3858	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Prayers	on: February 28, 2010, 01:05:45 PM
Father we pray out of a sense of desperation because we know that the dread we experience in this present time will turn into our lifting our voices in song and music in the future. We know that we call to a God who does wonders for His people. So that our hope is in you all day long! We long for Your reviving us so that we will see with our eyes the salvation of our God. Father we will not turn back until you strength has conquered the enemy through us. For you will cause them to cringe before our great God. You will save us from the attacks of these people. Your wonders are performed before us. May your kingdom prosper over our community. Oh Father revive us with your confidence. Place your hand on the Man at your right hand and we will not be shaken. For you have made us to experience life because our union with your most holy One. Make your face shine upon us so that we will be restored. For your glory shines over all the earth from your throne in that glorious picture of your ruling between the cherubim. May your favor and power be upon your king. Father we are made to rest from this worlds troubles as those who pass through the valley of Baca... the  refreshing and calm waters of your present refuge. It is because you have given us a love for one another and you have spoken to us through your servant. Oh God almighty the God of Jacob... may your strength be upon our leaders. So that our families will be shielded from the troubles of this world in order to know that our connection to you as our great Shepperd affords us to prosper in your most glorious presence. For you build walls of protection to keep us from the dread of the wild beast and your life flows through us in this prosperous union. When we experience your power in this way then all things are made to work as you would have us desire them to work. So that we experience your presence among us and we know that you have defended our cause. You make us to know that your love is better than life by our desires for your favor to give us victory in our present cause. We rejoice in your Strength. Father if you were to remember our sins then we could not stand against the opposition. But you have promised to bring us your unfailing love in the morning so that each day we are made more and more to dwell and enjoy your favor for us. We walk in the strength of our Lord who makes our paths level by taking care of us through your great power to control all of our future problems. We are made to hide ourselves in you from all of the opposition of this world. So that we know that you go out before us to plead our cause against this ungodly nation. So that we are made to long for you as our sovereign King. Father may your glory shine forth unto us in our worship to you. That glory that shines from your throne unto all the earth. The glory that we cannot look on and live.But that glory that you have blinded mens eyes with.. you have destroy the enemies of Israel with and that glory that you bring to restore our fortunes. Then the Nations will say ... their God is good. This is why you alone are to be worshiped ... we extol your name all of our lives so that in your light... that eternal truth that begotten in you alone ...and .. that we alone... that we would be exposed to the glory so that we will know that we have been changed by your awesome power from on High. This is what we are pleased to rest in. This is how we know that you bring us true enjoyment in this world. Even tho our hearts fail us... even tho our flesh fails us ... yet You are the strength of our lives and you are our portion forever. As for me it is good to be near God... i will tell of your wonder of your presence.
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3859  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Counseling and how to deal with it. on: February 28, 2010, 10:05:07 AM Kk Quote My experience has consistently been that when i am fully ready to surrender a particular habit/addiction, He removes the compulsion completely and kind of "floats me on a sea of peace" in that area.  No struggle, no will-power, no conflict.  But not long after comes the next "classroom" in freedom. There are a few things here... well... i may revisit some of the other points of experience in your testimony above as well. Here you are saying that you have a concern to be free of a habit. Now there are some things we can look at here. There is the area of physical dependency... the relationship between the inner experience and the image of our appearance ... and the kind of deal we strike in our social connections. The language of our hearts is extremely unlike every other equation in this subtraction and addition. The idea of wholeness and clarity is terribly hard to imagine. I mean that we imagine things as a reflection of our thinking direction and then begin to form an image as a view of everything in this world. There are certain qualified spiritual paradigms  in keeping the proper balance so that we are using the troubles and sorrows of this life in the right way we forget about ourselves as a rational force to expand our abilities to enjoy God and this life to the fullest. And so i want to expand the paradigm of sorrow into a general category from the pain that we experience in lite of our sins... our physical pain..our tendencies that stem from our personal weaknesses...all hurts that are communications we receive as pain and our potential to reason in our mental capacity. What we need to see is that all of these different pains are spiritual paradigms that create that image. When man fell into sin all of these different paradigms of pain and sorrow created a confusion in man so that he lost his ability to reason spiritually.  I think men are naturally deterministic in their view of their image. Men start from the premise that they can live in a safe way in lite of the checks and balances that are presented to them that either qualify them or give them a design to try harder. They do not really consider the tendencies they have in all of the thoughts they entertain in one day. This is because they are blind to the causes of the trouble and the pain. So they start to reason with themselves and their particular personal struggle with sorrow in an entirely irrational fashion. Every thing in the universe is designed by God to create the most pleasant and glorious experience in light of Gods eternal love being expressed as the stream of pleasure in these created casual paradigms.I do not even think that the Spirit can naturally lead a man to this enjoyment. I mean in a direct way. Thats why the Spirit convicts a man of sin and righteousness and judgment. This is why it is so difficult for man... it is impossible unless a man is given these spiritual desires. The most personal nature of experience is in these new desires. I mean there is a perfect reality that dwells in the new order of a man. Salvation gives a man these deep communications that are holistic and each point of focus on these different qualities from the doctrine of God create this order in the soul. I do not even think that we can focus on one aspect... i mean... we can try to confess sin but its really not in the confession itself that we gain a focus on our enjoyment of God. I think that unless we grow in our understanding of living in the light of the glory of God... or we begin to experience these deep desires that have been implanted in us then we will not live in the quality of that life of God that we so desperately need to create our general disposition. Christ has eliminated the obstacles so that we are able to connect to the highest pleasures in worship in contact in focusing over again. So what we are really talking about here is more than creating a path to become different... we are talking about a completely different way of thinking and living. Thanks for your patience....  I hope we can continue to dialogue . Remove Reply Quote Notify

