Bev Sterk

 argh.. looks like the video got pulled.  probably for copyright stuff..  too bad... I'm sorry, I thought  it was way better than the official one!   It was done by Christ Church of Heartland, and at the beginning the "man in the mirror" had the writing "It's my time" on the mirror, and at the end, he erases the "my" and replaces it with "His"...  It's His time... it was profound, and God used it as a powerful confirmation for me yesterday!!    matthew west sings it, don't know if he wrote it...

here's the link to the official one... again, the other video was far more profound at least for me for a variety of reasons, including the timing, so I'm not near as excited about this one!!  and btw, the Matthew scripture is one of  the verses He's been putting on my heart as well...

http://www.vevo.com/watch/matthew-west/my-own-little-world/US82Y1000065 

my own little world it hardly ever rains

I’ve never gone hungry, always felt safe

I got some money in my pocket, shoes on my feet

In my own little world

population me



I try to stay awake during Sunday morning Church

I throw a twenty in the plate, but I never give ’til it hurts

And I turn off the news when I don’t like what I see

Yeah, it’s easy to do when it’s

Population: me



What if there’s a bigger picture?

What if I’m missing out?

What if there’s a greater purpose

I could be living right now?

Outside my own little world oooh



Stopped at a red light, looked out my window

I saw a cardboard sign, said “Help this homeless widow”

And just above that sign was the face of a human

I thought to myself, “God, what have I been doing?”

So I rolled down the window and I looked her in the eye

Oh how many times have I just passed her by?

I gave her some money then I drove on through

And my own little world reached

Population two



Oh



What if there’s a bigger picture?

What if I’m missing out?

What if there’s a greater purpose

That I could be living right now

Outside my own little world oooh, ooh

My own little world oooh



Wooah woooah woooah

yeeah yeeah



Father break my heart for what breaks Yours

Give me open hands and open doors

Put Your Light in my eyes and let me see

That my own little world is not about me



What if there’s a bigger picture?

What if I’m missing out?

What if there’s a greater purpose

That I could be living right now

I don't want to miss what matters

I wanna be reaching out

Show me the greater purpose

So I can start living right now

Outside my own little world yeeeaah yeeeah

My own little world ooooh

Woooaah

Wooah

Wooah

http://www.sweetslyrics.com/789128.Matthew%20West%20-%20My%20Own%20Little%20World.html 

Well Henry, I agree that as the Church, we need to focus and proclaim more of Jesus and His sacrifice - that's why I love the Moravians and Count Zinzendorf...  yesterday's devotional by Oswald Chambers in his My Utmost for His Highest also confirmed what you have shared...

but I think there is a place for personal testimonies as well,even in their weak, imperfectness, to encourage fellow believers...  recognizing that each testimony is a gift as well, and so giving God the glory...  we can have contempt for our part in it, but I think we have to be careful about being contemptuous of what God via the Holy Spirit is doing when He gives us Divine insight/direction/leading/guiding as Scripture tells us He does and will..

in another post you mentioned something about how do we know if it's God or self, or the enemy, and you gave an example of a father killing his children...  a simple test of lining it up with scripture would discern that is not God, He is life, He tells us to choose life, He commands us not to kill...   but some might argue that God allowed His Son to be killed and so indirectly He killed Jesus, because He could have prevented it... but we know Jesus willingly went to the cross for the joy that was set before Him...

and yes, some/many might use it so they can disregard their own responsibility...  I think of the convictions the Spirit has put on my heart, that made sense with Who God is, but were totally counter intuitive from an intellectual perspective... ie giving/tithing whatever you want to call it, particularly in a struggling economy... cutting back on my work, so I could be more available for my family... made NO SENSE economically... by my budget, we should be broke and out on the street, with no assets left...   that hasn't happened, although it has been tight for the last several years, but He has been training us in Prov. 3, spending a lot more wisely, and investing in His Kingdom, instead of our earthly kingdom..  it has been a difficult, but incredible journey of trusting Him and drawing closer to Him, we have seen His outpouring of blessing on our lives so many ways, most significantly with Proverbs 3 wealth aka wisdom (v13-18)!  So those are my weak and imperfect words, but the amazing journey He gave us, is because of Him and Who He is...  for His Glory which includes the supremacy of Christ! (Col 1:18)

Henry, you mention that we ignore the bodily resurrection of the Man Jesus - I would submit that we have missed spiritual intimacy with Him, which that concept seems to make us very uncomfortable, but my perception on that could be wrong.  I would also submit we have to some degree  ignored and quenched the power of the Holy Spirit, and been in contempt of some of His gifts, particularly those gifts we can't explain...

