VT20

RR Quote "And to KNOW him his to contrast that part of our thoughts that don't. Don't really want to know. The contrast of my own combative false self . This is what I tried to get across in the denying self thread. I don't fight this part..it's far too elusive. I let it be but when it knows it's being exposed in the light of his ways like a spoiled 8 year old persona that lives deep within me is the time I can sit back and clearly be aware that the only answer is to KNOW him. But there's a catch I'm afraid.... My will is brutal...it is as iron clad as the day is long. It is familiar as the smell of apple pie in my grandmother's kitchen. As crispy as the bacon she used to make as well that was never duplicated. The strange thing about feeling right is that it's power is intoxicating. For some reason that I do not know or even have a clue about..it is when we are disarmed by 90 year old ladies and the statement of a two year old daughter who whispers...".Daady I wuv you..." in feety pajamas at the end of a very confusing dark day that slices through the guards at the ego tower. Unplanned and not detected by the world's radar of efficient order and sense of collective reason. There is no competition of theology or battle of brightest wit. There is only pure enticed surrender. Surrender to the idea that yes...his ways are higher, not by might or wrath or exclusive club membership but because it is offered to take in spite of the relentless tide of self assurance of my own perception of myself and my world view. I will bask in it's awareness for now..then like a train, life  that moves with a seemingly cold indifference to my needs and dreams...and hurts...will find me waiting again for when I drink too much from the well of my own understanding. Funny how it's always available..as if that we're the problem..but am I available ? So busy in my own head trying to make sense of my heart and how it will survive in such a cold place. Now we know for we have tasted it . This is very good"

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783  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Ability or will ? on: January 12, 2013, 10:17:41 AM cont... we must understand what our spiritual desires are because it is how we know who we are. If we live starting with willing then we will train ourselves to trust in words and things that are fleeting. But a true understanding of ourselves as we know our purpose in God through our understanding desire is how we touch another person in a real sense. Otherwise we will always be like two ships passing in the nite. This is because our souls must find God. Unless we find God we will always be anxious. And if we have found God then we have found our purpose. If we have found our purpose then everyone who comes into our experience has a purpose. So our desire is never thwarted or frustrated. Because we understand that conflict is defined in terms of the difference between trusting in idols or trusting in the living God. A true desire cannot be frustrated even tho we live in an idolatrous culture. Reply Quote Notify

784  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Ability or will ? on: January 12, 2013, 10:08:46 AM cont. The apostle says that our lives should be like a book for others to read. So we should be always putting a match to our spiritual desires. Because our story is the story of redemption. We are not living a normal life. But we have been identified with Christ and we no longer live but Christ lives in us. So a healthy life is one that experiences the passions of the heart through desiring God. And in this we forget about ourselves. This is because redemptions is exalting Christ. He is the beginning and end of our salvation. He goes out before us like a consuming fire. When we long for our final redemption we understand that in Christ we will be completely victorious. Our desire is like a kings desire. We will be given our eternal inheritance. We will be rewarded if we understand and experience this flame in our hearts that will not go out. The psalmist says that when he kept quite his heart burned within him. So desire that is kept in because of silence is like a flame that burns. This desire that we keep hot is overcoming our desire of physical pain. We cannot succumb to our fleshly desires. We must understand these cursed dispositions and be alert when we are tempted to look away from this one desire. Sometimes our desire is expressed in His presence with hot displeasure. Because we meet the curse with a curse. The law curses and destroys the destruction of sin. When Christ goes out before us as a fire He destroys our foes on every side. This is our desire for His redemption that is like a fire in our souls.   Reply Quote Notify

785  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Ability or will ? on: January 12, 2013, 09:53:04 AM We cant choose without desire. Some people ignore desire because they have been taught that if they feel something before choosing then it cannot be trusted. But we should always be aware of our desires and know how to bring them under control of our thinking so that we do not grow weary and faint for lack of desire. As the Psalmist says that before he went to the temple he desired God as a single focus. So we focus on God as He has revealed Himself and we begin to choose those things that image His desire. In a sense we are in God but because we become anxious at the slightest change then we must focus on resting in God. Desire is like walking into the outer rooms of a house and then proceeding to the hidden room in the middle. The inner room is what we desire. It is the heart of the house. It is our experience of salvation through believing. This place is a spiritual place. It should be a place that we can always go. So our desire is a self reflection of our past experiences of this exalted salvation.  This is where believing and affliction are conflicted. Its where we long and experience salvation but in our past experiences of the fleeting desire of salvation we see our total inability to live in that desire. Its almost impossible for us to always rest in the desire of experiencing the supernatural resting in His deliverance. But in longing for this new experience through desiring Christ we find that even though we are not fulfilled we are easily led back to that experience by learning to desire Christ. "Into your hands I commit my spirit." As if we had gone from death to our eternal home. Reply Quote Notify

