I grew up in the CRC, and am still here, along with my family. I'm married to Daryl, who has a construction business. I had a CPA license for 10 or so years, then I added EX to the front, and MOM to the back, so now I'm an EX CPA, MOM =). I am MOM to Duncan, Ian and Samantha. Our family also owns a raspberry farm, and in the summers we get to work out there.
thanks Mark, as I pray on behalf of and support/choose life, I realize that there will be different dynamics as a result of that... that we need to pray for the LORD to raise up the support needed to embrace life as well, which would include more families opening their homes for adoptions (and the related adoption ministries of course), more homes for say, those with downs or disabilities, more support for young moms who choose to keep their baby, and do not have the resources/support to do so successfully...
unfortunately, that level of commitment seems to scare some off for a variety of reasons; from our human perspective, it might seem overwhelming..
Yes, the Church needs to step up in a lot of ways... and we can only do so with much prayer and the walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, which helps us be sensitive to His calling on our lives...
Again, thank you... I am so glad safe church is dealing with this!!! Thank God...
yes, this connection is so important for people to understand, I made this connection a while back as I was praying about, so I'm so glad this is being shared...
we need to know, that when they are coming in agreement with pornography, there are horrible, horrible, results, that i would hope none of us would ever be a part of... i have a friend who goes to asia on missions to expose the human trafficking and help rescue those trapped in it, and the stories of what happens to these women/children, are beyond evil, we would never want that for anyone .. and we don't want to have any part of this, we are called to holiness, we are called to take care of the widows and orphans, as many involved in the human trafficking are widows, orphans, the poor, the outcast... Oh God, help us to live up to the calling You gave Your Church, help us to live lives of holiness, help us to step up and be obedient to the calling You gave us to care for the widows, orphans, the poor and the outcast, for Your Glory, for Your Kingdom....
Hey Rob... exactly which Banner article were you referring to, as I see there are several... and I'm thinking CO is the new covenant based on re-reading your post...
I really, really appreciate you being willing to discuss cessationism (it seems Jim is ok with us changing course a bit on this thread, and still trying to keep it tied to the confessions =) so as long as he's having fun, we're good right? =)
Thank you Steve, for being honest... that brought tears to my eyes...
3 scriptures that I pray often for the church/crc/Bride of Christ, but not as consistently as I should are:
Eph. 1:17-18... That we have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that the eyes of our hearts are opent to know God more fully... I could write a chapter on this passage alone, how God "gave" me this scripture 5 different "random" ways over 4 days, the weekend He "reopened" my ears to hear Him and my eyes to see Him, in His Divine orchestestration. Only one time was it directly from scripture. I will quick list them... one, it was workshop title "Open the eyes of our hearts"... 2, it was part of the scripture used at a friend's memorial svc., 3 it was in the book I bought at the conference I was at that weekend... 4, it was in a song, as I was working on preparing the childrens Christmas worship service, and 5 on Sunday morning on my way to church, I hear a chord on my radio that was turned low, turn it up, and it is "open the eyes of my heart LORD!" So was it miraculous, yes, as to have all 5 of those very different ways of emphasizing that passage over 4 days, the odds are mind blowing... it's never happened again to that extent...
the second passage is Ez. 36:26... for the LORD to give us new hearts and new spirits, to take our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh... again, I've had confirmations on this one...
and the 3rd is Malachi 3:2-3 about refining His Bride... the verse in How Firm a Foundation is one of the confirmations... the flame shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine... I strongly believe we/crc are in a time of refining... He is shaking what needs to be shaken, so that which cannot be shaken remains (Hebr. 12:25-28) ED Joel Boot's state of the church address, confirmed that (at least for me)...
