An ordinary day turned into a great divine adventure for Simon Peter because of his willing obedience. He agreed to two seemingly insignificant requests which led to blessings for himself and countless others.
Peter had spent his night doing what he usually did: fish. But he hadn't caught anything all night long. After such useless labor, he was no doubt tired, frustrated, and ready to just pack it in and go home. However, Jesus wanted to borrow his boat so He could preach to the crowd that had gathered around Him. Peter knew there were other boats available, but Jesus has specifically asked for his boat and wisely Peter agreed. If you had been Peter would you have agreed? I would tend to do what I always do, I would have said, "But, Lord, there are so many other boats available for you to use, surely one of them will work at least as well if not far better."
God's requests can come when we least expect them and sometimes at the most inopportune times. We may find ourselves wishing that someone else would respond, thinking that it won't matter if Peter personally answers His call; just so someone does. Do you ever feel that way? I know I do but we must always remember that God's plans are always for our spiritual good (Jer 29:11).
Jesus' second request ... dropping down the nets one more time, involved Peter's livelihood. The fisherman in Peter replied, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets (Jn 5:5). Some versions have this "but because You say so." But Peter's obedience resulted in nets that were breaking as they overflowed with fish. By saying yes to the Lord's plan, he experienced both material and spiritual blessings which affected his colleagues as well as their families. The benefits, by far, outweighed any effort or inconvenience to Peter and his men.
Obeying God, even in the areas where we feel knowledgeable and skilled enough to handle the situation ourselves, is essential to enjoying His rewards and extending them on to others. What is the Lord asking of you today? And will you jump at the chance of doing something for Him, simply because He asked?
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The skies were beautiful and clear this morning when I had my Quiet Time out on the deck. The air was cool and I could just barely make out the sound of my neighbor's lawn mower. I'm getting to where I really look forward to sitting out there in the mornings. I usually like to get dressed first but today I just went out in my pjs and M's hoodie. After my devotionals I watered all my flowers and refilled the hummingbird feeder. I was going to go by the Thrift store this morning when I went out to the Post Office, but I completely forgot all about it. I'm just in the market for a few more dresses. Especially those with the high waistlines. I think they're called empress or princess waistlines. But they are so comfortable with nothing binding around my middle. Oh well, maybe I'll remember on Monday or if I go out tomorrow I'll check out the store. But I have no plans to go out tomorrow or for the entire weekend for that matter except for church on Sunday.
I got two wonderful books in today's mail. I almost had myself talked out of going to the PO today but finally decided I should go and now I'm so glad I went. I will probably finish both books by Monday and then will turn around and read them again. I reread a lot of books.
Last night when I set out the cat plates so I could dish up their dinners, I absent-mindedly set out Pretty's plate too. I haven't cried since so I'm making progress.
We had a nice bar-be-cue last night down at the church on the patio. We all ate burgers and hotdogs and then sang praise songs for about an hour so it was a very nice evening. The young woman that I'm discipling had a few really, really hard questions for me last night. She definitely wants rules to live by and I'm not so sure I'm the one that should be discipling her. The hardest question was what happens to aborted babies. I didn't know what to tell her on that one. The issue is a passionately-debated issue and one that I haven't yet fully decided for myself with Scripture to back me up. So I had to just tell her the truth, that I haven't completely decided but that there had been the life of God's in that tiny, unformed mass and that regardless of what happens to aborted babies they fall under God's Sovereignty. I mean she wanted the particulars: Will they be fully formed in heaven? As an adult or will they stay a baby until their mothers get to heaven so she can raise them? You know, the difficult questions for which I've never acquired a solid answer and for which an answer may not even be provided. I just told her that it was all in God's hands and that I trusted Him enough to have faith that He will work everything out in perfection. However it all turns out, God is the Almighty and He deals in righteousness and justice in ways that we sometimes don't fully understand. But that our salvation isn't dependent upon whether or not we have the answers to all our questions.
