tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81203692024-03-13T08:22:30.593-04:00and then Life happenedYou get hammered in life, but you get hammered into interesting shapes.
Like most, I'd prefer my blessings to come without disguises! And then Life happened.......Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.comBlogger556125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-75017409685746949342012-03-15T20:15:00.000-04:002012-03-15T20:15:55.988-04:00What is God's Wrath?<span id="goog_202441614"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This </span><b style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.gci.org/_lib/playvideo.php?program=YI/YI112&title=Steve+McVey:+What+Is+God%2527s+Wrath%3f">video clip</a></b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> with Steve McVey is so worth the time to watch, What is God's Wrath?</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Rich</span></b></span>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-41121088133065509622012-03-07T07:13:00.000-05:002012-03-09T12:27:21.740-05:00I Want My Kids to Fail<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FDvKHNeI3qw/T1dQQzja0oI/AAAAAAAACR8/Qev9HiIqj38/s1600/chalkboardheinlein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FDvKHNeI3qw/T1dQQzja0oI/AAAAAAAACR8/Qev9HiIqj38/s320/chalkboardheinlein.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
A great article.<br />http://rochestersage.org/</div>
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<i>I’ve missed more than
9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been
trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and
over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. – Michael
Jordan</i></div>
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<i>The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do. – John Stuart Mill</i> </div>
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I want my kids to fail. That probably isn’t at the top of your list
for your kids, but it should be. Failure is one of the most important
experiences they will ever have. The road to success is paved with
failure because failure teaches us how to succeed.<span id="more-974"></span></div>
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I want my kids to fail. It is only when they fail that they have an
opportunity to pick themselves back up. It is only when they fail that
they learn to work hard. It is only when they fail that they learn what
doesn’t work. It is only when they fail that they learn that sometimes
people need help. It is only when they fail that they learn empathy
for others struggling. It is only when they fail that they learn that
life is not always fair. It is only when they fail that they understand
what being human is.</div>
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I want my kids to fail, but not to the point that they can’t
emotionally continue. Right now I am there to help provide a pep talk,
spend time working with them to succeed, and tell them that I believe
they can succeed if they continue to try. But I will not always be able
to be there, so this motivation needs to become internalized so that
they succeed even if no one else believes in them.</div>
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I want my kids to fail, but not to the point where they cannot afford
to feed, shelter, and clothe themselves. While they are under my care
is a time that the consequences of failure are not threatening to their
health and welfare. This is the time to learn through failure how to
succeed.</div>
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I want my kids to fail in the classroom. This is true education! I
don’t want them to believe that success is easy, but when a child is
bright enough to learn with minimal effort and is rewarded with A’s for
that, they come to believe that hard work isn’t needed for success. I
want them to struggle, to not always succeed on the first try – or the
twentieth, to learn that asking for help is not a sign of weakness or
lack of intelligence, and to see that success is often a long process.</div>
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I want my kids to fail. That is one reason we supplement their
education at home. Our kindergartner has learned through doing second
grade math, which she can find challenging, that there is a strong
correlation between the effort she puts in and how her quiz scores are.
When she has a rough quiz, she often chooses to do three or four
practices so that her next quiz will be better. This drive will take
her further than her natural intelligence.</div>
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I want my kids to fail – and you should want yours to also. If your
children are struggling, help them to learn to succeed. Don’t make
success easy for them, but teach them the skills they need to succeed.
If your children are not struggling at times in school, ask why not.
Ask for curriculum that challenges them and makes them work for their
grades. Learning how to fail is one of the most important skills they
will ever learn.</div>
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I want my kids to fail. It is how they will learn to succeed.</div>
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<b>Rich</b></div>
<br />Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-35604463402592248762012-03-04T13:03:00.000-05:002012-03-04T13:03:54.284-05:00Faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BCfoLEOQCSA/T1Ote00uxdI/AAAAAAAACRs/qdbVlg1j7M0/s1600/Byers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BCfoLEOQCSA/T1Ote00uxdI/AAAAAAAACRs/qdbVlg1j7M0/s320/Byers.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I love this quote I came across regarding faith.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Faith is the sum of actions founded on the absolute trustworthiness of
God which are derived from a direct and active relationship with the
only One who can be trusted completely. God does not grant faith, He
infuses it in the spirit that abandons itself in Him."</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Rich</span></b>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-17794717095089997082012-02-28T07:44:00.000-05:002012-02-29T06:27:21.495-05:00Crumbs of Rumor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-neuLj5m_h10/T0zL7a3S-YI/AAAAAAAACRU/4XmSraqSprU/s1600/308266_248161691912483_121731334555520_718920_833057332_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-neuLj5m_h10/T0zL7a3S-YI/AAAAAAAACRU/4XmSraqSprU/s1600/308266_248161691912483_121731334555520_718920_833057332_n.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">So much cluttering stuff in my opinion is written on tablets of wood, in our heads, but when the unexplainable and inexpiable unplanned storming events decide to land in our lives, we have set before us the very means of coming to know the Father of our spirit in ways that will defy all logic and rational thinking. <br /><br />I love the out come of Job's whirlwind adventure; Job answered <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span>: "I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. <br /> Nothing and no one can upset your plans.<br />You asked, 'Who is this muddying the water, <br /> ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?'<br />I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, <br /> made small talk about wonders way over my head.<br />You told me, 'Listen, and let me do the talking. <br /> Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.'<br />I admit I once lived by rumors of you; <br /> now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!<br />I'm sorry—forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! <br /> I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor." <br /><br /><b>Rich</b></span></span></div>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-75555437402643337322012-02-19T17:42:00.000-05:002012-02-19T17:42:36.266-05:00Faith vs. Belief<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b8hqGz5jZ6o/T0F51uBaAyI/AAAAAAAACRE/LJjTwaaS3f0/s1600/are+you+all+talk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b8hqGz5jZ6o/T0F51uBaAyI/AAAAAAAACRE/LJjTwaaS3f0/s1600/are+you+all+talk.jpg" /></a></div>
<span id="yui_3_2_0_1_1329688774708650" style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_2_0_1_1329688774708647" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Belief
provides answers to people's questions, so as to find assurance and
provide a solution; so as to fashion for themselves a system of beliefs.
Faith is not to supply us with explanation, but to get us to listen to
God's questions. Belief talks and talks, it wallows in words, it takes
the initiative to explain. Faith listens patiently. Belief brings people
together, joined in the same institutional current, oriented toward the
same object of belief, sharing the same ideas, following the same
rituals, enrolled in the same organization, speaking the same language.
