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Originally Posted by JacobHoward
Agreed! Thanks for the suggestions, too. Keep 'em coming!
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If I may be somewhat importune, may I suggest "God's economy" as an area worth consideration? Some of us on this forum have looked at it and concluded (surprise) that there's nothing there. Or little, at any rate.
And "God's economy" is perhaps the best way to see the Lee mind meld, other than OCOC and a few other sacred LC teachings. (Think the opposite of the Spock mind meld in Star Trek: in this case Lee's thoughts become your own).
Everyone in the LC knows that Paul wrote Timothy to remain in Ephesus and to tell certain ones not to teach things other than "God's economy" (RecV translation) which is in faith. But Paul didn't say what "God's economy" was other than to link it with faith. In the LC we got book after book on "God's economy". It was God dispensing Himself into man to make man God in life and nature. It was enjoying Christ as everything for the building up of the body. It was the NT believer enjoying grace. It was man being made in God's image, to contain Him, like a glove contains the hand. Like a soda bottle being made to contain soda, man was made to contain God. This "dispensing" was "God's economy".
But if you look at Paul and Barnabas in Acts 12:25, they came to Antioch when the "dispensing" in Jerusalem was completed (RecV translation; others say "ministry" or "ministration" or "service"), and that dispensing wasn't of the type alluded to above. When the brothers in Jerusalem told Paul to "remember the poor" (Galatians 2:10), he didn't say, "No, sorry, that's a dead work - I'm here to enjoy Christ on the proper ground". No, Paul replied that he was eager to do it. If you look at Corinthians and Romans he makes some mention of this remembrance, that folks are to lay aside something for the poor of Jerusalem. Then at the end of Acts he told the opposing ones that after many years he returned to Jerusalem, bringing alms for his people (24:17). And this fits with the Jerusalem church, which was "daily dispensing" (Acts 6:1) to the widows and orphans, as Jesus had taught, and the OT commanded the righteous to do. Take care of those who can't care for themselves. Perhaps this is the "God's economy" that Paul alluded to in the epistle to Timothy.
Instead we got the selfish, self-oriented "enjoying God", which was then ripe for manipulation. Jesus taught to care for the despised other, and your reward would be great in heaven. There are two separate possible versions of "God's economy" seen here (there may be others, of course). I'll go with second version, which seems to have more scriptural support.