1531	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment?	on: March 05, 2012, 03:26:16 PM
Yes i think there is something here where the prophet is in between two honorable things. And the question is just what is the purpose of venturing out to the nations? This matter of conquest and the saving of a potential enemy. But a prophet was a person who got a message from God and gave that message to his own people. But here God is asking Jonah to be an evangelist. So this in my opinion was not a normal situation. Where was the historical basis for this kind of approach? But we are talking about a direct communication with God and yet at the same time not really assuring Jonah. Like Moses God reasoned with him and gave him Aaron. But Jonah was asked to do something out of the ordinary and was not really reassured in how God approached the situation. I believe this is teaching in how God dealt with this prophet was through silence to the point where Jonah felt like dieing. Because a prophet was one who was longing for a new word from the Lord. Now i will be honest. Ive had these times of silence where ive had no assurance of what God was directing me to do in the direction he sent me. But there is a difference between struggling in our understanding of going in a direction and enjoying the promise of the covenant that gives us confidence in the direction we are going. I guess in a sense we are subject to depression and self destruction without God giving us direction and assurance or a new word of salvation." Let me hear your word spoken to me. Let me hear loud and clear your word of salvation." This is the word of assurance that Moses was given by God. So ive been drawn in this way in between God speaking loud to me and my wanting Him to speak. But along the way without a clear word yet He gives us special assurance. In other words we are anxious in some ways and then we seek Him through His covenant love and we are in  between the event we are longing for and how God has directed us to that event. But in between we are encouraged to seek God for God. And so God gives us a little assurance as we seek the event. Here God is really stretching this prophets faith. Now dont say this is ot nt prophetic differences. I ve had this kind of experience so many times that its foolish to think otherwise. And in fact the apostle says that Gods Spirit witnesses with our Spirit in assurance. And the Spirit does this by a full joy of glory. We see the apostle praying for the church that their eyes might be enlightened. And he prays that they might know the love of God that surpasses understanding! So we can enjoy the communication of God in being assured as the basis of asking what we want and He will do it. And this is really the drawing effect of learning how to pray. We seek Him through His promises to us and He assures of in these supernatural ways. But when we ask for big things it take years of battling and seeking. We learn to pester the throne of God. Thats what Moses says... "I will not let you go until you bless me. " We find the same thing with Israel or Jacob wrestling with God. And this is the description here of being submerged under the water of the trials of the world and learning how to persevere at the bottom in prayers.
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1532  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: March 05, 2012, 08:43:20 AM There is a lot of big questions to ask in this story Kk. First to say that our brother Jonah was acting foolish and God was teaching him a lesson is to accuse a righteous man of being a fool. But we are forbidden to accuse our brothers for being fools. At the same time God did not say it was wrong for Jonah to be angry. So we should not accuse Jonah of doing wrong for being angry. If you look Jonah did obey God. But at the same time Jonah struggled with his being human. And in a sense its like Christ who said if it is possible let this cup pass from me. But we know that Christ always did the Fathers will and that question that Christ asked was not evil. I believe that Jonah responded accurately in presenting his confidence in God in reasoning with God about His covenant promises. At the same time God did not say that He provided all of Ninevah with His covenant promises. But the point here was that God told Jonah that He would cause the city to repent and that He wanted Jonah to preach to the city. If you were approached by God with that proposition would you respond immediately? Obviously i do not think that God has presented other people directly with that proposition. So even tho God presented Jonah with that proposition it shows that God uses weak people to do exactly as He decides. Because this only happens when God speaks in this way. The other interesting thing here was that God actually came down to Jonahs level. God was speaking to Jonah as another man so to speak. Now this is interesting. Because instead of Jonah being told what to do and then we approach this as punishment we actually see that God developed this relationship with Jonah as Jonah responded to God in prayer. Let me stop here but i want to talk about his idea of being transparent before God in this condescension.   Reply Quote Notify

1533  Forums / Main Forum / Re: mosaic law on: March 03, 2012, 01:39:18 PM Let me draw on my past experience with people telling me what to do. First i remember being taught that God loves everyone so His love is promised to everyone. So this brought me to think that if i was not reduced to begging in some way or being coy about what i said then  i was not showing Gods love. Then another time in my life i was taught that if my actions did not match what i said then i had no rite to demand compliance to the existence of God. Well this lead to me denouncing my own brothers in Christ and never getting to the good parts of the gospel. The third misconception that was taught me was that God is sort of a missionary God and He puts me in society for the purpose of bringing them into the fold so to speak. This is just another dishonest approach and is condescending, disrespectful in a personal sense. So this made me focus on God as a good God who gives us the words of salvation over a long period of time without any reason to see the need to be firm and unbending at some point. In other words im in this thing as a vessel of God not necessarily someone who just does things out of a free spirit. lol So i believe that we must always remind ourselves of all the doctrines and not get mixed up in methods. Because once we start going down these side roads we become the people who are not genuine. We think people are stupid and do not see rite through us. But we must learn to be firm sometimes and very giving at others. Sometimes we must avoid people. And ive learned this about being with other people. Its not the one thing we say and its not our sinning but its our reactions as human and how we are as being different. Sometimes people look like they are put off by us but they are watching us to see if we are genuine.But the most important thing is to be transparent before God so that we will know how people are being in the position of abuse to these different social orders and know how we are to identify with them as we define the reality. lol   Reply Quote Notify

1534  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: March 03, 2012, 12:36:59 PM Let me talk about this voice of God. The word of God orders everything in this world. But since we do not see that word go forth from God we must see that it produces all of the order in this universe. The word brings peace to Gods people. This is the order of the natural causes in this world.And God destroys the disorder to produce a refuge for us.  When we come before God we come to see that our lives are ordered by God in this renewal motif. But God speaks to His people. There is not just an invisible renewal going on but there is this great clash of evil and good that we experience. There is a great clash between the powers we trust in and real divine powers. And within us is this turmoil like an ocean. Gods voice of reason is like the great winds and thunder that shakes the earth. His voice is like the ravaging whirl winds that display such mysterious power that man is left helpless in the midst of its forces. Gods voice shakes the dessert and floods the earth. We see that when we come before God we come before a mysterious renewal of our peace. We are made to feel a sense of awe as we face the voice of God that determines all of our lives. We are so easily led astray to think that these things about us are of our own making. We trust in these mysterious as if we could search them out. We are resistant to the idea that these mysterious powers of God ordering events are explainable. And when we resist these mysterious powers we do not give God the glory that He deserves. Why does God destroy the earth with big weather disasters? Why does He place us in the middle of these things and the consequences that turn our lives to another direction. Because God speaks in this mysterious way in our hearts. God comes and will not be silent.  We must fellowship with God when He provides us with this mysterious power. We must praise Him for destroying the valuable things. If we are in a disaster then God has provided the basis of our being given an experience where He Himself has brought us to silence. This great God destroys all that we trust in so that in that silence we are face to face with His power. There is no where else to look. God has leveled the earth with His mysterious winds and there is no sound of man left around us. If we find God then everything around us is put in order. In the stillness of Gods powerful voice we are like a baby weened from his mothers milk. We are experiencing a rest beyond this earth. Let God be God in disasters. Rejoice that He has stilled everything so that He might fellowship with you in that hour. Give Him special praise so that you might enjoy His coming to you in this time of peace. There is nothing left but the sound of His mysterious voice. I was a victim of a natural disaster . Reply Quote Notify