786  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Ability or will ? on: January 10, 2013, 09:26:53 PM I do not think its rite to say that we are defined by the choices we make. Because i do not believe that we can control all the forces that we encounter. There are powers that are too strong for us. Ive seen this happen to people all the time that are in the public eye. Something is stated about them and then it is repeated enough to form every body else s view of that person. So whether we believe that there is a possibility that a thing is gonna come true or that it would be impossible that it would turn out any other way it matters very little how we choose in the future. And this is why people talk about the circumstances they find themselves in very simplistic terms. Because it makes them feel like they are better in control of the circumstances in their lives.And so they place trust in how their choices are gonna change their circumstances without giving a thought that the circumstances of their lives are the result of things that they have control over and things that they do not control. Because there are things both personal to us as to our experience and other things that are physical that are very concrete choices we do not normally consider the value of those things that are impersonal to us that come into our circumstances that have no relation to our interaction with the circumstance. This is why to "be" is so difficult for us in understanding the total purpose of our lives.     Reply Quote Notify

787  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Faith and Science on: December 31, 2012, 02:39:53 PM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sKIymtsOAc&feature=player_embedded#! Reply Quote Notify

788  Forums / Main Forum / Re: God Can't Be Kept Out on: December 29, 2012, 05:16:45 PM The apostle quotes David in a psalm about the people who were speaking evil of him. Let them be bent over is to be rendered powerless. I would imagine that the king was talking about an uprising in leadership. Its important to see that the king curses those who are unfaithful. This unfaithfulness is to apostatize from the faith. We must understand that God through the prophets spoke His warnings to them all day long. But not all Israel is Israel. God always preserved a remnant within Israel. When David spoke these curses it was to those who were traders in his own government. Possibly led by Absalom. God spoke through the prophets calling His people evil. But at the same time the prophets called them righteous. This is puzzling because in the ot a blessed person is never addressed as wicked. What we need to see here was that the prophets were like the modern day evangelist. They spoke to the nation as a whole. So they were addressing three kinds of people. The wicked, the self righteous and the elect. You never see an Israelite curse His own people. But he cursed the wicked. And so there were wicked and self righteous people in Israel. The apostle here is speaking of the nation of Israel. God did not reject His remnant people. And this is what the apostle talks about in the same address in Romans. But God preserved His elect even when they suffered in exile. So the apostle is not saying that God was waiting for Israel to turn to Him but through their rejection the gospel went out to all the world.  Reply Quote Notify

789  Forums / Main Forum / Re: God Can't Be Kept Out on: December 29, 2012, 03:36:04 PM Fundamentally as a working principle of law is to establish the rites of others extending them in the most free way. This is not an option. But this is according to how God has decided to work and what the individuals consider that value of that work. Because real freedom is seeing that God is present in working the work so that we are most free to work. This is what we call God granting blessing to His people and cursing through His law. So no matter what form of government we are talking about it is impossible for us to think of it as a purely secular relationship. Because every man is accountable to God. No man escapes the curses of the law. This is why God works alone because He is the only one who can act righteously by turning the system of government upside down. No matter how we judge what is just based upon our reasoning by our view of government .. has no bearing on what actually happens in Gods view of justice. lol So we may think that the trouble we see in our culture is somehow thwarting Gods purposes in the ultimate end of bringing glory to Himself in the direction we are going. But as i have said if God is not free to do as He pleases having no boundaries by how we think according to our laws it should be then we are not free to be blessed by God in a personal way. So we must be attentive in a spiritual way to understand the reasons for God to do as He does and in this give Him praise and glory that He has our best interest in it. And this gives us the full understand that we are free.      Reply Quote Notify

790  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Some concepts of Biblical inerrancy on: December 29, 2012, 03:20:03 PM See now just because you stop practicing a sin doesnt mean that your dealing with sin in a fundamental way. There are more addictions than the typical ones we describe in our culture. So Christ went deeper than the list when we compare the commands to our obedience. And in fact thats exactly how the rich man approached Christ. Can you imagine that we have in this context of the rich man on the other side of this argument Christ presenting the adulterous? Now this is very interesting contrast. Here the rich man approaches Christ with a well thought out system of success according to how he argues for his view of righteousness. It wasnt that he had confidence that how Christ would react would put him in a better position to appear righteous but it was that he had the boldness to say that he had done all that was required. So he was not very attentive to the ot teaching of Gods covenant of grace. I mean if he really wanted to get in good with Christ then he would have come with an attitude that God had given him everything of which he did not deserve. I mean there is a difference between the personality of evil as an addiction and the works of the law as the standard of addiction. Here this man who appeared righteous having eliminated all of his addiction could not expunge the addiction to himself... lol And you have the adulterous who actually believed that she could not do something to overcome her addiction. Why did Christ respond to her like she was accepted? Because He decided to give her grace. The point being that there was no reason to accept her other then His being merciful. You got to scratch your head... how can a person so vile and dirty know such glorious change? Because she understood that there was no reason to be accepted by Christ because of her goodness. It is the gospel of grace. Reply Quote Notify

