Always Holding My Hand Whether I Knew It Or Not
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| This splintering is like our doubt and our faith when weak. When our conscience still speaks God's thoughts, despite our desert travels, we are able to realize our Source... which is like the center still feeding our splintered thoughts. |
I was asked via social media if I had always been a follower of Christ.
That's a good question whose answer depends on one's view of things.
The question made me think of the bigger picture.
I think of how God's grace is immeasurable, yet men attempt to measure it and where its limits may be.
Our minds, in fear or doubt, may tend to limit what God has already established according to His love.
I think of how God's grace is immeasurable, yet men attempt to measure it and where its limits may be.
Our minds, in fear or doubt, may tend to limit what God has already established according to His love.
I speak of the greater perspective beyond the walls that men build in their minds and hearts regarding things they believe or understand or claim to know.
Men bicker over doctrine and creeds, but what has God built before such things began to be argued?
Men bicker over doctrine and creeds, but what has God built before such things began to be argued?
God has already explained the most important things a man needs to know before the 1st century closed.
The ancient Church received the Way in its fullness... and some men have elaborated (and have built), while other men have detracted (and caused division and suspicion).
Further revelations only reinforced what was already laid down as an immovable foundation... built on the Rock.
God speaks to our hearts in subtle ways, especially when we are at our worst.
The ancient Church received the Way in its fullness... and some men have elaborated (and have built), while other men have detracted (and caused division and suspicion).
Further revelations only reinforced what was already laid down as an immovable foundation... built on the Rock.
God speaks to our hearts in subtle ways, especially when we are at our worst.
He has already proven His spiritual reality behind the physical reality men typically focus on.
God has been teaching me to see all things more from His perspective, and less from my own.
A man's perception is limited, while what God has done is all surpassing and beyond our conceptual effort.
A man's perception is limited, while what God has done is all surpassing and beyond our conceptual effort.
Each human being has ideas they were taught since childhood.
Not all of those ideas are perfectly accurate, while some are very much Gospel perfect.
Hopefully as one grows, one comes to realize things that only God can teach their hearts.
Man has a tendency to measure and guess, while God provides an ease where we need only believe.
As to another mind understanding what has been taught to one's heart... is another story.
Man has a tendency to measure and guess, while God provides an ease where we need only believe.
As to another mind understanding what has been taught to one's heart... is another story.
Where men complicate, God has opened a door that no man or nefarious power can close.
In answering the question, I am answering through what I have learned and what God has revealed to my heart and clarified in my mind.
Since our hearts can often times deceive us, we may judge ourselves too harshly.
There may have been times, if I were to be honest with where my heart and mind have gone, that I perceived to have denied the Lord... and somehow lost Him.
I had thought to had somehow lost or forfeited His salvation.
I had a time in the desert, or a time when I thought to have left His estate... the hollow of His Hand.
I experienced a time similar to the prodigal son parable.
So in my eyes I was 'lost'... but in God's eyes, as that parable states, I was still His son.
I was 'lost' in a sense, but had His seal over my soul and His election of me somehow expired?
In my heart I didn't think I was following Christ... yet my conscience continued to remind me.
I would still 'hear' His Word speak to my conscience despite my sinful actions.
I had returned to the things of this world (back to the vomit).
However, what I now understand is a reality I didn't previously understand.
I didn't understand due to doubt-filled doctrine taught to me as true.
I was taught by a certain religious doctrine that leaving a certain church group would be akin to leaving God.
The physical church group was argued as the spiritual kingdom of God... yet His kingdom is found within and is unseen.
Is one saved by association?
This is what religious people beholden to tribalism or cult association argue, but such is not the case.
That doctrinal point I was taught was, according to God, untrue and faulty.
That notion was built on man's ideas and perceptions, but not what God had already established.
Although I 'thought' I had left God, the fact is that God never left me!
Surely His Spirit endures... although our flesh fails time and time again.
The fact is that He had long ago sealed me, although I didn't understand 'how' until recently.
I think my experience showed me how God teaches us gratitude and shows us that His love goes beyond our perceptions.
It was only 'me' who has had trouble realizing, recognizing, and returning to the state of joy in knowing He had already saved me.
I dare say some are 'saved' (sealed) without understanding how and why... and this is fine by God, since His salvation is not qualified by man's understanding of all His glorious ways.
What we are given to know is simply to follow Him in our walk.
To be faithful when doubt arises.
To recall His promises when we are besieged by doubt... or too focused on our humanity.
So the answer, as you can see, isn't always a 'yes' or ‘no'... but an answer that must proclaim what God has established.
Notice that what God has done isn't always clear to men's minds... even to the most religious.
As I understand God's grace and what He has established through His kingdom on earth, is that I was sealed long before I could even speak!
How can this be?
Infant baptism is an important reality to be studied, having been established by God through the Apostles.
When Polycarp declared “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”, that man was reflecting over the fact that God had already sealed him.
What is concluded about Polycarp when all things are considered?
From the Oxford Dictionary of Saints:
Similar to how a boy was circumcised on the 8th day under the previous covenant, under the current covenant a child is 'circumcised' when God circumcises their heart by His Spirit.
