Originally posted by SwissGambit
No, Jay, you're not damned either way. I accept your agreement that the Bible is a versatile book. I bring it up because I tend to underline that the Bible is many voices speaking in many directions. It is easy to quote a passage harmonious to the point you are trying to make, while passing off some that are discordant.
Maybe it would make it seem les ...[text shortened]... of the "believers get all this neat stuff! And we get to bring Jesus back to earth a 2nd time!"
No, Jay, you're not damned either way. I accept your agreement that the Bible is a versatile book. I bring it up because I tend to underline that the Bible is many voices speaking in many directions. It is easy to quote a passage harmonious to the point you are trying to make, while passing off some that are discordant.
Of course it is fun for skeptics to examine a thread started by a Christian and immediately look for "discordant" points to that theme from the Bible. Ie. Pull in the other direction just for fun.
But there are no discordant voices from the saints concerning wanting to be with God to the greatest degree rather than apart from Him.
Of course there are many voices in Scripture wanting God to not be involved with their lives or the world. There are even voices of saints wanting to
limit God's enfluence to only a certain permitted sphere.
As a seeker for God I count these as abnormal instances, or lessons I want to avoid rather than emulate. I look for the best examples of men cooperating with God. The flawed examples are very realistic and candid. But these examples I take as warnings.
There are many such realistic examples as these. I wouldn't say they are altogether discordant. But they are skewed. In the Son of God all skewedness is absent. This One is perfect. He's at the pinnacle, the high peak of Divine / Human coordination.
It is never worth it to me to search the Scriptures and fail to note something of Christ in it. I may stumble on some "discordant" voices. But I do not camp down there. They only serve the purpose from me to cause to bring into sharper focus the Son of God.
Maybe it would make it seem less like Me-theism if we examined some of the other directions and voices, instead of the "believers get all this neat stuff! And we get to bring Jesus back to earth a 2nd time!"
"Believers get all the neat stuff."
Believers get all the nifty goodies.
Hmmm.
Believers get God Himself. What else better could there possibly be ?
There's a story about a very rich man who was conducting a giving away of all his possessions. He was standing on the massive front doorstep of his mansion. All kinds of expensive furniture was spread out over the lawn. People walked around viewing all these items. People were calling out what they wanted for themselves.
Finally one young child seemed to grasp the most important thing and called out
"I want YOU."
The point here is that the simplistic mind of the kid ascertained quite well what would be of he highest benefit, to own the owner of all these things himself.
In obtaining God man obtains everything, in your expression, "all the neat stuff ". It is just that the ultimate "neat stuff" is God Himself.
"Indeed, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
In Christ God prepared all blessings, all riches, all enjoyment because Christ is God incarnate given to us.
This passage shows the eagerness of God who is like a man who set up a rich feast and wanted his house to be filled with guests.
"And one of those reclining at table with Him , hearing these things said to Him, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
And He said to him, A certain man was making a great dinner and invited many; And he sent his slave at the dinner hour to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all things are now ready.
And they all with one consent began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of land, and I need to go out and see it. I ask you, have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to prove them. I ask you, have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife, and because of this I cannot come.
And the slave came up and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and told his slave, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame. And the slave said, Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.
And the master said to the slave, Go out into the roads and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner." (Luke 14:16-24)
Some of us take these last two thousand some years as God sending His servants to the highways and byways and roads to bring in the lame, the blind, the poor into His house and dinner. We are grateful for the invitation. We do not want to be those discordant reactors making all kinds of excuses not to come.
"All things are ready" God says. We are are eager to come to the feast.
These are the voices I, at least, intended to write about in this thread.
We Can Bring Christ Back
22 Feb '14 16:501 edit
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