791  Forums / Main Forum / Re: God Can't Be Kept Out on: December 29, 2012, 02:35:12 PM Im saying they came out of a Monarchy system which is closer to the ot theocracy. They were very experienced on what not to do and developed a constitution where the church was separated from the state. But i am simply describing my view of theonomy. That is that the civil law and the moral law of our country is from Judaism. When we are describing how the law is viewed as to these matters of justice and equality it is worked out in the creation motif. The view of the individual and how he is valued according to Gods standard of justice is all tied into Gods creative work in the development of governments. And this view of government as it is taken from the ot principles of law is how we define the value of people in relation to the value and importance they place on things in relation to God. So i argue that you cant have a true order in society by law unless you have a proper respect for God. I think this is a constitution view.   Reply Quote Notify

792  Forums / Main Forum / Re: God Can't Be Kept Out on: December 29, 2012, 02:07:37 PM Actually our whole political system is based upon a covenant with the people. Thats why our leaders put their hand on the bible and swear allegiance to the constitution. And it used to be a more closely regulated structure where they reported back to these different militias would keep them accountable. But to keep it short.. and i am not for militias ...but our courts have made us a country ruled by the dominance on the majority.  So to say that we the puritans were for a Theocracy are not correct. They were constitutionalists having had experience with a Monarchy... these people were very educated. They believed in a Republic. So that is a false comparison. In fact our constitution was developed in the mold of Johnathan Edwards. It was "Israel" as a republic.    Reply Quote Notify

793  Forums / Main Forum / Re: God Can't Be Kept Out on: December 29, 2012, 12:43:24 PM The history of the world is in the context of Gods kingdom rule. Anyone who divides history up and tries to change Gods purposes is not being consistent with the ot and nt teaching. As I have said that these covenants made to Israel are eternal covenants. Look at the Abrahamic covenant. God promises Abraham that he would have descendents that are as the number of the stars. And so this covenant of grace extends through the whole earth. Look at the Davidic covenant. You have a covenant that promises success to David and his descendents in the line of Christ. That Christ will rule as the king in His heavenly throne. But this covenant is promised to Davids descendents forever and ever. What is the bible teaching here? Is it dispensationalism? My , my why try to divide yourself? Why try to divide history? Why try to teach two kinds of gods? The point is that our confidence in what God says as nt believers is not tied to our different areas of service but we believe that as we sing Psalms Hymns and spiritual songs , we are living in the covenant promises made to Abraham and David. lol What do these Psalms say about our position in this world as Gods covenant people? The promise that we belong to a new world order. We have the kingdom of God living in us. So we have gone from being slaves to the world system to being servants of the Most High. This servant hood is in the context of our position as kings and priest of Gods kingdom. We have a sure inheritance as we believe in Gods covenant promises. Why has dispensationalism been so successful in making us think that works and grace are mixed? Why do we think that Gods promises are determined upon our fulfilling the works covenant? Because in dividing the ot law with the nt grace we change the way salvation is viewed. The truth is that we all who belong to Gods church both ot and nt believers are all part of Israel. lol If we believe that we have a covenant promise that is sure and steadfast according to Gods nature then we have a position in His kingdom that cannot be changed or taken away from us. We all have a sure promise in the new earth that we will receive all the promises that are in His covenants. Because we belong to Christ who has given us all that He has inherited by His work on the cross. This begins to order in us a purpose that is singular.  We believe that God rules the earth not just as a ruler over His house but He sets up kings and brings others down. We are looking to a world that is not part of this present system. Every battle what we fight now is very important to our position in this new world. Because God has told us that we will subdue this world and in this He will bring in the new heaven and earth.    Reply Quote Notify

