I conclude my thoughts today from EPHESIANS 6:10-18 with the presence and being able to carry the shoes of the Gospel Of Peace. I accept God's declaration that I am justified and I have peace with the Lord Jesus Christ.May my mind grasp that wonderful sense of release & refreshment of knowing the peace that can only come from THE PRINCE OF PEACE (JESUS)! I thank-you Lord that I need not carry any anxiety or suffer any turmoil or inner torment because you know exactly my circumstances & situation in life , right now!May you walk with me into every circumstance of life & may I know the JOY, PEACE & LOVE that can only come from you. May all who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour be agents of your peace , as seen through JESUS. By faith walk in the peace , given by God , even though we live in a world that is fractured and often in turmoil. If today you do not know the peace of Jesus , I can only pray that you will reach out to JESUS & ask Him to fill you with all of His life , Salvation , presence, power
& peace .
There can never be PEACE when there is still a sense of I am a"self-made" person! Without the grace of JESUS none of us would even wake up tomorrow. God bless you each readers!
MARNEY
18 comments:
Which church should I go to?
Let's make it simple. Should I go to a Catholic church or a Salvos service?
Unfortunately David , I have to say I cannot answer the ongoing rhetoric that you go on with day in , day out, on my blog & I have noticed many others. People are catapaulting into ETERNITY without the SALVATION of JESUS CHRIST , And you my friend are merely wanting to just debate & make criticisms of others who actually have passion for the cause of JESUS CHRIST .I can only pray that you receive JESUS today as Lord & SAVIOUR ...JOHN 3:16 and please read onto verse 21. I in the meantime will not be satisfied with pontificating about issues that you deem as a source of entertainment. I wish to continue loving JESUS WITH ALL OF MY, HEART , BODY & SOUL! I like many others have offered to speak with you about your own eternal destiny, & again that is offered. Oh, and by the way it was JESUS who died on the CROSS for our sins , no denomination.
MARNEY
Where is the evidence that you are doing God's will?
I remember Christians who practised the silence of women in the church, the priesthood of all believers - not just mouthed it and then placed a pastor before a congregation. These same people believed that the earth was created in 6 days, and that a literal talking snake deceived Eve. They also carried out the command of Jesus to baptise people. And they practiced communion.
Your practise of Christianity is plainly different to what these Godly people taught. You have introduced wordly customs like uniforms and hierarchies. Filthy wordly contamination.
So how dare you arrogantly put yourself in a position of claiming to carry out a divine purpose. Puuting your sophisticated, post-modern intellectual understanding above the clear commands of God.
How very dare you.
David it is obviously clear that the flaws in your intellectual attacks are beginning to be come a sad , but clear pattern. JESUS LOVES YOU FRIEND , BUT EVEN GOD IS A RESPECTOR OF HUMAN WILL CHOICE. My suggestion is that you choose JESUS every day as quickly as you can , and pray (as I do constantly) PSALM 51.....if you dare , I pray so !
Don't worry about answering me. You need to answer to God before He gleefully flings you into Hell.
There is a special section in Hell for people who overuse upper-case letters in written prose.
I suppose you could call it "capital punishment".
I am praying for the HOLY SPIRIT to do HIS ENTIRE work in & through your life. HANG ONTO JESUS ...HE DOES SAVE!
I can't see, hear or sense Jesus, Marney. He must be somewhere if He still has His physical, resurrected body. Although it would be in a somewhat emaciated state after 2000 years without food.
I've always found Zombie movies a little dissapointing. Maybe they're one of your favourite genres.
David,
You are good at asking questons. I wonder if you will answer mine.
In regards "Which church will you go to?" Do you see church as something passive, that you go to observe? or something in which you participate? Is Christianity something you do or are? Where is "the church" Mon thru Sat? If baptism is by water can it not be by the Living Water and by the Holy Spirit? Can a uniform not be a statement of commitment? Can items of clothing be a constant reminder to the person wearing them of meeting a certain standard of behaviour? As a friend of mine once said "I wont put a "fish" on my car because then I'd have to drive like a Christian"
As to not hearing, seeing or sensing Jesus.. sometime we are so hurt and so angry that we enclose ourselves in a world that reflects our own pain. Dont be afraid David, the Lord is with you, if you know it or not. We are each of us loved beyond our capacity to understand. May He bring you peace.
Grace
I pray for all of my unknown readers every day , because whilst I do not know everything about you , JESUS , LORD & SAVIOUR does. And today He knows exactly what you are going through!
GRACE & TRUTH , LOVE & MERCY,WISDOM & DISCERNMENT , FORGIVENESS & ACCEPTANCE . It can be a "new day " , if you want it to be!MARNEY
I'll try to answer some of your questions, Marney.
Of course a uniform can be a reminder to oneself and others of an expected standard of behaviour. From a wordly viewpoint, that's a good idea.
If the chuch is essentially a community of people sharing their entire lives together, it would suggest something we might call communism. Church as it is practised seems little more than a belief/social club. You might get more people turning up to your funeral if you're a church member. It has some advantages.
If you're suggesting one's internal state of mind or emotional state have to be tuned carefully to communicate with God, well that is unlike normal communication with other people. Even when I'm "so hurt and angry", I can still understand my wife nagging at me. But according to you, this state of mind would shut off communication with Jesus. Very odd.
Wasnt Marney asking the questions David and thank you for answering.