Just as a priest conducted the physical act before, so today a priest (royal priesthood) conducts the physical act of baptism.
But it is God who baptizes with His Holy Spirit.
This is why we can understand how the Eternal High Priest also circumcised hearts in the past as He continues to do into the present. (see Deuteronomy 30: 6, Jeremiah 9: 25-26, and Acts 7: 51)
This is why it says that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" is automatically sealed, because it is God who chooses and rejects regardless of man's perceptions or actions.
This is why it says that not everyone called Israel was truly Israel. (spiritual Jews - Romans 2: 28-29)
Much the same there are infants that are baptized but, sadly, only get wet, since again it is God's baptism by His Spirit, unseen by man's eyes, who calls and seals His children.
Much the same there are adults that are baptized but, sadly, only get wet.
This affirms that God is Just in electing His sheep from the goats.
It is a beautiful conclusion when we read “let it be... to fulfill all righteousness”.
Did God in the flesh need salvation? (or to be baptized as we understand baptism for salvation), since He is Savior?
Surely not... yet He was baptized to "fulfill all righteousness".
This teaches us that as men, we have a role to play... submitting to what God has established.
There may have been times, if I were to be honest with where my heart and mind have gone, that I perceived to have denied the Lord... and somehow lost Him.
I had thought to had somehow lost or forfeited His salvation.
I had a time in the desert, or a time when I thought to have left His estate... the hollow of His Hand.
I experienced a time similar to the prodigal son parable.
So in my eyes I was 'lost'... but in God's eyes, as that parable states, I was still His son.
I was 'lost' in a sense, but had His seal over my soul and His election of me somehow expired?
In my heart I didn't think I was following Christ... yet my conscience continued to remind me.
I would still 'hear' His Word speak to my conscience despite my sinful actions.
I had returned to the things of this world (back to the vomit).
However, what I now understand is a reality I didn't previously understand.
I didn't understand due to doubt-filled doctrine taught to me as true.
I was taught by a certain religious doctrine that leaving a certain church group would be akin to leaving God.
The physical church group was argued as the spiritual kingdom of God... yet His kingdom is found within and is unseen.
Is one saved by association?
This is what religious people beholden to tribalism or cult association argue, but such is not the case.
That doctrinal point I was taught was, according to God, untrue and faulty.
That notion was built on man's ideas and perceptions, but not what God had already established.
Although I 'thought' I had left God, the fact is that God never left me!
Surely His Spirit endures... although our flesh fails time and time again.
The fact is that He had long ago sealed me, although I didn't understand 'how' until recently.
I think my experience showed me how God teaches us gratitude and shows us that His love goes beyond our perceptions.
It was only 'me' who has had trouble realizing, recognizing, and returning to the state of joy in knowing He had already saved me.
I dare say some are 'saved' (sealed) without understanding how and why... and this is fine by God, since His salvation is not qualified by man's understanding of all His glorious ways.
What we are given to know is simply to follow Him in our walk.
To be faithful when doubt arises.
To recall His promises when we are besieged by doubt... or too focused on our humanity.
So the answer, as you can see, isn't always a 'yes' or ‘no'... but an answer that must proclaim what God has established.
Notice that what God has done isn't always clear to men's minds... even to the most religious.
As I understand God's grace and what He has established through His kingdom on earth, is that I was sealed long before I could even speak!
How can this be?
Infant baptism is an important reality to be studied, having been established by God through the Apostles.
When Polycarp declared “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”, that man was reflecting over the fact that God had already sealed him.
What is concluded about Polycarp when all things are considered?
From the Oxford Dictionary of Saints:
“His admitted age of 86 years as a Christian makes it certain that he was baptized in infancy or early childhood. He is a most important link between the time of the Apostles and the earliest Christian fathers.”This reflects what God had revealed via His Spirit to the Church in the 1st century through the Apostles.
Similar to how a boy was circumcised on the 8th day under the previous covenant, under the current covenant a child is 'circumcised' when God circumcises their heart by His Spirit.
Just as a priest conducted the physical act before, so today a priest (royal priesthood) conducts the physical act of baptism.
But it is God who baptizes with His Holy Spirit.
This is why we can understand how the Eternal High Priest also circumcised hearts in the past as He continues to do into the present. (see Deuteronomy 30: 6, Jeremiah 9: 25-26, and Acts 7: 51)
This is why it says that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" is automatically sealed, because it is God who chooses and rejects regardless of man's perceptions or actions.
This is why it says that not everyone called Israel was truly Israel. (spiritual Jews - Romans 2: 28-29)
Much the same there are infants that are baptized but, sadly, only get wet, since again it is God's baptism by His Spirit, unseen by man's eyes, who calls and seals His children.
Much the same there are adults that are baptized but, sadly, only get wet.
This affirms that God is Just in electing His sheep from the goats.
It is a beautiful conclusion when we read “let it be... to fulfill all righteousness”.
Did God in the flesh need salvation? (or to be baptized as we understand baptism for salvation), since He is Savior?
Surely not... yet He was baptized to "fulfill all righteousness".
This teaches us that as men, we have a role to play... submitting to what God has established.
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