1) Those who correct others, should watch for the Holy Spirit to go ahead of them and touch a person’s heart first. 2) Learn to imitate him who reproves gently. 3) People do not need to see God condemning them. 4) People must realize within themselves that they have done something wrong. 5) It is your own impatient personality expressing itself when you think it’s righteous indignation. 6) Self love cannot forgive the self love it finds in others. 7) God leads people out of their weakness and sin, one step at a time. 8) God’s love is full of patience, consideration, and tenderness. 9) Allow others to evaluate you but judge no one. 10) Offer advice only to those who ask for it. 11) Mention the faults of others without being heavy-handed or legalistic. Fenelon There are many more and many to learn. Love ya
Category: <span>God’s Psychology</span>
If a shower of drops on our yard can represent an infiltration of falsehood into our sphere of God’s Reality, we have a picture. The sometimes flood can be overwhelming, and feelings of compromise project their self. They threaten to do a decisive final slaying of that reality. The thought of evil then seems to outweigh the good, pressing us towards its identity. Eventually, assuage and pressure-release pose themselves in the most attractive way; toward giving in. Well, we have weapons, extra- fleshy, spiritual, and powerful. One of these is the strengthening unto patience and long suffering with joy, in Colossians 1:11. The God-endowed ability to stand still, wait, and delay our impulsing emotions, looms mighty. Moses did it at the Red Sea, Nehemiah on the wall; both saw “joy” as a critical war devise, and too, the authority that comes from meekness; two supernaturals. How do we get these endowments? Well, having done all, we stand, Ephesians 6:13. What…
People who understand grace also understand the meaning of the cross. It’s vital for the application of grace to personal situations. “Grace embrace” and “cross” require a commitment, and that “surrender” leaves self behind and moves Father-bound. Jesus cried out from His cross, “Father, into Thy hands I commit my Spirit.” Likewise, we commit our works unto the Lord toward established thoughts, in Proverbs 16:3. When we commit our way unto Him, the way comes to pass. (Psalms 37:4-6). We commit the keeping of our soul unto Him. He keeps it. In Romans 6, Paul showed us a bunch of facts to memorize, namely: we were (at salvation) baptized (immersed) into Christ and His death; two-we were buried with Him because of this saturation; three-since Christ was raised, we could walk in a new life; and four-we were joined to Him in perfect equivalence to His death and resurrection. See, united to Him…
Is America becoming a post-Christian society? What does it mean for us Christians? It directly affects believers who try to win lost souls because an unsaved person’s ground of decision making may be skewed or obscured in the river of modern relativism. See, much of contemporary thought leans toward “fate” and “fatalism.” This “higher knowledge” quaintly un-hides itself in the colloquial phrase ” history repeats itself.” People who practice “fate” as a lifestyle live in idolatry and this God-demoting practice has many variations. It starts when some find it convenient to blame other persons, things, and events for their own sins. Adam and Eve originated this trend in Genesis 3. They duck blame and skirt responsibility. They use “wisdom from below.” We fall into the sucking vac hose called stupor. Rolling snowballs accumulate more snow, lies beget more lies, and hell is never satisfied, so says the Bible. God…
This superstitious woman, within the framework of her very strange and terribly primitive world of ideas, has grasped the mystery of the Savior at a deeper level than most theologians and worldly wise men. She has made Jesus unclean by touching Him. She has thereby saddled Him with her suffering and by this bold touch has made him a companion in her affliction. She has had her life’s burden taken away by him and pulled Him down into her deep misery. Thus with her poor finger she has unwittingly pointed to the mystery of the cross. This woman made Jesus her brother. In so doing, she has made Him into precisely what He wants to be for us. This is why He went to the cross. What she did unwittingly. However, it is actually the miracle of the gospel – that there is no depth in which this Savior will…
“The man who refuses to judge, who neither agrees nor disagrees, who declares that there are no absolutes and believes that he escapes responsibility, is the man responsible for all the blood that is now spilled in the world. Reality is an absolute, existence is an absolute, a speck of dust is an absolute and so is a human life. Whether you live or die is an absolute. Whether you have a piece of bread or not , is an absolute. Whether you eat your bread or see it vanish into a looter’s stomach, is an absolute. There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other side is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks…
We don’t often think of participating in our own existence, because a life easily perpetuates itself. Yes, this concept called “being,” started and continues while we remain passive; we learned this in Biology 101. Later we were told, IQ-wise, how deeply or sharply we could think, but not how to get better at it. Thinking aptitude presupposes a done deal, a gift, a genetic bent, so we were taught. Yea, DNA, genetics, and the will of our parents really get the full brunt of responsibility here. Would you agree? With the risk of being labeled “existential,” we must then consider why a human becomes anxious. A quote goes this way: “anxiety comes from not being able to know the world you are in, not being able to orient yourself in your existence —the reaction to the threat to values one identifies with his existence as a self.” Wow, can this…
In thoughtful reflection, I set aside some time, and contemplated how a friend may have been feeling. I suddenly wondered, does God ever do what I am now doing? Do our thoughts and feelings matter to God? Growing up as a child and then a young man, I don’t remember many times anybody asking me, “Tom, what do you think about this?” “What are your feelings? I remember only a few occasions of someone sincerely saying to me, “how are you doing?” In the Bible, when Jesus met a rich young ruler, it says that He loved him. Yes, though the man did not grasp Jesus’ message, Jesus loved him. When Peter didn’t understand Jesus’ feet washing ministry, Jesus, nevertheless, took time to identify with Peter’s bafflement. Then The Lord explained things. Jesus took the side of and defended an adulterer one day, causing quite a stir. I mused about…
Do we have to have rules? External government or self-discipline, is that the question? Throw off restraints, or buckle under, poses the paradox? Cannot I just trust my own conscience? If so, where do I get one that guides trust-worthily? Ah, guidance; how do I stay on the right road, how about my hunches, my intuition? What is true liberty? How do I discern the right way? In the last days we will have “lawlessness” and it will be sourced in a godless philosophy. The Bible calls the spirit of the age a “lukewarm” one, neither hot nor cold. Characteristic of this time will be moral decline but also an apostasy from true meaning and departure of generationally established values and traditions. Totalitarianism gains feet when folks leave “true upper guidance” and go with the flow of their intuitions, senses, emotions and pleasure seeking. This spiritual and cultural phenomena,…
Have you ever counseled the strong willed man? Not a chance of turning him. Bent, deeply bent, its like trying to lasso a rhino. Regardless, everything in a man’s heart will be on the table one day. For this cause man would be better off, by exposure to God’s Word, to keep a not so naive, but rather a “what’s in there” inventory. However, not on purpose he might have repressed the stuff right out of his “aware” ability. It might be a blind spot. No problem for God. Circumstances designed specifically for this cause will unearth it all, O unwelcome thought! To our advantage, when God performs this “suppressed frame uncovering” we can ascertain the force of the barbaric inner man; especially one lacking restraints —powerful. Like a dam let loose, it smashes walls and trees and banks. Raucously causing ruckus behind and before, no jars can contain it.…