It has the social benefit of consensus and identification. Faith
individualizes. It has to do with a personal relationship with God in
which God confers each with unique
identity. Faith separates people and makes them unique, set apart for
what God wants to do. Belief is antithetical to doubt. It is the basis
of fundamentalism; people unbending in their convictions, intolerant of
any deviation. In their articulation of belief they press rigor and
absolutism to their limits. Belief is rapidly transformed into
passwords, rites, orthodoxy. Faith recognizes doubt. Faith puts to the
test every element of my life and society. It leads me to question all
my certitudes, all my moralities, beliefs, and policies. It forbids me
to attach ultimate significance to any expression of human activity." </span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">taken from Jacques Ellul - Living Faith.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Rich</span></b></span></span></span>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-36785579909304037342012-02-07T19:17:00.006-05:002012-02-07T19:29:04.448-05:00Compassionate Eschatology<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZQnj0iqDiM/TzHAPfXwd-I/AAAAAAAACQ4/O4Cfmrh5miU/s1600/Compassionate-Eschatology-Pic1-300x300.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZQnj0iqDiM/TzHAPfXwd-I/AAAAAAAACQ4/O4Cfmrh5miU/s320/Compassionate-Eschatology-Pic1-300x300.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706553575206844386" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I loved this pod cast over at Beyond The Box, you can listen to it </span><a style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(51, 0, 51);" href="http://www.beyondtheboxpodcast.com/2012/02/compassionate-eschatology-with-michael-hardin/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">hear</span></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span><br style="font-family: verdana;"><br style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So much fear based thinking has been poured into so much theology that only perpetuates tormenting the hell out of people.</span><br style="font-family: verdana;"><br style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For many, allowing the Father to free us from these tormenting belief systems will at first seem like we're in a free fall, as if we're spinning out of control, but once again, that's what the Matrix of religious thinking will try to do in convincing us that there is nothing beyond what we think we're so certain of.</span><br style="font-family: verdana;"><br style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: bold;">Rich</span></span>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-73499216019263830842012-02-02T07:29:00.003-05:002012-02-02T07:31:17.619-05:00Rejecting the Free Gift of Grace<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-836xj7trGzo/TyqBvRzh-sI/AAAAAAAACPg/4ItqqJQHr0g/s1600/mixburdons3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 183px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-836xj7trGzo/TyqBvRzh-sI/AAAAAAAACPg/4ItqqJQHr0g/s320/mixburdons3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704514527251528386" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><p style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">When we reject the free gift of grace we must then attempt to justify ourselves before the Father by our own works. One of the most common of these works is observing the law.</span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Unfortunately this is not the purpose that the Father has ordained for the law. The law was not given to condemn us. I do not feel that I can stress this too often. The world in general and much of Christianity in particular has no clear understanding of the proper use of the law of God. This is somewhat understandable because this proper usage is taught in very few places in the organizations of religion and nowhere in the world. However, we are without excuse in this matter, as this proper use of God’s law is made very clear in the bible. Further, this truth, as with all truth, is available to anyone who will seek the Father to be taught about it.</span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I find it more than puzzling when and how we base everything upon us “trying” to love the Lord, based upon the greatest commandment; when a lawyer came to Jesus and asked, what is the greatest of the commandments, to which Jesus replied, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind and strength.<br />The kicker is, that once again this is pointing out clearly to us, that we are not meant to be law practitioners. We love Him, (why) because, He first loved us!</span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Rich</strong></span></p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-24316555552762292742012-01-29T18:45:00.002-05:002012-01-29T18:51:20.431-05:00Who Told You, That You Were Naked<a href="http://rantz72.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/who-told-you-that-you-were-naked/">http://rantz72.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/who-told-you-that-you-were-naked/</a>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-6020267129686052672011-11-22T07:50:00.001-05:002011-11-22T07:53:06.668-05:00Was Jesus a Dumb Ass<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I want to link up with a friend's blog by Stephanie, the link is</span><a href="http://jacmacsgirl-wasjesusadumbass.blogspot.com/"> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">here</span></a>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">Rich</span></span>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-68709562788564259052011-11-20T15:07:00.005-05:002011-11-20T15:14:32.084-05:00Holding On Loosely<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ca0xIzersB0/Tsleyt6i4_I/AAAAAAAACN0/M3X2LGuLv0s/s1600/573486807_a6d9fb2ccc.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ca0xIzersB0/Tsleyt6i4_I/AAAAAAAACN0/M3X2LGuLv0s/s320/573486807_a6d9fb2ccc.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5677173030688842738" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Deep Calls To Deep</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);">I read the following blog entry today and was so enriched with the gracious and encouraging words, I thought I would post a link to it</span> <a style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102);" href="http://www.holdingonloosely.com/blog/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">here</span></a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rich</span></span><br /></span>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-60759001735397332642011-08-11T12:38:00.005-04:002011-08-11T12:46:36.086-04:00Who is the Bride of the Lamb?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QKJv4QNB89o/TkQF8rqHTUI/AAAAAAAACMg/sj_KUVbyCj4/s1600/wpebc92a52.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 231px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QKJv4QNB89o/TkQF8rqHTUI/AAAAAAAACMg/sj_KUVbyCj4/s320/wpebc92a52.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639639173444357442" border="0" /></a>
<br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><p style="text-align: center; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; font-weight: bold;" align="center">(Thought to be written by: Paul Sadler, President, Berean Bible Society)</p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);">Thankfully, we do not have to rely upon our own human reasoning for an answer to this perplexing question. The Scriptures are explicitly clear that the "Bride" is <i>Israel</i> .</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);">One will search in vain to find any of this terminology in St. Paul 's epistles. In fact, Paul frequently makes reference to Christ as Savior, Lord and Head, but he never speaks of Him as the <i>Lamb of God</i> and for good reason. In prophecy, God had graciously imparted the sacrificial system which foreshadowed the once-for-all sacrifice</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);">It is essential that the reader keep in mind that the Church, the Body of Christ was <i>hid in God</i> from ages and generations past. Thus with the advent of the administration of Grace a number of <i>new</i> metaphors are applied to the Church, such as: Body, stewards, ambassadors, etc. Some seem to think that Paul does, indeed, speak of us as the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5. But they have failed to distinguish between Paul's usage of a <i>metaphor</i> and a <i>simile</i>.</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);">The following is reprinted from the “Berean Searchlight”, the official organ of the <a rel="nofollow">Berean Bible Society</a>, Volume LVI Number. (It is thought to be written by: Paul Sadler)<span class="article"></span></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"><span class="article">As we plow through mountains of correspondence here at the Berean Bible Society, there is often a recurring theme. Of late, many have been inquiring as to whether or not the Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ. We have always taken this to be the leading of the Holy Spirit since these letters come from different parts of the country, indeed, the world. If the ministry has taught us one thing, it is this: Birds of a feather flock together! In other words, if one has a question of this sort others are normally standing in the shadows pondering the same thing.</span></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Although the <b style=""><i>Bride of Christ</i></b> falls under the classification of a “secondary issue” the very nature of the subject has a profound effect on how certain passages are interpreted. Through the years, Pastor Cornelius Stam and I have been in about 85 percent agreement when it comes to rightly dividing the Word of truth. However, one area that we have never seen eye to eye on is the issue under consideration. Brother Stam believes that the Body of Christ is numbered with the company of believers commonly known as the Bride of Christ. We have had a number of spirited discussions on the matter, all of which ended in the old “Mexican standoff.” There were times as we left the room together, he would chuckle and exclaim, “Paul, some day you will see the light!”