7172	Forums / Main Forum / Common Sense...	on: August 19, 2007, 05:43:17 AM
I agree with you PC. Maybe its a generational thing? We are so focused on being perfect that we take on entirely too much of the worlds thinking. Is it really about following practical advice? Is every thing narrowed down to simple steps? Or are we just killing ourselves with legal conviction? No one keeps the law anyway. Christ died to free us from the law as a school master. We are to set our thoughts on things above not on the things of this world. God will take care of us. You cant cover over a multitude of sins in a this legal environment so that the sin is always pointing out the sin.  Maybe the legal mentality is just a smoke screen so that people do not have to give of themselves for others and expect nothing in return. If there is one practical principle that this kind of thinking leaves out is \"You ve always got to step back and look at the big picture.\"

7171	Forums / Main Forum / Would Jesus Defend A Child?	on: August 20, 2007, 04:33:56 PM
How a society treats children is the evidence of how much common grace is left. Thats why Christ say suffer the little children to come unto me for such is the kingdom of God. Gods desire is for the helpless and the needy. And the children are held up as the example of the kind of attitude of a new convert. Because the kind of attitude children display in that innocent trust is what is needed for us to possess in order for us to be humble enough to accept God at His word. We are like little children in our dependence on the Father. We are to cry Abba, Father or daddy , daddy. In a child s world is a lack of the knowledge of sin, and a harmlessness in relation to committing sin like a dove. It is as we become adults that we experience the majority of declining in our child like trust because we remember that we remember ourselves in the equation of salvation. And it is looking at the child like trust in which he has no worries about what daddy will do because the child does not believe there is anything out there that can overpower daddy. A child displays in a good way blind trust. The only object that is foremost in the mind of a child is pleasing daddy. Children do not need to be worried about their needs being met because in their little world they do not experience a work reward system. They are totally dependent on daddy bringing in the food, so they are not selfishly worried about the provision. They really depend on daddy for their needs. Gods ways are these ways for all of us.

The Psalms are written in the spoken decrees of a king. The righteous king thinks thoughts after God by pronouncing the law, covenants, curses, decrees, statutes and promises. These 6 pronouncements are spoken by God in creating and ordering all things. God authority and power over all opposition are founded upon one spoken prophecy being piled up upon another in the repetition of these 6 pronouncements until the saints experience high praise.Ps 149 ² Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
let the people of Zion be glad in their King. ³ Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp."  The Psalmist describes this creative ability of Gods people as the art of meditation.These prophecies are the creations of the circumstances in time as Gods eternal kingdom rules over all things. The prophetic utterances not only control all earthly governments but they also provide Gods elect with the pre fall ability to subdue all opposition.  As man was created by God pronouncing these 6 prophecies so they express the natural desires of the elect in the prophetic recreation of breathing a clearer understanding of Gods purposes in recreating all things. Ps. 149 6 May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands",

The 6 pronouncements are the words of prophecy as Gods desire of allowing and preventing the existence of all things. The purpose of the law is worked out as all things are brought into existence as they are contained in the creation and sustaining of these perfect words. The prophets describe the purpose of the law in Gods allowing and preventing the existence of all things through covenant. The government of God is ordered by covenant-law. The covenant law pronouncements are the life and death prophetic utterances gifted to the saints in order to subdue all opposition. 9 to carry out the sentence written against them. (opposition)This is the glory of all his saints. " A man born in sin opposes Gods covenant law in the misguided use of Gods law. The saints are successful as they subdue all opposition in prophetic utterance of the laws governing curses .6May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, ⁷ to inflict vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples, ⁸ to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, ⁹ to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. This is the church militant."

7011	Forums / Main Forum / Re: Reconciliation	on: November 06, 2007, 09:25:02 AM
Because salvation is not just a matter of the intelligence and having faith, but having a view of the glory of Christ as the most beautiful object of our love, while we are in this body of death. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to see things as they really are ,in lite of the bigness of our view and the vast gulf it produces between men and God ,as to effecting the power of change.  In this exalted lite of the excellency of Christ we can now look at this love- hate relationship to the world, the things of the world, and the state of our own corruption as we live in this world. And as we have been taught by our Lord Himself, that seeing and worshiping Him brings us to a place where we are looking upon that work in HIs eternal Sonship, as being a work, that as we compare all other works, in themselves, is the difference between love and hate. In other words unless we understand Christ in a saving way ,we would never understand the relationship we have with love and hate.  That is why in His exalted position as our mediator ,we see Him in such a way that all other objects are as if we hate them. In our view of Christ in His divine beauty, it is incumbent for us to come to a place where all other objects are ugly as compared to His divine beauty.  His work on the cross brought love and hate together, and now in Christ all of the redemptive workings overshadow the condemnation ,because He has not come to condemn the world but to save it. The beauty of Christ saving people is on Him and not on the messenger. It is strictly because of His work, that salvation is given to man. His working makes Him the most beautiful object of our affection ,so that there is nothing that even compares with that beauty, not even one. Compared to Him we are all going astray and not having any good.  In our journey of looking on Christ in His word, and being changed from glory to glory, we will experience a profound change in our view of this world , the people , the things, and all the circumstances that come into our lives. This experience cures a low disposition. It  is in the constant experiences of this kind, that will accumulate in us to see the reality of who we are in this world, in lite of eternity. All of the changes in this life, for the good, will not be experienced until we have an experience of the nature of these things . This is different than fellowshipping in the milk of the word, as being exposed to the nature of these things, as if we were standing at a distance. What changes us from spiritual babies, to young men ,and then to mature adults ,is the experience we have in the divines s of these truths, as they come to us in the power of God ,so that we know the nature of these truths and not from a moral system of philosophy.  When we are raised up from our natural deafness,we begin to love being raised up, and we begin to hate being naturally dead. But in the being raised up we go from our natural deafness to His divine aliveness in that nature. When we look from being raised in our minds and in our views ,we begin to hate ourselves with a good hatred. The self image is becoming alive to reality. In the reality of our position in this universe of Gods immensity, the nearness between the  physical particles under His present nature is compared to the unfathomable amount of the blindness we have of His glorious beauty. If our spiritual eyes could be open, we would only see Him and all other things and people would fade away into a far distance. In other words in the beatific vision the experience we have is reversed. Not only do we come to our senses in being raise up to see Christ, as our all in all, but we begin to have a proper hatred for everything in this world as compared to Him. It is because we do not treat these things in this world as neutral, but as being in Him, a hindrance ,we begin to live in the reality of who God is. Our self image is formed by the experience of the nature of eternal things so that we can face reality.