794  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: The finality of forgiveness on: December 28, 2012, 12:44:02 PM I do not think we raise salvation to its riteful place because we do not think of it as abstract. Salvation is not really looking to a serpent... or in the context a Higher Deity that actually performs the miracle. So salvation is not something we obtain but its something that reorders our value of things and gives us a clear distinction between the physical and spiritual. Salvation is the reordering of reality. If you think of the highest form of adoration in this world it would in some way involve a physical gesture toward someone. But salvation is valued in a gift that is not physical. It is seen in the value of in invisible attribute. And so we just speak a word and we experience life. Salvation is a gift of life that transforms us and the world. So its value is described in the understanding of glory. These valuable things are the attributes that transform the soul. This life begins by the experience of grace. Grace is simply something that we are given of value that we do not fully possess by the valued experience in comparison to a physical thing. But it is described as faith , hope and love, joy, peace and comfort. And yet how do you grasp these things as if they were contained? The point being that the value of these attributes are experience as we understand the value and extent of how they are gifted to us. The greater the gift the greater the experience. Reply Quote Notify

795	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: The coming of the great Apocalypse	on: December 28, 2012, 12:10:45 PM
This Revelation has two views that show the context of Gods purposes as He is displaying Himself. The view toward heaven is circular and eternal. It is God condescending in a linear advancement to the end of time but when we turn back to view heaven God is timeless and fully seen from beginning to the end as all things giving Him glory and honor. So we must always keep in mind that all this awful description of Gods judgements on this earth does not change the view as we focus on God on His throne. When we look at the activity of Gods angelic forces and His destructive responses in the fire, earth quakes, rumblings of the earth, and tornado s we are always given hope by turning our eyes back to God whos beauty gives us a sense of the ultimate experience of eternity interacting with time as all the purposes of this earth are seen. We must understand that God describes His linear work in how He renews all things in displaying His attributes and not necessarily a time line of events. So all of these means that have been established by God for His people are shown to be used from heaven to earth. So we are encouraged to focus on a reality within a reality. This present world is passing way and the future is coming up on the present. This Revelation is about the end or its a glimpse of life beyond this life. Its a book that helps us cross over before we actually cross over. The images are given to us so that we will begin to see what it will be like when we are living in the new heavens and earth. And yet its a book of already but not yet. And so we are drawn to the personal nature of the struggles in our time as it produces a personal reordering of our miss understanding of the purposes of this destruction. It is a book written to encourage us and not necessary a historical account of events. We feel the same struggles that have always been a part of the culture of governments and cultures from the beginning of time. But we have a glimpse of the reality within the reality. We get a glimpse of the actions of the heavens responding to the big events of this earth.  But revelation comes rite down into the very foundations of the earth. And so we are reminded about time moving toward its end. We are reminded that men will seek after idols and spiritual idolatry so that God must judge men in the end.  6  Forums / Main Forum / Re: God Can't Be Kept Out on: December 28, 2012, 11:30:53 AM cont Gods covenants are not replaced but they are changed. Because God has established His covenants as proof that He is a God who saves His people. When He makes a promise He displays His faithfulness by reminding His people of all of the historical account of His covenants. God interacts with the earth as a spirit so that every inch of space is ruled by His covenant promises , which is His faithfulness, long suffering, unfailing love and kindness. We are kept by the power of God. Because God has established His word in covenant through all time as a display that He is a God who saves men. So God has entered into covenant with the rulers of this earth and He holds them in derision because they do not rule with faithfulness and equality. Now listen to me. Just as time is always moving so God summons the rulers of this earth before His tribunal to give an account. And what has God declared as the judge of the earth who has thrown down His gavel? He has proven that He alone rules and judges the high places because He has determined the life span of all men. He demands absolute allegiance and trust as a covenant keeping God by declaring that He alone has ruled through all generations. Do we feel a sense of aw and wonder that God who seems to be silent actually is showing that He alone is ruling all men?   Reply Quote Notify 797  Forums / Main Forum / Re: God Can't Be Kept Out on: December 28, 2012, 11:13:24 AM There are lines drawn in scripture about the health of a nation that cannot be crossed.And basically the psychology goes something like this. When a nation rejects God and His laws then they become godless and seek after other gods. This is depicted in scripture in the Tower of Babel. Men seeking to ascend to the heavens to replace God as ruler. The whole system of order in the universe is in the establishment of justice, righteousness and symmetry in Gods throne. His throne is not necessarily a local dwelling but its how God rules and orders everything that transpires in time. So God has set the world so that it is fixed. That is God has firmly established the world and it cannot be moved. This is not just talking about the earth moving on its axis but its the establishment of a system of justice and equality on the earth that cannot be overthrown by man. When men become proud they seek to create disorder. Because this eternal order is like a clock that is always active until the end of the world when Christ comes to judge the living and the dead, then God in seeking to reorder everything is actively in conflict with the high places in which men rule. Gods plan that was established in eternity past cannot be thwarted. God is on His throne and the earth is His footstool. The earth is not distanced from God but its evidence that God rules through all time and space. God has His commanding forces in the heaven-lies. He will respond to nations that are destructive. There is a natural law set in place that was designed to bring men to their knees. When rulers go their own way God greases the tracks and allows men to destroy themselves. When men go astray from God they depart from His law that was put in place as the boundaries for safety and a general respect toward men and they begin to destroy each other. This is a process that the bible describes as smoke rising from the earth. The nation becomes a brutal place and men seek death but God thwarts their efforts.     