Have you noticed.......?

[aspen]

Have you noticed that the majority of the posts and real life conversations consist of compliants? Work, the weather, other drivers, wordly churches, water down doctrine, the moral decay of 'Amerika', Liberals, homosexuals and their infamous agenda, scocialists masqurading as democrats, communists masquarading as socialists, rhinos, Beyonce, the world bank, and (God help us) the Emergent Church Movement!

So where is the 'Good News' in all of this noise? Are we really called by God to spread a message of dispair? NO!

Instead we are called to practice our sanctification by loving others! We have no need to worry about the state of worldly things like culture and government - we have been set free from all of it. Christ has saved us from all doom and gloom through love. We are called invite others into this same freedom.

So why do we trade our freedom to love for complaints like the Israelites set free from Egypt? I believe it is our lack of faith. Lack of faith - an intolerance for ambiguity, which leads us to choose doctrine over grace; judgment over mercy; safety over loving through horrible circumstances.

I believe we are called to love boldly without giving into fear manifesting as complaining, worry, and general paranoia and all forms of sarcasm and snarkyness.

So in this spirit of love, I would like to address Rex concern about my generalized doctrine of love.

Rex, Jesus told his disciples and us that the sum of the law is to love God and our neighbor. Adam and Eve were created to love God and his creation through obedience and service. As we know, they failed to obey and decided to start judging good and evil based on their own perspective. Sin (lesser good) entered the world and instead of loving as we were created to do, we started to see the world through a false sense of duality. Spending our time making randomn and arbitrary judgments about creation and circumstance based on our own perceptuon rather that leaving it to God.

We have continued making judgments and forming artifical boundaries between each other ever since. Thankfully, God sent his Son to be an example fo us to love unconditionally during our Earthly lives - in essense, practicing our sanctification - so that we could spent eternity loving God and His Body selflessly and therefore perfectly.

I do not preach a wimpy, hippy love - all love outside of a personal relationship with Christ devolves into hedonism and sadism. Only through the forgiveness of Christ and the loving relationship of the Holy Spirit, can we attempt to love perfectly. Anything less than perfect love - unselfess love, is sin.

I meant to say that all forms of selfish or self focused love is the definition of sin.

 

[justaname]

Chapter 13

The Excellence of Love

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The doctrine of love is that which controls us:
2Corinthians 5:14

14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;


The doctrine of love identifies us:
John 13:35

35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The doctrine of love supports all the Law and the Prophets.
40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”


Oh and how could I forget such an important doctrine of love that saves us?
Romans 5:8-9
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

God is love, and he desires us to be the same, by conforming us to the image of His Son. I think you nailed it by stating worry and complaint is a lack of faith. How much more does you Father in Heaven know how to give good gifts? Yes divine providence is complete and certain. So many in the churches have become like the wilderness generation like you state Aspen, yet this is not a complaint rather an observation, but we know their final outcome, and the author of Hebrews used that generation as a constant running theme. Another observation I have made is many think God is subject to our free-will, which I vehemently reject. This is another source of complaint and worry which again eludes back to a lack of faith or trust because they think God is constantly cleaning up our messes as opposed to being in control. Habakkuk is a good book to read to gain better understanding, Jonah is another.

I LOVE YOU, YOU HIPPY j/k

 

[HammerStone]

Philippians 4:4 HCSB
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 4:8-9 HCSB
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things. Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

I hate to always go to Paul, but recall his references to the evil times and so on. Every time Paul did not dwell on these issues, but he moved on to the grace and peace of Lord Jesus Christ, which always eclipses the current travails. The problem with the mindset that aspen is getting at here is that it makes the problems bigger than God.

It sort of comes back to a theology of God as Divine God vs god as a divine butler, who labors to clean up our messes.

 

[Axehead]

There are two sides to everything so that we are balanced.

Pro_27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Moses just came with the law (unbalanced), but Christ came with grace and truth. Not just grace, but truth, also.

Sharpening (truth) grind off dull areas and wake up the slumbering spirit.

 

[justaname]

Shall we search for a purpose driven life when our purpose is already spelled out? Shall we continue to look for the will of God when He has already told us?

Go to the highest mountain top, flip every stone along the way. Dive to the deepest depths asking every creature you see. Trek through the most barren of deserts to find the most remote oasis. Sail your way to the most secluded island to find your answer. All will be for naught. The answer is as simple as the word yet can be as elusive as the wind.

