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Author
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Topic: DON'T DOTE ON PERSONALITIES
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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posted
Eden, it's not about you. It's part of the topic.
First, God honored Paul by giving him visions and revelations . Paul saw the glorified Christ on the very day he was converted (Acts 9:3; 22:6). He saw a vision of Ananias coming to minister to him (Acts 9:12), and he also had a vision from God when he was called to minister to the Gentiles (Acts 22:17).
During his ministry, he had visions from God to guide him and encourage him. It was by a vision that he was called to Macedonia (Acts 16:9). When the ministry was difficult in Corinth, God encouraged Paul by a vision (Acts 18:9-10). After his arrest in Jerusalem, Paul was again encouraged by a vision from God (Acts 23:11). An angel appeared to him in the midst of the storm and assured him that he and the passengers would be saved (Acts 27:23).
Along with these special visions that related to his call and ministry, spiritual revelations of divine truth were also communicated to Paul (see Eph. 3:1-6). God gave him a profound understanding of the plan of God for this present age. Certainly Paul understood the mysteries of God.
God also honored Paul by taking him to heaven, and then sending him back to the earth again. This marvelous experience had taken place fourteen years before the writing of this letter (2 Corinthians). Paul kept quiet about this experience for fourteen years! During those years, he was buffeted by his “thorn in the flesh,” and perhaps people wondered why he had such a burdensome affliction.
Such an honor as this would have made most people very proud . Instead of keeping quiet for fourteen years, they would have immediately told the world and become famous. But Paul did not become proud.
The Lord knows how to balance our lives. If we have only blessings, we may become proud; so He permits us to have burdens as well. Paul’s great experience in heaven could have ruined his ministry on earth; so God, in His goodness, permitted Satan to buffet Paul in order to keep him from becoming proud.
(Wiersbe)
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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Eden
unregistered
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posted
Carol Swenson wrote quote:
2 Corinthians 12:5 - 9 (NLT)
... So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
Hi, Carol Swenson, I am curious, by using this scripture right after my post, are you implying that it is I, Eden, who "am a messenger from Satan in the form of a thorn in your flesh to keep you from becoming proud"?
Com'on, be honest, you are actually saying that I, Eden, a bornagain Christian just like you, am in fact a "messenger from Satan to keep, YOU, Carol Swenson, from becoming proud"?
Let me ask you, do you think that there could be "disagreement among the adopted children in the Family of God" or do you think "it is all harmony among the adopted children in the Family of God" and "if there is a disagreement among the adopted children in the Family of God", that child then "becomes a messenger of Satan"?
Sister Carol Swenson, how can I be a messenger of Satan when I don't even live in his kingdom anymore:
Colossians 1:13
Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.
I am a bornagain Christian just like you, Carol Swenson, but probably, as adopted children, we HAVE come from different backgrounds ... We are both now in the Family of God, but let's just say, for example, that I came from a bad neighborhood in the Bronx and you came from a "nice" family in the Bible belt of rural Amercia ... we would probably have some differences in how we express ourselves and even in what we thought was "acceptable" or "ooh, how gross!".
But I'm not a messenger of Satan, Carol Swenson, I am with you in the Family of God and you might as well accept that when you see me standing there near Jesus (but of course, you'll be standing a little closer to Jesus than me, but that's okay...).
love, Eden
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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posted
2 Corinthians 12:5 - 9 (NLT)
5 That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. 6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. 8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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Eden
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posted
Max Lucado writes, as posted by Carol Swenson, quote:
God doesn’t need you and me to do his work. We are expedient messengers, ambassadors by his kindness, not by our cleverness.
It’s not about us, and it angers him when we think it is.
I don't think God is agnered by our foolishnesses. God was full well aware of our condition when He adopted us.
You probably know how on earth, adopted children often have behavorial problems.
And we were part of Satan's kingdom before we were saved or when God adopted us into His Family ... so God knew what kind of children He was getting, so He is patiently working with them in love ... but God is not angered by what He foreknew would be coming.
At best, God is allowing us to help with what we can to bring more children into the Family of God. But whatever business we leave unfinished in the bringing of the sheaves of God, God will finish it Himself.
The arrangement between earthly Christians and God can be compared to a father with a 3-year-old son who wants to "drive, Daddy" so the father puts the child on his lap in the parking lot at Walmart and very slowly lets the car move forward while the child is "steering and driving the car". The little boy thinks he's driving the family car, but really he is doing very little.
