It's not a "catch", it's an opportunity for a response--to choose life or death, to choose the "way out" that God provided.
"14Just
as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be
lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.[e]
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is
not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.[g]
19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who
does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear
that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes
into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has
been done through God."[h]
The debt was paid, life is
offered, but those who choose to reject it are choosing to make
themselves like God--"No thanks, I'll make my own way"--as opposed to
those who submit, despite all the arguments to the contrary, and believe
the offer (and the Offerer). That's faith and humility--when all the
hope rests on God's favor and all the glory is only to Him. Pride can't
do that, refuses to do that, and so, sets itself at enmity with God.
In that case, it's not surprising that God's enemies aren't going to be
in Heaven.
The offer is universal; the response is a personal
decision--the point where each person must choose whether to grasp at
power or pour themselves out as an offering.
Let me
say that this text is all gospel. And it really is not focused upon
someones believing... but its a focal point of standing in relation to
Christ. This is hope for the believer as well as a fail safe guarantee
for those who are coming out of the world of condemnation. This is why
belief is a matter of knowing the gospel as the only hope from being
saved from ourselves. This is not saying that condemnation is avoided by
believing. Its that condemnation is avoided by our identity with
Christ. There are only two ways in this life. All of us are born at
enmity with God. We are under the condemnation of sin and death. In
ourselves we do not want to believe in Christ because we do not want Him
to expose our sins.
In a natural way anyone who is under
condemnation is not familiar with how he is susceptible to the
temptations of this life and the struggle with sin as the way of coming
into the light. His first impulse is to think of faith as a matter of
facing the law as the means of placing himself in the position to build
bridges to prove his faith by his own works. The incomplete
understanding of spiritual transformation and the confusion in his
pattern of thinking as proof of his own ability are what he defines as
the quality of faith. May i say that the biblical idea of faith is a
matter of knowing the cause of ability rather than the effect as proof
of true faith. Because a closer look at the entire section here is that
proof that one has come into the light is not that he is in himself more
able morally to show the proof but that his faith in Christ as his only
hope is what comes forth as a quality that he indeed has been exposed
to that light. In other words the point is that a person who comes into
the light has in himself a deep awareness of his own sin as the working
principle of the quality of his faith. I do not think that this
awareness is something that fades as we are exposed to the light but it
may be that we struggle even more profoundly with sin.
The motif of
this section is the exposure to the light that one defines as being the
truth about oneself. God is a God of glory. He shines forth into all the
world. When we are talking about causes we are talking about salvation
that is in God alone. To take a passage and focus on a mans believing is
to make salvation a matter of just a moral code that determines truth
and a salvation void of any supernatural influences that the Spirit of
God produces in this way of holiness. For God is holy because He is
transcendent and who can look at Him and not be consumed? That is why
the value of our being defined as sinners is so very important. We are
being changed by being convinced that we cannot save ourselves by our
own view of God!! Why is it that we are always trying to produce some
kind of pseudo light that gives us a certain qualification of enabled
faith? Because in our natural state we think that faith can be increased
when we mask the individual passages and words by ignoring the whole of
scripture.... that is near context and far context as a way to cover
over the light that will expose our faith as being a mustered seed kind
of quality and bringing into focus by our holistic understanding the
glory of Christ that produces a supernatural and transcendent attraction
to our seeking to have more of that glory as the means to increase our
faith.
Every time we come to God we are coming to the God who is the
only one who is holy. When we are lifted up to look upon God as being
holy we are exposed to the light of His glory. What makes faith a matter
of connecting us to something that qualifies us rather than something
that we have as a quality that is different from the world ... is this
understanding that God is holy and we are always in need of more
transcendent light. Are we destined to look inward in order to fine the
evidence of true faith or do we look outward and by our exposure to this
holy God we are caused to find nothing in ourselves that would qualify
us to possess saving faith? We would abandon all of these qualities and
promises of God if this was a matter of having our own righteousness as a
means to prove if it is true faith or not. Salvation is in God alone.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Prayer - Has God ever talked back to you?
