TEST RUN

TEST RUN

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Can I replace an entire blog article with another?

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What kind of problems will I face?

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Most importantly, what will be lost in the attempted exchange?

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 "Biblical Inerrancy that Counts"

 accessed by clicking on [June]

SIN's EXIT (1)

SIN CAN BE EXITED
Temptation is a freeway we can exit. 1 Corinthians 10:13 b.
If you are uninterested just virtually drive past the next six exit signs I have posted because with the sign I will be giving directions in short little installments on the "way to escape" temptation's highway. Yes, I know it's corny but trust that the Way is faithful.

the Way is faithful.

SIN'S EXIT (2)

THE TEMPTATION EXIT
Living without temptation is one of the worst things that could happen to us. We all have cravings which if completely satisfied are self-destructive. Our inability to avoid such compulsions leads us to look for a way out…an exit sign.
Temptation works like a freeway sign reminding travelers that there is an off ramp ahead. It signals that God is near and that we need to be looking for Him. Yes, there are other wonderful, even noble, exits from a self-destructive compulsion. The problem is other ramps lead onto new self-destructive freeways. When we choose to use His exit we are delivered from the self-destructive compulsion onto streets of real satisfaction. 1Cor. 10:13, Prov. 16:25, James 1:13+14, Phil. 4:19

The next “Exit” post deals with where to “look for God” and then how we recognize Him when we see Him.
Click on OLDER POSTS to advance to the next "Exit"

P. S. By the way how do you suppose I know about other off-ramps? Those of you who know me know I have tried nearly every one of them and they did work well for a time but did nothing to satisfy the general issue of craving.

SIN'S EXIT (3)

FINDING THE EXIT
Drivers confronted with an exit sign can still miss the off-ramp. This is especially true when traveling at a high rate of speed. However a freeway motorist can’t just stop to locate his exit. He simply stays seated and watches for it to appear. Never the less motorists must look in the right place to find their exit. So where does one look for God’s exit from a self-destructive compulsion? Well God is Spirit and so we look for His Spirit with our spirit: not our mind or our emotions. Upon seeing the exit sign (temptation) the only thing we contribute is turning our spiritual gaze from the freeway to the ramp. How hard is that? It is an internal glance of our spirit toward His Spirit. If we seek Him there, the Bible says, we will find Him. In fact no one comes to God unless the Father by His Holy Spirit is drawing them from within.
However we must recognize Him when we see Him. Believe it or not Western Man, like you and me, usually glans over at the ramp and drive on by unaware that we just missed our exit. This crucial element of the processes is the topic of the next “Exit” post (4). To continue click on this post heading to find SIN'S EXIT (4)-(7) displayed under that Blog Archive.
 Acts 17:27 +28, John14:20, Jer. 29:13, Matt. 7:7, Luke 11:9

SIN'S EXIT (4)

NOT PERCEIVING THE OFF-RAMP
Even with a flashing “temptation” exit sign without a doubt the hardest part of turning away from a self-destructive compulsion is recognizing the off-ramp. The most common reason for overlooked the ramp is not the bias factor but familiarity. When Man becomes aware of “good” within himself he naturally assumes those loving qualities are “the better angels of his nature”. Predictably, when one becomes acquainted with God the increasing “goodness” within is attributed to the perfecting of his human nature. That conclusion makes it difficult if not impossible to apply the Biblical verdict God passed on the human heart to oneself. The truth is man’s heart is deceitful enjoying and even preferring naughtiness in the dark over wholesomeness in the light. The mindset that says there is good in the heart of every man is looking through natural eyes which will be “ever seeing but never perceiving”. So with that in mind please pay close attention to what comes next. Rom. 3:10, Luke 19:42, Rom. 7:18, John 3:19, Jer. 17:9, Isa. 64:6

This is post 5. This present post has been added so there will be 2more. Those final "Exits" are the most important of seven.

SIN'S EXIT (5)

KNOWING THE EXIT
Misidentifying spiritual goodness within prevents us from recognizing the exit-ramp from self-destructive cravings. Failing to spot God’s way leads us to hope we will discover some other way of escape. However the only reliable off-ramp is the one God provides. It is, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” That hope is attained only by realizing and acknowledging His presence within. This spiritual recognition is what the Bible means when it uses the phrases translated, “knowledge of the truth”, “knowledge of the Son of God”, or “knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”. Jesus identified himself as the exit when He declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” Then He also disclosed the method for taking God’s exit saying, “Then you will know the truth (Me) and the truth (I) will set you free.”
Upon recognizing or knowing our exit we can then focus on the Spirit of Christ within. Like a driver at the steering wheel, we are inevitably drawn in the direction of our focus. Facing God in this manner turns our gaze away from the freeway of self-destructive compulsions and onto God’s Son, the Exit.
2 Tim. 3:7, Col 1:27, 1Tim. 2:4, 2 Tim. 2:25, Titus1:1b, Eph. 4:15, 2Pet. 2:20a, John 14:6, Heb. 12:2+15 At first glance focusing on the off-ramp of God seems like a daunting idealistic expectation but in fact it is the easiest part of exiting from a self-destructive compulsion. Please continue on to the sixth “Exit” post for the details.