</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Mindful of whom I was discussing these <i>eternal</i> <i>issues</i> with, I have weighed the evidence very carefully under the microscope of Paul’s gospel. After bringing everything into focus, I am more convinced than ever that the Body of Christ is <b style=""><i>not</i></b> the <b style=""><i>Bride, the Lamb’s wife</i>.</b> To me <u>it seems terribly inconsistent to make distinction after distinction between Israel and the Church and then turn around and say that they are one in the same, that is, the Bride of Christ</u>. Of course, some teach that the “Body” is the Bride, not Israel , but this is simply not supported by the facts. One thing is clear in this discussion: The opinions of men are inconsequential in view of the eternal question, “What saith the <i>Scriptures</i>?”</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="articlesubhead"><strong>WORDS AND PHRASES</strong></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">In our quest to rightly divide the Word of truth certain “words” and “phrases” are identified with the Prophetic program while others are associated with the Mystery. Interestingly, the “Bride of Christ” is an <i>unscriptural</i> phrase that is foreign to both programs of God. It is merely a theological expression that originated in the futile mind of man to describe those who will be present at the <i>marriage of the Lamb</i> preceding the <i>kingdom</i> (Rev. 19:7-9). The exact phrase used in prophecy is only found in the Apocalypse where one of the seven angels said to John<i style="">: “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Rev. 21:9).</i></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">The terms “bride,” “Lamb,” and “wife” (in relation to the marriage of the Lamb) are woven throughout the pages of <b style=""><u>prophecy</u></b>. For example: <i style="">“He that hath the <span style="">bride</span> is the bridegroom” (John 3:29 cf. Jer. 2:32). “Behold the <span style="">Lamb</span> of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 cf. Isa. 53:7). “. . . for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His <span style="">wife</span> hath made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7 cf. Isa. 54:4-7).</i></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">One will search in vain to find any of this terminology in St. Paul ’s epistles. In fact, Paul frequently makes reference to Christ as Savior, Lord and Head, but he never speaks of Him as the <i>Lamb of God</i> and for good reason. In prophecy, God had graciously imparted the sacrificial system which foreshadowed the once-for-all sacrifice. Thus, Christ <i>was</i> the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who satisfied the righteous demands of the law. He was consistently portrayed as the innocent <i>victim--a lamb</i> being led to the slaughter (Lev. 4:3235; Isa. 53:3-8). </p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">With the introduction of a new dispensation, Christ is portrayed in a completely different light by the Apostle Paul. Today, He is the <i>Lord of glory</i>, the mighty <i>victor</i> who has conquered sin through His death and resurrection (I Cor. 2:8; 15:20-23).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="articlesubhead"><b style="">THE BRIDE IN PROPHECY</b></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Who is the Bride of the Lamb? </p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Thankfully, we do not have to rely upon our own human reasoning for an answer to this perplexing question. The Scriptures are explicitly clear that the “Bride” is <i>Israel</i> . When John the Baptist was asked why all men sought the Master and his ministry was fading in glory, he responded: <b style=""><i style="">“<u>He that hath the bride is the bridegroom</u>: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29,30).</i></b></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Working in reverse order, clearly the <i style="">“friend of the bridegroom”</i> is John the Baptist. John says that it was cause for rejoicing upon hearing the voice of the bridegroom. <i style="">“. . . this my [John the Baptist’s] joy therefore is fulfilled.”</i> The <i style="">“bridegroom”</i> is none other than Christ Himself. In the previous verse John stated that he was <i style="">“. . . not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him” (vs. 28).</i> He then confirms this by applying the illustration of the bridegroom. John was merely the forerunner to prepare the way for the Messiah. Hence, <i style="">“He [Christ] must increase, but I [John] must decrease” (vs. 30).</i></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Bearing in mind that the gospel according to John is a record of the earthly ministry of Christ, the <i style="">“bride”</i> is obviously <i>Israel</i> . John the Baptist plainly declares in this record: “And I knew Him not: but that <b style="">He should be made <i>manifest</i> to ISRAEL ,</b> therefore am I come baptizing with water” (John 1:31). Did not our Lord instruct His disciples to <b style=""><i style="">“Go not into the way of the Gentiles.... But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of ISRAEL ”? (Matt. 10:5, 6).</i></b> Did not our Lord say concerning Himself at that time: <b style=""><i style="">“I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of ISRAEL ”? (Matt. 15:24).</i></b></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Moving farther along in the gospel according to Matthew, we have the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13). Here we learn that only <i>believing</i> Israel will participate in the actual marriage of the Lamb. You will recall that there were five wise virgins and five foolish. When the bridegroom delayed his coming the lamps of the unwise virgins ran out of oil as they slumbered. Therefore, the five foolish virgins, representative of the unsaved, were unprepared when the midnight cry came <b style="">“<i>Behold, the bridegroom cometh</i>!” </b>While they went to purchase oil, the Bridegroom came <i style="">“. . . and they [five saved virgins]that were <span style="">ready</span> went in with him to the <span style="">marriage</span>” (vs. 10).</i> In addition, this portion teaches us that the marriage will take place <b style=""><u>when our Lord returns in His glory at the close of the Great Tribulation (vs. 13)</u>. </b>(<u>Note the church, the body of Christ will have been raptured to heaven before that time. AJL</u>).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">The above is confirmed by the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation.</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1"><i style="">“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the <b style=""><u>marriage of the Lamb</u></b> is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19:7,8).</i></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Here in the context of the <b style="">Second Coming of Christ, believing Israel is said to make <u>herself</u> <i>ready</i>.</b> This is in keeping with the Prophetic program insofar as the kingdom saints (not “the body of Christ”) did not have the assurance of their salvation. Consequently, they were instructed to overcome, seek and ye shall find, endure to the end, etc. (Matt. 6:33; 24:13; I John 4, 5). Surely, this cannot be said of the Church, the Body of Christ. We are not only eternally secure, we have the assurance of it. As members of His Body we are <i>accepted</i> in the Beloved and therefore <i><u>complete</u></i><u> in Him</u> (see Eph. 1:6; Col. 2:10).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">It should also be noted that John refers to Israel as the “wife” of the Lamb. Of course, this excludes “the Body of Christ” as participants in this ceremony inasmuch as Paul always addresses us in the <b style=""><i>masculine</i> gender</b>. <b style=""><u>Christ is our “Head” (The Head of <i style="">“the body of Christ”),</i> not our groom</u></b>. </p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">But in what sense is Israel the “wife” of the Lamb if she is to be united to the Messiah in the holy bonds of matrimony? The answer lies in the law of the <i>betrothal</i> (Deut. 22:23-25).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><b><i style="">Deuteronomy 22:23-25 </i></b><i style="">If a damsel <span style="">that is</span> <b style="">a virgin be betrothed unto an husband</b>, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; <sup>24 </sup>Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, <span style="">being</span> in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. <sup>25 </sup>But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die: </i></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">In days of old, when a man and woman came together before a rabbi, they were betrothed to one another. Similar to our present day engagement, the <b style="">betrothal was a binding agreement wherein the parties were actually classified <i>husband and wife</i>. </b>Upon completion of the ceremony, the couple returned to their respective homes for one year. This period was to give the husband an opportunity to <i>prepare</i> a home for his bride-to-be. It was also to ensure that the woman had been <i>faithful</i>, and was not with child. Of course, it was during this time that Mary was found with child before she and Joseph had come together in the intimacy of the marriage relationship (Matt. 1: 18-25).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">In this regard, <b style="">Christ has returned to heaven to</b> <b style=""><i>prepare</i> a place for His bride in the kingdom</b>. Since this aspect of <u>the kingdom of heaven is brought to the earth, </u>it will be <u>like heaven on earth</u>. As the tribulation period runs its course, Israel will be observed to determine who among them have been <b style=""><i>faithful</i></b> to the commands of Christ (law) contained in the kingdom gospel (John 14:1-3 cf. Luke 19:11-27).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">It is imperative that we glean from all of these principal passages that the marriage of the Lamb will occur <b style=""><u>on the</u></b> <b style=""><i><u>earth</u></i></b><u> when Christ returns to set up His kingdom</u>. Following the wedding, the Apostle John was instructed to write:</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1"><i style="">“Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).