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Tom
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 9/8/2006 5:16 PM (GMT -6) |   | | Two great quotes I ran accross yesterday about God's 'power'. First, the quotes. Later the authors.
(1) "God's power is the appeal of unsurpassable love."
(2) "God's power is the worship he inspires."
I especially love that no. 2.
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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 9/11/2006 7:13 PM (GMT -6) | | Yo.
Some thoughts...
____________________________________
Life is worship. To truly live in beauty...to know the beautiful God...IS to live life as worship.
To worship is to recognize and revel in beauty...God's beauty.
One's entire being and heart are given over to God...lost...but regained in a way unimaginable.
There is NO point in trying to command this.
If allegiance or gratitude to God has to be commanded and dictated by some artificial means, then it's not really there, now is it?
God wants hearts that can look PAST the crap of the world and see the Loving, Beautiful God in the background...as the shadow of the Cross eclipses their world.
Hearts that focus and center upon God.
Hearts that have Christ as it's sole identifying mark.
In eating. In drinking. In working. In playing. In pain. In ecstasy.
People who are continually defining themselves by God's beauty don't have to be ORDERED to exclaim the beauty of God.
No.
No.
No.
They worship as they move and breath in the Spirit doing mundane things of life, creating new spaces of reflecting Christ's beauty.
Daily, practical, everyday, ups-and-downs life is the situation of worship.
Life is worship.
The newest mantra:
God graciously FINDS us meaningful when God doesn't need to do it and we, in ourselves, can't do it.
Live in Christ's love, the Spirit's empowerment, and the Father's grace.
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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 9/11/2006 8:11 PM (GMT -6) | | Do we really believe that God wants to purify us?
To beautify us?
Do we dare think that we can be beautiful?
Do we dare think that we can be purified by God's piercing love?
Why are we so afraid?
Do we really believe that our sin is stronger than God's holy love?
God wants to say "well done" to us.
God wants us to embrace our beauty as his people.
Why are we so afraid?
Maybe it's because we've spent most of our lives feeling ugly.
Maybe it's because we've been hurt so much in our lives that we don't dare hope anymore.
Maybe we've been broken by our circumstances and our choices.
The brightness of God's beautiful love hits us...and we turn away.
We make it something less that what it truly is.
And have the lack of holy power to prove it.
Still I ask...
Why are we so afraid?
Are we afraid to feel ourselves melt before the fiery embrace of a loving God who's beauty defines that which is beautiful?
Are we afraid to lose our personality traits and futile attempts at creating an identity from the tatters of our worlds?
Are we afraid to approach the Holy One...and possibly lose our very sense of individuality?
Have we forgotten that we must lose our "lives" to gain true life?
That to live is Christ?
Who is alive in us?
Father
Oh my Father
Please lift the scales from our eyes.
Please let us see the lies of this world for what they are.
Please let us see your beauty.
If it hurts us, let it do so.
It it blinds us, let it do so.
But please...
PLEASE...
Let us see your matchless beauty!
Let us swim, dance, leap, and dive through your love.
We want to see you.
Give us those eyes.
Let Christ be our all.
And we will give you all the glory that you are due.
Because we truly want to.
Glory to You in the Highest.
The newest mantra:
God graciously FINDS us meaningful when God doesn't need to do it and we, in ourselves, can't do it.
Live in Christ's love, the Spirit's empowerment, and the Father's grace.
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 9/11/2006 8:22 PM (GMT -6) | | Bear with me, y'all. I'm in a state.
I cannot say enough...
Psalm 103
Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
As for mortals, their days are like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children—
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the LORD, my soul.
I am simply overwhelmed by the beauty of God.
I am overwhelmed by his love towards a petulant, narcissistic upstart like I've been at times.
I am grateful beyond words for freedom...and another chance...and another chance...and another...and another...
Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
The newest mantra:
God graciously FINDS us meaningful when God doesn't need to do it and we, in ourselves, can't do it.
Live in Christ's love, the Spirit's empowerment, and the Father's grace.