1535  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 J. Calvin on: March 03, 2012, 11:31:14 AM 9. Let the waters... be gathered together This also is an illustrious miracle, that the waters by their departure have given a dwelling-place to men. For even philosophers allow that the natural position of the waters was to cover the whole earth, as Moses declares they did in the beginning; first, because being an element, it must be circular, and because this element is heavier than the air, and lighter than the earth, it ought cover the latter in its whole circumference.64 But that the seas, being gathered together as on heaps, should give place for man, is seemingly preternatural; and therefore Scripture often extols the goodness of God in this particular. See Psalm 33:7, ‘He has gathered the waters together on a heap, and has laid them up in his treasures.’ Also Psalm 78:13, ‘He has collected the waters as into a bottle.’65 Jeremiah 5:22, ‘Will ye not fear me? will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand as the boundary of the sea?’ Job 38:8, ‘Who has shut up the sea with doors? Have not I surrounded it with gates and bars? I have said, Hitherto shalt thou proceed; here shall thy swelling waves be broken.’ Let us, therefore, know that we are dwelling on dry ground, because God, by his command, has removed the waters that they should not overflow the whole earth. If God did not order second causes by His word and He gave other powers of natural selection as equal then there is no reason to believe that He orders sin to reign. If He does not will second causes then He does not will some things as destructive but these things are purely psychological. lol  So we see that there is no need to give attention to detail of the gospel of grace because God does not give attention to the fall and destructive nature of the earth.mbG Remove Reply Quote Notify

1536  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: TT.UU.LL.II.PP.s still bloom on: March 03, 2012, 11:24:23 AM If God were not absolutely sovereign then He would need to force our wills as equals. Of which you seem to cover over in your arguments that Gods determining all things forces our wills. lol But we know that if we have a scale with equal weights balancing out mans will and Gods will we have no action at all. We have equilibrium chance. No cause for the will. This is why all our arguments as to what powers hold weight stem from this metaphysical proposition that a weight heavier than another weight produces the cause of the movement. We see that there are added weights as the cause of the scale dropping on one side. There is always a cause prior to choice. But if we do not acknowledge this pre determined weight then we produce a reason for chance to move all things. If chance moves all things then nothing moves all things. So we must decide based on nothing what powers move things. We decided by a divided mind. We decide by two line equality. The power of the object as focusing on some outward reason.. like alcohol or cigarets etc are a force upon no cause to produce the sin. lol. In this chance scenario we turn truth upside down. Through chance choice we blame the alcohol for producing the sin. lol But we must always look to the source of anything by understanding real causes. We cannot find real causes if there is not movement on the scale of equal powers freedom. So we must see that any thing exist because God existed from all eternity. And God does things by His will. Anything that is reality outside of Gods will is something that we decide as the cause of it being in existence. A chance motif is that we are gods and the objects cause us to act.    Reply Quote Notify

1537  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Freedom For The Addicted on: March 03, 2012, 11:05:17 AM Quote from: Gouda on March 01, 2012, 10:08:17 PM I stumbled onto this thread because I clicked to see what Priscilla Joy was posting about.  I'm so glad I did. MBG, that was AWESOME! I've shared this before I think, but I used to chuckle about that line in Phillipians where Paul says, "...and if on some point we disagree, then God will make things clear TO YOU."  Sounded pretty pompous to assume the others must be wrong, but then I was in a situation where I absolutely KNEW I was following God's will, and the others that opposed it...well, I had to come to the point of thinking, "Well, God will make it clear to them eventually."  It's total freedom in that point where you no longer care about pleasing the critics or the knife-throwers. Thanks Gouda... i seek to open myself up here in lite of my experience of these meditations over the yrs. So what is going on that cannot be seen in a physical sense as an experience is opened up in my writing as to my own essence of who i am. And all of this is determined by what i think. I think it would be a terrible experience if someone was led along by an equal... or emotion...or how trouble comes to them. But our essence is what we think we are. Our faculties that fall in unison are the pleasure we experience knowing who we are . We are not controlled by other people or outward circumstances but by our metaphysical understanding of our image. Remove Reply Quote Notify

1538  Forums / Theology Forum / Gods Love on: March 03, 2012, 10:50:07 AM Ive wanted to start a thread on this because i believe this transcends all of mans needs and brings us to live in the heavenlies. Gods love is the reason why we experience things that are beyond all of the pleasures we are exposed to in this world. If we live in comfort we live in the communication that God has revealed to us that He is very personal to us as a Father because of His love. The only way we can experience being accepted is if God loves us beyond our ability to please Him by what we do. The only way we can be at peace and rest in ourselves is if God comes to us moment by moment as a God who loves us beyond what we think we deserve or how important we think we are in this world. Our level of delight or pleasure is limitless. The reason we feel so cold and unable to find joy is because we have not focused on Gods love for us. God wants first and most of all to begin to develop His special communication with us of His personal love of us. He is not concerned for any other thing that we might think needs to be accomplished in this life. What we think we need in being successful is always limited by our lack of attention to Gods eternal love. If we first seek to understand who God is we must be convinced of His love that goes beyond this earth and all of the experiences we have. I will seek to explain Gods love so that we will begin to rejoice beyond what we have experienced in the past.I will try to eliminate all the reasons as to why God does not accept us as we are. I will show that Gods love is the basis for our understanding of our purpose and who we are. I will show that if we did nothing in this life but focus on Gods love that at some point the powers that we experience would be more real than all of the relationships we have to powers in this world and we would be consumed by pleasure.We never change Gods love..redirect it..order it...make it better ..or are able to mix His love with anger. But God determines His love as the basis of His love being real.   Reply Quote Notify