3860  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans Chapt. 5 commentary John Calvin on: February 28, 2010, 08:32:41 AM And glory in the hope, etc. The reason that the hope of a future life exists and dares to exult, is this, — because we rest on God’s favor as on a sure foundation: for Paul’s meaning is, that though the faithful are now pilgrims on the earth, they yet by hope scale the heavens, so that they quietly enjoy in their own bosoms their future inheritance. And hereby are subverted two of the most pestilent dogmas of the sophists. What they do in the first place is, they bid Christians to be satisfied with moral conjecture as to the perception of God’s favor towards them; and secondly, they teach that all are uncertain as to their final perseverance; but except there be at present sure knowledge, and a firm and undoubting persuasion as to the future, who would dare to glory? The hope of the glory of God has shone upon us through the gospel, which testifies that we shall be participators of the Divine nature; for when we shall see God face to face, we shall be like him. (2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 3:2.) Remove Reply Quote Notify

3861  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Counseling and how to deal with it. on: February 27, 2010, 03:57:44 PM Quote One part of the process of the revelation of Himself was to call to my mind the many times i had been rescued from danger or trouble, but ignored it as coincidence or luck.  Another part was to convict me of faults i saw in others but didn't want to see in myself.  (The old take the huge log out of your own eye first so you can see better to remove the speck from someone else's eye.) Really interesting Kk.... Yes i think that is one of the things that we have as a built in mechanism of our conscience. This area is deeply sensitive to what we consider how to respond... especially since there is a lot of guilt to deal with. I dont want to offend you or try to suggest that you are not correct in you experience. But as you know these personal struggles are the same in me to. I know that there are natural ways of thinking and reacting... what i mean is that all of our inward reactions have their own life . And there may be times when we look good to others but the conscience and the level of attention that we give that voice is a way of life. I am only saying this because i believe that just as Christ has come in to us to reign from the moment that we were freed from sin and guilt... i mean... by experience we are all different. Just as He has saved us so walk in Him. Now unless we give attention to these old habits... i dont mean the sin itself... or the addiction... i mean .. the habit of how we know the difference between listening to our new habit and sensing out of that we have gained a desire that comes as connected to the free grace of God. Because we are dealing here with a very powerful stimulus. It is something that will connect us to the love of our Father and it will bring us closer to enjoying a constant fellowship with the Father. As you know the heart language is the Psalms. And when i speak of the heart language i am speaking of the message we get from the principle of identification in how these different attributes of the soul like the will and the emotions and the conscience form in us a general paradigm to receive the grace of God and to live in the grace of God. Paul says that he is what he is by the grace of God. In other words not only is the image formed in Him by the grace of God but his soul exist on a conscious level resting in the grace of God. This is always a matter of the Spirit speaking directly to the soul to direct it to function in this way of power and fortitude. What we see in the language of scripture is reminders and then we focus so that we do not forget... only to be reinforced by the spiritual renewal that builds a conscious awareness that we are learning to long to rejoice. In other words the reigning power is determined to flourish in longing and then the soul is released from the sorrow of guilt and shame. In this way i think we are directing this transformation as applying it to the area that is functioning under the old habit. Blessed are those who mourn..they will be comforted. Now the scripture is the language of the heart and it speaks of the joys of salvation. Or the soul is only at rest when the life of God is in the soul of man... the life is qualitative. That is why the scripture tells us that we were formed in our mother ... i mean ...as a matter of not only the physical attributes but the spiritual attributes as well. So that God determined to use the circumstances in this world to form our inner awareness ... the image and the conscious rest. Now then when we receive new life all of the past treachery is erased. Now i don t want to discount the struggle or the pain involved in this natural decomposition of the old life. But the bible tells us something that is a reality and then we must apprehend it by faith unto assurance. The problem is that unless we are assured of these applications of longings then we will flounder in our trust. As i have stated that we change by identity. That is why we are always encourage to place all of our trust in Christ. This is an active looking into the things of Christ. Ok i am tired.  Remove Reply Quote Notify

3862  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Renewing your mind - does it say how to do that? on: February 27, 2010, 01:09:03 PM Here the apostle starts his exhortations ...while the first part of Rom. he is laying out the doctrine... the promises ... the condition of the whole world that stands in silence before a holy God. Then he goes on to explain the death and resurrection of Christ and the importance of justification by faith ie the relation between works and grace and faith. Then he tells us that the the believer is not perfect ... that in Christ the believer is looked on as perfect. So that we actually stand in the position of no condemnation. That is we live our lives as if no one could separate us from the love of God by our legally being in a position of no condemnation. After giving the believer this fail safe assurance the apostle sets in order the idea that it is Gods salvation and not ours. I think this is where we are introduced to this idea that there is a totally new way of God dealings with us through a renewal of all things. In other words since we are on this side of the cross then we actually have a promise that the kingdom is near... it is already come.. it is in us as a spiritual kingdom and we have everything at our finger tips because Christ obtained everything in His ascending to be king and priest in heaven. This verse is talking about the renewal of all things as the source of Gods kingly rule to be worked out through his subjects or through His church.  We as believers understand that since we are in the last days that the kingdom is upon us. We know what is the next event and we are aware of the direction this world is taking in order for us to actually have everything given to us. God is going to snatch everything from this world and take what is rite fully His.But in the mean time we are not there yet. So that we know there is this time when the renewal of all things is being obtained in these last days as the gospel is going out to the ends of the earth. But this renewal is the kingdom within us. I mean we do not need to be in a place or a time in order to have this king come. He is in us by the Holy Spirit. Even tho there are things that are not right we have His word and His Spirit to help us reorder our understanding to think as spiritual subjects of the kingdom so that we will know who we are in this time. Sometimes we will struggle to be renewed by His word... sometimes it will be a word spoken and then we will have a profound transformation. I mean in transformation we go from one identity to another in experience. Our identity is in Christ but we see Jesus... in being changed from one glory to another... or we are getting closer and closer to going to see the glory of the king. I believe that the kingdom was established before the foundation of the world. But in the progressive unveiling of the kingdom the saints prior did not understand the things that were spoken by the prophets.God does not change... His word is eternal...and now that we have the entire written word of God these things that they wrote in the OT and the NT are in a clearer light... not just in terms of the being on this side of the cross... or having the entire written word at our disposal but also the preaching and the gifts that have established these doctrines so that we have a greater understanding... as the apostle prayed for the church.  And in the use of these books we have experienced a greater glory and it will go on in our hearts until all things are renewed. We will be transformed by the Spirit and the word until we see the glory of God.    Reply Quote Notify