</i></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">These <u>guests </u>are undoubtedly <u>the kingdom Gentiles</u> (These were saved to <i style="">“the kingdom”</i> (they were not saved under <i style="">“the dispensation of the Grace of God”)</i> during the Tribulation and Millennium) who will be invited to enjoy the blessings of the coming Golden Age (Matt. 25:31-46; Luke 14:15-24).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="articlesubhead"><strong>THE BRIDE AND PAUL’S EPISTLES</strong></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">It is essential that the reader keep in mind that <i style="">“the Church, which is the Body of Christ” (Eph 1:22b, 23a) “was <b style=""><u><span style="">hid</span></u></b><span style=""> in God</span> from ages and generations past” ( Col 1:26). </i>Thus with the advent of the administration of Grace a number of <i>new</i> metaphors are applied to the Church, such as: <i style="">Body, stewards, ambassadors,</i> etc. </p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Some seem to think that Paul does, indeed, speak of us as the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5. But they have failed to distinguish between Paul’s usage of a <b style=""><i><u>metaphor</u></i> </b><i style="">(A “figure of speech” in which an implicit comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common)</i> and a <b style=""><i><u>simile</u></i></b><i> </i><i>(only “a resemblance”)</i>. A well-respected theologian from the turn of the century writes:</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">“The confounding of the Church as the Bride in Ephesians 5, has resulted from not seeing the Figure of Speech used throughout the passage is that of <i>Simile</i>, and <b style=""><u>not</u></b> <i>Metaphor</i>: ‘Metaphor’ places one thing for another. It is representation. ‘Simile’ is but resemblance. We must therefore not say when comparing one thing with another that that one thing is another. Observe the continued comparison between Christ and the Church of His Body , and the conduct of wives and husbands. Note the presence of simile in every instance, and the absence of metaphor.”</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, <b style=""><u>AS</u></b> UNTO THE LORD” (vs. 22).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">“For the husband is the head of the wife, even <b style=""><u>AS</u></b> CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH”(vs. 23).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">“Husbands, love your wives even <b style=""><u>AS</u></b> CHRIST ALSO LOVED THE CHURCH, and gave Himself for it” (vs. 25).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even <b style=""><u>AS</u></b> THE LORD THE CHURCH” (vs. 29).</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">(These above are all “similes”, not “metaphors”.)</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">So then, the apostle by using a simile instead of a metaphor is desiring to show the <i style="">resemblance</i> between the marriage relationship and Christ and His Church. Paul points to the <i>love relationship</i> to demonstrate that <i style="">“as Christ loved the Church,”</i> husbands should love their wives. In like manner, wives are to emulate the Church by submitting to their own husbands. Nowhere in the portion under consideration does the apostle use the metaphor of a bride. In fact, just the opposite is true:<i style=""> “. . . and He is the Savior of the BODY” (vs. 23).</i> <i style="">“For <b style="">we are members of His BODY, of His flesh, and of His bones”</b> (vs. 30).</i> </p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">( I might ask, <i style="">“What is closer to you, is it your wife or your own body?)</i></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.25in; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1"><i style="">“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you <b style=""><u>AS</u></b> A CHASTE VIRGIN TO CHRIST” (II Cor. 11:2).</i></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" class="article1">Insofar as the Corinthians had a propensity to live carelessly, the apostle again uses the marriage relationship to show the importance of living a godly life in Christ Jesus. Marriages are built on trust, fidelity, purity of heart and life. Paul was challenging the Corinthians to be <i>faithful</i> to the one who called them into His grace. We should add that since the apostle uses the pronoun <i style="">“you”</i> in this context it would seem to indicate that he was merely addressing this local assembly of believers, and not the whole Body of Christ. Paul had founded this assembly and naturally had a godly jealously over them as their spiritual father. Of course, we would do well to heed the apostle’s admonition lest we too follow in the footsteps of the Corinthians. <span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Times New Roman';FONT-SIZE:12pt;">It is our firm conviction that the Body of Christ is not the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. We believe to teach otherwise is to bring a kingdom truth into the Body of Christ where it is not only unnatural, but a forced interpretation. May God in His grace give us a Berean spirit to study to see if this be true.
<br /></span></span></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-size:78%;" ><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana;"></span></span></span>
<br />Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-48062711097700395072011-08-07T15:18:00.002-04:002011-08-07T15:23:10.432-04:00Fretting<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P93o6RI9Bz0/Tj7lRovbnuI/AAAAAAAACMQ/i5qV7I6ugz0/s1600/fret4.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 241px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P93o6RI9Bz0/Tj7lRovbnuI/AAAAAAAACMQ/i5qV7I6ugz0/s320/fret4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638195874671337186" border="0" /></a><br /><p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">By nature some persons fret easily. They have difficulty separating their personal antipathies from the burden of the Spirit. When they are grieved they can hardly say whether it is a pure and charitable thing or merely irritation set up by other Christians having opinions different from their own.</span></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Of one thing we may be sure, we can never escape the external stimuli that cause vexation. The world is full of them and though we were to retreat to a cave and live the remainder of our days alone we still could not lose them. The rough floor of our cave would chafe us, the weather would irritate us and the very silence would cause us to fret.</span></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Deliverance from a fretting spirit may be by blood and fire, by humility, self-abnegation and a patient carrying of the cross. There will always be "evildoers" and "workers of iniquity," and for the most part they will appear to succeed while the forces of righteousness will seem to fail. The wicked will always have the money and the talent and the publicity and the numbers, while the righteous will be few and poor and unknown. The prayerless Christian will surely misread the signs and fret against the circumstances. That is what the Spirit warns us against.</span></p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Let us look out calmly upon the world; or better yet, let us look down upon it from above where Christ is seated and we are seated in Him. Though the wicked spread himself like "a green bay tree" it is only for a moment. Soon he passes away and is not. "But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble." This knowledge should cure the fretting spirit.</span></p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-46176488912583206882011-03-27T16:37:00.005-04:002011-03-27T16:43:15.099-04:00Keeping in Step<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-REwuzghSHkY/TY-gRV_cx3I/AAAAAAAACL0/iAdnKKTufH0/s1600/keeping-in-step-with-jesus-450x342.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 304px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-REwuzghSHkY/TY-gRV_cx3I/AAAAAAAACL0/iAdnKKTufH0/s400/keeping-in-step-with-jesus-450x342.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588861882411566962" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:Verdana;font-size:100%;" ><p><i><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I<span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">f we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)</span></i></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);">That which is called Christianity is essentially a spiritual thing, and not an earthly order or system, and every fragment of it has to be entered into in a spiritual way, by way of Life and Revelation. There is all the difference between imitation and Life. Oh, what a difference there is between seeing a thing in an objective way and coming into it in Life! It is just there that the wonder, the glory, the vitality, the energy, the power of things is found.<b> </b>You have perhaps talked for years about things in the Word of God, as in the Word of God, and you believed them and gave them out as truth, and after doing that for years suddenly you saw what they meant, and the whole thing came in<b> </b>another way. All your talking, and preaching, and believing before was quite true, quite right, correct as to doctrine, but what effect had it on you? Now that it has broken like this it is transfiguring, and has brought real joy and delight, life and ecstasy. That is what we mean by entering into things by Life and by Revelation. In other words, it is coming into things by the Spirit and seeing...</p><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"> </span><p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);">If we become spiritual in this sense, if the Holy Spirit is the commanding reality in our life, and we are walking by the Spirit, we are bound inevitably to come into all God's thought. The Lord wants a people to come into His full thought. That is only possible as they cease to be governed by some outward order of things, and learn what it is to move with God in the Holy Spirit. </p></span>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-75853491457199127942011-03-20T14:01:00.004-04:002011-03-20T14:07:16.095-04:00Giving Sight to the Blind<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5_kpxgRvy24/TYZBL60tahI/AAAAAAAACLU/z-wc8SDnKbQ/s1600/healing_of_the_blind_man.