Quote:
Originally Posted by Jo S
Interpreting the bible through mysticism makes Christianity sound appealingly mysterious and esoteric but in reality what this does is it twists the truth 180 degrees.
Christ said not to give thought to what we eat or drink. The same is with our spiritual needs. If you have faith in God, He will provide. The ongoing process of sanctification in a Christian's life is a work of God, not a work of our own.
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I thought you would be responding to this subject, based upon what some prior discussion had been - welcome aboard!
The Spirit is mysterious, is it not? It blows this way and that, and you can't see where it comes or goes. That is the nature of the unseen. Now the seen, we have no need for any faith there, because it is immensely apparent. So calling everything that happens in the unseen spiritual realm "mysticism" is a big misnomer I think. Hey, just by someone believing in Christ, many would label that mysticism!
But you have something you believe you have seen about WL and the LC, in that it was all mysticism, and that's fine. Perhaps they were too far in the experience direction of things. But I think we can go too far in labeling them (or any Christians) as this or that - we don't do ourselves any favors, and it can wind up blinding us through the categorization.
Concerning your 2nd paragraph (copied above), this is a big mystery too! The verse that comes to me is Philippians 2:12-13,
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure." So who's doing the working in us? God! But why does Paul also exhort us to
"work out your own salvation"? We do have some part to play in this, as we still have a free will. We must choose to put the metaphorical car in gear, in order to experience all the power of the engine, right? Otherwise we just sit there.
This goes towards an accountability believers have. We must give an accounting of all that's been done "while in the body," at the judgement seat of Christ. (2 Cor 5:10) The Christian life is us opening to Him for initial salvation, then continuing to open to Him for His ongoing working in us. So we take Him in initially and "that which is born of Spirit is spirit" happens and we are joined to Him as one Spirit. (John 3:6 & 1 Cor. 6:17) You can't run this decades long race without ongoing nourishment, but we can still choose to eat and drink or not.
An old song has been running through me the last few days, and seemingly came out of nowhere. I thought to share it with you. It's from 1st Corinthians.
The last Adam became
A Life-Giving Spirit.
In one Spirit we're baptized
Into one body.
And all were given to drink -
To drink One Spirit.
So hallelujah drink Him
The Life-Giving Spirit!