Steve, Rob mentions prophetic prayer... I will share another testimony of how the Holy Spirit prompts... I was driving past a home, that as I drove past I remembered picking those kids up with the bus, when i was in school,but hadn't seen them in 15-20 years... and for whatever reason, I kept thinking about that family... and I thought, "LORD, do you want me to pray for them?" and I thought, well, either way, if it's the LORD or me, prayer is always a good thing, so I will... so I spent a few minutes praying for that family... and then totally forgot about it... the very next day, I run into one of them... and so I had the opportunity to ask how things were going, and pray with them for their situation... haven't seen them since... I don't understand it! But that's just one story, and I have 100's like that, and others that I pray with have similar testimonies... Did scripture tell me to pray for that specific family right then, no, but scripture tells me to pray. The Holy Spirit, in His mysterious way, somehow prompted me to pray for them the very day before I run into someone from that family... That's prophetic... there is no way I knew I would see them the very next day... the Holy Spirit prompted me the day before, so I could make a point of talking with her when I saw her, and praying with her and hopefully encouraging her...
as Rob shares, unfortunately, the prophetic has been horribly abused... what that points out to me, is that the enemy is putting a lot of time and effort into keeping this gift from being used appropriately in the Church. I believe that indicates there's a reason the enemy is particularly concerned about this gift... because it is such a powerful gift given on behalf of the health of the Church, when we are walking in it in accordance with God's will as revealed through scripture. That is why, the prophetic is always tested, by others that are sensitive to the Spirit (1 Cor. 14:29-32; and the 2 that Rob referenced - I John 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:19-22) God warns us in His word, that we will have to wade through claims of prophecy that are not from Him. That's a given, expect it... that's why it takes a team... a team devoted to prayer and the Word (Acts 6:4)... You have to know the Word, and it has to be living and active in your walk (Hebr. 4:12), AND one must spend significant time in prayer because for whatever reason, that is one way we become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8)... as I study the prophets (looking at Samuel particularly) I see an intercessor someone who was much in prayer (I Sam 12:23 is just one reference to his commitment to prayer), ... Ezekiel was called a "watchman"
Please, please, don't hesitate to test what I share - I crave the sharpening (iron sharpens iron)... and it HAS to stand the test of God's plumline, His Word. I have the fear of God, that I do not want to be outside of His plan. Several years ago, I had a situation, that had me questioning if I was in alignment with Him, and even the thought that I might not be, made me sick to my stomach (i feel nauseous and upset just thinking about it again). It ended up being a spirit of fear from the enemy, it was awful, but through that, the LORD showed me that I never, never want to be outside of His covering (that's a whole story in itself too).
I ask myself, who am I to question John Calvin, and John MacArthur and many other strong leaders that have held the cessationist view over centuries, Godly men, who know the word, and yet I know we all have the same Holy Spirit leading and guiding us, that will put us on the same page/wave if we are listening and testing together, so, this has to pass the testing check and balance God put in place... and I will share that it was a very, very good day, when I discovered that the crc had refuted cessationism back at synod of 1973!
hope that makes sense, to the extent that it can, considering how the Holy Spirit leads, guides and prompts is a mystery...
I apologize for the length of this post, but it is a something dear to my heart...
in response to Al's last sentence... We need the power of the Spirit to stay alive and vibrant in today's broken world, which His power seems to be lacking to some debatable extent in the crc for a variety of reasons.
Hi Rob, I hope to respond to the questions in your post more fully, when I have more time, but what I'm thinking is that there is something even more foundational than the confessions that we need to focus on (so I'm not saying they are irrelevant, but there's something deeper)... and I believe that is prayer in and with the Spirit... I was thinking about it again this morning, then went to spend some time in the word, and I opened to Zechariah, not intentionally choosing that at all... read through chapter 4, and the verse that tells us how God is building His Church is 4:6... not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit says the LORD of Hosts... I will elaborate more fully on this later and share my testimony of when the Spirit transformed my faith, from duty to delight, and it was through seeking Him in prayer that that the Spirit stirred up a hunger to be in His Presence/draw near to Him through prayer, the Word and worship...
Loren Cunningham (YWAM founder) confirms your experience of finding more greed among the poor and shares that in his "daring to live on the edge" book... and some of my experiences in helping those who come for help also lines up with that =(
thanks for sharing Rob, this is exactly why we need both Spirit and Truth, and a healthy balance of them...
Ok, I don't think I ever said the catechism was dry and unspiritual... I said that they have gaps, such as on the gifts of the Spirit, there's not much there... and it's not the first place I run when I have a question on something related to my faith...
The Word and prayer are my first resource, and I don't how many times, I will have a question, and often within 24 hours, through Divine orchestration, the Spirit will start to reveal insights and answers in various places... I remember one time I wanted to find a certain sermon by the Scots revivalist Duncan Campbell... I spent some frustrating time trying to listen to some scratchy sermons of his that were online, with lots of interruptions, since I have little ones, and I gave up... a few weeks later, when I was working on something totally different, the sermon I was looking for was posted on another site that I "stumbled" on, and had just been posted a week or 2 before I "found" it.
