DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Love God Only
HTML https://lovegodonly.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Things of the Spirit
*****************************************************
#Post#: 7900--------------------------------------------------
Pursuit of God
By: Runner Date: June 15, 2014, 11:43 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I read this tonight and liked this....
A holy passion is a passion inflamed by a godly motive. To
pursue the knowledge of God to further our understanding of Him
and deepen our love for Him is to embark on a quest that
delights Him. Jesus encouraged such a pursuit (John 8:31–32).
Jesus linked knowledge not with power but with freedom. Knowing
the truth is the most liberating power in the world. Not the
power to dominate; not the power to impress: These are not the
powers we seek. But the power to set free—to give true
liberty—is tied to a knowledge of the truth.
We all want liberty. We want to be free of the chains that bind
us. That liberty comes from knowing God. But the pursuit of that
knowledge may not be casual. Jesus spoke of “abiding” in His
Word. The pursuit of God is not a part-time, weekend exercise.
If it is, chances are you will experience a part-time, weekend
freedom. Abiding requires a kind of staying power. The pursuit
is relentless. It hungers and thirsts. It pants as the deer
after the mountain brook. It takes the kingdom by storm,
pressing with violence to get in.
It is a pursuit of passion. Indifference will not do. To abide
in the Word is to hang on tenaciously. A weak grip will soon
slip away. Discipleship requires staying power. We sign up for
the duration. We do not graduate until heaven.
~Coram Deo~
"Living in the Presence of God"
#Post#: 7912--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: Runner Date: June 16, 2014, 11:18 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Psalm 63:8, “My soul follows hard after you: your right hand
upholds me.”
What does it mean to to you to follow hard after God? I would
say that it means to yearn for deeper and yet deeper fellowship
with Him. It means to seek whole-heartedly an ever-increasing
intimacy with Him.
Paul wrote....."Oh, that I may know him!" This is the cry of the
passionate follower. And I believe it ought to be the cry of
every true Christian.
#Post#: 7915--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: Leaf Date: June 16, 2014, 3:09 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
Psalm 42:1
To follow hard, I suppose, would be to follow until a person
can't go any further. All has been given in the search for God.
Has me thinking of the pearl of great price where everything was
sold to purchase it.
#Post#: 7917--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: Kerry Date: June 16, 2014, 6:07 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I was thinking about the opening post. The other day I heard on
the news about a man who got a gun and was shooting people --
basically for no reason except maybe it gave him a sense of
power? I wondered if I could do that. I didn't think I could.
I don't think I have the ability to do it. There is something
in me that would stop it. I'm glad I don't have that kind of
"freedom."
So are we ever really free? If you care about others, you are
not free to do as you please. It seems to me that love limits
us a lot. Choosing love is a form of free will; but once you
choose it, you've given up some "freedom". You may no longer
be a slave to sin, but you become a slave to love. So what
freedom do we have? Whom or what we will serve?
It is an illusion that the life of sin is freedom. It seems to
me that people who seek unbridled freedom wind up slaves of the
worst sort.
#Post#: 7918--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: James Date: June 17, 2014, 3:04 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I am not sure Kerry if you are not just splitting hairs. Your
quote-: " are we ever really free" "It seems to me that love
limits us a lot".
Yes! Love will limit what we are, but does it not come down to
what we choose in the first place, the act of making a choice,
right there, means we accept one and decline the other. We can
not have light and dark, good and evil, the blessing and the
curse.
The man who shoots people is not free to feel compassion for
those he shoots or the families he destroys there by. He is free
to kill but up to the point he is then killed because of his
acts.
Does not knowing the truth give us the greatest freedom, that
is the freedom to choose? (at that point we are really free Imo)
We may sit the fence for years saying I could take this path or
I could take that , all the while doing nothing, being nothing
but once we exercise our greatest freedom we then by that act
bind ourselves to the light or the darkness.
If we choose the light then the spirit has done a wonderful work
of grace and placed the desire in our heart for the well of Gods
truth at the price of rejecting the freedom to be part of the
world and the dominion of Satan.
I once was bound but now I am free to choose to be bound, I love
my master and I will not go out Ex 21:5
#Post#: 7919--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: Kerry Date: June 17, 2014, 6:44 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Hi James,
What is the end of it? In the end, didn't Jesus say, "Not my
will" to the Father? There is no freedom in that. Is that
the point at which he "became equal" to God? Becoming wholly
love without thought of self?
If we love a little, we give up a little bit of freedom, don't
we? If we love a lot, we have to give up a lot of freedom.
It seems to me the only freedom we have is choosing between --
as you say -- "light and dark, good and evil, the blessing and
the curse."
[quote]I once was bound but now I am free to choose to be bound,
I love my master and I will not go out Ex 21:5[/quote]That's a
curious passage since the next verse says: "his master shall
bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for
ever." What does "for ever" mean there? I don't know.
#Post#: 7920--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: Leaf Date: June 17, 2014, 8:12 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I think that the freedom we have is the freedom from being not
able to choose.
Besetting sins and bondages lead people around like having a
ring in the nose and pulled on. No freedom there; with this kind
of sin, one is being led about by it. Quite unlike being able to
choose what we respond to.
Are behaviors an action or a reaction? Reacting is not freedom.
Acting is. Reaction has no real thought involved whereas acting
does.
The wisdom that comes from God allows us to make right choices.
In this is freedom from the unfavorable consequences of poor
choices.
#Post#: 7923--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: Kerry Date: June 17, 2014, 9:15 am
---------------------------------------------------------
^ Do you think you could choose to get a gun and shoot people
just for the fun of it? I don't believe it. I don't think you
could choose that. No thinking is involved. You already know
what you want to do. Already decided that. Know it's right and
you're not going to change.
#Post#: 7932--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: Leaf Date: June 17, 2014, 6:27 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
You are absolutely correct. I could/would not choose to do that.
Either I misunderstood your post, or mine is.
What I was trying to get is those who would choose to do such a
horrendous act would be driven by passions. Passions that are
being fed by thoughts brought about possibly by revenge or
hate... some sort of resentment; or, possibly driven by greed
and desiring to take what rightfully belongs to another.
The reason that I see for not having the ability to choose is
their believing that they themselves have to take matters into
their own hands for the resolution they are looking for. Whereas
anyone who has had the Spirit write upon their hearts and having
been trained in righteousness would not allow any reason to
motivate them to kill another... for fun or any other reason.
Plus, it is known that God will take care of all matters and we
of the Spirit trust God to do just that.
Those who are driven do not 'think' they have any other option.
We know the options, but choose to do that which is right.
#Post#: 7934--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pursuit of God
By: Kerry Date: June 18, 2014, 5:21 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Leaf link=topic=784.msg7932#msg7932
date=1403047642]
You are absolutely correct. I could/would not choose to do that.
Either I misunderstood your post, or mine is.
What I was trying to get is those who would choose to do such a
horrendous act would be driven by passions. Passions that are
being fed by thoughts brought about possibly by revenge or
hate... some sort of resentment; or, possibly driven by greed
and desiring to take what rightfully belongs to another.
The reason that I see for not having the ability to choose is
their believing that they themselves have to take matters into
their own hands for the resolution they are looking for. Whereas
anyone who has had the Spirit write upon their hearts and having
been trained in righteousness would not allow any reason to
motivate them to kill another... for fun or any other reason.
Plus, it is known that God will take care of all matters and we
of the Spirit trust God to do just that.
Those who are driven do not 'think' they have any other option.
We know the options, but choose to do that which is right.
[/quote]I think I misunderstood your post.
*****************************************************
DIR Next Page