Reply Quote Notify 798  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Creating Spiritual Reality on: December 26, 2012, 10:11:31 PM Quote from: Gouda on December 26, 2012, 09:51:22 PM MBG, I don't pretend to understand all this, but I like where you're going. I can't escape myself often. I'll have an experience that reminds me of my past behavior, and the shame and condemnation and "How could I? What was I thinking?!" makes it all fresh and present and overwhelming. Yes Gouda thats what i am saying. History is very important because it gives us a true comparison of the present. Ive lived in the Psalms for 20 years or so. But for some reason and maybe its the age i am presently at but those memories of my childhood and early adult have become more fixed in my mind. Maybe its because i have more time to do the things i want to do because im not as tied down to raising kids. In a sense as i am opening up a little here.. ive sort of become emotional about all of this awareness... so i was thinking about why it has become my present experience. I think its because in the old days it was more black and white. So as things become more confusing in the present world i find solace in the memories of the old days. lol But these things come to me after meditation. So i was thinking that i have a disposition in a sense that connects me to those very vivid memories of my life. I guess you could describe it as feeling so rested that i get overcome by the emotion of all of those days. I was trying to explain the reasons for why i experience this.   Remove Reply Quote Notify 799  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Creating Spiritual Reality on: December 26, 2012, 08:00:08 PM I am a super naturalist because I believe that God breaks through time and space and speaks to us. Some people think it is arrogance but that is a miss representation of christian confidence. If in fact the world was ordered by a dogmatic belief then we would all look arrogant. lol But people waver in between two ways and are quick to attack something that is from the old days. But time is a succession of dogmatic reality that brings us back to the past because God doesnt change. But people do not experience dogmatic reality and so they are locked in their own minds in the present. But we can be free to experience any moment in our past in this present experience. How do we change from this evil personality of pragmatism? How do we connect our inward experience back to our child hood? How do we experience a past pleasure in the present as if it was the same experience? We must be dogmatic about freeing ourselves from ourselves. We must fight to unlock the innocence of our former days. How do we take advantage of the total ability of our minds? We must fight the good fight so that we do not retreat into the deep sea of pragmatism. If we dont fight we will sink into the ocean of not knowing who we are.   Remove Reply Quote Notify 800  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Some concepts of Biblical inerrancy on: December 26, 2012, 06:13:26 PM "Christ is the end of the law to those who believe." Rom 10:4 "Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible'—but not everything is constructive." 1 Cor 10:23 "Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God." Rom 14:6 God provided the covenant of grace through the Abrahamic Covenant. He walked in between the sacrifice alone as the beginning and the end of how the Israelite s  were to walk. So we have the picture of the covenant of grace as Gods provision for His people in Him being glorified as God. It is seen in the teaching about salvation in the ot worship book. God provided all that Israel would need to prosper. He not only provided it for them but He worked to accomplish all that is necessary to be successful in this covenant relationship. We must understand that our believing is essential to appropriating all that God has accomplished. But we cannot believe it without Him first providing us with the confidence that He alone is our righteousness. He provides this confidence in His word implanted in us by His grace. He gives us confidence to seek Him..."all who seek Him will swear by Him." Swear simply means that Gods name is upheld by His promise to uphold it through us.  He provides us with this one desire. This gift of the one desire is as deep as the oceans. It is beyond our understanding. It is so complex that it involves a unified existence in us as Christ working in us to will and do with all of creation. And so we live to the fullest in the moment having an understanding of the meta physical nature of things. This one desire crosses over to our natural human desires. Because it gives us the willingness to glorify God in all that we do. It is God working in us in the renewal of all things. So God who is concerned with the smallest creature knows our inward frame in a recreation of us.  