I do believe the LORD will use these confessions and catechism to stir up peoples faith, same as He might use a preacher whose message is based on the Word of God, or powerful and profound writing, ie CS Lewis' writings, Chuck Swindoll, and any number of the theologians...
Having been raised in the crc, attended a CSI school, involved in all the youth programs, sunday school, catechisms, attended a crc college... I have a very strong appreciation for grounding in the Word, and that salvation is only through the grace of Jesus Christ, it is not based on anything we do or merit... from discussions with other believers that grew up in different denominations, they didn't always get that message at the church they grew up in, and it wasn't until high school or college when they went somewhere else that they heard the gospel of Jesus' grace... So I appreciate our heritage and reformed foundation of salvation, and realize this is unfortunately rare in other denominations.
Now, one of the gaps I found in our confessions is walking in certain gifts of the Spirit and "hearing" God speak to us in our inner man, and through Divine orchestration, as well as through scripture, and always in alignment with scripture... we're (Crc) are good with the Spirit working in our heart and leading us to Christ, we are good with the Spirit convicting us of sin (though not sure how well we always listen to Him when He's convicting us), and that the Spirit helps illumine scripture, and distributes His gifts - though traditionally these have only been the non-sensational ones... ie like administration and giving and encouraging, and somehow He helps us pray...
so the gap in my life was in high school, I would have amazing conversations with the LORD, but didn't really realize what was going on... at about that time the new age garbage was coming out, and so since there were mystical similarities, I did not pursue these conversations... my prayer life became dry.. because it became a one way monologue... for almost 20 years... no one in the reformed traditions was teaching or training on "listening" to God, that He still does speak to us, now one way, and then another (and of course primarily through His Word)... so I did lots of Bible studies, which is all good of course, and lots of serving which is good too, attended church 2x a Sunday (usually) but it was not the delight that I experience now, since the LORD re-opened the eyes and ears of my heart to His Spirit's leading... now I crave my time with Him, i love abiding in the "secret place" with Him (Ps. 91:1 NKJV)... last night I had the opportunity for extended worship with other believers... 2 hours flew by... I get to spend most of my days in July contemplating/pondering as I work out in our raspberry field... I'm hungry for His Living and Active Word and have internalized more scripture in the last 5 years, than I ever did in all my school, catechism and beyond years, and even this morning as I was thinking about your questions, and how I was going to respond, I wanted to spend some time in the Word first...
Before reading Zech. this morning , I was thinking about responding on how the Spirit had transformed my life, and as I reflected on it, I wasn't sure if it was an infilling by Him, or a stripping away of what was blocking my receptivity to Him... I concluded it's probably both... and right after that I read the intro to Zechariah in the Bible that I use, which has a section on "the Holy Spirit at work" for each book of the Bible... and here's what it says: "Zerubbabel is comforted in the assurances 1) that the rebuilding of the temple will not be by military might our human prowess but by the ministry of the Spirit of God 2) that the Holy Spirit will remove every obstacle that stands against the completion of God's temple."
so 1 would be an infilling, and 2 would be removing what is blocking our receptivity to Him .. ......
that confirmed my "both" conclusion
and God's temple is us, as He indwells us through His Holy Spirit...
I have run into similar types of attitudes like you mention in the charismatic circles, for example, but that is not always the case... if you praise God for 20 minutes at a prayer meeting, then you have invited His Presence and then can request whatever you wish... one time, when I was praying with them... I felt the LORD was asking for us to keep praising Him... and the prayer leader was on the same wave... but one of the ladies was not! it was like a punch in the gut... the comment was "we already did this, we don't need to do it again, it's a waste of time" or something like that.. the prayer leader literally fell back in his chair with a very shocked look, and i was in tears, it was so harsh...
amen! Salvation is not about us... we are Jesus reward... it's all about Him, He deserves the reward (us/our souls) of His suffering... I love this sermon exposing humanitarianism in the Church by Paris Reidhead... on 10 shekels and a shirt... here's the link if you aren't familiar with the sermon. http://www.parisreidheadbibleteachingministries.org/tenshekels.shtml yhr
the story he shares of when he is in Africa is especially insightful...