Putting the last first. Everything we feel or perceive and our reactions to it come through a filter of our present state of mind. if I am angry or hurt or tired for example I may perceive offence in the words of others where none is intended. In the context you mention, if I was upset in myself I might misinterpret the concerned questions of a spouse, say about my health, as nagging, even though they had another motive entirely. One of the hardest things for me to do when I am hurting is to believe anyone else wants me to be well/happy/loved. It then becomes easy to twist their motives into something less positive. I dont think that God limits contact to when we are sane/healthy/happy. Some of the times Ive actually felt God have been when I was in a "broken" state. one of the first gifts humanity was given though is free will and it seems we must be open to and invite contact. Christ stands at the door and knocks.. and then waits..we can choose to ignore the knock.. I'm sure you have heard the term "selective deafness".. the brain seems to be good at tuning out things that it does not wish to deal with.
moving back to "what is church" (and do capital letters make a difference here?) I think that society uses the word "church" in a variety of ways. Some of these, you are quite correct, are very like a social club. (though I do think if its for funeral attendance youd be better off with a soccer club, unless you "go" on a grand final weekend that is lol) Church is the building.. but also the community.. its the worship service on Sundays but also the extention of that through week days in belief lived out through and in community. its about relationship.. in two directions.. "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and love thy neighbour as thyself" Given the world state its easy to see that humans in general are not great on the loving each other part. its not easy to love people.. but if you love God and seek Him .. invite Him to live within you, all things are possible.. through Grace. Alone we all fall short .. we are all sinners.. yet of such value to God that He reaches out in love for us. we can not earn it.. we can not barter for it..we cant understand it and we sure cant fake it.. but we can trust in and rely on God's perfect love. In comparison we are more immature than toddlers and just as the 2yr olds temper tantrum at the shopping mall, kicking and screaming because they didnt get icecream.. (hands up anyone who has said or heard an angry child shriek,"go away you hate me") does not change the parent's love our words do not and can not change God's love for us. nothing can separate us from that immense love. On my good days, I can feel it.. on my bad days I feel unlovable. The world is still there, even if i close my eyes.
And finally, to the first, uniform. You said, "from a worldly veiwpoint, that's a good idea." Can you extend that please so I can see in what context you see it as a bad idea?
Well 3am now for me (I think youre in a different time zone) so time to go. May the Lord bless you and keep you, David, May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you, May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen
Grace.
No matter what emotional state I'm in I can't hear God/Jesus/Holy Spirit at all.
You seem to accept some kind of mind/body or spiritual/physical dualism, where the physical and spiritual are distinct realities. But that raises the above question of how they are connected or related.
If you understand the mind/soul/spirit (whether you see these as distinct or overlapping) as properties that arise from and are based upon our physical bodies, then communication with Jesus only makes sense in the ordinary materialisitic manner of communication.
It strikes me a bizzare that these questions don't even seem to occupy the minds of people educated in schools of the twentieth/twenty-first century. Is there not even one smidgen of intellectual curiosity amongst Salvos? How can praying, jumping up and down to music, waving one's hands about, singing and rolling around the floor speaking in tongues or whatever other modes of "worhip" there are, ever be a substitute for a coherent, logical understanding of reality? I can see why 2yr old temper tantrums are a favourite analogy.
David once again I can only pray with grace that you at least are willing to want to hear the voice of THE SPIRIT OF GOD . However,I do need to tell you that God does give us all the power of free-will & choice . So I guess it is all up to you & I as to whether we want to hear the voice of God's love .I crave the voice of THe Holy Spirit & I hang on every WORD Jesus spoke & still speaks.
Isn't it wonderful that not one human being can reduce God to fit into our intellectual understanding, I am so glad about that .
Blessings
Marney, you seem to be reading a meaning into my last entry that was not intended.
I am not asking you or expecting anyone to supply or ever be able to come to a complete understanding of God. I am seeking to find out what is already claimed to be known. Is it really meaningfully coherent and logical?
You do not have to know everything about everything in order to know anything at all.
To re-use an example, I do not completely understand my wife or children, and never will. We can still communicate, though. I can even communicate, in a limited way, with my mother-in-law who speaks very little English at all. So God, who is allegedly all-powerful and all-knowing, should find it very easy to communicate with humans.
Marney, are you really that uninterested in what is going on in people's brains when they claim to be communicating with God? Have you ever considered that there might be perfectly sound materialistic explanations for spiritual phenomena? Do you not see that a lot of what passes as worship and religious practice is simply an emotional outlet?
Hey David, me again,
Something that I've picked up over the years, 'sin', going against God's laws separates us from Him, so if you can't hear or feel Him try to ask Him for forgivness of doing this, then try again. I'm not trying to judge in anyway, but it's worth a try.
The other thing, we have a big meeting on at Moreland Salvation Army on Sydney Rd (in Melbourne) this Sunday night at 6pm that you could come along to and hide at, (there will be plenty of people there in casual clothes - maybe only 2-4 Officers in uniforms, that's it!), you could possibly ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit there and experience these phenomena for yourself and actually understand this spiritual experience yourself, it's awesome connecting to God and not just looking in from the outside, which I could understand from your view could be a bit strange.
Bless ya mate, hope you are slowly getting the answers that God really seems to be pushing you to get - you seem to really be aching to get spirtual fulfilment and all the answers that people have been asking for centuries.
I have a suggestion for you, Simon Peter.
Why not go and see the following movie, Religulous. It might make a good night out with some fellow Salvos.
http://www.lionsgate.com/religulous
Thanks, might do that
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