I have equated love of God with trust and obedience, conformity. It is my yardstick of my growth or lack of growth in some cases (sticking points).
Sounds reasonable. Bless you!
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I have equated love of God with trust and obedience, conformity. It is my yardstick of my growth or lack of growth in some cases (sticking points).
Agreed 100%. Further, if love must have an opposite (referring to my previous responses on this thread), I would say it is fear, not hate. Hate is a form of fear. Fear, of course, is ultimately just as much an illusion as evil. God is. And all he made was good. Everything else is a distortion (ignorance).
Fear can be a good thing. To fear Gods punishment (or wrath) is healthy to those who know the Lord. Jesus spoke much on what must be done to avoid being punished by using fear.
It is when ignorance produces actions away from love, that sin becomes evident. We can hate sin. So hate is not sinful as an action, but where it is used. But things like greed, self adoration, pursuits of materialism, selfishness, satisfaction of self, etc, these are the mechanisms that drive the mind to sin while the spirit is left in the shadows, crying to be heard, but overcome by the "false euphoria" one feels as they continue down this path.
Most times, it is only when one "loses all", wind up in prison, or may be on their death bed and realizes that they cannot amass anything more, that they may hear their spirit. Many will say that there is a way to enjoy the "euphoric" feeling of "pursuit of materialism" and be sinless as well. I disagree, and I see many churches (TV evangelists especially) doing this, and enjoying the high life. Be so very careful.
Bro, with all due respect, you are in grave error. If you want to improve your relationship with others (a perfect avenue to a closer walk with God) you should repent from the hate in your heart toward other human beings (that you don't even detect at this moment), take stock of your own depraved heart, and open your eyes to the Light and Love of the real Jesus Christ right in front of you.
We all have Pharisee tendencies to one degree or another, but I'm just cautioning you that you may be nothing more than a white-washed sepulchre, pristine on the outside and full of rot and death on the inside.
can't overturn the tables of traders in the Temple??
it is the multitude of men that preach a God that condemns people to hell, do you really think the multitude has it right? kind of weird how your beliefs are just like everyone elses! whatever happened to "the whole world is deceived"? it seems to me that most Christians believe in a literal hell, why exactly do you run along the wide road with the rest of them if you claim you are a follower of Christ and have forsaken much to be with Him?
I don't remember saying I believe in the mainstream theory of Hell (literal hell). I'm still uncertain in the mainstream theory of eternal torment. You can scan my historical posts and see for yourself.
What led you to accuse me of such?
What is your belief of Hell then?
purification. just like this world is a fire for the saints. everyone gets his just rewards, but to think that justice means obliteration or eternal torture is not justice at all. you reap what you sow, just as the angels help men along in this age, so too for the next the better will help the weaker, and it is all still based on freewill choice. but the justice of God is hard to measure. I see God as sorting all thing according to each creatures freewill and God orders all towards good.
I was just comparing a literal understanding of things and attempting to show how it leads to a wrong understanding about God. i did not know your actual belief in hell but I accuse the flesh of speaking what he ought not since the body does not know God since God is Spirit. it was more the literal-type mindsets that i accuse rather than blaming you for anything. people who tend to read many things according to the letter tend to fall into traps and fall into pits and false doctrines. however it takes faith to believe the things I believe, it takes no faith, but rather a brute and crude understanding of the character of God to believe eternal torments or obliteration since God orders all things to Himself.
i am resisted by most people for teaching that Gods nature is more worthy than the crude understanding that most people have of Him. you would be surprised at how many preachers think i'm a devil for preaching God is love and mercy in accord to His justice rather than submitting to their doctrines which are filthy. I argue it is rather they who use their belly to understand the scriptures, and all i get from them is the same old repeating pattern of "it says plainly right here!" as if the oracles of God are opened up for all to view. it's like they don't even understand what the vail over their heart and mind means. they think simply accepting Christ with a pray is going to remove the vail, but truly you have to hate your soul and pick up your cross and most religious people are not willing to throw away their doctrines. they can't even see that they slander God with their beliefs. and so until this day they have such weak and stupid problems, such as thinking women are not allowed to teach the truth, as if being male or female has anything to do with being spiritual. the letter kills but the spirit gives life.
We don't like Pharisees now because we read them in the Gospels they are the protagonists in the 'story'.
