Jesus was fully God and fully man. His is God
because He is one in essence with the Father and Spirit, yet they are
three distinct Persons. So the the Fathers perfect duplicated image of
Himself is Christ and the working out of the image of God is the Spirit.
Since our image of ourselves is not perfect, then we cannot possibly be
good enough to purpose anything good in ourselves without Him. All that
the Father purposes is accomplished and is worthy of all of the glory.
And if you could have a perfect image of yourself then it could be
duplicated. Jesus natures were not mixed. In His humanity, He
learned wisdom and is still learning in eternity. He grew tired,
experienced pain and grief, did not know some things in the future. But
He was also fully God. He did miracles, raised the dead, read minds,
forgave sins and was fully supernatural as a Prophet. Yet these two
natures were not mixed, otherwise He could not have suffered the kind of
death of a man, and He would not have been worthy of finishing the work
the Father sent Him to do. I like saying that He veiled His
deity. He was fully God, and was able to access that power but He chose
not to use it. But then He unveiled His glory (not fully )to the
apostles when they made the tents. What ever we ask according
to His will, He does. We are in Christ, and in this since we share in
the Fellowship of the Trinity. Since we have fellowship with the Father
through the Son, then we have access to all of the promises and all of
the spiritual inheritance as being an adopted son. When we ask in Jesus
name we receive, and everything we receive is because of His name. And
God has chosen to use our prayers to accomplish His working out of all
things on this earth. Even the very small things in our lives. He uses
the small things in our lives to confound the big ones. But most of the
time we do not recognize these things. He uses the things that we detest
about ourselves as greater methods to accomplish His purposes over our
supposed accomplishments. So that everything that is in our lives is
order by Him for His glory. We have complete victory on this
earth in Christ. Since Christ has earned the rite to have all things put
under His feet, then we who are in Christ also share in those things.
There is a default position in this life. But we are rewarded for our
seeking Him in prayer. So that when we learn to pray as He wills, then
we begin to go to another place. We are lifted to the heaven lies, so
that we are able to see and do things that are in the supernatural. If
we believe that He has accomplished every thing we need to live
victorious then we will experience it in this eternal life. If we are
represented by Him, then nothing can ultimate effect our position as
being His child. But since He has chosen to use means to accomplish His
purposes then our understanding and working in our lives is by our using
these means. If we believe that we have whatever we need , then we will
go to a place where we experience this freedom in Him. And asking Him
the rite questions, reminding Him of His promises, reasoning with Him
about the problems of this life, and being in His presence as
experiencing His special love, is like being in a vortex of eternity and
we are looking into the future from this position and we are believing
that He will give us fully what ever we ask according to His will. So
that we experience a fellowship of a Trinitarian kind.We experience a
confidence concerning those things in our lives that we cannot view that
concerns our well being as Him determining to work them for our good
and as an evidence of His care for us over our trying to work them out
ourselves. Its sorta like an extra sensory perception that grows with
our understanding of Him. And in this vortex of eternity we are
victorious as He is. We are what we think.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 27, 2008, 06:25:15 PM
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i do not believe in the two line theology.
Our responsibility and Gods sovereignty representing these parallels.
But its all God and all us. If God is the all source of power to do
anything Good then its all of God as the cause. And we look back at the
whole of our lives so that whatever we did, God did it all. We are
unable to do anything good on our own. Its different than God giving us
the responsibility and then we do it. Like we are commanded and then we
respond. Imnsho it is extremely proud to think that my part represents a
line that goes along the same course as Gods part. The problem with
living is that i can never live up to the commands, but God always is
faithful to me and lives up to His side of the two line theory. I
believe this representation leads one to actually believe that it is
because He lives up to Gods standards is the reason that others come to
Christ. The point is my line doesnt even come close to running along
Gods line, and really my line is always going downward and Gods line is
always following me under girding my straying. I dont believe in this
kind of tension. I will respond to your post TB, I have been busy lately.
