In step

[drifteri]

 

[RiverOL]

Two divergent views

Galatians 2:11-21

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me ..." (v.20)

Paul tells us about his "secret" death in the passage before us today. In the main, there are two divergent views on this passage. One view is that Paul is referring here to the teaching he expounded in Romans 6 -- that when Christ died at Calvary, we all "died" in Him, but because He came back from the dead we must now apply ourselves to appropriating that resurrection power and allow it to work in us to overcome self and sin.

They say Paul's statement about being "crucified with Christ" has reference to that. Others take the view that Paul is referring to a specific experience in his life, following his conversion, when his "old man" (the carnal nature) "died" to self-interest and self-concern. Thus, the "old man" being crucified, the Christ-man rises in his stead.

Personally I see truth in both these views. Sanctification is a process but it can also be a crisis.

Many Christians can testify, as did George Muller, that even though they were applying the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit in their lives day by day, there came a moment or a period when they experienced a critical putting to death of the ego.

Not everyone, it seems, is brought by the Spirit to experience sanctification as a crisis, but it is significant that most of the saints whose lives are marked by a high degree of holiness testify to such an experience. Let your heart be open to God on this matter today and listen to what He might say to you. Perhaps this could be the day on which you die a "secret death."
Prayer:

 

[drifteri]

The Angel of Death

That night the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there they were, all the corpuses of the dead. (2 Kings 19:35 NAB)

 

[Frodo]

The Angel of Death

That night the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there they were, all the corpuses of the dead. (2 Kings 19:35 NAB)

This is nothing. Compared to the worldwide flood God sent to destroy the world because of the wickedness of men. But the village atheist does not dare look upon the condition of his own soul, to see that he is just as sinful before God and to realise he is also worthy of damnation as well.

 

[RiverOL]

The angel Gabriel’s conversation with Mary continued...

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

How did this incomprehensible miracle occur?
God acts in, through and beyond our knowledge and comprehension. He is beyond our capacity to understand his intelligence, purpose, creativity, goodness, justice and mercy.

Jesus we rejoice in your entry into our world... transposed from your majesty in heaven to a seed in Mary’s womb. How did this happen? This miracle is so vast that only our faith can accept God’s most precious gift given in the form of a vulnerable baby in the womb of a trusted mother.
Part of our discovery of relationship with God is romance, and a big part of romance is mystery.

So enjoy the mystery implicit in the celebration of Jesus' birth. Enjoy the romance of faith in our heart relationship with Jesus.
We love you Lord and we thank you for the life of Jesus given on earth to rescue us from our sin and to grant us the assurance of everlasting life. Thank you Lord!

 

[drifteri]

This is nothing. Compared to the worldwide flood God sent to destroy the world because of the wickedness of men. But the village atheist does not dare look upon the condition of his own soul, to see that he is just as sinful before God and to realise he is also worthy of damnation as well.

Only dumbass living in modern age with dark age mentality believe there were ever a worldwide flood, lol !! That why the evil book is full of delusional fairytales.

 

[drifteri]

Jesus and the disciple whom he loved...

 

[drifteri]

 

[Frodo]

Only dumbass living in modern age with dark age mentality believe there were ever a worldwide flood, lol !! That why the evil book is full of delusional fairytales.

Abysmally ignorant village atheist thinks that mockery and ridicule counts as arguments against the world wide flood.

 

[RiverOL]

Pharisaism in overalls

Luke 18:9-14

"... I thank you that I am not like other men ..." (v.11)

The fruit of the Spirit is not something that is achieved or manufactured, but something that is experienced as we abide in Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to produce in us the lineaments of Christ's character.
Many people have equated the sanctified life with keeping an ethical code, but the ethical code is not the source of sanctification but the result of it. If the path of ethical achievement is achieved by self-effort alone, then the person who achieves it comes to have pride in his achievement and falls prey to the sin of Pharisaism. Those who keep the ethical code by self-effort have a taut will and, though they might not realize it, they lapse into the sin of independence -- depending on themselves and not on God. People who struggle to exude goodness have a metallic ring about them -- they appear stern and rigid and have about them the atmosphere of a moral athlete. Those whose goodness is not imposed, but exposed from their deep relationship with the Lord, are sweetly human and exude the character of Christ.

A similar error is made by those who say they have been "doing good turns all their lives." Someone has said that this type of attitude is "the sin of Pharisaism in overalls." Self is very much at the center. It is tainted, not because the "good turns" are evil, but because they are prompted by the self-regarding principle -- I am doing them in my own way for my ends. How deeply this disease of self-interest takes hold on us! It is in you and it is in me. Recognizing it, however, is the first step toward curing it.

 

[Frodo]

Only dumbass living in modern age with dark age mentality believe there were ever a worldwide flood, lol !! That why the evil book is full of delusional fairytales.

Does abysmally ignorant village atheist believe there was a flood of epic proportion on Mars? Yes or No? Or don't dare to comment for fear of being exposed as abysmally ignorant?

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/mars-article/

http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511635632

 

[drifteri]

Does abysmally ignorant village atheist believe there was a flood of epic proportion on Mars? Yes or No? Or don't dare to comment for fear of being exposed as abysmally ignorant?

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/mars-article/

http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511635632

I cannot comment on something I don't know. I am abysmally ignorant on this. I don't believe or disbelieve blind. Unlike a very famous forumner who can give Yes or No just to win an argument and make very authoritive comment on almost every field like he/she is very educated in them.

