Today at 03:33 PM I said this in Post #4
Love God + Hear teaching = Follow teaching
Not love God + Hear teaching = Not follow teaching
Love God + Not hear teaching = Follow teaching that you already had
Not love God + Not hear teaching = BAD situation
Okay... this is for anyone who happens to read this post that knows basics of
calculus derivatives and graph behavior. If you do, you will understand what I mean, if you don't you won't have a clue so you can either try to understand this or go on to the next post (whenever there is another one) But I will still try to explain it enough so you might catch on to what I am saying...
These are the equations:
Let the function f(x) be the relationship between "distance traveled towards God" (y) and time (x).
f(x)=distance f'(x)=velocity=obedience=love f''(x)=acceleration=instruction
f'(x) positive, f''(x)positive: function rising, concave up... f'(x) positive, f''(x) negative: function rising, concave down... f'(x) negative, f''(x) positive: function falling, concave up... f'(x) negative, f''(x) negative: function falling, concave down... f'(x) positive, f''(x)=0: function rising, but not accelerating... f'(x) negative, f''(x)=0: function falling, but not accelerating... f'(x)=0, f''(x)= all reals: no movement.
If you know what that means you can see my point (maybe) lol But
here is the explanation:
Let's assume you have a graph of the "Fellowship with God" position function (a graph of your position in relationship to God with respect to time)... and we can call that function: f(x). Let's also assume that the x-axis is time, and the y-axis is distance traveled towards God: creating a position-time graph.
The force which moves you closer to God over time is obedience: that from my quoted verse above we know to be a reaction of love. We know that "change in postion over change in time = velocity," and for our purposes we will make "change in position in relationship to God over change in time = love." (in actuality-be directly correlated with the condition of love).
We know that velocity is the first derivative of position (written f'(x) ). We also know that when first derivative is positive (love is positive... meaning you love God) the position-time graph moves upwards - which for our purposes is toward God. We also know conversely that when "love" is negative, the graph will be falling - or moving away from God. Velocity zero is signet of indecision. If someone is unsure, stuck between whether you love God or don't... their velocity is zero and they don't go anywhere... regardless of instruction or until instruction causes them to change direction: either positively or negatively. (See next paragraph)
Furthermore, we know that the second derivative of a position function is acceleration. When the second derivative (written f''(x) ) is positive, the graph is concave up (meaning that the graph curves upward). And we know the graph is concave down when f''(x) is negative (curves down). Well... what accelerates our love toward God? Bible study, sermons, teaching, etc... when lumped together: "instruction." However if there is no acceleration ( f''(x)=0 ), no "instruction" the path or the function continues in the current direction at a constant rate.
Sooo... what does that mean? The equations when plugged in with what they stand for is this:
Someone who loves God will have f'(x) positive and will move towards Him. Positive instruction will accelerate his movement. Negative instruction however will either slow him down or turn him away. Someone who doesn't love God will fall away from Him. Positive instruction may either slow him down, or turn him around. Negative instruction will only further push him away from God. Someone who is unsure of how he feels about God however will never move and is useless until he hears instruction. Positive instruction will push him towards God, negative will lead him away.
Thus Calculus can be used to the glory of God!!!