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6537
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 24, 2008, 08:56:26 PM
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Intellectual stimulation from the words of
scripture only makes things explainable. The fear of not understanding
these concepts creates a desire to over systematizing in explaining the
unexplainable. So that in this sense we need to be stripped of all these
self created imaginations. When we are brought all the way down to
seeing ourselves as unable to understand anything close to the depth and
the height of Gods attributes is when we begin to realize that our
thoughts about these paradigms are too big for us to assimilate into our
understanding. We must come to see that the idea of God can never be
understood in a systematic way , but in knowing God we are reduced to a
child like disposition. The knowledge of God is new every day by Him
being God. So that what i thought He wanted for me is not how each day
brings Him to be. In this sense these propositions bring me to a God
that i cannot figure out. I am in this world of awe, where most
of the time i find myself lost and scared of the power that i possess in
His communication to me in my life. First because these unseen powers
can bring to reality a sudden destruction of everything that we hold
dear as His communicating His greater purpose in the working out of all
things in the world. And yet , He speaks in a still small voice of
assurance that is more scary than a nuclear bomb. God has absolute power
in every thing that exist, so that being in His presence is living with
the reality that He does things that we will never control. And we are
always having this awe come over us so that we are driven to be
untrusting of ourselves and how we live in this body. So we preach to
ourselves this reality.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 24, 2008, 05:50:41 AM
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Is obedience the measure of our being pleasing
to God? As you mentioned Justification by faith, which i think has
practical implications to this struggle, so that it answers the problems
of how we view ourselves in this struggle. Christ is not only the
answer, but He is also the solution. If He did take all of our sins and
we got His righteousness, we not only do not need to stand on our own
for our sin, but also He has taken our punishment. So that the threat of
the law no longer has a ruling power over us. But if we think of this
as how it is in relation to our daily position before a holy God and in
light of the absolute standard of His word, it means that He is not
using the law to accuse us. But He is a continual advocate to love us to
obey. So that as we are face with falling short of the standard of the
law, He has taken the complete punishment for our sins, so that He is
keeping us from being subjected to the punishment since He already was
punished for our sins. We stand in that relationship with Him as
our confidence that as we sin we are still not under any condemnation.
We are not accused since we are in Him. Even tho we get overconfident in
ourselves, yet we know that if we fail in being over come by guilt or
fear, or a lack of trust in His work on our behalf, that He still works
through our weakness and sin to accomplish His glory. So that we are
touched by these infirmities but only falling under the domination of
them, by our being falsely accused of the condition of sin that we are
no longer tied to. And even tho we have the accusations against us, yet
our Father in Heaven looks at us in Him. Now we only know this by being
reminded in His word, of what our identity is. But He does speak to us
as if we were already completely righteous, by His word in those
promises through the covenant love. How we know Him is how we are going
to come to believe that there is not one sin that can be a tool of an
accusation since we are only getting the strength of courage by knowing
that He has forgiven us and we are no longer under condemnation.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 23, 2008, 08:35:52 AM
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We would hardly acknowledge that God s
jealousy would burn like a fire. But we are very familiar with that kind
of feeling as we have relationships in this world. And although some of
us do not experience jealousy as others , yet it is very real. And God
is jealous of His people whom He purchased with His own blood. But Gods
jealousy is perfect so that He will act for His sheep to bring about a
kind of worship that is pleasing to Him. Because God is going to be
worshiped by a people who come to worship Him with all of their hearts. God
will not have any other gods to compete with Him. And God gets glory by
being worshiped by people who are single minded. So that the great
spiritual world war is a war to keep the present evil age out of the
worship of God. Because God is a jealous God and He will be worshiped as
the true God. There is a certain declension going on in the
church throughout all of time. We live in an age where the worship of
God is mixed with the spirit of the age. If there is a worship that is
acceptable then the world would be effected by the church. But if there
is not acceptable worship then the church is more effected by the world.
And this is the great war of all ages. To keep the pure worship of God
in the church. Because God uses the church to bring about a world where
people acknowledge Him, and call out to Him. The purpose of God is to be
glorified and all of the circumstances of life that come are determined
by the state of the worship of God in any age. Because God is a jealous
God who has purpose in worship that transcends all other systems of
man in all of mans pain and happiness.He will work all these things out
to bring about worshiping Him as He would be worshiped.
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6547
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Forums / Main Forum / Re: Being Nice...a fruit of the Spirit?
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on: March 18, 2008, 06:27:12 PM
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Forgiveness is something that we learn
through having an understanding of who God is, and how He has determined
to reveal to us that we are forgiven. Thats why our understanding of
forgiveness is constantly being renewed and deepened as we grow in our
knowledge of God through His word. So that if God speaks through His
word, then knowing Him through His speaking to us His peace , as He
speaks we learn what kind of love He has for us, then we will have a
better understanding of having that peace, and we will live in that
eternal illumination of His divine love. As we grow in His love we will
grow in our confidence that He forgives us. When we come to Him
in prayer, we come with all of our sin and brokenness. So that we are in
need of being renewed every day. Since we struggle with sin , the
effects of sin on our bodies, and the a general disposition to doubt
Gods goodness, we can turn our guilt inward. And we can become distant
by that painful experience of having a certain hardness in our
disposition toward the things of God. And when we struggle with the
inward sinful condition of our hearts, so that we are experienced in
having a life of being effected by His condescending love then we are
going to naturally have an understanding of this spiral effect of
turning this pain inward and so that we understand this anger at
ourselves and the danger of experiencing more grief than we should. So
that this kind of condition will effect our confidence in His
forgiveness, kindness , and acceptance of us. Our faith is very small
when we are in this condition, because when we turn our eyes off of Him,
then we are not depending upon Him for everything. When we do not have
deep longings for Christ we do not experience the grace of being
effected by His love. So we must deal with our being forgiven,
and our anger in mortification. Some of our anger is valid, and some is
not. Our righteous anger is part of salvation since we love Him, we
will experience the grief of His being rejected, which is being angry.