We are totally dependent upon God who expands our understanding of Him beyond our ability to get it in our own wisdom. Just like He spoke it and it was made so also God has implanted that spoken word of life in us. Just as He raised Lazarus from the dead by calling him forth so He calls in us a new resurrection. So we experience this power of His resurrection in a timeless fashion. This is that one desire. will continue   Reply Quote Notify 801  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Some concepts of Biblical inerrancy on: December 26, 2012, 01:13:47 PM The main point of the ot law was not really a guide to follow. It was so burdensome that there were always allowances. And so you have David who approached God as a law breaker. "If you oh Lord kept a record of sin then who could stand?" David approach God on the basis of Gods unfailing love. Which is Gods ruling over Israel through His patience , and His treating them as dust. God was dealing with Israel through covenant. Covenant is not a secular description of a relationship. It is not greek division of democratic powers. lol ( Instead of the creation gods we have the equal forces gods. lol Universalist democracy through common grace.) Rather God effectively ordered that OT society by His law. So in describing His relationship with His covenant nation He uses terms of endearment as a marriage. Like a marriage is an institution of life and not a secular one so God provided boundaries through His law that gave Israel a quality of life through justice, peaceful cohabitation, and protection of the rites of the poor.But instead of living within their means ... a healthy respect for others .. they were always testing God. So God had to deal harshly with the rebellious. But the order of the society was always toward lessening the burdens of the law in order to allow them to enjoy their freedom even tho it was based on the their weakness to obey it fully.  I will explain further Gods work as a just God through His law that was to protect Israel. Reply Quote Notify 802  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: This Sunday's Pre-Sermon Comments on: December 26, 2012, 12:34:43 PM cont... i like to think of our relationship with God through His word as ebb and flows. We always approach God through knowledge of who we are talking to and what He likes the best. The only way that we can desire God in a respectful way is to try to treat Him as who He is. lol So we are weak to the point of being ineffective and He is beyond our understanding. Who has known the mind of God and who has been His counselor? What this is saying is that we really are defined not by our relationships but by who we are when there is no one. We get reduced to trusting in God than any other thing before we can understand who we are. So if you were on a lonely island could you have a relationship and would it satisfy you? Who has known the mind of God? There is no one who can replace God as our only trust. But we have open access to God by His work that was already accomplished at the cross. So we can not only approach God as He is on His throne but we live in the heavenlies. And so our relationship to Him goes from hot.. as we draw near... to trusting that He will forgive us because we are too weak to stay at His feet. lol The point being is that if we tested His word it would consume us. lol So we are always seeking to be consumed by His word in His love. And this is the basis of our petitioning Him. Through mediation of His word we keep the fire in our souls burning hot.   Reply Quote Notify 803  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: This Sunday's Pre-Sermon Comments on: December 26, 2012, 12:22:46 PM I am sorry that you had to go through this SP. Its always hard to go through difficult situations and believe that God has our best interest. Does it matter what we say to God that will get His smile and answer? If it did not matter then why would we engage in the form of communication of praying? And if we were left without help and reached the bottom of life then what other hope would we have if we did not believe that God was not listening? Its like playing sports. The more you practice the better your gonna be when you get on the field. No one wants to go into a game believing they are gonna lose. Why do we think that in sports confidence is essential to winning but in life we think that Gods silence means that He thinks we can learn a lesson through defeat? Does God not want us to overcome the trials in this life and get the victors crown in heaven? It does matter what happens in the end. If it did not matter then there really is not defined purpose in this life. No matter what any one says we have a format-able enemy in the Devil and we absolute must defeat him. If God has already defeated the Devil at the cross then isnt it inconsistent to believe that we win by losing? lol It would seem to me that if a coach told me in the locker room before the game that he knows already through prophetic powers that we are gonna win the game in the end then it would not lessen my confidence but it would embolden it. The point is that if we do not experience the confidence to pursue God until we win the battle then we really do not experience the power of God as He displayed it on the cross when He defeated the Devil. You see the devil is a traitor and a coward. God speaks and the Devil turns and runs. But if we were to use our own powers to defeat the Devil then he would destroy us. This is the point of prayer. Its like the play book for the advancement of the team to win. We have the spoken word of God. He has given us a word that brings life. He has implanted that life by His word into our souls. That word is the word of salvation. Its not really a word of reconciliation, or substitution, or transformation, as the main idea... but its a word of deliverance. Cries in scripture for deliverance, God being asked to listen, ...is waiting on God .. persevering by longing for God to listen to us... is asking Him to not reject us... or using arguments as reasons for God to listen ... which is using tactics like we want to appeal to our wives or girlfriends so they will respond to us. God likes to be spoken to as if we are drawing Him in by our longings for His unfailing love. And then we appeal to him to intervene on our behalf. There is a sense of drawing near and then presenting our case to Him.    