The Spirit is the One who give life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life – John 6:63
On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’ -- Matthew 7:22-23
Whatever it born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit – John 3:6
The flesh can build buildings, but it can’t build the kingdom.
The flesh can raise money, but it cannot lay up treasure in heaven.
The flesh can increase membership and teach morals, ethics, and good behavior, but it cannot make new creations.
The flesh can preach inspirational and motivational messages, but it cannot change the heart of man.
The flesh can wield political power and get out the vote, but it is spiritually dead and powerless.
In fact, man in his fallen configuration can be a very powerful force for good in the sense of achieving material progress and offering help to his fellow man. Conversely, the human soul apart from the Spirit is capable of great evil, self-justification, self-righteousness, self-aggrandizement, and God-defying arrogance.
The more talented we are, the more intellectual capacity we have, the more we are likely to rely on our own strengths rather than upon the Spirit as He indwells us and empowers us. Those who are wise in this world are tempted to be less dependent upon God and His guidance. To walk in the Spirit, the wise do not need to become foolish. They need only to lay aside all they know and understand in themselves and seek the wisdom that is from above. “My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts,” said the Lord to the prophet Isaiah.
I have no desire to criticize what others do, their motives, their intentions, or their accomplishments. For my part, I think I would rather do nothing than operate in the power of the first Adam. I may not be able to always adhere to that standard. My surrender may be lacking. I may take up the banner of self from time to time under duress and pressure, but it is not my intent to do so.
My prayer today is that I may accept all that comes as from the Lord, and that I may not lean on my own understanding but upon Him.
10 comments:
I just got done reading yesterday's post for the second time, and reading Ricky Raccoon's comment on it. And somehow it ties in with the petra/petros discussion at the end of the comments on Gagdad's site yesterday, but I don't know just quite how. No- here it is. I find that when I stay in the privacy of the space between my ears, when I read the scriptures for myself that sometimes- not always, I begin to hear a sort of soft light, or maybe catch sight of some invisible music. But as soon as the theological discussions start, whatever it is switches off. Sometimes the theology is interesting, but it doesn't take much hair splitting before I begin to tune out. I was reading the post over at Vanderleun's site today, and as per always, the atheist trolls come around yapping for scraps of attention, and trying their best to get a 'gotcha' award for their unassailable proof of God's non-existence. I thought about jumping in for a game of whack-a-troll, but it just seemed stupid, and I let them lie.
Same with talk about salvation- what constitutes it? Is it only to be found within the church, and what then is the church, and how do you define it? And of course the evangelical crowd is still telling us to "accept Jesus as your personal savior", and I still for the life of me don't have a clue what they're talking about except that they seem to insist on making some mortifying public gesture or other to affirm something that cannot quite seem to be defined. And the whole lot of it just seems to get really tiresome. It's a picture that I sometimes get in a broad soft focus, but as soon as you try to sharpen the image into something clearly defined, it all disappears, and I get the feeling like everyone gets it but me.
anyway...
JWM
"It's a picture that I sometimes get in a broad soft focus,..."
I think you get it just fine, John. The whole point is the Mystery. I was surprised at the comments this morning; it didn't occur to me that people would get up in arms over the any of it, because that's just not how I think. I simply find it delightful that, just maybe, Jesus laughed as well as wept, even though I doubt that's what NoMo was talking about when he brought it up in the first place.
Theology is by necessity reductionist. It's fine as far as it goes but it mostly is just a map with a lot of terra incognita and even more here be dragons.
I can sit down with a Catholic, an Episcopalian, or a frothing at the mouth Pentecostal and talk about the glory of God and we all get it. But we start talking theology and things fall apart.
Is God sovereign? Yes, absolutely.
Does man have free will? Yes, absolutely.
How do you reconcile those positions? Pardon me, I don't give a crap. I know what is true, and I recognize Truth when I see it.
You're fine, John. Most of the people that tell you "you must be born again" couldn't begin to explain it to you because they don't understand it either. Most Christians, even if they understand, never bother to unload and decompress their handy little phrases.
"Personal savior" is a good example. What they mean is that the death of Jesus paid for all, and I mean ALL. Does that mean everybody is "saved"? Yes. Except they don't know it. "As in Adam all died, so in Christ all shall be made alive". I come along, read the Scripture or hear somebody explain the truth, and, impressed by the Holy Spirit, I believe this stuff. Voila! Jesus is my personal Savior.
I come back, read Julie and The Shroom, and voila! I hear that little light again.
Thank you very much.
JWM
John, not to get all self-referential, but the comments here seem relevant.
I'm glad you're hearing the light again :)
John,
You said…“I find that when I stay in the privacy of the space between my ears, when I read the scriptures for myself that sometimes…”
Same here. Over-thinking it can kill it. Definitely.
Sometimes.
:-)
Sorry if I made things worse, John. It was 3am – I tend to feel quite differently about what I post only 3 hours later. But I still like it at 3am. It doesn’t happen that often. Put it this way, I didn’t know what I was missing with this Watchman guy until it hit me at 3 am and I couldn’t hold it in.
This from the wiki page on Watchman:
“Watchman Nee became intimately familiar with the Bible through diligent study of the Bible using various different methods. His development was strengthened by the influence of [this guy, that guy, etc] and many others, reading as many as 3,000 books from various authors since first century. In the early days of his ministry he spent one-third of his income on his personal needs, one-third on helping others, and the remaining third on spiritual books. He had an ability to select, comprehend, discern, and memorize relevant material, and grasp and retain the main points of a book while reading. In his gospel preaching and ministry, Nee always stressed more on the "inner-life" issue in a believer's life rather than the "outward-work". Nee claimed that to be a Christian is altogether a matter of the divine life. He believed that a belief is not a religion, and therefore he did not establish headquarters or create a hierarchy of leadership positions in the church. He once stood up and said against a certain collected assembly:
"You may well have light and truth, but knowledge alone will benefit you nothing."
This guy is a Raccoon, am I right?
And I didn’t care about the petra/petros thing either. I mean, I’m all about enjoying the precision in the Bible. It’s there, but not for reasons such as to make one man look smarter than another. That can’t be. I think it’s precise out of reverence for the sacredness of the Word, and because it can’t not be precise. And as Mushroom says, after awhile you can tell just what, is what. So I believe it was a joke Jesus enjoyed noticing and telling, as Julie says. In fact I thought there were a couple of good ones told in Job.
You all can be as self-referential as you like here.
I really didn't expect the last two posts to be this much fun.
I don’t know if you're Seinfeld fans but this joke business reminds me of an episode:
JERRY: I think Superman probably has a very good sense of humor.
GEORGE: I never heard him say anything really funny.
JERRY: But it's common sense. He's got super strength, super speed.. I'm sure he's got super humor.
GEORGE: You would think that, but either you're born with a sense of humor, or you're not. It's not going to change even if you go from the red sun of Krypton all the way to the yellow sun of the Earth.
JERRY: Why? Why would that one area of his mind not be affected by the yellow sun of Earth?
GEORGE: I don't know but he ain't funny.
:-D
:D
Good one, Ricky
This is a cagematch that didn't dissappoint. Pun intended.
I have nothin' to add, to this outstanding post or comments.
Good stuff...good stuff. :^)
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