Sound and Fury or Peace and Rest?

We are creatures made to interact with our environment through a collection of physical senses. The normal, everyday experience of a human being involves near-constant stimulation of these senses. But, like our fleshly, physical impulses to eat, sleep and procreate that we often overindulge to sinful degree, we can take up a pursuit of increasingly frequent and intense stimulation of our physical senses, too. Really, our physical impulses and our senses overlap a great deal so that to satisfy the former often entails stimulation of the latter. These two parts of ourselves - our physical impulses and our physical senses - form between them a sort of feedback loop, over time magnifying each other more and more and frequently leading to terrible, destructive consequences.

We can all readily imagine instances of what I've just described: drug addicts, alcoholics, inappropriate content addicts, out-of-control gamblers, and so on. We "tsk" at such people and shake our heads at their self-destructive behaviour. We would never be so foolish, so weak. The truth, though, is that many who look at the drug addict with contempt and confident self-righteousness, are just as busy over-indulging and/or over-stimulating various of their own impulses and senses. The difference is that in the eyes of society, in and out of the Church, there are "lesser," more "acceptable" ways to inordinately gratify one's physical senses and impulses. Christians may be just as sensual in their living as any godless addict; they just do so within the limits accepted by modern (and often very carnal) Christian culture.

And so, there are obese Christians; there are Christians who must have "background noise" from the t.v. or radio going all the time; there are Christians who are online, gaming up to eight or ten hours in a day, sometimes every day; there are Christians who obsess over their appearance, chasing the latest fashions, spending many thousands of dollars in a year on clothing, and make-up, diet fads and gym memberships; there are Christians who have ten cups of coffee every day; there are Christians who watch many hours of t.v. every day - sometimes from the time they awake 'til the time they fall asleep at night, leaving their t.v. chair only to use the toilet, and so on.

Christians don't object to these kinds of addiction, to these far more widespread forms of hyper-stimulation and inordinate impulse gratification. Perhaps it's because they seem comparatively harmless, or because too many Christians are living under these sorts of bondage and risk the charge of hypocrisy were they to challenge the obesity, or caffeine addiction, or appearance obsession of their fellow believers. Whatever the case may actually be, the Christian life is not a life of frequent, intense stimulation of the flesh, of sensuality, and of near-constant gratification of one's physical impulses.

As Jesus said in Matthew 11:29-30, the life he offers to us in himself is one of rest. When we are "yoked" to him by faith in him as our Saviour and Lord, we find "rest for our souls." Can we be resting in Christ and craving sensual stimulation (by "sensual" I don't mean "sexual," necessarily) every day? Can I claim to be resting in Christ while I am obsessed with the hyper-stimulation of video/online gaming? Can I say I am resting in Jesus when I cannot be at peace unless I have a radio or t.v. going all the time at home? Can I assert my soul is at rest in Christ when I must have multiple cups of coffee every day?

Some years ago now I watched a season of a "reality" show where several people were dropped off in various secluded areas of coastal British Columbia wilderness and left to survive alone for as long as they could. The last person remaining in the wild won a large sum of money. One of the competitors was a twenty-something man who, though his camp was well-established, as the weeks passed by grew increasingly despondent. Eventually, the isolation and the silence became too much for him and, after a couple of days of uncontrollable sobbing, he threw in the towel. He explained that he could not distract himself from his inner thought-life, from the fears, and questions, and deeply-troubling feelings the busy, highly-stimulated life he normally led enabled him to ignore. Facing himself was an unbearable torment.

I don't think this young man is by any means unique. Inside and outside the Church, there are a vast multitude of people who are so dependent upon regular, strong sensory stimulation and distraction, to satisfying their physical impulses at the slightest pressure from them, that to live in the rest of Christ is an alien - and perhaps even frightening - prospect. They are a "bubbling pot" of anxieties, obsessions, disturbing feelings, hurts and destructive desires on which modern living places a noisy, distracting "lid." Such a life kept from the spiritual healing of quiet solitary sessions with God, from undistracted, Spirit-led introspection, repentance and cleansing, eventually "boils over" into severe inner instability, neuroses, self-destructive obsessions and unmitigated despair.

All throughout Scripture, however, the lover of God is directed toward quietness, stillness, and peace, to a turning away from the "sound and fury" of the flesh and its sensuality and impulses.

Isaiah 30:15
15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength”....

Isaiah 32:17-18
17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

Psalm 23:1-2
1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

1 Thessalonians 4:11
11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,

1 Peter 3:4
4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.

Psalm 46:10
10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Psalm 29:11
11 The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace.

Psalm 34:14
14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.

Psalm 119:165
165 Those who love Your law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble.

Philippians 4:7
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.


In fact, Scripture indicates that the flesh, particularly its impulses and sensuality unregulated by the Holy Spirit, is fundamentally opposed to spiritual living:

Galatians 5:17
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Romans 7:18
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh...

Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Jude 1:18-19
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

The "abundant life," then, into which Jesus invites us is not a life of high physical stimulation, a life occupied with satisfying the impulses and senses of the flesh. It is a quiet life, a spiritual life, not of agitation and provocation, but of peace and rest of the mind and soul. I don't mean, here, a monastic life; for we can see from Christ's own example that this is not the life our Master and Saviour lived. But he did retire often to places alone, to commune undistracted and uninterrupted with God the Father. Jesus did not seek out at every turn the satisfaction and stimulation of his flesh, but, rather, sacrificed his body on the cross of Calvary, yielding up his flesh for the sake of an eternal spiritual goal.

