Called to Live A Holy Life

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a holy life, Christianity, discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, God's voice, good works, intimacy, Jesus Christ, peace, preaching, T.A. Sparks, the Bible

Happy New Year to every reader of my blog!  🙂 This post should have been published in December already, but as I was very busy and have been sick for one week, I thought I could offer it to you belatedly although these festive pictures might strike you as odd now.  😉 I just added the quote in the beginning and here we go. T. Austin Sparks put it so properly as he said,

The Christian who is truly intimate with Jesus will never draw attention to himself but will only show the evidence of a life where Jesus is completely in control.

I sometimes wonder whether we as Christians know that we are called to live a holy life, a life that is evidently different from what this world calls ‘life’. Not that I am thinking here of ‘holy’ Christians who preach the law while they tend to live licentiousness privately sooner or later. Such preachers are often characterized by a very offensive style of preaching. They only ‘feel good’ if they were able to misuse their self-assumed authority by beating the hell out of their audience (speaking spiritually here). If those who were preached to bow their heads eventually as they find themselves completely discouraged, only then such preachers feel better than others. This is a carnal way to preach the gospel, indeed, as it only serves to boost the sermonizer’s self.

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Not by Bread Alone

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Abba, bread of life, children of God, God our Father, God's guidance, God's love, God's will, God’s presence, Jesus Christ, Michael Clark, Oswald Chambers, prayer, the Bible, thought life, worship in spirit and truth

Wallpaper

Have you ever felt enlivened although you did not eat anything that gave your weak body some strength back again? I have and I really wondered… Two days ago I had been struggling with another attack of summer cholera (no details here). 😛 After prayer with Michael Clark, nausea left rather quickly and in the evening I could even get out of bed again which seemed to be impossible to me before. Well, after a precious time I could spend with God in silent prayer on one of our balconies as the sun was setting, I felt much stronger and thought I could write another blog post if He inspired me to do so. But God’s leading, you know… 😉 No blog post, yet the urge to do something for God in order to help someone out of a tricky situation. It was not easy for me to obey here, but as soon as I had done so, though, I felt so ALIVE as if I had not been sick before at all. Quite the contrary! 😊 This experience reminded me of two parts in the NT as follows. As Jesus would have this very deep talk with the woman at the well, his disciples who brought some food could not understand what Jesus had eaten as they told Him,

Spiritual Fast Food or… We are what we eat

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit, death, discerning the spirits, dreams, experience, God's voice, life, reading, Satan, Satan's voice, the devil, thought life, words, writing

Picture credits http://doctorwellgood.com/healthy-eating/we-are-what-we-eat.html

It seems sometimes I want to bombard my readers with almost one blog post every day. 😉 Actually, it was only about two or three weeks ago as I started to listen more closely to several talks and to observe my immediate inner reaction to what was being said, as I saw that there is a big difference between ‘words’ and ‘Words’. Before I begin to expound on this deeper, I want to point you to Michael Clark’s excellent article about the confusing deluge of words of any kind, even in the Christian world on the internet and elsewhere. Please, read his article here.

I AM the Resurrection

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death, eternal life, experience, good works, grace, life after death, Life and Death, Martin Luther, Nicky Gumbel, Pippa Gumbel, salvation, true faith, truth

When time as we know it comes to an end, eternity in Christ begins.
(Picture taken from http://riverbankoftruth.com/)

Just lately I felt concerned about those who are grieved because they do not know whether their loved ones will be saved or not. Even looking closely at other people, we sometimes perceive no outward sign of faith in Jesus Christ. BUT that does not mean that they won’t be saved!

Seven ways to discern truth from error by A.W. Tozer

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A.W. Tozer, clarity, confusion, deception, delusion, demons, discerning the spirits, God, Jesus Christ, love, method, mystical experiences, Satan, sin, test, the Bible, The World

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Mt 7:13-14 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

If we are insecure about how to discern the spirits in certain cases, A.W. Tozer offers a very helpful method to try any new experience, doctrine, or religious movement regarding their effects on our relationship with (1) God, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) the Bible, (4) our (old) self, (5) other believers who are indwelt by Christ’s Spirit, (6) the world and its desires, and as to (7) sin. It is a quite long article of which I only pasted some excerpts on here although the text is pretty long, still. If you want to read more, please, follow the link below. It is well worth reading, I believe. I also think we can use this method in order to judge the origin of our thoughts, our (day)dreams and visions, even everyday occurrences and their effect on us. May God help us sharpen our discerners with what Tozer, who in my opinion had been inspired by God, wrote about.

