Hi C_____,
It was good to see you and talk for the few seconds we could. What you read from Morris Venden will be a lot more of the good stuff you like from Romans 7. When I went to CUC he came and gave the fall Week of Prayer. It was full of goooooooooooooooood stuff! I mean it. I wish you could have been there. Oh, it was so full of the forgiveness and acceptance and grace of Jesus. And better than that, he opened to us the truth about Righteousness by Faith—that it is based on forgiveness and a friendship with Jesus. I believe he’s the one who coined the household word, “relationship with Jesus,” which spread around the Adventist pulpits and then went out into the evangelical churches. Unfortunately, the phrase lost its power when the others couldn’t bring to it the evidence from the scripture that Elder Venden gave it. He preached that what people call the unpardonable sin, if repented of, is forgivable too! You will see that in the little book I gave you. The time and effort spent on getting a meaningful relationship with Jesus is the entire basis of the Christian life. It’s not how much I can accomplish for Jesus. Its not how much sin I can overcome, how many souls I can get into the kingdom, how much I can get this little light of mine to shine, etc. Everything about the foundation of being a child of God has to do with getting with Him. All the other stuff will come, the overcoming, the souls saved, the shining witness for Jesus—because it will be a natural outgrowth of getting with God our Savior.
But there is some work we must do. The gospel isn’t all about being lazy and irresponsible. Starting and maintaining a relationship with Jesus is like (please excuse the taboo example) the love-making two spouses do in bed. If one just lays there and expects the other one to do all the work, it won’t last long. Jesus expect us to do a lot of work, but its in the area of getting to know Him through studying about Him in His word, through talking to Him and unburdening ourselves on Him, and though helping others know how good He really is.
D____ believes that God has been good to him, but that Jesus has been a tyrant. I get the privilege of learning what has been upsetting him, pleading with the Lord to help D____ see Him differently, and sharing with D____ what I’ve learned about Jesus. And I am finding that almost everyone I meet has some hang-up about Jesus. But this shouldn’t surprise us. The devil has been working overtime to obscure the preciousness of Jesus, who was the greatest revelation of the God of love, ever. Elder Venden calls our part the “3 tangibles.” You will read about that in the book.
As far as the pastor goes, you don’t need to rush it to update him. Just go on living out what Jesus puts into you, and sooner or later the pastor will know it.
The more the glory of Jesus’ love brightens the dark corners of your mind and soothes your soul with His grace and peace, the more and more silent those voices will get until they will disappear. Satan doesn’t own us outright. He only does temporarily by default of our choice when we don’t choose our rightful owner, our Creator. But Satan uses such force in his bold methods that he makes us think he is the rightful owner and that it’s useless to seek outside assistance. What does the Lord have to say about Satan’s braggadocio? “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” (Is. 49:24,25). Pretty soon, all of Satan’s imps (including all his impish humanistic psychologists) will be running from you because the Holy Spirit will have your mind and heart and will. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” (Rom. 16:20). As you see more and more clearly the grace of our Lord Jesus.
See you sister.
David
It was good to see you and talk for the few seconds we could. What you read from Morris Venden will be a lot more of the good stuff you like from Romans 7. When I went to CUC he came and gave the fall Week of Prayer. It was full of goooooooooooooooood stuff! I mean it. I wish you could have been there. Oh, it was so full of the forgiveness and acceptance and grace of Jesus. And better than that, he opened to us the truth about Righteousness by Faith—that it is based on forgiveness and a friendship with Jesus. I believe he’s the one who coined the household word, “relationship with Jesus,” which spread around the Adventist pulpits and then went out into the evangelical churches. Unfortunately, the phrase lost its power when the others couldn’t bring to it the evidence from the scripture that Elder Venden gave it. He preached that what people call the unpardonable sin, if repented of, is forgivable too! You will see that in the little book I gave you. The time and effort spent on getting a meaningful relationship with Jesus is the entire basis of the Christian life. It’s not how much I can accomplish for Jesus. Its not how much sin I can overcome, how many souls I can get into the kingdom, how much I can get this little light of mine to shine, etc. Everything about the foundation of being a child of God has to do with getting with Him. All the other stuff will come, the overcoming, the souls saved, the shining witness for Jesus—because it will be a natural outgrowth of getting with God our Savior.
But there is some work we must do. The gospel isn’t all about being lazy and irresponsible. Starting and maintaining a relationship with Jesus is like (please excuse the taboo example) the love-making two spouses do in bed. If one just lays there and expects the other one to do all the work, it won’t last long. Jesus expect us to do a lot of work, but its in the area of getting to know Him through studying about Him in His word, through talking to Him and unburdening ourselves on Him, and though helping others know how good He really is.
D____ believes that God has been good to him, but that Jesus has been a tyrant. I get the privilege of learning what has been upsetting him, pleading with the Lord to help D____ see Him differently, and sharing with D____ what I’ve learned about Jesus. And I am finding that almost everyone I meet has some hang-up about Jesus. But this shouldn’t surprise us. The devil has been working overtime to obscure the preciousness of Jesus, who was the greatest revelation of the God of love, ever. Elder Venden calls our part the “3 tangibles.” You will read about that in the book.
As far as the pastor goes, you don’t need to rush it to update him. Just go on living out what Jesus puts into you, and sooner or later the pastor will know it.
The more the glory of Jesus’ love brightens the dark corners of your mind and soothes your soul with His grace and peace, the more and more silent those voices will get until they will disappear. Satan doesn’t own us outright. He only does temporarily by default of our choice when we don’t choose our rightful owner, our Creator. But Satan uses such force in his bold methods that he makes us think he is the rightful owner and that it’s useless to seek outside assistance. What does the Lord have to say about Satan’s braggadocio? “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” (Is. 49:24,25). Pretty soon, all of Satan’s imps (including all his impish humanistic psychologists) will be running from you because the Holy Spirit will have your mind and heart and will. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” (Rom. 16:20). As you see more and more clearly the grace of our Lord Jesus.
See you sister.
David
posted by David | 5:43 AM
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