SIN'S EXIT (6)

FOCUSING ON THE EXIT (2) So turning from self-destructive cravings requires focusing on God. No problem we think. I’ll just increase my religious disciplines and pray more fervently for deliverance from temptation. Not so fast. That is not the Way. Vowing to perform some discipline can distract us for a while but can never free us from the cravings that lead us back to temptation. Prayer is the right idea but prayer will never free us from temptation. In giving us the Lord’s Prayer Jesus was not to telling us what to ask for as much as how to pray in accordance with God’s will. By teaching His disciples to pray for deliverance from evil we can be assured that our deliverance from self-destructive cravings agrees with God’s will for us. However notice He did not teach us to pray for God to deliver us from temptation. Even though God will never tempt anyone neither will He ever deliver anyone from temptation. Temptation is not evil as explained in the previous post. We are freed by a simply shift of focus. When tempted, our spirit being conscious of God’s presence within, is the focus that sets us free from (evil) destructive cravings. That focus is achieved by prayer. Not a prayer for deliverance from our temptations but a prayer like Paul’s for the Ephesians. He prayed God would “give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him”. Specifically go to God and pray that He will give you God-consciousness. God-consciousness is perhaps a more contemporary way to express “the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness”. We know God will give us this necessary focus when ask because as you can see it is totally God’s will that we know Him within. Matt. 6:13, 2Pet. 2:20, 1 Tim.2:4, Eph. 1:17, Titus 1:1 The final “Exit” post in this series deals with how God-consciousness, “the knowledge of God,” works in freeing us from self-destructive cravings. All of the previous “Exit” posts are on my profile page.

SIN'S EXIT (7)

HOW THE EXIT WORKS Our cravings are the reason we find ourselves moving down the freeway of self-destructive compulsions in the first place. Cravings are a necessary feature of Human personality. Humans are essentially spiritual beings with a soul within a body. The soul responds to the data received from the body. These physiological responses are both intellectual and emotional in nature. Coordinating the intellect, the emotions, and body as a unit is the function of the spirit. The energy exerted to carry out this function is a force called human will. Originally the will power of man’s spirit governed his soul and body. But he traded that power for the knowledge of good and evil. That knowledge reviled his personality’s lack of good and the share of evil contained within. Our personality craves perfection and remains unsatisfied until we see God within. When we turn our gaze fully on God, the exit within, we find destructive cravings replaced by the productive desires God has for his children. To focus on the exit requires the cooperation of spirit, soul, and body. If one or more of the aspects of personality prefers the freeway rather than the exitthe will of the human spirit is not strong enough alone to compel the entire personality to turn and focus on the exit. That is the reason man must ask God to grant him “The Knowledge of God” (God-consciousness) or be forever find his efforts to exit self-destructive compulsions frustrated. James 4:5, 1 Cor. 2:11, Psa. 42:5, ROM. 8:5-9 The seven post "Exit" series can be found on my profile page.

