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Re: Christian Scientist
In a message dated 11/9/02 8:29:42 PM Eastern Standard Time,
bushchoked@yahoo.com writes:
> But one has to decide (at some point) to go on faith, and that's a conscious
> decision of the mind.
This is very true. The decision making process is in our soul. The soul is
composed of three main parts. The mind, the emotion and the will. We have
been given a free will. I thank God for that! The God that I know never
"forces" His will. He does however "lay it out there" for whoever comes to
enjoy the benefits. He is also a God of purpose.
There is a very important verse that has been very much neglected if not
totally overlooked by organized Christianity. It is very experiential, and
just like a natural law, is always in effect. "The mind set on the flesh is
death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace" Romans 8:6. This is
not referring to God the Spirit (big S) but to our human spirit. This has
been true in my experience literally thousands and thousands of times in my
life in every circumstance imaginable. It *never* fails. But it is the result
of a conscious decision in the mind.
I believe that Pete has done this. I can sense in my spirit that he has. My
mind could explain it away very easily with human logic if I choosed to do
so.
A soulish man is a natural man, one who allows his soul to dominate his
entire being and who lives by his soul, ignoring his spirit, and even
behaving as if he did not have a spirit. Such a man does not receive the
things of the Spirit of God, and he is not able to know them. Rather he
rejects them. The religious Jews, who required signs, and the philosophical
Greeks, who sought wisdom, were such natural men, to whom the things of the
spirit of God were foolishness. WL
My thought here, not knowing what Pete actually believes, is that he has
touched his spirit, but may not have the light to know what it even is, or
what it is for. This may be why he is wishy washy. But the lack of pride
shows that it is not merely human intellect. I am amazed at how open he is
at this older stage in his life after having been through so much. I am very
thankful for his remembering what it was like to be a young man in search of
the truth. We should never cease in this matter no matter what our age is,
and he is a great example to all of us. I want to be just like him in this
area.
Jon in Mi.