Do you think Revelations is enigmatic?

[Amanah]

If love is the fulfilling of the law, then can we say we never miss the mark?

1 Corinthians 13

1..If I speak in the languages of humans and angels but have no love, I have become a reverberating gong or a clashing cymbal.
2..If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing.
3..Even if I give away everything that I have and sacrifice myself, but have no love, I gain nothing.

4..Love is always patient;
........love is always kind;
love is never envious
........or arrogant with pride.
Nor is she conceited,

5..and she is never rude;
she never thinks just of herself
........or ever gets annoyed.
She never is resentful;

6..is never glad with sin;
she’s always glad to side with truth,
........and pleased that truth will win.

7..She bears up under everything;
........believes the best in all;
there is no limit to her hope,
........and never will she fall.

8..Love never fails. Now if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
9..For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete.
10..But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will be done away with.
11..When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways.
12..Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13..Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

You posted that your sinless. Correct?

Absolutely.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

What I'm saying is that you can lead an overcoming life. You said and posted last week that it was impossible. I'm asking why?

Overcoming isn't the same as sinless. Overcoming the ever present desires of the flesh through the Spirit is what I was talking about last week.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Aquila

Overcoming isn't the same as sinless. Overcoming the ever present desires of the flesh through the Spirit is what I was talking about last week.

Can one be sinless and yet not overcoming the desires of the flesh?

Can one overcome the flesh and walk in the Spirit and yet not be sinless?

[mfblume]

Originally Posted by Aquila

Bound is bound. Released is released. We don't "bind Satan". We cannot incarcerate him and keep him in isolation. We can bind his activities and essentially push him out of our lives, homes, etc.. But he's very much roaming freely as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

If we, and the world at large, is dealing with Satan who is "bound" right now... Will we lose all power to bind his activity as it relates to the saints of God once he is released at the end of this hellish millennium you believe we are in? And if the world today is what we have with Satan bound... what unimaginable horrors will be unleashed when Satan is released after this "millennium"?

Bondage has degrees, Aquila. A dog on a leash is bound. Can it walk. Yes. A dog tied by its hands and feet is also bound. Can it walk? No. Depends on the degree of bondage. Bound has varying degrees. We have to determine which by context.


Now tell me about destructionin Heb 2:14, which you totally ignored in my post. Is destroyed destroyed? In what way?

I recall now something about your responses. I was trying to recall and now I remember. You pick and choose what you answer from me and demand I answ all your posts. Let's not play that game. Let's respond to everything. Respond to what I stated about Hebrews 2:14 and how that relates to bondage in Rev 20. Let's be thorough. I am almost a couple thousand miles away from home driving back this weekend. So my time is limited. But I will get all to you. Please do the same for my posts.

[Esaias]

Remembers an old quote about a very VERY long chain...

[Evang.Benincasa]

Originally Posted by Aquila

Overcoming isn't the same as sinless. Overcoming the ever present desires of the flesh through the Spirit is what I was talking about last week.

No, you were talking about being so banged up that you felt the Christian walk wasn't possible. Tying knot at end of rope, felt like coming to tears. Aquila, if you have a desire to drink Jack Daniels, you are still the lion devouring flesh. Only you have a lion tamer with a whip, chair, and a gun pointed at you called Christianity. Which tells you, that you have to "act" loving, perform forgiveness, perform good works, perform loving selflessness. Yet it is all a performance, while all the while you are as unstable as nitroglycerine. While you make yourself eat straw like an ox, you are actually drooling at the thought of devouring the lamb. Big difference buddy boy, big difference. Those who judge or measure themselves among themselves are not smart. You look for someone to show you how it's done, but all the while you are more concerned with fault finding to get yourself off the hook?

The book of Revelation isn't about showing us wickedness of the world.it is about showing us the greatness of the Father and Husband Jesus Christ for His wife and children Israel/Church. How He overcame it all, so we can WALK in newness of life. Not oldness of the letter. You want an example of someone doing it? Then get off your rear end stop making your weeping excuses and follow the Master. The OT showed us the way to the teacher and once we are dropped off at His feet it is time to learn of HIM. Knot at the end of a rope? That's your thick head.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by TK Burk

What do you mean? What is the dust God breathed life into? It became a living soul, but that was still a flesh and bone body. Please explain.

The body is the flesh, not an outer man.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Esaias

Can one be sinless and yet not overcoming the desires of the flesh?

No, overcoming the desires of the flesh is part of being sinless.

Can one overcome the flesh and walk in the Spirit and yet not be sinless?

When one overcomes the desires of the flesh, they also must maintain a Christlike mind, else one can sin through will.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

No, you were talking about being so banged up that you felt the Christian walk wasn't possible. Tying knot at end of rope, felt like coming to tears. Aquila, if you have a desire to drink Jack Daniels, you are still the lion devouring flesh. Only you have a lion tamer with a whip, chair, and a gun pointed at you called Christianity. Which tells you, that you have to "act" loving, perform forgiveness, perform good works, perform loving selflessness. Yet it is all a performance, while all the while you are as unstable as nitroglycerine. While you make yourself eat straw like an ox, you are actually drooling at the thought of devouring the lamb. Big difference buddy boy, big difference. Those who judge or measure themselves among themselves are not smart. You look for someone to show you how it's done, but all the while you are more concerned with fault finding to get yourself off the hook?

The book of Revelation isn't about showing us wickedness of the world.it is about showing us the greatness of the Father and Husband Jesus Christ for His wife and children Israel/Church. How He overcame it all, so we can WALK in newness of life. Not oldness of the letter. You want an example of someone doing it? Then get off your rear end stop making your weeping excuses and follow the Master. The OT showed us the way to the teacher and once we are dropped off at His feet it is time to learn of HIM. Knot at the end of a rope? That's your thick head.

I was having some serious issues over the fourth. Unless you've been there, which you obviously haven't, just say a prayer for me.

My friend Jeff struggled with some deep emotional and psychological problems relating to having been sexually and physically abused repeatedly when he was younger. In some of his darkest hours he'd turn to me or a counselor. He started going to a church and turned to a pastor for counsel. Ultimately, the pastor said it was all in his head and he had to want to be whole. Jeff tried all he knew to try, he continued to have problems. The pastor told him not to listen to the counselor, instead Jeff only needed the Wonderful Counselor. So, Jeff stopped seeing his counselor. But problems continued. The pastor told him again that it was all in his head and he simply had to have the desire to be free. Jeff finally made up his mind to be free. Jeff's free today. I miss him. He was a great guy.

Religious leaders are so I'll equipped to deal with serious psychological issues. It's not that they couldn't be educated on the issues. It's that many don't want to be. And for many, you'd have to convince them that they are real issues.

I had a pastoral counselor from Employee Care, in Dayton. Great guy. He walked with me through the Psalms. Together, we charted David's emotions in each Psalm of David. David has high highs, and very low lows. He had assurance and stability at times, then he's wavering, crying out for help, almost in despair. It was actually healing to see a man of the Bible, greatly loved of God, struggle like so many of us do. I'll remember what I was told in one of those sessions for the rest of my life. The counselor pointed out, we are not defined by a moment of defeat. Nor is victory attained in the moment. We must have faith that come what may, God will carry us home.

There's beauty in brokenness. It's humbling and tempering. God is glorified in the broken.