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Originally Posted by Olvin
God NEVER tells us to act; He tell us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow Him. Replace the word "act" with deny yourself and I fully agree. Thats the way God works!
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Originally Posted by Igzy
Sorry, I believe that is imbalanced. There are all kinds of commandments, Old and New, which require action. Repenting is action. When I say act I don't mean being pretentious, but I do mean sometimes we have to step out and try to do things that we don't think we can do, and in fact it does often start out with a little "pretending." A simple example is just being nice to someone we can't stand. That requires an initial act of faith. Sure we need grace too, but we don't wait around for grace to fall on us before we are nice. We just obey God's commandment to be kind and tender, even when we don't feel like it. Sometimes it requires, initially at least, acting. That's just our experience.
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While I have stated that inside of Olvin's testimony is not the place to have this discussion, it is continuing, so that is the place to join.
Igzy has said it correctly. There is definite requirement to act. Even clearly stated in the NT. Even after the resurrection.
And denying ourselves is an action. We don't do it because we feel like it. We don't do it because it naturally flows from us.
The fact that Jesus, then Peter, James, John, Paul, and others made mention of action is because we need to hear it said. If it really did simply come from enough time in the word, and enough time in "the ministry," then Jesus would only need to say "read the scripture more," and "listen to your teachers more" (which would have been the Pharisees pre-Jesus, then Jesus, then the Apostles, then the others that followed on).
There would be no need to even mention how we ought to act if it was only going to come from getting a lot of dispensing. If that was the case, then the only two things would need to be said:
- Get a lot of dispensing.
- Those who are not doing have not gotten their dispensing.
And I do not see either of those in the Bible.
And let's see you deny yourself without doing anything. Without taking action. If you don't take action, it is pretty clear that you have not denied yourself.