Abiding in the Truth
..... When I was a young Christian, a friend called on the phone and said he wanted to read something to me, to see what I thought about it. (He was an even younger Christian than I was). So I told him, Okay, go ahead and read it.
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.... As he began, his words seemed to be coming from the Bible. He spoke in King James English and the passage was about water baptism. But as I listened, something about it disturbed me and left me unsettled in my spirit. I thought to myself, "Man, I'd swear he's not getting this from the Bible!" Yet it sounded like the Bible, so this was confusing.
.... "Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?"
(Micah 2:7)
.... When he finished reading he asked, "Well, what did you think of that?" and I answered, "Man, I'd swear you didn't get that from the Bible!" .
.... "What do you mean?" he asked.
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.... "The word of God is like a fire; it's like a hammer that breaks in pieces." I answered (Jeremah 23:9). "But the passage you just read sounded cheap; it sounded tinny, like someone was trying to imitate the Bible . . . it just didn't have the power of the word of God . . . it sounded like something was missing . . ."
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.... I hesitated, then added suspiciously, "I'd swear you got that from the Book of Mormon or something."
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.... On the other end of phone, he suddenly caught his breath. "You're right!" he said in a rasp. "I just read you from the Book of Mormon!"
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.... But how did I know that? I was just a young Christian; it might simply have been a part of the Bible that I was unfamiliar with. Yet somehow I knew in my spirit that it was wrong:
.... "But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him."
(1 John 2:27)
.... In other words the Holy Spirit teaches us to abide in Christ; and in the days that follow, if something else comes along that would draw us away, He will teach us to remain in Christ. Because the context of that passage was: "These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you." (v 26)...
.... So if you have the testimony of Jesus in your heart, the Holy Spirit is going to make sure you abide there; and if error does come along, you're going to feel an uneasiness about it in your spirit, a red flag, a tremor of warning. With that as an introduction, we'll present ‘the ‘Spiritual Test' in our next posting, to open our discussion on the Foundation of Jesus Christ.
To proceed to the next lesson, click here
Daily Bible Reading: Luke 17
posted by loren at 12:01 AM
6 Comments:
The ‘spiritual test’, in our next posting, will work in a similar way as the example in thr main posting. It will test your discernment of the Scriptures themselves. It is a ‘drill’ of sorts, and I believe I have permission from the Lord to use it, just as He worked so powerfully through the Gospel sharing drills in our previous module. So please be thinking about this concept while awaiting that posting.
By
loren, at 7/22/2005 12:01 AM
Please notice that in the passage we quoted 1 John 2:27, it was clearly stated that the same anointing teaches us all things. In other words the Holy Spirit remains with us from day one, just as He remained upon Jesus Himself (John 1:32):
“The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears”
(Isa 11:2-3)
This is important because, one day soon, you may here someone telling you that they are working under their ‘prophetic’ anointing, or their ‘music’ anointing, or something of that sort, which suggests that different anointings come and go. What they really mean is that they are working in a different area of their calling, because the anointing never changes. The reason this is important is because the ‘anointing’ is a reflection on the Person of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead, who never changes.
In a similar way, you may hear someone talk about being ‘re-filled’ with the Holy Spirit, or receiving a ‘fresh’ anointing, but this, too, is nonsense. At least in the latter case, what they really mean is that they are stirring up the gift within them (2 Tim 1:6). Because, as we saw in 1 John 2:27, the same anointing that abides with us as remained on Jesus Himself, and to think otherwise has severe implications on our doctrine of the Person of God, especially the Holy Spirit Himself.
We will discuss that in detail in a much later posting, but as long as we’re talking about ‘abiding in the truth’ I felt this could not be overlooked entirely.
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loren, at 7/22/2005 12:02 AM
Hi Loren! its me, the sceptic, agnostic, atheist...
ok, for the sake of simplifying things, lets take it that i agree God exists..
Now what does this God expect out of me? to lead a righteous life? help my fellow human beings in distress? to be a good son, brother, friend, spouse, father and so on?
now, what if i already lead my life on these lines without requiring God or His vision to convince me into leading a righteous life? u are the first person i know who has 'seen' God, and i admire and appreciate the fact that u were chosen to see Him. but for the rest of the people i know, God is an illusion to force them into the fear of being good.. a fear which they choose to abide by and ignore as they please... Osama bin Laden is a god fearing man, so was adolf Hitler, so is Michel Jackson... So is almost every rapist, murderer, paedophile and so on...
when the fear of God has not made these people lead righteous lives, isn't it only natural that a rational mind questions the very validity of God?
i repeat - i have nothing against God. i have not seen him, and even if i do, i won't worship Him since i dont see the need to in my life... as far as im concerned the conscience is the God and if one can lead a life without ever going against his own conscience, then there is no need for God at all.. as for those who don't care for their conscience, no God can guide those hypocrites to light..
id like to go further with this discussion.
