31
May
2014
What about living to please God?
Submitted by theshovelLiving to please God is the desire that has already been put in the hearts of those who belong to God. It is good to encourage one another in this living reality because it sets our minds free from the lie that suggests we DON’T want to please him. That’s when we end up struggling in the attempt to make ourselves love God, and that is futility. This is the basis of the fleshly mind of man, and so that is why he spends so much time trying to get you to dedicate or rededicate your life to Christ. I know these guys and their teaching can sound so persuasive, but they only seek to bring you into their own up and down kind of experience.
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Very, very true
I go about my day, filled with activities that appear unrelated to God or anything spiritual. Days without even a voiced prayer. Yet, how can I be so at peace at any given moment with God? Because this profound reality of being in Christ has truly set me free! Then there are times I weep on my knees in gratitude for all that God has done for me. I'm amazed at how much I love Him and know Him. But it sure didn't come from anything I did or do…it's definitely His Life within me.
the age of mistaken identity ...
another great reference to this article: http://theshovel.net/qa/duty/trying-to-please-the-lord
in that article theshovel says: “… SEE YOURSELF AS THE CHILD OF LIGHT HE MADE YOU AND … LIVE LIKE WHO YOU REALLY ARE! This is how you discover, or prove, or discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”
so then the problem is revealed to be one of mistaken identity. so i will call this the 'age of mistaken identity'. lol it really is a major issue for today's Christians. if we don't know that we are NEW CREATIONS in HIM, then we will continue to live according to the old dead-to-GOD-man that we think we still are, playing the world's games and living in ultimate mental and emotional bondage, insecurity, fear, shame, guilt and desperation.
that does not mean that GOD's Spirit of Life and Love will not and does not still Live and Work in us in Reality. not at all. we just all too often miss the freedom, sense of security, confidence, peace and all that we are and have been made in, for and because of Him. i hear it largely especially in today's so-called 'christian' music, tv sermons, 'christian' book titles, books, articles and … conversations, public prayers … my own personal thoughts and feelings from time to time - residual memories effecting present mentality, etc.
reminding one another that we are New Creations in Him is sooo HUGE, yet i still find that when i attempt to encourage some, they have a tendency to come back at me with things like, “oh, you are just talking about the first stage of salvation. you are not talking about all the 'more' there is to our Christian life”, etc. the 'more' they are talking about is all the various and relative DOs and DON'Ts and obligations and 'responsibilities' and duties and … fill in the blanks of 'christianity'. sighhhh …. there is the struggle: “…struggling in the attempt to make ourselves love God…” and to convince ourselves and one another that we are pleasing to Him by all our 'doings' in the realm of the dead, when WE are the LIVING ONES in the midst. WE have been made LIGHT and RIGHTEOUSNESS and JUSTified and NEW and … well …
thank GOD that we do not have to 'prove' ourselves to HIM. our 'approval' is part and parcel with the New that HE has made us in and by His Son Jesus Christ. we will not find such approval in the world or from the world. the world's approval is all about man in his struggling, desperate, and demanding attempts to be 'approved' by and in the eyes of the world's relativity. it is not secure. it is not living. it is not … fill in the blank/s.
anyway … stirrings and ponderings galore! :) the desire to please HIM is very much built-in and very much alive in our reality in the New that He has made us. :) it is a beautiful thing! :) The New Creations are the 'pleasing' ones because He has made them so. :)
if its not a performance then
if its not a performance then it is for sure an essence that we now carry because of Him and His union with us. We are the obeying ones and it isnt connected to any jot or tiddle of performance in the natural realm.
thinking about performance ... rambling ahead ...
performance as used in the 'duty' sense has become a thing taken for granted, hasn't it?. there is that 'natural' mentality of: “HE 'did' for us, so now the least we can 'do' is to 'do' for HIM.”
for myself, i too often forget how many different definitions a word can have. i have not thought about that enough in my life when i use words, and therefore it has caused a lot of miscommunication on my end, because i do not explain which meaning i am using or intending. sometimes it is obvious and there are no worries, but … too often i am slack in that department of communication.
when it comes to performing or working or doing for GOD according as HE so desires, the Child of GOD is absolutely consumed inside with that desire from the genuine New Creation Heart and Life that is born out of the very Nature and Spirit of GOD HIMself. it is a beautiful thing. :) that desire is as natural and living as the very Source that it exudes from. it is absolutely pure LOVE.
when the natural mind/mentalities from the world, out of the world, according to the world, of the world try to conjure up and 'perform' (as in the definition of play acting doing their best to convince of the 'genuine act') for the purpose of convincing themselves and whoever else that they are pleasing GOD, and they want and expect their 'reward' for doing so, we know that is not from the Life and Love and Heart of GOD. we know this.
the doubts creep in when the outward performances of the world 'appear' to us to be more, and more convincing of a 'genuine' act/performance than the Christians who the world has come to expect particular performances be publicly displayed and offered up and presented to the satisfaction and expectation of the world. the mind and mentality of the world wants to become the gods and judges over those who truly belong to the TRUE GOD, and they will not be satisfied unless we 'perform' to their relative levels, expectations and translations of what 'pleasing GOD' means to them. talk about futility … empty endeavors … stony hearts, etc. Jesus Himself was brought before that very dark, empty, futile heart and mentality of the world that found Him lacking, displeasing, utterly 'sinful' and judged Him and condemned Him to the death. and that was by the very religious and self-righteous 'authorities' on GOD during His short time upon the earth.
just as Jesus Himself did, the child of GOD 'does' from and out of the very heart of GOD and need not worry about being pleasing. he 'does' because he IS pleasing to the FATHER. they share the same Heart and Mind and Life. they are Love and Love loves out of HIS very Nature. those who belong to this world 'performing' their versions of love and acceptance and satisfaction toward GOD come from a source of futility and emptiness. we know it and recognize it because we were once a part of it.
oops … i reahhhhlly have the 'rambles' today!
Sherri, this is a wonderful
Sherri, this is a wonderful testimony to the one true life in Christ! :)
So excellent my brother. We
So excellent my brother. We get smacked around by the natural perceptions of man cloaked in “the teaching of Christ” which is only a form of truth and not the Truth.
The fact that we look are led astray from all sides[both by men and by the prince of the power of the air] into seeing the old without having our minds encouraged to see the new, can be very enticing according to this futility. God will not have that! He LOVES us. True love never even entered INTO the mind of man, that is why it can seem SO foreign to us but at the same time so rightly fitting to us as well. after all, we are of Him.
Adam
log in
Hey Jimmy. In having trouble logging so i put this here . I just wanted to say hey to Bill and thank him for his comments on the shack. Hey Bill good to hear from you again and thanks.
disregard
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