Beware of Job’s false friends

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Christianity, compassion, dogs, fellowship, foxes, friends, God's voice, heart, Joseph Benson, Michael Clark, Satan, shepherd, swine, the new self, the old self, true faith, vipers, wickedness, wolves

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:8-12 KJV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I have often pondered the thought to close the comments section completely and to remove the LIKE buttons, too. The reason why I have not done it until now was that I appreciate feedback on what I write and that I have learned a lot from commenters as well. However, it has become clear to me that this continued struggle to moderate or to not moderate responses, or to eventually delete replies I had moderated before as another hidden evil spirit finally manifested in a longer comment thread, this struggle is quite exhausting for me and it is very distracting at that. I sooo love and long to hear God’s voice through commenters and, dear reader, sometimes it really happens! There is a handful of faithful commenters who only weigh in when they have something encouraging to contribute. They act cautiously and lovingly, pondering on what God might have to say. As for these, I paste a quote I found today on my daily Catholic kitchen calendar. It reads,

“A friend is someone who takes your hand and touches your heart.” (Author unknown)

What hinders spiritual growth

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deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, feelings, fellowship, following Jesus, God's guidance, God's love, intellect, preaching, suffering, T.A. Sparks, teaching, true faith, Truth in Love

STOP!!! … AND RUN when you sense deceiving spirits approaching you! (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Let me begin with an analogy we all know. Imagine you see a small child that has not been fed properly by his parents. Instead, he was badly nourished and therefore grows slowly, even much slower than his peers. Maybe, his parents are extremely poor and cannot feed this child as they should. If this small child gets no help from others, sooner or later the first sicknesses will befall him and most probably, he won’t get that old, either. What is so sad to observe in the physical realm exists in the spiritual realm, too. Nonetheless, the difference is that it is easier to feed a malnourished child than a malnourished spirit being for we can see it immediately when a child is too lean, too pale, and very weak. But how can we discern a believer who has fed on the wrong spirits? Can we see the deception they have fallen prey to as well?  🙄

Love is Obedience, not Feelings

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anger, anxiety, darkness, doubts, encouragement, experience, faith, fears, feelings, God's Humor, God's love, heart, joy, love, mind, obedience, peace, self-will, thought life, true faith, worries

After the Sunset…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth, colors enhanced by Michael Clark)

Just for clarification, having chosen this particular title, I did not want to suggest that God’s love would not provide a wide range of wonderful feelings, both for our soul and body, that are intrinsic features of an abundant life in Christ (cf. Jn 10:10). Rather, my intention was to point to the fact that our walk with God is often characterized by a lack of good feelings when we find ourselves in another trial where we suffer according to His will. We might also call our walk with Him in these times a mere walk of faith. It is in these times where we learn to trust in what we cannot see (yet) and in what we cannot understand (yet).

Ha! While writing I just had an interesting experience with God I want to share with you.

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!

Only honesty before GOD will set us free

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darkness, deception, discerning the spirits, dying to self, exhortation, following Jesus, prayer, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, true faith

“And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.” (Hos 2:18-20 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I would have never imagined that seeing myself at the worst, incapable of anything which is good and able to commit EVERY sin if put in the ‘proper’ circumstances would be the entering wedge to spiritual freedom in the kingdom of God. Actually, as soon as we stop trying to appear, even if only a wee little bit better than we really are in our old and fallen nature, God comes closer and closer in order to share HIS heart and mind with us. I believe we need to first fully recognize in what kind of prison we have lived for all our life and to despair of our inability to set ourselves free in any way. We need to be so fed up with our old ways of thinking and behaving that we more and more cry out to God to give us a new heart and the mind of Christ. We must knock on heaven’s door like the persistent widow as described here.

“Should we share the gospel without knowing it… personally?”

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entering his rest, exhortation, experience, faith, following Jesus, God's love, Jesus Christ, rest, Satan, T.A. Sparks, true faith

“For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.” (Ps 31:3-4 ESV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth (Cadolzburg/Bavaria)

What a strange verbalization one might say. Yet in order to get your attention, I decided to put this question the way you can read it in the headline. So, what does it mean to know the gospel? Is it enough for us Christians to have read the Bible, most commentaries, and to know the majority of answers to theological questions? Should we, then, whenever we meet someone of whom we think they might be unsaved speak up and tell them that we already have what they don’t have (as yet)?

Wanna be a Spiritual Leader… or rather not?