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5_kpxgRvy24/TYZBL60tahI/AAAAAAAACLU/z-wc8SDnKbQ/s320/healing_of_the_blind_man.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586224060824381970" border="0" /></a><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style=""> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">There is no doubt about Saul of Tarsus and his blindness; but his was the blindness of his very religious zeal, his zeal for God, his zeal for tradition, his zeal for historic religion, his zeal for the established and accepted thing in the religious world. It was a blind zeal about which afterward he had to say, "I verily thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth" (Acts 26:9). "I thought I ought." What a tremendous turn round it was when he discovered that the things which he thought, and passionately thought he ought to do, in order to please God and to satisfy his own conscience, were utterly and diametrically opposed to God and the way of right and truth. What blindness! Surely he stands as an abiding warning to us all that zeal for anything is not necessarily a proof that the thing is right, and that we are on the right road. Our very zeal as a thing in itself may be a blinding thing, our devotion to tradition may be our blindness. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"> I think eyes have a very large place in Paul’s life. When his eyes spiritually were opened, his eyes naturally were blinded, and you can use that as a metaphor. The using of natural eyes religiously too strongly may be just the indication of how blind we are, and it may be that, when those natural eyes religiously are blinded, we will see something, and not until they are do we see something. For a lot of people, the thing that is in the way of their real seeing is that they see too much and see in the wrong way. They are seeing with natural senses, natural faculties of reason and intellect and learning, and all that is in the way.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"> Paul stands to tell us that sometimes, in order really to see, it is necessary to be blinded. Evidently that left its mark upon him, just as the finger of the Lord left its mark upon Jacob, for the rest of his days. He went into Galatia and later wrote the Letter to the Galatians; and you remember he said, "I bear you witness, that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me" (4:15); meaning that they noted his affliction, they were aware of that mark which had lasted from the Damascus road, and so felt for him, that if they could have done so, they would have plucked out their very eyes for him. But it is wonderful that the commission which came when he was naturally blinded on the Damascus road was all about eyes. He was blind, and they led him by the hand into Damascus; but the Lord had said in that hour, "to whom I send thee to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God". <br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Rich</span><br /></span></span> </span></p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-12324464310986292392011-01-11T08:09:00.001-05:002011-01-11T08:13:05.423-05:00Adopting A Christian Life<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSxWrj1BhgI/AAAAAAAACKI/gl0oS7UpTsw/s1600/Traditions-web-page-graphic.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 194px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSxWrj1BhgI/AAAAAAAACKI/gl0oS7UpTsw/s320/Traditions-web-page-graphic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560914946247722498" 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mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b style="color: rgb(153, 153, 0);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">A Lost Impact</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">We are going to be occupied with the meaning of <span style="font-size:85%;">Christ. Before we come immediately into touch with that matter, there are a few preliminary words that I want to say, and they have to do with something of which we are all conscious, a matter which is troubling, I think I can say, the majority of real Christians. It is the matter of the lost impact of Christ, of the Gospel, of Christianity. We are suffering from a handicap, and that handicap is tradition.<br /><br />Christianity has become that - a tradition so largely, something handed down from generation to generation. It has become a theology, a set of doctrines, of statements about God, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit, and many other things, and as such it has passed very largely into the mental realm - a thing to be worked out in thought, a matter of reason. It has also become a great mystical cult. It has passed into the realm of art, and music, so that you can accept Christianity on that basis and be a Christian along that line, and yet that it shall stand completely out of relation to your inner life. Think of all that goes to make up Christianity as it is known today, of the external, the soulish appreciation; and it has no impact. <i>There </i>is<i> </i>the great need, surely, - and this is what we are seeking to come to at this time. </span> </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The great need is to get back to the real meaning of Christ, so that a new impact may come upon ourselves, and there shall come a new impact upon the world through us.</span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Rich</span></b></span></p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-19291679205553690812011-01-10T00:05:00.000-05:002011-01-10T00:05:01.138-05:00A Heavenly Order Not An Earthly System<a 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{mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, if I were talking to people who were <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">responsible in the matter of Church building, that would be a very profitable matter with which to stay for a little while; but it just amounts to this for us. We take the Acts and the Epistles as setting forth the technique of the Church and churches and adopt it as a crystallized system of practice, order, form, teaching, and the weakness in the whole position is just this, that that is something as in itself, and the Lord Jesus has been missed and lost. I wonder if you detect what I mean by that? You see, the Holy Spirit's way is to take Christ and open up Christ to the heart, and show that Christ is a heavenly order; not that the Epistles set forth as a manual a heavenly order, but that Christ is that order, and everything in the matter of order has to be kept immediately in relation to the living Person. If it becomes some </span><em style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">thing</em><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">, then it becomes an earthly system; and you can make out of the Epistles a hundred different earthly systems all built upon the Epistles. They will be made to support any number of different systems, different interpretations, represented by Christian orders here, and the reason is that they have been divorced from the Person.</span><br /> <br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);"> If only we keep close to Him who is the sum of all truth, and move with Him and learn Him, we shall know the course of things. We shall know what is imminent. We shall have in our heart whisperings of preparation. The best Advent preparation is to know the Lord. I am not saying that there is nothing in prophecy: don't misunderstand me. But I do know that there are multitudes of people who are simply engrossed in prophecy as a thing whose spiritual life counts for nothing, who really have no deep inward walk with the Lord. We have seen it so often.</span><br /><br /><b style="color: rgb(153, 153, 0);">Rich</b></span></p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-64975210469223862972011-01-09T11:10:00.003-05:002011-01-09T11:16:52.328-05:00The Light Is Growing<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> 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mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">THE PURPOSE OF GOD</span> </span></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><br /><br />What is the purpose of God? What is God's end? And I think it can be put in one way amongst others. We can say that God's purpose is that there shall come a time when He has a vessel in which and through which His glory shines forth to this universe. We see that intimated in the case of new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, her light like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal. "Having the glory of God!" That is the end which God has in view for a people; to be, in a spiritual sense, to His universe of spiritual intelligences what the sun is to this universe; that the very nations shall walk in the light thereof, no need of sun, no need of moon, for there is no night; and that is only saying that God wills to have a people full of light, "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." That is the end, and God begins to move toward that end immediately a child of His is born from above; for that very birth, a new birth from above, is the scattering of the darkness and the breaking in of the light. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">All along our way in the School of Christ, the Holy Spirit is engaged upon this one thing, to lead us more and more into the light, "of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ", that it shall be true in our case that "the path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (mid-day) (Prov 4:18) Many people have thought—and, thinking so, have been disappointed—that that means it is going to get easier and easier, brighter and brighter, the more cheerful as we go on. But it does not work out that way. I do not see it to be true in the circumstances and outward condition of saints anywhere at any time. For them the path does not become brighter and brighter outwardly. But if we are really moving under the Spirit's government, we can say with the strongest affirmation, that in an inward way the light is growing. The path is growing brighter and brighter; we are seeing and seeing and seeing. That is God's purpose; until the time comes when there is no darkness at all, and no shadow at all, and no mist at all, but all is light, perfect light: we see not through a glass darkly, but face to face, we know even as we are known. That is God's purpose put in a certain way. Does that interest you? Are you concerned with that? </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">And that has a crisis and is also a process in spiritual life with a glorious climax in rapture. What I am especially concerned with now is the process. </span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Rich</span></b></p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-86500001051082631392011-01-06T00:05:00.000-05:002011-01-06T00:05:00.424-05:00Open Our Eyes Lord<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSTacwrf5bI/AAAAAAAACJg/wVrLXOWqwnA/s1600/vision.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSTacwrf5bI/AAAAAAAACJg/wVrLXOWqwnA/s400/vision.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558808027720574386" border="0" /></a>