Then she asked if we were all Christians, why are there so many different denominations. Great question, don't you think? Why are we so divided that we break fellowship?? I felt like I needed to apologize to her about that. Like it was partly my fault. I stated unequivocally that there should not be divisions in God's family, but in our humanness we fail. My biggest problem I have with her is her father! He taught her that only 144,000 people were going to be going to heaven, 12,000 from each tribe. I had to ask her if she was absolutely sure her father wasn't a Jehovah's Witness because I feel like I am going to battle against JWs every time we talk. I spend most of my time trying to right the wrongs her father teaches her. I wanted to tell her to stay out of Revelation and stop talking to her dad, but of course I couldn't do that. Just pray for her for me, my dear sisters. She is such a baby believer and she is grappling with unanswerable theological issues that are hotly debated by the best minds at seminaries. At times I feel like she got baptized too soon, that she doesn't even grasp the very basics of salvation and what her baptism really means. She's ripe for the picking for a JW.
JWs have all the answers. You ask them any question and they'll have an answer and a verse to prove it. All it would take is one visit by a couple JWs. They can so smoothly answer all your questions and they make it make absolutely perfect sense. The devil really did his work in the JWs. You know the saying, the best lie is one that has elements of truth it in? That fits Jehovah's Witnesses to a Tee. Everything they teach is an incredible, skillfully-crafted lie from the father of lies. And Christine is so ripe for harvest to them. Everything they do is wrapped up in rules and someone who wants rules is so easily persuaded by them. I just wish they didn't sound so much like the truth. But Christine's questions were all about rules. Why do we have pictures of Jesus when the Ten Commandments say not to? Aren't the Ten Commandments supposed to last forever, that's what the Bible says? Why do we show pictures of angels with wings when the Bible says they don't have wings (that one was easy for me)? She is still at such risk! She is in danger of falling victim to smooth talkers of any cult or denomination that preaches a salvation by anything other than the work Christ did on the cross. She doesn't want to sit down and have a study. She just wants answers to these questions. She wants a rule book so she can play by the rules. You do believe this; you don't believe that. And I feel totally inadequate here. Pray for me.
Well I'm going to let this be it for my blog today. I probably won't post over the weekend because I'll have my nose buried in books. Such a treat! Not just one book, but two!!!
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5 comments:
I was wandering around the internet when I stumbled across your blog, and for random curiosity, began reading it.
Part of the answer to one of your questions exists in your own post.
There was the question "Why are we all divided?"
Just a few short sentences later, you said you wanted to correct the lies that her dad's denomination put in her.
Since shortly after it's conception (specifically with the advent of Paul), Christianity was plagued with people saying, "You should think this way. The way you're currently thinking is wrong." Jesus says you're saved by Grace, Paul says you're saved by works. This teaching says stay true to the Jewish beliefs, this one says they don't apply any more since what was unclean can be made clean.
Most of Christianity has turned into "I'm right, you're wrong"ers. When as put forth by Jesus, the two commandments above all others were "Love God" and second just like it "Love Eachother".
As the centuries wore on, eventually the fighting over 'my opinion is better than yours' lead to massive amounts of bloodshed. Those who didn't agree were killed off. Did this stop the arguing? No. Instead they argue about the specifics of they decided to 'agree' on. Usually when the previous answer was never satisfactorily decided by reasoning, only by killing off those who disagreed.
For example, in the early early church, after Jesus and before Paul was as well known as he was, it was unthinkable for a Christian to kill in any way whatsoever. In fact, the Christian Community (at the time considered a sub-sect of Judaism) forbid its members from joining any fighting force. Much much later, when emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of rome, he also made the religion mandatory to join the military. Those who disagreed with these policies were silenced with the full might of the Roman military fist.
The current religions of Christianity are built off of that past, a long past of people forcing their truths on others, but that's not what it was meant to be. In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made a very bold choice choosing the Samaritan as the hero of his story. Samaritans were considered dirty, unclean, heathens, adulterers, fornicators, etc. The equivalent in modern times of the Good Samaritan story would involve a gay hippie helping someone out stranded on the side of the road and robbed in the bad part of town.
