Barry, there was a truly great teaching last night on Channel 8,
Oddesey, which I certainly prefer to the established alternative. Some ordinary middle road preacher I see all the
time, but no wonder. When you listen--wow. O.K. He's talking
about sin--gosh, I wonder why? Huh? A man can no longer go
to the store to buy milk for his children without seeing more
soft porn in advertisements along the way than a man in the
50's saw his whole life unless he was out scouring the gutters for it, and this is something the entire church needs to be praying their
heads off about as it is ONLY THE BEGINNING I fear--and he
said in a teaspoon here: Don't get on your knees real quickly each night, or quick prayer before sleep, parrotting "Oh Lord forgive me
of my sins today." Sin is separation from God, and confessing, the
word confessing itself means "a word that is the same", in other
words, the exact meaning in the hebrew or greek was to agree with
God that that which HE ordained as wrong and leading us in the
wrong direction was something we had experienced that day to some extent and also agreed with God that we were better off not doing it now or later, for sure, for sure. THAT is repentance.
Such a good point. To spell out that which we know to be wrong,
and to admit to God that we agree with him, and to purpose in our
hearts to not think, look, or act in that direction again, WITH HIS
HELP, of course.
Such a good, good point.
Then this precious man who honestly looks like he married the
first girl that ever looked at him and doesn't even know there is
any fun to be had outside of the church house, says in a loud and
honest voice, "But I do not have a fallen sinful nature and I believe" ...that concept is a lie, that man has a fallen, sinful nature
he is constantly battling with. He said "I have a natural man nature.
That natural man lives in this body, has five senses, and the normal
human desires and wants for food, shelter, and of course..." and
he said that the natural man is always looking out for himself, in
so many words was my understanding, always wanting his own way, but Christ has completely overcome the natural man's hold
on us, through the Holy Spirit, and that it is very easy to live without sin, period. It's just easy as breathing, really. Just don't go
looking for it, and God will keep it from seeking you out, I've found.
And I agree. The natural man or woman exists because
without it we would go sit on a hillside smiling toward heaven and
be found dead. That's what the hindus do in caves for their
extreme religious neuroses, and we are not designed for religious
neuroses, but joy unspeakable and full of glory and the half has
never yet been told!!!!!!! Hallay---luyah!!!!!!!!!
What a peaceful and contented life it is to not live in a rock
tumbler. I noticed sadly that one of the biggest selling consumer
goods in America now probably is over the counter and prescription drugs to counteract the depression and insomnia of sin. Also the associated therapies, psychics, etc. We have become a race of ignorant pagans, I believe, and we may yet
give the Middle Ages a run for the money as to which time period
was the darkest.
The problem is that the darkness bred an Age of Saints. They were all over the place, changing the face of Europe, and Francis even
travelled with a templar ship filled with the warrior monks, the
Knights of God, a king who was nearly a Saint himself, Louis VII
(I think the VIIth) and what a time that must have been. Then
they get to Egypt and Francis walks in unescorted to the camp of
Saliman (my brain is off this morning, I've packed too much data
into it and it never had that many megs anyway).
There the high general of the Islam forces sits and discusses Jesus with him, feeds him, and sweetly escorts him to the outside once again after many hours, and later wrote in his journals that he
believed Francis was very sincere.
Remember that the Knights of God when captured had one alternative: renounce Christ or have your head chopped off outside the prison door. So I believe Francis was more than a tiny
bit aware of the danger, and probably had to sneak away to even
be able to do it without a huge contingent of knights attempting
to go with him out of Christian duty.
This happened. It is not fable.
More of such spirit is needed right now. Agreed? Anyway, my
mind travels through space at the speed of light. Sorry. |
