| Author | Message | ||
| Denisegilmore |
2Pe 1:3 seeing that His divine POWER has GRANTED TO US EVERYTHING PERTAINING TO LIFE AND GODLINESS, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence | ||
| Denisegilmore |
Re 3:8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because YOU HAVE A LITTLE POWER, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name | ||
| Denisegilmore |
Re 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,"Now the salvation, and the POWER, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night | ||
| Denisegilmore |
Re 17:13 "These have one purpose and they give their POWER and authority to the beast. Re 18:3 "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the WEALTH of her sensuality." | ||
| Denisegilmore |
Re 19:1 After these things I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and POWER belong to our God; God Bless all who read all of this. I was trying to show how many times the 'Dunamis' or 'power' is connected to the 'Holy Spirit' and also trying to show how the Holy Spirit works 'IN US or THROUGH US.' Hope this helps some. I am not a theologian and these are by no means ALL the texts regarding the word 'dunamis' or 'power.' There is but ONE God. In Him I live. He is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, now sitting in ALL of His Glory at the right hand of God. Mystery upon mystery, yet, one GREAT day, we shall see HIM and we will all know everything we cannot figure out, with our finite minds, now. As they say....by and by. Blessings and now, I'm off to bed. :) Denise, your sister in Christ Jesus, our Savior, our Rock, our Redeemer. He is ALL in ALL. DtB | ||
| Max |
Denise, Christ is doing a dynamite displaying his power you, Denise. Your not being a formally trained theologian has nothing to do with it. I especially liked the "Pharaoh in Romans" text. I looked it up. ^^[God] says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It [salvation = righteousness] does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. ^^For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I [God] raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display MY POWER IN YOU [Pharaoh] and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth [through Pharoah]. Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^^ NIV Romans 9:15-18. Which brings to mind another Scripture: ^^"This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'In the last days [30s AD], God says, I will pour our my Spirit on all people. Your sons and DAUGHTERS will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and WOMEN, I will pour out my Spirit in those days [30s AD], and they will prophesy [speak for God, not necessarily predict the future]. (Acts 2:16-18).^^ Therefore, if God could use Pharaoh -- whom He hardened -- then He assuredly can use Denise -- whom He softened! Blessings upon your head, Denise, MC | ||
| Patti |
Denise, Forgive me. I am a bit confused. Let me study on this a bit. Thank you for your patience. Patti | ||
| Denisegilmore |
Dear Patti, You'll find it an exciting study! God Bless you Patti, your sister in Christ Jesus, DtB | ||
| Colleentinker |
Denise, yes, your study does make sense. I'm absolutely convinced that Paul doesn't make sense unless a person is actually reborn. The Holy Spirit IS God's power in us. That is what makes the reality of living in the New Covenant different from the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, God physically resided on earth in the temple. But all of Israel were spiritually dead, unable to be alive because the wages of sin had not been paid. Yes, Israel had God's promise that a king and a Redeemer would come. But the promise was real to them only by faith. Even their hope in the coming Redeemer was an act of faith. Today we have a living Hope, and we know Him. Israel only had hope by faith. And that faith God counted to them as righteousness. When Jesus came he made the only perfect atonement for sin. Besides fulfilling all the requirments of the law, he also conquered the death of sin. He took on himself, when he was on the cross, the spiritual death of the world. Our death killed him. But he broke the power of the death of sin by rising from the grave. Not only that, he ascended to the Father and sat at the right hand of God. His work was complete. Perfect atonement had broken sin's unalterable claim on humanity. Now Jesus could count as righteous everyone who believes in him. But the most amazing part of all this is that he actually gives us new birth. He gives us His Spirit to live in us. The fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are the marks of the church. And no, I'm not talking about charismatic signs. We are actually new creations. His power is in us and works through us. It is a completely new paradigm. It has nothing to do with making us perfect. It is Jesus counting us as perfect and living in us so we can literally mediate his presence, his wisdom, his love, and his power in the world. The mystery hidden from Israel was the reality of the church, a new creation which literally embodies the presence of the living God and unites both Jews and Gentiles as God's new creation when they accept him. I agree with your conclusions, Denise. Awesome study! In His love, Colleen | ||