1539  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: The Real Gospel on: March 03, 2012, 10:32:44 AM Quote from: beacon2 on February 29, 2012, 12:53:28 PM Quote from: mybigGod on February 28, 2012, 04:38:17 PM I do not think we can mix righteousness. So we have Christ who is intrinsically righteous and we have us who are never intrinsically righteous. Even in eternity our righteousness will continue to grow and so Christ is the only one who we can say that has immutable righteousness as He is God. This is why salvation is not really a transaction that gives us Christ righteousness but in being justified we are declared in a legal sense righteous. This is why we can still be corrupted and yet stand in a position of not being guilty or deserving of shame.   I agree with you MBG that salvation (the birth of the Spirit) does not give us Christ righteousness. But salvation is much more than a legal transaction under the New Covenant. Because what the new birth does,  in fact,  is make us intrinsically righteous in that our inner spiritual being, the essence of who we are as children of God, is made brand new by our God, when we come to believe in the Son. It is only when God makes us new creations in Him that His Holy Spirit comes and indwells us. The parable of the new wineskins speaks to this.  Luke 5:38 Therefore, our standing before God is not as corrupted beings,  but as saints who in this world may still do corrupt things.  There is a difference. b2 Everything in salvation is real to us under Gods eternal legal declaration. If the apostle was to say that God had saved us but we still in some way face condemnation in how we approach our self examination then our examination would work in some way to help change our eternal legal position. But in any command we find our only ability in Gods justification of us. The reason the apostle made this bold declaration of us without any other reason was that we might experience the love of God as a love of real defense. God must be faithful to His word as the basis of not condemning us. We must understand that the basis of our acceptance is what He has promised us and not what we do in order to please God. Because we live in the reality that His word or promise produces in us all that He wants us to do for His glory. If given the proposition that love is an action we have no reason to equal our love action to His loving us. But all of our comfort is found in focusing on His promises to love us. If we look to God who is all in all then we only find real love when God is exalted. If God is exalted then we find that our love is actually an expression of death. Anyone who seeks to be acceptable by another man.. things...or even trusting in themselves will find that death will rule. But when we exalt God and focus on His attributes then love is our only choice from death. So the world is defined by those who worship idols.. dead idols who become like them...dead people ... and those who exalt in Gods love from eternity and experience life. This life is not sourced in this world but it comes from love that is eternal. Not man made. Gods love expands from the earth to the heavens. It spans beyond the earth through all eternity. Gods love cannot be encumbered or bound.But His love is only given to those who live by His name.   Reply Quote Notify

1540  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: March 03, 2012, 10:11:38 AM Religion can be very dangerous. Because the world is always a place where everything is twisted and beyond help or understanding. But religion can present a person reasons for going from one extreme to another. It can present a man with more burdens than even a reprobate man lives by. Religion can give men the proposition that they are able to subdue the wills of other men and make order out of chaos. In fact we find there is a certain spirit of libertarianism that a godless man lives in that can mimic the religious freedom that is in Christ. There are various reason to trust in self with religion added to it. Because spiritual understanding is something that is secondary to the success a man seeks. I think since we have placed so much attention on the will as the basis for spiritual success that we have suffered from our lack of attention to the supernatural and the detail of essence. Any system of government.. religion...economy..marriage... is not equal to the success of the gospel but must come under the power of the gospel. So you only  have two realities in this world. The nations raging and its inhabitants plotting in vain or Gods love. And the gospel demands that Christ rules over these other institutions as the basis of that success. This is why the world and all of its attention to these institutions fails to see the goal of success because it does not get to the heart of the problem. This is why the bible does not argue in the old economy of a Monarchy for the success of the new economy under democracy. But rather the bible focuses on the bigger picture with a detailed description of those powers that do not effect us personally through human touch but is like an invisible man that enters our house as the trouble maker. So it presents the invisible things as the real problems that cause all the fights in this world. It gives us the cause of the problem as men who worship other gods and shows just how prevalent sin is by how they weave their schemes to destroy society. The bible goes beyond hand shakes, human connections and social clubs and presents the reality of sin that unravels all of the institutions of man so that the world is seen in all of its turmoil. And so we as religious people who understand the potential of destruction that lies in the human hearts are fully aware of living in a world that is turned upside down. We are not moved by the disjointedness and uncertainty that we experience. But rather we find only one comfort. We find only one solution to the problem. We live in a real dogma... a real trust that is what other men brand as foolish and without a basis of reality. We know that the world is divided by blessing and cursing.      Reply Quote Notify

1541  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: March 02, 2012, 10:04:54 AM Jonah was suffering the evils of Ninevah. And i am sure that he had reason to be angry. And if you look even in the most trying times when he was swallowed by the whale he cried out to God as a Psalmist and not a reprobate. The ot is a book that describes God as both loving and vengeful. God only has one will. When ever the gospel is preached or brought to a city there are two responses that happen. One is a saving response and the other is Gods judgement on sinners. These two responses happen to the people who are listening to the same message. Jonah was both angry at Ninevah and was timid in his call to preach the gospel there. So he was not just preaching a positive message but Jonah was also preaching about hell and Gods retribution. "Those who turn to worthless idols turn away from Gods love to them. BUT I" Now here is the prayer of Jonah and this story is not a moral story but its a story about Gods redemption. Jonah is a type of Christ who endured the schemes of wicked men in order to save them. I am simply following the covenant ot wisdom motif. After this prayer Jonah obeyed the Lord. What was the prayer? Salvation comes from the Lord. This is not only a declaration from Jonah but its an ot way of saying that it was Gods time for Jonah to go and preach. There was no other option. Its in the name of the Lord motif. Those who swear by Gods name will praise Him. WILL PRAISE HIM. No option. This is the ot forming the doctrine of predestination. Obviously Jonah had success in Ninevah. Because God prepared the people in a fearful way. Jonah preached both warning and salvation. After Jonah had preached and warned the people of Gods judgment he went out and was angry that God did not judge those who did not respond. Because a righteous man is concerned about the abuse in the society.  If you look God sends this scorching wind. This kind of wind is never prepared for the righteous. In fact if you look in the Psalms the scorching wind is judgement on the wicked. God was gonna judge those who rejected Him. I think it shows the human frustration of a saint who suffers from an evil society but is being faithful to preach both salvation and judgement. It shows how God preserves his people in wicked societies and how He responds to the elects human weaknesses.  Ive heard it said that if a person wants to enter the ministry so bad that he is not willing to go another way then its suspicious. Most of the good ministers want to preach as the last option. I will further describe this ot wisdom discipline motif.   Reply Quote Notify