There are mysteries we can’t read about in the Bible

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experience, God, God's love, Holy Spirit, Jay Ferris, Jesus Christ, love, marriage, Martin Luther, mystery, revelation, secrets, The Holy Spirit, worship in spirit and truth

When His Light Shines Forth…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

JESUS:
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (Jn 16:12-13 ESV)

PAUL:
“But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1 2:7-10 ESV)

How can we discern God’s voice from other voices? (updated Dec 28, 2016)

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abiding in Christ, carnal mind, discerning the spirits, eternal life, Islamic mysticism, Jesus Christ, John Wesley, other religions, peace, spiritual mind, Sufis

Seeking God in the Silence…
(Picture taken from http://www.stjosephimperial.org/stewardship)

This is another article on discerning the spirits. I hope I can dig deeper now than I could do it before on this blog site. Actually, discerning the spirits is not about thinking, “The Bible is true and everything else that comes from this world or what was written in other religions is completely wrong.” Knowing the Living God, I realized that the eternal I AM always communicated His wisdom to human beings. The difference between all those other religions which had come before the book of Genesis was written and before the Hebrews were chosen to be God’s people that was allowed to get to know Him as the only God, is simply that there was a blend of God’s truth mixed with other religious stuff and God had not yet enabled man to discern the whole truth. Before Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection it was not yet time to do so (see Acts 17:30). Only God’s chosen prophets in the OT could utter pure divine wisdom through God’s Spirit dwelling on them. However, there were always wise men in the past who shared divine wisdom as well (though not perfectly, still truth mixed with lies at times) such as Seneca, Plato, Confucius etc. pp. However, since Christ has come into this world and is risen, we may know that we only find The Whole Truth by abiding in Him who “became to us wisdom from God” (1 Cor 1:30 ESV).

Some Thoughts on Reading… and Writing

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books, Christian books, head knowledge, heart knowledge, Jesus Christ, reading, the Bible, truth, writing

Snowflakes or Snowsticks? 😉
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Today I have been wondering how to publish a new blog post despite a permanent headache, no inspiration, and ongoing dying pains of self in heart and mind. On the one hand, I thought I should write another article, but on the other hand I was truly too worn out. Finally, I laid it all back into God’s hands and after cooking dinner and tidying up the kitchen, He reminded me of a comment I wrote for another blog exactly 3 weeks ago, a comment which had not been approved because of that blog site’s incompatibility with my Google account. The topic on which I wrote was the pros and cons of reading, particularly Christian books, of course. Here’s my comment.

Seeking God…..Why oh Why?

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comfort, experience, feelings, following Jesus, freedom, God's love, heart, Jesus Christ, love, peace, seek and find, the presence of God, thought life, thoughts

Picture and quote taken from http://www.pinterest.com/quotlr/possibilities-quotes/

I have just been pondering on why I don’t want to abandon my prayer habits for a longer time.

Admittedly, there are days when I have no strength to seek Him. Since I have been chronically ill for almost all my life, there are times when I am so weak that I need Him to (first) meet me through prayer. Nonetheless, today I have been wondering what might be the reasons that make me keep searching for always more of Him.

As I awoke with a headache, feeling nauseated, with abdominal cramps and fatigued [all symptoms are more or less chronic], my first thought was,

“My God, I need You!!!”

When the Morning Star rises…

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behavior, discerning the spirits, dreams, feelings, goals, God, God's love, health, Joel Osteen, lies, light, love, mindset, Morning Star, Satan, thought life, thoughts, truth

On the Way between Darkness and Light
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Pt 1:19-21 ESV)

Q: Do we need the Bible?

According to the verses quoted above, the prophetic word of the whole Bible is suitable for giving some light on our path so that we can make the next step toward Him who eventually gives us full-spectrum light. Or in other words,

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Ps 119:105 ESV)

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”” (Jn 8:12 ESV)

So, it appears to be a way…