LOVING GOD
do u love ur parents? why? did u choose them? did u choose to be born, a bunch of fused cells (welded together of two separate persons and genetic stock mind u, if given a choice, they may not have WANTEd to be tog) which grow by nutrition from the mother (forced food, perhaps prolonging a death which may have been more welcome for a meaningless purpose), born a baby, taught the ways of civilisation (brain washed from birth, perhaps better off a savage), given an education of a free man (oh the curse of awareness, if only we were born blind- the ignorant are blissful!), grown to manhood (against my will! the beautiful of being a child- the loss of innocence), forced into the bondage of an western mindset (i am asian! i hsould be chinese-educated! to follow my own destiny as my ethnicity demands! chinese education! confucian values!) and brought into the glorious knowledge of a loving CHrist (ah, the oppression of teh truth- if only i did not know what light was- then all things would simply be vision and what i see. without light i would not know darkness- and how dark that light that taught me to see must be!)
(in some sense, i have meandered and got distracted in my parenthesis- but my only point is this- ur life is DIVINELY ARRANGED BY SOMEONE otyher than urself. He is behind all the twists and turns of ur life, in ur national life, in ur ETHNIC life if u know what i mean.history is HIS STORY. UR HISTORY IS HIS! nothing is by accident. but back to my point.)
my dear friend, do u love ur parents? why? did u choose them to love, as u wouold a girlfriend? most certainly not. did they choose u? no, not either. then why? look at ur life, as a product of ur parent's union. wherein lies the love u have for them? simply, in the fact that they love u and will always love u no matter what u did or have done. when u broke their heart, they continued to love u... but to cut a long story short, u did not choose, but u are bound to them, and in ur heart of hearts, in ur softest, most sentimental self- u would have it no other way.
the same is true for the Lord- u did not choose Him- if anytthing (barring calivinist or armenian factionism,) He chose u! and His tolerance of ur nonsense earns ur love. jeremiah pointed out that the heart is dreadfully and desperately evil beyond all measure. but LOVE is an intellectual affair. it isn't fuzzy feelings rising in ur chest- that sentimentality is deceptive. love is a choice, it's mental. it's a decision to do what u desperately DON'T want to do, so that in ur choice it may be called righteousness to love by faith.
someone noted that as believers, we are OPPRESSED in relation to god, bound against our choices to do things that we may not want to. but the fact that we do them, conscious of this juxtaposition, and the awareness that He did so much more for us, demonstrates our LOVE for Him.
we are oppressed, only when we give the Other side of ourselves the volume to shout and rant, to indulge the rebelliousness in us. it is OPPRESSION when we feel forced and pummelled, defeated and beaten. but the other side says that it is LOVE and KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH, nonetheless. let that other side speak in u. there's a reason why it's FALLING in love, not RISING in love. love IS an oppression- love is a taming of urself, not sentimentally, but consciously. what am i saying? love is teh DEFEAT of that rebellious side that screams out against god and the reminiscing of the goodness of the lord and obeying the Spirit in you.
is it an oppression then? it most certainly is! it's a SUPRESSION of the sinful nature. that's why paul sayas do u not conform to the pattern of this world- which has given itself over to the sinful desires in them and numbed whatever bit of the SPirit there was in them in the first place.
i urge u my dear friend, not to feed ur bitterness or dispute with the Lord, because that's not going to change the fact that God is there and that He is WHO HE is. instead, it'll make u a bitter and angry man. know that the Lord is the same, yest, today and foreever, and He is GOodness and Righteousness, as HE said He was. embrace the eternal pleasures at His right hand, the treasures of faith and belief. so hang in there brother. talk it out at the fellowship. debate it. these are issues we ALL struggle with and u don't do it alone. but if u're gonna bottle it up in a unproductive manner, u're just hurting urself. talk it thru and pray that this spirit of disobedience and restlessness leaves you
(in some sense, i have meandered and got distracted in my parenthesis- but my only point is this- ur life is DIVINELY ARRANGED BY SOMEONE otyher than urself. He is behind all the twists and turns of ur life, in ur national life, in ur ETHNIC life if u know what i mean.history is HIS STORY. UR HISTORY IS HIS! nothing is by accident. but back to my point.)
my dear friend, do u love ur parents? why? did u choose them to love, as u wouold a girlfriend? most certainly not. did they choose u? no, not either. then why? look at ur life, as a product of ur parent's union. wherein lies the love u have for them? simply, in the fact that they love u and will always love u no matter what u did or have done. when u broke their heart, they continued to love u... but to cut a long story short, u did not choose, but u are bound to them, and in ur heart of hearts, in ur softest, most sentimental self- u would have it no other way.
the same is true for the Lord- u did not choose Him- if anytthing (barring calivinist or armenian factionism,) He chose u! and His tolerance of ur nonsense earns ur love. jeremiah pointed out that the heart is dreadfully and desperately evil beyond all measure. but LOVE is an intellectual affair. it isn't fuzzy feelings rising in ur chest- that sentimentality is deceptive. love is a choice, it's mental. it's a decision to do what u desperately DON'T want to do, so that in ur choice it may be called righteousness to love by faith.
someone noted that as believers, we are OPPRESSED in relation to god, bound against our choices to do things that we may not want to. but the fact that we do them, conscious of this juxtaposition, and the awareness that He did so much more for us, demonstrates our LOVE for Him.
we are oppressed, only when we give the Other side of ourselves the volume to shout and rant, to indulge the rebelliousness in us. it is OPPRESSION when we feel forced and pummelled, defeated and beaten. but the other side says that it is LOVE and KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH, nonetheless. let that other side speak in u. there's a reason why it's FALLING in love, not RISING in love. love IS an oppression- love is a taming of urself, not sentimentally, but consciously. what am i saying? love is teh DEFEAT of that rebellious side that screams out against god and the reminiscing of the goodness of the lord and obeying the Spirit in you.
is it an oppression then? it most certainly is! it's a SUPRESSION of the sinful nature. that's why paul sayas do u not conform to the pattern of this world- which has given itself over to the sinful desires in them and numbed whatever bit of the SPirit there was in them in the first place.
i urge u my dear friend, not to feed ur bitterness or dispute with the Lord, because that's not going to change the fact that God is there and that He is WHO HE is. instead, it'll make u a bitter and angry man. know that the Lord is the same, yest, today and foreever, and He is GOodness and Righteousness, as HE said He was. embrace the eternal pleasures at His right hand, the treasures of faith and belief. so hang in there brother. talk it out at the fellowship. debate it. these are issues we ALL struggle with and u don't do it alone. but if u're gonna bottle it up in a unproductive manner, u're just hurting urself. talk it thru and pray that this spirit of disobedience and restlessness leaves you
posted by leb at 6:05 AM
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