Love, Agape, without bounds or limits, conditions or expectations, vertically and horizontally. Don't let the next chance for you to honor your Father in Heaven go by mute, tear down your glass walls and Love. Stand against the gail force current of cynicism this world presents displaying the light that set you free and love. Wait not for balance or anything in return, simply love. This is God's will. This is your purpose. This delivers us from evil. This covers a multitude of sins. Reach out to the widow, clothe the orphan, feed the hungry, comfort the hurting, have compassion on those imprisoned, and love.

Will we always agree? No, but love will make way for compromise. Can we solve all the worlds problems? No, but love can. Shall we soften our doctrine for tolerance? No, but love will shine truth into the darkness and it will be heard if not followed.

When we stand in judgment before our Almighty LORD, all can give Him is our love. Our love for Him, Our love for His Son, Our love for His Holy Spirit, our love for His church, our love for our enemies. Oh yes it is true, we are not to love this world, but this is so we may desire to inherit the next. Yes we are to forsake our possessions and our families, yet this is so we are not forsaking Him whom holds our highest affection. Yes love, we will be judged on how well we loved. Every word we say, every thought we think, every action we do will be weighed on the perfect scales of love. This is justice, this is righteousness, this is the standard, unconditional love measuring how we love.

Once we focus our love as it should be, on Him above all else, the cares and worries of this world melt away, because our attention is on Him. Once we realize He is Sovereign, our love for Him comes to an acute focus because our dependency is as it should be, on Him. This is divine providence, this is love working through faith. In this maturity we are instruments of righteousness attentive to every situation He presents us and the good works He prepared before hand be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Walking in the Spirit as such we set our minds on the things above, not on the things on earth, putting on love, being perfectly bound in unity.

Can there be any greater purpose? I say nay, emphatically certainly no. Should we say His will is anything contrary? Me genoito, may the thought never come into existence! Should we aspire to something more? A disciple is not above his Teacher nor a slave above his Master.

 

[Rach1370]

Hey Aspen! How are you going?! Well I hope! Nice topic...pertinent as well, as I believe many people miss understanding the topic of love...the kind of love Jesus calls us to.
There are a few things in your post I wish to comment on...not out of disagreement, but, I hope, in stretching the idea just a bit further!

So why do we trade our freedom to love for complaints like the
Israelites set free from Egypt? I believe it is our lack of faith. Lack
of faith - an intolerance for ambiguity, which leads us to choose
doctrine over grace; judgment over mercy; safety over loving through
horrible circumstances.

This is such a good point! How often do we read the account of the Israelites whining in the desert and wonder how dense they must be...when we're exactly the same! Slow, foolish, ungrateful and short sighted wretches we are!!

But if I may...while I agree we must not throw love under the wheel of doctrine, crushing it for the sake of being correct...doctrine, correct doctrine is essential if the love you show and experience, is to be true biblical love. It takes only a slight divergence from correct doctrine for us to be completely lost, and that will always lead to a love that is experientially man made and based, not biblical and from God. And if it is not from God, it can never lead to the freedom we sing about.

I believe we are called to love boldly without giving into fear
manifesting as complaining, worry, and general paranoia and all forms of
sarcasm and snarkyness.

Amen. True submission to the Holy Spirit in our lives should lead to us looking at the world and mankind as those who are brothers, or those who need to be...which brings mercy and compassion. Course, having said that...boy do I struggle with it! One step at a time I suppose, with the Spirit's constant help!

Sin (lesser good) entered the world and instead of loving as we were
created to do, we started to see the world through a false sense of
duality. Spending our time making randomn and arbitrary judgments about
creation and circumstance based on our own perceptuon rather that
leaving it to God.

We have continued making judgments and forming artifical boundaries
between each other ever since. Thankfully, God sent his Son to be an
example fo us to love unconditionally during our Earthly lives - in
essense, practicing our sanctification - so that we could spent eternity
loving God and His Body selflessly and therefore perfectly.

Actually, while making a really good point here, I'm wondering if it is perhaps deeper than this. True, as Christians who trust in and have faith in God, we should not complain and judge bitterly in a self serving manner. But as far as seeing the world through a sense of duality...we should indeed do this! God made this world to be one thing, and through pride mankind has made it another. So now, life is a series of choices, occurrences and actions that are either for God, or against him. We need to have our eyes open to the fact that this happens every moment of every day. It is not wrong to see that the actions of that person over there was in direct rebellion to God...in fact that knowledge and understanding is key to our own Christian walk. What is wrong, is our reaction to this understanding. We should never be self righteous, bitter, or judgemental in a way that places our own worth above theirs. It needs to be seen with the knowledge that they need Jesus, and that should we not have him and his grace, so too would all our thoughts and deeds be seen by God. Seeing and understanding these things should humble us, drive us to repentance in our own lives, and to feel the desperate need of others, reaching out in the name of Jesus because of that need.


Don't you think?