Spiritual Ponderings

And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard." When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened; (Acts 4:18-21) It occurred to me today as I thought about this event, what was really going on here in one respect. These religious leaders were completely entrenched in the legal mindset of thinking, you know, the rule-based mentality. And they had set up the rules as most rule-makers do, to force everyone to do things their way in order to shape circumstances to benefit their desires for power and control. Anyone daring to cross these rules could then be accused of breaking the la...

A thought occurred to me this morning along the lines of the heart and the head. It seems obvious that since the devil and all his angels have lost their ability to repent because of their completely hardened hearts, they no longer have the capacity to understand or comprehend the transformation that God accomplishes in the hearts of sinners. That is exactly why they always stand in amazement at such transformations even though they extremely resent them at the same time. And very possibly one of the main reasons they resent them so much is because it is no longer possible for themselves. So in their resentment and inability to wrap their ruined brains around such inner activities all that they have left at their disposal in relationship to this arena of life is to do everything possible to ruin or prevent what God is doing in people's hearts. Jesus said that the devil only comes to steal, kill and destroy. Since he no longer has any ability to respond to grace or love with ...