10000 posts ......... ask Cyggy something !

cygnusx1 said:

Hi there friends , cold ?

put your feet up relax cus here's a Winter Warmer ........... enjoy!


Salvation ......... is always a miracle ........



Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise.


[20] For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing; and greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel.
[21] For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
[22] The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
[23] that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
[24] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
[25]

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

John 5

Jesus had just healed a cripple but he had done it on the Sabbath thus exposing Himself to the faulty Judgment of Legalist religious leaders ........

But from this passage we learn of Christs power extended beyond and over the merely physical inability of man , yes what about man the SPIRITUAL CRIPPLE !

and certainly it were far greater to raise someone from the putrifying ailment of being a 'spiritual Cripple' than being a physical cripple , and so it is that Jesus turns His attention to the Spiritual and it's application .....


be it known that all men being dead in trespasses and sins need life , they haven't got it otherwise they wouldn't need it , Spiritual life ....... and the man who has both heared Christs words AND believed on them has past over from death to life .... he is a NEW Creation!

and what is more we are informed that it is the dead who will hear his voice that very hour and already is , when those who were dead to God and to His life and word , would indeed hear his Voice and Live!

lastly we learn that this operation of Divine Grace is Sovereign (we know at the end all men are raised to the Judgment ) but here we see a distinction between some being raised and others not being raised and Jesus said it was according to His own will ........ not the will of us , we were dead to God (Eph 2)


and so we learn that the truth of salvation is nothing less than a MIGHTY MIRACLE , but will this please all men ............... what do you think ....... of course not!

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cygnusx1 said:

When St. Augustine of Hippo wrote his mid-life autobiography which he referred to as "Confessions," he spoke of an experience that is not unique to himself, but something repeated day after day all over the world. Augustine admits that he had been resisting the call of God to conversion, especially in his personal struggle with chastity.

While he was wrestling intensely in his heart with his desires, he heard the voice of a child nearby singing lyrics which sounded like "Take it, read it! Take it, read it!" (Book 8) Augustine sensed in these words a personal invitation from God.

After going into his house, Augustine picked up the Scriptures and began to read what we now know as Romans 13:13-14: "....not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh."

Augustine says that from that moment forward his direction was set, conversion took hold. Christ, through the letter of Paul written hundreds of years earlier, had spoken so forcefully to Augustine that peace flooded his heart, giving him courage.

Even allowing from some poetic exaggeration on Augustine's part, this recollection testifies to an experience that is not reserved for the ancient church nor for canonized saints. Scripture is a privileged means God uses to call us where we might hesitate to go. For Augustine, Scripture sounded a call to battle in the core of his being. The fruits of his conversion would benefit countless millions of Christians as well as others who would find in his philosophical odyssey of life a road map of their own search for God. But Augustine clearly says that God speaking to him in Scripture made that profound change in his life possible.

http://www.cptryon.org/compassion/spr96/read.html

http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/article_augustine_troxel.html

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