I learned something a long time ago in reading
about George Muller. When i was in my twenties that bio had a great
effect on my spiritual disciplines. I do not think that we just let
things go in our minds. There is really a profound struggle that goes
along with our daily spiritual disciplines. He tried to get himself in a
frame in which he was happy before he would allow himself to see
himself as a sinner or think in terms of what to do in a daily basis.
The way he did this was to open Gods word and begin reading it. Then he
would begin to pray with the word open, that portion that he had read
for that morning. He would draw his pleasure in this way from having
fellowship with the Spirit before he would draw some kind of application
to himself from the text. Over the yrs of my own life this has
been my practice in memorizing a couple of scriptures a day and
building on that going through the books of the bible mainly the nt.
After many yrs then, there was so much memorized that it was impossible
for me to go over it in one day. So then the Spirit brings these things
up as i go through the day. Or if i am memorizing some verse and then
need a cross text. But i think there is this battle that goes on. The
word has become like a hammer. It is to be used to kick a bad
disposition to the corner so to speak. And it is what determines how we
are going to deal with all of the things that come into our lives. We
are not going to see much help unless we apply ourselves to
concentrating and keep driving the word into our minds. It is really
hard work.Even tho meditation is repetitive, yet the word is alive. It
leads us along in our way of life. It determines what we think about. It
opens up our deepest worries. It brings us back to the reality of who
we are when we have been rewarded and begin to be tempted to dwell on
our own ability. It keeps us from staying in a depressed state by
giving us a hope that is centered in His power over our worry and fret.
The word is our protection. I have made it a practice to not move in my
daily routine until i am moved by the word. I have found that when i am
moved by the word and meditation that the Spirit then excites in me a
reminder of a text or speaks to me about a particular thing in my life. I
have found that this communication comes when the Spirit warms our
hearts to hear a word. I call it speaking peace , a very powerful
paradigm of His speaking these practical thought patterns as they apply
to my daily routine.
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5965
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Forums / Main Forum / Re: The "Inner Gesture"
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on: October 24, 2008, 07:34:45 PM
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TB, There is only really one thing we can
trust. I guess that when we are talking about how we determine what the
truth is in this world and how we see ourselves in light of that is only
limited by the entire counsel of God. Now i think that if we look at
this as just an intellectual pursuit and then adding the way we feel
about what the truths say to us as if we were putting some of them to be
enchained by how our culture determines them, then there is going to be
an area where we are unprepared to incorporate a good understanding of
His attributes in their application to us. Most of our problems stem
from a lack of light that exposes these different dis positional weights
of grief that we are confronted with. That is why truth is an active
state of reality in which we determine how we see ourselves. Now
there is freedom in all of these different applications of His
attributes to our understanding or the lack thereof. Because in our lack
of seeing the wholeness of His word, then still we are under the
completeness of His grace. So that we are learning but yet not always
understanding fully what the reality is. And in this sense we are more
concerned about understanding His attributes than we are about
protecting ourselves by ignoring His truth or by not bringing it before
our understanding in order to be in grafted with that truth. But we need
to see that the word defines what reality is and not our understanding
of the word. And in this sense there is an indirect view in this world
of all of relationships as it relates to how people accept the truth or
reject it. What i am saying here is that the attitude is more important
than the outward appearance. Most of our disagreements with
others is how we view the world in this sphere of His entire counsel.
And i guess that there is a sense in which men experience a certain form
of reality different from other men within the context of this in
graftedness that has defined context of life that determines these
different realities. And so there is this context in which there is a
certain amount of grief that is not dealt with for lack of
understanding. Then there is a certain amount of grief that comes as a
result of the circumstances one finds himself in. Then there are special
seasons of grief that we are required to persevere through in order for
us to receive the reward. Then there are griefs that are very hard to
deal with, that is there is this grief from inverted anger, or a grief
that is brought on by being in the company of fools over a period of
time. Now there is no doubt that there are different spiritual strengths
here. And this is the practical side of teaching. There is no short cut
to learning what to do in a certain situation. Because understanding
what to do and having the strength to carry it out are two very
different things. This is why strength to accomplish any task is from
the reality of the teaching about Him. I am tired . I will read yours over again and try to respond more. Its very good.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: October 21, 2008, 02:22:55 PM
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I think there is a freedom in Him that is
heroic rather than just a purposed moral control . And in this way we
are imaginative in how we determine what we are going to know what is
true by how we look forward to those eternal affections that are beyond
our understanding. We dwell in a universe where what we want is a
measurement that is corrupted and falls short of what His knowledge of
us as we are changed into His image in confronting this world and those
ideas that are without the necessary power to do one thing to bring us
in to the ultimate position of having fellowship with the Father through
the Spirit , by the resurrection power our Lord. (Sorry for the run on
its spirited) So that He indeed will do unto us more than we could ask
and think. And in our rejecting every thing that is most
cherished in our desiring those things that would capture our desiring
the supernatural we are made to see in this eternal world a dwelling
that is made without hands and is of a power that is eternal in bringing
us to live beyond what we could ask and think. This involves a freedom
to have a sanctified imagination. So that everything that works against
our desires to long for those things that are eternal are brought on by
an unimaginative downward spiral of a false love for an idol. That is
what man is in his most natural imaginative state. He has no
understanding of the truth of Gods design in this world, what God hates
and what God loves.
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5978
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: October 20, 2008, 09:37:53 AM
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It is an indirect paradigm. There is an evil
intention from our trouble, that is, what draws us to an anxious hatred,
or that building up into a focus into the reaction of the trouble, so
that our sensitivity to the trouble is bringing us down to Satans level.
