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As I go on reading in several topics of late, there seems to be an underlying theme emerging and that is the theme of acceptance of authority or refusal. Who decide what, when, how, why and where? Note that I wrote decide without the s at the end. Obediance is singuliar, whereas Church decision is communal. Yesterday, in the part of the world of thecnological communication where I hang out, the word authority came up and I wrote to answer:
"Self-managed" does not mean "unmanaged". It means the source of authority and policies is internal."
With:
It seems to me that we are moving on to define the freedom of expression, where meaning and value are genuinely growing within the expression of freedom's safety, feeding mutuality with care and wisdom!
So to keep up with the title "[cp] Re: New Member - community start-up", one way to formulate the question becomes, how does our freedom to care wisely for one another materialise so that the word community's evidence leads on the new member's start-up? Com-prac has its own nature of interests. I find that within the specifics, there is great feeding of the mutuality with respect and wisdom that relates to respect. The care part will come when creativity starts sweeping some members into joining their talents and interests to aleviate the stress that the sword of thecnology has to endure, on the front line of expertise, because of the entity of terror-anti-terror. My apologies to those who are already so involved with one another As opposed to remaining within the respect of limits where creativity has no access to be released from the nature of stress, the communal effect of overcoming those limits with the serenity of care amongst the members, manifests how the genius of inspiration-mutuality-creativity gets to accomplish sustainability by making poverty history, spreading Health-Education-Correction, by turning the "Sword" of technology into the "Pen" of technology, moving on against the many other plights of humanity. The wealth of the community lies in the speech of freedom where the freedom of speech can safely move creatively within our mutuality of care and wisdom! Happy holiday season! Benoit Couture
The people I was writing to are professional online facilitators of Knowledge Management". The opportunity that I always seek, is to move in the conversations in a way that by the time I am done writing, the meaning leaves the door open to only one interpretation where becomes manifest that:
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross."
By going on the way we do in these discussions, are we not missing out on the opportunity to build the Kingdom beyond tongue and words and into action and truth of what is on our communal plate, at this time in history?
-------------------- ...all blessings be with us all... Benoit Couture
No matter our position in life we are accountable to a Higher Power. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. Ultimately, all authority resides with Him alike with the Father. But Jesus gave His apostles authority on earth. We need to submit to all men as far as their authority extends. But we are never to yield where it is contrary to God's will or usurps His authority. (Romans 13).
And this is really where a lot of us get into trouble, isn't it. We don't always know God's will for us. Or, we place one aspect of God's will at odds with another aspect of His will rather than reconciling the two. I've even met people who are following their own inclinations thinking that God is leading them. How do I know they are following their own path? Because they are clearly walking contrary to scripture. For an extreme example, I had one lady who was involved with a married man and she prayed that God would cause him to divorce his wife so that she could marry him. When it happened she considered it an answer to prayer. What do you think. But, suprisingly, she had no trouble expressing her "faith" by going to the wife and telling all. But really, folks, we do similar things at times though probably not so obvious. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end is destruction."
A man who recently had open-heart surgery stated that he had been placed on a special diet. "It's easy," he said, speaking of his new diet. "If it tastes good I spit it out!"
Now that is extreme, but sometimes I get the impression that many of us live our lives in a similar way. We mistake our feelings for our conscience. If we feel good doing it, and it seems right for our particular situation, then it must be according to God's will. Not always so. I feel the confusion has come about in part by a misunderstanding of the New Covenant. We try so hard to exercise faith that we sometimes bypass the conditions for receiving the promise. We are trained, by good theologians (again), to block out rational thinking and presumptiously assume we have received the promise by believing it. But we know that faith without works is dead because it is alone. Yet, because we are trained to believe that we have the law of God written in our hearts and minds we are tempted to follow our own leading. After all, if we are wholesome thru-n-thru then why not trust our own feelings and emotions? Can you see the power of the deception?