However, if you read carefully the Gospels, you will see that people respected and adored the Pharisees. People speak highly of them.
Obviously, they had to be nice and sweet to everyone and had good relationship to others.
Seems like you want me to a bit more like the Pharisees? Pharisees who can't hurt a fly, can't overturn the tables of traders in the Temple??
all men partake of the Logos but not all partake of the Holy Spirit as the saints of God do. the Holy Spirit has knowledge that not even by logos/reason can normal men know.
Gnosis is the Spirit, just as the Spirit is Love and Good and Truth and One ect.
there are evil spirits and there are good spirits and then there is the uncreated Spirit of God which is better than all others. the goal for each one of us is to be united to God and be a good spirit with no defect at all which would mean the lesser part of our being which is the soul/female will not be injured anymore either. the soul seems like the spirits house and the celestial body. the male part of who we are seems to be our spirit.
this quote in galatians shows a spiritual progression. at first there are various spirits over us but in time the female gives birth to a child and we in time grow to a point where we are called sons of God and more grown up in the liberty of the Spirit of Christ where there is no more male nor female. i wish i understood this mystery more... it seems like our spirit is just a baby! and so angels take care and guard our soul until the baby grows up. this transformation seems quite amazing, to become a son of God. and even though we become a freeman we are still servants to those who need it. I kind of wonder what exactly does "jew" means and what did paul mean when he said "greek"! I wonder if he means jew = spirit and greek = soul or if he is attempting to show something else by those 2 words. or if he merely gave 2 different kinds of angelic beings set over people to push them to the fullness of Christ? then when we obtain the fullness there is not any of those things because we are like God more than ever and perhaps even become new kinds of angelic beings, as if a new nation is created from the loins of one child of God... perhaps this is partly what is meant by "new creation" and to more fully grow up in God and Christ. it would be nice to get to a point where we are not subjects of various good spirits but have our own land and kingdom of God.
Gal 3:25-4:7 (YLT)
and the faith having come, no more under a child-conductor are we, for ye are all sons of God through the faith in Christ Jesus, for as many as to Christ were baptized did put on Christ; there is not here Jew or Greek, there is not here servant nor freeman, there is not here male and female, for all ye are one in Christ Jesus; and if ye are of Christ then of Abraham ye are seed, and according to promise--heirs. And I say, so long time as the heir is a babe, he differeth nothing from a servant--being lord of all, but is under tutors and stewards till the time appointed of the father, so also we, when we were babes, under the elements of the world were in servitude, and when the fulness of time did come, God sent forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law, that those under law he may redeem, that the adoption of sons we may receive; and because ye are sons, God did send forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, `Abba, Father!' so that thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.
how I see the totality of things, the more each one is free the less each one has to be a servant to others, the more people get free, the more we all become free. and one day Christ will deliver the kingdom over to God the Father and Christ will be all in all. and every knee shall bow. for it is displeasing to a wise man to always have to tell people things, he would rather his pupils become wise men themselves. the want of wisdom is like a want of food, in time there will be no more evil, which is lack of love. the fire of God will touch all beings and they shall all willingly submit, and become transformed and inherit all by their own freewill. for there is no such thing as love if you are a robot and so it was worth us suffering the lack of others at times, for love bares all things. the outcome of everything is indeed going to be wonderful imo.
to see the most vile of beings repent and become happy and full of joy, that is going to be wonderful. and that is a true reward for all of us who love one another. we sons of God would go through a trillion worlds if all would see the light and be warmed. we would become subject to vanity for the sake of our little brother. we humans would often die for the sake of our baby brother, how much more would God die for all or do anything to make us safe and better? i'm just happy God does not run out of Himself/Love/mercy/justice/wisdom or we would all be doomed.
a lot of religious people don't think like I think, they prefer and believe that some should forever suffer lack, lack = evil. those types believe salvation is something of gain, something to be bought, even though it is the Gift of God. this is one of the main reasons I preach the letter vs the spirit, I see more plainly than ever the lack men have. eh... and i have lack too, I want to become better so i can help people and not hurt them.
If you knew biblical culture and history, you would know that the Pharisees, although respected as scholars, were not all rainbows and butterflies. They didn't care if they offended people, and they were not interested in being liked by the community.