The Jots and tittles arm wrestling trials.
In many of the places you can post here, forums, sub forums, I look over the threads and wonder at them. There seems to be a disagreement or dissatisfaction with the word of God or over not understanding portions of it and/or a thinly veiled, if at all, anger towards others that see something differently than they see it. Very little unity or agreement. No peace.
I guess contention is the word that sums up a lot of it. I wonder where the peace of God fits into all this. Everything from Water baptism to the rapture are grounds for a religious brawl. Beating one another with pillowcases stuffed with scriptures proving your point. The time we ought to be teachers we have need to be taught again the basics of the faith as it is written.
I love love love the peace of God. I do everything I can to hold onto it. You see for 33 years I had none. I was tormented by Satan from the time I was a child and not having a Christian family I had zero help. Maybe some of you had a similar terrible childhood. I hope not. Spirits of fear and every evil thing assailed me constantly. Until I was saved I believed myself to be stupid and not as good as others, not able to dream the things they all took for granted. I believed my family to be less.
I couldn't put my finger on it being a child but only His grace brought me to the age of 33 when He graciously sent His hard conviction upon me. I've always marveled at those whose salvation consisted of going down to the altar and making a short prayer, shaking the preachers hand and signing a membership book. I'm not saying they are not saved just that God didn't let me off that easy! No no.
It began I think at a beer joint on a Saturday afternoon and evening where I sat and guzzed myself into a dejected state. That was not my habit but it was the beginning of the end of the old Frank. I think that's the very beginning of His work. Over a period of days, weeks in the fall of 1977 He began to bring the weight of conviction upon me. That word sounds so innocent, so innocuous. Like a big dog lying in the corner wagging it's tail.
Wrong. Conviction, God's variety, is fierce. It's relentless and presses in until the Lord says "enough". It attacks until His spirit says "heel".
I think that He brought up everything I'd ever done and put them on my heart and before my face. The weight of my heart was huge. I would have to pull over driving to work and pray, weep for awhile before going on. I would go to work hoping my red eyes were not noticed. I didn't know how to pray but no matter. When God puts on the pressure you'll pray all right believe me! You will Lear quickly my friends. I don't know how He deals with others, many ways and perhaps what I'm saying is familiar to you. I don't know. The bottom line of what I'm trying to say is that for me getting saved was no easy task. It was like being pulled through a keyhole or being keel hauled naked. It nearly killed me to save me. The old man didn't survive it thank God even though I still stumble on him. Nahum 3:3
But afterwards, after days even weeks of spiritual surgery by the Holy Spirit I was indeed a brand new creature. If not so serious part of it might have been funny. I always been disgusted with, even despised psychiatrists, analysts and the like. I knew they were men like me with feet of clay that had to pull out a bottle or a handful of pills after the last patient unloaded their unsolvable problems on them.
Even so when Jesus caused me to be born again and I didn't know what had happened I thought I was going insane and considered one of the despised mental analysts. After all, if everything you always did suddenly became foreign to you you must be flipping your wig right? I no longer wanted to cheat, lie, steal, connive, be unfaithful, drink, lust or practice any of my other vices. I must be wacky right? The world says if you hear voices you're wacky. In reality it would be strange not to hear them. But now by God's grace I can sort them out. One of the most astounding revelations in being saved was that the voice that I had listened to so much was not mine at all. That was a shock. When you look around for a familiar handle to grasp and find none it is scary. Very scary. You're a stranger in a strange land. A very strange land.
It took awhile to even realize that God was doing all this. I was saved. I really was born again. My gratefulness to God for coming for me outside of some denomination created by man, is boundless. I owe my salvation, my saving to God and Him alone. Read the 34th chapter of Ezekiel to see that God got tired of waiting for poor shepherds to fetch the scattered sheep and so went after them Himself. He still does by the way.
It was only then that peace began to come. Oh there were tremendous battles in the spirit. The devil fought me tooth and toenail. He hated to lose such a one as I was. But Jesus led me over the bridge of salvation and once across I could no more understand where I was than I could where I'd dwelt for the past 33 years. He told me "my son died at 33 so I chose this to be the year He begins to live in you".
I couldn't stand to be alone with myself. My mind was so filled with the world's garbage. I began to wash my mind in the water of the word. I would read the Bible hours on end. Just as I had hidden in books as a boy to escape by reading hours and hours until a splitting headache would force be to stop. I read the Bible for 8-20-12 hours at a time washing my mind and spirit. Peace be still.
