Thank you, Ashely, for not keep hidden in your prayer closet the remarkable communicative gift that the Lord has blessed you with. I often find myself being described in your spiritual musings, but I lack your ability to eloquently express them so richly. Once again we are joyfully strengthened and blessed as the Spirit of our Good Shepherd uses your gift to touch and comfort our hearts.
Most of our troubles - mentally, physically and spiritually - I've become convinced, come from our American culture - it's all about ME! Even the message I heard on Good Friday was that Jesus was our connection to God. Is that all there is? Jesus is our heavenly butler?
Crush Limbraw sounds a lot like "Rush Limbaugh". Jesus not only followed his own advice, but his followers did as well. When one discovers the kingdom, they suddenly have no need for money, currencies or even debt masquerading as currency (e.g. "This NOTE is legal tender for all blah, blah, blah, etc." Jesus didn't carry money with him. The gospel writer depicts him asking for a coin in order to teach one of his lessons. He explicitly points out that once you've discovered the kingdom, you will naturally give all your money to the poor and follow Christ. We know this is how his followers interpreted this saying because Luke records it in Acts 2:42-44. They "held everything in common" much like one might expect Communists to behave, but there's one glaring exception. Communists do not do this because they're begotten of the spirit, but because they've been forced to do it against their natural inclinations. This is why Communism never works, and it is also why you don't see very many people being born again.
The Holy Spirit does a much better job of producing real generosity. I don't think it relieves us of our need to work for a living (and excellent work is praised in scripture), but it does make it "natural" to give to and invest in kingdom-focused efforts using our time, talent or treasure. Any system that fails to recognize the truths about human nature and God will ultimately fail, communism being the poster child for such!
The Holy Spirit lifts the curse placed upon Adam's descendants to toil by the sweat of their brow. I marvel at how easy it is to wastefully cast seeds, kick some dirt over them, and just sit back and relax as they burst forth glorifying God's abundant grace.
I was walking down the street a few days ago and spied a few loquat trees in the parking lot of the local Habitat For Humanity. I asked one of the employees if it would be okay to pick a few. He cautioned me to be careful not to break any branches. Within just a few minutes a couple asked me what I was eating, and within less than ten minutes there were over a dozen people standing under that loquat tree with juice dripping off their chins staining their shirts, pants and shoes. In a few months that tree will have dozens, if not hundreds of seedlings sprouting up all around it.
It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if that tree has never had a single human being pick its fruit before that day. I run into people all the time who move into a home, can't afford groceries, yet are oblivious of the food growing in their own front yard. They still feel the need to toil for worthless pieces of paper. They can't see food when it's being freely provided for them. Our hearts are stone cold dead forever until such time as God chooses to pry them open and reveal the rot that only the gift of repentance can heal.
Someone once said that they would never sacrifice a bag of their garbage to save the world. The reason being that it's not a sacrifice. Likewise, a spirit-filled life doesn't allow one to work. Reaping God's blessings isn't work especially when reaping where one has never sown.
I don't care for theories of atonement, but it is astounding that Jesus took the worst---the worst pain, the worst betrayal, the worst abandonment, the worst humiliation, the worst death . . . and still was victorious. That speaks to me.
Atonement is a strange concept for modern and non-Jewish people to grasp. (Oddly enough, it is apparently common throughout human history, even among non-Christian faiths.) One thing that helped me to understand Jesus' atonement was understanding the Old Testament instructions for God's people, and you may already be familiar with this. God demanded blood atonement, and God specified the requirements for this priestly duty--which required atonement for the priest's sins, as well as for the people's. Once sinless Jesus went to the cross, the old sacrificial system was unnecessary (for those who trusted in Christ's finished work of atonement, once and for all).
The one thing I do understand well is my natural bent toward sinful thoughts and actions; that alone makes it difficult to understand why God would pursue me, yet he did. Thank you for your honest remark-- I think atonement is a tough concept for many of us to fully understand.