7007	Forums / Main Forum / Re: Does anybody else homeschool?	on: November 07, 2007, 07:43:35 AM
Teaching is the only important thing in this world. Whether its the church , school , home, the only relevant question in all seriousness is "what are they teaching?"  If they are teaching a world view,  that is not like yours, then there is a real problem. Children are not able to think for themselves. If you are competing with the evolving paradigm teaching,  in the amount of time(40 hrs) in teaching your child but 10 hrs with your world view, then Jesus becomes an attachment with evolution in their minds. Rite now i see it in the young Calvinist. It shows itself in a formation of thought in Unitarianism by not taking a clear stance against wrong teaching and an inability to reason out the self authentication of scripture.   imnsho

7006	Forums / Main Forum / Re: A Raw State of Repentance	on: November 08, 2007, 08:22:59 PM
We live a life of repentance. You are rite , it is an attitude of the heart.  Usually when God teaches us about repentance He is always dealing with some lust, greed, coveting, and pride. These sins of the heart make us  anxious and are the enemies of our faith. Gods design for us is to find in Him our all, so that when we have found Him , then we are at peace. He is going to come as the God who speaks and then the earth shakes.  Because He upholds all things by the word of His power, His will is being worked out in our lives by that upholding word. Its not necessarily the outward action that we focus on, but the struggle is in the mind, the thoughts, and then the will. The struggle is how we dwell on these thoughts and how we understand the nature or power of sin and our natural hardness of heart. When we repent we begin to understand more of Gods power that is in the inner man from the new birth. When we learn to understand the nature of that power, we become very desirous of the object of that power.  If repentance were a matter of changing behavior then we could have a manual of bad behaviors and good behaviors. We would 'nt need prayer, the doctrinal instruction, and promises. We would simply follow the rite behavior.  The truth is that Jesus alone provides the purity we need. He earned it by His death and resurrection. Our salvation is provided for us as an inheritance. Our cleansing can only come from Jesus work on the cross. And that work is finished, so that He sits at the right hand of God in heaven, declaring us not guilty by that cleansing. He is our only High Priest. When we repent, that act of repenting is His gracious gift to us. The transformation of the heart is His reminder that we cant clean the latrine by self washing. When Christ causes us to repent, we become very familiar with grace. The repentance that God offers is absolutely free, without human effort, and completely effective.  When we learn to repent, we learn to morn over our sins. We need to dig to get to the old root attitudes of the heart. If we focus on self effort we will only get the outward attitude. But we are to fix our eyes on Christ in His word. If we love Christ then we will love the nature of His work, the spiritual knowledge of His divine light, and His absolute rite to rule in everything. Loving Him is desiring Him in this way.  In repentance we learn that Christ is to be desired more than any other object of our love. The more we repent, that is acknowledging sin, the condition of a dull heart, and our inability to obey, we will build these longings so that we actually repent to see Christ and understand that His life is experienced in us by understanding the nature of His work on our behalf as completely of grace. We will learn to long in grace in His word. Fixing our eyes on Christ will solve our wrong focus of man. The Holy Spirit will bring new desires of our Fathers unfailing love, faithfulness, and forgiveness. Gods attributes will become all consuming in us, so that we see Christ as the radiance of Gods glory.

7002	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Is my new life philosophy biblical?	on: November 09, 2007, 03:36:05 PM
What is Gods will for our lives? To glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. Or to glorify Him in enjoying Him. So it is a matter of perspective. And since we have obtained such a great salvation the will of God is that we see His purpose for our lives starting from before we were born. We were called from our mothers. And even when we were in sins and trespasses He redeemed us. His purposing our salvation was when we were in sin to prepare us for salvation.  So we are called before we were able to understand. And some of us were taught lessons about sin very early in our lives. Some of us were protected from sin and we were brought along slowly and religiously. But all of us can rejoice that our salvation originated in the eternal counsel of God. And the purpose of us being saved was from eternity.  When we struggle with sin in our salvation, we can look back and have confidence that before we were saved we can remember when we were in bondage to sin so that we learn to rejoice in Gods eternal love for us, and His faithfulness when we were unfaithful, His kindness , when we were at enmity with Him, and His patience when we were living in sin. We are given life by His choice, and we were forgiven at an early age so that He does not remember the sins of our youth. We do not need to return to the blackness of the guilt of sin that goes back wards, but we can have confidence in His loving us over our past experience. His love breaks through time and experience. We can have confidence that He was a Father to us, and that before we were saved He kept us from dieing before we were given salvation. Our lives are under His eternal purpose.  It is to our advantage to listen to our Fathers voice in the word of God, and see how much He has determined to advance His purposes in the call of His divine revelation. Because it is terribly important for God to be the rock of our salvation. When we are standing on that rock we are lifted up above our circumstances and the people who have no regard for Gods purposes. When we experience this effect our Fathers voice from our finite view we experience His love that surpasses our finite relational past by His eternal love sustaining us by being filled with the eternal Spirit of God who gives us a vision of the eternal past. We are protected from the danger of being trapped in the damage of this terrible problem with past pain.This is experiencing Christ as the rock. The fleeing to Christ as our refuge is not just standing on the rock but it is His work in our lives to effect the transparency of our past and the weakness that we experience as a result of the pain of our past, and to shield us from the present pain that comes out of that past pain. When we know of our Fathers love in an experiential way , we know of His being present in our experiencing His eternal purpose for us to surpass this earthly struggle.  In the times that God hides Himself, we begin to be less confident in our struggles. Because God protects us by being our shield, we are so dependent upon the Holy Spirit to be a comfort in all of lifes trials. But God does things to effect the advancement of our faith. If we never experience Gods withdrawal then we would never grow in our faith.  In the souls declining into the depths of despair, these self righteous voices begin to sound louder, so that the self begins to be agitated by remembering the former ways of being under the power of , the course of the world, the power of the flesh, and the temptations of the Devil. God wants us to look for deliverance so that our looking on Christ will be more important than the experience of love flooding our souls and inflaming our desires. We are led down the road of tribulation and temptation. We are so easily led astray.  Because the world loves self righteousness, we are cast into the mold of self strength.  We grow tired, because we are not able to make God appear in the same way , but He seems to hide Himself. We want the same experiences of the eternal call of God, the sense of His love that fills our every longing, and the power of His right hand putting us on the rite path, so that we are raised up above our enemies, and the self righteous crowd. But we begin to falter. Oh, how low that sense of desertion feels. Oh how desperately we are led into this tension. We are as it were shaken in our faith as the world mocks at us, and the self righteous say, "I told you to listen to me." It is a dark age, that we are led into, as if there was no Martin Luther, only the idolatry of saint worship, and indulgences. The pull of the world begins to over take our devotion, and we are most misunderstood. Yes this is the state of a trial. It is very hard indeed to believe in an eternal present Father, who is fully able to come to our rescue without our help. It is so easy to fall into semi -plagenism.

