God sanctifies us without being thwarted

 Ps.21

1 O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength. How great is his joy in the victories you give!

2 You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips. "Selah"

3 You welcomed him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.

4 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him-- length of days, for ever and ever.

5 Through the victories you gave, his glory is great; you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.

6 Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

7 For the king trusts in the LORD; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.

8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes.

9 At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them.

10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind.

11 Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed;

12 for you will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow.

13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might. 


God has created us not only to be a part of moving this world by being His vessels of glory but He has created our reality as He is pleased to create and order His creation. This is what the Psalmist is saying by God giving Him the desire of his heart... or the request of his lips. In this way we have been given a desire that cannot thwart Gods purposes. There is nothing that prevents this desire from being united with God in recreating all things. This is what we need to understand that our sin is not longer in between our success and Gods purposes.
 I can say that I have decided to receive the gospel by repenting of my sin. Since I exercised my free will in order to be accepted by God then after I am saved in need to confess my sin in order for me to be accepted. All of us can clearly see that this is semi plagenism. The miss interpretation is that God is holding us to a standard of righteousness by our confession. But if we say that God saves us in which we are sanctified and there fore we will sin less are not we making sin the issue between us and God? But instead of making the demand come from the beginning of salvation we are just saying its gonna come from the result of salvation? In my opinion we are making the same mistake as the semis.
You will find this strict way of thinking throughout the Psalms. My philosophy in my life has been that whenever I hear teaching in any form, whether it is from church, business, family, friends I withhold my judgement until I have passed the idea through my meditation of the Psalms. I have learned to be in control of myself even if I am in the company of a man who is speaking violently. This has become so ingrained in me that I have learned to wrestle with some men like I am in a wrestling match. I am expert at pinning my opponent in a defense manner. I mean not me but having the discipline of a warriors mentality. If you want to experience this then memorize the book of Psalms. Thats my challenge.But I have suffered from depression in some points of my life. Im always subject to the judgement of people who have the mentality as if they are sitting around waiting for me to be depressed again. 
But the Psalmist starts from the philosophy that he is accepted by God because God forgets his sin. The concept of Gods forgetfulness is not really talking about one forgetfulness for one sin. The Psalmist is using this comparison in the teaching of God as creator. God forgets our sin by recreating us as if Gods name is on the line. Let me say this one last thing.When we are saved its impossible for us not to be sanctified. As God has control over all things so He is able to justify everything in our lives according to His sovereignty. Now I hope you feel the air go out of the room and you feel free.

  The true servant of God

Ps 143

1 O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.

2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.

3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead.

4 So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.

5 I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.

6 I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. "Selah"

7 Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit.

8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

9 Rescue me from my enemies, O LORD, for I hide myself in you.

10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

11 For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.

12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.

One of the problems we have with picking and choosing what teaching we accept is that the bible is written with a teaching that is in the context of the entire teaching of the bible. Its important for us to think through every teaching in light of all the other teachings. Because God has not only put the knowledge on the page but He has made it true by how it is applied as we are related to God. This is why us Calvinist warn about lowering God to our level because these terms like sin, righteousness, law , gospel can be interpreted based on the standards of human relationships. We can take a teaching about sin without thinking through the whole bible and put it in the context of how it is taught in the culture. This is exactly why God provided the boundaries of all of these teachings in the context of God saving us. When we leave something out we imagine that we can save ourselves. 

This is why as God is exalted above this earth so salvation is only give by revelation. You cant receive salvation by explanation but it is self revealed. Unless you are saved you cant understand anything that the scripture teaches about salvation. The point of it being self revealed is that it is necessary to have faith in order to be saved. Faith is not just accepting the facts about the Object that place our trust in but its also being able to accept those things about God that we cannot understand. The basis of our accepting the truths about God that we cannot understand is based upon the fact that we have been given enough information in order to understand that God has saved us. But unless we are taught that salvation is much bigger then our understand then its the same thing as looking at all these teachings on a horizontal level.

This is why when God gave us the comparison of being saved as being born again it is describing something that is created in us that is beyond our site or control. The point of giving us the teaching of salvation is not that God will agree with Himself that He is right. The revelation of God is for us. We can conclude that God has done this secret work in order to keep some men from receiving it. We can conclude that God gave us sin so that we would always be forced to accept salvation on His terms. But this is exactly why God stressed that salvation comes from a spoken word of God and not from the knowledge we get from revelation. To be saved in scripture is something that is too wonderful for us to understand. Its compared to being called from death unto life. But this call of salvation is described in the bible as ongoing. The voice of salvation is getting louder and louder as we are approaching our full salvation. 

And really this is the context by which we put all the other teachings of scripture in their proper context. This is why it is so easy for us to talk about all of these truths in the context of our own imaginations. Because we naturally think that salvation is something we can understand and by getting more knowledge we automatically grow. But the bible distinguishes false gods from the true God by teaching that all truth is revealed truth because it is spoken by an eternal God. Idols are things...they do not speak. 

