7325	Forums / Main Forum / This May Interest You	on: June 17, 2007, 08:28:12 AM
Quote Tom, I just see you being free in my heart so clearly, and I want to make it happen today. I'm not saying you're evil, but I truly believe that theology has you around the neck. But I think in some way it's a comfort becasue it's just so predictable. I want you to be at peace. I want the others who read here to witness it. But I cannot make it happen yesterday. I don't believe for one second that your heart is insincere, or that you don't love truth. As for your heart, I believe it is beyond reproach. But you have Him in there somewhere, and maybe some of this was supposed to sink in, but I hate that you may believe that I just simply meant to cut at your feelings. I swear I didn't do that on purpose, sir. It's not your feelings that I was after, but what I perceive as a prison, and truly the antichrist that has misrepresented Jesus to the world, making a freshly made marriage bed for Islam to fill. But nothing that I have said was to hurt you personally. I wanted nothing but to make you see, and to tell you the truth in a way that few can, or will. BUT, it was never just to hurt you for the sake of hurting you. I want to be clear on that. I do not believe that your intentions are evil. I want to be clear on that. I'm sorry if I led you to believe otherwise. Thanks for being honest Patrick. When one is giving practical advice over the internet i always consider that to be less important than theology. I don t even like to here the practical stuff over the radio , (that is counselors giving advice.) Being practical is easy. You get an instant answer, you get a friend you can confide in, and you can  focus on the process of living rather than the theory or the reasons. Most people who give practical advice are arminian in their theology. Or they are pagan. My thinking on strictly the paradigm of practical advice is that every time you tell someone to do something and they do it you create another problem that may be hidden or that may come up long after the situation has taken its course. Because we are not in a battle to overcome problems, but we are in a battle between those forces that cannot be seen, those forces that are way beyond our ability to overcome, those forces that are attacking Christ, and we are placed in the middle of the battle not to fight in our own power, but to use spiritual weapons to master along with just standing there and watching or resting in Christ. We are pragmatic with practical advice , and dogmatic with Christ word. God has the ultimate view of our lives. He can see the past better than we can and he can see the future better than we can. It is not necessarily the view we have about our past or our future that makes our choices morally wise. It is the view we have of the one who knows intimately what will transpire in the future, or why we have gone through what we have gone through in the past. Our view of God is His revelation to us through the propositions of scripture. Gods revelation to us is His communication to us of the work He is doing in us by our choices, so that nothing that we have chosen has not been determined by God to form our view of ourselves for His working in us in the future. The shortsightedness of earthly counsel is that we cannot see the future circumstances that may change our choices for the good even tho we are in a pickle in the present. God does things that are not understandable in the past and present so that in the future He might show that it was Him alone that delivered us. It is chiefly His glory that makes us dogmatic about the purpose of His name being glorified in our sin and trials. Jesus is not just practical. Jesus does not come with the ten steps of righteousness. Jesus is not focused on mans ability to achieve through process. The doctrine of Jesus is not positive thinking. Lord did not we prophecy in your name? did not we cast out devils in your name? Did not we do all of these things for you? Depart from me i never knew you. Positive thinkers end up in hell. I am not directing this toward you Patrick. Doctrine and practice are inseparable. If you don t know the doctrine then you cant possibly do anything according to the truth. Sanctify them by Thy truth , Thy word is truth. If a person says that doctrine is not important or that it is not the sola of the way a person conducts himself then they are not being truthful about Christ. I live in the negative. Being a sinner is no fun. Facing the fact that i am wasting away and under the domination of sorrow at times is not what i consider a happy way to live. But it is real. Its because we are in adam that we are receiving the punishment for sin, death. And thats not just spiritual death, but physical. The physical part is real. The problems are not small. The sorrow is not weak or can be weakened. Its more of a rising and a falling feeling. If we come to Jesus we must face our sorrow because we face our sin. Every time we come to Jesus we come with nothing and we leave with everything. But we go through the sorrow of our sin. Jesus equals sorrow. When we try to mortify our sin in the biblical way,in the process we really are faced with a stronger desire to sin rather than a weaker desire. Sinning is a spiritual deli ma of Satan s power being worked out by our deed and doing the rite thing is by grace, Christ imputed righteousness. So that everything we do is done in faith in the realm of all those things that are too strong for our willing strength. We cannot will enough to overcome anything. This is Christ view of us. He knows our hearts, or He is fully aware of our weak wills. We will never not sin, or we will never not be sorrowful, or we will never choose good enough to be able to stand in our own ability. My problem I am having  with you is that i defend myself with doctrine, and then you tell me that i am wrong. I am not doing this to make you mad. This is my way of being obedient to Christ. I do not trust myself for one moment to trust in practical advice. I am not trying to be braggadocios but most everything i have written here is direct propositions from scripture.