I don't think I'm bitter about the cessationist tradition in the crc, as God's sovereignty is a key and well loved doctrine in the reformed tradition, and so I trust He had a reason to let us believe that for so long... I would say I have some frustration though, that we refuted cessationism almost 40 years ago, and seem to not have made very much progress in moving forward in the more complete power of the Spirit. I get a little irked when i hear about denominational "dominees" and professors that continued to teach cessationism after 1973... and i have to be careful not to get too snarky when we point out all these charismatic personalities, and yet John Calvin seems to be one of ours... granted most of his stuff has stood the test of time... but it's time the cessationist thinking goes... at least that's my opinion, and unfortunately the confessions and creeds do not address this very well, if at all.
hope that all makes sense... again, thanks for being willing and taking the time to get more in depth here...
Yes, we probably all have some degree of greed to deal with... no one is exempt from greed... and we should note that the Luke 12 parable in response to the "poor" brother is specifically about a rich man...
Here is the quote from "Daring to live on the Edge" Loren Cunningham - YWAM publishings p 56
BOQ- Satan uses these tactics to enslave men financially: greed, the lust of power, pride, and fear - especially fear of financial insecurity. When we think of greed, we may think of a rich, miserly man. Some scrooge like miser, sitting on piles of money, running his fingers though his coins and bills. However, greed is more prevalent among the poor and the not-so-rich. The ones most consumed with lust for ownership are the ones who have the least. Greed leads parents in India to break their infants' legs so they can use them as beggars, eliciting more pity as cripples. EOQ
in another story Loren shares how one baby died, seven people hospitalized, 48 people homeless after their apartment (Austin Texas) burned by someone who was owed $8 from one of the residents.
However, he doesn't let the rich off the hook as he sees that they tend to use their wealth for control, power over others including manipulating the greed of the poor. So this isn't any better than greed, and has much more potential damage!
Posted in: Another Side of Prolife
thanks Mark, as I pray on behalf of and support/choose life, I realize that there will be different dynamics as a result of that... that we need to pray for the LORD to raise up the support needed to embrace life as well, which would include more families opening their homes for adoptions (and the related adoption ministries of course), more homes for say, those with downs or disabilities, more support for young moms who choose to keep their baby, and do not have the resources/support to do so successfully...
unfortunately, that level of commitment seems to scare some off for a variety of reasons; from our human perspective, it might seem overwhelming..
Yes, the Church needs to step up in a lot of ways... and we can only do so with much prayer and the walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, which helps us be sensitive to His calling on our lives...
I pray for this to become reality...
Posted in: Mental Illness or Moral Illness?
I wonder how the demonic is involved...
Posted in: Semper Gumby
thx. for sharing... good word =)
Posted in: The Making of Internet Pornography: When Children Pay the Price
Again, thank you... I am so glad safe church is dealing with this!!! Thank God...
yes, this connection is so important for people to understand, I made this connection a while back as I was praying about, so I'm so glad this is being shared...
we need to know, that when they are coming in agreement with pornography, there are horrible, horrible, results, that i would hope none of us would ever be a part of... i have a friend who goes to asia on missions to expose the human trafficking and help rescue those trapped in it, and the stories of what happens to these women/children, are beyond evil, we would never want that for anyone .. and we don't want to have any part of this, we are called to holiness, we are called to take care of the widows and orphans, as many involved in the human trafficking are widows, orphans, the poor, the outcast... Oh God, help us to live up to the calling You gave Your Church, help us to live lives of holiness, help us to step up and be obedient to the calling You gave us to care for the widows, orphans, the poor and the outcast, for Your Glory, for Your Kingdom....
Posted in: Living Confessionally in Covenant
Hey Rob... exactly which Banner article were you referring to, as I see there are several... and I'm thinking CO is the new covenant based on re-reading your post...
Posted in: Hi. I Am a Pastor
just type in pastor burn out statistics and you get all kinds...
but here's one site...
http://www.worldwideprayer.com/pastorsstatistics.html
Posted in: Living Confessionally in Covenant
I really, really appreciate you being willing to discuss cessationism (it seems Jim is ok with us changing course a bit on this thread, and still trying to keep it tied to the confessions =) so as long as he's having fun, we're good right? =)
Thank you Steve, for being honest... that brought tears to my eyes...
