When someone pressures another to something, they presuppose that the “another” will forego their free will on this one. The resoluteness of the “someone” in fact limits the ability of the other to freely decide. Why? The faculty of will requires freedom to operate. Two things that destroy true liberty of choice are fear and excess. Fear divides the mind, and excess overloads it. Bible liberty is in Holy Spirit presence. That presence takes us out of double-mindedness originated at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Divine life in the Spirit is the domain of a higher principle. This life has no beginning or ending. It can never die, and faith is the system of perception that sustains all of the above. Fear and faith cannot co-exist, so if someone manipulates us by fear, no faith remains to perceive the Spirit led choice. Example? Often things get…
Healing at the Cross Posts
Grace cannot act where there is either desert or ability. Grace does not help-it is absolute, it does it all. All thoughts below originate with William Newell A life without grace will lead us to wrongdoing — either through the short skirt of shamelessness or the long skirt of controlling self and others. Both encourage sin, one by giving it up, the other by holding it back. Grace is vital for people who kill their neighbor, but also for the finger pointing busy-body across the street — or anybody else for that matter. First, grace is God acting freely. Is your life happy with letting God do anything He wants? Has your whimpering manipulated God, or your bizarre flip-out? Can your smug religious works move Him? Not this God. He “doeth whatsoever He will in the army of heaven.” Do you have a sense of privilege?…
I watched two moms, one my own, the other my wife. A third would be my wife’s mom. All these have a common thing – close ties with their offspring. The children love mom not because she is perfect or even for her giving, but this – she is always in their corner, no matter what. Moms forgive their children — at least the ones I have known. They so never lose hope that their son or daughter will be great or at least be OK. They pray for the kids and worry. Most worry is sin, but not for moms; it becomes sanctified worry. The kids know about this worry and it guides, even restrains them away from certain paths of sure destruction. In order for a kid to go wild he has to find a way around his mom. He has to disregard her. No matter, mom will visit sons in county jail, or…
Peter was acquainted with suffering in a few categories; one sort was “reproach.” He speaks of the particulars in his first epistle, chapter 4. In verse 14 we read, “If ye be reproached (defamed) for the name of Christ, happy (extremely blessed) are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth (continues to repose), upon you. Alford says, “There being nothing so much as breaks noble minds.” He is referring to reprimand of character. Peter was a character and a strong-willed one. He was boisterous and proud. As pride precedes a fall, Peter demonstrated this principle by his walk-on-water spill, his rebuke by Jesus in Matthew 16, and eventually by his three-time denial. Unbeknownst to Peter, beforehand was God’s mighty hand of resistance. Why? Because private reputation retention is not popular with; well, it’s hated by The Father in heaven, is why. Nevertheless, years later Peter writes epistles as…
Have you ever noticed the number of basic daily routines that go in to balancing a simple day? Get out of bed, wash face, put teeth in, drink some Joe, put on under garb, install any body-braces or appliances, (each may have their own baggage.) Then we eat something or go to the gym first, get some gas in the car, drop off the kids, brush teeth and hair, then discuss something with our spouse. This list fragments the complete one which is much larger than we might care to think about. If a few habits or even just one decide to rebel, however, we can expect a disruption; and sometimes fierce. For most of us the extensive juggling demands “too much” of us. We may do only enough to get by and when our “enough” scrapes by for a week or longer, we surrender to it and adopt it…
streetcar When it doesn’t go well in life, where do you go? Disappointed, humiliated, do you sulk? Some rebound here and bounce back into the fight. Some quit altogether. Whatever the case, these letdown times become occasions for rational people to do irrational things. Good folks turn bad now, loyal friends betray, and competent people display incompetence in a struggle to save the day. What is happening? Well, an over-riding power, an incredible hulk, takes the ball and begins to run just inside the sidelines; and with such a rambunct, there is no stopping it. Folks is plain nuts now, and liable to do anything. Why? The answer to that needs interpretation, but, frankly, they hit the point where a principle of self-preservation begins. Pushed to the limit, their identity is threatened. Because of self-love, they must now get riled. Something happens to push persons out of normal soul function…
Parliament on the River On Easter comes Resurrection, although, the day may bring to a close an unimaginable period of pain in hardship, dying, burial. These are the extremes, the unexpected, the unexplained which lead up; the stuff which perplexes, shames, incapacitates. These take the limelight away from all former challenges of any sort; they ravage the mind, annihilate the soul, blow out of the proverbial water, and throw for a total loop. Have we seen them? They are not every day occurrences but may have found us. Our prayer is for God’s delicate help when it happens. Speaking hypothetically, prior to undergoing deep present distresses, life for most had a certain capacity, a confident bent, a sure system, a reliable set of rules, and a precise level of weightiness. This private, methodical, safety-network involved and normalized our coping with stress, our adapting to situations, our equilibrium protecting, our buoyancy…
When a loved one dies, immediately impressed upon the survivors are many things. awakened is the sense that life can be interrupted abruptly . the awakening of a higher truth is divulged. awakened to resentment at the crassness of people’s handling of your loved one’s passing. More than just superficially acknowledged, these new awakenings are circulated in the collection of soul depth. In every man exists a repository for the efficient operation of simple believing. Impulse, impression, and projection are ideas associated with this place. Things are conceived here and thoughts take on form from what is in there. This area of the brain operates involuntarily and has no moral filters. It can be called “unconscious.” Notion, perception, conception, modeling and theory work here. They fight to exist as one hypothesis may contradict another. What dominates in this belief emporium are those concepts that combine to form a system, a harmony, a…
Downtown Budapest John the Baptist was a burning and shining light. What qualified him? Perhaps 2 Cor 4:6 helps “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The light of the knowledge of the glory of God? — Light of knowledge? — Of glory? — Of God? — God’s glory’s knowledge? — “Gnosis”, “doxa” in the face of Jesus? — John reflected Jesus’ face of knowledge of the glory of God. How can a person be a shining light? If he or she leads many to righteousness, they will shine like the stars in the firmament says Daniel 10. Ecc 8:1 points out; “Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to…
Church in Hungary “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Is this the cross of your life or some other? If this one frames us, we know with the mind a once and forever done-by-another-for-me deal, (perfect passive indicative tense). The present tense “knowing” practically effects the destroying of the “The body of which sin has taken possession.” All of it enables me to not be a slave to sin. Jamison, Faucet, and Brown cite our new relationship with Christ and says: “The apostle now grows more definite and vivid in expressing the sin-destroying effectiveness of our union with the crucified Savior.” So that “all that we were in our old unregenerate condition, before union with Christ,” “was” crucified with Him. Henceforth, we are not in bondage to sin. So, we have…