4 Responses to “August 25, 2009”

1. john
   August 29th, 2009 @ 10:34 am

   In India recently, a pastor  brutally hurt (verbally) a person and  in the same breath got on the pulpit and started preaching. He talked on how much love he had for people and that he had always walked in love… He meant every word..
   I just sat taken aback and  shaken at the nature of deception and how strong it was …

   Deception itself cant take a believer  by surprise… however it starts having a hold when the still small voice is ignored and continuosly ignored till the heart becomes hard like a rock and there are many veils covering it.

   The very fact that repentance or genuine conviction when wrong
   is lacking today is a sign that deception is widespread and prevalent in the church not just outside it.
    Backtracking a bit, during the prime days of  John Wimber and others this was definitly not the case ( my understanding), at least within the charismatic movement. 

   “Search me O Lord and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts…..” is  the best prayer to pray
   However,even that prayer can become a monotonous ritual if we ignore the Spirit’s searchings, which was in response to our prayer in the first place  .

2. john
   August 29th, 2009 @ 11:12 am

   (Deception itself cant take a believer  by surprise… )
   Rephrasing the above statement..
   Deception cant easily take a hold of the believer

3. Jabez H.
   August 29th, 2009 @ 4:44 pm

   It is interesting to review your comments on divorce, which seemed traditional, and scriptural.  However, the flip side of all the deviation from that norm must be that folks are challenged differently than in the past, where the society upheld the boundaries of man and woman for life relationship. 

   Not only did the sexual revolution change this nation’s outlook on man and woman, but on intimacy, self fulfillment. and actualization.  It is my firm belief that the Body of the Messiah needs to take a look at the challenges equally with the labeling and discerning of our cultural drift.  We have changed radically toward the opportunities of the goals of neither male nor female in the Messiah coming into the fulfillments and completions of the marital realationship.  Closeness, friendship, congregal fellowship, etc.–all can lead to greater deprth and breadth of relationship.  It is the embracing of love as Yeshua loves which can truly make a marriage an Agape’ , Hilio, and Eros  Kingdom partnership.  We must remember and uphold that our Father created all the four loves, and that they are best lived out in the arena of man woman relationship, together, for a committed lifetime. 

   Christian teaching need shift to the notion that our upholding of marriage has not yet set the mountaintop in sight.  By this it is meant that if this relationship is to reflect the image of the Messiah and his Ecclesia: it is to be genuine, authentic, safe, honest, and caring in sharing and mutual explorations offered through the bond of faith, hope, and love marriage offers. 

   I would be ill complete without my partner, who differs so many ways from my own male abilities and giftedness.  She is the counterpart of why that strength, left to its own devices, has led this world in conflict, stagnation, and fundamental limitation.  Sharing the communicative and help challenges of a lifemate who brought our children into this world is a great great joy.  We need to hear more of the joy, than of the standard, for the joy to be the joy (from the leadership of the Body).  We need to hear more of mutual submission, prior to the notions on Biblical authority and submission.  What is wrong with America is that believers everwhere have not yet addressed the human heart with the heart of Christ–including in the arena of marriage, communication, and shared love and service.

4. Jabez H.
   August 29th, 2009 @ 4:51 pm

   The Four Loves God created, mentioned above, are storge, agape’, philio, and eros.  I believe too that in one’s youth the natural tendency to draw toward eros at a certain stage of life, leads to and strengthens the other loves (at least for those for whom “a threefold cord cannot quickly be broken’).  In every opportunity for the presence of the Lord in life, there is an ongoing need of communication between all living creatures, and the appointed partnerships which emerge–from the life partnership forward. 

   Why little revival in the USA today?   It is because risking sharing the love of God shed abroad in our hearts is simply not done at all levels of human endeavor and contact, and through all avenues of potential and possibility by those of the Ecclesia, especially in the God given arenas of safe and shared intimacy.

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