[QUOTE=aron;89492]The Hebrews had two main foci - one was humanity's failure, and the other was God's beneficence. God's goodness, patience, kindness, long-suffering, his outstretched arm, power, wisdom, holiness and blessings were incomparable, and more than enough to make up for our many lacks. His ability to make good on his promises outstrip our inability to see, to lay hold, to appreciate.
"Now, how does this relate to Jesus and his teachings? Those who are "something" in the world, because of sin, are actually "nothing" in the kingdom, and those who are least in the world become great in the kingdom. Any who elevate themselves above others, and take pride of place here on earth, are automatically demoting themselves in the kingdom. Conversely, those who lower themselves, and take the least place, can be positioned for blessing. (I could quote 15 or 20 verses in Jesus' teachings covering the above points. They are endemic to his message)."
"This is especially true in learning. Those who seem to be learned, who are wise, who have spiritual experiences, are in danger of getting blocked from learning. Those who know nothing/see nothing/have nothing are well-positioned for blessing. That's just the way it is - as soon as you think you have something you have nothing. Because of sin, no "experience" is trustworthy. Only at the Bema, when the Master says, "Come up further" can one move up in safety. Until then, any position is probably ruinous."
Very good points brother! Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heavens (Matt 5:23).
"My theology today is that God raised Jesus on the third day, and gave him glory. Don't see how I can be Christian otherwise. But beyond that, I can hold no "truth". Maybe, "Love one another", but even that... how does one love? Lip service? Do I really know what love means?"
Though many circumstances I have also been "simplified" like this, if I may use that word. I studied psychology for 5+ years, and was very interested in Spirit - Soul - Body, since spirit is kinda "erased" in the field, or atleast is not the same as the Bible teaches. Now, years later, having gained a lot of knowledge on this studying all the verses in NT and OT, if someone ask me, I dont have much to say about the topic, I dont really understand or know what it truly is. If I did, my life and living would probably look more like Pauls, but far from it
I may have come to the conclusion (atleast in this point in life), no truth as any value apart from Him.
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Let me give an example. There are a lot of folks out there explaining things. Most of it is, frankly, rubbish. But if you sort around, someone may just blow your mind. The other day, I was reading about "faithfulness" - and it was presented quite different from "faith" a la Martin Luther - you know, as opposed to "works".
In the context of Hebrew Scripture, to be a "faithful" person, or one having faith, meant continual obedience to instruction. So the Hebrews had to be constantly obedient to God's command. You couldn't obey some, and ignore others. You couldn't keep the commands on Monday and Tuesday, then take Wednesday off. It was all in, at all times. THAT was what "faith" meant, in action. To have faith without works was nothing - don't be passive hearers of the word, but be doers of the word. It was about what you continually do. It is your life, your living, in toto, 24/7/365.
Now here's this guy Jesus being presented in the NT. He was the personification of the preceding paragraph. He was THE OBEDIENT JEW, and as such he was and is the King of Israel, the King of the Jews. He alone was the truly righteous one. "I always do the Father's will". Not sometimes - always. And now we recognise who he is, and what he is, and surrender. He's the King. As the Obedient One he's the Lawgiver, the New Moses. And as he obeyed the Father, we must obey him. That's our faith: to believe, to confess, and to obey. To hear, and to follow.
And I learned that from one who knew of "faith" in Hebrew language in the OT and was able to transpose it on Paul's writings on "faith" in the NT, e.g., Romans. So it was good, for me... food for thought. Now "faith" as a concept took on a deeper root within.
I can appreciate this very much. I sense you are on to something... As we personally recognize who is He, and what he is, we surrender. Isnt this also the experience of that perfect and upright man Job, once He recognized who and what God is, said:
"My ears had heard of you,
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42).
The personal meeting with the living God, that makes everything else in life irrelevant for a moment
"Ironically, LSM has always touted Watchman Nee for taking just this approach - he availed himself of thousands of sources of Christian learning. Witness Lee said that Nee had a library of 3,000 Christian books. How many different views did he open to? How many unique and disparate points of view, by quite different authors? Shouldn't we all do the same? Why limit ourselves to only one source? What do you think Nee's spiritual output would have been, with just one source of interpretive guidance, one source of spiritual light?"
I agree! All my 16 years in LR, I always continued reading from other sources
like F.A.Assisi, Spurgeon, Darby, D.L. Moody, J.P. Lewis, H. Taylor, and Ravi Zacharias, John Lennox and countless others, and even though we were always encouraged to specifically focus on reading "the ministry"/witness lee, I always had inner peace with reading from many other sources. I remember so many meetings, where I actually shared some "pearls" from Darby or from Spurgeon, and many people appreciated and enjoyed it, but it was when I didnt tell the source. Once I told it wasnt life-study or from W.Lee, there were more scepticism.
Today I think it has become more clear to me, that the "oneness" isnt the one I have been presented in the LR. The Lord has even manifested this several times. I have been visiting seeking Christians, in their homes, who "belong" to "denominations," but in our fellowship, we have truly touched the heavenlies with joy, peace and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. In this meetings I never had any agenda to "gain" someone, or to promote Witness Lee or LR, rather I just forgot about all of this, and simply had fellowship with His children, and trusted His promised where two or three are gathered in His name, there He will be in our midst. After this has been manifested time and time again, to me it seems this "oneness" I learned about in LR is at best flawed, and in worst case, false and deceiving. I have always been puzzled how this can be, that such brother can actually come to this point. But with all "spiritual giants" in Church History, it seems this has happened again and again, so this isnt unique for LR
As far as I know even J.N Darby became very exclusive in the end. But this is also a mystery to me considering his condition before releasing Synopsis of the Bible. How pure, humble and loving his attitude was at this time. Let me quote: "Firstly, the immense responsibility, which, when it is a question of the Word of God, attaches to the one who would give guidance to the thoughts of Christians; and however modestly it might be, to present ideas as being the intention of the Spirit of God. How grave an error to wrongly direct the dear children of God in the understanding of His thoughts and of His will; or to present as the purpose of His precious communications, that which may not be it!"
This makes me realize, in the end, you can never trust man. In the final analysis, you can only put your full trust in God... Otherwise you will probably be led astray, at some point