Advancing in the SPIRITUAL life........

[Mooky]

People tend to through around tradition all the time like it is a bad thing and use it as a blanket term for anything they disagree with. When Jesus was talking about tradition to the Pharisees, he was talking about those who made void the Word of God for the sake of their man-made tradition.

Those who use this as a blanket term are really doing the same thing. Any set of practices or beliefs they cling to are in fact a tradition and many times they use it to overthrow the Word of God, very much like the Pharisees. They use it as a means of attack against anyone who disagrees with them.

The entire church is dependent on tradition that was given by God, taught by Jesus, and passed on to the Apostles to the church. These traditions are in compliance with sound doctrine/teaching/instructions that are required to walk upright and without error in the faith given to us.

Rather than depend on some mystical Gnostic idea of obtaining knowledge, why can't we just adhere to the sound teachings of Jesus and the Apostles laid out clearly in scripture for our benefit? Why do we have to have all of these bizarre stories of visions and dreams and why does our faith have to be validated by some unconfirmible miracle or sign?

I think it's important that we retain our traditional roots to the first century church and the Apostles and Jesus.

Amen,Forthangel.It makes me think of these " John the Baptist" types - who refuse to come under the authority of a local church and who pooh pooh any insinuation that the bible they so eagerly tout to others, was in fact sovereignly handed down to them by many godly men of old and through much blood ,toil and persecution.Some one needs to burst their little religious bubbles!

 

[FreeNChrist]

Doctrine is an intimate knowledge of Christ. A personal relationship with the creator through His word.

From my experience, we can't just sit and pray and never open His word to get to know Him. The majority of us are going to have to make choices and give up some of our time and study. For those trapped on an island or do not have access to His word I am sure the Lord provides.

Proper doctrine centers us on Christ, not on itself. When doctrine becomes the focal point instead of Jesus it will always lead to fleshly behavior.

For most of the last 2000 years the vast majority of people have been trapped on an island as far as having the ability to read...and as far as having anything to read even if they could, let alone a bible to read. Do you really want to assert that it is only those who can read and have a bible who can have a personal relationship with the Creator?

 

[Grandpa]

Praying to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is how you advance. Abiding in Christ.

Simple.

Reading the Bible and doctrine are to help you understand what the Lord has done in you, who you are in Him, etc...


Everything the Lord has shown me in prayer, everything He has said, is backed up in His Word in the Bible. I am one of those types who must know, who leaves no stone un-turned.

Is this real? Is it in the bible? What, exactly, does it mean?

Ohhhhhhh....


If you gathered up all the people on this forum and took everything that the Lord Jesus personally showed each individual we would probably have re-occurring themes running through all of them. Namely, the Love of Christ for the individual.

What happens is, we run everything through our filter of our own understanding. We can't help it. Its how we work. We only see a small portion of the picture but our understanding wants (demands) to see the whole thing. So our understanding kind of paints in the stuff we don't see. This is conjecture. And we all do it. We think it is an educated guess and our educated guess is obviously better than someone elses. Obviously... lol


When we come to Christ, this conjecture and "educated guess" diguised as "facts", gets painted over with Real Spiritual principles.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Matthew 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

 

[ladylynn]

Agreed. BUT, it is not the actual deed that is rewarded, it is the motivation or THINKING behind the deed that is rewarded.

lust of the flesh. Most think that it is always some sexual sin. But the lust of our flesh is also approbation lust. Approbation of men or approbation of God.

If I feed the poor and am seeking approval of men or seeking approval of God, my "good" deed is worthless. But if my feeding the poor came through the motivation of the Spirit and faith.....it is counted as Divine good and it glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.

So it is not the actual physical deed that is rewarded it is our motivation behind the deed.

And feeding the poor doesn't advance us in the mind of Christ or the unique spiritual life. I could feed the poor every single day and will never learn that it may just be wood,hay and stubble in the end. Only the mind(His word/bible doctrine) of Christ can teach us that.

True Gr8grace. AND.... When we are asking God to let us have opportunity to serve and He gives it., we begin to realize the motives deep inside and it grieves us and we go to God and ask Him to allow our love to more like His. To have the kind of love He has for us to give others so we can serve with a pure heart motive that is not seeking it's own.

We then start to desire deeply to have the kind of love that He has because He loves us in all OUR weaknesses. We see how He loves us and it puts within us the deep desire to love Him that way and to love others that way. So when people are mean or un loving to us., we see Jesus in us and then we are able to get on board and begin seeing the transformation. And along the way we have our realizations we are not there yet but we have HIS GRACE to be able to forgive ourselves knowing He forgives us and we can get back on the track again even stronger. No condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

Grace is an amazing way to be able to grow In Jesus. It is actually the only way to be able to see ourselves in our need to grow without hating ourselves in our weaknesses. Because He promised to help us in our weaknesses. Then we have compassion for those mean people who don't like us or even hate us or lie about us. All because we know we have been working through our capacities to give evil for evil too, and how much more satisfying to the spirit He put in us to be like Jesus. We love Him because He first loved us.

 

[Grace777x70]

Well said Grandpa!