So that we must tell Him about this, leaving it at His feet, rolling it
over to Him. And we must pour out our hearts to Him, even our selfish
anger. So that we learn to morn over our anger at a specific individual
focusing instead on rite thing and, we learn how to be angry at the
condition of the world , the state of man in general, and the loss
suffered by others as a result of these paradigms. We need to learn how
to think thoughts after Him, so that we will have the rite reaction to
the rite circumstance, but not being over come by the passion of our
anger. When we learn how to be angry, by being under the illumination of
the word, then we will have a controlled anger. Because anger is not
just expressed in outrage, but it is mixed in all of our focusing on the
eternal verities. So anger is important in the growth of our
convictions and a concern for others as an advocate.
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Forums / Main Forum / Re: You can defy God by dedicating yourself to becoming a biblical expert.
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on: March 14, 2008, 05:24:54 PM
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MBG, that's where I stand on this too..and I think that's where Patrick was going... Pride
is a hard thing to see in ourselves..it feels so powerful and it is
intoxicating. with each arrival as to say and revelation of small bit of
His word that I receive I must be very careful for it's proper
intention. It is extremely natural and with great ease I can become
puffed up by how I " have arrived or understand something"..even on
paper as it's tyoed out in this sentence it looks hideous of me. It's
one thing to spout a view or believe by experience or because it seems
right but with God's word it becomes even more individualized in it's
application to where we are. One experience or example of a
particular scripture or letter in His word may be illuminated to me but
not to anyone else for that particular season. We get so excited by our
arrivals but they are but small steps..this excitement turns into
"exclusive experience" and the passion is a bit refreshing but quickly
over time becomes self run in the flesh..and then we become proud. And
then others spirit pick up on it when they are sensitive to such
things..usually because of a "been there and done that too".  I
saw somebody post something which I thought was very interesting in
another thread. They said ,"They wish sometimes the OT was not
translated because of Christians inability to decipher the difference
that they are no longer under the law.". I find this to be more my
experience now.That is the season I'm in....and it is very disturbing
watching "Christians" become experts in the OT when they have no clue in
it's real application and full intention was to lead us to the NT. NOW I
must become an expert in both to protect myself from their heavy
burdens. Or can I just let it go and let them experience the anxiety
until it dawns them like it did me.. either way is fine.  Yes
and i consider any ones experience to be subject to the understanding
that one gets by the Spirit and the word. And these invisible paradigms
are not to be neglected tho. So we live with a lot of uncertainty about
the influences that are a result of our surroundings so that we actually
are formed by our experiences as we are confronted with the pressure of
these paradigms. We do not like to think outside the box. And we cannot
find a way to experience these invisible influences as if we were not
caught up in the thinking of the present day. We are molded by being
pressured to be a part of the thinking of the people who are in our
world. But there must be a place of refuge where these ways of thinking
are challenged. If we always thought the way we are taught and the way
we are pressured to think by having a discerning view of all of these
inside the box determinations then we are caught in the mold of the
present worlds system. So we must find a place that we are free to think
in ways that are not fully understood by even ourselves so that we are
to be stretched to be renewed in our minds. If we can get to a
place where we are free of what others determine us to be, then we will
be able to break out of that box. And these unseen paradigms are where
we learn to dwell in, by being enraptured in these new spiritual
dispositions. So if we learn to go into that kind of heightened desire,
then we will get more of a circumspect vision of being outside the box.
We must be raised to the heaven lies.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 13, 2008, 07:21:08 PM
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Spiritual desire is only understood when we
are resting in Him alone. God has designed our testings to cause us to
be more focused on a relationship with Him as our Father because of the
work of Christ on the cross. We are in a communication in Him as the
life of the Vine draws its life from the roots. When we know God we know
Him to be the only refuge we have when we are in trouble, the only hope
we have for the future, the only one who knows us on a level of
completeness so that when we pray we receive new life and a new
spiritual knowledge by Him and through Him so that we are resting on His
word alone. If we cannot trust His word alone, or that by which all
other truth is measured , then we cannot really trust God, and we cannot
rest fully on Him alone. When we have a need, it must be met
by Him alone. Because we are never able to measure the inward struggle
by our circumstances or by the people around us, even in that
connection. If we want to be enabled to have an understanding of who God
is and who we are , then we are going to need to know Him by His being
our peace. So that we are fully focused on Him alone. We are not changed
by any other connection alone. We have the means to trust in God alone,
by our hoping in Him in His word all day long, by our waiting on Him
all day long, by our crying out to him in the morning, noon and evening.
