The articles I write are generally not meant to be ‘religious band aids’ or to produce mere warm Christian feelings!
I sometimes need and enjoy a ‘band aid’ myself, and I also love getting my feelings warmed, but that’s not really the focus of my ministry. There are many whom the Lord uses wonderfully in that way.
On the contrary, the angle of my ministry approach is grown over the years to rather be transformational, shedding light on traditional religious blind spots in our thinking, and challenging those redundant paradigms in our Christian mindset that we have inherited from tradition and simply follow blindly.
"....I have the Spirit of Truth!"
The central axis of my thinking is the truth of Who Jesus Christ really is, and what the Trinity has accomplished in and through Him on behalf of mankind through the process from His Incarnation as the Son of God leading up to His Glorification as the Son of Man.
My opinions are sometimes controversial although always intended to be Christ-centred and glorifying, emphasizing the Love and the Grace of God the Father.
These views draw a variety of comments ranging from one religious extreme of the Christian spectrum to the other.
Many gracefully appreciative, some inquisitive, some confused, many constructive, and then some really very angry, critical, judgemental and condemning.
Some of these religiously offended folk even make reference to certain scriptures alluding to ‘hell fire and brimstone’ ‘mill stones around the neck’ and ‘eternal chains’!
I always find these legalistic ‘hell fire and brimstone’ pundits so amusing in the way they express their religious offences towards someone who according to Scripture ‘died with Christ’ and whose ‘life is hidden with Christ in God’!
It somehow confirms my theory that many of our fellow Christians know just enough about the Bible to make them devilish in their ignorance!
An interesting reoccurring feature that I’ve noticed about many of these hyper legalistic judges, is that when they are confronted, they often justify themselves by claiming that they have ‘The Spirit of Truth’!
Maybe is just me, but somehow, when someone has to actually ‘tell’ methat they only, as opposed to those who think differently, like myself, have the Spirit of Truth, it just doesn’t seem to ring true with me.
Usually when someone is flowing in the Spirit of Truth, in fact the Spirit that testifies to the ‘Reality’ of Who Jesus Christ really is, and what the Trinity has done through Him for mankind, what they share produces faith, hope and love, and witnesses of Christ in an irresistible way!
I’ve noticed that there is indeed also a ‘religious spirit’ people sometimes speak from, and although they also quote the Bible, the tone of their speech is usually proud, angry, intolerant, and the message condemning and judgemental and bears no testimony of the grace of Jesus Christ nor the Love of the Father!
It seems like the ‘religious spirit’ is the inter-mingling of the human fleshly nature mixed with mere intellectual head knowledge of Bible Scripture’s and Christian doctrine, yet devoid of spiritual revelation and insight from the Holy Spirit!
The letter indeed kills and the Spirit produces life!
The Spirit of Truth reveals the truth of the Father's love and the finished work of Jesus and the indwelling of His Spirit... beautiful post, thank you!
ReplyDeletedon't like "human fleshly nature" as a phrase, it's nowhere near evil enough, betraying none of the "weasels ripped my flesh" Frank Zappa scars that are left on a Christ one as it passes by.
ReplyDelete