So, if we are to be like Christ, how much
like Christ? When do my personal faults start looking for a scripture
that somehow supports it.
There is a difference between what
we call legal conviction and conviction of sin in a believer. An
unbeliever is convicted legally that is he has no object of love and
forgiveness. Instead of his relationship being cheifly to Christ, it is
only to the law. There is no life or longing for the transcendent love
of God in legal conviction. In order for us to break the chains of legal
conviction to embrace the transcendent forgiveness of God we must be
given grace. Grace must be poured out into that dreadful state of which
the apostle calls death. \"The letter kills.\"
Once we experience
Gods grace we understand what forgiveness is all about. Graces infusion
into our corruption is the life blood of spiritual wellness and
pleasure. People cry \"your guilty!\"Grace cries who can charge guilty
you if Christ doesnt. In fact the evidence of legal conviction is anyone
who desires wrong on a christian. The attitude of belivers is to cover
over sin in other people.
The Psalmist never never never never views
the relationships in the church community as dealing with each other in
legal conviction, never never never!
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Forums / Theology Forum / The Theology Of War
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on: January 15, 2006, 07:54:55 AM
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If I take the
whole Bible, there are a lot of things that are Biblical, but how many
of them and in what way are they His Way now. Christ never defended
himself. He gave Peter heck for cutting off the guys ear and even went
so far as healing him.
I think
you are confusing the self denial with self destruction. Because we are
created in the image of God, that is we are made for the transcendent,
that created spirit and body is intrinsically good. The badness is the
corruption our body and spirit. Denying ourselves is realizing that in
this state of corruption or being dead to spiritual good there is no
good thing in us. We embrace Christ who makes us good spiritually and
morally. We give him our sin and He gives us repentance.
Because we
are made in His image we are made for His pleasure. We do not desire to
be destroyed but we share in that pleasure as created by Him. There is
great value in everything He created. Defending myself and my family
shows that I value His making of me. We are evil only in that the
created us which is intrinsically good is corrupted in every part.
Here
is the principle. We see our sin and immediatly confess it. Christ took
care of sin on the cross and so we live with greater understanding of
our value in Him. We live as kings and preist. We may mourn over sin but
we do not stay in that mourning, we live in that value mentality.
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Forums / Theology Forum / The Bible Driven Church
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on: January 14, 2006, 10:12:01 AM
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We
seem to be creatures that are easily given to multiple thoughts in any
given moment. We have millions of these thoughts go in and out of our
minds in one day. Think about how this paradigm can work to establish a
predisposition to habits bad or good.
It is true that we cannot
control the sinful thoughts by our will. The bible never represents
choice as choosing between two equal powers the good and the bad. Rather
the choosing is actually preferring one thing over another. There are
many reasons one object looks more pleasing than another to us. But we
choose based apoun the condition of our souls. There is a necessity to
choose. Calvinism focuses on the condition of the soul and places great
emphasis on establishing an anthropology that focuses on the corruption
of the faculties in the soul.
Semi plagians focus on the objects of
choice because when you have a anthropology that represents the will as
containing pragmatic choosing, that is if the will is in an equal
liberium with the objects of choice as equal in power then the will is
powerless being represented as having power in this equal liberium but
really the focus is on the object rather than on the condition of the
soul because the will is disattached from the condition of the soul
being in an equal liberium state.
When the focus is on the object of
choice then the moral equasion gives the object the power in the
choosing. If the object is central in the power of choice then the
badness is in the object rather than the condition of the soul. When the
condition of the soul is not the focus there is a pragmatic life form
in the understanding that works its way out into self righteousness.
When the object becomes the focus then the will being powerless
presupposes self righteousness in the choice. Faithfulness is measure by
an activity of self will to avoid the objects power that produces the
choice.