We are fully able to have all of our social needs met in God. It is not
in our connecting with others that fills these needs, but we are to
fully get all of our needs met in Him so that we can be a means of Him
to bring others to Him to fully rest in Him. We are an open book , read
of all men, not of the letter that is from a principle, but we are a
living letter of the Spirit. So when we look to God alone we
learn that when we know His Spirit as the only person in our lives that
renews us, gives us assurance, and causes us to walk in connecting to
others , then we will not harbor the grief of being responsible for our
own lives. We must come to the place where we are controlled by the
Spirit so that we forget ourselves, since we are not able to do one
connecting to others in ourselves. The world system of men is
measured by social communication. So that those who are the most able to
put together the eloquent speech are usually the ones who control the
purse. So that in these connections we are always going from being
envious to jealousy, to being in self grief. And this is how the needs
of people are met in the world. It is that they are living for a social
connection so that they will get up the ladder of success, and they will
be looked on by others as the icon. We know that this is a good moral
system in which there is a level of giving to charity that rivals the
church. So that we can envy these people as the movers and shakers. But
we are com ming with a message that is not eloquent. Our message is not
for the ears of the movers and shakers. Our message breaks the
connection. We must be enabled by God to bring the message of
the gospel in all of its simplicity. Unless we are trusting in God
alone, then we will have other desires that are in conflict with the
simple gospel message. We are not trying to sell ourselves, our message
or trying to package a product. We are bringing the simple message of
Christ crucified to a world who connect for all of the wrong reasons.
The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of sinners. We are not
the power, nor are we the eloquent communicators. We are the pitied
sheep who are so fully convinced that Christ power is enough to save and
change a person that we cannot help being simple. Dont be duped , the world hasnt changed, just become more sophisticated. Dont trade that historical simplicity. Having a form of godliness but denying the power.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 10, 2008, 03:46:12 PM
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Very interesting TB, I can see that you are struggling with the whole concepts of acceptance and spiritual value.
As
you know teaching is really everything in the christian life. If we go
wrong in being taught then we will stray in our walk. As we have been
saved from deception we are being saved to be taught. So that we long
for Him to teach us as a way to repent of thinking that we know enough
on our own. All man kind stray when the thought life is not correct. We
know that we repented in order to have a relationship with our first
love. But we really did not understand that our repentance was from
being completely passive so that we were enabled to repent by the grace
of repentance. And then we are easily led astray by our forgetting the
grace that was given us and we begin to teach ourselves to repent on our
own. But as we long to be taught by Him alone then we will understand
how we need Him like we needed Him as our first love. Then we will long
for Him alone. Repentance is a work of God, and we go to Christ for our
repentance. We are taught by Him, and that is mostly what kind of
repentance we do on a daily basis, by learning HIs ways are not our ways
and His thoughts are not our thoughts. So that our longing to learn is
from the supernatural grace that we experienced in loving Him as our
first love. This is from the Psalms.
What i want to do i do not
do and what i do not want to do this i do. This is not two equal wills
in which the apostle is struggling with. Other wise then there would be
no cause of doing either good or bad, but two equal wills cancel out the
will. Rather this is a condition of being a sinner. So that there is a
cause of anything that exist prior to its existence. Without a cause
nothing would exist. If the mind and its thinking was not prior to
willing then no one would be responsible since the choice was not
premeditated. And if this was an equalibrium representation in the
apostles argument then Christ would not be the cause of being able to
will good. But it would be the repentance itself. Which makes no sense
at all. But the apostle is simply saying that sometimes he wills what is
good and sometimes he wills what is evil. And the cause of this deli ma
is not whether he has entered a new ability in Christ to limit this
struggle. But rather that because of the condition of his mind and
understanding and his sinful desires he is going to stuggle with this
for as long as he is in this body.
He is the same person in
chapt 7 as he is in chapter 8. Because since he has this struggle he is
unable in himself to get past this condition. So he must look to Christ
as the cause of him being in the position of being righteous. Because
what ever good he wills is because he was declared rite by Christ
perfect will. So that when we receive the new desires at new birth, then
we are enabled to choose good because the new desires are the cause.
But since we are entirely corrupted, then our choices are never
righteous enough to merit salvation or be rewarded for being rite. We
are only righteous because of Christ. So we look to Christ as the cause
of all of our goodness. If it were our repentance then we would need to
not half to repent of the same struggle all of our lives since we would
be measured by our ability to repent. But if Christ is the answer to
this struggle then He is the cause of our position of being under no
condemnation in our ongoing struggle with sin.
We are unable to
repent. So we long to repent as a way of life. And we cannot even repent
on our own as believers. Rather our tendency is to always go astray.