The original Christianity was all about looking past people's sins, past the disagreements, and just loving them unconditionally. (Remember, the adulteress, Jesus said 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone', then he, the one without sin, after they left, instead knelt down and helped her.)
Remember that early phrase in Genisis? That we're made in God's image? The original word there, translated to image, is tselem. Image is a little vague in our writing, but tselem has a very specific meaning. It was something special set up by kings. The Tselem was blessed by the king to represent the king when the king wasn't able to be around, serving as the king for all practical purposes unless the king himself was present. I won't go into all the implications of this, but they're immense and missed by almost all of Christianity.
As another note, the nature of God was strongly debated back around the time the official Catholic church was formed. Before that time, there was no concept of Trinity in Christianity, yet it has stuck around so strongly. You can look through your scriptures, you won't find the word trinity anywhere. And for those who try to back up part of it by Jesus's saying "I am in the father and the father is in me", it should also be recalled that Jesus said, "Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me" and we are also taught that "we're the body of Christ". If the 'trinity' interpretation must be taken, it comes out as way more than three as each member of the fellowship makes up one third of it, but still basis for trinity is flimsy compared to some others. But most better supported by scripture appear nowhere in any modern Christian denominations.
What I'm trying to say with all this is no Christian denomination in over a thousand years has come even remotely close to what scripture says they should be like. So pointing to this one girl's father's misunderstanding is like the proverbial mote in another's eye while there is a beam in your own.
In my own journey of seeking truth, I've only come up with a few answers, but each one I come to is effectively a paradigm shattering revelation. If you truly seek the truth, you have to be willing to question everything, time and time again, and not put down the beliefs of others (I know I find it difficult, and still struggle with it to this day, its harder than it seems).
Although, as a word of advise from one who is walking the path of truth, I warn you, if you truly seek truth and righteousness, there will come a day when you must choose between following the crowd of "Christianity", or the direction Jesus leads in, which is often the complete opposite direction.
'lil joshu,
Thank you for the time you spent replying to my blog. I'm well aware that the word "Trinity" is not in the Bible. Neither is Theocratic or Theology, yet those words find definition in the Bible. There are a lot of words that we all use to state a concept that is biblical. Scripture is steeped in the Trinity. It's implication is there from Genesis to Revelation. In fact, as a JW I didn't believe in the Trinity but then when God called me out of that cult and I just began to read the Bible on my own I found that it is awash with the concept from beginning to end. One cannot read the Bible by itself and not come away with the sense of the Trinity. I firmly believe that. In fact, that was the first Truth that the Holy Spirit taught me. Just me and my Bible reading from front to back, without commentary, without man's teaching. Just me and the Holy Spirit. It didn't take long before I was seeing the Trinity almost everywhere I looked. It simply cannot be denied. If you don't believe in the Trinity then I strongly encourage you to get alone with your Bible and read through it again. Use no other text. Just read Scripture and the Spirit will reveal Himself to you. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are eternal beings and only God is eternal(without beginning or end). Scripture plainly states that the Holy Spirit is not an "it" but a "He." But if you don't get away with your Bible by itself, you won't see the Trinity for some things are "spiritually discerned."
I know why there are divisions in the universal church it was how to explain all to a baby Christian and make it understandable to her. She is making me use parts of my brain that I haven't used in many, many years. And for that I say, God Bless her! Thank you again for your comment. I realize you spent a lot of time with it.
Marj
I appreciate your response.
As a note though, what you suggested is what I had done that got me out of believing in Trinity. I read bible cover to cover, making notes of everything that effectively made me double take, and then went back later and compared what I had learned to my beliefs.
I've done this multiple times, both with scriptures only, and times with historical references. (As a note, I am a certified preacher, so most these kinds of research were required of me.)