When we "know" Jesus ( that is when the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus in His finished work to us by His word ) then those "facts" change to be living a life dependent on Christ's life inside of us. The "facts" ( if truly built on the revelation of Christ ) become a living Jesus inside us in essence. - that is truly "knowing" Him.

If these so-called "facts" of the traditions of men do not line up with the revelation of Jesus - then we have 2 choices - either we get rid of them and choose Him and what He has accomplished for us....or we make them "sacred cows"...the "sacred cows" of our lives will be defended vehemently when we reject the revelation of Jesus in our lives. This can be seen in many areas of teachings.

We trust the Lord Jesus and the Father by the Holy Spirit to work all these things out in our lives. He is faithful to us!

Philippians 1:6 (NASB)
[SUP]6 [/SUP] For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Praying to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is how you advance. Abiding in Christ.

Simple.

Reading the Bible and doctrine are to help you understand what the Lord has done in you, who you are in Him, etc...


Everything the Lord has shown me in prayer, everything He has said, is backed up in His Word in the Bible. I am one of those types who must know, who leaves no stone un-turned.

Is this real? Is it in the bible? What, exactly, does it mean?

Ohhhhhhh....


If you gathered up all the people on this forum and took everything that the Lord Jesus personally showed each individual we would probably have re-occurring themes running through all of them. Namely, the Love of Christ for the individual.

What happens is, we run everything through our filter of our own understanding. We can't help it. Its how we work. We only see a small portion of the picture but our understanding wants (demands) to see the whole thing. So our understanding kind of paints in the stuff we don't see. This is conjecture. And we all do it. We think it is an educated guess and our educated guess is obviously better than someone elses. Obviously... lol


When we come to Christ, this conjecture and "educated guess" diguised as "facts", gets painted over with Real Spiritual principles.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Matthew 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

 

[ladylynn]

duh.........

Although I wouldn't have put it that way SAVEDBYGRACE, I did think it. The point being made is the love of God in Jesus Christ is what shows Jesus clearer than anything. It keeps our words soft and our attitude towards others calm. Love is much more difficult to show genuinely than the works of the flesh because Agape love is a manifestation of God working IN US.

I've been put to shame by the active love shown by those who were not all that learned up in the Bible. They didn't know certain doctrines by name or as far as history or the names of the certain heroes of the faith or the meaning of certain theological issues. But they did have such a grasp on the love of Jesus that was evident in their loving, living and giving to people around them. They actually walked humbly with their God. And oddly enough, they are always teachable!!

They exhibited "JESUS" much more than I ever did in the many years I was saved. Certain Christians have always down played "LOVE" as if it were easy smooth milk of the Word for babies. They make fun of those wishy washy Christians who are always talking about loving God and people and they never even went to Bible school!! shocker!!

LOVE is the MEAT of the Word. To actually have love for others above ourselves is a learned lesson from Jesus Himself. And only comes from those who walk with Him regularly and consistently. That kind of love can't be faked. It cost waaaay too much if you love yourself more. But if you know you are loved by Jesus you can love Him back AND be able to love others freely because your love is a reflection of the love given to you from God. God's love is not selfish or self seeking and it is very priceless in a person to see.

 

[ladylynn]

There are literally dozens of videos with testimonies of people meeting Jesus ( with no knowledge of scripture ) now after He ascended to the Father ( Paul met Him too ).....now just to put the "twisters" of words to bed...these people need to be searching the scriptures daily to see if what is being told to them is true after meeting Jesus...I have written many times about the importance of being Berean-like and backing everything up with scripture.

Jesus loves people and He does anything He wants to make Himself known to them....He is doing amazing things because of His great love!

[video=youtube;Dd5T41ThPo4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd5T41ThPo4[/video]

God has an awesome sense of humor. God puts the injured terrorist who was on his way to recruiting people; into the hospital where all the caregivers say ., "we are going to take care of you" (sounds like the Mafia in America and sounds like muslims to this man when you know they will kill you)

Then the Dr. puts him up in his own house in a lovely room. This same dr. supports Jews even (LOL) and this man ends up cooking for them. LOL. Later the man is totally baffled since he was taught so differently about Americans in the U.S. and ends up hearing from Jesus. Awesome story. Jesus Saves. Amen.

 

[Gr8grace]

Proper doctrine centers us on Christ, not on itself. When doctrine becomes the focal point instead of Jesus it will always lead to fleshly behavior.

For most of the last 2000 years the vast majority of people have been trapped on an island as far as having the ability to read...and as far as having anything to read even if they could, let alone a bible to read. Do you really want to assert that it is only those who can read and have a bible who can have a personal relationship with the Creator?

Proper doctrine or bible doctrine is Jesus Christ. I think most in this world equate it to theology or systematic theology.

True bible doctrine is the mind of Christ and the person of Jesus Christ.

For those who couldn't or can't read.....................God has appointed some as teachers. Anyone who wants the truth......God gets it to them.

 

[FreeNChrist]

Proper doctrine or bible doctrine is Jesus Christ. I think most in this world equate it to theology or systematic theology.

True bible doctrine is the mind of Christ and the person of Jesus Christ.

For those who couldn't or can't read.....................God has appointed some as teachers. Anyone who wants the truth......God gets it to them.

I agree that no one is beyond the reach of God.