As I approach the end of my mortal life my one fear is that that being able to see I might yet fail in my witness; to be just a talker and just an arguer about Truth and not a doer, and this fear constantly makes me return as best I am able to the obedience of the two Great Commandments as outlined by Jesus. He said they summed up the whole of the Law and the Prophets and that obedience to those Commandments offers that which I most desire which is to spent all eternity in the presence of our Triune God. 24/7 I need to continually remind myself of that fact through prayer and witness.
I'm a simple believer who believes the words of Jesus in God breathed scripture above all counter arguments. By doing so my soul is at peace with both God and man.
You want context? The Word, the Bible, is the context for all guided by the Holy Spirit.
I would not ask for context from our Lord were He to speak to me. I would not ask for it from any of the final Twelve, and I do not ask for it from any passing love in the Gospel by the Holy Spirit.
This should be your context, not an intellectual challenge.
Do not destroy yourself with what is falsely called knowledge.
I possess the curse of an enquiring mind combined with a diminished level of patience and have to live with that fact. In Truth I know that I am saved through the saving Grace of Christ. However, as Paul so eloquently put it: I now see things only darkly as through a mirror and now know only in part. When the time comes I will know fully as I'm fully known and see things as they really are. I hope I won't be too surprised.
Patience I possess only in short measure. The Biblical reference to patience (longsuffering) as a virtue can be found in Galatians 5:22-23 KJV “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”. A lack of patience is my particular thorn in the flesh and in spite of many requests in prayer I so far have received no help. But I must be patient!
Man's tendency is to offer a solution. But you, with an inquiring mind, already know it. In this case my only response is to say "welcome to the club". I (1951) too have a number of "thorns", but Paul has claimed the post of "chiefest of sinners". I think this seeming lack of progress in our weakest areas has been taken into account by our most gracious God. Not that I advocate any relaxing in our attempts to please Him and go His way, but if Paul, in Philippians Chapter 3, was not yet where he ought to be, and this, just three years before his martyrdom, then I think that you and I both will not see that perfection we want to see.
Go well bro.
Thank you for your understanding. The continuation of Paul's thorn is my abiding consolation.
If they were not convicted then why did they hide themselves? And why did they fear the only one whom they had fellowship with.
The Lord in his mercy exiled them from the garden( least they eat of the tree of life and live forever in a fallen state).
The law could never save anyone it was written to know God's standards. It was written by the finger of God into stone. The stone represents man's heart. Some say it was only for the Jews I say not so.
You would have to admit that even before you came to know the truth deep down inside of you you knew it was not ok to lie, to murder, to steal, but yet we do.
Christ fulfilled the law not for himself but for us presenting himself as a perfect sacrifice for us also.
Repentance is a action not just a verbage. It means to turn away from, to decline , to reject, to have a change of heart. In Paul's words to put the old man to death.
As we find out through the teaching of our Lord on the sermon on the mount that the moral law is much deeper than its face value. Murder, adultery, ECT can have spiritual consequences.
I don't think it is about neglecting the needy brother.
It is about being repentant towards God.
Lazarus was at the rich mans gate for a reason.
The rich man knew Lazarus by name, perhaps friendly enough to know his name giving to him on occasion, i suspect.
It did not portray the rich man as being mean or cruel to Lazarus or even unkind.
But Lazarus lot in life was a bad one, yet he was repentant and found comfort in the next life.
But people who's lot in this life being a good one, plenty of food, shelters, strength and health to work, having more then most everyone else in the world, Nice things, perhaps a new car with dressed in purple and fine leather, they are rich by comparison but in the end their riches are worthless, a distraction from their true spiritual condition in life.
part of why it is hard for a rich man to enter into heaven, he thinks he has something of great value and in his heart is unwilling to part with it in order to receive what is of real value.
That's my take on it.
As I approach the end of my mortal life my one fear is that that being able to see I might yet fail in my witness; to be just a talker and just an arguer about Truth and not a doer, and this fear constantly makes me return as best I am able to the obedience of the two Great Commandments as outlined by Jesus. He said they summed up the whole of the Law and the Prophets and that obedience to those Commandments offers that which I most desire which is to spent all eternity in the presence of our Triune God. 24/7 I need to continually remind myself of that fact through prayer and witness.
But people who's lot in this life being a good one, plenty of food, shelters, strength and health to work, having more then most everyone else in the world, Nice things, perhaps a new car with dressed in purple and fine leather, they are rich by comparison but in the end their riches are worthless, a distraction from their true spiritual condition in life.
I think the contrast is not have/have nots, the contrast is the world at that time, and the world at this time with the world when the oppression is gone. The riches of life and the theophany sfumato which is a world of unoppressed and unmisled people precludes many the rewards of the riches you can achieve surrounded by oppression, stratification and fulfillment, not only of possession but of fellowship, and relationship fruit. Imagine the best person you ever met. Now imagine that person having never been hurt by another or having never hurt another, imagine them never regretting a moment of their life, now imaging a world of these people. Now you can wonder, what remains of society and existance to earn?