This pragmatic process is what we call a pholosophy of choice
rather than an evangelical choosing.The souls original condition is one
of spiritual darkness. Because Adam sinned , he being represented as
the federal head of the human race makes all those born after him in the
human race sinners by imputation. Because we are spiritually dead as
the natural condition of our souls our will is corrupted and is unable
to choose spiritually because it is a faculty of a spiritually dead
soul.
The very germ of choice is desire. The very germ of a
spiritually good choice is regenerated desire. In that germ there is a
supernatural transformation. With the focus on the spiritually dead
condition of the soul it predisposes an impossiblity of self generated
transformation. In that inability of choosing we are naturally possessed
with a focused ability outside our inability. This is the germ of
supernaturalism!
We are supernatualist to the core because our souls
must be given new life, eternal life, life beyond our ability to grasp.
That is regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Supernaturalisms paradigm is an
imenant miracle in soveriegn acting. The power is outside our soul and
is performed with all the activity from the outside to the inside of the
soul on passive faculties.
This process on the soul is not a one
time supernaturalistic action. Our souls are being renew with
supernatural power daily. That is the Holy Spirits work.
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Forums / Break Room / So, How Do Yew Meditate?
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on: January 11, 2006, 10:14:31 PM
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I
guess if there is one situation i find myself stumbling over it would
be this concept of doubt. I think this cross road brings us back to our
senses that its not about us in the end. Here we are crying out to God
and yet what we are faced with is a mountian of responsibility. Yet the
truth is we never amount to anything unless we are brought to understand
that our salvation was started by Him and will be brought to its
culmination in Him. Here is our parodox. We seek Him until it hurts and
then we refuse to be comforted because we enjoy the doubt more than Him.
The one state that i am most comfortable is trusting in my industry and
senses of site, touch, and feel. But yet this trust leads to groaning
all the day long. This trust leads to doubt. Trusting in myself is the
most miserable place to be.Its as if i were a spoiled child refusing to
be comforted because in order to be comforted i must see that i need to
see the need of salvation, I am in need to seeing Him ,not me. And when
this cross road comes we grow faint, musing at our inability and His
greatness and power. We faint under the magnificancy of it all. What
would our existence be if we could get a glimpse in continuance of just
how big and mighty our God is? Wouldnt we muse into our decline in doubt
and see Him keeping us from doubting utterly? Doesnt He keep us even
when we doubt His goodness? If we could just see how our attitude in His
presence was throth with corruption we would muse and groan. Look at
Him, there He was in our songs, there in our meditation, there in the
night, consoleing us, granting us joys beyond our senses.
Yet He
even alows us to question ourselves in our understanding of His gracious
love to us. In time we are left to look back on once was. We are given
memories so that we can muse at the state of our hearts in the present
and draw on the loving infusions of the past and in this musing we are
brought to see that there is a timlessness in thoughts and in seeing
that reality we see that God knows in a timeless reality. This is the
musing that keeps me from utterly abandoning into unreality where there
is no God. God always was and always will be. In understanding the
greatness and power of God i am brought to my senses in this crossroad
and begin to come back to my trust and confidence in Him and not in
myself.
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| 9727
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Forums / Prayer Requests / Doubt
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on: January 11, 2006, 09:42:33 PM
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I guess if there is one situation i find
myself stumbling over it would be this concept of doubt. I think this
cross road brings us back to our senses that its not about us in the
end. Here we are crying out to God and yet what we are faced with is a
mountian of responsibility. Yet the truth is we never amount to anything
unless we are brought to understand that our salvation was started by
Him and will be brought to its culmination in Him. Here is our parodox.
We seek Him until it hurts and then we refuse to be comforted because we
enjoy the doubt more than Him. The one state that i am most comfortable
is trusting in my industry and senses of site, touch, and feel. But
yet this trust leads to groaning all the day long. This trust leads to
doubt. Trusting in myself is the most miserable place to be.Its as if i
were a spoiled child refusing to be comforted because in order to be
comforted i must see that i need to see the need of salvation, I am in
need to seeing Him ,not me. And when this cross road comes we grow
faint, musing at our inability and His greatness and power. We faint
under the magnificancy of it all. What would our existence be if we
could get a glimpse in continuance of just how big and mighty our God
is? Wouldnt we muse into our decline in doubt and see Him keeping us
from doubting utterly? Doesnt He keep us even when we doubt His
goodness? If we could just see how our attitude in His presence was
throth with corruption we would muse and groan. Look at Him, there He
was in our songs, there in our meditation, there in the night,
consoleing us, granting us joys beyond our senses.