6984	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: why study Hebrew or any original language for that matter?	on: November 15, 2007, 09:36:12 AM
Its important to have an understanding of the language. Especially, if you are teaching in a particular text. But just like any kind of teaching , the word studies are not fool proof.   Not only is the word study necessary, but the context , historical back ground and the overall usage of the word in light of the whole counsel of God (or the entire biblical account.) Historically as a result of the Reformation the theologians did the exegetical work in detail and over the yrs refined the process, because that was a 40 hr a week job for them as well as a devotion.  They took these propositions and produced a balanced view into standards, or putting fences around what was revealed and what was a mystery. Then they put these standards in a confessional type of document. Instead of preaching through the bible or the nt, they would preach through the standards of the confession from the text of the scripture. In this way the word study would not become an avenue by which they would create their own doctrine by going outside the scriptural usage of a proposition in the balance of the near context and far context. They wanted the average church member to have the whole counsel in a teachable form, with taking into account the exegetical genuineness into that confession. So we have these different confessions that promote what is an acceptable doctrine and what is heresy. The logic is that if you find a problem in the text or you promote a false teaching from the scripture then it will be evident from the confession because it is the next line of protection revealing the false teaching. It is absolutely essential that one understands the confession.  Understanding the confession keeps you from deception.  They would also get the practicality of the doctrine as it applies to the Christian from the Psalms. In fact most churches used the Psalter as their Hymnal. So even tho there are a lot of disagreements about how to conduct this regulated worship, these Reformers had a much more profound knowledge of the doctrines by the wisdom books. These confessional documents, the Westminster standards or the 1689 Baptist standards are a result of not only the professional exegeses, but a high view of worship in the practical application of Calvinism in the Psalter.

6982	Forums / Main Forum / Re: A Raw State of Repentance	on: November 15, 2007, 10:32:01 AM
It may surprise you that i believe that we are capable of doing the most vile of sins at any time. Even tho it may be from a steady declining in our fervency, sins power is capable of getting us all at one time, and the fall can be great. In fact , very little is depends on our avoiding it. In fact the first cause in all of sin is really not what we do to avoid it. All of these potentials, these powers of temptation, these deadly deli ma s of the vileness of our lives is dependent on grace. We live in sin or die in sin in relation to grace. Where ever grace is sin is overcome.  If we thought that we were righteous in ourselves then the tension between our ability and overcoming that sin would be from a legal paradigm. The power of sin does is not just from a spring of being overcome by an addiction, having a ruling effect, but it is also from the law. When the law revives- sin revives and we die. The law strengthens the desire to sin. Our problem is that we do not understand the other problem with ourselves other than the addiction or the sin. We are naturally blind to what was so apparent to us when we first came to Christ. We had a very real understanding of the power of God, because we had such a clear back ground of what we experience having a rebellious heart and living under the power of sin without any other remedy. We were so thankful for forgiveness that we experience grace as if we were clean having a direct renewal of the Holy Spirit by going from the height of sin to the glories of renewal.  So we start viewing ourselves as not only having this new power, but also thinking that we deserve it. What we struggle with is not necessarily the sin, by being exposed to the law, but this delusion that we are somehow deserving of this new power. Then in this paradigm of secularism , the doctrine of Justification by faith, and the understanding of definitive Sanctification are not part of the paradigm that are given to us so that we can relive the freshness of our conversion experience. For some reason we get this attraction to the law by being under the allusion of trying to obtain righteousness through being good, instead of having the view of the law in the cross , so that Christ work on our behalf gives us a view that is perfectly complete, so that we now can be involve in all the praise and glory in Christ , so that we can live in the first love paradigm.

6976	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Who Or What Defines Sin ?	on: November 17, 2007, 12:44:35 PM
We enter the world as sinners. And we sin because we are sinners. Our nature is one of sin. Sin is not doing  what is required by the law, not only in letter but in the spirit of the law. Christ extended their interpretation of the law because man always lives in deception of the extent of the law, and wants to define sin so that if man meets a certain standard then the man has done what the law requires. Thats why man always adds all kinds of principles to the 10 commandments so that he can be righteous in himself. So the problem with man is not only that he is blind to the law of God, but that he is determined to rebel against the law of God by building a system in which he can achieve his own righteousness. So from the 10 it goes to 1000 different principles.  But Christ came to show the extent of the law by bringing it to bare on the extent of mans sin and show the depth of the sin in man by showing man that the requirements of the law went much farther than the letter. He was bringing the eternal standards of God, so that men would see that there was no way they could do good without an eternal satisfaction to meet the eternal punishment for breaking the law.  The law goes to the attitude of the heart not just the communication of the requirements in intercepting bad habits. The law brings us to see that our attitude determines our actions, and not that our actions determine our ability. Instead of Christ meeting us at our behavior, the eternal law of God has Christ meeting us at the core of our hearts, our attitude,the knowledge of divine love that gives us an understanding of Christ which will determine our choice.  When we see ourselves in light of the law of God, we feel very small, being unable to meet the requirements of the law in ourselves. We must be convinced that every time we go before God, we understand that there is a "woe is me." But we do not stay in this disposition. Because we know that since Christ has become a man, that He has shown us God by bringing His humanity into the Trinity for all eternity. He has been the only real man, and our identity as man is in Him, who leads us to a oneness because of His oneness in the Trinity. Because He became man and died and rose again and ascended into heaven,our identification with Him in His work as our mediator is the life we share in union with the Father so that we can never fail or be without the life of God in our souls.

6971	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: The last stance of the Patriarchal society.	on: November 19, 2007, 05:38:52 PM
I have tried to tell you that this life and the answers to problems are more simple than the religious community is telling you. I have been aware of this process for along time. But i guess you got to learn for yourselves. Go ahead and get that how to paper back, i am telling you its not going to do any good over the long haul. Its not that difficult.  I know your a Calvinist and its so tempting to think that there is more to this stuff than we believe about God being sovereign and everything. But i will tell you, it will lead you backwards. It will lead you to frustration, blaming others, concentrating on everyone else behavior, and a life of worry and regret. But i am telling you that you dont need to worry about everyone else's behavior around you. You may twist their arms and get them to do some stuff, but it is an impossible task  to get someone to change their hearts. Its too hard ,and it takes too much time. And in the end you will have your little group, and all you little rules , but you will be so far away from God that you could not see your way through the forest. Thats were you want to go then fine. It doesnt bother me one bit. I already know it is going to fail, and i will be waiting for you to return.  Its so simple that its difficult. If you are in trouble the answer is prayer. I know its not asking you to do anything. So , then God will do it . But then we are just avoiding the responsibility He has given us. Go ahead and think that way. Go ahead and get that paper back. I ve done this thing for a long time and i am telling you flat out, it doesnt work. Theres only one lesson to learn in life that matters. Yes , all you guys and gals that are graduating from HS and you got all these goals. So is it that difficult? You are all concerned about meeting that guy and gal, and then you have your standards. I know. I was there . It was all just baloney. I miss the gold through the forest. I was wrapped up in my little world. I was in complete control. THe best lesson that i had to learn is that i was powerless, and i just needed a very simple relationship. THat was Jesus,today tomorrow and now being middle age its Jesus all the time. Its going to Jesus in the morning , and going to Jesus at lunch time and going to Jesus at dinner the rest of the night with Jesus. Its falling in love with Jesus. Thats it, no real difficult search for anything. Once you grow to love Jesus you will be in the place where you will meet others who love Jesus, and are not trying very hard. No blame, no worry, and no shame. But you want to make it difficult, i know.