3863  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Counseling and how to deal with it. on: February 26, 2010, 04:36:48 PM What we need to understand here is that God is interested in the long process. Now i know some of us use that as requiring something in us that we do not have the power at that time to do or ignore. But God doesnt come to us with these 5 things to do in order to grow to know Him. God is ... His presence is all we need and then all is well. Because we are not talking about a problem that involves something we do mainly but its a problem of spiritual cancer... its terminal. Or we are lepers ... i mean.. in how we know reality to be in this world. How we view things as to how we feel. There is no temporary holding pattern where we can evaluate enough to begin to change. Its all God or its misery. But God knows how we are made... He sees the spirit part. God knows that if we know who He is by experience then we will be aware when He comes. We cant see God nor can we be certain that God is who He says He is by the word on the page. He is in the business of convincing us that every word He speaks is complete and trustworthy. Not only that but He wants us to know that He is speaking to us in order for us to be wooed so to speak. How can we feel free to know who we are and yet be pleasing to God in a way that everything is made rite in that connection? Well God must present us with that knowledge in His present acting. This is like a communication to us in using human qualities to explain His personal connection to us. But in assimilating this into our souls we begin to grow in our awareness that these human qualities are much greater in ability to work than the normal human potential. So that it sorta produces a supernatural experience of healing the soul. This is our understanding of Christ. If there was someone who was a long way away and He was totally unlike any person we had ever met ... how do you think he would communicate to us... since he had so many ways of communication that we had not experienced prior among humans? He would do it in the form of the closest way to connect with us in how we think feel and act. In other words he would make us want to be more than we could be if we did not know him. He would use the most personal language to connect with us. Well Gods love letter is more than that... the language itself is so personal that it produces in us something far greater than just a description of who He is.  So that we can actually think ...feel and say the most personal things to Him that would cause us to wonder whether we could experience too much... we would almost be consumed in our connection. Think about this.      Remove Reply Quote Notify

3864	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Counseling and how to deal with it.	on: February 26, 2010, 03:52:37 PM
One of the visions that i have as it pertains to the end of knowing oneself is that we spend time getting to know ourselves. I do not think that anyone can really enjoy God unless they enjoy how God has made them. Obviously we are all gifted in different areas. I may not even be talking about our natural gifts ... although what i am talking about is expressed as a matter of a true expression through our natural gifts. I believe that the Spirit gifts us with qualities that come from a gospel disposition. We are really our own worst enemy when it comes to how we view reality and how we fit in with what is the highest form of expression in who we are. I guess what i am getting to is this idea that the gospel is a gospel of freedom. Where ever the Spirit is there is freedom. I dont mean that we are free to do harm but we are free to know that we are able to do anything and yet we do not want to do that thing that we are free to do whether it is good or bad. In other words we are free to learn to understand by experience how we are free in who we are. If God has given us the ability to know Him ... i mean there are things that are clear to us... then He has made us to be free in that knowledge. Faith requires us to be pre occupied with some things ... which is a gospel promise that these things will free us to be all that we are made to be. I am simply doing an exercise of self understanding here. In this matter of experience then we are looking at this free spirit to have a certain relaxation in understanding our weaknesses and our strengths. And this is what we accept at the time as to how far along we are. Now there are things that are dark about us as well. So then.. we need to see that real freedom is something that we find in knowing Christ who is the person who knows us better than we know ourselves. So it has the idea ... i mean as a matter of personal wholeness that we do not extend ourselves more than we are required at that time. I accept the fact that some of us are not as temperamentally healthy as others. That means that we know where the line is so to speak. But we need to know that we are safe in a place where we know we can be completely honest and transparent... before God in prayer. We are very complicated and we are made with a lot of needs so that we must be vigilant as to how we understand our particular line that cannot be crossed. Our problems come in the area of being discontented by the process of seeing things and people ... in coveting something or being jealous of someone elses gifts and appearances. Some of this struggle with these things is both valid and sinful. Because we cannot altogether ignore how we feel about something. God brings things into our lives...not necessarily as a negative temptation but as a way to increase our ability to know by experience our own abilities and contributions to these connections. I do not believe that we are required to figure this out as a entirely a matter of mortifying this away. But there is this art of vivification. Which is this love-hate baggage we are always dealing with.  I am strictly speaking from this angle of self knowledge. In other words an odd love that which is taught to us as a matter of fleshly flattery.. and then on the other hand this anger from a neglect of something that has not been developed in us either by someone else s negligence or our own. So now there is a need in a healthy understanding that God deals with us in love or it is out of the freedom to express this frustration... i mean... we can become self evaluators in this free spirit. Or a grace soil. We do this mainly out of these most personal cries of the heart. This is a process that is indirect in the sense that we are not entirely thinking about ourselves in this evaluation. But we are being exposed by the word of God and we discover that it is so by His indirect searching of our hearts. I mean in this matter of His secret operations. But this is in the motif of the language of God being a refuge from what ever the trouble is ... both inward or outward. This spirit of the free exercise of grace applied to the wound. In our unburdening the emotion rather then the exact knowledge of figuring out how to change.  3868  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Free writing on: February 25, 2010, 09:22:08 PM Quote from: Kings_kid on February 25, 2010, 09:08:43 PM mbG:  This is why everything is actualized by God in decrees. The first cause must act by His will. K_k: Oh, oh, brain drain.  I thunk He is the First Cause, not causes it.  So much for thunking so hard. Slightly more seriously, Austin (Augustine?) is concluding that God cannot be a body.  No, but He can, and does, HAVE a body, glorified and everlasting.  Considerable difference isn't there?  What is the context that he tries so much to prove God is not a body? grace that amazes dissolves perplexity -- eventually God is a spirit... He has not a body like man. So that the Father does not have a body and the Spirit does not have a body... Christ is God and man... unmixed. Christ is locally in Heaven as a man... but as God is present everywhere. Austin is easier to write... than Augustine ... i am a bit of a lazy writer.... sometimes it shows. Remove Reply Quote Notify 3869  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Counseling and how to deal with it. on: February 25, 2010, 09:00:37 PM Quote from: Kings_kid on February 25, 2010, 08:47:29 PM mbG:  "I guess we are all susceptible to bypass the simple things for a more complicated effort." K_k:  It appears that you may have followed this susceptibility with the current topic.  (Takes one to know one, so i qualify too...) It started out on Counseling and how to deal with it, and seems to have gotten somewhat lost in mental convolutions.  