Yet He even alows
us to question ourselves in our understanding of His gracious love to
us. In time we are left to look back on once was. We are given memories
so that we can muse at the state of our hearts in the present and draw
on the loving infusions of the past and in this musing we are brought to
see that there is a timlessness in thoughts and in seeing that reality
we see that God knows in a timeless reality. This is the musing that
keeps me from utterly abandoning into unreality where there is no God.
God always was and always will be. In understanding the greatness and
power of God i am brought to my senses in this crossroad and begin to
come back to my trust and confidence in Him and not in myself.
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Forums / Theology Forum / The Bible Driven Church
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on: January 05, 2006, 06:39:18 AM
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Acts 1:4. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, \"Which,\" He said, \"you heard of from Me;
5. for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.\"
6.
So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, \"Lord,
is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?\"
7. He said to them, \"It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
8. but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.\"
1:13.
When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where
they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip
and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and
Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14. These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
2:1. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
33. \"Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
37. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said
to Peter and the rest of the apostles, \"Brethren, what shall we do?\"
Jn20:17. Jesus *said to her, \"Stop clinging to Me, for I
have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to
them, `I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'
\" 27. Then He *said to Thomas, \"Reach here with your finger,
and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.\"
38.
Peter said to them, \"Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39. \"For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.\"
Jn 17:9. \"I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;
46.
Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread
from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness
and sincerity of heart, 47. praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
4:8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, \"Rulers and elders of the people,
Acts4:23.
When they had been released, they went to their own companions and
reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24.
And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one
accord and said, \"O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH
AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM,
25. who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, `WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE,
AND THE PEOPLES DEVISE FUTILE THINGS ?
26. `THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND,
AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER
AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.'
27.
\"For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy
servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28. to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
29. \"And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence,
30. while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.\"
31. And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. 32.
And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul;
and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own,
but all things were common property to them.
33. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. Jn 1:16. For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace .
34.
For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of
land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales
35. and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.
36.
Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by
the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement),
37. and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet
5:29. But Peter and the apostles answered, \"We must obey God rather than men.
30. \"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross.
31.
\"He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a
Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
32. \"And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.\"
6:13-1513. They put forward false witnesses who said, \"This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law;
14.
for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this
place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.\"
15. And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.
8:5. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.
6.
The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by
Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.
7.
For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of
them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and
lame were healed.
8. So there was much rejoicing in that city.
9.
Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in
the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone
great;
10. and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving
attention to him, saying, \"This man is what is called the Great Power
of God.\"
11. And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts.
12.
But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom
of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and
women alike.
13. Even Simon himself believed; and after being
baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and
great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.
14. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,
15. who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
16.
For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17. Then they began laying their
hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
Johns
baptism was a baptizing them into the name of Jesus, a looking forward
to the finished work, Jesus baptism was different in the sending of the
Spirit in the waiting for the day of Pentecost as that promise of power.
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9752
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Forums / Theology Forum / Calvinism And 666
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on: January 02, 2006, 10:12:08 AM
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I must disagree... The statements that the
beast would speak, and cause as many as did not worship the image to be
killed is separate from the statment that nobody would be able to buy or
sell without the mark.I dont think its gramatically correct to
seperate the two causes in 16 and 17. Rather the question how could he
enforce his universal worship. By a mark! The point of the verse is one
of identity and behavior. Here you have anti christ and Christ. Here you
have the cause coming from the anti christ as opposed to Christ. Where
in the scripture is identity to a king not involed with behavior? Look a
Daniel!