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mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">2 Kings 6:8-18 </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Now the king of Aram was warring against Israel; and he counseled with his servants saying, "In such and such a place shall be my camp."The man of God sent word to the king of Israel saying, "Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Arameans are coming down there." The king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God had told him; thus he warned him, so that he guarded himself there, more than once or twice. Now the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this thing; and he called his servants and said to them, "Will you tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?" One of his servants said, "No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom." So he said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him." And it was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan." He sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." <b style=""><i style="">Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see "</i></b> And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and <b style=""><i style="">he saw</i></b>; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, "Strike this people with blindness, I pray." So He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">I grow so weary of allowing myself as well as those around me of settling for an ingrained defiant and rebellious mind set that dismisses the ultimate reality that is mine in Christ Jesus! The world (especially those from Missouri) has a deeply imbedded philosophy that says; “Show me and I’ll believe you”, or, “seeing, is believing.”</span>
<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"> What is not possible with the natural minded man is trying to see by believing first ergo, then seeing, or as the scriptures point out, “That's why only someone who has God's Spirit can understand spiritual blessings. Anyone who doesn't have God's Spirit thinks these blessings are foolish.”</span>
<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"> Speaking of “spiritual blessings” this is in my opinion one of the chief corner stones of all that is ours, but apart from the Father by his spirit opening the eyes of our heart, we will whine, debate, bitch and grip about the unfairness to much of what we call life and living.</span>
<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"> “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”</span>
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<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"> A great portion of our brother Paul’s commissioning was spelled out as follows, “But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an </span><sup style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);" value="" href=""#cen-NASB-27842K"" title=""See">K</a>)">(</sup><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”</span>
<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"> I believe operative within each of His redeemed ones, my fellow siblings in Christ awaits to be seen, revealed as it was to Paul this One who continues to open our blinded eyes in order to displace (expel) the darkness that rules over the hearts and minds of those we are being like wise sent to.</span>
<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"> This is the first part, the second is forth coming.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">Rich</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">
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<br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">Now that which was born of the flesh has gone; in resurrection it is that which is born of the Spirit, the spiritual man. That is you in resurrection with the Lord Jesus! And what is true of the death and resurrection, is true of the exaltation, that when He was exalted </span><em style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">YOU WERE EXALTED</span></em><i style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"> </i><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">in Him at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Have we grasped that Christ's being there is our being there in representation? That is not just some objective truth, but is made real by reason of His ascended life being now within us, and the Holy Spirit having created the living link between Him in heaven and ourselves as here. The fact that He is above all says that we in Him are also above all. </span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">You say: "That may be true theoretically, doctrinally true, and I do not dispute what is said, but that is not true in my case." That is not the Lord's fault! It is because we have not learned to live on the basis of His resurrection life. We have still tried to live a Christian life on the basis of our own life, and that can never come to the Throne. People who are trying to be Christians by effort, by endeavor of their own, are always far from reaching the Throne. They are the playthings of all the forces which are antagonistic to Christ. But when we know the secret of living on His life by the Holy Spirit, we know in a growing, a progressive way, that it is true that He is not there apart from us, but that there is a union between Him in dominion and ourselves in the power of His Own life. Resurrection life is in itself the very life of Christ in dominion. Whenever resurrection life in us has its way, it brings us into dominion. Whenever there is a working of His life freely in us, it puts us in a place of ascendancy, it lifts us above, it is spiritual power and dominion. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<br />Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-49233345565119501282011-01-05T10:20:00.005-05:002011-01-05T10:30:40.451-05:00The Danger of Living on the Past<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSSOlAuTyUI/AAAAAAAACJY/Obzf3j9NcEU/s1600/balloongirl_edit_lonely-copy-1024x892.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 278px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSSOlAuTyUI/AAAAAAAACJY/Obzf3j9NcEU/s320/balloongirl_edit_lonely-copy-1024x892.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558724606582573378" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> 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unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">I like these thoughts from the Message Bible very much, <span style="font-style: italic;">My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. “It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">the child he embraces, he also corrects.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!” </span></span></span></p> <p style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);">A time of testing comes in the sovereign ordering of God for all such, and it is found by reason of its present root-dryness, lack of vitality, of energy, of up-to-dateness of life that it cannot go through the testing, it is rooted out. A simple word that, and yet a challenging word which shows us two things: that God, in His sovereignty, does most definitely appoint a time in which He will test the state of everything and everyone which makes a claim to be related to Him. He will do that, and then no amount of past history, good history, Divine history, will stand that thing in stead for the day of His testing. Or to put it another way, God tests to find out just exactly how up-to-date spiritual life and spiritual experience is.</span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">There are quite a lot of people who have had a very sound, thoroughly genuine conversion, but who live back on their conversion of ten, twenty, or forty years ago; and while it is true the history was quite sound, it is something of the past. Its vitality has not been continuous, it is not up-to-date, and such people will find that when the winds of God begin to blow they are lacking, they are wanting, and they will be carried away, not necessarily to be eternally lost, any more than Israel is, but to very great loss.<br /><br />And then the Lord also tests most definitely, every kind of profession, every kind of response, every kind of attitude or relationship, to discover whether that is a thing which is on the surface, on the face, superficial; or whether it is a thing which has gone right down deeply into the life, burying its roots in the very sub-soil of experience. Here, again, a simple word, but it may be that there is someone here who is attaching themselves to something, attaching themselves to a place, to a company of people; attaching themselves in an outward way to that which represents the Lord, in hymns and addresses and prayers and services and such like; associating themselves, and, in a way, making some kind of answer or response to the things of the Lord.