| Author | Message | ||
| Surfy Registered user Username: Surfy Post Number: 694 Registered: 11-2007 |
This quoted by a facebook friend: "When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the... countenance reflects the light of ...heaven." DA 173 I guess the Spirit of God hasn't taken posesson of my heart because I fail on four or five of the six counts listed quite often. Surfy | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 8694 Registered: 3-2004  |
Surfy, the way I see that quote is that it is from the writings of egw. To me it is a bunch of.......... I fail on all counts also, but the Father accepts me because I am covered with Jesus blood and that is all that is important. But then I am talking to the choir. Diana L | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 11852 Registered: 12-2003  |
In academy when we had to read DA and GC for Bible classes, I always found her stuff to be incredibly "heavy"--I could hardly stay awake; I had trouble following her thoughts; she made me feel like a pretty hopeless failure. It's amazing that such "piety" can be contained in such just-left-of-center words...and those words lead people far, far away from salvation. Colleen | ||
| Gorancroatia Registered user Username: Gorancroatia Post Number: 131 Registered: 6-2010 |
That words is a part of extra guilt heavyness. That is why SDAs keept a smile of their faces. It is smile of ones pain inside. | ||
| Patallen Registered user Username: Patallen Post Number: 157 Registered: 7-2010  |
I would always fall asleep reading The Great Controversy. Now I know why. {smile} | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 1470 Registered: 7-2007 |
At first glance, the words looked fine to me and than I saw that they put a person's focus on themselves. "How am I doing? Do I have love, humility and peace?" Gruuuunnnnnt!!! "Okay, NOW I'm okay! I must have the Spirit of God in my life! Oops! Where did THAT thought come from???" That's why Adventists feel they they are okay with God one minute and not okay the next; when really, their lives are a mess of filthy rags compared to God's holiness -- and not covered by the blood of Jesus, because they have to "make it through the investigative judgment," and so on and so on. I'll copy and paste a couple of E.G.White comments here: quote: "Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort they must be conquerors in the battle with evil." (The Great Controversy - chapter 24: The Holy of Holies) Here's another quote: "Prayer and effort, effort and prayer, will be the business of your life. You must pray as though the efficiency and praise were all due to God, and labor as though duty were all your own."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, p. 538 (1881). Oh, I do like the E.G. White Estate on line, for research purposes!!! And when you type in something and then the references come up, you can click on "Cached" and the specific words come up in color and are easy to find!  | ||
| Jim02 Registered user Username: Jim02 Post Number: 994 Registered: 5-2007 |
Reading EGW was always like navigating a minefield. Today I was reading through the seven letters to the churches in Revelation. I ask myself , where did EGW get this works focus from? In these letters , there was that word 'overcome', over and over. It seems to lend itself to EGW's premise. But then I have to ask myself. Overcome what exactly? Sin(s), lack of faith? , faults of character?, bad habits, flaws in my beliefs? For EGW, she went full throttle in the idea over being perfectly sinless by the time of Christ's return. But is that even plausible? Will the imperfections we all live with through these centuries somehow be eradicated just before that time? The whole construct gets muddled. Nonetheless, "overcome" is repeated. Does anyone here have a idea what that is saying in practical terms? Jim | ||
| 1john2v27nlt Registered user Username: 1john2v27nlt Post Number: 218 Registered: 5-2009 |
Jim, what I am coming to see is that we 'overcome' by the blood of the Lamb that was slain. He overcame for us, by becoming sin for us. It's all about Him & what He does, not anything that we can or must do. We overcome by accepting Him & 'putting on Christ'. The gospel is Good News! Keep reading & rereading the bible, believing that the Holy Spirit gives understanding. I am on my 8th time in the last 4 years, & things are coming clear to me. Ask God your questions, hold them in your heart & mind as you read - maybe note them in a journal. Watch for what comes alive to you. Don't worry. Trust Him. J9 | ||
| Hec Registered user Username: Hec Post Number: 1456 Registered: 3-2009 |
1 John 5:4? For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith. Hec | ||
| Free2dance Registered user Username: Free2dance Post Number: 187 Registered: 2-2010 |
So I looked up the Greek word "overcome" used in Rev. It is nikao (http://www.searchgodsword.org/isb/view.cgi?number=3528) These are the definitions: to conquer, to carry off the victory, come off victorious 1. of Christ, victorious over all His foes 2. of Christians, that hold fast their faith even unto death against the power of their foes, and temptations and persecutions 3. when one is arraigned or goes to law, to win the case, maintain one's cause ___________________________________ This is about faith, not works. I want to post something a new friend gave to me. She is a Christian out in Minnesota, she is 17 years old and on fire for the Word of God! ___________________________________ FOR ALL WHO OVERCOME “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on that stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it. To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, to them I will give authority over all the nations. They will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots. They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star! Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the city of my God- the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name.” Revelation 2:7,11,17, 26-29 & 3:12 | ||
| Free2dance Registered user Username: Free2dance Post Number: 188 Registered: 2-2010 |
"To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end..." How would you explain that to an inquiring SDA??? | ||
| Free2dance Registered user Username: Free2dance Post Number: 189 Registered: 2-2010 |
Ok, I looked it up in another version. "To him who overcomes and does my will to the end..." So then I did a word search on His will. I got what looks like an asnwer in the gospel of John which we all know is written by the same aposlte as Revelation. The greek is consistant here. In 6:40 Jesus says, "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." Is it a stretch to say that doing the will of Jesus is ultimately all about believing in Him? I know He gives us real commands too, but the question is which is Jesus talking about in Rev? I really don't want to be a proof texter. But it looks to me like it is a consistant idea in scripture that God's will for us always comes down to believing in Him. Everything after that isn't about salvation but about our fruit, and even that is all about Him doing the work through us. | ||
| Gorancroatia Registered user Username: Gorancroatia Post Number: 150 Registered: 6-2010 |
It is about keeping faith to the End, not keeping Law to the End. E.W.didnt understand Gospel. | ||
| 1john2v27nlt Registered user Username: 1john2v27nlt Post Number: 220 Registered: 5-2009 |
Free2dance, I think the scripture you quoted on His will, the will of the Father is a clear answer. This resonates with me as true as I read the entire NT & whole bible. It is a change for me from the teachings I grew up with. The blinders do come off. Goran said it plainly too. J9 | ||
| Free2dance Registered user Username: Free2dance Post Number: 190 Registered: 2-2010 |
"What Jesus Demands from the World" by John Piper, has shown me that when Jesus talks about His deeds, or His commandments that there are many of them, but they are completely apart from the LAW. Some of them in the book are; Repent; Be Born Again; Abide in Me; Love as I have loved; Love ME with ALL your Heart, Soul, and Mind...etc. (There are over 50 I think?). When I read in REV about the Commandment keeping people of God, these are the commandments I think of (only after reading that book- those kind of texts used to really mess with me while making sense of Christianity). SO when I read about "doing my will to the end" I didn't know if He was referring to these commandments, or just believing in Him. Than it occured to me, BOTH. Because these commandments don't happen unless we are born of God, and everything that follows is Christ in us doing them. |