Guess the howlian Christian ?

 

[Frodo]

I cannot comment on something I don't know. I am abysmally ignorant on this. I don't believe or disbelieve blind. Unlike a very famous forumner who can give Yes or No just to win an argument and make very authoritive comment on almost every field like he/she is very educated in them.

Guess the howlian Christian ?

Really? You don't believe blindly? Tell me then, why do you believe the universe made itself from nothing?

Be careful how you reply. Or just act blur and pretend you never see this post and save yourself the embarassment of having your atheism exposed and found wanting.

 

[RiverOL]

The disease of self-interest
Romans 13:8-14
"... love is the fulfilment of the law." (v.10)
Because the disease of self-interest is so difficult to recognize, it might be helpful to focus on examples of ordinary things done or said by decent people which are, nevertheless, indicative of the ease with which we slip into self-interest.

A man whose mother died just as he was due to go on holiday and was therefore obliged to stay at home until the funeral was over said to the minister who tried to comfort him: "I will miss my mother greatly ... but I've lost nearly half my holiday." In the weeks prior to my wife's death, a man came up to me and said: "How is your wife?" Before I had time to reply, he launched into a fifteen-minute explanation of how his wife had been up all night with toothache.

During the terrifying days of World War II, a retired schoolmistress living in a rural area sent a letter to someone in London saying: "If only you knew what we are going through here. Every night we hear enemy planes going over loaded with bombs. Last week one of them dropped its bombs at random and our pantry window was cracked." The person she was writing to had not known what it was to sleep in her own bed for three months -- having had to spend every night in an air raid shelter.

These illustrations are representative of the kind of thing we hear or might say ourselves almost every day. And if we did not say it, then we might think it -- and that is just as bad.

 

[Psalm23]

The disease of self-interest
Romans 13:8-14
"... love is the fulfilment of the law." (v.10)
Because the disease of self-interest is so difficult to recognize, it might be helpful to focus on examples of ordinary things done or said by decent people which are, nevertheless, indicative of the ease with which we slip into self-interest.

A man whose mother died just as he was due to go on holiday and was therefore obliged to stay at home until the funeral was over said to the minister who tried to comfort him: "I will miss my mother greatly ... but I've lost nearly half my holiday." In the weeks prior to my wife's death, a man came up to me and said: "How is your wife?" Before I had time to reply, he launched into a fifteen-minute explanation of how his wife had been up all night with toothache.

During the terrifying days of World War II, a retired schoolmistress living in a rural area sent a letter to someone in London saying: "If only you knew what we are going through here. Every night we hear enemy planes going over loaded with bombs. Last week one of them dropped its bombs at random and our pantry window was cracked." The person she was writing to had not known what it was to sleep in her own bed for three months -- having had to spend every night in an air raid shelter.

These illustrations are representative of the kind of thing we hear or might say ourselves almost every day. And if we did not say it, then we might think it -- and that is just as bad.

The disease of self-interest Absolutely right....we are all suffering from the disease! But sadly, many view this disease in very positive light and often in the name of 'survival of the fittest'. If you don't protect yourself, who will...so self-interest is so entrenched in all the things we do....the results now speak volume....riots, cheating, disrespectful of parents, of authority, of God....you can relate to every kind of social disorder back to this disease - the disease of self-interest.

God bless!

Psalm23

 

[drifteri]

Really? You don't believe blindly? Tell me then, why do you believe the universe made itself from nothing?

Be careful how you reply. Or just act blur and pretend you never see this post and save yourself the embarassment of having your atheism exposed and found wanting.

Then I be careful, let me think of the answer for you.

 

[drifteri]

 

[drifteri]

 

[RiverOL]

The disease of self-interest Absolutely right....we are all suffering from the disease! But sadly, many view this disease in very positive light and often in the name of 'survival of the fittest'. If you don't protect yourself, who will...so self-interest is so entrenched in all the things we do....the results now speak volume....riots, cheating, disrespectful of parents, of authority, of God....you can relate to every kind of social disorder back to this disease - the disease of self-interest.

God bless!

Psalm23

Yes and to you too.

 

[RiverOL]

"Her first thought"

1 Peter 3:18

"... because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin." (4:1)
So often in life, our first thought is for ourselves. We are self-centered. Everything has an immediate self-reference. We are more upset over our own dead dog than a neighbor's dead child. And so deeply ingrained is our self-preoccupation that, left to ourselves, we would have to fillet our personalities to get rid of it. Yet there are multitudes walking the earth whose first thoughts are not for themselves but for the Lord and for others.

How has this happened? It has happened because the fruit of the Spirit was growing within them -- and especially the fruit of goodness. Take Catherine Booth, for example. When the great woman first learned the deadly nature of the disease that was to kill her slowly through two years of great pain, she knelt at the side of her husband and said: "Do you know what was my first thought? That I should not be there to nurse you at your last hour." Her first thought! A minister I once visited and who had been struck down with polio said to me: "But who will care for my people?" It was not of himself he was thinking -- but of others.

The self-forgetfulness of both Catherine Booth and the minister who was laid aside by sickness was not something that was manufactured but something that had been produced in them by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Their translucence can only be explained in one way -- they had died to themselves. The center of their lives had shifted from self to Christ and thus the fruit of goodness had blossomed within them.