There is no way to have the law of God written in our hearts and minds without receiving Jesus. And, if we receive Jesus (he dwells in our hearts by faith) then our life will be an outward manifestation of His life. Jesus knew no sin and those who abide in Him do not sin. In fact, the children of God are manifest by obedience to God's law and the children of the devil by transgression of God's law. (1 John 3:4-10). While our flesh may lead us into temptation and ultimately sin, we are to be living and walking in the spirit, not the flesh. If Christ dwells in our hearts by faith then we will have the power of his imparted divine nature to help us overcome the corruption that is in the world through lusts of the flesh. The flesh is death but the spirit is life. (Romans 8:13). We have both natures at this time but every day we are to die to our nature and our life is to reflect the light of Jesus. (Gal 2:20).
Until we humble ourself and surrender our wills to the will of God we cannot receive Jesus fully and will continue to live a divided life partly in the flesh and partly in the spirit. We can only have one master and that needs to be Jesus, period! But we can't give our hearts to Jesus nor can we surrender our will to His. All we can do is respond to the call of Jesus and choose to serve him. We can pray, "Take my heart for I cannot give it," and "Lord, I am willing to be made willing." God alone can change our hearts and write His laws within. Then it will be true of us also as stated in 1 John 5:3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."
Psalms 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
posted
...Admitting that Jesus is our Lord, as well as our Savior, places us under His authority to rule our lives. Does this offend anyone? Lucifer was offended by this authority over him and felt capable of handling his own affairs. Eventually his revolt caused him to be expelled from heaven.
I was reading my lesson today and came across this paragraph concerning Noah and obedience to God's authority. I found it very interesting so I quote it here.
"In the midst of a violent, corrupt world, the Lord has this man, Noah, whose faith was most clearly made manifest by his works. This is a crucial point that all people who love the Lord and the great promises of salvation through grace alone, by faith in Jesus, must remember. Noah could have had all the faith possible, but had he not acted on that faith and obeyed the Lord's commands, he and his family would have been swept away with the rest of the world in the Flood (see Heb. 11:7). That should be a great object lesson for all of us who, day by day, claim the righteousness of Jesus for us as the only hope of our salvation: A faith that isn't manifested in obedience isn't really faith at all."
We are tempted to think that since we are powerless to save ourself and because Jesus' sacrifice was all sufficient that there remains nothing for us to do but bask in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. When we do feel compelled to action we are hedged in on the other side by those who scream that any works is legalism. But in example after example we find that those who had a living faith expressed that faith by acting upon it. Thus, they demonstrated their faith and reinforced it in their own lives. "Faith without works is dead." But we need to understand that our works do not merit us any favor with God but are in response to a faith that believes in the Word of God such that we are compelled to act upon it.
God wants us to be obedient but not so as to earn salvation. Our obedience is an expression of our faith in and love for Jesus. "If you love me, keep my commandments." That is so plain. But, as someone said, it takes a good theologian to make that confusing.
Throughout scripture we are called to obey. Faith mentioned Jesus' remarks in John 4 that the true worshippers of God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Well, we certainly have a picture of the false and true worshippers contrasted in Revelation 14. In verses 9-11 we see a picture of those who worship the beast, and his image, and receive his mark. But in verse 12 we find a picture of those who worship God. Remember, this is at the very close of time so those represented here are definitely true worshippers of God. So it behooves us to look closely at that picture.
Here is a concise description of those true worshippers. And, since they are true worshippers they must be worshipping God in spirit and in truth. Can you see the application here?
"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
The truth is that we are bound by Christ's authority to keep God's commandments. No ifs, ands, or buts to it. Very plain! And, the spirit is the faith of Jesus which worked by great love for His Father and humanity.
Interestingly, in French, the word voice is spelled "voix" and the word way as in "I am the way, the truth and the life", the way is spelled "voie". Both are pronounced the same because the "x" and the "e" are silent. So the authority is "la voix" that feeds us "la voie"!
This "considering ourselves as useless servants" as prescribed by Jesus is the best assurance that the Lord has for the consistancy in the quality of our utility to Him. Humility is not the absence of pride but rather, it is seeing reality with true awareness. Partaking into the service to God is to move with the awareness of His authority before, during and after the little that we are given to be blessed with.
"May Your presence bring us and keep us where Your pleasure is dear Father, so that our service may be blessed of Your patient and complete authority in all that we think, say and do, while keeping us all well aware of our need to consider ourselves as useless servants...amen to Your Yes in us all..."
-------------------- ...all blessings be with us all... Benoit Couture
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