But as we long to go his way, and we long to be taught by Him alone, we
are being given the grace to change. So that repentance is being taught
by Him by our longing in focusing on Him. Then when we become more like
Him, we do not desire to do those things that are sinful.
We do
not get humbled unless we experience the power of sin. And Paul was
explaining this to us in that struggle. Pauls soul had a dreadful
condition. So that Paul felt powerless to do anything about it. So that
we have this condition by our sinning in which we experience a
helplessness to be able to do one good thing. So that surrender is not
what we will to do, or being in a state where we do nothing. But
surrender is not being deluded by how we view our selves as being
sinful. When we struggle with a besetting sin we are brought to
desperation. We cry out to God for deliverance. Now we would not know
our sin unless we experienced its power over us. And we would not know
His goodness, forgiveness, or unfailing love unless He brought us to the
grace of forgiveness and pity and mercy of being in our inability.
When we feel He pities us, we are beginning to understand His Fatherly
care. We draw close to Him as one who knows that Christ is the only one
who can make us whole or give us an ability to work. When we learn that
He is gracious even when we are failing then we will magnify Him.
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6563
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Forums / Main Forum / Re: Teaching tithing to Christians is faithless desperation taught by Godless me
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on: March 08, 2008, 02:48:00 PM
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I do not think it is clear whether tithing is
a new testament command. Just like anything we do it can be taken to an
extreme. If a man is poor then tithing is not a very smart thing to do.
Especially if he has other dependents. But there are people who tithe
10 percent who also take money from others in the system we have set up
in this country. There are extremes like asking people to take an oath
or a pledge and then saying that its not binding. My personal belief is
that if i take an oath then i better pay up . My personal feeling is
that God can discipline because of this. I do not believe that a person
who looses everything means anything other than thats what happens in
life in general. Its not whether you lose everything , its really when .
I believe that non of us owns anything including the church. Its all
Gods. And God does what He wants with it. Including taking it away. So
if we loose it then it wasnt ours to begin with. The point is not
whether you have money but where is your heart and mind at. If its on
money then when something bad happens you will probably apostatize which
to me is that most people who live with these values are just acting in
the christian life. The self righteous are always wishing that you get
what you deserve, and the really bad sinners are trying to take it.
This is what the fight is on the inside of a person as regards to
monies. If you have the money to give then give. God may not bless you
with giving. Some people hoard money. And they give the 10. When it all
comes down to it the example of giving is always what teacher does first
rather than the teaching itself about giving. (Missions)There really is
no pressure. The pressure is not on the leaders but on God. Pressure
comes from accusing and blame. The pressure of time should not push
christian love and giving out. There is no condemnation. That attitude
is will ruin your life. So i may not participate in something that i
think is not a good example. We really own nothing so its not a problem
if we have nothing. Now i have a few things and God has promised to
provide, so worry, blame, and accusing are from the enemies.
If you see your brother in need and you dont provide then how say the love of God dwells in you?
Pray,
reading scripture , serving others with your time and money are do not
make good financial sense. So the church is a house of prayer. So then
all of these principles that God has layed down about how to treat one
another are practically impossible with it comes to monies. We are to be
giving not taking. So how can we give and not take and have enough
monies to do what God requires? Well there are such things as its Gods
church its His monies and He does what ever pleases Him. And there is a
thing called faith. This is all there is. We are helpless to do anything
else. Unless we want to incur Gods discipline. This brings me a lot of
grief but i am praying.
If you are having a problem with
the message of money in the church then encouraging to witness in order
to get more tithers is not a good motive. I try to stay away from that
kind of thing because to me its getting in between two people who incite
(love of blame and accusations from a matter of human design),
quietness in this case is what i pray for and long for and its just bad
christianity. I love the Psalms and that is not resting. I mean its
always Gods way to reform. He was always reducing the size of Isreals
armies in order to be glorified. Now this is a generational thing here.
Some generations people flock into the church but in some there is just
reforming the church. So we got to get back to free grace so that we
mortify the heart in regards to worldly riches. Then we will see true
reformation and motives that are pure.
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6564
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 08, 2008, 10:03:33 AM
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Very good post TB. Sometimes its very hard for
us to think , feel and act in a state of peace. I mean this is what we
are looking to do in a perfect world. But judgment is never ongoing in
the sense that God is as we say, absolutely sovereign from eternity
past. His word is what is the only sure voice we can trust in looking
into the future. And yet we are so unable to apprehend the length and
depth and the height of His speaking love. But He speaks in that
unfailing assurance in a way that works in us a supernatural ability to
live above our circumstances. But yet we are not fully able to
consistently live in that paradigm. Since we are given to thinking in a
way that is fallen from our first estate, we have lost the fellowship
with Him in this consistent way. And our way now is filled with doubts
,fears, and distance, so that we groan with all of the created order of
things. And our outward man is fading away. We are so desperately
holding onto the imagination that we still have a physically whole
experience as we look for ways to deaden the physical pain in our
decline. And in the reality of eternity we are headed for a home where
there are mansions, full joy, complete and consistent health, and an
unimaginable reality of existence. Yet, we long for length of life in
this struggle as we slowly waste away toward death. We are miserable
creatures that must pass through the consequences of sin.