</span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Have you seen a self-grown forest in a mountain district after a gale? We have a good deal of that sort of thing in Scotland where the seeds have been carried by the wind and have sown themselves in the very thin soil of a mountain slope, a rocky district. They have grown very tall, lanky thin trees, firs or pines; their roots have spread out and covered a great area, and then – a gale – and as you go along after a gale there are those lanky, thin, gaunt trees lying with their roots right up in the air. You wonder how in all the earth they have managed to cling to the shallow soil. There they are everywhere, rooted up because self-grown, and that is Matthew 13 (But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away</span>)<span style="font-size:10pt;">. Something which has made its own kind of response, given its own response, answer, with reservations perhaps, not going too far, not going to be “extreme,” not going to be “singular,” not going to be “fanatical,” just going to be “perfectly balanced” and “sane” and make their <i>own</i> response to the Lord. </span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">All right, God has appointed the hour for a gale. Yes, there will be a blazing sun, it will be discovered whether God did that planting, whether that was a work of God in the heart or whether it was just something of human attachment or association. It may just be that here there may be one or more attaching themselves from the outside to that which is of the Lord, but they are not right in, buried, rooted, grounded, not in the thing in the Lord. Are you attaching yourself to something religious, or are your buried with your roots in Christ? Rooted in Him?</span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">In light of (for a lack of better words) this “grace awakening, I trust that as the Father allows His winds to blow upon your life, as he permits the scorching heat of the sun and the troubles he does not with hold from touching us, be that will bring ever greater sobriety to a ever growing and increased knowing of your union with the One who is the resurrection and your Life!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Rich</span></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality]May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];<br /><br /><br />As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him. Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving. See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).<br /><br /></span></span></p><br /><br /><iframe style="color: rgb(102, 51, 51);" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/1831729" frameborder="0" height="225" width="400"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/1831729">Rooted</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/bruchansky">Christophe Bruchansky</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-41047347085629346012011-01-04T00:04:00.000-05:002011-01-04T00:04:00.489-05:00The Growth of the Church<a onblur="try 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{mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Life Centers<br /><br /></span></i></b><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: verdana;">Thank you Father that the building and establishing of your Church rests in the secure and certain hands of your Son<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">, Jesus Christ.</span></span></span></span><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 153);">Rich</span></span></span><br /></span></i></b><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> 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Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We have already touched upon this, but let us repeat and re-emphasise that the growth of the Church is on the principle of life. We can never go about this world gathering people together, asking them to accept certain things which we say about Christ, and then forming them into churches. The Lord has not called upon us to form churches. That is not our business. Would to God men had recognised the fact. A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that had been recognised. It is the Lord Who expands His Church, Who governs its growth. What we have to do is to live in the place of His appointment in the power of His resurrection. If, in the midst of others, the Lord can get but two of His children, in whom His life is full and free, to live on the basis of that life, and not to seek to gather others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis of their acceptance of certain truths or teaching, but simply to witness to what Christ means and is to them, then He has an open way. As witness is simply and livingly borne in this way, one and another will be provoked at length to say: I do wish I had what they have! And another will say: I covet that one's experience. It is just what I have been seeking for! Such as these will either come to inquire the way of salvation, or opportunity will be found to lead them to the Lord.<br /><br />It is in this way that the Church grows. Its growth may be furthered at a street corner as you preach Christ and someone responds, and believing on Christ with the heart and confessing Him as Lord with the mouth, life is given by the Spirit, and that one becomes the Lord's. The Church is not increased by your going and taking a building and trying to get people to come to it, and to your meetings, and then forming them, by a church roll, into a local church. That is not the way. Growth is by life, and this, to begin with, may be by the entering into life of but one soul, and then after a long waiting time of another; or it may be more rapid. But the point is that it is increase because of life. That is the growth of the Church. For the growth of His Church, the Lord must have life channels, life centres. I believe that, given a life centre, sooner or later one of two things will happen, that it will be abundantly manifest that Christ is fully and finally rejected there, or else there will be an adding, a growth. There is tremendous power in life, and the life of the Lord either kills or quickens. It depends on the attitude taken toward it. He is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. Things can never remain neutral. What the Lord needs is life centres. </span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The irreducible minimum, and yet the adequate means, to begin with, is two; two who are one in His life, two in whom there is co-operation in that life. He sent them forth two by two. That is the nucleus of the Church. It is such as these that the enemy will endeavour to kill, to quench, or to separate, and thus to ruin them spiritually, so far as their value to the Lord is concerned for propagation. Remember that! The Lord's advantage is bound up with a fellowship of two in the one life. </span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We can see now why in the main issue it is so important that all the resources of the risen Lord should be tapped by us, should be lived upon, drawn upon, why these spiritual, secret, heavenly resources of His life, His fulness, should thus become the basis of our lives. Their purpose does not end with ourselves, nor is it something for ourselves, and if we turn them to that end we shall die. That provision is for the Lord's end, which is reproduction, the reproduction of His own risen life. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-55376559081211580532011-01-03T11:26:00.004-05:002011-01-03T11:35:28.834-05:00Life Does Not Rest Upon Mechanical Appointment<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSH5QXIX9HI/AAAAAAAACI4/8JJS3JLCD8c/s1600/Life_Defined_by_IArtifexI.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSH5QXIX9HI/AAAAAAAACI4/8JJS3JLCD8c/s400/Life_Defined_by_IArtifexI.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557997474634265714" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: verdana;">It's Out of Our Hands</span></span><br /><!--[if gte mso 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Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Lord does not leave it in our hands to appoint our ministers, to make either the ministry or the minister. The Lord develops ministry by life, and where the Lord develops ministry the Church has to take notice. It may be perfectly true that the appointment has been made by God, but it may be equally true that it has to be made manifest by life before it comes to function. I believe that is partly why Barnabas and Paul were detained at Antioch so long. Paul was definitely called, chosen. There was no doubt whatever that heaven had ordained him as an apostle, and all the signs of an apostle were in him, the supreme sign being that he had seen first hand the risen Lord. Yet, with the sovereign choice, and with the personal commission to him, he had first to go into Damascus to be told what he should do as one in the church, the assembly, and subsequently he had to tarry at Antioch as a member of the assembly there for over a year. Even then the Lord did not come to Saul or to Barnabas, his companion, and say, Now go out to the work to which you know I have called you, the work of which I have told you, the work for which you were chosen! Go out and get on with it! The Lord gave direction through the leading members of that assembly: "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them". And the Church was able to do that, not simply on the basis of a command, but because it had been proved in their own midst that these men were called for this ministry. They had revealed in the assembly by life that they were called to a ministry. 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mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">That brings us to this point. You do not know what your ministry is, save as you go on with the Lord. You may have been Divinely ordained, sovereignly chosen. There may be related with your life a ministry of great value. You may not know anything about it yet, but it may be perfectly true that the Lord could say that you are a chosen vessel unto Him; but you will only discover what your ministry is as you go on with the Lord in life. As the Lord's life increases in you, and your communion with the Lord goes on unhindered in all its meaning and value, then you will discover that the Lord is moving in you in a certain direction, and that you are becoming exercised unto a certain ministry. None of us really discerns his ministry by being told beforehand. We only know it as we go on with God, and His life has its way. </span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">That is an important thing, for ministry hangs upon life. It does not rest upon mechanical appointment. We cannot make ministers. It is only the risen Christ Who can make ministers, and He makes them in the power of His risen life. Disaster lies before the man who tries to be a minister without the risen life of Christ. The Lord deliver us from ever trying in any way to be ministers without its being the outcome of His life in us. The life of the risen Lord takes its own form, expresses itself in its own way, according to the mind of Him Whose life it is.