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being born again, church, dark night of the soul, experience, Jesus Christ, leadership, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the spirit, the new self, the old self, true faith

Picture credits https://greglee.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/spiritual-leadership.jpg

It was certainly not my plan to write about spiritual leadership, but somehow I came across this topic on the internet and here you are. Having read some deliberations from T.A. Sparks on how God, not man (!), makes spiritual leaders, I thought I could arbitrarily excerpt some characteristics from his article and share them with you. Since God’s way is not man’s way, a spiritual leader is not necessarily a theologian who graduated from college and has been pastoring a church for many years. Most probably, you won’t find God’s man or woman tarrying with a crowd of clerics, all of them decorated with titles and honors. No, the man of God is not a prince in shining armor, just as his Lord Jesus Christ in His time on earth did not push himself to the fore. Quite the contrary. It was always the people that so often pressed around Him because they would be drawn by the Holy Spirit in Him. Let’s hear now what Sparks had to say as to what a spiritual leader who was called by God needs to go through and how he eventually sees God, himself, and his work for God.

Having the Mind of Christ

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Christlikeness, discerning the spirits, experience, eyes of the heart, God, heart, Jesus Christ, marriage, mind, new creation, old creation, relationships, Satan, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the devil, The Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, the new self, the old self, thought life, true faith

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb 10:22 KJV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

We all might have heard about the difference between the male mind that works rather ‘left-brained’ (logical, purpose-oriented, and goal-focused) and the female mind which is said to be quite ‘right-brained’ (emotional, empathic, and all-round perceptive). Since women and men are pretty different as to how their thought life and feelings proceed, a lot of misunderstandings between them are inevitable… unless they have the mind of Christ! What I mean by that is that our old and fallen nature thinks it knows it all better than the opposite sex. How many marriages and relationships fall apart because men and women have given up on trying to relate to what the other one is really saying! The bad news is that there is not much hope as long as we cling to our old nature which, whether we realize it or not, usually submits to Satan. In fact, our thought habits that spring from the self-centered old creation are filled with suspicion, doubts, fears, worries and all other negative tendencies you might think of. Just trying to watch one’s own thoughts for one or two minutes only and counting how often negativity pops up might leave you completely discouraged.

Pressed Beyond Measure Into Christ

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death, discerning the spirits, experience, fellowship, following Jesus, God, life, Michael Clark, peace, Satan, T.A. Sparks, true faith, unity

This is another joint article by Michael Clark and me. Our common spiritual experiences were the foundation of our deliberations and conclusions in this post. If you have ever tried to really follow the Lord closely, you might know that Satan does not sleep but keeps attacking you as often as possible in order to drive you only deeper into the arms of God. Of course, that was NOT the devil’s intention! Instead, he merely wanted to discourage and finally destroy you. But whenever Satan means evil against us, God always means it for our good (see Gen 50:20).

A Wilderness Voice

By Michael Clark and Susanne  Schuberth

For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence [Grk, apokrima – an answer] of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead: (2Cor 1:8-9, KJ2000)

Susanne Schuberth recently took this picture on one of her prayer walks and sent it to me (Michael) and I cropped it to fit.

I (Susanne) thought about the biblical meaning of the number four. These four arrows represent the world system that puts those under pressure who eagerly want to follow the Lord. The two people with arrows coming at them from all directions seems to portray what we have been going through for some time with many attacks…

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The Glory of God… is ours!

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A Wilderness Voice, Alexander MacLaren, freedom, glory, Jesus Christ, joy, light, Michael Clark, poem, salvation, shekinah, spiritual power, the new self, the old self, the promised land, true faith

The Dawning of a New Day or… Spiritual Springtime
(Photo by Michael Clark)

Actually, I was searching for something else on the net as I suddenly found an exposition on the glory of God by Alexander MacLaren. I could not stop reading although I can hardly relate to all these wonderful blessings he wrote about right now. Even while deeply suffering, I am still sitting here, knowing that which I read there is the truth. Dear brothers and sisters, have you ever heard someone preach or teach on the possibility of being glorified even during this life on earth? I am speaking spiritually here, of course! However, as far as I can see it, you often only find Christian writings about justification and/or sanctification. And you also hear that sanctification will not be finished unless we are in heaven after our physical death. Yet is that biblical truth too? Although the Bible speaks about the necessity to die once (Heb 9:27), we also have Jesus’ mysterious promise he confided to Martha whose brother Lazarus had died before,

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (Jn 11:25-26 ESV)