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on: January 04, 2010, 08:32:15 PM
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God does exactly what He has proclaimed to us
in His word. He never changes. We on the other hand have a thousand
reasons to experience the rise and fall of these paradigms of
assumptions that challenge the complexity in the mechanism of our
thought patterns as our view of reality. I do believe that we have a
spirit of the mind. How then... does God communicate from the written
page to these areas of our souls in order to produce in us the proper
inner world so that we begin to have the healthy soil that is a result
from this multiple communication in the implantation? How does the seed
of His word spring forth in our hearts to make us like a tree that will
flourish?
This illuminated searching is the secret work of God
... the communication to uproot the hidden corruption of our hearts. Our
natural exposure to the corruption of this world... our sin.. and the
heaviness that is the sorrowful weight of holding us down in some other
frame of mind is the adversity that keeps us from flourishing in
experiencing all the eternal varieties.There is a sense in which this
implanted communication begins to move in us to experience a profound
spiritual awareness so that we are familiar with a peace that passes all
understanding... a rejoicing with joy unspeakable in this
strengthening of the inner man as His method of impressing on our
spiritual senses that He has communicated and irradiated this implanted
life flow that we experience as a stream of living water that flows out
of our hearts. I believe this is a process called weening.
This
is why His communication is more than something that we receive in a
single message. It is more of a mysterious searching. If you can think
of all of the reasons why a person would react to circumstances in all
of the multiple ways as the rational process of coming to some kind of
acceptance in the circumstance... God sees the real facts of all that
transpire in this world from the most minute detail in looking rite into
the hearts of all mankind from the beginning of time to the end. This
communication to us is beyond what we could fathom.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: January 03, 2010, 10:20:19 AM
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Truth is only a reality in one Person. And all
things have their common understanding in relation to a mans view of
this world in light of his personal freedom to chose as he desires. God
does not need to work to make men love themselves and their own sins.
Men blindly fall into the trap of blame in rejecting the thinking that
in Gods expression of His freedom to do as He pleases that He has given
men the freedom to dig their own holes. This is the distinct contrast
between the eternal free grace life as opposed to the pleasurable
betrayal of the God of this universe. This is why it is absolutely
essential for God to determine whatsoever comes to pass.
If God was
any other idea. as far as a mans ideal image of himself is... than the
most powerful expression of the freedom to act ,then there would be no
value in the expression of free choice. Without the understanding of the
nature of these powers of freedom then men would forever be cast into a
world of uncertainty and a view of power that has no relation to their
own satisfaction of the freedom to chose. This is why there is so many
phantom expressions in this universe where men cannot possibly live in
the absolute unified understanding of their own purpose in this life,
because of the corruption of their entire inner experience do to sin.
The
reality of an idea has its beginning and ending in the total existence
of the experience in relation to all that exist in this universe to be
defined in the distinct supernatural weight of either life or death.
There is no other real expressed tension in this world in the experience
of the weight of something in relation to a mans personal experience.
All of these evidences of the lack of understanding in men as this
mysterious longing for something that will satisfy is actually the state
of corruption that communicates this tension that determines that
blindness in his love for these phantom powers. This is why there is a
world of fickle love and self hatred in that frustrated mystery. Men
live in a world where they actually think that events are determined
upon other men by their own ability to structure a world that is safe
according to their own view of how the world should be. Men express
freedom in this phantom dominate deception. But the truth is that there
is this impersonal structure that has been pre determined so that the
universe is an expression of real value in something that man does not
born the world into... but he is born into that world. This is why there
is a value in God getting glory in the eternal punishment of men.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Reformed Doctrine
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on: December 31, 2009, 11:48:31 AM
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And how refreshing we know that the ONLY thing we we'll ever loose by negligence or sin is our assurance. (And that only temporarily!).
TB...
the only thing standing in the way of our assurance is that we would
not be convinced that He does not hold our sin against us. This is why i
hold that confession is more than a mere confession of sin. I do not
hold that the law of God stands in between us an God at any time. I know
that the confession states there are these different times. My only
contention is that it doesnt take much time to live our lives as a
confession. I am not in line with those who make time limits on access
to God. I mean any kind of a philosophical intent as an idol is a
doctrine of demons. I think thats what Paul was saying to Timothy. I
mean in matters of who to marry. The doctrine is one of living in a free
grace of God paradigm. The christian stands in between two worlds and
His confidence does not depend upon His ability to pass the test. Every
doctrine of reward has its cause in identity. This is why the natural
longing of the heart is of great concern to our Father. We should not
think of ourselves in a way of separation.. the dichotomy itself is a
divided heart. This is why we are dependent on God as a presupposition
of our confidence in this life!
