Do as you want

[jo555]

Oh, I haven't been around much...been busy, but breezing on through tonight before a take a nap before reporting to my job.

This is exactly what I have been wrestling just recently at my job. As I told the Lord, I feel unopen to continue bearing my cross there right now. I want to pass over this cup, and I want to say like Jesus, "Nevertheless, not my will but yours," but in honesty I feel closed to it now, but want to be willing to be changed.

So, been praying...and with more time I will be looking into this more thoroughly as I just quickly skimmed through some comments due to time restraints.

For now I'll just say this. One time many years ago when I prayed to the Lord to hear me (as at the time I thought He may not be willing to because of the way I was living which I felt wasn't pleasing to Him), He answered me...and He let me feel his great joy and pleasure that I had turned to Him to communicate with Him. Said He never turned his back on me, but I on Him (wasn't a reprimand, but just info for my knowledge). He said no matter where I was and what I was doing He would always be there...and don't remember if He actually said this next thing but if memory serves me correct, I felt like it was a "Live your life, just say in touch with me. I love it when you do that."

So, I believe we can do wrong, and I am not looking to make excuses for my poor choices, but He gives me room to make those choices and awaits for me to communicate with Him and be made willing to follow Him anywhere. There is grace for the progressive journey, not grace to be used as an excuse, but grace.

Pa pa is always waiting with open arms, and to clean up the mess.

I do believe, as I seen through my skimming, that these statements do need to be taken into context. Throughout the years I've heard a sermon or teaching packed up in one or two liners and if they aren't viewed within the larger picture of God's heart in Christ and his purposes, they will be misused.

For instance, "It's not about me," is a wonderful truth, but a good deal of times when I have heard that one liner used, I've felt like an employee in some production plant that is just like a number. Like I am not important. Well, I do count, and in my personal relationship with God it is about Him and me and I am important to Him, with my quirks and all, but yes, in the larger scheme of things, it isn't about me, but about Him and what He is doing to bring about his will on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Hi everyone. Miss you all, been busy but hope to be back in to read all the fine wisdom that comes from this place...there's probably something in here for me.

Love in Him,
Jo

[jo555]

Ultimately, there may be a reason to reject what Augustine says; I’m still chewing on that. But I don’t think this means anything that I’ve read in this thread yet.

He says, observing actions does not tell us the actor’s heart (as per his comment on v. 7 comparing the same actions by the Father, the Son, and Judas). Hard to disagree with.

He says, now let’s take a harder case: different (opposite) actions, one of which we would superficially assume is better/more loving than the other. Again, even with different actions, the actions don’t reveal the heart: fatherly blows (which may seem unloving) are far superior to the caresses of a “boy stealer” (kidnapper? pedophile? Kidnapping pedophile?).

Then, in applying these principles, he says “love.” Don’t, as Judas did, do an identical act to one done by the Father and the Son, but with a very wrong motive. Don’t, as the boy stealer did, do an act that appears loving, but is actually evil. I think in that context, “what you will” very likely carries the meaning “what you think is necessary.” Look at his examples, they are opposite pairs. And that is no accident. BUT these opposites are unlike the opposites of the father and the boy stealer. There, one is right because it is motivated by love; the other is wrong because it is motivated by evil. Here, one is right because it is motivated by love; it is what love calls for in the situation. However, the opposite can also be right when it is motivated by love and what love calls for.

So taking all this together, Augustine cautions against making three mistakes:

1. Do not make the mistake of assuming all similar actions come from the same motivation (of love).
2. Do make the mistake of assuming the “harsh” (as just an example) is unloving and the “soft” is loving. Love and evil-heartedness are more nuanced than this.
3. Do not make the mistake of assuming that opposite actions cannot both demonstrate the love of the actor’s heart.

Remember that one of the overall points of the passage he is “opening up” is how to know what love is.

I don't know what Augustine meant, but what has been written here is a topic close to my heart, and have written extensively on . . . partaking of the knowledge of good and evil.

I also see these things as dimensional and what is right in one dimension can be wrong in another dimension. Ultimately, it all needs to be springing from the Heart of God as we remain in Christ.

Thanks bro!

[jo555]

And I should add to my first post on this thread. That after many years of living my life my way, as I wanted, eventually I came to the place where I prayed, "Lord, I'm done. I just want what you want for me. I want all my desires to reflect your desires. I want my will to be your will. Use me as you please."

And that is what I call the day I signed my death warrant. Oh, so much trouble came looking for me after that prayer (was naive and didn't see it coming). And nothing that worked for me before seemed to work, but it did lead me to a place of "in Him," and we celebrated that together in love, joy, and excitement. It was so awesome. Not that I don't need to remain...just saying, "I had been to Boot Camp".

Just wanted to relay the ending of that story...my portion...progressively growing in these things.

[Fullheart]

I love the comment by Tomoral, AMEN! In one of my testimonies I talked about how I could never seem to be obedient to God no matter how hard I tried. Then one day I met Jesus heart to heart and fell in love. Everythiong changed. Now I was not trying to be obedient out of fear of punishment, but because I wanted to please the one who loves me and whom I also love. My former friends would say something like, "As a Christian, you can't do such and such right?" And I'd always say, I can do anything I want! Why? Because as a true child of God I've learned to trust what God wants for me and if He says no to something, I no longer want that, because He knows what's best for me. It a love and a trust thing. Basically, I can do what I want because what I want is what God wants for me.