God became very close and very real to me. The peace of God is important above all things. ALL things. It is an indicator. It is THE indicator. If you have that peace then all is well. I wonder how many have it? I wonder how many have the required baptism in the Holy Spirit? So many are so silent and do not say. But by many posted statements and questions I see that something is missing. Fighting over things that ought not to be fought over. Provoking others with positions that are contrary to sound doctrine. Looking for a fight and demanding to be right. Demanding to be pronounced king of the subject at hand. King indeed of the scriptures. They have not allowed God to come in and disarm the fleshly passion to climb on top of others and crow like a Banty rooster "I have prevailed and am right"! A misinterpretation if ever one was.
In all this there is a marked absence of the peace of God. I don't care how God made the universe. It's too big for me to comprehend and it's too big for those that question it yet say they are Christians. He tells us how to be baptized theres no need to start a denomination centered on it.
I don't care if the rapture is pre, post or mid tribulation. I DON'T CARE. My life is in His hands and He'll see that I get through it all OK. Can no one agree that there are many hidden things that are just not known? As soon as one declares themself an expert they can be instantly declared a know nothing.
Having His peace continually resident means you don't have to adopt every scriptural position that you feel will hide you from some kind of tribulation. Repeat that sentence please.
The evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit is not tongues our old pastor used to say. "it's trouble". You will have it in spades when God moves in.
I've seen tribulation. I've seen my children die. I've seen my Nieces and nephews die. I've seen my mother suffer from lupus from the age of 25. I've seen my father have to live at the VA for 25 years until his death. I've seen lots and lots of trouble. I've seen sickness, lack, death and adversity to the extreme yet I hold to His peace and it pulls me through.
My sweet wife abd I walked into an infirmary where our beautiful fifteen year old daughter Joanna lie dead on a gurney. I said at her side "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord". I managed to speak at our daughter's chapel service through God's strength. We had grief but His peace never left.
I'm not going to be afraid of what God has for me and hide behind some belief for fear that something unpleasant might happen to me. Holding to some peculiar belief in order to maintain that it will keep you from having any affliction is wrong. We are called to trouble. Think it not strange, remember.
I'm certain that this post is important only to me. I know strife and religious battles will continue. But I'm convinced most are from an ignorance of the peace of God and that from not being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And beyond that not giving Him the reins. There is a peace, a let down of the contentious nature, of the passion to be right that comes with yielding to the Holy Spirit of God.
It's a disarmament of the flesh. May every one come to know the peace of God that passes all understanding and thence sow peace. Wisdom will always spring forth from peace and never from strife.
Romans 15:1-2 KJVS
We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
[2] Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
In many of the places you can post here, forums, sub forums, I look over the threads and wonder at them. There seems to be a disagreement or dissatisfaction with the word of God or over not understanding portions of it and/or a thinly veiled, if at all, anger towards others that see something differently than they see it. Very little unity or agreement. No peace.
I guess contention is the word that sums up a lot of it. I wonder where the peace of God fits into all this. Everything from Water baptism to the rapture are grounds for a religious brawl. Beating one another with pillowcases stuffed with scriptures proving your point. The time we ought to be teachers we have need to be taught again the basics of the faith as it is written.
I love love love the peace of God. I do everything I can to hold onto it. You see for 33 years I had none. I was tormented by Satan from the time I was a child and not having a Christian family I had zero help. Maybe some of you had a similar terrible childhood. I hope not. Spirits of fear and every evil thing assailed me constantly. Until I was saved I believed myself to be stupid and not as good as others, not able to dream the things they all took for granted. I believed my family to be less.
I couldn't put my finger on it being a child but only His grace brought me to the age of 33 when He graciously sent His hard conviction upon me. I've always marveled at those whose salvation consisted of going down to the altar and making a short prayer, shaking the preachers hand and signing a membership book. I'm not saying they are not saved just that God didn't let me off that easy! No no.
It began I think at a beer joint on a Saturday afternoon and evening where I sat and guzzed myself into a dejected state. That was not my habit but it was the beginning of the end of the old Frank. I think that's the very beginning of His work. Over a period of days, weeks in the fall of 1977 He began to bring the weight of conviction upon me. That word sounds so innocent, so innocuous. Like a big dog lying in the corner wagging it's tail.
Wrong. Conviction, God's variety, is fierce. It's relentless and presses in until the Lord says "enough". It attacks until His spirit says "heel".
I think that He brought up everything I'd ever done and put them on my heart and before my face. The weight of my heart was huge. I would have to pull over driving to work and pray, weep for awhile before going on. I would go to work hoping my red eyes were not noticed. I didn't know how to pray but no matter. When God puts on the pressure you'll pray all right believe me! You will Lear quickly my friends. I don't know how He deals with others, many ways and perhaps what I'm saying is familiar to you. I don't know. The bottom line of what I'm trying to say is that for me getting saved was no easy task. It was like being pulled through a keyhole or being keel hauled naked. It nearly killed me to save me. The old man didn't survive it thank God even though I still stumble on him. Nahum 3:3
But afterwards, after days even weeks of spiritual surgery by the Holy Spirit I was indeed a brand new creature. If not so serious part of it might have been funny. I always been disgusted with, even despised psychiatrists, analysts and the like. I knew they were men like me with feet of clay that had to pull out a bottle or a handful of pills after the last patient unloaded their unsolvable problems on them.