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Rich</span><br /></span></span></p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-1599403126674075292011-01-02T08:44:00.002-05:002011-01-02T08:49:40.172-05:00It Doesn't Make Sense<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSCBciqrNnI/AAAAAAAACIY/mdazfWG6F1I/s1600/quote%252Ctruth%252Cfunny%252Cquotes%252Cthoughts%252Chumor-273db49cec2c11fdf1357f23fbc5f25e_h.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 187px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TSCBciqrNnI/AAAAAAAACIY/mdazfWG6F1I/s320/quote%252Ctruth%252Cfunny%252Cquotes%252Cthoughts%252Chumor-273db49cec2c11fdf1357f23fbc5f25e_h.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557584267517310578" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You can read this over <a style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" href="http://rantz72.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/it-doesnt-make-sense/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">at </span></a></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 0);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rich</span></span>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-83786181779160002732011-01-01T17:11:00.003-05:002011-01-01T17:17:25.091-05:00The Resurrection is the Basis of Light.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tig0QulJnJ0/TR-mq4p00HI/AAAAAAAACIQ/Ut7uRLkeqBk/s1600/i-am2.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 206px;" 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mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The Ministration of Life</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 153, 0);">Life and Light expressing itself in and through us as us is something that is capturing my attention. The following is from something I am reading from T.A. Sparks.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">Rich</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">We pass to the second point, namely, the ministry of life. In the fourth verse of the first chapter of John's Gospel we read: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." Mark the words of the second half of the verse: "the life was the light of men." The life was the light! That is the ministry of life. We might very well in this connection re-read that difficult passage from Acts 26:22-23.</span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">"Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come; how that the Christ must suffer, and how that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles." </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">It is the closing statement that is so significant - "that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light..." The first proclaimer of light was Christ, and the ground upon which He proclaimed light was resurrection. That is but a different way of expressing the second half of John 1:4 "the life was the light." The resurrection is the basis of light.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The point to be noted is that the life expresses itself in a certain way. It is seen to do so as light. If you follow through John's Gospel you will note other things: for instance, the life expresses itself in liberty: "If the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). But here the inclusive thought is that life has its own ministry, and that ministry is a matter of life. As we have said, ministry is not first in word, but is firstly a question of life through the word: it is not doctrine. Ministry is not merely the imparting of truth, but the imparting of Christ through the truth. If the truth does not minister Christ then it is dead, it is valueless. All truth, all doctrine, teaching, must be a ministration of the living Christ, and not a ministration of information about Him. The test of everything is as to how far it ministers Christ in a living way. When any given bit of ministry has been concluded, the question is not as to whether it was interesting, edifying or instructive, not whether it was beautiful to contemplate, not whether it was orthodox - those may be important factors, but they are altogether apart from the issue - when all is finished the vital question is, Am I standing possessed of a further measure of Christ? Has Christ in a fuller measure livingly become available to me through that ministry? Am I confronted with the question of Christ as my life in a way that has not been so before? That is the test of ministry. Christ may come to us through explanations, through definitions, through truth, but when these things remain something in themselves then that is not true ministry. All must minister Christ, and that ministry is not just the ministry of certain individuals called ministers. The whole Church is called into the ministry or ministration of Christ. All the members are to minister Christ to one another, and when believers are gathered together it ought to mean life to all who are present. That place ought to be a place of life. Going to that gathering of the Lord's people such as are feeling spiritually, mentally, or even physically spent ought to go away saying, I feel wonderfully better! That has been life to me! This life we have in His Son. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">You see what the ministry is. Is it not a very blessed thing that when the Lord has a company of His Own children gathered together in Himself and many of them come in tired, discouraged, disheartened, worn out physically, spiritually baffled, mentally bruised, and feeling they have no more resource to go on, He is able in the fellowship to minister life, which is a ministration of Christ, so that such go away lifted up and refreshed. It is wonderful to come together for that alone, apart altogether from expositions and addresses. And that is ministry. When the Lord's people are really together in living relationship with Him as the risen One they do fulfil ministry though perhaps in large measure unconsciously. Others coming in go away saying: Well, it was not what was said, but there was life! I do not understand the teaching, but I am better for being there! That is the ministry, and we are all in that together. Do not think of the ministry as something that is carried out from the platform all the time. You are all in the ministry, and it depends entirely upon whether the Lord's people are living upon the basis of this life as to how far they will fulfil ministry. The life was the light! </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);" class="MsoNormal"> </p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8120369.post-89612449687440040052010-12-29T08:35:00.002-05:002010-12-29T08:37:46.328-05:00In Him We Live...<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >I love the following thoughts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Rich</span></span><br /><br /></span><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">That leads us on, then, to further things, and to our seeing that for the Apostles Christianity and the Church were not a system of doctrine, nor a system of orders of practice, but for them Christianity and the Church had relation to the living Christ. Christianity and the Church existed on the ground of Christ being alive, after having been crucified and buried. There is much more bound up with that than maybe would appear. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Christianity was the expression of Christ's being alive. The fact that Christ was alive was being expressed and the Church simply became the corporate vessel of that expression. Christianity and the Church had no being, no existence, only in that Christ was alive. Therefore neither Christianity nor the Church could be anything in itself, only in Christ as living. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">That is what we mean when we say that the pre-eminent, predominant issue is life. It is not an abstraction, it is a Person; it is Christ living. Thus the basic and all-important reality with the Apostles and the believers of those days was the risen Lord, and living union with Him. That which was basic to everything was Christ as alive, and their being alive together in union with Him. We have to see what that union was, but we leave that for the moment. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Out of this every other thing arose. All doctrine came out of the fact of Christ being alive, and believers being in union with Him. And all order of assembly came spontaneously out of that two-fold fact; Christ alive, and believers livingly joined to Him. It came out of that. There is no other way in which to get either doctrine or order in a living way. That which spread its power and its significance over everything for them in those days was the resurrection of Christ. 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mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /><span style=""></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">This afternoon while waiting to finish up my shift I was sitting outside on the dock reading, thinking, and praying, in the midst of so many things swirling around in my heart, I happened to look into the back of my truck which was but inches away, when I heard my caring and loving Father speak to my heart.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">“Son, be like this.” Immediately my mind kicked into gear thinking, what do you mean? I then sensed he was making a point to me right where I was, in my daily routine, “I want you to be like what you’re seeing here, “be empty” so that I might fill you afresh to over flowing with a greater understanding of my love.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(102, 51, 0);">Somehow I knew intuitively that the different ones that were so set upon my heart with the intensity of their struggles, that their needs like my own could only be realized and met in a similar manner, a fresh knowing that in their emptiness, He would be their fullness!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Rich</span></span></p>Richhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12630150578438657112noreply@blogger.com0