Desire
is how we know who we are. What we desire is worthy of our time. And
what object we desire most is only worthy in itself. So that as we
Glorify God by enjoying Him we find in Christ the only object worthy of
our constant focus. So that what we believe and trust in is the working
longing of our desires for Him that will determine who we are. What a
man thinks in his heart is who he is. Man is unable to look on the
inside, only Gods searching spiritual knowledge can penetrate that
paradigm whether it is self examination or our views of other men. God
examines the heart, the seat of all desire, and His word creates in us a
clean heart or a heart that is trusting in His worthy life alone. We
extol Him, we long for Him, we praise His perfect manhood so that we are
being changed by looking at His worthiness , feeling unable to do
anything good in ourselves. We must not create other gods.
And
there is this love -hate longing in a heart that focuses on Christ. We
hate what is evil and we love what is good. So that we have a hatred for
every evil way in us, which never leaves us in this life, and we hate
the evil around us. If we do not reject what is wrong then we embrace
it. So that the battle starts on the inside for us to be worthy of
understanding the proper desires that will determine who we are and our
eternal existence. This is self examination.
We must learn how
to think properly by being under the pleasure of His wisdom. It is more
precious than rubies and will bring about joy unceasing. His wisdom is
compared to a woman that is more attractive than any of the women that
have been born. So that when we embrace this wisdom we are fleeing the
adulterous. His wisdom will lead to rejoicing in the wife of thy youth.
We embrace His wisdom and we will have more than just a knowledge of how
to compromise in a relationship or how to conduct our selves by that
knowledge. Our wives do not take a divine place. We must daily die to
our imaginations of having any relationship that is worthy to be
compared to Him. Our understanding of these christian relationships does
not come from a book or another man necessarily, but from our
understanding of what it takes by our battling with the world flesh and
devil so that we have an understanding of what we desire most. If you
have a problem of expressing your true feelings then become so
impassioned with Him and you will go from this shy , quiet person to
someone who has deep convictions. We will long for the ways of
spiritual wisdom having our hearts knit together as one. Not living in
this paradigm in a some fashion is an evidence of selling out to an idol
for covenant love. But there is room for falling into sin or living on
in certain level of grief as Solomon or our forefathers who held slaves
or not rejecting modern day imperialism.
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6566
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 07, 2008, 04:29:42 PM
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I
guess the short form for the above would be: "Until we desire Christ
for Him and Him alone, we will never know true fulfillment." Which I
would have to say is true, but there is such thing as the accursed
meantime. That is where I still have to deal with all that plagues me in
the best ways and the best methods available to me and trust that
Christ will meet me somewhere between the hither and yon of it all. This
is not a "Christ and..." program, it is a "Until Christ Fully" program.
For, no matter how we slice it in this discussion, you will note that
it always seems to hinge on me starting something or stopping something.
The "accursed meantime" I spoke of is that period where I am trying to
discover which things to stop and which things to start. That's how it's
been for me since practically the beginning of my Christian walk.
Unless the Lord raptures tonight or I go home to be with Him, then that
is likely the way it will be for some time to come.
The
good news is that Christ has already walk the perfect life so that we
have His righteousness. So it is really much worse than we think it is.
Because if there is something we can start that He has not already
started and accomplished then we would have the constant irritation of
Him always waiting for us to "take the first step." But since our
condition is much worse than we think, then there is no way that we can
please Him without trusting in His righteousness alone. Luther
tried to climb the steps of confession and transformation but was always
back to square one, being under the bondage to the law and his
conscience. Whenever he had fully confessed his sins as he imagined then
there was even more sins that he remembered that were on top of the
sins that he had confessed. And so , he found that he could never calm
his conscience enough to be able to say that he had done his part. It
was not just that he saw that he needed to make the first step , but he
finally realized that he was under the obligation to keep the whole law,
so that he was not just looking at one sin, but he was looking at being
condemned by the entire law. So Luther learned that unless he had a
full counsel view of being accepted, then he was just trading one sin
for another. Christ has already chosen the righteous and the
unrighteous. He has already given us complete complete acceptance by
cleansing us of all our sins at the cross, so that sin is really no
longer an issue. We have been definitively sanctified even tho we are
still dealing with sin. So we are now in the family of God, in
which we can come to our Father by Christ in full acceptance. When we
know of that acceptance, then we will not feel the accusations of the
enemy who is working to use accusations to destroy our life in the
house. Now we can offer Him our sacrifice of praise, and we can go
before Him and ask for all that we need. He has sworn in His covenant to
give us all that we need to be assured of His love for us. Now the
covenant love of God overshadows the grief that we experience in all of
life s trials. Instead of feeling the sting of death, we can be filled
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We have access to His throne in
order to be able to rest from our own works so that when we become proud
of doing something good, we can overcome our independent spirit, and
not dwell in that inordinate desire. Because that dwelling on our own
goodness will lead to being distant and having a sense of independent
trust. We will over a long period on not checking this in our struggle
with our flesh develop grief that will be set in our disposition so
that we will always be dealing with the life style that that disposition
has trapped us in. So we must begin to check our independence at the
door and preach to ourselves that it was His power alone that brought us
blessing, it was His love alone that caused us to triumph, and it is in
the feeling of helplessness that will cause us to be rid of this ugly
self. We must know that He has already earned the rite to be praise in
this selfless way if we are ever going to get a handle on our rebel
cold disposition. We really don t start anything, we just need to get
with His completed program.