That's probably how God sees and knows us too when He says that "we are co-laborers with Him":
1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are laborers together with God: you are God's husbandry, you are God's building.
The building is God's and the husbandry is God's so We are only the laborers who report to His vineyard:
Matthew 20:2
And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
We really do very little but sometimes we act like the whole end result depends on us and not on God.
So sometimes we dote on personalities to bring in the harvest ... it's probably no big deal if it helps bring some into the Family of God.
A fisherman uses many different kinds of bait and lures:
Matthew 4:19
And He said to them, Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.
love, Eden
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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posted
My Message is About Him
The request came when I was twenty. “Can you address our church youth group?” We aren’t talking citywide crusade here. Think more in terms of a dozen kids around a West Texas campfire. I was new to the faith, hence new to the power of the faith. I told my story, and, lo and behold, they listened! One even approached me afterward and said something like, “That moved me, Max.” My chest lifted, and my feet shifted just a step in the direction of the spotlight.
God has been nudging me back ever since.
Some of you don’t relate. The limelight never woos you. You and John the Baptist sing the same tune: “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less” (John 3:30 NLT). God bless you. You might pray for the rest of us. We applause-aholics have done it all: dropped names, sung loudly, dressed up to look classy, dressed down to look cool, quoted authors we’ve never read, spouted Greek we’ve never studied. For the life of me, I believe Satan trains battalions of demons to whisper one question in our ears: “What are people thinking of you?”
A deadly query. What they think of us matters not. What they think of God matters all. God will not share his glory with another (Isaiah 42:8). Next time you need a nudge away from the spotlight, remember: You are simply one link in a chain, an unimportant link at that.
Remember the other messengers God has used?
A donkey to speak to Balaam (Numbers 22:28).
A staff-turned-snake to stir Pharaoh (Exodus 7:10).
He used stubborn oxen to make a point about reverence and a big fish to make a point about reluctant preachers (I Samuel 6:1-12; Jonah 1:1-17)
God doesn’t need you and me to do his work. We are expedient messengers, ambassadors by his kindness, not by our cleverness.
It’s not about us, and it angers him when we think it is.
We who are entrusted with the gospel dare not seek applause but best deflect applause. For our message is about Someone else.
(From Max Lucado It's Not About Me)
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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Betty Louise
Advanced Member
Member # 7175
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posted
Family history has never been important in my family. Just recently I found out my mom's dad was Swedish and for all of my life I thought he was Irish. I was surprised, but it is not a big deal.
It is our relationship with Christ that matters.
betty
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Luk 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Posts: 5051 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: May 2008
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WildB
Moderator
Member # 2917
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posted
by Cornelius R. Stam
When Paul instructs Timothy to charge his followers not to "give heed" to "endless genealogies" (I Tim. 1:4), he refers to the status symbol of the personality of his day.
Recently this writer was informed by a correspondent from an eastern state that it appeared that he might be related to a Revolutionary general named Stam -- and, did we wish him to investigate further! We replied that we were far too excited about where we were going to care much about where we had come from!
While there are some in our day who are very proud of their ancestry and have coats of arms displayed in their homes, the average Christian probably, has never had his family tree traced back very far. But in Paul's day genealogies were very important, even among believers. One's family relationships meant a great deal. If you were a second cousin to Christ or even a third cousin to Peter you "had it made." You might be crude, or stupid, or even wicked, but all this was overlooked: you were closely related to Christ Himself or to the Apostle Peter and all were ready to give you audience.
Actually, the personality cult is still with us in the Church today though it manifests itself in different ways. We live in a day of mass communications, when the faces of prominent men and women are seen again and again in newspapers and magazines and even their personalities come through to us over radio and television. Thus it is the prominent "Christian" politician, athlete, actor, beauty queen, or even former gangster who commands the attention today. Those who arrange evangelistic campaigns often seek to engage such personalities to attract crowds. Such prominent figures, though perhaps actually saved, may be very much "of the world," dishonoring their Christian calling every day, but their presence draws crowds and their shallow testimonies are used to justify their public participation in the work of the Lord.
The new evangelicalism has borrowed many prominent personalities from the world to help swell its audiences, while the old prayer that the witness may be hid behind the cross is to all intents and purposes considered passe.
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That is all.....
Posts: 8775 | From: USA, MICHIGAN | Registered: Mar 2004
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