How about you? Do you seek out silence and stillness? Do you live a life of peacefulness and rest? Are you able to dwell in quietness and solitude for long periods of time, focused entirely upon God?

You simply cannot meet with, and enjoy, God in the midst of constant noise, and distraction, and fleshly pursuits. These days, in our wildly raucous culture of technology and endless, entertaining diversions, many find their way to Christ's "yoke of peace and rest" only after being savaged and abused by long indulgence in the sound and fury of godless, fleshly, sensual living. Will this be you? Must you be damaged and drained by the fleshly life before you'll seek the quietness and calm of fellowship with God? I hope and pray not.

John 14:27
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Romans 14:17
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Sidon said:

So, lets say a believer finds that they want to engage in activity that is not good for them.
So, they resist this urge and the next they know, they are doing it, again and again.
"Oh God, im back again, to confess the same old sin, the one i said id never do again".
Have you ever met that person?

So, Why does that happen?
Its because..>>"the Law is the power of sin"., and "Christ came to redeem you from the Curse of the Law".

I have all sorts of Threads posted on this forum, that deal with how to end that misery.

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I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't post to my threads. You've demonstrated in your various threads to this subforum that you have a very tangled, self-contradictory idea of how to walk well with God. I'd like to keep my threads, at least, free of your confused views on Christian discipleship.

Sidon said:

So, you are trying to stop the flesh by using the flesh, and not the SPIRIT OF GOD.
See the problem? And it'll be endless, until you understand what you DONT DO, to stop your works of the flesh.
See, As soon as you tried to do that, then you disconnected from Jesus like this...>"Apart from me you can do nothing', and that Is Jesus explaining to you that the power to live a perfected discipleship, is not found in your struggling to be good by self will, as that is your FLESH trying to stop your FLESH.

That is a 100% fail, 100% of the time, FOR LIFE !!

Reader, you dont stop your flesh by your flesh (will, mind, striving to stop)......as when you do that, then this happens to you every time..>"The LAW is the POWER OF SIN"

So, you have to come to the place of a renewed mind, that is resting in God's Grace, to find this..."Christ always GIVES me the Victory".

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Here is a great example of how oblivious you seem to be to the contradictions in your perspective:

You wrote, "You are trying to stop the flesh by using the flesh." But then you wrote a bit later on, "You have to come to the place of a renewed mind...resting in God's grace." How isn't this stopping the flesh by way of the flesh? It's your mind, renewed by the truth of God's word, that you've made the key to spiritual victory. It's your resting in God's grace that is the crucial thing, apparently, in living in victory as a believer. As important as these things may be, the actual Source of victory for the Christian is a Person, not our mind renewed, or our capacity to rest in God's grace. Christ in the Person of the Holy Spirit is our victory.

1 Corinthians 15:56-57
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:6-10
6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
10 and in Him you have been made complete...

John 15:5
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Colossians 3:4
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

And so on. We don't experience Christ as our life like we should, we don't experience him as our victory, we don't encounter his transforming power, unless and until we yield, submit, surrender ourselves to him (Romans 6:13; James 4:7; Romans 12:1). When we do, then it is that he fills us with himself and we are progressively changed, living in victory over the World, the Flesh and the devil. Even our surrender, however, is ultimately God's doing, for He is the One who gives each of us "repentance to the acknowledging of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25); He is the One who convicts us of sin and illuminates our minds and hearts to His truth (John 16:8; 1 Corinthians 2:10-12); He is the One who enables us to choose His will and way over our own, not by compulsion, but by divine persuasion. (2 Timothy 1:12)

Sidon said:

When did you decide that you owned this forum?

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??? You may post as many threads to this subforum as you like (and you have) and I have no power to stop you.

All I've asked you to do is refrain from posting in my threads. How is doing so "owning the forum"?

Sidon said:

Plz Stop whining and realize that this forum, is a public forum.
So, if you want to post in private, or control who posts, then start your own forum, and Mod it.
Is this difficult for you to comprehend?

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Lots of "renewed mind" showing in your comments here...

Herbivore Wolf said:

It matters why your doing it. That determines whether you're sinning.

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Can you supply any specific biblical ground for this view? Are there any behaviours that are sinful regardless of the rationale for them?

Herbivore Wolf said:

Why you do something seems to be the overarching thing that determines an action's moral potential.

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Yes, one's motive has a part to play in determining the moral character of one's thoughts and actions. Do our motivations define moral right and wrong? Not as far as God's word is concerned. Morality is issued to us from the Moral Law Giver - God - who does not consult our motives before declaring a thing morally right or wrong. We conform to God's moral commands and standards; we don't shape them.

Herbivore Wolf said:

There is a special place reserved for liars, and lying is mentioned specifically in the bible quite a few times as specially horrid to the Lord. Yet Rahab from Jericho was praised and set aside for blessing in the Scriptures, remembered for all as the woman who lied to save the spies of Joshua.

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Was Rahab praised for lying? I don't recall reading that in the Bible... She lied, yes, in aid of Hebrew spies, fearing the God of the Israelites, but her lying was never specifically commended.