1542  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 J. Calvin on: March 01, 2012, 03:28:57 PM 6 Let there be a firmament58 The work of the second day is to provide an empty space around the circumference of the earth, that heaven and earth may not be mixed together. For since the proverb, ‘to mingle heaven and earth,’ denotes the extreme of disorder, this distinction ought to be regarded as of great importance. Moreover, the word רקיע (rakia) comprehends not only the whole region of the air, but whatever is open above us: as the word heaven is sometimes understood by the Latins. Thus the arrangement, as well of the heavens as of the lower atmosphere, is called רקיע(rakia) without discrimination between them, but sometimes the word signifies both together sometimes one part only, as will appear more plainly in our progress. I know not why the Greeks have chosen to render the word ςτερέωμα, which the Latins have imitated in the term, firmamentum;59 for literally it means expanse. And to this David alludes when he says that ‘the heavens are stretched out by God like a curtain,’ (Psalm 104:2.) If any one should inquire whether this vacuity did not previously exist, I answer, however true it may be that all parts of the earth were not overflowed by the waters; yet now, for the first time, a separation was ordained, whereas a confused admixture had previously existed. Moses describes the special use of this expanse, to divide the waters from the waters from which word arises a great difficulty. For it appears opposed to common sense, and quite incredible, that there should be waters above the heaven. Hence some resort to allegory, and philosophize concerning angels; but quite beside the purpose. For, to my mind, this is a certain principle, that nothing is here treated of but the visible form of the world. He who would learn astronomy,60 and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. Here the Spirit of God would teach all men without exception; and therefore what Gregory declares falsely and in vain respecting statues and pictures is truly applicable to the history of the creation, namely, that it is the book of the unlearned.61 The things, therefore, which he relates, serve as the garniture of that theater which he places before our eyes. Whence I conclude, that the waters here meant are such as the rude and unlearned may perceive. The assertion of some, that they embrace by faith what they have read concerning the waters above the heavens, notwithstanding their ignorance respecting them, is not in accordance with the design of Moses. And truly a longer inquiry into a matter open and manifest is superfluous. We see that the clouds suspended in the air, which threaten to fall upon our heads, yet leave us space to breathe.62 They who deny that this is effected by the wonderful providence of God, are vainly inflated with the folly of their own minds. We know, indeed that the rain is naturally produced; but the deluge sufficiently shows how speedily we might be overwhelmed by the bursting of the clouds, unless the cataracts of heaven were closed by the hand of God. Nor does David rashly recount this among His miracles, that God layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, (Psalm 104:3;) and he elsewhere calls upon the celestial waters to praise God, (Psalm 148:4.) Since, therefore, God has created the clouds, and assigned them a region above us, it ought not to be forgotten that they are restrained by the power of God, lest, gushing forth with sudden violence, they should swallow us up: and especially since no other barrier is opposed to them than the liquid and yielding, air, which would easily give way unless this word prevailed, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters.’ Yet Moses has not affixed to the work of this day the note that God saw that it was good: perhaps because there was no advantage from it till the terrestrial waters were gathered into their proper place, which was done on the next day, and therefore it is there twice repeated.63 Hes got the right focus.. Gods essence is seen in second causes. God prevents the destruction of the earth by determining the formation of clouds and by holding back the rain. If we depended upon natural selection then the mysterious nature of weather would be an argument upon extended time of evolution. mbG Remove Reply Quote Notify

1543  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SALVATION... Thomas Goodwin on: March 01, 2012, 03:16:00 PM Seventhly; All the evidence and witnessing of all or any grace wrought in us (though not accompanied with joy unspeakable and full of glory), as a love in us to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, they are all of his working, and from him. Do our own consciences witness to any eminent holy disposition that is written in our hearts, such as the apostle professeth he found in his own heart, even to a willingness to be accursed from Christ, for the glory of God, and the salvation of his own countrymen the Jews? The evidence of this to his conscience was from the Holy Ghost, without whose testimony joined to that of his conscience, his conscience would not have witnessed it.  Natural conscience witnesseth the things of the law naturally in man, Rom. ii., yet gracious dispositions it cannot. Here the apostle himself speaketh himself concerning this matter: Rom. ix. 1-8,'I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.' When he says, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, he speaks it not only because the Holy Ghost was he that had wrought that grace in him, but that, in point of his conscience witnessing of it, it was the Spirit who was the cause of that witness. Conscience indeed was the faculty that was the substance that witnessed this to his soul, but it was in (that is, from) the Holy Ghost so testifying with it. And therefore if that or any other grace in us be evidenced to us, it is he that is the eminent witness, and causeth that grace to speak so loud as to witness it: Rom. viii. 16, 'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.' It may be read ' witnesseth to our spirit,' and 'witnesseth with our spirit.' And though man hath a reflecting faculty as a man, which (1 Cor. ii.) the apostle indigitates, 'None knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit that is in man,' yet the discerning the things of God, and of his supernatural working in a man, the apostle in the same place attributes to the Spirit, as the person who works all, and makes all in us, and also reveals all that to us which he worketh.  He writes first all graces in us, and then teacheth our consciences to read his handwriting, which we could never do without his light. In 1 John v. ver. 6 and 7, you read of six witnesses, 'three in heaven,' and ' three on earth,' who are witnesses of two things: 1, Christ to be the Son of God; 2, To believers' hearts of their own salvation, as in ver. 1, 'Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,' which also is evident by comparing ver. 18, where both these two are put together, as the things believers might know, through what he had written in this epistle, especially now last written in those immediate foregone verses. Now you find there in these 6th and 7th verses, that the Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, is mentioned in either catalogue; first, among the witnesses in heaven, 'The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost;' and yet again this Spirit, that i9 a witness in heaven, is yet numbered with those that bear record on earth, too. Ver. 8, ' The Spirit, the water, and the blood ;' and he, the first, and as the principal of these on earth, is set before water and blood. One among other reasons I have apprehended for this, is that he efficiently is the grand witness with those other two on earth in their witnessing; and to whatsoever they bear their testimony, this Spirit joins with them in it, and brings home their testimony into our hearts; as without whom and which their witness would be of no force. As, for example, if Christ's blood, when believed on, witnesseth to our hearts, by giving our hearts ease and peace, it is because this Spirit joins with it in its testimony. If water, or the new creature (begotten of water and this Spirit, the holy Spirit working as water in cleansing us), if that do testify to us, it is in virtue of •the Holy Ghost's conjecture with it, and irradiation of it, and it is that which gives its validity of testimony to it: as Rom. viii. 16,' He witnesseth with our spirits;' that is, our graces (or that which is born of the Spirit, which is spirit), and in the same 1 John v. 6, the apostle resolves all into this, as the foundation of the other's testimonies, 'It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.' It is he therefore that bears the name of witness, xar' i^o^ijv, as being the ' Spirit of truth,' as Christ also calls him. And truly in that Rom. viii., where it is rendered, 'The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits,' the Holy Ghost, in the original, hath so composed the words, that they import his witnessing to our spirits as well as with our spirits; and that witnessing with hath a respect to the witness of the other two persons, the Father and Christ, as with whom this Spirit should witness to our spirits ; they all three, the witnesses in heaven, conjoining their testimonies together to persuade our spirit (that is, our souls and graces in them), ' that we are the children of God.' And if so understood, then the witnessing both of the Father and of Christ unto our salvation is eminently attributed to the Spirit, who only is named, as also in witnessing the truth by Christ, and the especial honour thereof is given to him, which accords with that fore-cited speech of Christ, John xvi. 14,15. And thus he is the great witnesser, both of heaven and of earth, to this of our being the sons of God. This is one of the best writings in all my reading. Remove Reply Quote Notify