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6567
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Forums / Main Forum / Re: Teaching tithing to Christians is faithless desperation taught by Godless me
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on: March 06, 2008, 08:13:30 PM
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The true church is mostly poor people who don t
have anything either because they don t make enough or they are to busy
serving others or they are giving it away. You cant take it with you.
The Lord has a way of teaching this lesson. He will just break your
legs. That is those who bring business principles into the church.
Notice
the Lords direct protection of the christian poor as opposed to the
pride of the self righteous. (In the psalms the wicked and the self
righteous are under the same warnings.)
Psalms 10
1. Why do You stand afar off, O LORD ?
Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?
2. In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted;
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
3. For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire,
And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD.
4. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him.
All his thoughts are, "There is no God."
5. His ways prosper at all times;
Your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.
6. He says to himself, "I will not be moved;
Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity."
7. His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression;
Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.
8. He sits in the lurking places of the villages;
In the hiding places he kills the innocent;
His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate.
9. He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair;
He lurks to catch the afflicted;
He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net.
10. He crouches, he bows down,
And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones.
11. He says to himself, "God has forgotten;
He has hidden His face; He will never see it."
12. Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand.
Do not forget the afflicted.
13. Why has the wicked spurned God?
He has said to himself, "You will not require it."
14. You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand.
The unfortunate commits himself to You;
You have been the helper of the orphan.
15. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer,
Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
16. The LORD is King forever and ever;
Nations have perished from His land.
17. O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear
18. To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed,
So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.
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6568
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 06, 2008, 11:35:37 AM
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Yes Hubie, but i am a boob man. My wife of course.  And the rest of you lighten up. Freud
is in my mind from a long time ago. And growing up with that kind of
competing philosophy has given me the opportunity to expose the problems
with our present belief systems. As you know a long time ago i did
suffer from clinical depression when Freudian methods were used ,so that
i was under the illusion that opening up about my secret life would
bring lasting healing. Which did not give me long term desire
satisfaction but only gave me desires that had an end in themselves. The
desire for a child hood need to be filled was exactly that end. I was
on a journey to have healing by receiving in that desire for healing.
The end was self fulfillment. So that i had to go beyond that
philosophy. But really this design of Freud has not really changed as we
come to the 20th century. It just has become dualistic. In other words
the terms have been changed in order to create the illusion that these
Freudian paradigms are really equal with the scripture. Instead of the
deep dark secrets , we have the question , How do you really feel? And
then we do not originally focus on the past of a parent, but we end up
there . So that every term is the antithetical of the past term of the
Freud paradigm. Which leads me to the reason i memorized the whole book
of Psalms. The simplistic thing here is that each desire we
have has an end in itself. If its strictly a moral end in the system of
desires, then it will go no farther than the principle that perpetuates
the desire. If i have a desire to get over drinking then that is all
the desire ends in. If i have a desire to talk to someone about my
drinking , then thats what the desired fulfillment will be. If i have a
desire to label my neighbor then that is what desire will be fulfilled
in me. If i have the desire to get someone to help me overcome an evil
desire that plagues me then that is the end of that desire. As you know ,
every thing in life that we think is what we will be like. Which is
that everything that we desire is what we are. And there are evil
desires that compete with good moral desires . And there are good moral
desires that compete with christianity as well. Because whatever system
of belief that there is that does not have an object worthy of being
desire for its own value will determine the end of our reasons to live.