6964	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Pet sins	on: November 22, 2007, 12:47:24 PM
This is a growth question, because these sins that so easily beset are life long struggles. Because sin is much deeper than the ones that people can see, such as drunkenness, homosexuality, sex problems, and the like are all tied to other deeper sins of the heart. These outward sins just show the inability of man to deal with having a divided elegance to sin.  When we come to Christ we come as we are, with all of our addictions to sinning, our condition of rebellion, and our unsavory addiction to the law having the old relationship as our school master. We are granted full acceptance as saints ,being given a righteousness that is not earned, and being completely made whole by Christ work on our behalf. We die to our old way of viewing ourselves as slaves to sin, and we live in the gospel paradigm doing the will of God from the heart. We begin in evangelical obedience. Our working comes out of grace by being granted forgiveness for sin , and looking to Christ alone for our acceptance. We live in praise and adoration to Christ. We live as a friend of God, having a salvation that comes to us in unfailing love, for His name, so that we will be confident on the day of trial that God will cause us to persevere to the end.  We are obligated to live as tho we were not our own, but we were bought with a price. The nature of our obligation is to find pleasure in God alone, by being in the use of the means of grace. When we understand that salvation is of God, we will begin to have a joy knowing that we stand as sinners bringing nothing to the relationship but our doubts, fears, sins, fickleness, and hardness of heart. We come obligated to bring God all of these struggles, pouring our hearts out to Him from an unfeigned love in our relationship with the purpose to constantly viewing Him as our sovereign Lord, always with our eyes fixed on Him, and then receiving from Him, trust, confidence, joy, peace, and love of the Holy Spirit. I do believe that He will give us the Holy Spirit in a special way at seasons in our lives if we stay on Him in persevering prayer being taken up with His bigness.  When we see that our sin is so deep, a constant irritation to our enjoying God, then we will begin to desire after Him. The pleasure in being swept ed up to being raise to God will be experienced in the height of His love, kindness, faithfulness, and His absolute sovereign rule in the universe where His design is the beauty of His being please with all things and surrounding us with that pleasure in His being pleased to use us as His trophies of love. This is being lifted up in His pleasure in His created order. When we begin to have this joy unspeakable then we will begin to see that there is nothing in this world that has that kind of draw. Struggling with sin, will be a drag rather than a love of ours. Get out of that accountable relationship to the law, it will only lead you to self deception. We are to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. We live with Him being our all in all, at all times, with all kinds of praise!

7305	Forums / Main Forum / The Manipulated Mind	on: June 25, 2007, 10:44:36 AM
The Controlling paradigm starts in families as sibling rivalry. Children are born with a personalities which are consistent with how they react to certain situations. Theres the controller, the follower, the reactor, and the quiet one. We learn to fall back on what is most secure to us by our habitual reactions as we become adults. Each person when confronted with adversity reacts differently. We are sinners by birth and so the power of sin resides in how we learn to react and how we are naturally bent according to our weaknesses and strengths within our personalities. We all have besetting sins. What it comes down to is how much we mortify our flesh so that we learn to trust in Christ instead of falling into a pattern of behavior in the weakness that is present in us according to our particular bent in facing adversity. There is a proper way to think, a biblical way, or a world view of thinking Gods thoughts after Him. So that in order for us to gain ground over our besetting sins we must start with the mind , the area of our corruption of thought. The bible calls this process of change , transformation by the renewing of the mind. Or exposing our minds to new life, the divine light of the word, or the revelation of the truth of scripture as opposed to our practical atheistic thoughts. Within each person there is a soil in the mind to exaggerate self and to hate God. We naturally think that we are good enough to think responsibly in ourselves. We think that we can overcome bad behavior by our rational process alone. A person who has a controlling personality is most susceptible to be over confident of his being responsible by his behavior. He fails to see that its not a standard of action that he must master, but the standard goes deeper into his very thoughts. And from his birth he devises ways to plot and schemes so that he can be in control of his environment and the people that he enter acts with. His pride is in his ability to behave in a moral way so that he gets other people to follow his methods because he is bent toward achieving social status in this manner. Its is the natural way that he is programed to think and it is the weakness that he falls back on as a result of that corrupted manner. He is like Scarlet after going through much adversity , but instead of grasping onto the dirt  as Scarlet , he grasp titely onto his seven steps to achieve. Man in his corrupted state goes head long into the state of sin, which is to gain self gratification through religious effort. Man is born religious ,who s mind creates little gods. It is a process of corrupted affections that cause each controller to be darkened in how he views himself and how he views God. He loves his self righteousness more than he loves Gods grace so that the end of his religiosity is taking glory from God by being given the credit for his achievement and morals. The answer to one who is given to this corruption is to see that every thought is under the scrutiny of Gods law, not just the responsible behavior . That God has already weighed our thoughts and found them wanting. And because we are naturally going to scheme our way to be self righteous by wearing our responsible behavior on our sleeves as a model for everyone to follow we are going to need to see that we are without hope because we cannot meet the standard of good behavior because we cannot stop our tendency to think of ourselves as in control of our view of ourselves by being responsible because we are broken in our thinking so that our responsible behavior is our achelles  heel. We cant keep from making a god out of our controlling our moral behavior. What controllers need to acknowledge is that God gives them all of the gifts to be able. Even tho they are corrupted God by His grace , enables them to do and act according to His revealed will. And even tho in their thoughts they never measure up, yet God knows that they are dust and He remembers that they are frail. Therefore they are not able to have self confidence in order to be responsible, but they put all their confidence in God, giving Him the glory for every achievement. When they begin to feel a sense of self gratification because of their moral ability, then they need to start transforming their minds to see that they are unable in themselves to do good, praise God for not only the gifts but also teaching them the process, enabling them to have the power to obey, and giving them the rewards for something that God alone does through them. In repeating this process, they will learn to glory in God and be less confident in their control.