3 scriptures that I pray often for the church/crc/Bride of Christ, but not as consistently as I should are:
Eph. 1:17-18... That we have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that the eyes of our hearts are opent to know God more fully... I could write a chapter on this passage alone, how God "gave" me this scripture 5 different "random" ways over 4 days, the weekend He "reopened" my ears to hear Him and my eyes to see Him, in His Divine orchestestration. Only one time was it directly from scripture. I will quick list them... one, it was workshop title "Open the eyes of our hearts"... 2, it was part of the scripture used at a friend's memorial svc., 3 it was in the book I bought at the conference I was at that weekend... 4, it was in a song, as I was working on preparing the childrens Christmas worship service, and 5 on Sunday morning on my way to church, I hear a chord on my radio that was turned low, turn it up, and it is "open the eyes of my heart LORD!" So was it miraculous, yes, as to have all 5 of those very different ways of emphasizing that passage over 4 days, the odds are mind blowing... it's never happened again to that extent...
the second passage is Ez. 36:26... for the LORD to give us new hearts and new spirits, to take our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh... again, I've had confirmations on this one...
and the 3rd is Malachi 3:2-3 about refining His Bride... the verse in How Firm a Foundation is one of the confirmations... the flame shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine... I strongly believe we/crc are in a time of refining... He is shaking what needs to be shaken, so that which cannot be shaken remains (Hebr. 12:25-28) ED Joel Boot's state of the church address, confirmed that (at least for me)...
Steve, Rob mentions prophetic prayer... I will share another testimony of how the Holy Spirit prompts... I was driving past a home, that as I drove past I remembered picking those kids up with the bus, when i was in school,but hadn't seen them in 15-20 years... and for whatever reason, I kept thinking about that family... and I thought, "LORD, do you want me to pray for them?" and I thought, well, either way, if it's the LORD or me, prayer is always a good thing, so I will... so I spent a few minutes praying for that family... and then totally forgot about it... the very next day, I run into one of them... and so I had the opportunity to ask how things were going, and pray with them for their situation... haven't seen them since... I don't understand it! But that's just one story, and I have 100's like that, and others that I pray with have similar testimonies... Did scripture tell me to pray for that specific family right then, no, but scripture tells me to pray. The Holy Spirit, in His mysterious way, somehow prompted me to pray for them the very day before I run into someone from that family... That's prophetic... there is no way I knew I would see them the very next day... the Holy Spirit prompted me the day before, so I could make a point of talking with her when I saw her, and praying with her and hopefully encouraging her...
as Rob shares, unfortunately, the prophetic has been horribly abused... what that points out to me, is that the enemy is putting a lot of time and effort into keeping this gift from being used appropriately in the Church. I believe that indicates there's a reason the enemy is particularly concerned about this gift... because it is such a powerful gift given on behalf of the health of the Church, when we are walking in it in accordance with God's will as revealed through scripture. That is why, the prophetic is always tested, by others that are sensitive to the Spirit (1 Cor. 14:29-32; and the 2 that Rob referenced - I John 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:19-22) God warns us in His word, that we will have to wade through claims of prophecy that are not from Him. That's a given, expect it... that's why it takes a team... a team devoted to prayer and the Word (Acts 6:4)... You have to know the Word, and it has to be living and active in your walk (Hebr. 4:12), AND one must spend significant time in prayer because for whatever reason, that is one way we become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8)... as I study the prophets (looking at Samuel particularly) I see an intercessor someone who was much in prayer (I Sam 12:23 is just one reference to his commitment to prayer), ... Ezekiel was called a "watchman"
Please, please, don't hesitate to test what I share - I crave the sharpening (iron sharpens iron)... and it HAS to stand the test of God's plumline, His Word. I have the fear of God, that I do not want to be outside of His plan. Several years ago, I had a situation, that had me questioning if I was in alignment with Him, and even the thought that I might not be, made me sick to my stomach (i feel nauseous and upset just thinking about it again). It ended up being a spirit of fear from the enemy, it was awful, but through that, the LORD showed me that I never, never want to be outside of His covering (that's a whole story in itself too).