Anyway, you may have missed stuff that I found view-altering, or I have missed stuff that you find important. But either way, I won't force my opinions on you. If you're not interested in other views, you can skip the rest of this comment.
Scripturally, the best description I have found for God is Pantheistic. Multiple times, scriptures tell us that God is in all things. (This right here is one of the defining features of pantheism). We are called the body of Christ, and Christ is one with god. What this means is that we are one with God. Somewhere right around Romans 28-31 it says, "For [those] whom [God] did forknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many Brethren." This shows that Jesus is not the only one of the 'Divine Family', but all, and in fact, that's been already decided. Effectively, God is in all things, God IS all things, and all things are in God. This is, what I have found to be, God's true nature.
(Oh, and for reference, the Holy Spirit is called by multiple names throughout scripture, one of my personal favorites is 'The Spirit of Wisdom'. And you're right about the Holy Spirit not being an 'it', but the Holy Spirit, in the original texts, if you go to the actual oldest biblical non-translated texts instead of one of the plethora of translations, the Holy Spirit is referred to as a 'She'. Also God's gender in scripture uses, alternatively, both male and female, most times in scripture when it mentions someone being 'held against God's bosom', the translators were being polite. The words they writers used is actually breasts with the most feminine connotation possible.)
'lil joshu...
If you have truly gotten alone with your Bible and you can't see the Trinity then I think for some reason God has chosen not to reveal Himself to you at this time. For I know with my whole heart and whole mind that the pages are saturated in the concept and the idea of the Trinity. I was a die-hard, disbeliever of the fact and God granted to reveal Himself to me in such a way that to my dying breath I will testify that the Trinity is, in fact, God in three persons.
I am aware that in the very early writings the gender of the HS is feminine. And I always think of the HS as the feminine side of God's nature.
The thing to remember is that the Trinity is a mystery and if we could figure it all out, God wouldn't be a mystery any longer. Our minds are finite, we are not like God. I am here to testify that there is a Trinity, not to explain it. I can only tell you what I know. I could sit here and debate Scripture until I was blue in the face but I would never be able to explain the concept of a Triune God. The fact remains that God revealed Himself to me in the three Persons at a time in my life when I thought there was no way anyone was ever going to get me to believe in the Trinity. But after God pointed it out time and time again as I read from Gen to Rev, it became an established fact, a reality that I cannot deny.
I could sit here and try to impress you with all kinds of debates and Scriptures, but I am not called to do that. I am called to say what I know, what has been revealed to me, through a very hard head that didn't want to believe, the very nature of God. God the Father is fully God. God the Son is fully God. God the HS is fully God and yet there are not three God's but one God in three Persons. The Bible presents that to me as Fact. It does not explain it. There is nothing that God is that the HS is not. All of the essential aspects of deity belong to the HS.
Do I believe this? Yes. Can I explain it? No. Do I understand it? Not fully. But I believe it. Or better put, I cannot deny it. Why would God reveal Himself to me in one way and to you another? I don't know; he doesn't come to me for counsel. I haven't the slightest idea why God does anything God does; except that He is God and God can do as He chooses. And He does things "when" He chooses. If you truly can't see the Trinity in Scripture then I am left with very few options. But if you approach the Bible in a teachable spirit and truly seek God, He will reveal Himself in all three Persons IN HIS TIMING! Why would God reveal Himself to me and not to you? I don't know but I think that's about what it boils down to.
Pantheism does not fit with what I know to be fact. And I can only go with what I know. How do I know? I know, because I know, because I know, and to believe otherwise I'd have to disregard everything that has been revealed to me. And how can I disregard it when it is staring me in the face every time I open the Bible?
Thank you for your comments. It feels good once in a while to tell it as you believe it, to put it into words. To testify to what you know to be the Truth.
First, I applaud the continued responses and that you evidently read through when I told that I was presenting my own viewpoint. It shows that you do seek truth, even if we disagree on some things.