7298	Forums / Main Forum / Spirits In The Material World.	on: June 26, 2007, 03:10:22 PM
The word has effects that are without opposition. In fact it is the counsel of the Holy Spirit alone that transforms our minds so that we are convinced that if we are faced with prosperity, the word is more valuable than silver or gold, that is it test the sincerity of our hearts by effecting us beyond what we could ask or think in the paradigm of satisfaction. Or if we are confronted with insurmountable trials, that is enemies surrounding us, the word will act in its effects upon our minds as a fortress or buffer so that where ever God places us in this world, in that place of reflection we are left with wanting nothing . We are left with constant remembrances that are sealed in our understanding of His constantly delivering us out of that troubled city.  The promise is that if we let the word dwell in us richly then we will find that it is a lively word for a dead morbid disposition. We will find that the word is not a message in letter form. But it is written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit so that the speaking is a direct assurance from the Father , so that it is made alive in us to feel the love of the Father beyond anything we could think of. The word is a word to us by Him speaking to us in personal assurances about personal situations, in Divine power.

7299	Forums / Main Forum / Snare Of Sin	on: June 26, 2007, 12:23:41 PM
Not one person is exempt from a time in their regenerated lives in which they are losing to sin. In fact if you go to the confessions these are called times of discipline. The really hard repentant types do not like to think that there are people in their congregations that are losing the sin battle, and that Gods grace is exalted because of certain struggles with sinful habits. These dreamy views of people repenting in order to over come a besetting sin and then never returning to struggle again is just a false view of the whole counsel of God. Because God uses our weakness to manifest His strength, and to think that this process is all of purity and power is to putting the saints in an impossible position of self effort and they will hide and fail more and more with this kind of doctrinal approach. The fact is that most of the saints are in need of being propped up, under girded and supported by the stronger ones who have undergone this intense struggle with temptation and sin and have had dealings with the Spirit in the spirit of grace. If we are making a standard where our churches get past a certain point of victory over all habits then we are not really fully engaged in the battle for souls or have been in a dream world in our own struggle with the world the flesh and the devil. Those who are really concerned to fight will encounter the losing battles. Its part of the process of sanctification. Look in the wcf.

^{Ps 147 10} His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of a man;
  ¹¹ the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.


The Psalmist is teaching that the law of God which governs the creation has been given to the nation of Israel. The law of God controls the balance of power in creation and the nations. Gods pronouncement of reality into existence cannot be thwarted. The same God who holds the stars in their place is the God who controls the balance of nature and the powers of nations. God has spoken His law, covenants, decrees, curses and promises in order to establish His statutes. The cardinal rules of God that promote stability in the community of the elect are evidence that God has established the recreation of all things in His law, covenants etc.

The Psalmist is teaching that in order for man to be successful, there must be a solid foundation that has been created without the aid of any other power. God created the garden in order to unite the success of His statutes in promoting mans ability as man experienced ongoing obedience. As man experienced the greater effects of Gods power and protection, he illuminated a greater effervescent of God glory. Gods eternal attributes were united with the process of time as the building blocks in establishing His statutes. Man pronounced the law, covenants etc in order to rise up to the highest praise of God as the seal to prevent him from falling into destruction. But when sin and destruction entered into the garden, mans glorious estate fell into disrepute and darkness. The entire creation was cursed.

Because God is absolutely sovereign at all times, He has predetermined fall of man and the remedy from before the foundation of the earth. God who upholds His law was never thwarted from establishing the foundations of the creation. He upholds His statutes by pronouncing death to the corruption in order to renew the creation. The Psalmist is teaching that God has reestablished the ability of man to rise up in greater praise to God in cursing the curse. As God created man in the garden to rise up in the highest praise in order to be sealed in perfect righteous,  He has once again given man absolute power in overcoming the opposition by growing up and down. ⁷ Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp.As man pronounces the curses , He experiences the stability of Gods government in the perfect defense of Gods law. As man pronounces the law, covenants, curses , etc, he rises up in praise to God as the instrument of recreating the foundations of the garden. ¹⁵He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly......   ¹⁹He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel.

7296	Forums / Theology Forum / 33% Or Less...	on: June 27, 2007, 02:56:21 PM
Quote Quote God does not have two wills. He can at the same time decree the hardness of the heart of an individual and judge that individual for their sin and still will that it would be for their good and His glory, since He is patiently allowing them time to repent. If God was divided then His will would cease to be exercised. If His disposition could effect a change in His decreeing will then He has no decrees. God has a disposition of love for all mankind but He has not decreed that all mankind be saved. First of all, he didn't say God has two wills, he said there are two words for "will" in the original language, and that they each mean very different things. Beyond that though, if you really believe what you say, then how can you stand to worship a god like that? (Oh yeah, you don't think you have a real choice...) I mean, if I grab my child's hand, force him to touch a light socket, and than tan his hide for it, aren't I responsible for both the sin and the punishment, and wrong for doing both? Yet while you would rebuke a human parent who did such a thing, you claim that your god is such a parent, and at the same time that he deserves our worship and adoration. I'm just curious how you reconcile that in your own conscience...C PC, I am really confused about what you believe. I mean if you really believed in free will then you are responsible to either stand or fall on you own choices. How does that work in you system of no eternal consequences for your bad choices?

7295	Forums / Main Forum / Faith = Works?	on: June 27, 2007, 06:52:10 PM
It depends upon your world view. There is this mentality going around that the Christian life is very practical and so its kind of like a smorgasbord of responsibilities. Christ sets the example. So we follow His example. We then list our priorities God first, wives second, children third, and then the job. So that instead of a spiritually minded approach it is a practical obedient approach. They even say that the Christian life is not really single minded. That there are these horizontal relationships that are equally important as loving Christ. In a sense there is this tension between the practical and the spiritual. So that they are equal. Its like a\" how to\" life. They measure their growth by how they treat others. One of their favorite slogans is \"You are so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.\" Or you must do the next rite thing in order to be growing in Christ. What happens is that when we make the commands of scripture equal with the indicative voice we become works oriented. Our minds become cluttered with a lot of \"how to\" ways to accomplish a certain responsibility so that we say that we believe in Christ and we acknowledge that He has forgiven us, but we are so filled with the integration philosophy that we place that above the indicatives of scripture. We become like the Martha s of the faith. Or the good son in the prodigal story. We live by the rules of relationships rather then the promises of scripture. Forgiveness becomes something we earn by going through the steps. Christ becomes the task master even tho we acknowledge that He is who we should follow. We give people the guru position in our lives and we hardly ever sit at Christ feet and worship.