I ask myself, who am I to question John Calvin, and John MacArthur and many other strong leaders that have held the cessationist view over centuries, Godly men, who know the word, and yet I know we all have the same Holy Spirit leading and guiding us, that will put us on the same page/wave if we are listening and testing together, so, this has to pass the testing check and balance God put in place... and I will share that it was a very, very good day, when I discovered that the crc had refuted cessationism back at synod of 1973!
hope that makes sense, to the extent that it can, considering how the Holy Spirit leads, guides and prompts is a mystery...
I apologize for the length of this post, but it is a something dear to my heart...
Posted in: Belhar—Up, Down or Sideways?
in response to Al's last sentence... We need the power of the Spirit to stay alive and vibrant in today's broken world, which His power seems to be lacking to some debatable extent in the crc for a variety of reasons.
Posted in: Living Confessionally in Covenant
Hi Rob, I hope to respond to the questions in your post more fully, when I have more time, but what I'm thinking is that there is something even more foundational than the confessions that we need to focus on (so I'm not saying they are irrelevant, but there's something deeper)... and I believe that is prayer in and with the Spirit... I was thinking about it again this morning, then went to spend some time in the word, and I opened to Zechariah, not intentionally choosing that at all... read through chapter 4, and the verse that tells us how God is building His Church is 4:6... not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit says the LORD of Hosts... I will elaborate more fully on this later and share my testimony of when the Spirit transformed my faith, from duty to delight, and it was through seeking Him in prayer that that the Spirit stirred up a hunger to be in His Presence/draw near to Him through prayer, the Word and worship...
Posted in: Guard Against All Kinds of Greed - a Reflection on Luke 12
Loren Cunningham (YWAM founder) confirms your experience of finding more greed among the poor and shares that in his "daring to live on the edge" book... and some of my experiences in helping those who come for help also lines up with that =(
Posted in: Living Confessionally in Covenant
thanks for sharing Rob, this is exactly why we need both Spirit and Truth, and a healthy balance of them...
Ok, I don't think I ever said the catechism was dry and unspiritual... I said that they have gaps, such as on the gifts of the Spirit, there's not much there... and it's not the first place I run when I have a question on something related to my faith...
The Word and prayer are my first resource, and I don't how many times, I will have a question, and often within 24 hours, through Divine orchestration, the Spirit will start to reveal insights and answers in various places... I remember one time I wanted to find a certain sermon by the Scots revivalist Duncan Campbell... I spent some frustrating time trying to listen to some scratchy sermons of his that were online, with lots of interruptions, since I have little ones, and I gave up... a few weeks later, when I was working on something totally different, the sermon I was looking for was posted on another site that I "stumbled" on, and had just been posted a week or 2 before I "found" it.
I do believe the LORD will use these confessions and catechism to stir up peoples faith, same as He might use a preacher whose message is based on the Word of God, or powerful and profound writing, ie CS Lewis' writings, Chuck Swindoll, and any number of the theologians...
Having been raised in the crc, attended a CSI school, involved in all the youth programs, sunday school, catechisms, attended a crc college... I have a very strong appreciation for grounding in the Word, and that salvation is only through the grace of Jesus Christ, it is not based on anything we do or merit... from discussions with other believers that grew up in different denominations, they didn't always get that message at the church they grew up in, and it wasn't until high school or college when they went somewhere else that they heard the gospel of Jesus' grace... So I appreciate our heritage and reformed foundation of salvation, and realize this is unfortunately rare in other denominations.
Now, one of the gaps I found in our confessions is walking in certain gifts of the Spirit and "hearing" God speak to us in our inner man, and through Divine orchestration, as well as through scripture, and always in alignment with scripture... we're (Crc) are good with the Spirit working in our heart and leading us to Christ, we are good with the Spirit convicting us of sin (though not sure how well we always listen to Him when He's convicting us), and that the Spirit helps illumine scripture, and distributes His gifts - though traditionally these have only been the non-sensational ones... ie like administration and giving and encouraging, and somehow He helps us pray...
so the gap in my life was in high school, I would have amazing conversations with the LORD, but didn't really realize what was going on... at about that time the new age garbage was coming out, and so since there were mystical similarities, I did not pursue these conversations... my prayer life became dry.. because it became a one way monologue... for almost 20 years... no one in the reformed traditions was teaching or training on "listening" to God, that He still does speak to us, now one way, and then another (and of course primarily through His Word)... so I did lots of Bible studies, which is all good of course, and lots of serving which is good too, attended church 2x a Sunday (usually) but it was not the delight that I experience now, since the LORD re-opened the eyes and ears of my heart to His Spirit's leading... now I crave my time with Him, i love abiding in the "secret place" with Him (Ps. 91:1 NKJV)... last night I had the opportunity for extended worship with other believers... 2 hours flew by... I get to spend most of my days in July contemplating/pondering as I work out in our raspberry field... I'm hungry for His Living and Active Word and have internalized more scripture in the last 5 years, than I ever did in all my school, catechism and beyond years, and even this morning as I was thinking about your questions, and how I was going to respond, I wanted to spend some time in the Word first...
