Do we have the right spirit?

If our interpretation of the word of God has a spirit of love for God and others, conveys a message of holiness, truth, grace and does not scare people with Laws and threats of hell instead of which has the gospel of Christ that shows the way, it is right even if there are minor inaccuracues in the interpretation theologically. God would certainly look at the spirit rather than the accuracy of our words. Even when we do well, if the spirit is not right it is abominable to God (luke 18:10) as God is love and love is the fulfilment of Law. Rom 13:10.

Lets continuously check our spirits, words and actions and repent of all shortcomings like being judgmental, unloving, unforgiving etc while being doctrinally 'correct'. Christendom is getting divided over and over each day by doctrinal differences in a few cases but in most of the cases a spiritual difference. One is not able to reconcile or accept another wholeheartedly because of differences in personalities, life styles, views of faith life etc. Lets beware its nothing but an end time deception. We are not to expect all to come our way but follow the one who is faithful and run after those who are not, interceding for them and most importantly loving them. Loving everyone unconditionally is probably the most difficult thing to do. But that is certainly the most pleasing thing for God.

Dear brothers and sisters, what I share here are from what God speaks to me, correcting me as I go. Its not as if I have victory in these areas and is just teaching others. We all need His grace to be victorious. All we have to do is accept our human limitations and go for His grace.

Heb. 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

vivmeeraj, great post! We have had many post from many members in the past and present, that their thoughts are right along the line as yours. You know, what your saying, in Texas we would call that a "Tall Order" I just don't think as long as we are in the flesh, will we all be able to all come together. It's deeper, some folks are born competitors, it's in their blood to win at "all" they do, believe it or not there are many folks like this regardless of if it's playing baseball, cooking, fishing and yes even Bible knowledge, everyone here has run across someone like this in their travels, they do exist.

Now you take these folks before they were saved, and now they have come to Christ, now they bring that same competitive spirit with them, some may just not realize they have a competitive spirit, that won't allow them to be wrong, we really just need to not argue or debate these folks and just step back, or out and pray for them, Prayer Works! Do I think we all have somewhat of a want to win? probably, but not all to the point were it causes strife between others. Personal story here, I left a Bible study a few years back, because we had a "leader" yes most everything needs structure but not necessarily a so called leader, the Brother was never wrong, if he said Job was swallowed by the whale, you better believe it! you would have thought he wrote the Word.

My message here is, as long as we bring our competitive spirit to SI, we will always have what I will call heated debates, "for lack of better words". The saddest thing I see when our debates end heated, it's tears apart the complete integrity of the whole thread, and we lose focus of what could have started out Blessing others, that might have just been readers and not contributors. Linked right up there with a competitive spirit, is always it's next best friend, Narcissism.

There may be places to have the attitude or need to always be right, if you were born with a competitive spirit. When we are discussing Gods word, something that no one can really interrupt all of it exactly like God meant it, we all should leave a lot of room for the "I could be wrong" attitude. I don't care how competitive you are, or if your the greatest Bible scholar on earth "according to man" unless your God, you still need to learn to say these words, "I could be wrong".

Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Rom 12:16

Dear Br. Bill,

Thank you for your response. God bless you.

Love

Rajesh