Dear brothers and sisters...

[i][b][color=660033] Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh![/color][/b][/i]

In reading over some of the current threads the question comes to my mind: could this be read over some of these discussions?

Dear brothers and sisters, I am pursuaded that the adversary would have us to be much occupied with whatever will bring divisions among us, and would also vigorously oppose any movement on our parts towards being

[i]broken and humble and honest[/i]

[b]before each other[/b].

Strife does not much become those, or that, I think.

I ask this gently to us all,

Christopher

I have been praying 2 Timothy 2:16 for SI, but mostly for myself. I need the Lord's help in showing me what to talk about.

May Jesus help us all!

Jordan

Brother Chris... thank you.

Corey: Can someone please advise me how I may participate in the SI community without arguing?

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Brother Corey, read these articles, you will find a lot.

God bless all.

Dear Corey,
I don`t know if you are still having problems with wanting to argue, but if you are,
may I suggest praying the words of Ps.139 vv23-24.
When the Lord shows us ourselves, we feel like crying, crying over our sin, over the sins of the Church and the sins of the world, just like Jesus did over the people of Jerusalem.
So ask Him to break your heart, and He will.
Remember Robert Murray M`Cheyne, (in my mind the greatest pastor who ever lived,) who cried every time he read the Bible, every time he prayed and every time he preached. It is not surprising that he was one of the holiest men who ever lived, and the Lord used him wonderfully. Make it your aim to be like him and like the Lord Jesus, who"when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when he suffered, He did not threaten, but trusted in Him who judges justly."(1Pet.2:23)The Lord bless you.

Can someone please advise me how I may participate in the SI community without arguing? I fear a hothead like myself might be better off leaving all together...

No, Corey, you would not be better off leaving!!! That would be a bandaid solution. God has been doing serious business in your life and is using these tests to transform you into his image. So hang in!

None of us like to see ourselves flop on our faces, but that’s just where God takes us when he wants us to learn something about ourselves so we can acknowledge it and move towards repentance.

I have some questions for you to ponder: WHY do you react so strongly? What is God trying to get you to see about yourself? What is he trying to uproot? What is he asking you to let go? What is that hidden idol? (I remember talking with you about idols on another thread, but now I’m talking about idols in the heart – maybe faulty assumptions, or something?) You sure do want to go for that root, or the problem will just keep coming back - on SI or somewhere else!

Now guess how I would even come up with all those questions? You bet...been there... done that...

How’s that for thoughts from a Canuck to a Canuck - eh?

Diane

[i]In your patience possess ye your souls.[/i] Luk 21:19

Came to mind Corey, but applies to us all.

[i]broken and humble and honest[/i]

[b]before each other[/b].

Strife does not

Does not

Thank you Chris

Corey, many thanks for your humble honesty. That gave me a lot of love for you. Wow! You are going through some tremendous upheavals right now. I rejoice that you are submitting to the Lord. I think we have a responsibility to exercise patience and love towards you just as you must do towards yourself. It’s hard to forgive yourself, isn’t it? It’s hard to fully accept Christ’s forgiveness. However, God is sure not giving up on you! He is using each failure to drive you to a deeper humility and a deeper acceptance of divine mercy. The flesh is dying in you, PTL!

when I see someone inject something I feel is unrighteous, I feel the need to react.

Keep in mind that the only person we can change is ourselves. And that's even more than we can handle in our own strength.

I can say, even for myself, that a lot of our anger is related to something we experienced in our past, and so when we see (or imagine) a resemblance in our present we attack it. That’s the outcome of buried anger.

“In your anger do not sin, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the DEVIL a foothold.” Eph. 4:26 Our anger leaves us open for the devil to work through us.

Thankfully Paul does not leave us with a ‘don’t’. Instead he gives us the tools to resist the DEVIL: the armor of God, Eph. 6:10. The more secure we are in HIS armor, the less we will fight (attack) flesh and blood (ie people). You would do well to soak yourself in the book of Ephesians.

Right now I am reading Acts, and I notice that the only ones who erupted in rages were the Pharisees – those who were still trusting in their own righteousness. The Christians stayed calm all the time, even though they had every cause to react against the religious apostasy. That’s not saying that they were blasé about it. They just used the right weapons to counteract evil: the armor of God! They stood firm in their faith, rather than try to run ahead and attack. They did good in the power of God, and that accomplished far more than swatting at the bad.

God said (many times), “Vengeance is mine…” God can handle the bad stuff. We can't. Corey, You can stop playing God, and let God be God while you be Corey. It works better that way.
Diane

Hi everyone.

Dear Corey, thank you so much for your honesty on openess with us.

I can relate to the things you shared after my own conversion too and especially that zeal for truth and hating falsehood and absorbing so much all the time. The grace of God brought me up from a horrible pit of sin like you brother.