Anselm's theory of substitutionary atonement always made me think of God as being like a big capacitor, charged up with anger. He could not direct it toward humans, so the Son said something like, "I'll go down there and you can let it all go on me!" So he did, and God let it loose, and now He feels a lot better. As an artist, this seems rather mechanistic to me. I keep thinking that there has to be a better theory, one more in line with Jesus doing something in the "death plane" where God maybe could not go until he became human, and died? And yes, I am sinful, also ; I repent every day. And the blood---yes, whatever Jesus did to accomplish the atonement, the blood symbolizes it.
I attended my first Good Friday service last year, attended again this year, and I hope I never miss one again. Knowing, through the gospels, what Jesus willingly endured so that we believers could be saved from our sins and reunited with our Heavenly Father, makes celebrating His resurrection on Easter Sunday so much more joyous. He is risen! We are blessed to have a savior that loves us that much and a Father that loves us enough to allow His Son to be sacrificed as the Lamb of God, that the veil separating us from God could be torn top to bottom.
My doubts wax and wane with a whim or while I wallow in worry. The gospel message seems to vary depending on who is telling it. The possibility is presented that we 'might die to sin', but what else can death to sin mean other than a complete cessation from sin? For those who detest their inability to refrain from sin, the possibility of living a sinless life provides some with hope, but most immediately proclaim the most horrific caveat: "Not while you live and breath, but only after you die." Does that sound like good news to you? It doesn't sound like good news to me until I see that until I die to this world of puffed up egos, I'm still living for myself. Life becomes a continuous process of dying or self denial. It's not popular, but it seems to work.
The most glaring problem with this view is in noting that if Jesus took his own advice, the gospel really isn't about him personally. He isn't saying that self denial results in any need to preserve one's personality or personal identity. If this includes him, then it isn't Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life, but Jesus who no longer identifies with himself, but instead identifies with God's quickening spirit who is the way, the truth and the life.
We spend our lives investing in our identities which are literally nothing more than abstract constructions of the mind. A persona is defined as "a mask; what is presented to the world" and in removing that mask, Christ reveals the father ("when you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father"). Likewise, when we cast off our masks, it is Christ who rises from these bodies destined for death.
It would then appear that resurrection allows those who have been redeemed to see Christ in their neighbor's face. Is it possible that's what really happened in that upper room behind a locked door? Did those on their walk to Emmaus see the risen Christ with their eyes or was it due to 'the burning within our hearts"? (Luke 24:32)
Interesting thoughts, and I agree that unless we see how hopelessly sinful and self-focused we naturally are, we cannot understand what's so good about the "good news." For people who can't see a need for the gospel, Jesus is reduced to being a "good example" whose "teachings" are mysteriously and conveniently reduced to a couple remarks about "the poor."
Jesus is God's son, the second person of the Trinity, and his resurrection is a "first fruits" of what is to come for all those who trust in him. Jesus was clear that he is the way, the Truth, and the life--not just identifying with God's spirit in some way, but as the only way to right relationship with God. He is the Word who was present from the beginning, and through whom all things were made.
I do believe that true Christians see people in a fuller dimension. They see souls who either know God, or who may not yet know God. It gives all of life a distinct and gospel-informed purpose, for we are his ambassadors who bear the fragrance of Christ and who must be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us.
and I meant to agree with your first paragraph. I have struggled with those same thoughts before. However, I am encouraged to see that God is changing me, over time--greater sensitivity to sin, greater desire to know God deeply, quicker to repent, etc., even though, of course, I still battle sin. However, it seems even the Apostle Paul struggled with this same thing in Romans 7, only to provide the wonderful encouragement of Romans 8.
Thank you, Ashely, for not keep hidden in your prayer closet the remarkable communicative gift that the Lord has blessed you with. I often find myself being described in your spiritual musings, but I lack your ability to eloquently express them so richly. Once again we are joyfully strengthened and blessed as the Spirit of our Good Shepherd uses your gift to touch and comfort our hearts.
