Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 7:02 AM
Subject: is abstinence enough?
A
happy good morning to you all.
Sent:
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 12:30 AM
Subject:
Daily Manna from the 'Net for Wed, Apr 14, 2004 - Ephesians 3:2-6
Daily
Manna from the 'Net - Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Surely you have
heard about the administration of God's grace that was given
to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by
revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading
this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the
mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other
generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's
holy apostles
and prophets. This mystery is that through the
gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel,* members
together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in
Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 3:2-6 NIV)
*Israel
(who prevails with god) name given to Jacob,
became national...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gentile The
Bible Someone who is not a JEW. "The nations" is
the common expression in the OLD TESTAMENT for non-Jews as a
group, and a Gentile is a person belonging to "the
nations." Both the OLD TESTAMENT and the NEW TESTAMENT
tell of numerous conflicts between Jews and Gentiles.
Figuratively, a "gentile" is any nonbeliever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jewish ceremony of circumcision is worth something only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. And if the Gentiles obey God’s law, won’t God give them all the rights and honors of being his own people? In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God’s law will be much better off than you Jews who are circumcised and know so much about God’s law but don’t obey
it.
For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the Jewish ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not a cutting of the body but a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God, not from people. (Romans 2:25-29 TB)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a
Pharisee, came to speak with Jesus. "Teacher," he said,
"we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous
signs are proof enough that God is with you."
Jesus replied, "I assure you, unless you
are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an
old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?"
Jesus replied, "The truth is, no one can
enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.
Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life
from heaven. So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be
born again. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it
comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are
born of the Spirit."
"What do you mean?" Nicodemus asked.
Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish
teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I assure you, I am
telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe us.
But if you don’t even believe me when I tell you about things that
happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is
going on in heaven? For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and
will return to heaven again. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on
a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a
pole, so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life."
(John 3:3-15)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There
is a solution. Almost none of us liked the
self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of
shortcomings which the process requires for its successful
consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we
had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as
we had been living it. When, therefore, we were approached by
those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing
left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools
laid at out feet. We have found much of heaven and we have been
rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had
not even dreamed.
The great fact is just
this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective
spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole
attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's
universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute
certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives
in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to
accomplish those things for us which we could never do by
ourselves.
If you are as seriously
alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle of the
road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming
impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which
there is no return through human aid, we had but two
alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end,
blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as
best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.
This we did because we honestly wanted to, and
were willing to make the effort. (page 25)
beginning
on page 62, we find our beginning truth. This
is the how and the why of it. First of all, we had to quit
playing God. It didn't work. Next, we decided that hereafter in
this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the
Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His
children. Most Good ideas are simple, and this concept was the
keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed
to freedom.
When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable
things followed. We had a new Employer.
Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close
to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a
footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our
little plan and designs. More and more we became interested in
seeing what we could contribute to life. As we felt new power
flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could
face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence,
we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We
were
reborn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
to
clear the air somewhat, let us mention that the bigbook states
that "we are non-denominational people." the
above scriptures do not mention buddhists, christians, muslims, baptists
- free will or southern, methodists - united or not,
presbyterians, catholics, episcopalians, lutherans,
independents, jehovah's witnesses, missionaries, moravians,
nazarenes, pentecostals or pentecostal holiness, seventh day
adventists, zionists, or ad infinitum. have heard that
there are thousands of religions in this country. even IRS
classified the noahhite effort as a religion, for non-profit tax
exempt status.
one
of the key elements in the above however is the statement of
jesus - actually, the christ speaking through jesus, as being
the son of man. no, i will not debate
that issue, but it does sound like that the male gender is going
to find out about the pain of giving birth. if you
have a question, objection, or reservation about that, please
ask god. the 12 and 12 states, "we have resigned
from the debating society."
but
now comes the clinker. “Sir,”
the woman said, “you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it
that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of
worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,
where our ancestors worshiped?”
Jesus
replied, “Believe me, the time is coming
when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father
here or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know so little about the
one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation
comes through the Jews.
(scribe's note: probably god's true
jews, not this
world's jews) But the time is coming and is
already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will
worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship
him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
The
woman said, “I know the Messiah will come—the one who is
called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to
us.”
Then
Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”
(John 4:19-26 TB)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Don’t
misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law
of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to
fulfill them. I assure you, until heaven and earth
disappear, even the smallest detail of God’s law will remain
until its purpose is achieved. So if you break the smallest
commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be the
least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s
laws and teaches them will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. “But
I warn you—unless you obey God better than the teachers of
religious law and the Pharisees do, you can’t enter the
Kingdom of Heaven at all!" (Matthew 5:17-20
TB)
it
seems to me that our hope is to be in his spirit, where the laws
of moses are fulfilled. don't know about any of you, but
am sure that i violated all of the ten commandments, one way or
another. but along the same thought, let us reveal the
first scripture that is used in fulfilled mansion's first book,
"his fathers temple," on page iii.
"We
are simple, earnest folk who have never been to seminary, so our
approach might be unlike anything you have been taught.
Nonetheless, we were spiritually dead. We are now
spiritually alive, and since Christ is rising from the
spiritually dead, Christ's Spirit is teaching us.
"Let us point out,
however, that we thoroughly understand the Scripture in Luke
11:52; 'Woe to you experts in religion! For you hide
the truth from the people. You won't accept it for yourselves,
and you prevent others from having a chance to believe
it.'"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
now
let us close this communication, for those that have not hit the
delete button yet, with the most amazing thing that i have
ever read, in my entire life. i thought that it only
applied to other people, for about seven years, until i started
to understand what the spirit was doing, on the inside of
my-selves. now at last, in the last day of god's
creation, the third day of his son's spiritual resurrection, on
the inside of ourselves, after the spiritual awakening, we
have available in anonymous recovery,
having successfully worked the steps, and practiced the
principles to the satisfaction of our higher power, the
following miracle of miracles.
Don’t
let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and
high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from
the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ. For
in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, and
you are complete through your union with Christ. He is
the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe.
(Colossians 2:8-10 TB)
so,
i repeat the question in the subject line of this e-mail.
is abstinence enough?
sincerely,
gratefully
recovering noahhite ron
