Spiritual Ponderings

But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God . (John 3:21) This verse is the l ast part of Jesus' definition of Judgment, a very valuable insight to diffuse false fears about judgment. Yet this last phrase has offered me many hours of pondering over just what it means by he who does the truth . Associated with this is also the phrase he who does the truth . What do these mean in the light of the true gospel? Today I took a much closer look at another passage that brings a great deal of light into this for me. The more I look at it the more amazed I am at the incredible implications emerging from these phrases. The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he served by men's hands , as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things. He made from one blood ever...

Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Therefore if anyone is in Christ , he is a new creation . The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new . (2 Corinthians 5:16-17) For as in Adam all die , so also in Christ all will be made alive . (1 Corinthians 15:22) I have become convinced, primarily on the basis of the strong testimony of these verses along with other similar ones, that every human being is in Christ without exception. What is becoming more clear to me increasingly is that in order to perceive, believe and live in this awareness, one must like Paul, choose to view everyone from that perspective – according to the spirit – alone and refuse to think in terms of or view others according to any other measurement of value or identity. The issue of identity is increasingly coming into prominence in my awareness of spiritual realities. Now the va...

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40) The last few days have raised my level of awareness about an exciting principle that empowers those who want to cooperate with God's commands. For many years I saw God's commands as duties and obligations and even threats should I not comply. Yet I also learned from experience that trying harder to be obedient would never get me very far except into deeper frustration, even arousing a spirit of anger and resistance from deep inside. This in turn would increase the level of my ever-present sense of guilt as the whole mess formed into a circulating cycle of guilt, shame, groveling, seeking God for forgiveness, struggle ...

But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you; delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes , that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God , that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' (Acts 26:16-18) Recently I have become more keenly aware of a very important word in the Bible – receive . I am coming to see that this word is key in understanding a great deal that is often confusing in relation to salvation. There is always a tension in our thinking about how much I am supposed to do and how much God does and the arguments over this have been endless for centuries. Some insist on varying lists of what we must do in order to be saved while others like John Calv...