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9756
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Forums / Theology Forum / Why Do Bad Thing Happen
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on: December 31, 2005, 09:54:36 AM
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The reason we do not understand the reality of
pain and the level of its existence,with the nearness of its effecting
us is because we are sheilded from its reality by the blurring of the
sharp contrast between sin its effects and justification and its results
in dealing in this reality of pain. Pain touches every area of our
existence. Pain is a result of our depraved existence. The thoughts in
us that cause pain are inescapable. Thats why sin is a power and pain is
its out working in us. When we face the fact that we are sinners we
acknowlege that we are in a realm where pain has a sway over us.All of
us are susceptable to great experiences of pain at the change of the
second hand of the clock. So we are susceptable for pain to change the
way we think. Our problem is that we do not know how to have peace in
the midst of pain. In a sense we live in a moment by moment basis on the
edge of total abandonment of reality and rational thinking that pain
causes. We ignore these extreme changes in our dispostion that pain
causes by using our minds to deal in an irrational way with the state of
power that pain has on us. If we acknowlege that we are effected by the
pain then we are thrown into a world of insecurity. Thats why there is
so much work toward explaining to people the nature of the problem and
the causes of the problem and its solutions. The very problem in man is
this is the natural way to deal with uncertianty. Man creates a system
to define a reality that is only helps to aleviate the pain so that he
can have a state where the pain is not great enough to effect his
thinking process , in other words the ultimate goal in creating a system
is to gain an ability to think without being overpowered by the pain
that interupts his normal mental processes. Peace becomes the narvana
while still ignoring the reality of his state in sin. We live in pain
in God. We move and have our being in God. Our state of sin is known by
Him. We live thinking and believing in God and knowing and feeling our
pain. Yet we ignore our pain even though its His decree that we feel our
pain when we feel our pain and the level we feel our pain and the
amount of time we feel our pain. He is intmately involved in the
physical sensations of our bodys that are under the strain of our pain.
His eyes see every organ and every molocule. Why would we ignore this
reality, that keeps us from dealing any other irrational way with our
pain? Because we are so unable to communicate and understand how our
souls process the pain and we cannot see the nature of the pain that God
sees in us. If we know this we must acknowlege the inability in
ourselves to create a process to over come pain like a central nervous
system sending messages out to alleviate the pain. We must see that the
aleviation of pain in us is found in God in us. He is the all seeing God
and He is the all knowing God. That communication to our pain in us is
Him in us creating anew in us to be like His Son. We must know what
existing in this new reality is like and its power in us is like. We
must have Him speak his word in us and have His Spirit renew us as we
are painfully aware of our state and that deep contrast between our
natural state apart from Him and our renewed state identified in Him.
| 9763
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Forums / Theology Forum / Calvinism And 666
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on: December 29, 2005, 06:51:22 PM
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Since there has been an effort to attribute to
Calvinism a narrow view of the universal call i would like to ask those
who believe in the universal redemption how they can believe that there
will be millions of people in the future on the earth who will be
unable to recieve the gospel because of some outward act? Will you be
able to witness to a person who has the mark? If millions of people are
beyond the scope of being saved then it is not a universal redemption is
it?
| 9765
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Forums / Main Forum / Culture War/ Sacred Vs, Secular/ Etc...
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on: December 29, 2005, 11:03:25 AM
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The things that a central in this issue are
the profound things. The profound things are the things of power. The
things of power are eternal in nature that is why these things are so
profound. But profound things are not just propositions but existed in
realities. Men who utter profoundunties live in the existence of those
eternal realities. These eternal realities in men are enlived by the
supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. This is what leads to a
centralized focus of gospel desire. They go beyond propositions. Yet
they are built on proposition which address not only the profound things
but the structure of the propogation of these things. Living in Christ
and being filled with the Spirit and His word will expose what is
temporal by these eternal profound realities.
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