Linear thinking is out, they say, yet sometimes it is easier to follow than logic-spirals.  Know what i mean?  Here's what seems to me to be an example: ======= "We have in scripture two kinds of reasoning. And i think this is what has a continuous effect on all that we understand about reality. This is where there is this kind of secret frustration and really why we have the need to see things beyond this kind of circular temptation. I mean that there is a sense in which we fall into a kind of spiraling down into sorrow and we begin to place things that have no bearing on these experiences to hold some kind of redeeming qualities to pull us out... as if we begin to climb up that spiraling stair case. You know that this is the picture that we so often see on books when we are talking about spiritual depression. I can see that two line thinking can cause a divided reality in all of us in which it becomes a kind of circular paradigm in which we condemn ourselves and we make a valiant effort to exalt God at the expense of our own mental health. But the secret avenues of all the troubles in this world are the intersections of things that we believe that are only half rite. I see this as what we face in a the power of this world in being deceived about what we are as men who face the law in all of its condemning powers.The power of evil is this lack of ability in our circular reasoning that defines the blindness we have in dealing with our personal sorrows. Believe it or not... the bible really addresses this deli-ma as the motif of understanding the redeeming value of identifying this healing community that is brought on by the attraction of this personal connection to super naturalism... that simplicity that we are blinded by in our attraction to circular ism." ===== I see, said the blind man.   And as a further random question, what did you mean by "Oh religious communities are sooo fake. We need to go ahead and wear uniforms"?  Quote And as a further random question, what did you mean by "Oh religious communities are sooo fake. We need to go ahead and wear uniforms"?   If i were under some kind of odd doctrinal paradigm in the present worship then it would translate into my talking about this struggle with sin... or sorrow. But because i have found a worship where i am drawn out then these tendencies in my writing style are more about what is on the outside. I believe that there are many ways to say something that is true so that present experience is what allows the sovereignty of God to define that way. Its more the American religious paradigm. I will explain the other part too.. thanks for bringing this to my attention.... i haven't written in this for some time. Remove Reply Quote Notify 3870  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Hope on: February 25, 2010, 08:31:48 PM Quote from: Kings_kid on February 25, 2010, 07:52:09 PM I agree with what you have so far, and if i may be so presumptuous, your writing style seems more lucid than it frequently is.  Duh, dat meens ah gits it pritty gud! One little old hair-split, though.  You said:  "When we are regenerated our wills are not just changed. But our old will is destroyed." My experience has been that my old will is not destroyed but rather temporarily displaced or put to sleep.  I seem to be able to reactivate it, and then i have to pray to have it put to sleep again.  And again. And... However, i recognize that in His sight, which is eternal, my old nature is dead meat and He can see me/us complete in the Will that He is even now constructing within us.  Can you dig it? Thanks Kk.. yes i think its important for us to continue to be reminded that we can reckon ourselves dead to sin because we are. I always think about self denial as reckoning. Well this is the bare facts and there is a lot of meta physical paradigms that give us a sense in reordering our souls. It is lucid because it is a soul story. 3871  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Prayers on: February 25, 2010, 07:56:18 PM Father you have put us here on this earth so that we could be in your hands. Our days are numbered by you so that you know the end from the beginning. Father we ask that you prolong the kings life for how could he praise you if he were to go into the grave? Father if we were made to be encouraged .. if we were were made to feel as if our mountain stood still... that it was not swallowed up into the earth...then we would truly stand before you as favored but  if we reduced to being dismayed then we would not be encourage to hope of your future gifts to us. To you we call... what gain is there in my destruction? Oh Father encourage the down heart ed at this time so that they would experience a hope of future events as they would experience your goodness. Because you have lifted us out of the pit and you put new clothes on us and gave us a song in our hearts. We now have the kingdom of God dwelling in us. Even tho we do not live in a palace yet we live before you as having a spiritual palace. Our sons are like well nurtured plants ... growing up healthy with a transparency before you and our daughters are like pillars carved to adorn a palace. There is beauty all around. This is our position before you as being transparent before your eternal love for us. If we were not made to rejoice before you and know that the future events will be for your glory then our sorrow would make us feel less than we are in you house. So that the king goes around rejoicing in your presence and he calls on you nite and day...hoping in your word. You have put the spirit of supplication and stouthearted ness in the king and he is aware of the Spirit falling on him. May your love and your faithfulness always guide your sheep. May you always be a place of refuge from the troubles of this world ... where we can go and find comfort and know that we desire nothing. For when we are raised in our affections to you... when you love is better than life... then your praise is sweet and you kindness is your faithfulness as you assure us of your future protection and provision. If we are raised in our hopes ...oh Father ... there is nothing that can touch us. We cannot be moved. Tho the mountains fall into the heart of the sea there is a river whos streams make glad the city of our God. That river of all of your good promises ... that life that flows from your eternal throne of pleasure that gives us a spirit of rejoicing. You make me glad by the joy of your presence . Oh Father ... please give us the joy of your salvation so that we might be able to pray blessing on our cities. Father give us the Spirit of assurance so that we might experience you love through accepting us as sinners. For we are most miserable under the load of guilt and sin. Take the weight of our humanness and lighten our load. May you strengthen the aged and give wisdom to the young. For you have given us a spiritual inheritance so that we might have the security to worship and enjoy your presence all the days of our lives. May you lift us up above the worlds troubles so that we can stand looking down at them so that we will not feel the weight of fear and dread. Then our worship will be with shouts of joy... we will sing and make music because we will be drawn out like a child without one worry but only to sing to you. Father there is so much beauty in you that we are made to gaze at. May we get lost in that focus with our spiritual eyes.    Remove Reply Quote Notify 3872  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Church: Over-promise and under-deliver on: February 25, 2010, 01:28:35 PM Quote from: JimR on February 25, 2010, 12:10:39 PM CW - Good news - You are marked.  Eph. 1:13 MBG - You can believe or disbelieve whatever you wish concerning what I wrote to Carolina.  All I can say is - I meant it.  While it's true that all of us want God and others to cater to our desires and preferences (at least to some degree), some of us are trying (or at least wanting) to follow the Holy Spirit's leading (see Galatians 5:16), and not gratify that desire.  