Study, Study, Study
I am trying to do a lot of studying on the counseling books. I am learning so much and realizing how I may have just needed to be counseled myself.
Yesterday I learned that it is impossible to know God's will if you are not studying His word. God's word is all He has given us to refer to and if we truly want to please Him, we will read and study His word.
One thing I have always struggled with is making decisions. It seems so hard. I have done all the things that the book says are examples of a christian living by "external to scriptural" principles. Have you used the flip and point method, putting out the fleece,casting lots, trusting feelings(I have peace about it) or looking for open doors to make decisions. All of these are a dead give away that you do not study enough to know the scriptural principles that God clearly spells out in His word. OUCH!
Here is a very convicting sentence: "Circumstances---often referred to as open and closed doors--only provide occasions (not guidance) for basic decision-making: they do (however) often provide help for making preferential decisions among several "goods" when you are in God's option box. But circumstances won't help put you there; only biblical principles will do that."
This is going to be hard to work through for me but I have wondered about this for a long time. There seem to be so many ways to interpret a situation. For instance, my husband is a very cautious person. We struggled with the decision about schooling EVERY year. Financially we were not really able to do what we did but we FELT it was the right decision. Mikes way of interpreting our financial decision about school was that it couldn't be God's will because there was no money for it. I, on the other hand, am a more trusting person and spontaneous. My way of interpreting that is to say that God just wanted us to trust Him. We never went hungry and we never had a child that didn't have his basic needs met but we have certainly had financial struggles as a result of it. I am very anxious to get the interpretation question resolved.
The "holding principle" was introduced yesterday. I am still struggling with this. It deals with holding back until you are certain you are not sinning when making any decision. Holding back is NOTHING I EVER want to do. So, Lord, please teach me this lesson!!!!
It deals with Romans 14:23 "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Now that scripture was dealing with the eating of meats offered to idols. The problem was that the mature christian understood that the idols were nothing and so therefore felt free to purchase, in the market place, the cheaper meats that had been offered to the idols. But Paul is trying to point out that the weaker brother may be led into sin because of your freedom. Another may be troubled in his heart because he isn't sure that the meat is right to eat or not and he may follow your lead and thereby sin because of his lack of faith about it.
Listen to this explanation of the verse: "What Paul is saying is that a Christian may never do anything that he thinks is (or suspects may be) sin. And the point is--it is sin (and he is condemned by doing so) if he does eat in doubt. Note, he is not condemned because eating meat is wrong (Romans 14:14a), but because he went ahead and ate while thinking his act was (or might be) sin. It wasn't the eating that was sin, but his faithless act. His attitude toward God, expressed by that act, was rebellious. He thought, "This is (or might be) sin, but I'm going to do it anyway." That is where the sin enters the picture. "
THIS IS GOING TO BE HARD!!! Anotherwords, in all I do, I must be sure in my heart, by biblical principle, that I am not sinning. "Many good results flow from a faithful application of the holding(or "if it is doubltful, it's dirty") principle."
Well, more tomorrow!
Yesterday I learned that it is impossible to know God's will if you are not studying His word. God's word is all He has given us to refer to and if we truly want to please Him, we will read and study His word.
One thing I have always struggled with is making decisions. It seems so hard. I have done all the things that the book says are examples of a christian living by "external to scriptural" principles. Have you used the flip and point method, putting out the fleece,casting lots, trusting feelings(I have peace about it) or looking for open doors to make decisions. All of these are a dead give away that you do not study enough to know the scriptural principles that God clearly spells out in His word. OUCH!
Here is a very convicting sentence: "Circumstances---often referred to as open and closed doors--only provide occasions (not guidance) for basic decision-making: they do (however) often provide help for making preferential decisions among several "goods" when you are in God's option box. But circumstances won't help put you there; only biblical principles will do that."
This is going to be hard to work through for me but I have wondered about this for a long time. There seem to be so many ways to interpret a situation. For instance, my husband is a very cautious person. We struggled with the decision about schooling EVERY year. Financially we were not really able to do what we did but we FELT it was the right decision. Mikes way of interpreting our financial decision about school was that it couldn't be God's will because there was no money for it. I, on the other hand, am a more trusting person and spontaneous. My way of interpreting that is to say that God just wanted us to trust Him. We never went hungry and we never had a child that didn't have his basic needs met but we have certainly had financial struggles as a result of it. I am very anxious to get the interpretation question resolved.
The "holding principle" was introduced yesterday. I am still struggling with this. It deals with holding back until you are certain you are not sinning when making any decision. Holding back is NOTHING I EVER want to do. So, Lord, please teach me this lesson!!!!
It deals with Romans 14:23 "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Now that scripture was dealing with the eating of meats offered to idols. The problem was that the mature christian understood that the idols were nothing and so therefore felt free to purchase, in the market place, the cheaper meats that had been offered to the idols. But Paul is trying to point out that the weaker brother may be led into sin because of your freedom. Another may be troubled in his heart because he isn't sure that the meat is right to eat or not and he may follow your lead and thereby sin because of his lack of faith about it.
Listen to this explanation of the verse: "What Paul is saying is that a Christian may never do anything that he thinks is (or suspects may be) sin. And the point is--it is sin (and he is condemned by doing so) if he does eat in doubt. Note, he is not condemned because eating meat is wrong (Romans 14:14a), but because he went ahead and ate while thinking his act was (or might be) sin. It wasn't the eating that was sin, but his faithless act. His attitude toward God, expressed by that act, was rebellious. He thought, "This is (or might be) sin, but I'm going to do it anyway." That is where the sin enters the picture. "
THIS IS GOING TO BE HARD!!! Anotherwords, in all I do, I must be sure in my heart, by biblical principle, that I am not sinning. "Many good results flow from a faithful application of the holding(or "if it is doubltful, it's dirty") principle."
Well, more tomorrow!
posted by momlinda1945 | 10:00 AM
1 Comments:
This is sounding like some rather deep stuff! Like it would have definitely made it into the deceased forum's category of Deep Talk. You have my interest to see where this goes with the whole perspective he's speaking of about what is the actual sin there.
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