1544  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: March 01, 2012, 01:40:06 PM People have a two dimensional kind of circular reasoning. They look at the christian life as if God was the law giver and He stepped back after giving the principles of living so that they live as if God was sending them a text of the 10 things to do everyday. The other dimension is their performance of those ten things. Ive even heard people say that at the end of every day they sort of text God back with a check on each of the ten things and their performance measurement. lol  But God is not a principle or a way to be accepted. Rather God actually wants to develop in us a secure fellowship with Him by reasoning with Him. God is not so scary that His demands always come up as a way to prevent us from reasoning with Him. Rather God wants us not to think of Him as something we read on a page but rather to allow Him to fellowship with us in a relationship. So God must be able to overlook our sins... i dont mean that He is not concerned about our sins but that Christ has paid the penalty for our sins. And so its just human in a relationship in understanding how we go up and down from God in sinning that God treats us according our weakness that we are dust for the purpose of loving us enough to listen to us even tho we are not faithful. God is like a father but twice as understanding and more available. Beyond our understanding of earthly love. This is exactly what Hebrews is addressing. The author is addressing people who were used to being special.  Their problem was not a lack of confidence. It was not like the historical relationship that God had with the gentiles. The gentiles come out of a culture that was rude ..crude and plain abusive. The gentiles were used to living below the level of being treated with love. But now in the greek mind we automatically assume that Gods discipline was rather abusive. But the history of Israel and all of the inheritance with all of the physical blessing given to them by grace would preclude them to take these things for granted. So we in a greek mind fail to see Gods faithfulness in the book of Hebrews and are prone to ignore the obvious part of their advantage of all this inheritance. Now we must step back and see how they enjoyed the physical blessings and how God interacted with them through all of these joyful cultural blessings. And we must learn the distinct nature of being spoiled by a loving God who was always faithful.. always available..always loving.. and always gracious.    Reply Quote Notify

1545	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment?	on: February 29, 2012, 09:47:29 AM
Im really not a Calvinist- Methodist. After memorizing so much of the wisdom motif i do not believe in the interpretation of these ot concepts in a Greek motif. Im more of a covenant -Calvinist. I believe we can offer something with our rite and and take it back with our left hand. But if youve ever memorized the OT worship book then you will have in your mind clear lines drawn between law and gospel. These lines are drawn by a very detailed explanation of sovereign grace in these images of the physical culture of the Jews. I believe the author of Hebrews is not warning the Israelite in this discipline concept but actually making them more sure of Gods covenant faithfulness. This is why in Hebrews we are looking at the ot images of Gods faithfulness to turn all of their sorrows into good. Behind every dark providence God is smiling in His discipline. I really am not taking anything back by a  two line greek motif. I am actually using clear teachings in the OT and giving you the boundaries we are taught about these images. I will further explain these teachings.  1546  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: February 29, 2012, 08:48:26 AM I was listening to a teacher who was discussing the discipline passage in Hebrews. Now i do not all together agree with him about the purpose of Gods discipline. I understand that God disciplines those He loves. But i do not think its a love in the sense that it does not involve His covenant promises. I do not think you can separate this passage in Hebrews from all of the prior arguments about God purposes in our lives to do good to us and not evil. Let me say that in the ot wisdom books anytime we find God judging someone in the church it is to separate the wheat from the chaff. So God has a purpose for judging the unbelievers among the believers. That purpose is so that the church might praise God as receiving new life. But when we are taught about our Shepherd we are distinguishing a totally different motive. In this sense we are distinguishing between God blessing His children in the discipline and God cursing the reprobate in the discipline of the church. The attitude of faithfulness to Gods grace is what distinguishes between wishing a curse or wishing a blessing. So we can insinuate that the church that those believers who are being disciplined should endure alone or without the encouragement and support of Gods people. In essence we are cursing our brothers. Or to miss represent what the scripture teaches we are at war with our own people as if we were cursing them.  So we must be clear about this relationship to our Father as to His discipline. Because discipline is a normal part of living in the house. But we must also distinguish between Gods motive to judge and His motive to discipline in grace. So we see that God actually disciplines us in order to heal us. 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. The author has just talked about the discipline and then we come to the process we go through by Gods discipline. This is an wisdom book concept here. What this context is about is the general attitude of conquest in a corporate sense. If you look you will find that God promises to be a consuming fire. That fire never comes back on His own children. Because the ot compares Gods deliverance to His word of salvation to us that is purified seven times. We have this image here of Gods words producing a level path for us in that His words can endure any opposition. This is why in this context we have a curse on the words of the wicked. So in this sense God is a fire that destroys our enemies on every side. This fire is the Holy Spirit sent out before us to make level paths for our feet. The experience to us is of Gods examination of us as not only a Father but a physician. He is doing a heart work on us through stirring us up through His faithfulness out of His promises that have gone through the fire to destroy all of our enemies. Now there is not distinction between the God of the OT and the God of the NT. Blessing and cursing are part of Gods eternal salvation promised to His elect. I will further explain this process of positive discipline.        Reply Quote Notify 1547  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: February 29, 2012, 08:28:32 AM Quote from: stonelifter on February 28, 2012, 06:59:24 PM You are a very deep man. I respect that. Glad you come train here sometimes my friend! Thank you SL... These are really not my ideas but just scripture. But i would write just to give one person hope. Because my motive for writing is this fire in my belly. Reply Quote Notify 1548  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: The Real Gospel on: February 28, 2012, 04:38:17 PM I do not think we can mix righteousness. So we have Christ who is intrinsically righteous and we have us who are never intrinsically righteous. Even in eternity our righteousness will continue to grow and so Christ is the only one who we can say that has immutable righteousness as He is God. This is why salvation is not really a transaction that gives us Christ righteousness but in being justified we are declared in a legal sense righteous. This is why we can still be corrupted and yet stand in a position of not being guilty or deserving of shame. This means that our works if put under a micro scope are filthy rags before God. First because its really not a matter of how much positive obedience we can produce on this earth. Its a matter of being corrupted beyond our ability to be accepted. The fact that death reigns through us prevents us from meeting the standard of loving God with all of our hearts.. mind and soul. Obviously if there is any defect in our love then it falls short of the standard of Gods righteousness. So in studying the 51 psalm we find David appealing to God beyond the legal standards to be cleaned beyond human ability. David wanted to be pure beyond his ability to be pure. The fact that David deserved death was not even an issue in a legal sense. David was looking beyond that and beyond his own ability and appealing to God for a righteousness that had to come to David and not from David. What does this say? That our confidence is not in ourselves to be pure enough to meet Gods standard of purity. Our confidence then does not give us a true standard by which we see how we can glorify God in the future. But because the only standard is outside of us then even when we sin we draw on His standard that is beyond what we could atone for in our own ability. We must see that God wants us to be transparent before Him so that we know as a matter of knowing who we are that we have no ability to please God at any time in our own confidence. But we appeal to God on the basis of a righteousness that is not intrinsic to us. This is why the apostle tells us to come boldly before the throne of God.   