Soldier for Jesus; I am now moved to address the Spirit within you. That hope you have didn't come from you. It is only taught by He who overcame this world.
I implore you that the devil's hate, condemnation, malice, division, pride and doctrine of grace reduction is spoken by so many that the Good Servant Shepherd can always use the bright lite of the hopeful, such as your self, to shine in this darkness.
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TOL ~Jesus is the Theology and the Counselor is the Commentary
How kind! You're spiritually quite prescient, NamelessInGrace. By the way, whatever light we have is reflected, what He has given us of His Spirit, sometimes wonder if much I've ever done, myself, amounted to anything.
Yes, some things you just know. Something I've found so very ironic you will surely appreciate, after all these years, stuffed with doctrine until it seemed I couldn't fit any more in my brain, the Bible began to become more simple. The truth is simple, when you see the unified revelation of God of scripture, that culminates in Jesus Christ. (All these debates, for people dancing around simple truths, 2 Timothy 3:7. Sort of sad.) Furthermore, it occured to me I could forget what a baptism is, what hell is. It wouldn't matter any more that Peter and Paul argued over law. This whole morass of doctrinal printed matter I once thought so important began to fade in importance, when compared to a realization of the Person and glofy of the Lord.
I realized I didn't need the Ten Commandments to tell me what I know in my conscience is right or wrong, of the love of God, or not, that, with the awareness the Holy Spirit gives us, I really don't need anybody to tell me anything about their denomination, don't need their checklist of talking points, much less who they've relegated to hell or how special they are, about their lease on God, all this just narcissism. I know the Lord Jesus by His Spirit. Like you, I know some things are true, without getting Bible thumped, or thumping anybody else. I even sometimes tire of citing scripture that everybody requires, just to say some things clearly Christian that you'll find in the Bible, become disappointed sometimes people ask for scripture, when you've just stated some of the simpler teachings in scripture, in your own words in some paragraph, that is, that they don't seem to know some basic Christian truths, that the scripture doesn't come to their minds, without asking for it, why they need to say, "Prove it!"? I'm asking myself, "You mean you're a Christian, and you don't know that?"
Let's face it, a lot of people here are constantly at each other's throats, over matters generally settled in Sunday school with children, I fear many people here trolling, that's it, pure and simple. The behaviors are Satanic. There's no getting around this. I've been guilty of having some fun with the deceivers, but it's generally because there's nobody discussing anything mature of the faith. I know of no Christian congregation that says the things some people say here, nor that behaves the way they do: it's all a sham, the truth is, sociopathic behaviors, a lot of fakery, in the name of Christ. I'm not sure I've seen any basic scripture truth that has not been, evilly, refuted here. Would you actually have for friends some of these just slimey, nasty people? Of course not. You'd tell them to go somewhere else and peddle their false doctrines, meaness and slander, would not even have a relationship that would get off the ground, in person. None of this has any similarity to Christ in you, does it? I think you know the answer to that, brother.
We just know some things when we see our magnificent Lord, understand Him by His Spirit, see Him through the spiritual eyes of our souls, knowing the God-man behind those teachings of scripture. Isn't that so? All that doctrine, but, when it comes down to it, what's most important isn't ink on a page, but that simple truth of the holy, righteous and loving God a living part of you, that you also want more of and to be like, something living it does injustice to debate about, as if you could describe that life to those dead, or they would even want to hear it. Ironic, isn't it? The important truths you don't have to get down into the Hebrew or Greek, could even forget a lot of that stuff and be the better, seeking to really know Him, shut our egos off, be still and meditate on the depths of God, that the faith is not a church charter, but is this Person, Jesus Christ, and our goal to know Him, see things through His eyes, hear things through His ears. Most of what most people discuss here will fade into insignificance, and the best thing that could happen to some people would be to stop trying to be a 20 volume commentary and reduce the Christian faith to a heap of doctrinal dissertations and debates, stop the foolish disputing over nothing and see that the goal is Christ alive in you. To just shutup and ask one important question, for a change: is this of the righteousness of God? Even any student, at some point, has to put down the books and put his trade into practice, move on from theory to reality, know how to work his profession. Christianity is no different.
Thank you for the very kind words. I also appreciate your deeply spiritual awareness that you share, and perceive you've also moved on to the living Lord.
The writer to the Hebrews said as much, scripture I fear so very few grasp, nor care to grasp:
Hebrews 6
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
