House Church Talk - Visualizing Christ

[jim sutton]

DanG wrote:
>I've been pondering this visualize christ issue.
>
>I cannot really come up with a reason that I need to do this.


And there, Dan, in your own words, I think you already have your answer.

I have not understood Phil to be saying that we need to do this.  I may be 
wrong, but he seems to only be talking about what people already do, not what 
we should seek or try to do.

If a person becomes conscious of something he is doing, then he may seek to 
improve or correct the way he does it.  If I realize one day that I am 
speaking in an unknown tongue, for example, then I may wish to consult the 
Scriptures, and also with my brothers and sisters in Christ, to see what they 
say.  

Do the Scriptures condemn speaking in tongues? No, they do not.  Do they say 
that I should actively seek this experience?  Not that I can see.  In the 
Bible, people speak with tongues whenever God's Spirit chooses to make it 
happen.  Except in the case of the Corinthian believers, that is.

And then we have what our brothers and sisters in Christ will say.  Some will 
say that all such activity is of the devil, pure and simple.  And others will 
say that my experience is proof that I'm truly baptized in the Holy Spirit. 
 These may also say I need to speak in tongues whenever I pray, because this 
is what Paul meant in Romans 8, when he talks about the groanings which cannot 
be uttered.  But other brothers and sisters will say I'm playing with the fire 
of hell to ever speak with tongues (or ecstatic utterances) at all.

Of course, visualizing is different than speaking in tongues.  I would think 
that everyone visualizes (or sees with the mind's eye) many or even most of 
the things they think about.  And this normal or common activity may be 
manipulated more by some than by others.

I know, for example, that as a man, a male, I must keep control of what my 
mind's eye may wander off to see.  Our desires (both right and wrong) 
automatically generate images in our minds, if the desire itself is allowed to 
linger.  And we also see in Exodus where God put a tight lid on the carving of 
images and the natural visualizing of Israel, when he told them plainly not to 
create images of Him as any kind of physical creature -- or variations 
thereof.

And then there is the eastern practice of trying to use the mind's eye to make 
something happen.  A form of hocus-pocus. This is just one of countless 
superstitions given to us by the eastern religions and philosophies.  

Since they reject the one true God, they make up all kinds of "methods" and 
means of controlling one's destiny, one's position in this life and in the 
spirit realm -- a realm of which they know nothing at all.  They imagine all 
sorts of things, such as reincarnation, the controlling influences of the 
planets on human lives, the value of having an empty mind (but the emptiness 
of my mind has never done me any good), and so on.  

Like children without parents or adults to lead them, they have made up their 
own world and their own rules of religion on the fly.  They believe in magic. 
 

They believe that a certain frame of mind enables a mortal to control the 
elements -- so that Jesus walking on the water would not prove that He is God 
in the flesh, but only that He really knew how to concentrate His mental 
energies, so as to control the air, the water, and to suspend the natural laws 
of the elements.  All such thinking is garbage.

Yes, Jesus Himself did teach us to control our thinking, especially when we 
pray.  But He taught us to remind ourselves of the truth about God.  He taught 
us not to give in to our common fears and dreads, not to worry needlessly 
about things that were truly under God's control.  

Jesus told us then, and tells us now, to have faith in God.  We are never told 
to have faith in the mental powers of mortal men.  We are not told to have 
faith in the devil, or even in the entire host of the legions of darkness.  We 
are told to trust God.  And then Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled. 
 You believe in God; believe also in Me."

In my thinking, Dan.  There is a vast difference in the eastern religious 
practices and ideas which already saturate our national thinking, and the 
facts of life.  If I love to star gaze, that does not mean that I'm leaning 
into astrology.  If I believe in life after death, or that there are real 
consequences to my actions in this life, such does not mean that I'm starting 
to believe in reincarnation or kharma.

Granted, when I'm among those who are outside of Christ, I always pay very 
close attention to the words and terms they use.  I'm on my guard for any and 
every kind of strange notions.  And sometimes we do see silly ideas popping up 
among believers, as well.  But we need to have ears that hear what is really 
there.  We should not simply jump at every sound.  It is a sign of God's 
judgment in Deuteronomy that His people are put to flight at the sound of a 
leaf.

Among those whom we already know in Christ, we should be able to hear what 
they really say, and not try to make more of anything than what is actually 
being put forth.  The one thing too common these days -- among those who 
profess Christ -- is a tendency to always assume the worst.  I've seen too 
many fellowships split apart, not just once, but over and over again until 
they are reduced to nothing, because the people lose all sense of trust, love 
and godly affection for each other.  

They even lose their memories.  Simply memory would tell them who their 
friends and brothers are.

It is becoming as Jesus said it would be.  "Because lawlessness abounds, the 
love of many will grow cold."  

But lawless in others does not make my heart grow cold.  Only when we 
ourselves begin to drift too far from the peaceful shore of sweet fellowship 
with Christ, only then do our own hearts grow chilly toward the marvelous 
family we have in Jesus Christ.  At least that's how it has always been in my 
own life.


Jim