Reply Quote Notify 804  Forums / Main Forum / Re: The Bible and events in conn school on: December 23, 2012, 05:30:30 PM If God is all good then how is he gonna act to prevent evil and judge the guilty? I think there are two different attitudes in regards to sin. And because God must punish sin because there is a potential over time to act with impunity and destroy society. So there are men who actually enjoy sinning with impunity. But at the same time sin creates victims. Ive never seen a man in himself that can control what sin he does be able to not sin for awhile. So sin is also a deception like the experience of the frog in the hot pan. Sin holds men in their ways of destruction. Like feeling overwhelmed with grief or being weighted down with worry etc. So sin is collective as well. There are specific sins that God points to in generations. There is only one means that God has given to overcome sin. He has provided grace. The reason that grace overcomes sin is that it is effective no matter what sin it is or how bad the sin gets. You got to understand that grace puts a man back in his rite mind. Grace provides us with the ability to understand sin and to be able to study it so that can apply the grace needed when we are confronted with that sin. The best part of grace is that when we sin and expect to be judged.. God provides us with the work necessary to deal with sin so that He can draw near to us as a loving Father. Instead of being in dread we are relieved and drawn to rest in His loving kindness, forgiveness, long suffering and goodness. So grace provides the only way that we can deal with sin and put it in the past. Its sinners coming to God to be made new. But society as a collective voice produces the circumstances in how people are confronted with sin and destruction. So man in his natural state is cursed. This curse is a blindness to see the dangers of confronting sin with self effort and godlessness. When a society rejects God then men are drowned in a curse and sin holds men in their personal cursed blindness. And this is why God must judge the inhabitants of this earth because they do not understand the level of destruction they leave in their paths. When men turn away from God to other gods then they at curse their neighbors. This curse is like a kind of mental neurosis. Living in distrust... lack of respect...hard hardheartedness given over to anger and hatred rather then a healthy disposition of respect for God. But at the same time there is a need in man to feel loved and wanted. So God deal with man through love and goodness. No one ever wants to come to a God who is angry and vengeful. So God must show them that their sins have been like a kind of heavy load they have been carrying. Man was never created to carry things that God did not naturally create man for. Man was created to enjoy God by glorifying Him in every thing. So man was created to experience personal success by living with a God who is beyond our understanding of love, kindness, patience, goodness,etc.  This is God who promises to pour out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So this is how we are to be led along in fellowship with a God who is abundantly good to us.     Reply Quote Notify 805  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Why Is There Evil in the World? on: December 17, 2012, 08:20:11 PM Thats correct abch .. yes there are a lot of questions about how a personality is formed. And i agree there is no mental illness that is exactly alike. Ive been reading about this shooting incident and i do not believe that it was handled with wisdom. If your child is threatening to kill you and himself and discipline is not helping ...along with the diagnosis of Aspergers.. that should be taken care of with medication. Anyone who says that medication does not help doesnt understand how effective it is if it is prescribed correctly. There are meds that control different parts of the brain. And a person can be medicated to the point of being a zombie. In other words its like a dial that you turn up until the unacceptable behavior is corrected. Ive had the experience of the situation being out of control so that it was humanly impossible to make my son act correctly. As i have said and i believe that people who have mental problems hear voices and hallucinate. I was unaware of what was going on in my sons head. But i saw him talking to people that were not present and repeating things to me that were never said. My son did not need discipline .. he needed help stopping the hallucinations and the voices. His brain was literately driving him crazy. I did not realize the depth of the problem until we got the rite combination of meds and he was asking me for them. I believe that there are some people who have addictions like  alcohol and drugs are using them to cope because they have some sort of mental illness. But i also believe that a person can over compensate for the injured part of the brain and balance out his life. It depends upon the level of the damage.   Reply Quote Notify 806  Forums / Main Forum / Re: I Darkly chall'nged my faith- on: December 16, 2012, 08:04:37 PM Quote from: MaxxAction on December 16, 2012, 07:49:21 PM Quote from: Radio Roswell on December 16, 2012, 07:22:54 PM A lil nicer? Ok Tom sure... The irony on that comment is so thick I could cut it with a knife. lol Reply Quote Notify 807  Forums / Main Forum / Re: I Darkly chall'nged my faith- on: December 16, 2012, 07:18:39 PM Quote from: Radio Roswell on December 16, 2012, 07:13:28 PM Quote from: mybigGod on December 16, 2012, 06:48:38 PM Quote from: Radio Roswell on December 16, 2012, 06:30:26 PM Quote from: mybigGod on December 16, 2012, 03:31:13 PM I dont come on here to carry on a friendship. I just have a hard time thinking that a computer friendship is a real one. I dont think i am influenced by the computer as a culture of real interaction as if it affected me to the point where i was in need of it fulfilling my basic human connections. Well that's your choice Tom.. I do and have made good friends online some of them from this very forum and I am thankful for them. I have met them in person too and I can tell you they are real salt of the earth people. rr i understand...thats my rule .. i like to argue and i think Kk does too. I dont think he means any thing personal ..its just his style. Everybody is gifted in different ways. Your personal style comes across and its appreciated. Lets be patient with one another. One of the ways is to celebrate what a person writes even tho you disagree. Allow room to be wrong and challenge by asking questions if you disagree.  Say you disagree and be firm in your beliefs but dont try to make statements that condemn what a person writes. Its ok to disagree.   