| Denisegilmore |
Dear Colleen, Thank you for your encouraging words. This tells me that somewhere in this maze of thought, there is Truth being taught to me, by God. That in itself is a blessing! Being taught by God is something to feel privilaged over. At least to me it is. I also would like to publicly thank you for listening to my words tonight at FAF, after we had our prayer time. Your time and your ears, meant the world to me. Still, I have no clue why I told you what I did about me. But now you have a better idea of where I'm coming from and what or how I think. THANK YOU!! For that, what you did, for me, is the love that we are to show each other. Blessings to your entire household. DtB, your sister in Christ Jesus, our Rock. P.S. What an awesome study tonight! | ||
| Valm |
Denise, I read your study this morning and it has boosted me much more than my granola has. What would life be like here on earth if we didn't have the power of the Holy Spirit supporting us? I wouldn't want to know. Valerie | ||
| Colleentinker |
Dear Denise, You are a treasure! Love, Colleen | ||
| Denisegilmore |
Dear Colleen, To call me a treasure must be spoken of about Jesus, our Savior. For He is our Treasure and He found me! May our Lord Jesus Shine His face upon you and Richard! With lots of love from me, through Christ our Rock. I hope to see you all Friday night! Remember Jesus said in one parable, that when the man found that great pearl or treasure, he sold everything he had to buy the whole field!!! :)) er, I hope I got that right..<chuckling> I do know that Jesus found me,,,and I was right smack dab in the middle of Babylon too!! DtB | ||
| Denisegilmore |
Dear Valerie, I would not even venture to think what it would be like without the Holy Spirit. That's a very frightening concept! God Bless your Sons and your Husband and you! Infact, I'm a gonna pray that the Lord bless everyone and thing in your household! I'm goin for the gusto..:)) Afterall, Jesus says, we have not because we ask not. Talk to you soon, DtB | ||
| Valm |
Thank you Denise, Why not go for the gusto!! I wonder what would happen if we all had the faith the size of a mustard seed like Jesus spoke about? Pretty incredible. Valerie | ||
| Sherry2 (Sherry2) |
I picked this thread cuz of the title...not necessarily the content. I'm a bit irritated today and frustrated. Today's sermon and the next 9 weeks are going to be on the Ten Commandments...as the preacher said the loveletters of God. He calls this series "Rock solid living" and shows a picture of the Ten Commandments. I felt like I was sitting in a SDA church again. I don't know what to think...I find this pastor preaches alot on the necessity of tithing too, even though he then says but it isn't a requirement....yea right. I just was sickened and despairing today wondering what the h@#L I should do....and what was my husband thinking next to me....I have a mind to write a letter to him. I can only think that I want to miss the next 9 weeks of church desperately. I am distressed about this, and not sure if I'm just hypersensitive...but at the same time I think I'm not. He isn't attaching this a whole lot to the new and sure isn't referencing the New Covenant...one of his stated 5 of why the law was given was to expose our sin to free us. And since he did not illustrate Christ's freeing power from the New, I truly believe that was an outright untruth. Galatians is clear the law is a tutor to lead us to Christ who frees, and Romans talks of the law that cannot save, nor make a man better. I was p.o.d, upset, and frankly wanting to scream something, but everyone around me seemed totally ok with it. Why are people so easily taken to believe what the "man of God" has to say, and not question things!!! It was my birthday today, but I spent most of it turmoiled and upset in my soul....not outwardly but definitely inwardly churning up a storm. Anyhow...any thoughts? | ||
| Janet (Janet) |
Happy Birthday!!! I dont have any answers, just wanted to let you know I am praying for you. I am very new to this, sunday church and all, and do well to attend, without condemnation of receiving the mark of the beast, etc... :-) Thanks for being such and honest and encouraging person. I always enjoy your thoughts and insights! God bless you, Janet | ||
| Doug222 (Doug222) |