I would offer that this is very different from someone who wants to both celebrate and actively pursue that desire. Jim I know you are going through a trying time... God bless you brother Reply Quote Notify 3873  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Hope on: February 25, 2010, 12:32:08 PM Thanks Kk... heres what happens in our lives as a matter of the importance of learning that way to think in being sanctified. First salvation is in God alone. That is unless God calls to us we will never know there is another reality on this earth. Because people are not just born as sinners but they are born blind to who God is and what He requires. People are dead in sins and trespasses. A dead man cannot respond to the voice of reason. Not only are people dead but they are corrupted in every part of their being both physical and spiritual. So that they cannot be acceptable to God because there is no corruption in God and any kind of corruption demands death. God is so perfectly holy and righteous that it is more than we could imagine. This is eternally holy and eternally righteous. Not only does it demand us to obey and be perfect,,, not having a spot of evil but it demands that we meet the requirements of the good that it demands as a matter of all that is praise worthy of goodness. In other words we would need to be eternally good... like God in order to be saved on our own. The standard is that we would need to love God eternally with all of our hearts souls and minds. I mean even if we gave it our best effort we are still blotched with darkness and could not reach even the smallest design because Gods power would eliminate us in a milli second. We would dissipate in His presence. So that we are totally depraved even tho we are not as bad as we could be. We are marked alrite ... marked by sin and alienation from God. There fore since we can not even seek God on our own because we are running from Him as a natural way in this life. He must drag us to Himself. We have a free will and we do exactly what we want. Because we are naturally God haters we do things that offend God and we will not submit to God. We cant cause we dont want to. He has given us freedom because He has not hated us to destroy us but has given us time to repent. The problem is that we dont want to acknowledge our sins. Even if we had the message of the gospel preached to us it still would not be enough for us to turn to Christ. The truth is that we are so totally helpless and blind that our will would keep us from all the good things that God has given to those who love Him. He must chose to display His love for us... He must decide before the foundation of the world to place His love on us or we are forever in hell. So here is what happens... we hear the gospel and we hear the law .. the law condemns us and then we try to respond to the law that we will be better. Now the Spirit uses the law of God to convict us and to show us that we cannot meet the requirements of the law. Some of us go through a period of extreme anguish... some of us never had a reason to think the law was that school master we just learned Gods law and we loved it cause we had the gospel preached to us from childhood and it never accrued to us there was any other way... some of us have little anguish and a lot of rejoicing. My point is that salvation is through regeneration of the Spirit and that is His work on our hearts not our own work.  When we are regenerated our wills are not just changed. But our old will is destroyed. God needs to destroy our old will in order to save us. In its place He gives us His will. This will is the reigning power in us. Its a new nature. Now we not only have physical eyes but we are given a new set of spiritual desires so that when we are saved our spiritual eyes are opened so that we now can look on Christ in a spiritual sense and see true worthiness. Now we reason totally different than we did in our former ways. I will continue this.    Remove Reply Quote Notify 3874  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Counseling and how to deal with it. on: February 25, 2010, 11:52:50 AM Here we have this idea that if we accomplish a certain task.. if we make out a few things on a list and we do them then we can find enough satisfaction to know that we have pleased God. In other words our reaction to His law is that by which we believe in pleasing Him. So this misery is repeated over and over again until we are most miserable. If we would just quit playing as if God was keeping us in a certain growth level until we meet the requirements then maybe we could crack that coconut head of ours to look at God as He is. I am only saying this because i am desiring that our exposure to the love of God has a very simple truth about our sin and His forgiveness. I guess we are all susceptible to bypass the simple things for a more complicated effort. You know there are a thousand thoughts that we put together in order to prove that we are like the good example of the most respected individual we know. Its hard to explain that we can put our focus... our attention in the wrong place as a matter of the desire to accommodate a united effort to submit. It never occurs to us that the Apostle said to follow God as He follows God. In other words... it comes with a warning. I dont think any principle or doctrine is so separate from the action that it becomes a matter of preference. Rather it comes in the form of opposition to what we think we are focusing on. Paul was saying in essence as i am a sinner... the worse of sinners... so there are things i do that are not acceptable .. things that i have done that are forgotten. I am asking you to think of me as if you were putting your pants on in the morning as a sinner... i am the same as you. What i am saying is to look to God alone. I mean in this explanation that there are important things and then there are the lesser things. Our problem is that we forget so easily. And in forgetting we place the lesser things above the important things. And in doing this we forget. That is the principle of focus. God wants us to obey .. but we forget how to get there because we think that grace is a matter of excusing sin. This is why the apostle was saying to look to Christ. Oh religious communities are sooo fake. We need to go ahead and wear uniforms. Remove Reply Quote Notify 3875  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Church: Over-promise and under-deliver on: February 25, 2010, 11:25:32 AM Jim thanks for showing us how application is almost impossible on a personal level. Dont worry... i did not believe all that stuff that you said to Carolina. Thank God he doesnt come on here and repay like for like. So i will be prayin for you brother. I know that the goody people will be bringin that christian principle stuff to the leader. The truth is that if we were open to the standard and how we measured up we would all be "exposed." But God is on our side bro. no matter what. May God bless you. Reply Quote Notify 3876  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Counseling and how to deal with it. on: February 25, 2010, 10:06:49 AM The reason that God deals with us through relationship is because we never see as He sees. All men... all church bodies.. all governments and all the families on this earth are subject to failure with the passing of generations. The reason for this is because there is only one eternal and faithful God who works as a God who controls all things from through all generations. In other words the chief evil of mankind on this earth is to take glory from God by self grandiose. Think about this ... if God is establishing His kingdom through His church then it would be according to our understand His best interest to establish it through the faithfulness of His saints that will endure from one generation to another. I mean if we are required to be faithful disciples of establishing His kingdom dont you think that He would reward His church.. His nation... His leaders the foundation that is established to last through all generations? But this is not the case. Because there is a principle here that all men do not rule or exist as able to declare their system of the righteous rule of Christ as the "example of virtue". Because all systems decline in the general tendency to acquire some very dominate behaviors in that ruling powers. In other words the system always fails because the leaders do not take the responsibility as the recipients of failure. It is always the truth and will always be apparent because God is other... that all systems that fail are mans systems and they fail because the leaders fail. God has declared it from the beginning that man cannot build that kingdom in equity. There is always the part that stinks. This is why God builds relationships with His saints through forgetting about the prior generations foibles. Because they die but God goes on....His identity is transferred by the handing of that power to the new generation through ending the failures of the older generation. Because God alone will only work in a relationship as He is working through with His purposes in these leaders. And where they fail ... He gets the glory. God goes on through all generations... even when the generation dies and are no longer remembered. God alone gets the glory. "I will not share my glory with any man!"  