The flesh is not reformed or transformed by God. His solution is for us to crucify it daily until it turns to dust again. Thus, after reading Romans Chapter 7 we should care for our bodies (for they make up Christ's Body), but its clamorings should be met with a relentless refusal - no easy task. Paul say in Romans 7 that it is subject to a Law and according to Galatians 5:17 this Law is prevailing.
Well has the Lord given us the Type of the flesh - Amalek.
"For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation" (Exodus 17:16)
Considering all of the Patience we have been shown how can we not.I possess the curse of an enquiring mind combined with a diminished level of patience and have to live with that fact. In Truth I know that I am saved through the saving Grace of Christ. However, as Paul so eloquently put it: I now see things only darkly as through a mirror and now know only in part. When the time comes I will know fully as I'm fully known and see things as they really are. I hope I won't be too surprised.
Patience I possess only in short measure. The Biblical reference to patience (longsuffering) as a virtue can be found in Galatians 5:22-23 KJV “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”. A lack of patience is my particular thorn in the flesh and in spite of many requests in prayer I so far have received no help. But I must be patient!
If we take Jesus at His word (and who dare not) there can be no forgiveness nor any improving of our lot in the afterlife for those who continually neglect the needy in this life. This warning was given by Jesus in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, recorded in Luke 16: 19-31
'There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.
But Abraham replied, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
He answered, Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
Abraham replied, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.
No, father Abraham, he said, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.
He said to him, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead'.
We neglect this warning, given by Jesus, at our peril.
yes its too late which is why Im not that big a fan of funerals, or seances where people expect the dead to speak to them.
Um they are dead. No you cant join them or get them back to the land of the living. Sorry.
So failing to give charity is equal with the only sin Jesus declared unforgivable..
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit..
Nope... Failing to do good is not an unforgivable sin and when people start to preach that they are preaching works salvation.. One a person accepts this teaching the works bondage wedge has been inserted into their lives and it keeps on getting banged in deeper and deeper as they fall away from the truth that it is by the Atonement of the LORD Jesus that one is saved..
According to strict interpretation of Biblical instruction, THERE IS NO HELL.
Before you, dear reader, submit to a knee-jerk reaction and complain of heresy - please consider the following:
What happens after death is either immortal life granted to those who've made peace with God in Christ, or absolute destruction in what is figuratively described as the Second Death (Revelation 20 & 21).
The idea of hell is nowhere promoted in the Bible.
Jesus does not manage a dungeon in the bowels of the earth and God does not get pleasure from torture. God kills. God does not enjoy torture as men do. Hades, as some call it, was actually the Greek god of the underworld. It is specifically a person/character NOT a place or destination of judgment. Look it up. This is but one example of a twisted myth to support a false doctrine - hell.
Examples of church manipulation of the hell myth are legion. Consider that words commonly associated with hell don't really imply eternal torture at all. Jesus spoke of gehenna, which was actually a waste dump outside of Jerusalem where unwanted refuse was destroyed in fire or eaten by worms. What is destroyed is permanently deleted (to use a modern equivalent term).
Fire, as in the Lake of Fire, is used as an analogy to earthly experience. Nothing long survives exposure to flame. If the reader knows of something that endures fire, then please send me a PM. I'd like to burn it in my car. Everything exposed to fire is destroyed. In the examples of Sodom and Gomorrah, not even ashes remain.
There is more, much more to this because the church has relied upon fear mongering for millennia to promote its power over us.
Nowhere does the Bible suggest that God offers immortal life to SINNERS. It is given only to those who accept it from Him, NOT to those who reject it. What sense does it make to say God gives immortal life to all? The Bible nowhere teaches that SINNERS will be given immortal life (for does not the idea of eternal punishment suggest eternal life - even of a torrid kind?)
ONLY GOD has immortal life ("who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light" - 1 Tim 6:16)
MANKIND dies like animals ("Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal" - Genesis 6:3a)
God means to have an end to SIN once and for all. If one does not repent of it in life, then it will be destroyed when one dies physical death.
Thus we now see revealed to us in all its glory and undeserved beauty the promise of the gospel - the GOOD NEWS of Christ's message to us that "whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." - John 3:16b
that's me, hollering from the choir loft.....
I do not know who you were addressing, so the context might be missing, but in any written instructions context is vital. If I say that the man is mad because he shouted for 45 minutes, I would be wrong even though he shouted for 45 minutes. Why? Because he was a soccer fan at a cup final. That was the context, and the man is not mad but an enthusiast.
More than 50% of the misrepresentation of scripture on this Forum is because brothers rip a verse out of context. I am in agreement that intellect alone will not get one to the bottom of a matter, but God gave us, who created us in His likeness, the ability to reason. And He built His great Book on this premise. "Come! Let us REASON" (Isa.1:18). Have you ever thought why? Well try this. On what basis can God forgive Israel their sins? Is He not a just Judge Who MUST apply the Law? Shall not all Israel go to the Lake of Fire? They have broken the Law AND they have rejected their Messiah and His atoning work. What is there then that allows God to forgive their sins?