7292	Forums / Theology Forum / Orthodoxy - Chesterton	on: June 28, 2007, 03:13:41 PM
That is where sometimes systematic theology fails. We say that because A and B are true, then logically C must be true also. And yet we don't stop and realize that C is not supported by scripture and actually will turn our view of God into that of a monster. Bill, I love ya man, but it seems to me that its kind of like a veiled jab at us 5 pointers. I am hearing the same kind of attacks toward Calvin on the radio, not Steve B a 5 pointer, but other 4 pointers. And really lets be honest that you do not believe in limited atonement so that most of your complaining through the eyes of mystery is about this point. I need to point out that unless there is an acceptance of limited atonement then you will be tempted to accept the post modern view of God. Since i do believe that anything less than the 5 points is a retreat from Pauline teaching. You do sound like post modern but i think you are directing your complaint towards this problem.

7287	Forums / Main Forum / Faith = Works?	on: June 30, 2007, 02:30:20 PM
We do not realize how personality and our entire make up has a lot to do with what we think God is like. And if we have a false perception of God then we are going to hear things that are coming through our corrupted souls. So that what we hear is nothing but what we have devised about God in our own minds. Its not really what we think God is telling us nor is it what we think about God that is necessarily true. He says , \"You thought i was all together like you. \" In other words we are so corrupted that we can talk ourselves into a truth of our world view of our particular minute little place in this world with no reference to Gods big view of the events that transpire around us. This is terribly complicated. We are like the man who saw the streets of a particular city that they were wet with water and concluded that there had be a rain the night before, only to learn later that there was a man going down the streets with a truck steam cleaning the streets. Our view of things is so tainted because we cannot observe all of the intricacies of a particular situation, since we cannot view what goes on in the soul or spirit of man. So we cannot even understand what transpires in us most of the time. We trust way too much in the physiological views of man which can be a form of control in the incomplete falseness of a particular scientific observation.  There are controlling people and there are natural followers. The followers are more susceptible to believe what other people tell them about themselves than what is true. We always get the bad rap. Just like Thomas in the bible. He is always blamed for doubting. But really , the follower is more able to question everything without being over revolutionary since his natural disposition is self doubt. And Thomas was completely understanding of this paradigm. And then Jesus offers Thomas the complete facts of faith since Thomas demanded to understand the truth by questioning what others were saying. Thomas understood that others mislead especially the controller or the self righteous. There really is a message for followers that is less harsh than for the controllers, because the controllers act as if they are helpless in order to get the followers to do what they want. The self righteous pharisees were laying heavy burdens on the poor, the oppressed and the followers. This self righteous world view was trying to define the truth for the rest of society to follow. With the controllers comes rules. Extra things to follow. What the followers do not understand is that because they are so susceptible to guilt, doubt, and pain,that they think God is giving them the rules and then living in condemnation .And it is a total world view we are talking about here. Which is very difficult for followers to apply the doctrines to the whole of life. We can be very revolutionary in our world views because what we struggle with is being afraid of voicing balance in truth. And if there is a need for those who are afraid to stand up for themselves it is in this socialistic society. We live in a time where what works is socialistic. If we step back and see that the powerless in society are more than ever being controlled we can see it now. We are like the kid in the sound of music who was courting the young girl only to find out later that he joined the third Reich and blew the whistle on the Trapp family.  What a controller has a very hard time doing is seeing how the other person feels, and is affected, putting themselves in the weakness of the followers. A controlling person usually needs a wake-up call in order for them to get in line, and they are more able to change on a dime, without becoming emotionally involved in the hurt. It is easier for them to deny themselves with a strong push. Thats what followers need to understand about their view of themselves in standing up. There are spiritual deli mas that accompany these mind games. It is spiritual because God has made a personal promise to come to the help of the followers in the supernatural paradigm.Our view of ourselves and the truth can be a play on our past reactions to how we were treated. Some of us really need to be angry at how we are treated. Some of us will naturally be under the spell of a controller. The word of God, with all of the understanding of who God is will teach us how we know what our particular struggles of mind are. Reality is in our minds, our thoughts , and then we act according to our way of thinking. These interdependent paradigms of mind are like a spell that comes over us so that we think reality is something totally different than how God is and what He is doing in us. Because this spell is a spiritual one predominately since the only other alternative are trusting in the rules, we need a much deeper transformation than socialization. The societies of the world being controlled by Satan do not offer us the truth about ourselves. Societies are paradigms where there are followers and controllers and there is a direction that is anti spiritual, since we view the things of this life imperfectly, the confidence is not in the direction of society but in what God has revealed to us in His word. What He sees is how the streets got wet since we could not see that part of reality.

7272	Forums / Main Forum / Adjustment To The Government Of The Holy Spirit	on: July 05, 2007, 05:14:34 PM
We are here for His glory. It is the absolute best for us. But we become attracted to the things that do not matter because we like to feel at home in a disposition of complacency. But we must go on in our faith. And yet true freedom comes as we realize that every inch of the universe is occupied by the eternal Person. We do not exist without Him being near and seeing our hearts. The very movement of things around us are brought on by His active presence , so that reality is not as we see it with our eyes but as we desire to see through the glass dimly the glass of His revealing Himself to us. Once we see Him we become realistic about who we are and what we are here for. Tunnel vision is from a lack of freedom in God. When we feel helpless because of fear or anxiety we are being defined by our former way of thinking and feeling. When we were first awakened to eternity, and our identity with Christ life and death we were under the power of regeneration of the Spirit. We were full of new life and we had a sense of the awe of God. That freshness was so freeing to us that we were able to be rid of worry and anxiety so that we were assured in a special way of Gods powerful working in us by subduing our flesh and making us breath the new air of the Spirit. And as we become aware of the reality of our shortness as we grow in grace it becomes a source of contention that there is more in trusting than that first simple trust. Yet He not only subdues our flesh so that we can experience trust in assurance but He gives us His word so that we might subdue our pride in thinking that we have become able to trust on our own. It is breaking us down to simple trust again that we are brought to see Him face to face. We then get a new glimpse of Him through the dim glass, and we are assured of Him being all in all, present in all, and bringing eternity to bear on our present struggle. When He appears once more we are free to have confidence beyond our thinking of what He could do through us when we were struggling and proud. We see Him and we believe He can do much more that we could ever ask and think, and His love is  far greater than we thought in our fleshly views. ree thought has exhausted its own freedom. It is weary of its own success. If any free thinker now hails philosophic freedom as the dawn, he is only like the man in Mark Twain who came out wrapped in blankets to see the sun rise and just in time to see it set. Integrating philosophy is always dangerous. For years mental illness has been looked at through integrating scientific theories into Theology.This scientific paradigm is the new religion. If we were back in the biblical times the Apostle would have written against it as he did against Gnosticism and all of the other pagan philosophies. We are like the frog in the skillet who cannot recognize the heat. Intertwined into the community of churchman ship and in the world of relationships is this spirit of determinism. It can no longer be seen a help to theology but it is the cause of the depression of mens exalted views of God and the valuing of eternal things. We see that the bible does not really have integration as its change power structure in relationships. But the word describes a process of renewal, a transformation through weaning. Because mans natural addiction to ableness is to integrate this paradigms peremaders far and near are  bondage and extend not farther than fatalistic ends. The out growth of these communities create the paradigms of determinism and fatalism. The bible calls us to add to our faith by weaning. As a child is weaned from its mothers milk, so we are weaned from the rudimentary structures of thinking of this world. We graduate from milk to strong meat. The process is to be wean slowly from our love for this world to a love for another world. We go through weaning by a change in the very core of our being. We are being changed with a new set of desires. Our view of God is foremost in the weaning process. Even tho we have new life and we have the ability to see spiritual things and spiritual truth, we still need to go through a process of sanctification in order the grow into adulthood. Our baby views of God are under much of the old life, we are not really convinced consistently about His forgiveness ,love ,faithfulness, goodness, holiness, and presence. In the renewal process we experience sensations that are part of the process of our viewing God as God. These desires cause us to be still. To be like a weaned child with its mother. The process of stillness is a peace that comes as a result of our view of the importance of Gods attributes in their effecting us and creating a new image in our hearts. That is the image of Christ. When we learn to wean the biblical way, integration will not be our natural spiritual renewal mechanism. But we will learn to love God by viewing Christ as His image through weaning away from all of the things that blur that view. In grace weaning we learn more and more that our loves are changing from the core of our desires. We will see new views of ourselves, our relationships, and of the world and the things of this world. When we learn to wean away from this world we are going to be able to face trials as under the hand of Gods loving discipline rather than fatalism. We will naturally learn to let go of the idols of our hearts by weaning as we grow in our desires for Christ. As we learn to wean we will learn to rest in Him. Our views of our minds are changed. We learn to view Him as all important, and we learn to view relationships, things in this world, struggles and all of the physical problems as reasons to desire Him and His glory in our mournful experience. In that mournful experience we are learning to view these things differently so that we will not be anxious about our lives. As we wean away from sin, the world and the Devil, we will understand the proper views of these paradigms in our view with our spiritual eyes.

