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Papal or Paper Worship, No Bull
Did Jesus say of the coming Spirit: "He shall guide you into all the truth"? Surely to be guided into all the truth is something more than having the truth presented, conveyed, and written down!
Did Paul pray for believers that they might be given "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him" (i.e. Christ)? Surely that is an imparted faculty, ability, in the believer, and more than natural equipment!
For anyone who may not listen to the God Journey, the last pod cast (The Doctrine Police) certainly fits in well with the thoughts expressed here by Austin Sparks.
It seems man at his best will inevitably wrongly (try to) separate, divorce what God has perfectly joined together, the letter of the scriptures with His quickening spirit, ergo, “And so we could repeat the story in numerous instances. That 'The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word' is not disputed by many, but sometimes the breaking forth may prove revolutionary for one whose apprehension has been quite mistaken.”
Whether it’s the misguided worship of that chiseled into stone, or that printed onto paper, the end result is anything but a living expression of the One claiming to BE the Way, Truth and Life.
The need today is no less than it was 2,000 years ago when Jesus in his post resurrected body (it says He appeared to his disciples in another form) joined in the conversation of those who claimed to know the scriptures and yet were barely alive carrying within their souls such grievous dashed hopes of Jesus actually really being who he said he was. (For anyone interested, the words of Sheryl Crow~If it makes you happy, sure fit in here) It goes on to say, after drawing their hurt hearts out into the open that he opened their minds to import the hidden weight and truth that the mere letter knowledge failed to rescue them from.
Rich
A few additional words from A Sparks flow nicely into this picture.
One of the greatest needs of our time is to plough our way down through the heavy and tangled growth of Christian doctrines to the virgin soil of spiritual life and reality. A master-stroke of the great subverter, in his purpose to neutralize spiritual effectiveness against his kingdom, has been the resolving of Christianity into an endless system or series of doctrines, most of them in conflict with each other. By these Christianity has been crippled and frustrated, turned in on itself, and a state of civil (or uncivil) war has been created.
The Church cannot move, as an integrated and single-fronted body, against a very powerful and wily foe, because it does not believe together; its mind is divided into so many conflicting interpretations.
This means that authority has almost entirely disappeared. Men have repeatedly tried to correct this by forming creeds, confessions of faith, principles and practice, etc., but these only serve to form groups, widen breaches, harden antagonisms, create superiorities, and foster complacencies; they never solve the problem of spiritual dividedness. They engender suspicion, breathe an atmosphere of fear, and stimulate a mentality of heresy.
Did Jesus say of the coming Spirit: "He shall guide you into all the truth"? Surely to be guided into all the truth is something more than having the truth presented, conveyed, and written down!
Did Paul pray for believers that they might be given "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him" (i.e. Christ)? Surely that is an imparted faculty, ability, in the believer, and more than natural equipment!
For anyone who may not listen to the God Journey, the last pod cast (The Doctrine Police) certainly fits in well with the thoughts expressed here by Austin Sparks.
It seems man at his best will inevitably wrongly (try to) separate, divorce what God has perfectly joined together, the letter of the scriptures with His quickening spirit, ergo, “And so we could repeat the story in numerous instances. That 'The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word' is not disputed by many, but sometimes the breaking forth may prove revolutionary for one whose apprehension has been quite mistaken.”
Whether it’s the misguided worship of that chiseled into stone, or that printed onto paper, the end result is anything but a living expression of the One claiming to BE the Way, Truth and Life.
The need today is no less than it was 2,000 years ago when Jesus in his post resurrected body (it says He appeared to his disciples in another form) joined in the conversation of those who claimed to know the scriptures and yet were barely alive carrying within their souls such grievous dashed hopes of Jesus actually really being who he said he was. (For anyone interested, the words of Sheryl Crow~If it makes you happy, sure fit in here) It goes on to say, after drawing their hurt hearts out into the open that he opened their minds to import the hidden weight and truth that the mere letter knowledge failed to rescue them from.
Rich
A few additional words from A Sparks flow nicely into this picture.
One of the greatest needs of our time is to plough our way down through the heavy and tangled growth of Christian doctrines to the virgin soil of spiritual life and reality. A master-stroke of the great subverter, in his purpose to neutralize spiritual effectiveness against his kingdom, has been the resolving of Christianity into an endless system or series of doctrines, most of them in conflict with each other. By these Christianity has been crippled and frustrated, turned in on itself, and a state of civil (or uncivil) war has been created.
The Church cannot move, as an integrated and single-fronted body, against a very powerful and wily foe, because it does not believe together; its mind is divided into so many conflicting interpretations.
This means that authority has almost entirely disappeared. Men have repeatedly tried to correct this by forming creeds, confessions of faith, principles and practice, etc., but these only serve to form groups, widen breaches, harden antagonisms, create superiorities, and foster complacencies; they never solve the problem of spiritual dividedness. They engender suspicion, breathe an atmosphere of fear, and stimulate a mentality of heresy.
5 comments:
Good here, Bro. Fits well into and expands on that podcast for sure.
And it sounded like Sparks wrote that today. Same story, different decade.xc
Dave,
Here's another link to some wonderful thoughts as well.
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/002090.html
Rich, further on the separation of the Spirit from the Word, i have saw now, over and over, the effects on the hurting of those who separate the spirit from the word ie on those they minister to. They leave behind them a battle field of broken soul too wounded to even cry out to God.,In their arrogance, they beat them down even in their moments of deepest pain. I have a friend at the moment who is going thru a dark trial and sooo struggling in fait , and know what she was given by the R. Folks?, a scripture in rev that says unbelievers will be thrown in the lake of fire. Wasn't that nice, couldn't believe it, its very sad , we got to give people hope everyday, R
Ruth,
Just a very quick note here as I am VERY sick, my herat goes out to your friend 4 sure!
The judging i see we are all called to is so much diff than what 'gos-pill was given to your friend.
In raising Laz from the dead, Jesus turned to his friends and said to them, "Unloose him!"
He was gloriously raised from the dead. BUT, 'bound hand and foot' it was His way of finishing what He started in Laz life.
When I'm feeling better I have an update these posts on my blog, stay tuned. He is so GOOD!
Yes I hope you are soon feeling better. Jesus in the end wanted his friends to finish what He had started, by unloose him, and removing the grave clothes that remained , that was what he expected and desires (us) also to do for one another. Sounds to me like a delicate and tender process He has called us to do for one another. ;-)
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