RELIABLE FAITH

RELIABLE FAITH The faith of Christ stands despite any discrediting assumptions like; only the gullible believe in God, trusting Jesus as God’s Son is evidence of a personality defect, or reckoning the Spirit of God inhabits one’s being is a form of insanity. All Christians face these accusations and most just respond with a smile. So why do so many Christians get so bent out of shape over claims that the Bible is a fallible document? This revulsion is even true of Christians who acknowledge that the Bible presents abridged, abbreviated, and incomplete facts dealing with history, geology, technology, astronomy, and the like. Yet they too recoil with horror at the suggestion that there may be inconsistencies, imprecisions, or possible contradictions in its record. They react as if God Himself were being reviled. The doctrine of the Bible’s “verbal plenary inspiration” (God breathed dictation) insists that an infallible Bible is necessary if we are to know the God it reveals. The major scriptural evidence given for the certainty of verbal plenary inspiration is itself strangely discordant with the other four scriptures carrying the same message. “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17, NIV. The others (Matt 5:18 + 24:35, Mark 13:31, and Luke 21:33) avoid the remark which conveys a sense of an unlikely event or at least poses a level of difficulty not alluded to in the others. So who cares? And that is my point exactly. The message is totally the same no matter what colorful phrases are used or avoided. Not one “jot or tittle” is as likely to mean the certainty of message itself will stand no matter how many “jots and tittles” pass away in translation and/or transcription. Just as a flawless messenger is unnecessary for the transmission of God’s message so it is likewise unnecessary that our Bible be completely flawless to convey its timeless holy message. The problem with insisting on a flawless text is it shifts the responsibility for perfect understanding from the reader to the inspired writer. The human reader may occasionally read even a perfect text with less than perfect understanding. Understanding the meaning of the most flawless Scripture depends solely on the reader’s counsel of the Holy Spirit…whether errant or not. Before I received the Counselor, the Holy Spirit of God, the whole book looked fallible and errant to me. John 5:38, 2Cor 4:4 John 15:26 “he shall testify of me.” 1John 4:2 John 5:39-40 Jesus declared the limits of going to the Scripture to find Him, redirecting them instead to Himself to receive life…a life available by knowing the person rather than the text. John 17:3. When we suggest that we can only know God through the written word we are overlooking the very reason Jesus sent the Holy Spirit of Truth, John 16:13. Not only that but when the Bible is handled incorrectly 2Cor 4:2 (apart from the knowledge of God) it can be, has been, and is today being used to justify some horribly misguided actions by devoted Bible believers. Rom 10:2 The phrase “the knowledge of God” is specifically a recognition, awareness, or consciousness of God. This knowledge is personally and internal experienced but is neither a mental nor an emotional perception but rather a spiritual discernment. Peter concluded that this knowledge of God*, not our knowledge of the Scriptures, is all that is needed to achieve life and godliness. 2Pet 1:3+4 Now, don’t misunderstand me. I count on the Bible to correct and/or affirm my own knowledge of God. If that were not true I would not have including scriptural references in these remarks. Even though the Bible is not my God it is a very important instructional tool and should never be neglected. 2Tim:15-17 After all, in places like Heb. 12:2, the Holy Scriptures remind me Who my faith comes from, Who guides me, and Who I must keep my focus on. I therefore thank God for inspiring human writers to record every jot and tittle that He wants us to receive. But my faith is not in the Bible’s accuracy or flawlessness. Whether fallibly errant, completely verbally inspired, or somewhere in-between it delivers God’s message to me personally and, to the best of knowledge, to mankind in general. My faith is in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…book or no book. A reliable Christian faith recognizes and honors the Guide within. *epignosis - a specific kind of knowledge of God A few examples are Rom 10:2, Eph 1:17 +4:13; Col 1:10; Tit 1:1; Heb 10:26; 2Pet 1:2, 3, 8 +2:20.

MORALITY ROCKET

MORALITY of a TWO-STAGE ROCKET A two-stage rocket ejects stage one mid-flight. The necessary separation does not indicate it was wrong or unnecessary for liftoff. But nether does it value the initial stage so much that it remains attached throughout the flight. Launching God's redemptive plan involved a disturbing amount of violence as it broke a number of corporeal barriers. However that does not mean His initial launch would characterize the mission. Like the spent first stage of a rocket, the law of sin and death blasted off with ferocious violence but was designed to fall away as God's mission progressed. Or so it would seem. The unbelievable harsh inauguration of God's plan during stage-one compared with His compassionate nature in stage-two and the peace delivered with the payload (His Holy Spirit) has lead several to question God's character or the accuracy of the record. 1)If the record is accurate God broke His stage-two moral teachings during stage-one. To clear His name one option proposed is that the record of His violent immoral acts, especially during stage-one should be jettisoned as simply reported inaccurately. 2)If stage-one is not accurate then God's loving moral character can be preserved untarnished. The inaccurate text should be dropped of because it is wrong. It makes sense that if God is a loving moral God then the record of stage-one's atrocities committed at God's command must be jettisoned. Otherwise God is guilty of serious immorality and injustice. However I see a third option. 3)Rather than God being either moral or immoral it is proposed He is amoral. First of all amoral means an absence of morality. It goes without saying as the God of all of time,space and matter,He stands outside not only of our standards of right and wrong but any standards of right and wrong...including the morality He provided. Secondly, We have only a glimmer of the measures required for God to push His wild creatures from our amoral garden into a state of knowing good and evil. Nether can we, now, appreciate what it took to tame the immoral creature who left the garden. I suspect that all along it was God's goal to install His love in our hearts. Those who love peace find themselves in good company when it comes to their difficulty reconciling the rather obvious immoral and unjust commands attributed to God. C. S. Lewis dropped his formal theological activities to write children's books over the issue of morality. He finally did recognize the flaw in his assessment of the topic. He failed to take seriously enough the question of "intent". An act is either moral, immoral or neutrally moral depending on the intent. God's intent, as see from the cross, was aways love. That is not to say that a moral judgments can be made based on their out come because, as it turns out, morality can not be discerned from observation. Observation yields only speculative knowledge. Where as practical knowledge is required to judge morality and that demands understanding. In the words of G. Elizabeth M. Anscombe (who bested CSL on the subject), "We need to know what they take themselves to be doing, how they understand their actions. This knowledge does not come from observation but knowing what the intentions were." I submit that certain post-cross acts have such observably horrific outcomes that they seem to go beyond understanding. But that's the old Emauel Kant reviving his "Moral Deotology" in me. Sorry Lord.