We in this culture think that Gods law as written on tablets is how we apply them to our lives. We do not think that the law of God comes with a voice. The reason is that we have lowered Gods law so that we can control how it is applied. The reason that we do not see Gods law as alive is because we never here it speak the curse. We never hear the law pronounce death on those who rebel. We think the law is like a measuring stick that we use to see if we are better than we were. 

Just like the bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith it is easy for us to add to this by not bringing salvation into the exalted view of God speaking. So we lower the teaching of sin, law , and death by not applying the voice of the law. Do you realize that if we actually kept our focus correct that because of Gods voice salvation is greater than we could ever imagine and by the curse much worse than any disaster we experience in this life that we would learn true freedom? We would not look at life as if everything must be measured against Gods law. We would not trust in every bodies claims that a method is what we can trust in to obtain greater righteousness. But because we do not hear the voice of death and we fail to hear the voice of life from death we lower all of these terms of salvation so that we can control them.  Im gonna go through this Psalm ..A petition from a servant of God.

Mental Illness 
I have about 30 years of personal experience with observing these different personalities that come from mental illness. My son has suffered from

• Acute stress disorder         
• Adjustment disorder
• Adolescent antisocial behavior
• Adult antisocial behavior
• Agoraphobia
  • 
    
  • Anterograde amnesia
  • Antisocial personality disorder
  • Anxiety disorder
  • Attention deficit disorder
  • Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
  • Autism
  • Autophagia
  • Avoidant personality disorder
  • Atelophobia
  etc.......more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mental_disorders
  
  
  He is 27 and has the mental maturity of a 12 year old. His favorite programs are watched on the children's channel. He gets very disturbed if there is a mature program that shows violence. His disorder is so bad that if he was not on medication his own brain would destroy him.  He would hallucinate and be driven crazy.
  But Ive had a lot of experience with his different mental disorders that show themselves in his outward behavior. Ive become so good at discerning these behaviors that I can see them coming out of a person who is dealing with one of these disorders. Ive struggle with some leaders about how to deal with these disorders. Ive had situations where I would much rather watch the movie Saw then be subject to this kind of preaching. lol When I think a person needs to be on meds usually its because I have the same kind of relationship with them in a lesser degree as Ive experienced with my son.
  Most of my problems with people who teach the doctrines of grace is that I usually am dealing with someone who knows a system of theology ...i mean parts and bits of a system and they miss apply the word because there is this awful teaching that permeates the American religious system.. Two line theology has been the scourge of our society. Because it places these doctrines under the authority of a man as he applies sanctification. As a person who has grown up in this culture I see how we can take something that is taught and miss apply it in the church. Ive experienced more normal relationships...normal services...in the home school graduation than Ive experienced in the average church.   Ive experience more growth in the theater than in some of the churches ive been in over my life. Not gonna name any so you will not know..ive been to a lot of churches. But all of this can be warped into a disturbing form of torture.

True freedom 

Ps 62

1 My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.

2 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

3 How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down-- this leaning wall, this tottering fence?

4 They fully intend to topple him from his lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse. "Selah

Why is it so hard for us to feel confident by opposing someone else's moral counsel? This Psalm teaches us that our view of ourselves is determined by our view of God. You see here that the Psalmist is using the metaphor for "walls" as a description of our position as a king of an inward kingdom. But the Psalmist is consoling himself because he is not confident that as God is a fortress so we should feel in control of our inward kingdom even tho we face opposition that is cursing us. 

Our view of ourselves is determined by what God says about us, how we interpret His word and by that using His word according to His view of us. This is exactly the struggle that the Psalmist goes through when He faces men who are godless. You notice that the Psalmist does not seek the advice of man in order to oppose these evil men. Why does the Psalmist desire to stand alone?

 The Psalmist does this because he is teaching that we mirror God. God is most free because He does as He pleases. God does not share His glory with any man. In worshiping God as God we hate idols. Now listen because God has established a relationship with us by giving us His desires ..desires that are in us that are eternal.. we cannot even understand the extent of His gift...then it is logical that He is fully able to meet these eternal desires in every person as He has imaged them to be. As we become proficient in using Gods word as a king to obtain something according to His covenant with us and in line with what we want because His desires are ours , we must face the natural opposition of other mens hearts. Because anyone who uses Gods covenants, laws, statutes and promises in the application of the Psalmist..will exercise their freedom as a threat to other men. This is what the Psalmist means by" in their hearts they curse" Its just natural for men to oppose gospel freedom.  You will never really lead people unless these words of the Psalmist are on your lips night and day. Because you inevable will be looking to men for your acceptance on the level of your freedom.

 The sweetness of Gods word.

