Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
That echoed for me many of Jesus' parables: like the card game - 21 - you try to maximize your allotted portion (the hand you are dealt), without going over the bounds prescribed by God.
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The operative word here is "stewardship"(Gk
oikonomia), which not coincidentally is the same word which the LSM folks translate into "masticating the processed and consummated Triune God to become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead."
Oikonomia operationally for we believers means that God gave us an allotted portion of the faith, and now we have the freedom, and the responsibility, to either (1) bury it in a hole in the ground, or (2) use it to feed others and give them an open door for the gospel, or (3) to become a religious zealots and control freaks who impose on the rest how we think they should live and act and move.
The "narrow way", I think, is to be strict with oneself but merciful to others. Mercy triumphs over judgment. The two failures are either to be a lazy good-for-nothing slob, or to be an uptight religious know-it-all. I am not saying that either Canfield or Nee is the latter, but in presenting the believers with two choices, writing that it is either "the way of the church" or "a certificate of divorce from God" they certainly place themselves, and others, in danger.