TRUTH, HUMILITY & OBEDIENCE

The Holy Spirit has been encouraging me to do some exercise each day and listen to a CD of the Old Testament.   I don’t like my little exercise bike and the O.T. for me, seems a little boring but today the Holy Spirit told me, it was not an option.   That I know the Truth and in humility I  need to become obedient so HE can bless me.   So I have been fighting about it and keeping busy with other things, but it just does not go away.   So today I got on the bike, it was really not that bad and tonight will listen to the O.T. before I go to sleep.   Already starting to feel lighter.   So I thought about tonight’s Bible Fellowship?   I wonder how many of you go through the same thing and find out that what God want’s you to do is really not as difficult as it is made out to be.  Seems the enemy has his foot on the scales and tries to make what ever the Holy Sprite is encouraging us to do for our own Spiritual Growth and development.  What does that add to me? A very needed OBEDIENCE FACTOR.    You think our Creator God is going to turn a lot of self centered, what about me, disobedient folks into HIS perfect Kingdom of Heaven????   Think Again. God’s Heaven is secure,  Nevo hapin,   as my Japanese friend use to say to me in 1950 in Japan.   He was a little short on English, but got his point across.  He was great in taking me to unique places in Japan.  Obedience in the AMP comes up 45 times in the O.T. and 32 times in the N.T. so rather important.  Starts off with Able, goes through Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and many others in bringing us to Jesus who gives us the absolute perfect example concerning obedience even to a very painful death on a cross of Rome.   And our Creator God, sets Jesus before us as to how HE wants us to become.

In Hebrews, the writer (Paul, I think) shares with us:   “Although He was a Son [who had never been disobedient to the Father], He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered.” Heb. 5:8 and again, “Then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” [And so] He does away with the first [covenant as a means of atoning for sin based on animal sacrifices] so that He may inaugurate and establish the second [covenant by means of obedience].  Heb. 10:9
And share about the obedience of Abraham in Heb. 11:10 and of Moses in Heb 11:26.   So we see that Faith, Humility and Obedience as being a major part of our Sanctification process of being made in the image and likeness of God, Gen.1:26.   So our will is either a part of the problem or part of the cure.   And as for me personally, even when I deeply know the Truth I also deeply need the help of the Grace (power) of God in the Holy Spirit to get the changes done.   Paul really nails it in Romans 8, the whole chapter but especially Rom. 8:10-18,   “If Christ lives in you, though your [natural] body is dead because of sin, your spirit is alive because of righteousness [which He provides]. 11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.  12 So then, [a] brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but not to our flesh [our human nature, our worldliness, our sinful capacity], to live according to the [impulses of the] flesh [our nature without the Holy Spirit]— 13 for if you are living according to the [impulses of the] flesh, you are going to die. But if [you are living] by the [power of the Holy] Spirit you are habitually putting to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will [really] live forever. 14 For all who are allowing themselves to be led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading again to fear [of God’s judgment], but you have received the Spirit of adoption as children [the Spirit producing adoption] by which we [joyfully] cry, “[b] Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies and confirms together with our spirit [assuring us] that we [believers] are children of God. 17 And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory.  18 For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us!”

According to Jesus, our placement in eternal life is based upon believing in God’s Truth. God’s Truth is everywhere, Romans 1:17–22. Isaiah 28: 9–20 tells us that God’s Truth is line upon line and precept upon precept. So in order find and know God’s Truth we need to search through HIS prophets, in context and grow in HIS truth and become sanctified and like HIM. The big problem is not in finding HIS truth but in avoiding the lies and the poisons of this world. So pure faith is a growth in God’s Truth in humility and obedience. But if you find God’s Truth and don’t walk it out you may become stuck in the mud of this world so badly that you could easily miss the next. God is creating an eternal family that loves HIM and each other and that wants to be like HIM. All others, need not apply. Interested? Read John, Acts & Romans, especially Romans 10:9–10 in the Amplified Bible

Quora, Question:   What is the predestination controversy?   
Some folks believe they are the way they are as God made them that way,  like homosexuals and as do many Christians.  But they edit out the word foreknowledge in Romans 8:29.  In other words,  from GOD’S dimension HE foreknew the future before it happened in our dimension.  HE knew that I would be writing this note at this time before the first bit of HIS energy became an atom.  But all through the Bible man is totally responsible in Free Will for his actions and will be judged accordingly.  It is obvious that we were not created to be a bunch of robots and what kind of a family would that make.  And True Love would not even exist as love must have Free Will to be valid.  And Revelation 22:14–23 would be invalid if we were predestined without God’s foreknowledge only confirming our personal decisions.  If alive, you have the right to decide to live in God’s Light in Christ Jesus with a new body or deepest darkness for eternity without a body.  Your soul is eternal either way.  To not believe in the Bible is also a personal choice.  As for me,  I believe it to be valid for faith and practice.

Quora Question:    What is the best way to respond to someone who says they will never waver in their faith, no matter what happens?   Good, if built on stone, but if on sand it will wash away when God’s flood of Truth find it.  Isa. 28: 9–20,  Matthew 7:24–26,  1 Cor.3:11–15.  Even many so called Christians are living on sand as they have a selected emotional truths for themselves as a “Progressive Gospel” and their faith is built on an edited edition of God’s truth.  Our Creator God is seeking to invest HIS Love, Holiness & Power into our lives if we are truly the disciples of Christ Jesus.  St. Paul tells us that if there is no power,  we are building on sand,  2 Tim.3:5.   But it is up to us to want God’s Truth and to seek God’s help in securing it for our lives.  Romans 1:18-20