Reply Quote Notify 1549  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: February 28, 2012, 03:45:59 PM A lot of people define my relationship with them as if what i say is some kind of conspiracy. As if i am trying to argue for my own well being. But this is why if you do not know how to pray in a way that gives a sinner a perspective as involving himself personally in things another person believes as distinct from going in a specific direction then yes you will react like you do. But we really find in our most difficult days with ongoing sin that we can either live according to what another persons level of belief or we can fix our eyes on Christ and push through to overcome all those who oppose us. I find over the yrs that most people draw back when faced with their own evil tendencies that either increase in the day of the trial or are dragging them deeper into sin. But it has been my experience that this is more of a reason to be bold in my approach to God.  I approach this christian experience like a boxer. But i take very seriously the training ive had in the art of punching where it is the fatal blow. Because i realize that i am not opposing someone who wants to just send me to the canvas. But he wants to destroy me by a head shot. So i always approach christian conflict as if i was in danger of dieing in the ring. This is why it is terribly important to be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove because we do not fight against flesh and blood. But i would not miss apply this as there is a devil under every rock. That would not only be foolish but it would be to my disadvantage. Instead i actually do spar a bit in private. Sometimes these prayers get rather violent and destructive. The only thing i can compare it with is being in a boxing match were there is a lot of punching going on and the cries we have are deadly head shots. If we try to pray using our own arguments then we grow weary and eventually we will drop. So we are in a head to head conflict with an enemy who will attack our most vulnerable spots. And we are fighting in His strength because when we are in the middle of the fight and we are struggling with sin the enemy will force us to be timid because of our sin. But we have all of these arguments given to us to show us that the spiritual fight has already been won and we see that in the enemies advances to us is his preparation for his demise. If we thought that our victory was in our own power then we would be double minded and allow the enemy to advance when we were sinning. But because Christ has already decided the outcome we find that He alone is drawing them into a conflict that both their advancing and their losses work against them. So we train like a boxer who is focused on the prize. The prize of the high calling of God. And we do not use our own wisdom but we advance by tearing down strong holds and everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We do this by intense prayer. We do this by involving ourselves in the battle of prayer. We get into the ring and we throw punches that hit the mark with every cry. We are like a spiritual boxer with an intense focus on dropping our opponent. Reply Quote Notify 1550  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Freedom For The Addicted on: February 28, 2012, 03:22:23 PM Quote from: Priscilla JOY on February 26, 2012, 09:39:53 AM Quote from: mybigGod on February 25, 2012, 12:00:49 PM Im writing this because there is one psalm that i have meditated for a million times and i can crawl into your mind. Its a psychological profile i have taught myself. Your in love with Jesus but your close to someone who you cant avoid because the circumstances are that way. But this person loves himself. He lives like he is an upright man. He does very good things for people. But you know in your heart by living with them that they are not displaying christian love. They are idol worshipers in private. Everything you believe in is opposed by them even tho they do not really know it. Because idol worshipers are blinded by their own dead idols. They live to oppose all of the desires that you have. They live by the voices of every one else and they have never really connected to you in a spiritual sense. They have never really heard what you were saying. So you are wanting to go away. You are wanting to find comfort in a far place. Because actually your as far away from them as being in a far place. This is why they are opposed to you but do not seem to be opposed to you. They speak in a peaceful way but in their hearts they actually are stabbing you in the heart. They are trying to paint a picture of you before others that is not true. Because they love their idols they love dead idols and you love the living Lord.When you rejoice in your heart they hold onto your faith and that keeps them going. But they are holding destruction in their hearts. They do not know but they want to destroy your faith and destroy you. So you experience the most intense hatred. Because all that you love is of no consequence to them. They act like they are in agreement but in their hearts if given an understanding they would see their hatred for you. This is the private wars that people experience. There is no way out of this but to go through it. We are in Christ who has obtained victory over the devil. We do not stop but we advance to have all things put under our feet. If we turn back we will begin to spiral down. We only have one hope.. one faith.. one love. We only really worship one Person. So we must be true to our convictions even tho we find such hatred for who we are by the closest person to us. We must know how to resist so that we know our desires will in the end be rewarded while the desires of the wicked will be thwarted. We know that if they got their desires that it would destroy everything about us. We have been given the gift of resisting, hating .. and praying until we have destroyed every thing that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And in resisting in this way we find peace .. rest and comfort. We must come to that place where we acknowledge this adversity and we must overcome it in the name of the Lord.   Thank you so much mbg. I don't even have words to express how right on this is and how it spoke to my spirit along with your previous post on Feb 7th. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. God bless you for speaking what the Father reveals to you. Awhile back I was thinking about something you had written (I don't even remember what it was) but I was alone with God as I was thinking about it and I heard Him say one thing. He said WORD. It was like He was describing the gift He gave you or how he saw you or perhaps how His Word pours out of you. I don't understand what it meant, but that's what I heard and I just wanted to tell you. Thank you again for speaking the Father's heart toward all of us. It doesn't go unnoticed. Thank you PJ this is very encouraging to me. Since i started a project to memorize the book of Revelation i ve experience tribulation like never before. I am still plodding along.. its like holding my own baby... Your encouragement has come at the rite time. God bless you sister. Remove Reply Quote Notify 1551  Forums / Prayer Requests / Re: Eric on: February 28, 2012, 03:18:51 PM Wow this is just unbelievable... Eric has been such an inspiration to me of the gospel of grace. I will pray for him. Reply Quote Notify 1552  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 J. Calvin on: February 28, 2012, 02:26:50 PM 4 And God saw the light Here God is introduced by Moses as surveying his work, that he might take pleasure in it. But he does it for our sake, to teach us that God has made nothing without a certain reason and design. And we ought not so to understand the words of Moses as if God did not know that his work was good, till it was finished. But the meaning of the passage is, that the work, such as we now see it, was approved by God. Therefore nothing remains for us, but to acquiesce in this judgment of God. And this admonition is very useful. For whereas man ought to apply all his senses to the admiring contemplation of the works of God,56 we see what license he really allows himself in detracting from them. 5. And God called the light That is, God willed that there should be a regular vicissitude of days and nights; which also followed immediately when the first day was ended. For God removed the light from view, that night might be the commencement of another day. What Moses says however, admits a double interpretation; either that this was the evening and morning belonging to the first day, or that the first day consisted of the evening and the morning. Whichever interpretation be chosen, it makes no difference in the sense, for he simply understands the day to have been made up of two parts. Further, he begins the day, according to the custom of his nation, with the evening. It is to no purpose to dispute whether this be the best and the legitimate order or not. We know that darkness preceded time itself; when God withdrew the light, he closed the day. I do not doubt that the most ancient fathers, to whom the coming night was the end of one day and the beginning of another, followed this mode of reckoning. Although Moses did not intend here to prescribe a rule which it would be criminal to violate; yet (as we have now said) he