And every system that has ends of just a moral system will be a system
of death. Remember that the law brings death, why? Because the desires
are strictly desires that have a beginning in a principle and end short
of being righteous. And if we are under that kind of teaching then we
will be having no real deep living desires for Christ. If we have
desires that have the end in themselves then these desire will
ultimately end in our being self fulfilled in our healing. All
the new birth desires only have one object. That is Christ. So that if
we dwell on creating desires that have a moral reward, then we only want
to end with that reward. So that these moral system desires really
compete with the life of Gods glory. The desires of a pharisee will not
come to pass. Since we revel in our desires for self fulfillment no
matter how moral we are they will not be seen. But if we long for
Christ, in our longing we are wishing to be fully retributed in Him,
then we shall see our desires fulfilled. Because these desires are worth
more than a system of pay for play. These desires are inflaming
desires. So the next time you hear teaching, ask your self what the
desire is in you. If its to avoid a problem, or heal a relationship, or
avoid discipline, then you will have that desire fulfilled and that will
be all you get. |
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6569
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Power of The Word
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on: March 05, 2008, 05:51:15 PM
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If i told you that everything around that
exist was spoken by God from eternity to be as it is in the movements,
and in the building of all of the structures by the work of a mans
hands, then you would be convinced that God is very powerful.And yet
this should convince you of Gods eternal power manifested in Him being
present in all of our circumstances by His word. So that all of the
positions of the different physical things in your circumstances were
determined to be in that place by the will of another person, so that in
order for these different things to exist in the place that they appear
in your present circumstances, God even spoke from eternity in mans
choices, then you would conclude that Gods will could not be thwarted,
nor could His purpose be thwarted so that His word was more secure than
any other sound you have heard. He could be trusted to have that kind of
power when He speaks in that still small voice through His word. So
that the only response would be to bow down and worship Him as He has
spoken. And in worshiping Him we desire more than any thing that He
speak in that worship. So then you would be overwhelmed by His speaking
so that you would be laid in the dust.
And what visible effects
we see as a result of His word have no relation to time since we are not
able to exist in this physical universe as long as God. So that if we
think of the message of the cross to save us . And we say that its power
is unthinkable and without opposition in its proclamation in God
attending it with His saving grace then you would not think that message
as powerful as the physical universe transpiring by His word. But yet
that message is more powerful since it has an effect upon those things
that you cannot see. And even tho you do not have a powerful experience
in its proclamation yet it is doing its work on your soul. Since God
speaks directly to your soul in the gospel message, it is like a hammer,
and even tho we have these very secret undeserved understandings of the
power of the gospel, yet it is working to change the very bottom of all
of the human powers that we use to exist as a person. The word in the
gospel breaks the hardness of a heart in an unseen way, and its
determination to work is promise to work by His Spirit to change us from
one glory to another. It is the most powerful voice in working purpose
that we can be exposed to.
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6570
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: March 05, 2008, 04:47:30 PM
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If God promises to give us every thing we need
to have a life of resting in Him then we are at some point going to
experience a profound change in our disposition in receiving this
experience of peace and life. Now we know that if we pray according to
His will that He will hear us. And the power of His resurrection will be
available to us in the quality of that eternal life that we experience.
So we know that if we have that available then there is a reason to
find out how to live on that power. Which is the accumulation of
receiving His promises by His Spirit in the inner man. We must be
receiving a gracious communication in an enlarging sense. If we are
enlarged by meditation then as we grow in our understanding of His
Spirits work through His word in the enlargement of grace then we will
experience a freedom in our circumstances in which we feel the control
of the Spirit in enlarging the feeling of being free.
We must
have a real change in how we feel, or we must be able to have an access
to that power for a real experience.So that we can say that we had
fellowship with our Father ,through Christ ,in the Holy Spirit. And if
we experience a sudden change in our disposition then we are going to
know that God is working in our present circumstances. But that working
will be us knowing that He is working for our good in spite of what
everyone around imagines it to be. We know that we can have this kind of
assurance since we are filled with His word and we have experienced
this heavenly instant change before our circumstances were changed as we
view it to be a change.
Gods working in our hearts is a
knowledge of the divine. We have an access to the spiritual condition of
our rising and falling illumination of the assurance of that condition.
If i came down with the cold, i would know since i would experience the
conditions of a cold. A stuffy nose, a head ache and a general feeling
of warmness. It should be the same way in the powerful working of the
Spirit on our hearts as if we were under His influence like being under
the negative influences of the cold. We know this by our understanding
of His communication to us in the accumulation of the scripture in the
meditative state of en largeness through the gracious baptisms of joy
and peace.
Now we know that we are fully accepted by our Father
by His working in us in this way. We can describe it as He is putting
His arms around us. But in this confidence that we experience through
this enlargement of grace, we lose a certain time control in our normal
anxious wanting desires. And we feel as if our eternal senses of peace
that passes all understanding has brought us into the realm of eternity
as if our Father has brought us to feel , need, long for, and have a
vision of this timeless existence. We have this kind of risen power to
dwell in and on.
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