Remove Reply Quote Notify 3877  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Counseling and how to deal with it. on: February 25, 2010, 09:32:55 AM Counsel is practical theology or it is the standard of the law of God by which we establish relationships under the free spirit of orthodoxy. If we are to help one another we must see that God is faithful because His law is how He deals with us in His faithfulness. In other words He works to build a relationship with us through protecting us by the standard of His law. Gods law is who He is. When we come to God we come as sinners and unable to please God. Because we are not faithful enough to give Him what He deserves ... or we treat God in the most obnoxious ways because we do not meet the standard of His law. Not only do we treat God with contempt but we treat His saints that way. If everybody treated everybody else the way God deals with His children then all the needs would be met and there would be a united spirit of rejoicing that the world could not contain. Because God has made a way for us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. God deals with us as individuals. Because God demands for us to act according to His law. But since God deals with us by a relationship and not by a foreign set of principles then He acts towards us in perfect love or He acts towards us according to His law. He is the only one who is faithful on this earth. Because God does exactly what He says then His love is from everlasting to everlasting. Christ was the only one who obeyed Gods law completely as a man. Since we are in Christ we can come to God who is always the same in His relationship with us. The law of God acts as a protection from experiencing the dread of the wicked on our behalf. Even tho we do not do one good thing.. yet God is always faithful and He will treat us as if we obeyed the whole law on our behalf. This is not about us... but it is very much about us. There are personal frustrations that we experience because when we grow in our relationship with God the dread of this world becomes more apparent to us.Because we are in a relationship with a person who treats us perfectly in His preventing us from sinning...in His faithfulness to forgive us... in His eternal compassion and goodness to always remember us... or to work the good for us. That is His law is who He is and He is always ruling by His Son. This new relationship is being developed with us by identity. We have this ongoing interaction with things that we do not deserve and we experience the rewards of gifts that are beyond our pay scale. Because God and Christ act as the beneficiaries of this new relationship battling against the forces of evil... the world ...flesh and devil by granting us a status in this new world that we do not deserve .. the only way that we are going to know that we are what Christ deserves is by trusting and rejoicing. In some ways we are like the paper tiger... we have all of these promises but we need the maturity and the understanding to believe that it is different than it appears to be because of the evils and the threats of this world. The truth is that evil always comes at us by brute force... i mean... it may promise us good things but it is always a traitor to relationships and it is the real threat to our security.  Now then God deals with us through relationship in order to make our identity evident. We are special and He is going to prove it by His faithfulness to us.      Remove Reply Quote Notify 3878  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Prayers on: February 24, 2010, 06:02:20 PM Father we thank you that we can worship you nite and day. For that habit draws to us an eternal procession of your heavenly procession so that we  fellowship with you through your Spirit. For you have given to us your Spirit so that we might experience victory before the last call. And so we worship you in this great procession of beings and in the Majesty that you deserve. You have brought the bride groom to yourself and there are Manna pleasures falling all around. So that we feel this host ...these heavenly beings that cannot be counted. And we worship you in private and in public. For you have given us a gift of love that is always available in our procession to your heavenly gates. When we feel the pain of guilt we seek you and begin to rejoice before you with loud cries and tears of joy. For in your presence is rejoicing ever more. When we have worshiped you then we can see that you come to our rescue from you armies from on high. For we are to love you as the great Warrior who comes to the rescue of David and his descendants forever more. May we speak of your love and faithfulness to the saints. For if we are made to rejoice in your presence then everyone will be blessed. Father we pray that you make us to dance before you in our worship. So that we will know that you have promised to bring your loving kindness in the morning. For all things are ours and we have them at our call as yea and amen. Grant us the good things from your house so that we might have a greater measure of faith so that we might be drawn out with encouragement in our private worship. May we follow that procession to your temple with rejoicing and praise. So that we might be an encouragement to these glorious ones and that we might speak of your faithfulness.  Remove Reply Quote Notify 3879  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Augustine... Summa Theoligica on: February 24, 2010, 05:08:46 PM Whether God is composed of matter and form? Objection 1: It seems that God is composed of matter and form. For whatever has a soul is composed of matter and form; since the soul is the form of the body. But Scripture attributes a soul to God; for it is mentioned in Hebrews (Heb. 10:38), where God says: "But My just man liveth by faith; but if he withdraw himself, he shall not please My soul." Therefore God is composed of matter and form. Objection 2: Further, anger, joy and the like are passions of the composite. But these are attributed to God in Scripture: "The Lord was exceeding angry with His people" (Ps. 105:40). Therefore God is composed of matter and form. Objection 3: Further, matter is the principle of individualization. But God seems to be individual, for He cannot be predicated of many. Therefore He is composed of matter and form. On the contrary, Whatever is composed of matter and form is a body; for dimensive quantity is the first property of matter. But God is not a body as proved in the preceding Article; therefore He is not composed of matter and form. I answer that, It is impossible that matter should exist in God. First, because matter is in potentiality. But we have shown (Q[2], A[3]) that God is pure act, without any potentiality. Hence it is impossible that God should be composed of matter and form. Secondly, because everything composed of matter and form owes its perfection and goodness to its form; therefore its goodness is participated, inasmuch as matter participates the form. Now the first good and the best---viz. God---is not a participated good, because the essential good is prior to the participated good. Hence it is impossible that God should be composed of matter and form. Thirdly, because every agent acts by its form; hence the manner in which it has its form is the manner in which it is an agent. Therefore whatever is primarily and essentially an agent must be primarily and essentially form. Now God is the first agent, since He is the first efficient cause. He is therefore of His essence a form; and not composed of matter and form. Reply to Objection 1: A soul is attributed to God because His acts resemble the acts of a soul; for, that we will anything, is due to our soul. Hence what is pleasing to His will is said to be pleasing to His soul. Reply to Objection 2: Anger and the like are attributed to God on account of a similitude of effect. Thus, because to punish is properly the act of an angry man, God's punishment is metaphorically spoken of as His anger. Reply to Objection 3: Forms which can be received in matter are individualized by matter, which cannot be in another as in a subject since it is the first underlying subject; although form of itself, unless something