Confusion

I read something the other day that really got me to thinking. It was a comment made in regards to news about something of religious relevance. The comment wasn’t crass or brashly accusatory. It was heartfelt, well-worded and almost ‘eloquent’. However, the point that the commenter was trying to make was that even though he’d read the Bible, he wasn’t as impressed as he assumed he'd be if it really was words from an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Being. This was my reply:

Here’s The Word:

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I made it clear that I wasn’t trying to argue and that beforehand, I’d prayed that God would grant him repentance and give him spiritual eyes to see. I tried to convey that we all start this same way – we've all come across 'perceived' contradictions; where Scripture seems to go against itself:

 o Don’t judge, yet judge righteously   (Matthew 7:1 & John 7:24)
 o Be confident, yet humble   (2 Corinthians 5:6 & Proverbs 16:9)
 o Be bold, yet gentle   (Proverbs 28:1 & 2 Timothy 2:24)
 o Be about peace, yet rebuke sin   (Romans 12:18 & 1 Timothy 5:20)
 o Don’t argue, but be prepared with your answer
  (2 Timothy 2:24 & 1 Peter 3:15)
 o Don’t answer a fool according to their folly,
yet answer a fool according to their folly   (Proverbs 26:4 & 5)
 o Saved by grace, but works prove faith   (Ephesians 2 & James 2)

If we’re being honest, we can look at these things listed (as well as many others) and see where this guy is really just being more honest than many of us would ever admit to. We spend year after year just doing “Christianity” the way we’re used to, and most of us never achieve that Spiritual state where there is no confusion or contradiction between these things.

How is this possible? Seems that many of us look to assimilate Christianity according to our individual personalities. We dress up our old dead man with overt Christian symbolism and rhetoric. This is why we see some who have admirable humility and others who are impressively fearless but these are hardly ever the same person. The contradiction is not in the Scriptures, it’s in us trying to mix natural and spiritual.

And this is the root of the problem; It’s how we interpret God’s intent. God is not trying to make us better, He wants to make us new. He’s not improving us, He’s renewing us. Sanctification is not cooperation, it’s capitulation. We say “Let go, and let God” but it’s time that we be truly honest about the things we hold onto.

Here’s The Word:

Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

I’ll close with this – I pray that God would continue to grow His presence in us, that we would be more sensitive and aware of old tendencies masquerading themselves as spiritual elevation. That we would perceive and let go of the frustration that comes from evading, avoiding or compartmentalizing life in the spirit as pulled and directed by our carnal understanding and comforts. That we would be pleased to hold it all up to The Light – all that we think we know, that we would test it and throw away everything that is not of God. That we would know the peace of a spiritual mind, free from contradiction and confusion.

In Him,
Cros