By
Nitin, at 7/22/2005 2:48 PM
Hi niTin,
Thanks for your remarks on my blog, I would love to have a conversation with you about your questions on God. But before we get started, I’d like to discuss the premise from God’s own point of view. If you would, please consider this possibility humbly.
If God really exists, then by definition He is in a class by Himself, and He may not think like us at all. This means that all of our efforts to define Him may actually be falling far short of the reality, and not coming anywhere near to what He’s actually like. Somehow, He is higher than man can define. I recently wrote another posting that addresses this. If you have some time, please look it over:
http://pold.blogspot.com/2005/07/discussion-with-new-age-philosopher.html
To give this possibility an application, let’s compare it with your own questions at their premise level. The approach you’ve taken is the one, I think, that people everywhere would most naturally take. If God is real, what does he expect out of us? But from God’s point of view, this approach misses the point entirely:
“Look to the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds-- They are higher than you.” (meaning that in the same way, God is higher than us) "If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects a man such as you, and your righteousness a son of man.”
(Job 35:5-8)
Let’s say that you’re the wickedest person who ever lived, like another Hitler. I’m another Stalin, and our best friend is another Pol Pot. All of our wickedness combined could never detract from Him in any way, or make Him less of a God that He already is. Or let’s say, on the other hand, that we’re the greatest guys who ever lived. But nothing we do could ever make Him a greater God than He already is. Nothing we can do reaches high enough to effect Him in any way. It only effects ourselves and our fellow men.
So what I’d like you to see is that, from His perspective, building a relationship is not a give-and-take arrangement at all. It’s not about us, and what we can do or how we behave for Him. That sort of approach has no application from His end.
Instead, it’s all about Him in every way. It’s not what we can do for Him, it’s what He would like to do for us and though us, because of the love He has for us.
Allow me to touch on one more thought for now. Many people think that all religions are equally valid, but is that true? Let’s say you and I made up a new religion. Why should God have anything to do with it, just because we say so? If we say, “I will do this for God, so He will forgive my sins and be pleased with me.” Why should we expect Him to honor that?
“Should He repay it according to your terms, just because you disavow it? You must choose, and not I; therefore speak what you know.
(Job 34:33)
If He must honor our terms, just because we say we’re sincere about them, then He’s not much of a God after all. He doesn't even call the shots - we do.
But when you’re God, you get to make the rules. Might makes right. To the victor goes the spoils. On our own end, beggars can’t be choosers. We are in no position to dictate terms to God, but instead we must seek to understand the terms that He has given to us.
There's som much more I'd like to say, but I’ll leave you with one more thought that is encouraging. The only way to make a relationship with God is if He is the one reaching out to us. But why would He want to do that? If He was an almighty tyrant, He wouldn’t. But that’s not the way He is.
God created mankind in His own image. He looks at us as He would look on His children, and He reaches out to us because of this love. This does not mean we are loveable, or worthy of His love for any reason, or ever will be. It is simply that His heart is full of love to give, whether we deserve it or not, or even whether we happen to like it or not.
I’ll have to write more later, but I am definitely interested in talking to you some more. Nancy and I have also prayed for you. His peace be with you till next time.
By
loren, at 7/23/2005 1:42 AM
Hi NiTin,
Thanks for your comments. I am at a little bit of a disadvantage too, because I do not know that much about Hinduism. But let me see if I can answer your point succinctly:
I'm sure most world religions have some fundamental things in common, such as treating people right.
Yet Christianity differs from other religions because we know we cannot do anything, from our own strength, that will commend us to God. But rather, He is the one who does all the work. He simply asks that we trust Him and rely on Him, as He walks us through life.
Think of the love that a father has for his children. He loves them because they are his, and he will take care of them. But he wants their respect as well; and when they come into life's situations, he wants them to trust the guidance he has given them. He will even help them along the way, as they rely on him. This makes their relationship closer.
That is similar to how we relate to God. And in the end, when everything is judged, He alone will be glorified for He alone was the true worker. But we will share in His joy, like a child is proud of his father.
But also, there is a principle that 'immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.' And this will play a role as well. As God sees that we are trusting Him, He will see that we are actually immitating Him in our conduct. What good father is not proud of his son, when he sees this? And this is how the relationship takes form.
So what does He want from you? To trust Him instead of trusting in yourself. To seek Him and allow Him to be a father to you. To understand that your own best efforts are never enough, because they are independent of Him (which s the same as saying 'Who needs Him?' and so it frets against Him). He wants the relationship in which we trust Him, and therefore we follow Him.
What could be more natural, with a heavenly father who regards us as His children? And God sent Jesus into the world to walk in our steps, and become a living example for us all.
Summary: it isn't about the sort of life we live, it's about the relationship we have with Him, and the conduct of our life will flow from this relationship; whereas in all other religions, it's the other way around: They try to follow rules in order to earn the relationship.
I hope I've answered your basic question, and I'd love to talk some more.
By
loren, at 7/25/2005 5:12 PM
Good stuff Loren!
By
Bhedr, at 7/25/2005 9:34 PM
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