pure WOF unmixed

pdudgeon said:

AMEN TO THAT! we need to put aside all the bad thoughts and doubts that have proliferated in the past week among us, all the accusations that have gone back and forth, and just be glad that we can gather together here with everyone in one spirit.

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CindyisHis said:

It's also a place of prayer and the gifts of the spirit to manifest. We've had prophetic words, Irene shares anointed poetry with us, there has been teaching, songs and worship, and the word used to minister encouragement to one another. I was not working outside the home when I started it, and I would post lots of teaching, about 1-2 times a week. That has waned some with time restraints. However, it is more than fellowship, though it does get light at times too, and that's okay. It could be I did not rightly name it, but I;m not prompted to change the name. The Lord is watching over it and protecting it, and moving in it!

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In answer to your question. For me it is both. I am settled quite firmly in those things which I have been led to research and study for myself. Other things I have 'assumed' to be true because those that I fellowship with and/or listen too that I esteem believe them. I am occasionally confronted with coming to a different conclusion when I study a theological concept/system for myself.

Between running my own business (I am a contractor) and investing time in my family and church, there has simply not been enough time in my life yet to study every subject that interests me thouroughly. The cross, love and faith, as well as the promises and Gods will for my life in gerneral I have studied extensively, and am well grounded in. Eschatology, the Holy Spirit, and Jewish traditions and practices I am greatly lacking in. Many other areas I have only a slight grasp on. In these, I am still growing, and forming a theology that satisfies my own spirit.

The two most important things I have learned on my quest to understand God through the scriptures:

1) Never interpret words or phrases found in scripture by my own understanding of them via my own cultural/social language definitions; always use a contextual definition of the word from other places it is used in the Bible. (No scripture is of any private interpretation)

A good example of this is the word faith. Faith is not trust or believing (although we define it this way in modern english). Faith is a noun, and comes from the greek pistis. It is a noun, therefore it is a thing, not an action. It is something you have or don't have, it is not some thing you do. If poeple did a word study in the Bible they would know this, rather than going to Websters for the english definition of a greek word (which of course is the private interpretation we are warned against).

2) Never belittle, mock or scorn others, but listen to any WORD based points that they make. Scorn is not of God, and is a type of judgment of anothers postion as unworthy, unintelligent, or unimportant. It is unloving, and akin to calling other believers fools. It will cut one off from revelation from God, and open them up to deception, because the spirit of mocking is not from God, but from the flesh, or worse, from the devil.

For instance, I have often been tempted to go to the debate section and start threads that mirror the anti-WOF threads. You know, the ones that take a WOF belief out of context, make it say something that does not truly represent our beliefs, and then proceed to shred the strawman they have erected to a chorus of cheers from their fellow mockers. A good example of this would be a thread entitled, "Why do WOF deny they are sick"? When of course, we don't really deny we are sick, we just choose to confess God promises instead of confessing the sickness or pain. Sickness may be a fact, but it is not truth. God Word is truth, not sickness. And truth can change facts.

I've thought of doing the same thing, like posting threads with titles such as "Why do calvinists/super soveriegnity anti-faith folks believe that God wills for gay pedophiles to rape and kill children?" I mean, if everything that happens is Gods will, then God surely wills all the rape, all the torture, all the murder, and all the perversion. They must think God is a pervert and a molester. That He gets his jollies off of the suffering that He causes.

Of course, though I said this here, I don't really believe that they believe that. I do think however, that those on the anti-WOF bandwagon havelet thought through the end result of their theology. Because the end result of their theology is a God that I would not serve, nor they I think. But you can see from the example how I could create thread after thread of similar red herrings to argue and get my peers to cheer me on for, just like the anti-faith crowd does.

But that kind of behavior is not Christlike, and would cut me off from further revelation of God through His Word. And to be honest with you, I would rather continue to know HIM better, than to satisfy my flesh by putting them down with a good show of mocking and scorn. Instead, when I go into those sections, I post threads that teach from the WORD, without attacking or mocking those that disagree with me. The WORD is more powerful than the flesh anyways.

Hope this answers your questions.

Peace...

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dkbwarrior said:

Thank you HSWOF for saving that for me. I just got back from my afternoon class at church and saw that the thread had been deleted! Then I thought to myself, I guess you just lost that post, but lo, here it is!!!

Thank you so much!

Peace...

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