Even if we go through these
trials whether they are not from our sins or we are suffering because of
sin yet we do not deserve one day of peace on this earth ... i mean
in a personal sense as believers. So that our qualification in the
community of saints is that we all have received like grace. We are a
community of the undeserved. This is why the reformers presented this
section in the motif of grace. That is always the focus. I think we
trivialize this in the modern religious sense because we have so many
other remedies that stand as barriers to seeing the experiences of a
transforming power as the means of healing someone in a spiritual sense.
We are all fixated on committees and psychological profiles. The gospel
however is supernatural.
So we focus on carrying each others
burdens... encouraging each other... i mean... there are only two roads
.. the road to death and the road to life. Death is a natural road for
all mankind... but life is by identifying with Christ life and death and
being raised to this life. So because Christ was blameless then we are
blameless. Our confession is that we are always moved along by grace.
This
is why i think that in terms of sin and being in such a low state of
religion that we create a kind of spirit. Its like a carnal paradigm of
remaining in a very un biblical view of community life. Its really a
utilitarian view of life. But the bible gives us rules that keep us in
the rite way. As a matter of understanding of having to live a
confession rather than a communication of incorporation. We all are safe
in His hands and we know that as we struggle this spiritual dimension
is the only real identity in connection. Our confidence in His
forgiveness is what creates growth for those who are struggling. Our
ability to not be moved by this worlds threats is the confidence to
those who are wavering. Our understanding of Gods nearness is the
confidence for those who are weak. Because it is that a person who finds
grace .. .i mean the real remedy from his own corruption will find it
in the spirit in which it is presented. This road is not for the faint
of heart. We are required to seek Him all the time in the means if we
are to be of usefulness to those who have been caught in sin and those
who are under some kind of heavy trial. He said to the disciples these
spirits are hard to cast out cause they require much prayer and
understanding. Jesus was not presenting a formula but He was presenting a
spiritual reality.
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Romans and the Flesh Monster.
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on: December 26, 2009, 11:11:20 AM
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Divine illuminations
This truely is a place
where there is a true sense of that intuitive spark of divine
consciousness. And yet, every desire we have is of its own nature. Since
we are made new by the Spirit, then there is no desire that we have
that is not transferred by grace. I find in this life that my natural
inclination is to become sullen by the weight of some kind of fallen
spiritual paradigms with the thoughts of this earth and a conscious
independence to rest in my own power. Its so subtle that it just creeps
up on my spiritual awareness. But since there is a deep well of heart
issues, those desires that we have for the eternal, then there is
nothing that we can do to smother them completely. So that we are most
miserable creatures under the burden of our sin and our lack of
thankfulness. This comes in just resting from any struggle.
When we
desire to have all of the blessings of the promises of God, then we are
made to rejoice. But our understanding only comes by increasing these
desires since what we desire is what is going to be done in the end. And
since we have this inner world of acting, then we are living in the
reality of His life in us when we are having the springs of His Holy
Spirit increasing the life of Christ as a constant disposition of living
in the eternal conscious communications of His revelation. We know this
because we gain an understanding of the nature of these attributable
paradigms that lighten the weight of this struggle in temptation and
cause us to be raised up in our affections to spend our hours longing
for eternal immunations of His love and faithfulness. If we have a taste
of His goodness, then all is well with our souls. Oh that the Spirit
would baptize us in the confidence and assurance of the reality of the
glorious knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh that divine illumination
that translates us into a hope that is sure and steadfast. We must get
used to living with a level of eternal communications in the deep
recesses of our souls. To hear when there is silence, to long for Him
when there is only voices around us that are complaining, and to be
enraptured in His eternal powerful resurrection calling that takes us
out of this world so that we are lost in His wonder and praise. For when
we have desires for His glory then we will experience the pleasure of
having fellowship with His Spirit.