As i have said many times is that our identity in Christ sends him
packing. If we are in Christ , then we are shielded from the distemper
of his working. So that being in Christ is taking refuge in Him, or
being shielded from the enemy. Not only do we have a sense of security,
but that protection is shielding our head, that protection is His life
opposing death, that process in which we are brought down into his
distemper. For whatever controls our thoughts controls our general
understanding of the nature of his power and the kind of action that was
taken to subdue him as being our identity toward overcoming him in
dwelling in Christ. And even when we feel the attack of the Devil, yet
this should make us determined to find all of our salvation in Him and
not to necessarily find out what his tactics are. First because
even tho Satan is localized, yet he is very cunning and smart. He looks
like a friend , or a helper. He comes with part of the truth. This is
his way to get us to be in a distemper. So that we will not think that
we already stand as a victor in this kind of confidence that it is a
matter of time that we will see the final judgment on him. But we will
think that this battle is more directed at us for the sake of keeping us
in a fog or in a state of distemper. What ever we are facing, whether
we feel the pangs of the process of death through fear, anxiety or
hatred, yet we know that we fall back on Christ rather than fight in
direct combat. We ask Christ to come to our aid. We seek His
face. We draw our present comfort from His word and ways. In longing to
be taught then we are being brought along by being confronted with being
in the enemies territory. Even tho we face the same distempers as that
which is always present before us in this world, yet we are to see that
Christ has extended His authority over this paradigm in His secret
counsel and in His bringing to bear in the state of our hearts the
victory in living this out. What we believe becomes what we are tempered
to overcome. And so, it is always that the singers and the musicians
were out in front in the march to battle.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: October 15, 2008, 05:24:42 PM
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When the apostle was talking about the thorn
in the flesh it was very personal to him. So much that there was only
one enemy that he was faced with and that enemy was himself. He
described the battle in Rom about his propensity to covet. Whatever it
was about , it drove Him to Christ. And in a sense we all view ourselves
with this propensity. Because if it was any other reason to have a
problem , it would not be a thorn if we did not have some kind of
powerlessness to deal with it. And in this sense it would be as if we
were presenting our request before Him in prayer and having an excuse in
the form of blaming something else for our pain. I have heard that it
was a church, or it was a physical problem. But the apostle does not
explain his predicament as he opens himself up as he describes that
problem in rom. For what i want to do i do not do. And if it was that we
all face this insanity of doing the very thing we condemn in others. It
comes from our view of how we see ourselves in light of that besetting
sin. If it was a physical thing , then that would be the determining
factor of how we react to sin, how we see our described deli ma, that is
our state of mind with that problem. So much so , that it still comes
back to our general disposition about a problem. And that would be the
piercing effect in us. We all have a tendency to have something that is
there that makes us change in some way about how we believe when we are
confronted with that besetting sin.
If we could control our state
of mind, then there would be a long declension toward that in saneness.
But most of the time it is something that is set off inside of us. And
we like to think that it was some other circumstance or someone in
closest to us that gave us this thorn. But what we see in scripture is
God bringing about this in Nebuchadnezzar. One day he is in his rite
mind and the next day, he is eating grass. That touch of insanity was
brought on and was out of his control. It was because of his pride. But
who of us is not faced with pride? Who can say that he is not judged as"
you are the man." The truth is that if God opened our eyes to the evil
that lurks in our hearts and we saw ourselves in light of perfection we
would all be eating grass. But we are all given to see ourselves in
excusing our propensity to give into the besetting sin and yet hold
others to a standard , because we are not feeling that thorn in the
present time. And if some of us think that being sane is taking some
kind of medication. Then just the very thought of stopping those meds
would bring on a deep piercing effect to us of insanity.
But if
we were to gain more of an understanding of our lack of believing or our
propensity to be a hypocrite It would be to judge ourselves as if we
had no problem with a sin that was hard to deal with. So much that even
our pride of not having to face some of the besetting sins because of
the kinds that require more effort to fall into, yet the pride of
believing that we are somehow different than the other guy could be a
touch of insanity. I mean, here we have people trying to describe just
what grace is, and yet , these same people are facing the chaff of being
burned up, that part of their view of God that is not worth us
believing that is to be believed. But these people will tell you that
they are not describing a false grace or a grace that is a little off
and yet their believing that it is pure is itself insanity. Any time
grace is impure then it is from the view of hypocrisy.
Its also
true in marriage. If any one has been married for any length of time
then they will experience the question how can i put up with such
mindlessness. And yet, that is exactly what the other partner is saying.
I guess that its not really just the cultural norms here. But there is a
sense in which our view is determined by our inability to deal with
that thorn so that it goes away. And if we view our rightness in
measuring ourselves in excusing ourselves then we are dealing with a bit
of insanity. But yet we deal with each other in this way. And how much
of this view of that thorn is formed in our disposition is in itself a
form of walking around in insanity. But we must have some sort of
revelation, that which breaks through our in saneness or we will grow
bitter and stiff toward life. Even the bible is a mirror to us , and
even tho we never quite see the full view of ourselves yet God does give
us a certain illumination to what is rite and proper. And He does cause
us to not feel the full effects of our chaff. This is what grace does
toward sinners. And it is what allows us the freedom to come to terms
that we are totally depraved and we are insanely one sided with it comes
to seeing ourselves different than we judge others. Here i think is our
struggle, that thorn, it is ugly, it is the cause of all of our
humbling. We have the propensity to go into our own minds if we are to
be humbled for a time. And God does keep us from utterly falling.
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