accommodated his discourse to the received custom. Wherefore, as the Jews foolishly condemn all the reckonings of other people, as if God had sanctioned this alone; so again are they equally foolish who contend that this modest reckoning, which Moses approves, is preposterous. The first day Here the error of those is manifestly refuted, who maintain that the world was made in a moment. For it is too violent a cavil to contend that Moses distributes the work which God perfected at once into six days, for the mere purpose of conveying instruction. Let us rather conclude that God himself took the space of six days, for the purpose of accommodating his works to the capacity of men. We slightingly pass over the infinite glory of God, which here shines forth; whence arises this but from our excessive dullness in considering his greatness? In the meantime, the vanity of our minds carries us away elsewhere. For the correction of this fault, God applied the most suitable remedy when he distributed the creation of the world into successive portions, that he might fix our attention, and compel us, as if he had laid his hand upon us, to pause and to reflect. For the confirmation of the gloss above alluded to, a passage from Ecclesiasticus is unskilfully cited. ‘He who liveth for ever created all things at once,’ (Ecclesiasticus 18:1.) For the Greek adverb κοινὣ which the writer uses, means no such thing, nor does it refer to time, but to all things universally.57 Each day is a new day of salvation. This is the word of creation. Or its Gods order in how His newly created hope in this word of deliverance is the object of our faith.  So the morning word of deliverance is the hope of the former night. Within the 6 day time frame we rise from the day after the first day to ascending up to worship on the first day of the next new day. What does this order remind us of? It reminds us that true glory is like the rising of the sun in the morning. Its set on its course because God is faithful in this word of deliverance. So in the teaching here of our focus on Christ we are applying Gods creative renewal of all things in the natural order of the universe to the spiritual renewal of the inner man. When we see the beauty of the creation we are looking at the light of the glory of God in it being the evidence all around us of His promises in the creating in us the new man. So we go from hope to hope or from morning to morning. This is the holistic emanation of Gods person. mbG   Remove Reply Quote Notify 1553  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Psalms study... on: February 28, 2012, 02:35:54 AM Ps. 52 Psalm for teaching Why boastest....relating to Doegs treachery 1 Sam. 21 7  22 18 mighty man....man in his physical strength, tyrant ... sept...lawless one ..anti christ goodness...loving kindness or grace God..El..Elohim in all His strength and power continually.. all day long mischief...malignity evil...breaking up all that is good or desirable ... injurious to others Selah...connecting the deceitful tongue of Doeg to the imprecation upon it. devouring words.. words that swallow up..1 Sam..22 18 destroy...take away ..pluck out... root out...fig..anabasis...gradual ascent...an increase or emphasis or sense in successive sentences. Selah...connecting Gods judgement with righteous onlookers. righteous... righteous ones the man... strong man that made not God his strength... 13 rebellion God ... Elohim trusted...confided...to confide in as to be secure ...without fear wickedness... wealth Thou hast done it... David ascribes all the glory to his God Thy name... Thyself Thy saints...some codices.. Thy Beloved One Mahalath...the great dancings Remove Reply Quote Notify 1554  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: February 27, 2012, 03:01:42 PM cont... let me talk here about this ot context in relation to Gods elect and God as a King over Israel in a national sense. Because we see this analogy of God punishment and we confuse it with Gods special grace to His elect. Because in a sense God is the Shepherd over national Israel. Now this kind of punishment has a repentance from dead works in that message. The warnings of the Shepherd disciplining Israel was that He would send them into exile if they did not tear down the high places. But this is not the same personal relationship that God shared in the word of deliverance motif. One was a warning of destruction as punishment the other was a clear promise of God being faithful to His elect by acting on their behalf and turning the bad into good. So we see that Gods will is one will in this covenant motif.  Reply Quote Notify 1555  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: difference between affliction and punishment? on: February 27, 2012, 02:52:31 PM God has defined punishment as a curse. Punishment is for law breakers. If you start at the point were we are in heaven you will see that God wipes away every tear from our eyes. Now this is the purpose of all the grief we receive in this world. Now listen... because we are brought into salvation we now have a Shepherd of our souls. From the time we experience our new birth we begin to go through a renewal of our spiritual parts. This renewal is an experience that we are going up and down. We have high points and low points. But this Shepherd of our souls is leading us to streams of living water. So we have gone from a relationship to Christ that was a odds with Him to now enjoying peace through being justified by faith. We must begin to hear this saving message of the gospel. This is a word of deliverance unto another word of deliverance. The description of this new relationship to Christ is by Gods body parts. Instead of Christ withholding His work for us in our walking in this path He actually is before us as our experiencing redemption. Or He is keeping us from our old relationship to the law as a slave. How does He do this? By speaking to us as the eternal Christ. So when we go through the valleys He is there with His hand underneath us. This promise of His body parts actually is that He not only walks before preparing righteousness but He is at our back keeping us from falling. We stumble and Christ forgives our sins and does not repay us according to our sins but He knows that we are but dust and He deals with us as a family member. When we apply our faith to Gods eternal faithfulness as a covenant keeping God then we know what to ask for and we know how He works on our behalf. So in His faithfulness through His body parts He turns all of our sorrow and bad into good. But we must apprehend and grasp His eternal goodness in that conversion to a new deliverance. He does not punish us but treats us as His children. Reply Quote Notify 1556  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Will someone who reasons their way to atheism go to hell? on: February 27, 2012, 02:32:57 PM Ive never believed that we can intellectually come to God on our own. Because we do not choose something based upon our knowledge of it but because we want it. And if you look biblical knowledge is a knowledge by experience. So it goes like this. God knows future event not just by a foreknowledge that these events will take place but God in foreknowing the event knows it as if it happens when He predicts that event. In other words if something is going to become reality God must see it not in time but in one event in eternity. So really there is no past or present or future with God but God is immutably existent as if the future events had already happened. God not only knows the events but He knows each cell that is produced. He knows each particle of dust that is part of the event. So in God seeing or hearing.. or tasting or touching it is a form of speech in which it describes His knowledge as He works in this world. When we say that God sees its not like our seeing. But its His determination both in punishing and saving at the same time. Because God only has one will. This is why our faith is a analogy of seeing God through God seeing. Or its the description of believing and apprehending Gods purposes in this world in our accepting that God has our best interest. Read that carefully. When we pray we are involving Gods hands.. His feet... His voice and His condescending pity as if there was a man who responded in our prayers as He moves his body parts on our behalf. And in this sense God is revealed through Christ as a faithful covenant keeping God as if Christ work already determined how our lives would be lived to the glory of God. We call this having fellowship with our Father.    