26 November 2010

Thinking with a Renewing Mind pt7

As did our great grandparents-squared (Adam and Eve), we too stand face to face with the question of "Did God really say?" (GEN3), or as in the Septuigint it reads "For why said God?"

If this question drives us to God's means of revelation then we have responded by faith. If we rely on our own understanding, we refute faith in our living God by considering ourselves as able judges of what is to be good and what is to be evil.

This is eating of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

This is the basis upon which it is said we are stained by the Original Sin; by spiritual heritage on our own we are dead, in Christ we are made alive unto God so as to know God. To actually know God is eternal life, according to Jesus.

The quality of the renewing mind, only available through Christ, is to flee to God. It is hard to judge others by this criteria, hence our reluctance to embrace it.

The frustrates us, for we like to find our place in comparison to others. Try to compare to Jesus, if you need an ego adjustment. This trait is of our fallen nature which woos us from the place it was put upon the cross, calling us to breathe new life as if to do CPR on our rotten flesh.

We fall victim to this trait by appealing to ourself, and like-minded souls, due to a misplaced sense of adequacy. It is as if we disciples say to ourselves, "Christ is my sufficiency", but the emphasis is on "my sufficiency" rather than "Christ is". Such is the basis of the Lie.

When we develop the habit of relying on "My sufficiency", we are not walking in the light as He is in the light. Jesus' adequacy, if you recall, was founded on His knowledgable faith in the Father, and not in His consideration of His own knowledge of what to do or say based upon His being the Logos, the Son of God. He put that aside, and became one with the lowliest of humble creatures of our human race. Jesus calls us friends, and brethren.

Jesus says that he does not do anything on His own, but only what He sees and hears the Father doing and saying. Jesus was not relient upon His own good self even to do His mission. He humbled Himself and became as a mere servant. And this is His missional call to all His disciples to do the same.

If we shall not be satisfied to be like our Master, than we are outside God's expressed will. We now this because of the revelation of God in Jesus, the Bible, and the faithful proclamation in word and deed of His Body. To err is human, to forgive is divine; this is a doubtful perspective when we realize that Jesus was human and did not err. To be fully human, we must be new creations.

In the vacua of evil, we must judge others in order for our old nature to have a place to stand... upon the backs and minds of others. This sub-human (post-Fall) is a means of self-elevation which is recognized by the world's culture(s). It is plain we judge ourselves superior to those in the present and/or the past. We judge ourselves more grateful for blessings than others, more inventive, more creative, more sincere, and even more authentic and transparent.

We may think we are better read, better with tools; but this is the mask of the fool. It takes real gall to judge ourselves more humble than others, as if we have no pride.

Each one of us stands or falls before their own Master, Paul tells us in Romans. Who are you, he says, to judge the servant of another? These people do not serve us but Jesus! What we hold by faith is ours. Anything that does not procede from faith is Sin. We need confidence of the path upon which we walk by faith into maturity. We are on solid ground, and we experience that solidity by our belonging to God and our renewing mind.

It is important to have a level of confidence by which we determine we are being loved first, and we are loving in response; that we are knowing God and also that God knows us; that we are acting in response to others and God as well as being acted upon.

This assurance is ours only by being hid in Christ with all our brothers and sisters in the same faith; for truly we know from Abel forward the "just" only live by faith. No one is righteous, no not one. Our expanding awareness is in line, part and parcel, with the Scriptures. It is included with membership within the functioning Body.

That in part is what it means to think with the renewing mind.

Peace to all who live by the rule of the new creation, unto the Israel of God.

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I really want to have fellow disciples as well and folks with inquiring minds to interact here. Thanks for your patience as I get this sorted. Email me at gcandj at gmail daught kohm is you have difficulty. BTW, that was intentionally misspelled, but you should not do so if emailing me.