And I appreciate that from most here and we already know this. Of course it's personal. It's a persons whole spiritual journal for all to read. You cannot reconcile the ideas of democracy of free exchange when we well know that literal attempts at Biblical understanding are not. The two do not mix and never will. Some are free from that and some are not. And it's perfectly within our right to be either. debate is fine. Bring it. But we have been over this too much already and it is what it is. I suspect we or I will either deal with it or leave. Both are fine with me. This forum has been a blessing to me and I walk away ahead of the game. Im not upset about your writing. Ive had people who conflict with me... like rub me the wrong way ..i understand... just carry on and try to be a little nicer thats all. Reply Quote Notify 808  Forums / Main Forum / Re: I Darkly chall'nged my faith- on: December 16, 2012, 06:48:38 PM Quote from: Radio Roswell on December 16, 2012, 06:30:26 PM Quote from: mybigGod on December 16, 2012, 03:31:13 PM I dont come on here to carry on a friendship. I just have a hard time thinking that a computer friendship is a real one. I dont think i am influenced by the computer as a culture of real interaction as if it affected me to the point where i was in need of it fulfilling my basic human connections. Well that's your choice Tom.. I do and have made good friends online some of them from this very forum and I am thankful for them. I have met them in person too and I can tell you they are real salt of the earth people. rr i understand...thats my rule .. i like to argue and i think Kk does too. I dont think he means any thing personal ..its just his style. Everybody is gifted in different ways. Your personal style comes across and its appreciated. Lets be patient with one another. One of the ways is to celebrate what a person writes even tho you disagree. Allow room to be wrong and challenge by asking questions if you disagree.  Say you disagree and be firm in your beliefs but dont try to make statements that condemn what a person writes. Its ok to disagree.   Like i think of reasons why he might be rite or wrong and then i come here and write them. Nothing wrong with a challenge.  I try to value a person because they put their neck out and offer something that challenges me to think and expand my thinking. Reply Quote Notify 809  Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Mental Illness or Demonic possession? on: December 16, 2012, 05:11:41 PM Let me discuss cursing and blessing here because i do not believe people understand the significance of this protocol. A lot of people think that he christian life is distinguished between what we do.. that being how we move our body parts and doctrine. But our doing is to follow protocol. So if we do not follow protocol then we do things in the christian life without having a purpose. So we follow protocol because there is no one ... not even a questionnaire that can determine what we are good at. What is protocol in the christian experience? The apostle does not intend to say that doing is just what we do in this world in matters of action but its thinking correctly and using the means of faith in order to become a good soldier in the army of the Lord. A good soldier does not just advance but he has a protocol to advance.  What does it mean to distinguish between our own anger and Gods riteful response? This is an art form. Just like learning how to pray in the Spirit of wisdom so we must say things in our meditation were we agree with God about His rite to judge and to pronounce judgement. This distinguishing between our personal anger and Gods wish to grant us success is how we pray about Gods purposes. This involves the curses. The problem with us is that we try to defeat the Devil with our knowledge. But knowledge is not the horse the pulls the cart but its the foundation of our protocol. Our protocol is to reduce our confidence to one thing. Its to reduce through detail. We are to live in the gospel. So the detail is to describe everything else so that the gospel is exalted. We must learn to live with a real conviction based upon Gods righteous indignation. We must see that the curses are the most extreme of what God has done in order to finish everything so that the simplicity of the gospel is our glory. So the curses create the reality that evil has been disarmed. But at the same time they are mixed with prayer and so we disarm every thing that exalts itself as the basis for our advancing or having spiritual success. Prayer is not simply asking and getting but its resisting. Christ did not come to a point where facing death He prayed nonchalantly.  No He resisted unto blood. Sweating drops of blood. Now there have been times when crying out in the Psalms we experience a kind of breaking through. I cant explain it but its as if God is saying ok i will do as you ask. The only thing i can compare it to is following His battle plan so that He moves to do as He has planned. Which involves our desires. Reply Quote Notify 810  Forums / Main Forum / Re: I Darkly chall'nged my faith- on: December 16, 2012, 04:30:39 PM Quote from: MaxxAction on December 16, 2012, 04:24:38 PM Quote from: mybigGod on December 16, 2012, 03:31:13 PM Guys i do not have anyone on ignore. I think the last time i checked i am ignored by 3 people. It doesnt matter that i am ignored. I dont come on here to carry on a friendship. I just have a hard time thinking that a computer friendship is a real one. I dont think i am influenced by the computer as a culture of real interaction as if it affected me to the point where i was in need of it fulfilling my basic human connections. But i like discussing things no matter what view point is put across. I consider it a worthy challenge. As well as feeling the responsibility of convincing someone else of my position and not thinking it was their fault. So i come on here with a sense of the reality that i am trying to explain. In some ways this is an experience for me through writing.   The difference is Tom that while you don't always agree with everyone here, you don't feel obligated to demean them because they don't rise to your standards. I agree Max... i try to separate my personal feelings from my love of arguing. Its almost a fear of mine to argue in a way so that the other person loses interest. I unfortunately love to defend my position. But i like being stretched and pushed to discuss things that are not necessarily systematic.  So i like to write in more of an applicable way rather than just the system of sovereign grace.  I do not believe that truth is necessarily taught but it is caught.