Reply Quote Notify 1557  Forums / Main Forum / Re: What porn addiction is and isn't on: February 27, 2012, 12:02:34 PM Let me talk about grief for a second. A lot of people miss represent grief. They are always saying that fundamentally grief are from these circumstances that build up and overtake us. Now here is the distinction. How can the bible be a simplistic message and yet try to complex our lives so that it becomes a bunch of rules that define a person who is under obligation to experience the grief as a by product of not doing things as Christ did? lol  We must understand that to be in Christ is to be delivered from the weight of this world. So the bible distinguishes christian grief from the problems of this world. Now this is very important. A person who is self righteous will attempt to reverse this paradigm. They will say... look out there wow you have a lot of grief. lol But in understanding the context of being delivered we must hold fast to Christ by His promise that even tho we have a lot of problems that He will deliver us from them all. lol So let me distinguish this grief that is a product of doing things in the flesh. This brings us to the heart matters. What does it say?...guard your heart for out of it are the well springs of life. But what does Christ promise us? That He will avenge our enemies. Are our enemies only those who oppose us? No our enemies are those circumstances that press in on us that give us anxiety. Now this is how we know that any one who approaches God comes as a sinner and as he is. Because we know that this is where we learn to distinguish the worlds problems and internal grief. lol A person who has lost connection with the Head has taught himself to trust in his physical senses. So that which builds us gives him the quality of anxiety as the trade off for doing things in his own strength. But what does the apostle say?... we are buffeted on every side yet not dismayed.. we face death all day long but we do not lose hope. Grief and the absence of it then is determined upon our understanding of Christ. It is living in the real spiritual life of Christ in us. It is rejoicing in tribulation. It is being given an great deal of power to oppose all that opposes us.     Reply Quote Notify 1558  Forums / Main Forum / Re: What porn addiction is and isn't on: February 27, 2012, 11:28:51 AM The gospel is radical. It is deeper than a change of behavior. It covers more than being freed from a particular addiction. Its more powerful than we can imagine. Because the gospel frees the sinner so that when that sinner approaches God He comes face to face with Christ Jesus. The gospel gives us a personal encounter with the risen Christ. Its not really coming to the bottom of whatever sorrow we encounter. Its not trying to find that we are able to judge our failure and come to want success because at some point we have found the bottom and we are hopeless. But the gospel divides mankind into those who can see and those who are blind. And if we had a physical representation of the gospel we would be confronted with either a person who is made to trust in someone else to get around in this world or a person who is able to enjoy this world because they can see. The bible does not describe the human race that is cursed with sin as being on a road that is in between finding oneself and being made to come to the end of oneself. But it describes moral people who are on a slippery road to hell. In other words tho we see people who live with comfort and common grace God sees them as greasing the tracks that are heading into eternal punishment. So we must see that any one who breaks the first commandment is guilty of destroying those around him. The slippery slope represents the thoughts and the intents of the heart of the wicked. They literally build up wrath for the day of Gods judgement. But the gospel provides the basis for a man to accomplish things in this world through renewed desires. It describes the righteous man as anything that he touches is blessed. So this is where we find so much miss understanding about the direction we are going and how we are in conflict with those who are completely blind. They want to go in a direction where in the end they set a trap for their neighbors or they lead someone into destruction. But in their desires to be self fulfilled they are only setting up their own demise. But God must save a man and do the work Himself or even a believer would mess it up. This is why we fall short of really persevering with this life. Because we fail to place all of our confidence in Christ. What does Christ say about His sheep? Their faith is like a mustered seed. This small faith is a wavering faith. Now listen to me this is very important. A man who wavers in his faith does not show it by sinning like a bad person. No this wavering is doing things to help God along. Its growing weary by performing things in a mans own strength. Most men will not live a life that is so focused on Christ that they hold fast to the doctrines that have been delivered to them. They will waver and then in losing confidence in their identity in Christ they are like abram who decided not to wait on God and had Ismael. In other words they go down a side road and find that what they have done actually came back to bring them grief. lol Now i want you to think deeply about this. When we are saved we receive all the promises and all these things become to us gifts from God so that everything is yea and amen. But we lose heart. We draw back. We go back and forth into unbelief. Why do we lose heart? Because we lose focus of Christ. We do not fully trust that Christ can accomplish all that we are. So we do not find comfort in all that Christ has accomplished and these gifts become to us things that we work for. In doing this we become hard hear ted and difficult. We begin to build our own success. But God has made us to connect to other people on the basis of building a disposition in us that brings them into a freedom in which we ignite their flame. Oh how evil it is to make things more difficult. How ugly it is to try to put someones flame out. We are most miserable because we are hard to the ways of God.     Reply Quote Notify 1559  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: The Real Gospel on: February 26, 2012, 01:18:56 PM Yes to some extent i side with you beacon. Although lately Kk has been much better and not entirely in disagreement with my position. Ive enjoyed reading Kk. But this truth is something that has come about through much meditation. Although i agree that our sin is taken care of in our position in heaven i do not see this as the primary focus of knowing our identity in Christ. I think the reformers were confronted with the catholic understanding of sin and the need for self atonement. I do not think we can go back to that time. I believe the focus is on overcoming as a holistic goal of grace. That being that we are aware of our circumstances by how we hear the communication that is going on around us. So we are not just people who are kind of search out personal sin in order to qualify in understanding who we are. But rather in seeking wisdom on a daily basis we know reality by applying that wisdom in how we are receiving truth in our world and overcoming evil by exposing the false. There is a reveal language and a wisdom of man language. I do not believe these two world views that stem from how we describe them are not just two choices. But i believe that they are actively opposed to one another. In this there is a cursed way of man and a blessed way of the righteous. The world is actively using things and schemes through blame to force their view on the revealed way. So we must get beyond just a concern for sin and see that we are in a battle about what is real. I believe Satan is always using these multiple schemes to get us to be self defacing in some way so that we will not enjoy these new conversions. There is a tendency in the christian context to get caught up in this circular self destructive way of dealing with each other and the problems we encounter. The christian faith is naturally appealing to those who have no hope. The new life experience is what changes their whole disposition. But there is a tendency through wrong applications of truth to remain in this infant stage. I believe its because we focus to much on the battle with personal sin rather than seeing this as a holistic struggle against the schemes of the devil and the communication wars with the world. Reply Quote Notify 1560  Forums / Main Forum / Re: What porn addiction is and isn't on: February 26, 2012, 10:30:29 AM Let me talk about persevering and the curse. Because of Adams sin God has curse this world and those in Adam. The curse is not only physical death but its being subject in disobedience to Gods eternal punishment for those sins. There is no man who can thwart..avoid..or lessen the eternal curses of Gods law. Every man is under the bondage of the law of God because every man is under the powerful curses of failing to accomplish what is in the law. A curse is simply a desire to be self destructive by not believing in eternal deliverance. God has made it clear that anyone who trust in himself to be justified is going to inflict on himself his own desire to die. And we see this about the world.. men seek death but cannot find it.. they long to die but death alludes them.  Why because under the curse the power of the law is part of the death process. They want to destroy themselves because the pain of the curse is so strong but God determines that hour of justice. Men are not just held in sin but they are held in this destructive relationship to the curses of the law.  No believer in his rite mind would want to get close to the curses of the law. got to go.