else prevents it, can be received by many. But that form which cannot be received in matter, but is self-subsisting, is individualized precisely because it cannot be received in a subject; and such a form is God. Hence it does not follow that matter exists in God. Remove Reply Quote Notify 3880  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Hope on: February 24, 2010, 09:59:34 AM If we rise to know our God then we will become extremely personal in our examination of our personal spiritual condition. When man sinned he determined to produce his worthy image by his own ability to be an example. The reason that man decided to go his own way and make himself worthy apart from dependence on God ...that being His fellowship with God in the garden... was because of his desired to be found worthy in himself. Now God warned man that if he decided to go that way then he would be cursed. When man fell into sin... fell into a curse. The curse was that man could become good if he wanted to. This is why we have this conflict in relationships. Because when we want to go our own way then we make ourselves standard of what is real. Or we say... look at me... i am an example. The only way we can mask this curse is through our own dominance. We are not only a threat to others we are our own worst enemy. Because this is the way of sorrow that leads to death or its a form of suicide. Because all of our relationships are represented in the core of our being as setting up ourselves as being morally able to do the ultimate good so that failure is unacceptable because we have a connection to others as the image of ultimate goodness. This is why there is always a two edged sword as that curse. The law is the instrument that is used to support our true condition. But the laws power is not in supporting our good behavior... its an instrument used to curse us. Its used by others and not just ourselves. Because everyone is blind to self power. So everyone uses the law as that personal power. This is that the whole world is under the curse of the law. The process of the law as it condemns us is a process of painful consequences. The law induces more pain and then it encourages us to try a little harder. So that the law as a condemning power actually is a magnet for the ultimate act of self deception. In other words the pain of the work of the law causes us to think that we are something we are not. This is the curse of sin. Everyone who is born into this world is born with a voice of the law that cries out a curse in the deepest core of that person. We are not just in alienation to all that is good ... we have the potential to experience the most vile disposition of sorrow in this activity of this magnetic pull to self fulfillment and deception. We are born to destroy ourselves... we are born cursed.  Christ is the only remedy out of the prison of this cursed condition. Because Christ ended the process of our self destruction. Not only is our relationship to the law one like a bad friend who is accusing us... but our will is determined to do things that are going to enforce this double reality. Our proving that we are good and our personal experience that we are cursed.But Christ was the only one who endured this curse for us. He had to go the way of pain and suffering of the curse... that is not just the physical pain but the mental anguish...the ultimate experience of all the guilt and the mental anguish that brings a man to suicide in order to free all those who were held in bondage by the Devil. So that we no longer look to the law for our acceptance but we look to Christ to free us from this cursed reality. Now listen to me... there are only two meta physical realities in this world. There is the whole realm of those who are held in bondage to a curse or there are those who have been freed. When we look to Christ we see the awful circumstances that the law puts people under as that by which they destroy themselves. Because the laws power to curse has not been broken. It is only broken in our identity in Christ. Please do not play around with this reality.  Remove Reply Quote Notify 3881  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Augustine... Summa Theoligica on: February 24, 2010, 09:25:45 AM The Father and the Son are the same substance but different in Persons. The Son eternally existed as God.  God is not in parts because then the separation of one part from another would preclude a lesser and greater... length of time of lesser or greater... same in comparison. God is a spirit... immaterial. He never changes... theres no parts because there is no difference in God.  God is actually the reality.. that being the perfect image of an idea. Because God is the Word... He is the perfect image of Himself. Every thing that God does is a reflection of His own glory or its good because He is the only one who is worthy of being pleased with Himself..... with everything. Because God is immaterial then His attributes are greater than any thing He makes. Before anything comes into existence His attributes must become the actual reality of that existence. There is no potential in God.  These attributes like the will... the desires etc is this immaterial action. In order for anything to come into time it must be through the will of God.  Remove Reply Quote Notify 3882  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Who are the Gentiles, nations, heathen, people in prophecy? on: February 23, 2010, 09:16:08 PM http://www.balaams-ass.com/ALHAJ/aramaic.htm Thanks Jewel.... i am not a Hebrew scholar... but memorized the book of Psalms and proverbs... i understand the Hebrew mind i think.... but here is a link about this controversy. This battle over what makes a scroll fit for the cannon is not a new battle ... if you study the facts you will find that there were only a certain group of books that were passed on to the early church... so that the number of the scroll copies dwarfed those outside what we have in the Bible now.  I know Greek ... but this art of exegetical hermeneutics is as old as having scholarly work from Augustine. Reply Quote Notify 3883  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Augustine... Summa Theoligica on: February 23, 2010, 08:33:51 PM Whether God is a body? Objection 1: It seems that God is a body. For a body is that which has the three dimensions. But Holy Scripture attributes the three dimensions to God, for it is written: "He is higher than Heaven, and what wilt thou do? He is deeper than Hell, and how wilt thou know? The measure of Him is longer than the earth and broader than the sea" (Job 11:8,9). Therefore God is a body. Objection 2: Further, everything that has figure is a body, since figure is a quality of quantity. But God seems to have figure, for it is written: "Let us make man to our image and likeness" (Gn. 1:26). Now a figure is called an image, according to the text: "Who being the brightness of His glory and the figure," i.e. the image, "of His substance" (Heb. 1:3). Therefore God is a body. Objection 3: Further, whatever has corporeal parts is a body. Now Scripture attributes corporeal parts to God. "Hast thou an arm like God?" (Job 40:4); and "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just" (Ps. 33:16); and "The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength" (Ps. 117:16). Therefore God is a body. Objection 4: Further, posture belongs only to bodies. But something which supposes posture is said of God in the Scriptures: "I saw the Lord sitting" (Is. 6:1), and "He standeth up to judge" (Is. 3:13). Therefore God is a body. Objection 5: Further, only bodies or things corporeal can be a local term "wherefrom" or "whereto." But in the Scriptures God is spoken of as a local term "whereto," according to the words, "Come ye to Him and be enlightened" (Ps. 33:6), and as a term "wherefrom": "All they that depart from Thee shall be written in the earth" (Jer. 17:13). Therefore God is a body. On the contrary, It is written in the Gospel of St. John (Jn. 4:24): "God is a spirit." I answer that, It is absolutely true that God is not a body; and this can be shown in three ways. First, because no body is in motion unless it be put in motion, as is evident from induction. Now it has been already proved (Q[2], A[3]), that God is the First Mover, and is Himself unmoved. Therefore it is clear that God is not a body. Secondly, because the first being must of necessity be in act, and in no way in potentiality. For although in any single thing that passes from potentiality to actuality, the potentiality is