7263	Forums / Theology Forum / The "imago Dei"	on: July 09, 2007, 06:35:54 PM
If God in His essence had a body then He could be contained, Christ would be spread all over the universe. God would be subject to being in one place while not being in another place. Gods perfect idea of Himself is duplicated in His image. There is God and then there is an idea of God. There is not distinction between His essence and His acting.  Just like our understanding of the truth is our idea about ourselves. We to have our own image of ourselves. But Gods image of Himself is so perfect and so pleasing, and above anything we could image that He desires to have fellowship with His duplicated image being one is essence ,The Father, Son , and Holy Spirit. He derives pleasure from Himself being His own object .  Yet God in His essence has not a body like man. He has no parts. God is a spirit. He is eternally present everywhere with that space being filled by all of Him

7262	Forums / Theology Forum / The "imago Dei"	on: July 10, 2007, 09:22:29 AM
\"God is a spirit. \" He is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient- Just because we do not see the spiritual world does not mean that they are not visible. There is another realm that includes all of the angels and the heavenly host. The bible uses anthropomorphism to describe these these beings. But if we were allowed to see these heavenly armies we would think differently about how we face the problems in this world and what we think of the importance of trust in any given situation that we find our selves in. The ot is a record of earthly judgments and God saving His people and bringing them back to the temple worship. And if we were able to see the armies of heaven as they did we would think differently about how Gods sovereign actions are absolutely without real resistance. Gods armies are thousands of thousands of chariots. He alone stands head and shoulders above any earthly rulers and kings. When God decides to act in behalf of His people there is no one powerful enough to stand against His armies. In fact for God it is as simple as saying a word of deliverance that changes history. Just as He melts the snow by His word, so He delivers His people by that word. One of the evidences of really believing in Gods power and our inability is when we hope alone in His word. Whether it is His revelation, or it is the practical outworking of His promises, we know that when He speaks we will be saved, when He commands we will have victory. The circumstances in our lives are only as stable as God speaking a word. There is nothing in faith that gets in between God and His spoken word that changes history. How many times did God send an earth quake and by His command for the earth to swallow up the enemies of Israel? How many times did God swoop down with His heavenly angels and destroy the enemies of Israel. Not only did Israel praise Him, but the enemies of Israel gave Him glory. Because of Gods deliverance, He set Himself up in the temple of Israel, bringing with Him all of the captives in Israel and set up His supernatural rule in the temple. He ruled the nations from that temple by His word of prophecy, and His word of deliverance. The only response to His deliverance was to praise and worship Him as He deserved.

Everything that we are dealing with in life is from the hand of God. If it were not then some of us would have something to boast about, being confident in our ability to get something accomplished that others seem to struggle with all of their lives. The voice of condemnation comes from the religious and the self righteous and not from the children and the bums and prisoners. God promises to be the under girder of the helpless, lonely and the fatherless. It is not in our own ability that this is accomplished. But it is strictly because He is gracious. If we could do a righteous act in ourselves then we could be proud of our ability to be better than everyone else. But God convinces us that it is He alone that is good, He alone that deserves the praise, and that everything we accomplish is done because of His grace. We are convinced of this not because of our doing anything good, but because His Spirit by regeneration reveals this principle of inability. When we look back at our works we praise God for His teaching us, his enabling us and His giving us the grace for doing good. We are like the people who run a marathon. At the end of the race when we cross the line, awaiting us is a Father who is always gracious, always forgiving, always encouraging and always ready to give us strength for the next race. If our Father was waiting for us always preaching condemnation, responsibility , and repentance then we would slack in running the race. But believers who live in Gods house are always strengthen in the race by what awaits them at the finish line. Thats why we win all the time.