Sherry, I think we all are probably a little hypersensitive when it comes to the Big Ten. The Pastor here did a series on the ten commandments a while back. It is a very grace oriented church, and therefore, he approached it from a positive perspective. His basic take on it was that God's ultimate desire is not to have us under His thumb, but for us to win. The principles of the ten commandments continue to be consistent with God's character. Therefore, if our goal is to be in harmony with Him, we will also be in harmony with the ten commandments (by default). What we have been released from is the condemnation of the law, not the principles--which are eternal. Those principles existed long before there ever was a law. Hopefully this makes sense. If not, maybe someone else can clarify. Having said that, I would also continue to trust your built in bondage detector. Remember, it is for freedom that you have been set free. Do not let ANYONE put you back under a yoke of slavery. Jesus is the end of the Law to all who believe. In His Grace Doug | ||
| Lydell (Lydell) |
Sherry, you know it is hard to know absolutely what someone's thinking is unless you ask them to explain themselves more clearly. That certainly ought to extend to the pastor who you have chosen as your spiritual authority. ASK HIM to explain. Tell him your problem with what he had to say. And only go to talk to him if you are doing so with openness and not with your mind already made up that you know for certain where he stands. You want him to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are NOT someone who is always looking for something to be picky about, not always judgemental, right? So he deserves the same courtesy of consideration that just possibly you may be misunderstanding the goal of his sermons. Who knows but what your raising questions might clue him in that he didn't successfully present the grace side of the equation when he meant to. That's a part of body life in a church. Being willing to assume that maybe the other guy just hasn't done such a great job of presenting their thoughts. Remembering that we are all imperfect human beings. Like you have said, we all ARE hypersensitive to this particular subject! That hypersensitivity has two sides. Either it can make us always be looking for a devil in the woodwork--always having our shields up and not really listening---OR it can keep us clued in to sniff out the problems, as Doug has noted. Not picking on you here...we ALL are in that same place, I think. I know there have been times when I, because of past experiences, have had a kneejerk reaction to something and it was only after thinking on it awhile I realized that what the person was saying was right. That I had been filtering their words thru the SDA's instead of honestly LISTENING. (And remember, I wasn't sitting there beside you to hear what all was said, just giving you something to consider here, okay!) Look at it this way...you spent x number of years in the SDA's and know you were wasting your time. I have no doubt in my mind you don't want to waste your time now with sitting under someone's teaching if they, too, are legalistic, correct? So look at this as maybe being an opportunity the Lord has opened up for you to evaluate if you are in the right place. Again, this seems an excellent opportunity to get it straight from the pastor exactly where he stands on this. Then you will know that you know what that church's teaching is on the law and grace issue. And yes, I do realize that if it turns out that it is not a healthy place for you...OR your hubby... to be then you have a whole new set of problems. BUT, don't you want to really know instead of guessing so you don't waste MORE time? | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
Sherry, I totally agree with Lydell above, in every detail. Go talk to the pastor, praying the God will help you to discern the truth and also to help you to be open and receptive as he talks. Ask God to help you know whether He wants you to be at this church or not. Be open to understand and to grow as well. I remember how upset I would get when we first started attending our church when the pastor would talk about our needing to "obey". I had such a kneejerk reaction to that word! It took me months to begin to understand that he was talking about obedience to the way the Holy Spirit is guiding us to change and to live holy lives, not obedience to THE LAW. He was talking about "obeying" as a Christ-follower who already has salvation. He was not talking about obeying so we would be saved. We have such programmed responses to certain things! On the other hand, maybe your pastor really is preaching keeping the law. Ask God for wisdom and discernment, and go talk to him! We'll pray for you! Colleen |