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selah
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1210
| Posted 9/12/2006 5:46 AM (GMT -6) | | !!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow mephi .. <---this is 4u 
YOU are beautiful
blessed,
selah
MephEternal said...Yo. Some thoughts... ____________________________________ Life is worship. To truly live in beauty...to know the beautiful God...IS to live life as worship. To worship is to recognize and revel in beauty...God's beauty. One's entire being and heart are given over to God...lost...but regained in a way unimaginable. There is NO point in trying to command this. If allegiance or gratitude to God has to be commanded and dictated by some artificial means, then it's not really there, now is it? God wants hearts that can look PAST the crap of the world and see the Loving, Beautiful God in the background...as the shadow of the Cross eclipses their world. Hearts that focus and center upon God. Hearts that have Christ as it's sole identifying mark. In eating. In drinking. In working. In playing. In pain. In ecstasy. People who are continually defining themselves by God's beauty don't have to be ORDERED to exclaim the beauty of God. No. No. No. They worship as they move and breath in the Spirit doing mundane things of life, creating new spaces of reflecting Christ's beauty. Daily, practical, everyday, ups-and-downs life is the situation of worship. Life is worship.
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selah
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1210
| Posted 9/12/2006 5:51 AM (GMT -6) | | |
ditto my comment above!
YES! ok! We completely agree now!
amazing!
T
MephEternal said...Bear with me, y'all. I'm in a state. I cannot say enough... ... I am simply overwhelmed by the beauty of God. I am overwhelmed by his love towards a petulant, narcissistic upstart like I've been at times. I am grateful beyond words for freedom...and another chance...and another chance...and another...and another... Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 9/12/2006 8:29 PM (GMT -6) | | For reading when you are playing the song...
1 John 4:7-21
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another.
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John 15:9-17
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.
----------------
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body [to hardship] that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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Mark 12:28-34
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
------------------------
Matthew 5:43-48
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
---------------------
God...is...love...
"All is full of love." -- Bjork
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." -- 1 John 4:16b
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Laika
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Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
| Posted 9/13/2006 7:45 AM (GMT -6) | | |
"All is full of love." -- Bjork
doh!
sorry, couldn't resist, big softball like that hangin' in the air waiting to be hit out of the park....
Yeah, I have Debut and Post and like Birthday by the Sugarcubes....
nothing post Post, though
never say you're bitter, jack
bitter makes the worst things
come back
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 9/13/2006 7:54 AM (GMT -6) | | The Encyclical Letter from the Current Pope, Benedict XVI:
Deus Caritas Est (God is Love)
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html
Wonderful.
--------------------------
Laika:
sorry, couldn't resist, big softball like that hangin' in the air waiting to be hit out of the park
I'll bet you couldn't. I wonder what that means.
But even though she's a fallible human being who may be still prone to fits of anger, still take a listen to the live version of "All is full of love", if you'd like.
Live in love, brother.
"All is full of love." -- Bjork
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." -- 1 John 4:16b
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Laika
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Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
| Posted 9/13/2006 1:23 PM (GMT -6) | |
MephEternal said...
I'll bet you couldn't. I wonder what that means.
Singing/talking about love != actually loving
never say you're bitter, jack
bitter makes the worst things
come back
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One Love
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Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 9/14/2006 11:51 AM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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selah
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1210
| Posted 9/14/2006 8:54 PM (GMT -6) | | |
Well now you're really talking!!!!
yes
yes
YES
I agree with every word in this post (except, perhaps, the "angel" word).
selah 
...and YES I guess I feel compelled to say something every time I agree with you...(even if it takes up a whole lot o space and bugs Corey and Tom  )
Post Edited (selah) : 9/14/2006 9:11:33 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 9/15/2006 7:26 AM (GMT -6) | | |
You know...
When you live in the reality that...
the Reign of God IS truly more powerful the demonic, chaotic forces...
AND...
the Holy Spirit really IS available to help us grow in sanity in the asylum we call "life"
AND...
God really IS victorious over this WHOLE THING and will consummate that victory, ending in the reconciliation of all personal beings...
Life just seems better. Everything has a different hue to it. Sure, you can see all the crap of the world and not run away from it or overspiritualize it. It's just that you know this ain't all there is. God is the "way out of no way" God.
This writing has DEEP meaning now...
Romans 8:18-39
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparingwith the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-----------------------------------------
Do we understand that this means, in part, that we are NEVER ALONE? The love of God is behind ALL...and we can never feel truly alone...because of who God is! There is NO ground for existential nihilism...because there is ALWAYS God and God's love.
I KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW you see it...  I KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW you see it... (What up, Yung Joc) If you want to hear a part of this song, click this link. Then click the "I Know You See It" sample If you have life in your body, I dare you to take some time and focus on God's beauty right now...wherever you are! Don't wait. Don't say you'll do it later. Do it RIGHT NOW. Heh...
"All is full of love." -- Bjork
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." -- 1 John 4:16b
Post Edited (MephEternal) : 9/15/2006 7:47:29 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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Truth Aficionado
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Date Joined Dec 2003
Total Posts : 1544
| Posted 9/15/2006 3:14 PM (GMT -6) | |
Laika said...
MephEternal said...
I'll bet you couldn't. I wonder what that means.
Singing/talking about love != actually loving 
Name it and Claim it Baby… It’s The Word of Faith Movement revisited.
Love power can appear brutal to those that fall ignorant of God’s "perfect love".
Love is like a ball in a game of catch: throw it and it will come back to you; hold onto it and that ends the game. Post Edited (sparknheart) : 9/15/2006 4:09:14 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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rsirkel
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Date Joined May 2002
Total Posts : 183
| Posted 9/16/2006 11:10 AM (GMT -6) | | [MephEternal said...
Mystical moment. Hang on to your hats, people!!!
This is the state where despair is rooted out:
One NO LONGER sees God as a threat to their personal happiness and existence!
One doesn't see God's glorification and existence as TAKING AWAY from one's existence. They don't live in the existential "zero-sum" game. They believe the TRUTH. The synergistic working with God delivers relational power MORE then what creatures can do alone.]
Ron
Your revelation here called forth an amen from me.
[What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all]
Ron
Then what I understood with your quote of Romans 8:18-39, was that what you saw is not an abstract concept, but a relational God who's love is manifested by faithfully acting to rescue. (past faith of God acts, present faithfulness of God, and an expectation of future faith working through love)
The justification by faith (interpreted as man's faith in God) theological model produces (because it is a theological frame or lens through which we interpret bible) an image of God who is essencially just first and then love makes a way. But that image left me with the fear God was out to whack me if I missed the mark. Even though this paradigm of the reformation has a long history of biblical defense I think it's foundation of a just God is the wrong image upon which to build a theology.
God is love, to me now is the foundation. Mercy rules in justice because the nature of God is love. The law was given for a season until the seed should come. It was given for a purpose but that purpose, to me, doesn't define the essencial nature of God. To me it was like a deterent used until God could incarnate. But the use of the law to press man's conscience to accept the terms of a justification by faith message to me presupposes an image of God that is skewed to justice first. This left me in doubt of God's intentions toward me.
Basically in rereading the biblical narrative I have replaced human faith in (fundamental traditional justification by faith terms) as the means by which man gains access into salvation, to God's love through His faith (faithfulness) rescuing me through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. I participate in Christ by the Holy Spirit.
It is so easy for anyone to misinterpret your revelation to mean, what they perceive, because of the theological lens and paradigm of their frame of mind. But essencially seeing God as not a threat is to see Him as He really is, love. Adoption into the Father's family, into a love relationship manifested by the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It doesn't get any better than this.
Now how all of this works out for us in longsuffering and obedience to the faithfulness and love of God as Christ in us, is a contingent affair.
[Romans 8:38-39 ........Nor height, not depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to spearate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord]
Contingent day by day but not uncertain as to the outcome.
PeacePost Edited (rsirkel) : 9/16/2006 11:40:32 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 9/17/2006 8:08 AM (GMT -6) | | Ron:
Then what I understood with your quote of Romans 8:18-39, was that what you saw is not an abstract concept, but a relational God who's love is manifested by faithfully acting to rescue. (past faith of God acts, present faithfulness of God, and an expectation of future faith working through love)
and...
Basically in rereading the biblical narrative I have replaced human faith in (fundamental traditional justification by faith terms) as the means by which man gains access into salvation, to God's love through His faith (faithfulness) rescuing me through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. I participate in Christ by the Holy Spirit.
It is so easy for anyone to misinterpret your revelation to mean, what they perceive, because of the theological lens and paradigm of their frame of mind. But essencially seeing God as not a threat is to see Him as He really is, love. Adoption into the Father's family, into a love relationship manifested by the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It doesn't get any better than this.
Exactamundo. Yessir.
Thanks of the input.
"All is full of love." -- Bjork
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." -- 1 John 4:16b
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