Christian Message Boards: THE HIDDEN WISDOM

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Posted by barrykind (Member # 35) on :

THE HIDDEN WISDOM
by Chip Brogden

http://www.watchman.net/articles/wisdom.html

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"Anyone who does not take up his own cross and follow Me is not worthy
of Me. The one who finds his life will lose it, and the one who loses
his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 10:38,39).

This is perhaps the foundation of the Hidden Wisdom. To our way of
thinking, we ought to preserve and protect our life. Of course this is true
to some extent. The Lord does not intend for us to be suicidal or
foolish. What He has in mind here is something more than our physical
existence.

"My life" is "me", or as we commonly call it, the Self. We do not truly
appreciate how strong Self is. Self-reliance, self-assurance,
self-confidence: all of these will rise up to resist the Lord until we lose our
life by taking up the Cross daily (cf. Luke 9:23). When the Cross has
done its work then self-reliance becomes trust in the Lord,
self-assurance becomes faith in the Lord, and self confidence becomes hope in the
Lord. And that is only the beginning. The object is "not I, but Christ"
(Galatians 2:20ff).

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Infinite Supply
http://www.watchman.net/daily

God's Solution For A Defeated Church:
http://www.watchman.net/audio/123.html

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Posted by becauseHElives (Member # 87) on :

Everyone wants Eternal Life, but no one want to think that death to self is part of the package.

"Anyone who does not take up his own cross and follow Me is not worthy
of Me. The one who finds his life will lose it, and the one who loses
his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 10:38,39).

How far is Yeshua's message, from the message being preached by most of the "Church" today.

Good post Barry.

Posted by Endoxos (Member # 2929) on :

Amen to that. How rare have I heard the word "repent" from ANY modern teaching, at least for what it really means.

I have always heard it as "being sorry" for your sins. You know, every day, my boys run down the stairs in our house, and every day, I correct them. And every day, I hear "sorry". Is this how modern Christianity views the word "repent"? A childlike "I'll say sorry to get out of trouble, but I'm not going to change what I do"?

Repent means to turn away from, to have a change of heart regarding. If a person repents of stealing, stealing becomes a hated thing to them, instead of a pastime. If a person repents of getting drunk, then getting drunk is a vile thing to them, instead of a pleasurable indulgance.

People are so focused on "getting the numbers in their church", that they haven't noticed that almost all of them don't have a *clue* as to what sin really is, or what repent really means. They don't understand that sin is the breaking of God's laws, and to repent is the want to stop breaking them.

Yeshua's first public preaching word was "Repent". And the last thing on anyone's mind is to give up the things they love.

Posted by barrykind (Member # 35) on :

Amen... [Smile]