Even so when Jesus caused me to be born again and I didn't know what had happened I thought I was going insane and considered one of the despised mental analysts. After all, if everything you always did suddenly became foreign to you you must be flipping your wig right? I no longer wanted to cheat, lie, steal, connive, be unfaithful, drink, lust or practice any of my other vices. I must be wacky right? The world says if you hear voices you're wacky. In reality it would be strange not to hear them. But now by God's grace I can sort them out. One of the most astounding revelations in being saved was that the voice that I had listened to so much was not mine at all. That was a shock. When you look around for a familiar handle to grasp and find none it is scary. Very scary. You're a stranger in a strange land. A very strange land.
It took awhile to even realize that God was doing all this. I was saved. I really was born again. My gratefulness to God for coming for me outside of some denomination created by man, is boundless. I owe my salvation, my saving to God and Him alone. Read the 34th chapter of Ezekiel to see that God got tired of waiting for poor shepherds to fetch the scattered sheep and so went after them Himself. He still does by the way.
It was only then that peace began to come. Oh there were tremendous battles in the spirit. The devil fought me tooth and toenail. He hated to lose such a one as I was. But Jesus led me over the bridge of salvation and once across I could no more understand where I was than I could where I'd dwelt for the past 33 years. He told me "my son died at 33 so I chose this to be the year He begins to live in you".
I couldn't stand to be alone with myself. My mind was so filled with the world's garbage. I began to wash my mind in the water of the word. I would read the Bible hours on end. Just as I had hidden in books as a boy to escape by reading hours and hours until a splitting headache would force be to stop. I read the Bible for 8-20-12 hours at a time washing my mind and spirit. Peace be still.
God became very close and very real to me. The peace of God is important above all things. ALL things. It is an indicator. It is THE indicator. If you have that peace then all is well. I wonder how many have it? I wonder how many have the required baptism in the Holy Spirit? So many are so silent and do not say. But by many posted statements and questions I see that something is missing. Fighting over things that ought not to be fought over. Provoking others with positions that are contrary to sound doctrine. Looking for a fight and demanding to be right. Demanding to be pronounced king of the subject at hand. King indeed of the scriptures. They have not allowed God to come in and disarm the fleshly passion to climb on top of others and crow like a Banty rooster "I have prevailed and am right"! A misinterpretation if ever one was.
In all this there is a marked absence of the peace of God. I don't care how God made the universe. It's too big for me to comprehend and it's too big for those that question it yet say they are Christians. He tells us how to be baptized theres no need to start a denomination centered on it.
I don't care if the rapture is pre, post or mid tribulation. I DON'T CARE. My life is in His hands and He'll see that I get through it all OK. Can no one agree that there are many hidden things that are just not known? As soon as one declares themself an expert they can be instantly declared a know nothing.
Having His peace continually resident means you don't have to adopt every scriptural position that you feel will hide you from some kind of tribulation. Repeat that sentence please.
The evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit is not tongues our old pastor used to say. "it's trouble". You will have it in spades when God moves in.
I've seen tribulation. I've seen my children die. I've seen my Nieces and nephews die. I've seen my mother suffer from lupus from the age of 25. I've seen my father have to live at the VA for 25 years until his death. I've seen lots and lots of trouble. I've seen sickness, lack, death and adversity to the extreme yet I hold to His peace and it pulls me through.
My sweet wife abd I walked into an infirmary where our beautiful fifteen year old daughter Joanna lie dead on a gurney. I said at her side "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord". I managed to speak at our daughter's chapel service through God's strength. We had grief but His peace never left.
I'm not going to be afraid of what God has for me and hide behind some belief for fear that something unpleasant might happen to me. Holding to some peculiar belief in order to maintain that it will keep you from having any affliction is wrong. We are called to trouble. Think it not strange, remember.
I'm certain that this post is important only to me. I know strife and religious battles will continue. But I'm convinced most are from an ignorance of the peace of God and that from not being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And beyond that not giving Him the reins. There is a peace, a let down of the contentious nature, of the passion to be right that comes with yielding to the Holy Spirit of God.
It's a disarmament of the flesh. May every one come to know the peace of God that passes all understanding and thence sow peace. Wisdom will always spring forth from peace and never from strife.
Romans 15:1-2 KJVS
We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
[2] Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.