Before reading Zech. this morning , I was thinking about responding on how the Spirit had transformed my life, and as I reflected on it, I wasn't sure if it was an infilling by Him, or a stripping away of what was blocking my receptivity to Him... I concluded it's probably both... and right after that I read the intro to Zechariah in the Bible that I use, which has a section on "the Holy Spirit at work" for each book of the Bible... and here's what it says: "Zerubbabel is comforted in the assurances 1) that the rebuilding of the temple will not be by military might our human prowess but by the ministry of the Spirit of God 2) that the Holy Spirit will remove every obstacle that stands against the completion of God's temple."
so 1 would be an infilling, and 2 would be removing what is blocking our receptivity to Him .. ......
that confirmed my "both" conclusion
and God's temple is us, as He indwells us through His Holy Spirit...
I have run into similar types of attitudes like you mention in the charismatic circles, for example, but that is not always the case... if you praise God for 20 minutes at a prayer meeting, then you have invited His Presence and then can request whatever you wish... one time, when I was praying with them... I felt the LORD was asking for us to keep praising Him... and the prayer leader was on the same wave... but one of the ladies was not! it was like a punch in the gut... the comment was "we already did this, we don't need to do it again, it's a waste of time" or something like that.. the prayer leader literally fell back in his chair with a very shocked look, and i was in tears, it was so harsh...
amen! Salvation is not about us... we are Jesus reward... it's all about Him, He deserves the reward (us/our souls) of His suffering... I love this sermon exposing humanitarianism in the Church by Paris Reidhead... on 10 shekels and a shirt... here's the link if you aren't familiar with the sermon. http://www.parisreidheadbibleteachingministries.org/tenshekels.shtml yhr
the story he shares of when he is in Africa is especially insightful...
I don't think I'm bitter about the cessationist tradition in the crc, as God's sovereignty is a key and well loved doctrine in the reformed tradition, and so I trust He had a reason to let us believe that for so long... I would say I have some frustration though, that we refuted cessationism almost 40 years ago, and seem to not have made very much progress in moving forward in the more complete power of the Spirit. I get a little irked when i hear about denominational "dominees" and professors that continued to teach cessationism after 1973... and i have to be careful not to get too snarky when we point out all these charismatic personalities, and yet John Calvin seems to be one of ours... granted most of his stuff has stood the test of time... but it's time the cessationist thinking goes... at least that's my opinion, and unfortunately the confessions and creeds do not address this very well, if at all.
hope that all makes sense... again, thanks for being willing and taking the time to get more in depth here...
Posted in: Guard Against All Kinds of Greed - a Reflection on Luke 12
Yes, we probably all have some degree of greed to deal with... no one is exempt from greed... and we should note that the Luke 12 parable in response to the "poor" brother is specifically about a rich man...
Here is the quote from "Daring to live on the Edge" Loren Cunningham - YWAM publishings p 56
BOQ- Satan uses these tactics to enslave men financially: greed, the lust of power, pride, and fear - especially fear of financial insecurity. When we think of greed, we may think of a rich, miserly man. Some scrooge like miser, sitting on piles of money, running his fingers though his coins and bills. However, greed is more prevalent among the poor and the not-so-rich. The ones most consumed with lust for ownership are the ones who have the least. Greed leads parents in India to break their infants' legs so they can use them as beggars, eliciting more pity as cripples. EOQ
in another story Loren shares how one baby died, seven people hospitalized, 48 people homeless after their apartment (Austin Texas) burned by someone who was owed $8 from one of the residents.
However, he doesn't let the rich off the hook as he sees that they tend to use their wealth for control, power over others including manipulating the greed of the poor. So this isn't any better than greed, and has much more potential damage!