A Hard Lesson to Learn

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circumcision of the heart, darkness, dying to self, experience, Fellowship of His Sufferings, following Jesus, God's love, joy, Morning Star, pain, Sickness, suffering, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the soul, the mind of Christ

Wendelstein/Upper Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This will be a rather short blog post since I am not doing that well at the moment. Before sharing with you what I have learned lately, inspired by an exchange with a sister, I offer you two quotes from Francis of Sales who said,

“The indifferent heart is like a ball of wax in God’s hands, ready to accept all the impressions of his eternal good pleasure. It does not place its love in the things God wills, but in the will of God who wills them.”

“A truly loving heart loves God’s good pleasure, not only in consolations, but also in afflictions….”

Hope… in spite of it all

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blessings, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, feeling, God our Father, God's voice, grace, healing, hope, mind, Oswald Chambers, pain, Satan, Seeking God, will

Restaurant “Alte Veste” (Zirndorf/Bavaria)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Before going to bed I read Oswald Chambers’ devotional on “Friendship with God” which I will copy and paste further below. Although I read that one before and would believe it was true, I always felt that there was something missing. God who does neither act logically nor chronically as we might like it, revealed the missing piece to me a few hours before I would read this devotional.

Instead of Sanctification: The crossless gospel spirit

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discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, false gospel, false spirits, following Jesus, God, Jesus Christ, justification, pain, peace, sanctification, Satan, sin

Every gospel that focuses on man instead of focusing on Christ is anti-Christian by nature.
(Picture taken from https://thepropheticnews.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/antichrist.jpg)

I am sure there are more versions of that kind of gospel today and I presume there will pop up more and more of them in these last confusing days where Satan appears as an angel of light. However, I want to merely focus on two different manifestations of the crossless gospel I have met particularly on the internet since I began to write online comments in English on December 1, 2011. I would like to refer to these two confusing sub-categories as Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner and Spiritual Self-Salvation.

Becoming Like Little Children

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childlike faith, experience, healing, little children, Oswald Chambers, peace, rest, spiritual power, surprises, the promised land, triggers, trusting God, vacation

Moving on to pastures new…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Imagine God asked you to go on vacation with Him. Not next year, not tomorrow, no, right now. You would not know where you’d go to, how it looked like, and what might happen to you, however, you could be sure that God would care for everything you might ever need and that He would give you perfect peace 24/7 if you trust in Him (Is 26:3). Furthermore, God told you that you could stay there with Him, even forever. “Pipe dreams,” one might say, “Interesting,” might add another. These two responses certainly came from adults who not only lost their illusions, which might be a good thing, but maybe, they also lost their hope and dreams. Now imagine God asked a little child this very same question. How would he or she react? I think we know the answer…

“Walking In the Light as He Is In the Light” by Michael and Susanne

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church, experience, eyes of the heart, feelings, healing, light, Michael Clark, mind, pain, peace, prayer, sanctification, sin, soul, the body of Christ, triggers

Source Pinterest

“And we are writing this that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:4-7 RSVA)

Susanne wrote, “Meanwhile I believe that God only shows us that there is no good thing coming from the old man in order to bring forth those genuinely good things that spring from a new God-given heart. But the process until we are through with all these “ouch-experiences” and our natural tendency to run from pain and/or to attack the one who offended us is indeed PAINFUL.”

Can God Heal?

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A.W. Tozer, being born again, Carl Gustav Jung, darkness, following Jesus, John of the Cross, light, psychology, spiritual power, the cross, the dark night of the senses, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, the narrow way, the strait gate

Crooked trees after being pruned… not that beautiful yet 😉
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Now this is a silly question, Susanne! Through the whole Bible we find witnesses who were healed by God, especially in the New Testament. “Yes… but today?” Having been tortured by many sicknesses all my life, my faith in being healed by God is not the strongest, as I need to honestly admit. However, I have had a few healing experiences during the last year which caused my mustard seed faith to increase a bit. 😉
Apropos Bible, I was just thinking of the situation where Jesus healed a certain woman who had been sick for a very long time. Let’s take a closer look at that special event.

Mercy Triumphs over Judgment

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darkness, enlightened, experience, eyes of the heart, God's love, Jesus Christ, life, light, living water, love, sin, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, The Holy Spirit, the woman at the well

This is not the Fountain of Living Water, it is just Lily’s favorite “water bowl” on the balconies 😉
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

It is not ours to judge anyone, even though everything might tell against them. We can merely see how people look like, what they do and how they behave. And if they talk a lot, we will come to know a certain part of their hearts too. However, it is God alone who knows the depths of our hearts, the WHY of what we did and, maybe, still do. Therefore, we must be cautious to not quickly say, “Oh, I know, I know, been there, done that, such kind of persons I have come to know so often!”

Neither Do I Condemn You

Tags

Brennan Manning, compassion, forgiveness, God's love, judging others, Michael Clark, Shannon L. Alder, sin

Bleeding Hearts
(Photo by Michael Clark)

Michael Clark of ‘A Wilderness Voice’ blog (*) and I were sharing our thoughts on God’s mercy and this is what we wrote together.

Life is a Triggery Business

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experience, feeling, healing, heart, mouth, pain, prophets, speaking, spiritual power, the new self, the old self, tongue, triggers, wounds

What Makes Our Life So Difficult At Times
(Picture taken from http://www.meltdownmentor.com/v6/index.php/meltdown-or-shutdown/triggers)

To start off with, I know that life is a tricky business, too, but here I really meant triggery in the following sense. Take for instance a few little children playing in the sandpit. They are not related and are basically happy to play together. You are sitting on a bench, enjoying the first warming sunrays of springtime and you are watching those kids gladly until something unexpected happens. Right out of the blue you might hear exclamations like,

“This is MY shovel!! Give it back to MEEEE!!!!!” (You can easily imagine the picture you can see now… 😉 ) or,

“I don’t want to be your friend!!!” (Because “I hate red hair!”… “Your nose is too huge!”… “Your parents are silly!” – whatever the accusation)

The old self cannot really love…

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freedom, humor, knowing, love, psychology, spiritual power, the new self, the old self

Well… Which Self to Choose? 😉
(Cartoon taken from http://mylifeintupperware.blogspot.de/2012/04/feeding-right-dog.html)

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mt 7:11 ESV)

Boy, who would have thought that our Old Adam and Eve are evil persons who can do good things, to be sure, yet cannot truly love due to their immanent wretchedness? But wait…can’t they love somehow, though? We know from our own experience that every human being can fall in love which is a wonderful thing, however, it’s still selfish love. Since as soon as the beloved person rejects the one who still looks through rose-colored glasses, love as it was before is over. And that we love our children is normal, too, isn’t it? Even if they reject us one day.