7259	Forums / Theology Forum / Orthodoxy - Chesterton	on: July 11, 2007, 07:55:22 PM
Our view of reality is very limited because we cannot comprehend the entire scope of the people and things that effect our lives. We are finite and we live in an infinite universe. We cannot even understand the mind of God at the level of His working in those things that are unseen so that we are passing through this spiritual dullness with the maximum amount of the effect of Gods presence as bright as it could be not close to piercing the darkness of our present surroundings and circumstances. It is like Christ walking on the earth, the glory of God, yet veiled. And even when the apostles were given a glimpse of that gloriousness in those tabernacles of heaven, yet that did not match what is Gods view of things in this world. There must be a place that we can go to taste and experience something above what we see in this world, and what we feel as a result of being encumbered by being trapped in this flesh and the corrupted understanding from our limited view of the realness of eternal things because of our inward dark experiences. We are more apt to draw conclusions by what goes on inside of our souls, being so unaware of all of the intricate details that transpire around us because we are limited in our space in our so, so,  small world. God offers us a glimpse of eternity. Its not just what happens to our souls as a result of salvation but it is what happens to our view of eternity outside of our little world that is being changed. And yet all of these things that we cannot possibly know being finite , are transpiring around us for our good by a greater person with an eternal view. We only understand that concept as we grow in our faith, because faith is seeing things that are unseen. Our view of life in this finite space is dependent upon seeing these things through Gods revealing them to us. And we know they are as real as those things that we can touch, taste and feel. We are so prone to be captivated by our inwardness and our finiteness that we fail to rise above these dispositional prisons. And yet we are able to rise up above these very limited view of reality by the amount of assurance we are able to have in that revelation. What we sometimes do is limit our ability to rise above our limited view because we either do not understand the nature of this assurance, or we limit God by placing limits on His divine assurance that He has never said He would limit to us, or we are under a great burden or trial so that we are only left to morn under the weight of this dark experience rising up only a small amount but then being under the confusion once again. If we learn to be assured by God speaking to us through His word, then what we know about this assurance will become more and more personal to us so that we will be convinced by our faith having an experiential aspect that is beyond normal. Being convinced of things unseen is being under the power of those unseen things. And being assured while under that power brings about a supernatural ability to know those things having a greater understanding of what will transpire around us in the future. We will be less trusting of our own way and more resting in His power.

7252	Forums / Theology Forum / Stages Of Spiritual Growth	on: July 13, 2007, 03:49:11 PM
Its really not self will as opposed to unselfishness as ending in maturity. But all of us are mixed with these tendencies in all the stages because we are sinners and we rationalize rationality by purely speaking in terms of the control of the mind as a way to measure maturity. I believe that i go in and out of all of these stages all the time. There is a straw man here,which is a fatalism in rationalism, that what is defined by experience of counseling is not entirely the truth. Quote You're right about all of that.  Once I realize how sinful I have been in my disbelief, how much I ask of Him for more evidence, after all He's done....the spiral continues. Joker mentioned something about just emptying myself of everything....something like that.  Reasonated with me.  I imagine myself coming to Him covered with heavily deodorized filth and accepting His acceptance of me, without changing a thing. And that changes me.  Sometimes the change amazes me and I get the evidence after all.  For example, the other day, I took a guy, who will probably sue me, to lunch and hung out with him.  For a guy (me) that is prone to anger and hostility, that astounds me.  That's my supernatural miracle for the month.  I'm more impressed with that than healing cancer. Of course, ask me next week how I'm doing.  If I'm still good, it is also by God's grace.  Someone said that it takes more of a miracle of God to change someone's character than it does to raise them from the dead.  I think that's true.  It is for me. You make a good point cc. Too many times we try to advance in our spiritual lives without really understanding what God is trying to do. We either presuppose on His will in our lives by going ahead in some kind of quick step approach, or we ignore the problem, remaining in a condition of hardness. I have found that both are from guilt and will just drag us away from Gods goodness and grace. God has provided healing and forgiveness in Christ work on our behalf. There should be full relief in Him with a reliance on His working relationships out in His time in us. If we are doing in and out of guilt which we often mix with His grace, then we are not going to respond in knowing just how terribly unable we are to advance and how absolutely we need His power to do the advancing. This lessen is best learned first before we can advance.

7242	Forums / Main Forum / My Philosophy	on: July 16, 2007, 12:14:51 PM
There is a lot more to human experience than exercising choice. If everyone in the room believed in free choice then everyone would have his own standard of what freedom was. Just total free choice seems to me to be the philosophy of anarchy. I mean it would be morality according to the majority of choices according to what the group chose. And being responsibility of the choices would be according to what the morals of the majority would allow. Just because your choice of occupation or of the good things that you want for your life is determined by your ability to be able to choose those things, might not be the same for everyone. So whos to say that your standard of choosing is the rite way? Theres got to be a reason to choose because there are other causes why you choose what you choose that are outside of your ability that if you were not aware of these other causes then you would be blind to how unable your will was in the freedom of choice. So you got to look at these other causes outside of yourself in order to get a real view of your abilities.

^{Ps 19 1}  The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

The Psalmist is teaching that the entire creation is a display of Gods law, covenants, curses, statutes, decrees and promises. The visible creation is pronounced into existence by Gods perfect word. Everything is described by God who governs the creation as it is put into motion according to His perfect will. The theologians teach that Ps 19 is describing Gods natural and special revelation. The Psalms are written as the means by which man rules over Gods creation. As we think thoughts after God in pronouncing the Psalms we are able to overcome all opposition.

Everything that is created is spoken into existence. God speaks all things into existence with perfect knowledge and understanding. He shows forth His love and faithfulness in ordering all things in perfect unity for reasons that are beyond the understanding of man. God has revealed His reasonableness as we pronounce His law, covenants etc. The natural man views everything according to the physical world. But the Psalmist is teaching that God governs all things according to the communication of the meta physical actions of His perfect pronouncements. 
⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure
and altogether righteous.
¹⁰ They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.

As we speak these pronouncements we are returning to our original identity as Gods governors over creation.God created man to rule the creation in the holistic unity of thought, action and emotion. Man was able to govern himself in the description of Gods perfect law.  He experienced the continuous breath of new life, establishing his own authority in speech and action, developing a perfect culture as he spoke Gods perfect word, being perfectly aligned with Gods will as man gave names to all of Gods creation, having perfect fellowship with God according to the truth, and pleasing God by upholding His perfect law. Man experienced the highest pleasure as he ruled the creation without opposition.

God and man were united in the perfect description of His creation. Gods creation was a display of His glory in His perfect work.  Man was able to understanding the images of all things according to His glory.  But the first sin was mans attempt to redefine Gods perfect word. When man began to create false images, he introduced destruction. The value of all things is upheld by Gods description. Man began to devalue Gods creation in redefining His perfect word. When man fell into sin God upheld His law by cursing the creation. God reestablishes His original purpose of His government in gifting man with His creation by renewal. In the fallen world all false communication is cursed. The inability of man to meet the standards of Gods description of the creation was put to death in the incarnation and crucifixion. So the Psalmist is experiencing the extreme conflict as he pronounces the curses upon all the opposition.    ¹² Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults". In other words because of our fallen nature we think pragmatically. But Gods governs all things according to His pronouncements. So as the Psalmist is pleased to recreate the world by the pronouncements , he is transformed to wrestle as he overcomes the extreme destructive power of the curse in the curse of the law and reestablishes Gods perfect description in recreating the world according to the pronouncements. The Psalmist is drawn into the extreme practice of cursing and blessing according to Gods view.  The Psalmist experiences the breathing of new life in these extreme effects of the pronouncements. ¹⁴ May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.