Well said, couldn't agree more.
Most of our troubles - mentally, physically and spiritually - I've become convinced, come from our American culture - it's all about ME! Even the message I heard on Good Friday was that Jesus was our connection to God. Is that all there is? Jesus is our heavenly butler?
May I introduce the REAL Jesus - https://crushlimbraw.blogspot.com/2024/03/he-is-risen-with-reminder-to-his-church.html?m=0 - He is our Lord and Master and we are His bond servants......to build His Kingdom of God. All other things will be added to us as He sees fit - PERIOD!
Crush Limbraw sounds a lot like "Rush Limbaugh". Jesus not only followed his own advice, but his followers did as well. When one discovers the kingdom, they suddenly have no need for money, currencies or even debt masquerading as currency (e.g. "This NOTE is legal tender for all blah, blah, blah, etc." Jesus didn't carry money with him. The gospel writer depicts him asking for a coin in order to teach one of his lessons. He explicitly points out that once you've discovered the kingdom, you will naturally give all your money to the poor and follow Christ. We know this is how his followers interpreted this saying because Luke records it in Acts 2:42-44. They "held everything in common" much like one might expect Communists to behave, but there's one glaring exception. Communists do not do this because they're begotten of the spirit, but because they've been forced to do it against their natural inclinations. This is why Communism never works, and it is also why you don't see very many people being born again.
The Holy Spirit does a much better job of producing real generosity. I don't think it relieves us of our need to work for a living (and excellent work is praised in scripture), but it does make it "natural" to give to and invest in kingdom-focused efforts using our time, talent or treasure. Any system that fails to recognize the truths about human nature and God will ultimately fail, communism being the poster child for such!
The Holy Spirit lifts the curse placed upon Adam's descendants to toil by the sweat of their brow. I marvel at how easy it is to wastefully cast seeds, kick some dirt over them, and just sit back and relax as they burst forth glorifying God's abundant grace.
I was walking down the street a few days ago and spied a few loquat trees in the parking lot of the local Habitat For Humanity. I asked one of the employees if it would be okay to pick a few. He cautioned me to be careful not to break any branches. Within just a few minutes a couple asked me what I was eating, and within less than ten minutes there were over a dozen people standing under that loquat tree with juice dripping off their chins staining their shirts, pants and shoes. In a few months that tree will have dozens, if not hundreds of seedlings sprouting up all around it.
It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if that tree has never had a single human being pick its fruit before that day. I run into people all the time who move into a home, can't afford groceries, yet are oblivious of the food growing in their own front yard. They still feel the need to toil for worthless pieces of paper. They can't see food when it's being freely provided for them. Our hearts are stone cold dead forever until such time as God chooses to pry them open and reveal the rot that only the gift of repentance can heal.
Someone once said that they would never sacrifice a bag of their garbage to save the world. The reason being that it's not a sacrifice. Likewise, a spirit-filled life doesn't allow one to work. Reaping God's blessings isn't work especially when reaping where one has never sown.
I don't care for theories of atonement, but it is astounding that Jesus took the worst---the worst pain, the worst betrayal, the worst abandonment, the worst humiliation, the worst death . . . and still was victorious. That speaks to me.
Atonement is a strange concept for modern and non-Jewish people to grasp. (Oddly enough, it is apparently common throughout human history, even among non-Christian faiths.) One thing that helped me to understand Jesus' atonement was understanding the Old Testament instructions for God's people, and you may already be familiar with this. God demanded blood atonement, and God specified the requirements for this priestly duty--which required atonement for the priest's sins, as well as for the people's. Once sinless Jesus went to the cross, the old sacrificial system was unnecessary (for those who trusted in Christ's finished work of atonement, once and for all).
