Page 3 - lesson33.vp

Lesson 33 Hope of Israel Ministries BIBLE Correspondence Course 3

The Power of Prayer!

LESSON 33 But the SELF is not limited alone to the
WITHIN -- the actual PERSON -- his mind and
How much GOOD is there in human body. Beyond and surrounding the LOCAL
beings? Yes, HOW MUCH? How much GOOD SELF is the EMPIRICAL SELF. This expands
is there, after all, in human nature? the SELF to the second dimension -- THE
There is good as well as evil in human AROUND.
nature -- it is a mixture of good and evil -- and This encircling and expanding EMPIR-
this is a bad mixture. In the HUMAN manner of ICAL SELF includes, first of all, what most
looking at it, there does seem to be GOOD, as closely is OWNED by the SELF -- as human
well as evil. But let’s take a more realistic look at society would recognize ownership -- starting
ourselves -- as YEHOVAH GOD sees us -- and with your own clothing, your home or place of
see whether there is GOOD in human nature. abode, your wife or husband, children, your
Just WHAT ARE YOU? automobile, your home furniture and furnish-
The most terrible sin is to have another ings, gadgets, other property located farther
god which CUTS YOU OFF from the true GOD. away -- all those people and things one regards
And all have been cut off! All have sinned! The as BELONGING TO HIM! In one’s mind and
vast majority of all humans have no real con- heart, they become a part of SELF. If some force,
sciousness of YEHOVAH God at all. YEHO- occurrence or happening takes away or destroys
VAH is not REAL to them. It is as if the blue sky one or more of these possessions, the SELF
above were a huge earth-encircling IRON CUR- suffers.
TAIN about 100 miles thick, of some kind of the If the SELF loses an arm, an eye, a leg,
hardest, most solid blue-tinted IRON -- impene- SELF is deeply hurt, because he has lost a part of
trable -- and YEHOVAH is on the other side! self. By nature he feels no person or circum-
THIS WORLD is totally CUT OFF from stance has a right to deprive him of what he con-
YEHOVAH God -- just as if such a vast barrier siders HIS! In the same manner one grieves over
shut the world off from all knowledge of the loss of a husband, wife, child, or “loved one”
YEHOVAH God. To most, He simply does not -- or even a close friend.
exist. Oh, of course, most people have HEARD Why is this? Analyze it! Is it not because
that there is a God up there somewhere -- but BY NATURE he has the sensatory FEELING --
they have been shut off totally from contact, and the attitude of mind -- that something that is HIS
He is as unreal as if nonexistent! has been taken from him; and therefore the
What, then, is the heart, center, and very SELF resents the loss, feels wounded, and
CRUX of this whole thing? It is this: The con- grieves? One may not consciously REALIZE
sciousness of the average person centers BA- that this is the very source of his grieving, of
SICALLY only on SELF, and those persons, course. Nevertheless, it is the real, if unrecog-
things, or interests with which SELF is con- nized, cause.
cerned. Now as the circle AROUND the local
And, in its larger sense, ALL of that is, self widens, it expands to include relatives,
simply, SELF! And what, then, IS SELF? closest friends, social friends and fraternal
First of all, there is the LOCAL SELF. “brothers,” or “sisters,” business friends, then
This self includes your mind and your body. lesser friends. Beyond that, the “party spirit” in
There also are three dimensions -- and this is the human nature widens to include whatever
first -- the WITHIN. athletic team he is rooting for, his political party,

The Power of Prayer!