Some of you know that about 35 years ago I attended a Bill Gothard seminar.  I have always been an impressionable person. I could sit for hours looking at pictures and getting energy from the different people as I remembered them at the place I knew them and their personality. This is why Bill had such an impression upon me. It was the first person that I saw in my life that had this presence about him. If anyone is not familiar with Bill , he was a little bit different than most teachers that I had grown up around . Bill actually memorized the NT and I think some of the Poetry in the OT.

After this seminar that I attended I decided to start to memorize. I think my first chapt was Romans 5. I would go over two verse a day in the morning on the way to work.Then after work I would go over the verses again on the way home. Well after I had success with chapt 5.6.7 I was hooked. As I began to memorize the Epistles the boring discipline part was consumed by this sweetness that I felt. So eventually I did not mind the initial attempt to do something over and over again because I this sweetness came upon me when I got past the boring repetition. Some times I would be saying the words without concentrating but I began to realize that the flow of scripture had the same sweetness that would come upon me.

This sweetness began to grow so that God told me one day that He was gonna give me jobs where I had a lot of time on the road. So the more I traveled on the road the more time I spent in memorization and meditation. The more I meditated the less I cared about things that other people normally occupy their time thinking about. This grew into kind of a separate life for me in which I experienced supernatural freedom. But at the same time I believe that God was plotting my life out with the purpose of drawing me into His love by bringing people into my life that were like minded with me. Not that they applied themselves the same way that I had but that their view of life was almost identical with mine. After 35 years of meditation God begins to impress on my mind exactly what He was doing with me and my family as I look back at my life. This sweetness is both an inward experience and a special fellowship that came into my life through God ordering my community.

 The fear of God as it relates to the curse.

 Ps 40

14 May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

15 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!" be appalled at their own shame.

16 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, "The LORD be exalted!" 
Ps 35 27 May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, "The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant."

I do not believe that people can express love in an orthodox way until they understand how the fear of God and salvation relate to the use of the curses and blessings. I believe that the expression of anger as a weapon is a miss use of our freedom. But at the same time I do not believe that a person can control their anger or express love from the proper motive without being converted in understanding the voice of death as it is described in the curses. To put anger to death is to see be seasoned in hearing the voice of the law as a voice of death. The only death that we gain by experience is to hear this voice clearly. If there is any presence of self left to protect then we are powerless to react in a mature way. When I speak of self ..I mean ...that we experience our value as if the law was our set of principles that we get value from. 

This is exactly what the Psalmist is describing here. There is a clear line that cannot be crossed. If we believe that all that we have is a gift of God then we will only wish that others get these gifts. The only way that we can come to this conviction is to see that everything that we have and others have has nothing to do with us. To exalt God is to curse the opposition that brings shame because Gods universe of gifts is the expression of freedom by the limits we place on the wrong view of self in which we place value on the law, the person who receives the gift and our part in the gift. If the only value of the gift is what God has done then there is no reason for blame. This is the boundaries that describe what prevents us from being saved. Its cursing others by seeing these things as personal gain and having an addition and subtraction that brings in blame or praise worthiness.  

Fear of God
Ive changed my views as it relates to how Gods righteousness is described and what part we play in showing forth His righteousness. I know a couple of Jewish Christians who describe the world in a little different way than I was taught in the Doctrines of grace. And maybe its related to Kabbalah in my agreement that the universe is the expression of Gods word that unites all things in the proper usage of the epistemology of the word.

This has changed my views of the fear of God from how I was taught in the context of the present day reformed tradition. As I got to know these friends it became clear to me that they viewed God as the source of unity and not as a God who moves the creation through force. Ive come to believe that a God who uses force is one who uses negative fear on His own children.

I do not believe the bibles description of fear involves a struggle with a God who uses force who have a clear understanding of who God is. I believe that the Bible distinguishes how force is applied in the same way that darkness and light are applied. Those who are under the constraints of a fearful God are not aware that there is danger. While those who are in the light see fear as a necessary weapon that obligates them to be encouraged to seek salvation and not having the potential to be judged with the knowledge that Gods love is balanced with His dangerous pursuit by His force. I do not see how one can understand salvation in the biblical context and see fear as our being judged because God is pleased in bringing glory to Himself. That is unbiblical.

You will never see me explain the judgement of God as His freedom to act anyway that He is free to act. But God acts according to His attributes. Some people see God as both love and hate. Ive heard it taught that God is both of these things at the same time. In this way the object of Gods full love and hate are both those who know His love and those who are blind to His love. But this is not biblical. The point of salvation is to know that we are loved by being shielded from His anger or hate. If we were blind to salvation then that in itself is hate. But if we understand that we are saved then there is no advantage for us to seek our salvation through being hated. Salvation is not for God but for us. The fact that its a gift is because its free. If God acted to force us to seek salvation then it would not be free. The whole motive for it being free is that we start from the foundation that God doesnt look at us in how salvation is an addition or subtraction. But its always attractive because its free. Seeking to be saved from one glory to another is avoiding God as a hater.