The one thing I do understand well is my natural bent toward sinful thoughts and actions; that alone makes it difficult to understand why God would pursue me, yet he did. Thank you for your honest remark-- I think atonement is a tough concept for many of us to fully understand.
Anselm's theory of substitutionary atonement always made me think of God as being like a big capacitor, charged up with anger. He could not direct it toward humans, so the Son said something like, "I'll go down there and you can let it all go on me!" So he did, and God let it loose, and now He feels a lot better. As an artist, this seems rather mechanistic to me. I keep thinking that there has to be a better theory, one more in line with Jesus doing something in the "death plane" where God maybe could not go until he became human, and died? And yes, I am sinful, also ; I repent every day. And the blood---yes, whatever Jesus did to accomplish the atonement, the blood symbolizes it.
Excellent!
I attended my first Good Friday service last year, attended again this year, and I hope I never miss one again. Knowing, through the gospels, what Jesus willingly endured so that we believers could be saved from our sins and reunited with our Heavenly Father, makes celebrating His resurrection on Easter Sunday so much more joyous. He is risen! We are blessed to have a savior that loves us that much and a Father that loves us enough to allow His Son to be sacrificed as the Lamb of God, that the veil separating us from God could be torn top to bottom.
My doubts wax and wane with a whim or while I wallow in worry. The gospel message seems to vary depending on who is telling it. The possibility is presented that we 'might die to sin', but what else can death to sin mean other than a complete cessation from sin? For those who detest their inability to refrain from sin, the possibility of living a sinless life provides some with hope, but most immediately proclaim the most horrific caveat: "Not while you live and breath, but only after you die." Does that sound like good news to you? It doesn't sound like good news to me until I see that until I die to this world of puffed up egos, I'm still living for myself. Life becomes a continuous process of dying or self denial. It's not popular, but it seems to work.
The most glaring problem with this view is in noting that if Jesus took his own advice, the gospel really isn't about him personally. He isn't saying that self denial results in any need to preserve one's personality or personal identity. If this includes him, then it isn't Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life, but Jesus who no longer identifies with himself, but instead identifies with God's quickening spirit who is the way, the truth and the life.
We spend our lives investing in our identities which are literally nothing more than abstract constructions of the mind. A persona is defined as "a mask; what is presented to the world" and in removing that mask, Christ reveals the father ("when you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father"). Likewise, when we cast off our masks, it is Christ who rises from these bodies destined for death.
It would then appear that resurrection allows those who have been redeemed to see Christ in their neighbor's face. Is it possible that's what really happened in that upper room behind a locked door? Did those on their walk to Emmaus see the risen Christ with their eyes or was it due to 'the burning within our hearts"? (Luke 24:32)
Interesting thoughts, and I agree that unless we see how hopelessly sinful and self-focused we naturally are, we cannot understand what's so good about the "good news." For people who can't see a need for the gospel, Jesus is reduced to being a "good example" whose "teachings" are mysteriously and conveniently reduced to a couple remarks about "the poor."
Jesus is God's son, the second person of the Trinity, and his resurrection is a "first fruits" of what is to come for all those who trust in him. Jesus was clear that he is the way, the Truth, and the life--not just identifying with God's spirit in some way, but as the only way to right relationship with God. He is the Word who was present from the beginning, and through whom all things were made.
I do believe that true Christians see people in a fuller dimension. They see souls who either know God, or who may not yet know God. It gives all of life a distinct and gospel-informed purpose, for we are his ambassadors who bear the fragrance of Christ and who must be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us.
and I meant to agree with your first paragraph. I have struggled with those same thoughts before. However, I am encouraged to see that God is changing me, over time--greater sensitivity to sin, greater desire to know God deeply, quicker to repent, etc., even though, of course, I still battle sin. However, it seems even the Apostle Paul struggled with this same thing in Romans 7, only to provide the wonderful encouragement of Romans 8.
Ishtar Sunday https://redshoe.com/the-holidays/easter-babylon-and-the-antichrist.html