Posted by mybigGod at 4:19 AM 0 comments
Friday, August 29, 2008
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| 4034
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: The True Essence of Revival: Spurgeon
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on: December 20, 2009, 12:28:43 PM
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First, beloved, trusting that the Spirit of
God will help me I shall endeavor to apply the text to our own soul
personally, and then to the state of the church at large, for it well
needs that the Lord should revive his work in its midst.
I.
First, then, to OURSELVES. We should begin at home. We too often flog
the church, when the whip should be laid on our own shoulders. We drag
the church, like a colossal culprit, to the altar; we bind her, and try
to execute her at once; we bind her hands fast, and tear off thongfull
after thongfull of her quivering flesh—finding fault with her where
there is none, and magnifying her little errors; while we too often
forget ourselves. Let us, therefore, commence with ourselves,
remembering that we are part of the church, and that our own want of
revival is in some measure the cause of that want in the church at
large.
Now, I directly charge the great majority of professing
Christians—and I take the charge to myself also—with a need of a revival
of piety in these days. I shall lay the charge before you very
peremptorily, because I think I have abundant grounds to prove it. I
believe that the mass of Christian men in this age need a revival, and
my reasons are these:
In the first place, look at the conduct and
conversation of too many who profess to be the children of God. It ill
becomes any man who occupies the sacred place of a pulpit to flatter his
hearers, and I shall not attempt to do so. The evidence lies with too
many of you who unite yourselves with Christian churches, and in
practically protesting against your profession.
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| 4035
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Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Spurgeon - Essentials of the Faith
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on: December 20, 2009, 11:57:01 AM
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earnest...
let me let you in on a secret since i do not see many people being
healed and live longer than 70 to 100 yrs... God starts with the people
who have no hope on this earth so that he might teach guys like me and
you to not trust in ourselves. One day earnest you are going to go into
the doctor and hes going to say... you got a growth ... lets take a look
at that.... its inevitable. So... that is something that we are not
looking at as passed.... thats something He prepares us for as a
reality.. love weakness and trouble in your youth... cause it gets much
worse the older you get.
mbg...
respectfully, I don't trust in myself. Of course, 70 years is what God
said. Over that = bonus. Also respectfully, I disagree and am so sorry
you aren't seeing people healed. I am... for real. And it is amazing. I
don't go to a building called a "church". I don't belong to any
wacko-Christian group of any kind. I, and more and more around me, have
chosen to believe Jesus... that Jesus did everything He did as a man
through nothing but faith in His Father. (If not, why did He often
marvel?) He perfectly reflected Father; therefore, is our perfect
example. It takes only child-like faith (just like He said), a simple
prayer and a command in Jesus' name. I've been on both the receiving and
giving ends of His supernatural love. I can't explain just how
non-spectacular it all is, how warm... and how "average" I am. He chose
us as His vessels. We are the glove. He is the Hand(s). I say very
humbly, He is amazing.
Still learning what it means to be...
In Christ,
earnestt
I
can understand your frustration earnest. I really believe the life of a
church is really not in how it functions in a purely active way. It
sorta is passed down from the quality of the former generations. The
worse experience on this earth is to be going in the opposite directions
of our loved ones.. i mean... these deli mas are formed in the
conflicting loves on ones heart to heart. You cannot fake this!! Its
either real or its a try to make it look real. And so we must find that
in a close knit community that life does not last. I mean that is one
generation going out before us in matters of pray for specific needs and
another generation looking on that kind of personal message. We do not
live in a dream world of disconnect. But if the message is only about a
physical need then this is most miserable.
If we have had very
little communication of the love and faithfulness of God it is going to
generally be that communication that is passed down. God sets one up and
he brings one down. Some generations both saved and unsaved are left to
wander in the desert. Oh how much of a burden we find in this low
state!! It translates into grief winning over joy. It is Solomon passing
down a sort of determinism. The spirit of a community is in the
refining of the desire to glorify God by seeking HIm all of our days.
There is much confusion in this present state of things. My sheep are
wondering they are in need of a Shepperd... God becomes that shepherd.
The spirit of unity is in the lowliness of its generations and in the
quality of that desire.
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