering Paul experienced this and spoke much about it so that believers in Jesus Christ could themselves also enter into this salvation. Christ died FOR us. I do not mean He only died for us that we may be forgiven. That He did for certain. But He also DIED FOR US.
He died to put us out of the way and make room for us being filled with Himself.
That's good enough for this post. There's more.
" I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." (Gal. 2:20)
Christ has made ineffective suicide obsolete. He has something much better, much kinder, and much more effective and even holy.
Christ has something better than suicide which is not only holy but is absolutely the will of God.
Christ died for us.
No, this time I mean more than He died to shed His blood for our forgiveness.
That He did for certain.
But I mean Christ DIED ... FOR US.
So says the New Testament.
And it is the experience of many of us who have enjoyed our co-death with Christ.
Christ died a death of redemption ... for us sinners.
But Christ also died a death of termination ... for us, making our suicide and ineffective and obsolete tool.
You commit suicide because you have given up all hope. You see yourself as HOPELESS. And therefore the only solution you see is to die, to terminate yourself.
Before you do that foolish thing read and understand the Bible.
Christ knew you were HOPELESS before you were born.
You thought you were hopeless because you blew it here and there in your life.
Christ the Son of God knew you were hopeless even before you were born.
And Christ made provision for that problem before you were born.
He DIED ... for you.
Oh, He also resurrected from the dead for you too.
Suicide? So what do you do ?
You pray something like this:
"Lord Jesus ... "
If you can bring yourself to say to God ... "Lord Jesus" you have stepped into the spiritual "event horizon"[/b].
"Lord Jesus, I hear that You died for me shedding Your blood for the cleansing away of my sins. Lord Jesus I need this.
But Lord Jesus I need something else. I need a release from this miserable depressed and sadden SELF. I heard that you died so that I, the hopleless on, might be put out of the way. Lord Jesus, i too want to know what Paul meant ... "I am crucified with Christ". Lord Jesus die FOR me, Lord Jesus let YOUR death be counted as the putting to death of my own problematic self.
And Lord Jesus I take Your death and Your resurrection to be my bequest of blessing, release, salvation, eternal hope, and even my entering into Your eternal purpose.
Thankyou God. Thankyou my Lord."
Originally posted by @sonshipFirst and foremost, if it's a friend or relative or colleagues who is suicidal, and if you want to give them advice or intervene so as to avert tragedy, get them to talk to a mental health specialist or counsellor.
Suicide? So what do you do ?
You pray something like this:
"Lord Jesus ... "
If you can bring yourself to say to God ... [b]"Lord Jesus" you have stepped into the spiritual "event horizon"[/b].
"Lord Jesus, I hear that You died for me shedding Your blood for the cleansing away of my sins. Lord Jesus I need thi ...[text shortened]... pe, and even my entering into Your eternal purpose.[/b]
Thankyou God. Thankyou my Lord."
Christ DIED for us. His death we can benefit from in an infinite way.
Christ died not only to shed redeeming blood to erase forever the record of our sins before God. Christ died to terminate the old man. The old man is the GodLESS man, the Satanified man, the polluted by the Fall man, the germ infested and lost man.
Christ died to put him out of the way, terminating the old man.
The is the essence of Paul's realization and ours.
" Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
so also we might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3,4)
We can APPLY the death of Christ to cross out, terminated, cut off all that saddens our lives and be raised to newness in Him. This is appropriated by faith. And even the faith comes from Him more than from us.
" I am crucified with Christ ... and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." (See Galatians 2:20)
"Lord Jesus. I have no faith. Lord Jesus I need You to be the BELIEVING ONE in me. Lord I have no faith. Lord Jesus infuse me with Yourself and You be my faith. Lord YOU be the faith-filled one for me."
God loves it when you take Jesus Christ as everything you need.
Some background refresher reading which some here will find of particular interest, on several levels pertaining to this thread:
Our Ethical Creeds Thread 166409 by Grampy Bobby 22nd Nov 2015
Is suicide a sin? Thread 166512 by divegeester 30th Nov 2015
Originally posted by @christopher-albon
Is it the single most stupid thing a being can do to itself?
Is it the single most stupid thing a being can do to itself?
How foolish it is I cannot say.
But Christ has made it not necessary.
One commits suicide because one comes to the realization that he or she is HOPE-LESS.
Excuse me. Jesus DIED and ROSE because God knew that with us it is HOPELESS.
He knew all along. We didn't know.
But He is the hope. He is the God of eternal encouragement. This is why Paul said that whatever he had in his life before knowing Christ he now counts as dung, dogfood, refuse in comparison with knowing Jesus Christ.
He was proud of many things. These were not evil things or bad things. These were even culturally good things. But he did some accounting. He did some comparison. And compared to what he now had in Christ, knowing and living with Christ, he counts those proud things of his pedigree life as DUNG in comparison.
Paul does some accounting and see nothing can compete with the knowledge of the living Christ.
"But what things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ.
But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ. " (Phil. 3:8,9)
He is saying "Just let me gain Christ. Let me have more and more of this experience of Christ. Everything I ever knew in comparison to this enjoyment is refuse, garbage, dog-food, dung. There is no comparison. Nothing that I boasted in as a Jewish rabbi, scholar, and a really good guy by anyone's standards, compares with this knowing of Christ.
I want to gain Christ. I want to gain more and more of this Christ."
And one of the things he realized was that Christ was not only his avenue to be completely forgiven for his sins, but Christ was his avenue for a new beginning, a totally new life in union with the highest and ultimate goodness - God.
Paul goes on -
"And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith, ... To know Him ..." (See Phil. 3:9,10)
Originally posted by @fmfI guess it's like addiction which can be better understood as running from some thing rather than to something. The vast majority of mental health cases are better understood in this light. An example being, does a grandma who has spent months on Morphine in hospital then return home as an addict?
In the vast majority of cases it is a mental health issue. What does you calling it "stupid" achieve?