Anyway, this gets back to the point about which I originally posted, the answering of your question about the division of the beliefs.
You said, "f you have truly gotten alone with your Bible and you can't see the Trinity then I think for some reason God has chosen not to reveal Himself to you at this time." This carries with it a heavy connotation of "My belief is right, and yours is wrong". which is the attitude that causes so much division among Christianity.
In my own personal testimony, God HAS revealed godself to me as Trinity (though not through scripture), but God has ALSO revealed godself to me as Pantheistic, a single entity only, and others, at different stages in my life. The reason I settled on Pantheism (and this is just me, you don't have to take this, and I fully understand following the Trinity view) was that is was the only view of God that had been shown to me that could contain all the others.
But off the Trinity/Pantheism topic, and more onto beliefs in general...
A modern parable I heard from one priest I heard once went as follows,
"A father had two daughters. His older daughter was a tomboy, playing football, hockey, and the like, and liked a good tussle. The younger daughter was a straight-A student, and spent her time reading books and in the intellectual pursuits. The father spent lots of time with both daughters, because he loved to spend time with them. With his tomboy daughter, he would play football, wrestle her to the ground or let her pin him, and give her noogies whenever she got past him when they played soccer in the back yard. He would also look up new sports training techniques to present to her, knowing they'd help her towards her dreams. When he spent time with the other daughter, they would debate the lessons of Socrates, look at the news and chat back and forth one the way things will eventually end up, and swap favorite reading books on a weekly basis. He would constantly present her new and interesting facts as she grew, and helped her train her study habits for the future. Now someone later asks the two girls whether their father is more of a jock or a nerd. The older daughter said her father was definitely a jock. The younger daughter said he was definitely a nerd. Which girl was lying?"
When the priest presented me with this modern parable, I was a bit taken aback by the question, and prodded the priest about it. The priest told me that many believe that the way they view God is the absolute way God and is how God works. They view others as a lie, or inherently wrong because it doesn't match what they have seen of God, most never considering that God is tailoring godself to them in order to be close to them or to guide their development in a specific way.
Also, another point I'd like to write with you one, when you said "The thing to remember is that the Trinity is a mystery and if we could figure it all out, God wouldn't be a mystery any longer. Our minds are finite, we are not like God." At this point, I will share part of my personal testimony. The scriptures teach, that if you knock, and the door shall be opened, seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given. If scriptures are to be believed, things don't have to remain a mystery. This was something I learned and experimented with at earlier stages of my journey and continue to grow on.
I asked God for the answers to the great mysteries. "What is your nature?" "Who are you really?" "Where did you come from?" "What is the purpose of creation?".
The answers I received were, "You're not ready", or "You're not capable of handling this".
After this, my prayer became, "Lord, please make me ready, and make me capable of handling the answers I seek, and then teach me the answers."
God answered. The period of my life that followed was filled with paradigm shift after paradigm shift. Trusty ideals I had held onto for most of my life were stripped away and left bare, revealed as the flimsy security blanket that they had been. Future plans crumbled and new ones appeared in their place in light of new thoughts. The process and path God lead me down was not easy. It was/is painful both mentally, spiritually, and even physically (in an intense 'growing pain' kind of way associated with the previous two). Who and what I am was completely ripped down, leaving the core of who I am bare, to be, meticulously and excruciatingly slowly built up by each individual piece of who I am.
I do not suggest the path of continually seeking truth easily. And again, I emphasis that if you don't wish to, it's fine, but that if you do, it will be difficult. Insanely so. Life is insanely easier if one remains oblivious.
At this point, to each one of the great mystery questions I have asked, I have received an answer. And not a, "Well, it's a mystery that you can't handle" answer, but the answer to the questioned asked. If someone asked me, "Where does God come from?" or "What is the reason for creation?" or "What is your nature?", for any of the questions I could answer in immaculate detail. However, the knowledge comes with a price besides the process of gaining it. It does require action. The way you live becomes changed, and nothing remains the same.
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