One of the ways this worked out in my own life was that I was much like the proverbial [i]bull in a china shop[/i]. I was like a 500 pound gorilla around people. :-( :-( :-(

Something which I believe God has impressed upon me through all of my terrible blunders and sins since then is that He is not, at least when it comes to us, so much concerned with strength and power; that is, He doesn't have much use for brute force when it comes to His earthen vessels. And well, I suppose I've always found the brute force method much easier in life, at least short term.

Maybe the reason for this is the scripture says that His angels [i]excel in strength[/i]? So then, if God has need of that type of force and work, I suppose that they are much better suited to it that us! And this comes to somehting which I think underlies all the purposes of God in man and it has to do with the only definition of meekness that I have heard that has really stuck with me.

I have heard meekness defined this way, that it is [i]power under control[/i].

I just love that, it really seems right to me when I think of the attributes of God Himself.

How powerfull is He! And yet, He is gentle enough deal with us. He is so powerfull He can fling whole galaxies across the night sky and at the same time speak to us in a still small voice and comfort us with a gentle breeze. What control! What power under control!

Brothers and sisters, isn't this underneath all that God would do with us? Remember how the scripture says

[i] ...God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty[/i]

For...

[i]...the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.[/i]

[i] For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:[/i]

And remembering what He told that Apostle who was so mighty in deeds and words..

[i][b][color=660033] My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness[/color][/b][/i]

I think brothers and sisters, how often the Lord Jesus could have torn His hearers apart with the sword of His mouth and even in those times when His words were so sharp and cutting, were they not always [i]under control[/i]? I think of one word, [i][b]restraint[/b][/i]; a holy restraint.

It may be that God has put within us a fountain of knowledge, a torrent of zeal, pools of wisdom and revelation in deepest things of God, and yet what if, [i]He should want it to come forth in a trickle[/i]? Is this not our meekness?

Does not God demonstrate His great power by excercising control? What good would His awesome powers and might be, if He could not control them? And is this not His purpose in us, that He should subdue all of our powers and all of our might and bring them under His control?

As for me, I am constantly in need of checks against my selfish tendencies and against my tendencies towards self-preservation or self-seeking glory. And then who even knows my secret motives but God?

Thank you for letting me share that and grace be with all your hearts,

Christopher

Corey, I know you will be blessed by these sermons:

[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=437]Sermons by Earnest ONeil[/url]

Such topics as:
A Clean Heart
A New Start

Diane

On the Akiane thread, Melissa Seaman said:Is there really any need for personal attacks on brothers and sisters who are only suggesting caution? Especially against persons who have been walking with the Lord for a long time? How does that bring Glory to our God?
She's right. And I'm ashamed of myself.

Corey,
I too have this problem...it is PRIDE...and I am full of it. that is why I haven't posted a lot lately. I find it better just to read and go on without putting my two cents in. I hate it..this need I have to always be right. and even what I posted in that thread was full of pride. I apologize to you for that. How does that bring Glory to our God? Oh, how I want to be humble and meek, but I fly off the handle and say things that are awful and not Christlike at all. It's easy to think about what you are going to post and try to write the right thing. You have time to erase and start again...but in RL when you mess up...its all there in front of you and you can't stuff the words back in. Oh I hate it!
Brothers, Sisters, please pray for me as I will pray for all of you.

In Him,
Melissa :-o

I just finished reading a text message by George Warnock, who I love, called : Mind Not High Things.

Here is the link, it will speak to all of us!

https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=931

Great topic! Words like "dear", "broken", "humble", and the like we need more, I need more. If we don't get this topic ironed out, let's not take up others. Many thanks for ever seeking to keep things right. Just recite the beatitudes. If we can say them and pray them over every post, we'll stay right in our words and attitudes.

I have not seen any of these kind of threads lately maybe God has keep me away from them. :-)

It seems strange that one should desire to speak at all about Polemic Theology since we are now in an age when folks are more interested in ecumenism and irenics than in polemics. Furthermore, Polemic Theology appears to have been often rather ineffective. Christians have not managed in many cases to win over their opponents. They have shown themselves to be ornery; they have bypassed some fairly important prescriptions of Scripture; and in the end, they have not convinced very many people. Sometimes they have not even managed to convince themselves! Under those circumstances, one perhaps might desire to bypass a subject like this altogether.

Geraldine,
Thank you sister for the reminder, need to contemplate all this once again.

I thought it may be alright to put this qoute here as a reminder for us,

"A Christian is a man who speaks little, and, with great weight, thinks over if he should speak this word, if it can do harm. Or not. In the Underground Church every spare word can do harm."

- Richard Wurmbrand, transcribed from a message titled "The Underground Church".