Spiritual Ponderings

I have been re-listening to some recordings that I received a number of years ago that made a profound difference in the way I view God. But as I listen to these again after years of study and changes in my perspective it is almost as if I have never heard them in some respects. I am amazed at how many details I don't remember hearing before but that line up perfectly with the conclusions and insights that I have received from my own study and interaction with God since I first listened to them. I am also learning a great deal more from these details now that I have the larger framework and context more securely in place in my thinking. One thing that really grabbed my attention yesterday was about the subject of wrath which has been a major paradigm shift for me over the past few years. My transition to a completely different understanding of God's wrath has been possibly the most radical and transforming truth that I have ever discovered in my life. But I had still missed...

I am grappling with wanting to have peace but keep feeling other things that rob me of peace. This makes me go deeper and try to discern what my real beliefs are about peace and how I can experience it. What I am finding is that one of my gut-level assumptions that is not easily admitted is that I want to know the outcome of a problem or situation before I can rest and enjoy peace about it. But immediately I can see that this is in direct conflict with the things I know about God's offer of peace. That would be logical since Jesus said that His peace is not like the world's peace. But it is starting to become more clear to me as I think about not only my own feelings but the comments of people around me when they are not at peace, that what we are really desiring is at least some clues as to the outcome of circumstance that are making us afraid. We call this assurance which is closely associated with peace. We want assurance that we will not be hurt, we want assurance that...