prior in time to the actuality; nevertheless, absolutely speaking, actuality is prior to potentiality; for whatever is in potentiality can be reduced into actuality only by some being in actuality. Now it has been already proved that God is the First Being. It is therefore impossible that in God there should be any potentiality. But every body is in potentiality because the continuous, as such, is divisible to infinity; it is therefore impossible that God should be a body. Thirdly, because God is the most noble of beings. Now it is impossible for a body to be the most noble of beings; for a body must be either animate or inanimate; and an animate body is manifestly nobler than any inanimate body. But an animate body is not animate precisely as body; otherwise all bodies would be animate. Therefore its animation depends upon some other thing, as our body depends for its animation on the soul. Hence that by which a body becomes animated must be nobler than the body. Therefore it is impossible that God should be a body. Reply to Objection 1: As we have said above (Q[1], A[9]), Holy Writ puts before us spiritual and divine things under the comparison of corporeal things. Hence, when it attributes to God the three dimensions under the comparison of corporeal quantity, it implies His virtual quantity; thus, by depth, it signifies His power of knowing hidden things; by height, the transcendence of His excelling power; by length, the duration of His existence; by breadth, His act of love for all. Or, as says Dionysius (Div. Nom. ix), by the depth of God is meant the incomprehensibility of His essence; by length, the procession of His all-pervading power; by breadth, His overspreading all things, inasmuch as all things lie under His protection. Reply to Objection 2: Man is said to be after the image of God, not as regards his body, but as regards that whereby he excels other animals. Hence, when it is said, "Let us make man to our image and likeness", it is added, "And let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea" (Gn. 1:26). Now man excels all animals by his reason and intelligence; hence it is according to his intelligence and reason, which are incorporeal, that man is said to be according to the image of God. Reply to Objection 3: Corporeal parts are attributed to God in Scripture on account of His actions, and this is owing to a certain parallel. For instance the act of the eye is to see; hence the eye attributed to God signifies His power of seeing intellectually, not sensibly; and so on with the other parts. Reply to Objection 4: Whatever pertains to posture, also, is only attributed to God by some sort of parallel. He is spoken of as sitting, on account of His unchangeableness and dominion; and as standing, on account of His power of overcoming whatever withstands Him. Reply to Objection 5: We draw near to God by no corporeal steps, since He is everywhere, but by the affections of our soul, and by the actions of that same soul do we withdraw from Him; thus, to draw near to or to withdraw signifies merely spiritual actions based on the metaphor of local motion. Remove Reply Quote Notify 3884  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Free writing on: February 23, 2010, 08:23:53 PM Quote from: Kings_kid on February 23, 2010, 12:31:59 PM Yo, bro'.  This looks like a solo thread, but since we are one in the Spirit, thought i might continue the writing of your new book with you. mbG:  This is why believing has this confession of mans powerlessness . When we rejoice in Gods power we are acknowledging that we do not cause our own power. When we look at our own power we give all the ability to God. K_k:  God has supreme, ultimate control of the universe and all history, since all power comes from Him, and only from Him.  And He can influence choices made by kings and paupers simply by supplying an almost infinitely small amount of power to the being making choices.  Thus, He never causes us to seek evil but often empowers our desires which gives us the ability to sin.  (And He pays for the sin in advance, glory be...) As we have discussed in another thread, He does no wrong thereby since He sees the final picture/outcome at all points along the apparent (to us) time-line.  And His final, intricately woven masterpiece will be perfect in every way.  'Cause that's just the kind of Dad we have! ==== mbG: I mean everything that we have as an experience whether it is something that we hear from Him in that direct voice or its something that we have in our communication with our circumstances.. not only in terms of voices but in what we experience as we feel the effects of what is transpiring around us .. it all has an eternal purpose to make us more like Christ. And yet what He is designing does not always come to us in this manner of finding that all things are purposed to be fulfilled for our good. This to me is purely a matter of either not having the full knowledge of that image transference or its trying to figure out more than we are required to. In a sense we rest in Him from whatever we do not have the power to understand or the power to overcome in feeling as if these effects are tempting us to withdraw from being one with His purposes for us. K_k:  A bit wordy for my tastes, but definitely a 777 rating.  (And the coins poured forth)  But, then, you didn't ask for my opinion, did you?  :-) ==== mbG: He has designed us to find Him.....We look back at the word that was spoken to us in the old illumination and that same word in our present experience has been brighten so that we are seeing a multitude of colors that were hidden in the old communication to us of the same words. I really believe that this is an experience of His word coming alive in us... speak Lord Jesus or we will die! K_k:  Yea, verily.  Thus it is written.  Thus it is lived. Kk you are most kind.  Quote K_k:  God has supreme, ultimate control of the universe and all history, since all power comes from Him, and only from Him.  And He can influence choices made by kings and paupers simply by supplying an almost infinitely small amount of power to the being making choices.  Thus, He never causes us to seek evil but often empowers our desires which gives us the ability to sin.  (And He pays for the sin in advance, glory be...) "Secondly, because the first being must of necessity be in act, and in no way in potentiality. For although in any single thing that passes from potentiality to actuality, the potentiality is prior in time to the actuality; nevertheless, absolutely speaking, actuality is prior to potentiality; for whatever is in potentiality can be reduced into actuality only by some being in actuality. Now it has been already proved that God is the First Being. It is therefore impossible that in God there should be any potentiality. But every body is in potentiality because the continuous, as such, is divisible to infinity; it is therefore impossible that God should be a body." Austin This is why everything is actualized by God in decrees. The first cause must act by His will. Remove Reply Quote Notify 3885  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Augustine... Summa Theoligica on: February 23, 2010, 08:15:21 PM OF THE SIMPLICITY OF GOD (EIGHT ARTICLES) When the existence of a thing has been ascertained there remains the further question of the manner of its existence, in order that we may know its essence. Now, because we cannot know what God is, but rather what He is not, we have no means for considering how God is, but rather how He is not. Therefore, we must consider: (1) How He is not; (2) How He is known by us; (3) How He is named. Now it can be shown how God is not, by denying Him whatever is opposed to the idea of Him, viz. composition, motion, and the like. Therefore (1) we must discuss His simplicity, whereby we deny composition in Him; and because whatever is simple in material things is imperfect and a part of something else, we shall discuss (2) His perfection; (3) His infinity; (4) His immutability; (5) His unity. Concerning His simplicity, there are eight points of inquiry: (1) Whether God is a body? (2) Whether He is composed of matter and form? (3) Whether in Him there is composition of quiddity, essence or nature, and subject? (4) Whether He is composed of essence and existence? (5) Whether He is composed of genus and difference? (6) Whether He is composed of subject and accident? (7) Whether He is in any way composite, or wholly simple? ( Whether He enters into composition with other things?  I will get to the rest of the facts.