the blog file

i've been quite slack on the ole blog front these days-- whoops.
it's just because my life is so rich, so full, so abundant...i find it hard to place blogging at the top of my priorities list. not that i have a list.
but i do love lists. hat tip dad (*tick tick tick*)

i've been rereading "Helps to Holiness," by Samuel Logan Brengle. absolute classic-- i'm getting more out of it this time then ever before.

here's a few things in the book that i've been loving (again), and a few of my own thoughts:
(heh, a list.)

1.)

"watch your life and doctrine closely. persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers."
(1 Timothy 4:16)

personal holiness is absolutely vital-- for our own salvation, and that of those who hear the message through us.

p.s. on this one: who are your hearers?

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"
(Romans 10:14)

preach it to 'em. AND-- watch your life and doctrine closely. you cannot to take too much care of your own soul.

2.)

chapter 12-- Gideon's Band-- absolutely brilliant.

he interprets that the crazy water-lapping-elimination that God does is not random-- but it was the Lord weeding out the self-indulgent soldiers. they took their eyes off the enemy to stick their faces in the river and quench their thirst. but the soldiers that God wanted, the remnant of 300 who defeated the 32,000 Midianites, drank with their eyes alert, their hands on their weapons, even though they were just as thirsty as the others.

we don't want no self-indulgent soldiers. we'd do better without them. i'd rather have an Army of sacrificial, fearless, disciplined soldiers that is dwarfed in number by the enemy, then a large Army of gluttons and sloths.

3.)

Stephen Court promotes that carnal Christianity is the worst possible lifestyle. and i testify-- amen. if your a sinner, full-on, at least you can "enjoy" the sin, relish in it, soak up all you can from it. and if you're sanctified, you can experience the highest possible levels of joy because of shame-free, ecstatic intimacy with God.

but: if your a Christian, AND you continue in sin-- relationship with God is lacking because of shame and the knowledge in the back of your mind that you are disobeying the One you claim to love. not only is relationship with God lacking, but sin isn't even enjoyable, because you're constantly being convicted by the Holy Spirit. both the sin and the relationship are unsatisfying.

i recommend to either be hot or cold. oh-- and please be hot. :o)

4.)

a few times recently i've spoken with some friends, and this question has come up:

"what do you really want?"

sounds like a simple question-- but it searches deeply. what do you REALLY want?

what i want is to be intimate with Him. honestly, it's the one thing i desire. if i'm happy, sad, abused, mistreated, rich, poor, abandoned, popular-- whatever-- i just want to experience it in true relationship with Him.
i'm sure that's what you want too.
but it's easy to think that we want one thing or another-- marriage, friends, food, sleep, family, a job, and effectiveness in ministry. i'm not talking about sin here. i'm talking about good things-- but they really fade in light of knowing Christ. i count them as garbage, for the sake of knowing Him.

i hate the world.

what do you really want?

5.)

now that i've opened the proverbial "file" (hat tip dad AGAIN!), there's no going back! i could type forever! :o)

Doctrine #10, back in the day:

"We believe that after conversion there remains in the heart of the believer inclinations to evil, or roots of bitterness, which, unless overpowered by Divine Grace, produce actual sin; but that these evil tendancies can be entirely taken away by the Spirit of God, and the whole heart thus cleansed from everything contrary to the will of God or entirely sanctified will then produce the fruit of the Spirit only. and we believe that persons thus entirely sanctified may, by the power of God, be kept unreprovable before Him"

BOLD STATEMENT!

i agree with it.

aiight, that's a lot to read. sorry.