I struggle with when someone thinks someone else has spiritual "superiority", maybe they are sensing pride in some - but let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater on this.   I would suggest these "dymanic experiences" are the prompting and work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and not something to be disdained... everything we are, including our spiritual experiences are a gift of God, through His Holy Spirit, we can do nothing without Jesus...  the concept of spiritual superiority shuts down every testimony of what God is doing in our lives, here and now... Yes, none of this has any meaning without salvation and we can not do it on our own, but as a loving and generous Father, He gives us fresh encounters with His goodness and love daily, and I hope we would want to share those testimonies, but when those hearing the  testimonies receive them with skepticism or criticism or contempt, instead of joy and thankfulness, then we are quenching the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives... if we don't share those testimonies, we are quenching Him as well... It is all for His glory, and our good...  I would hope the response to testimonies of what God is doing in our lives, would be met with joy and excitement, and be encouraging to others... instead of threatening.

I also think we need to recognize that there are different levels of maturity of believers, in our faith..

If we are not "experiencing" the Holy Spirit, then we need to look at our attitude toward the Holy Spirit.. are we quenching Him, through contempt of His gifts, through skepticism/criticisim, through unbelief that He still speaks to us in various ways (which includes making scripture living and active)?

having grown up in the crc, and still a part of it, I have noticed a significant resistance to how the Holy Spirit works via some giftings, for a variety of reasons, which is an entire discussion in itself...

unfortunately the new age stuff is the enemy's counterfeit of the working of the Holy Spirit, and so there will be things that look the same, but are oh so very different because of where it is coming from (Holy Spirit vs enemy spirit), with good fruit from the Holy Spirit and bad fruit from the enemy...   this is where testing of the spirits (I John 4:1/1 Thess. 5:19-22), and discernment comes in...

When we love God with all our hearts, souls, strength and mind... that will overflow to loving our neighbors...  and we will desire to be with Him via the Word, worship and prayer, to share about Him, to trust Him, and to obey Him...  He will consume us, and we will be obsessed with Him and serving His Kingdom

there might be another distinction here... that between testimonies that God gives as encouragement for us personally, along with other believers, and what is evangelism for non-believers...  our testimony is not limited to our conversion, but is added to on a regular basis as we walk in faith..

Regarding spiritual intimacy, I think of Eph. 1:17-18, where Paul prays for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know God better - as one example of a scriptural call for intimacy... I believe almost every time the OT talks about "knowing" God, it is the same Hebrew word (yada) that He uses for marital intimacy...  will our knowledge/experience be limited?   of course, because God is an infinite God, and so we can only know a very small part of Him, a drop in an ocean, but even that drop that we can know is beyond amazing...  Scripture uses the analogy of husband and wife, between Jesus and the Church (Eph. 5:32 -  and song of songs for almost 2000 years, it's only in the last 100 years or so, that some no longer support this analogy in song of songs - which is an entire discussion)...

   that   thaand that the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, so we can know the hope of our inheritance...  eyes of our hearts refers to a spiritual experience... this is our inner being, also referenced in Eph. 3:16, where the Spirit is working in us...  our faith is Spirit and truth... it takes both working together...  Paul says he does both when he prays in I Cor. 14:14-15...  praying in tongues is a spiritual experience...  the peace that passes understanding is a spiritual experience, becoming new creations in Christ is a spiritual experience (2 Cor 5:17)...  having our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh (Ez 36:26), having His Spirit dwell in us, is a spiritual experience...  I have testimonies of when He has melted my heart, when my heart was getting hard and cold, and aloof and proud, and in less than a moment He melted it, it was not emotionalism, because there wasn't enough time for that, but there were "triggers" that He used...  was there dialogue with God during these times... oh yes...  they were terrible and beautiful experiences at the same time, and I'm so glad He didn't let my heart stay hard... 

King David talks about praising Him with all our "inmost being" ...  so that our youth is renewed like the eagles - that sounds like a spiritual experience...  that "deep rooted assurance" of faith mentioned somewhere earlier (i think it's referred to in  HC Q&A 23), is a spiritual experience - it's that you know that you know in your inner being through a gift of the Spirit, even though there is no tangible "faith" to show other than through our actions... 

those are just a few examples from scripture that I can think of off the top of my head... 

Hebrews 6 talks about the elementary teachings, which includes faith in God (v1), and growing/maturing beyond that... I know this is a difficult passage with various interpretations, and maybe you interpret this differently, if so I would be interested in knowing how you view this...

as for "hiding" our works, interestingly Matt 5 tells us we are a light on a hill, and we are not to cover it up...let your light shine before men SO THAT others may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven...  they are for HIS GLORY!!!

re-reading your posts, Henry, I have another question for you... how did you know you were called to be a pastor (maybe I'm wrong about you being a pastor, but that's what i understand from you "entering the ministry" in your 20's)?  You say God has never told you what call to take, or what car to buy... so then when pastors are "called"... what do they mean?