Taking a Journey with the Apostle John – Part IX

Comment

Comment by Leonard T on March 30, 2015 at 12:38pm

It is an interesting situation to say the least. We have the church institution which has been heavily infiltrated by the ways of the world and influenced by the enemy. Many false doctrines and heresies have been introduced and embraced. At the same time we must not expect that we can just withdraw and believe we will come to perfect conclusions on our own. Left to our own minds we will still miss the mark. I believe this leaves us with only one option ... we need the illumination of the Holy Spirit in order to navigate this thing called life. We cannot do it on our own. Now I realize this opens up a new set of questions, but I believe you will find most people still want to control their own life ... they want to be saved from hell and be able to live for self asking God to bless them as they do their own thing. This goes back to surrender. Yes, there are those who really want Christ and seem to struggle to find His path for life, but there are four that help guide us in that journey when we really are sincere. These are the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, like minded Christians and obedience. We could add faith here, but it is assumed that if you are truly seeking to surrender you have been born again.

There are two ways of moving forward, I suppose more, but I will illustrate two. One can wait until they feel they have enough light to move forward or they can move forward trusting God to give them light. Even your journey, though you traveled through legalism, is moving forward. For you this has been a long journey ... for God not even a tick on the clock. You feel you have been beaten, I believe that in the end you will be stronger for it. You are now afraid (a healthy fear) of being trapped by false teaching again and have become like a Berean ... Awesome!!! You question, you challenge, you agitate (just kidding on that one), you will not just accept it anymore because someone said it ... Awesome! You continue to beat yourself up, but I sit here and am watching you grow. Yes there are set backs, but the progress far out shines the set backs!!!

Lord Bless,

LT

Comment by Leonard T on March 29, 2015 at 5:48pm

I do not believe it is God who makes it hard, but rather the many voices who attempt to speak into our lives over a lifetime that hinder the clarity. By many voices I am referring to the many different and opposing doctrines that are believed by what is called the church today.

I believe it is important to develop an understanding as to what you accept as in alignment with Scripture. for example I believe the following regarding the Bible:

1) The Bible is the Word of God.

2) I believe the Bible is holy inspired.

3) I believe The Word of God is inerrant.

4) I believe it is to be read at face value.

... stopping there.

Some will call me closed minded for the next statement, and I am OK with that.

I do not listen to the teachings of those who fall outside of certain parameters when I am wanting to be edified. I will listen to varied teachings to know what others think, but that is put into a separate category. I could careless about a person's view of Scripture if they view Scripture as simply a word about God. I am not interested in learning from a person who only reads the Word of God as if every bit is allegoric.

This same principle applies to salvation. If a person tells me that I must work to be or remain saved I am not interested in being taught by them as all of their views are going to be affected by their doctrine of work based salvation. The affect on their view will be wide as it will affect their view of God and their view of grace. The list goes on, but I will stop the list here.

It is important to develop the foundation beliefs first and then build on them. Today, not saying you, many want to go on to deeper teachings before they understand essential core doctrine. I find three things to be very helpful in our quest, recognizing that we require the Holy Spirit to illuminate us for any of it to matter. These three are the Word of God, examining what the early church believed and lastly a hymnal. There are very few modern day authors that I read. Tozer once said (paraphrased) "If it is new it is probably not true, if it is true it is probably not new."

Lord Bless,

LT