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Discussion Forum : Devotional Thoughts : Pull Up a Chair: Dining With the Apostles and Prophets

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KingJimmy
Member



Joined: 2003/5/8
Posts: 4419
Charlotte, NC

 Pull Up a Chair: Dining With the Apostles and Prophets

Some of the best conversations I've had in my life have been sitting around a kitchen table, breaking bread while devouring the thoughts of another. Are you familiar with such a thing? Do you know what it is to pull up a chair and linger at a table with another for hours without end? Do you know what it is to freely pick the mind of another, asking question after question, and re-examining their answers?

I think we can all recall such experiences. Usually such conversations are with people who we truly have great respect for, and in some way look up to an admire. Why else would one linger so long? We linger because we believe the individual we are dinning with-- be it a friend, family member, or mentor-- has something truly important and insightful to say. We find their conversation a source of tremendous blessing.

How is it then, when we read the Scriptures and teach on them, that we do so in such a careless and casual way? We often skim through the "fly-over" territory of many of the Old Testament prophets and their endless series of woes and national aspirations. Likewise, with our poor brother the apostle Paul, we bumble, choke, and sputter our way through his writings, afraid to ask him to define important terms like propitiation, redemption, adoption, and impute. We nod and amen him sure enough, feigning understanding, but seldom ever grasping the essence of what he said. Instead, we search for cute little phrases that we can recite when we feel down, tempted, or want to invoke an amen from the back corner of the congregation.

But how often is it that we truly pull up a chair, and sit down with the apostles and prophets? How often is it that we linger over a verse, chapter, or book, and truly try to wrestle with and grasp just what it was they were saying? Do you try to get at what they were trying to get at? Do you attempt to wrap your mind around theirs and try to swallow, digest, and process what their message was? Do you take it home with you and try to sleep on it, only to find that you can't sleep because of the revelation you had from the message?

Brothers, let me encourage you to really linger over the Scriptures when you read them or when you preach them. It grieves me to think of all the bad teaching that is out there these days. And by bad, I don't mean teaching that is false and contrary to the Scriptures. By bad I mean teaching that merely dabbles with cute verses found in the writings of the apostles and prophets. It's bad because it's cheapening the fullness of what these men had to say, and robs others of true understanding. Pull up a chair, kick your shoes off, and rest a spell. Truly dine with these men. As the Spirit brooded over the surface of the deep when the world was created, so we should linger over the depth of these men and their teachings.


_________________
Jimmy H

 2009/4/6 23:58Profile









 Re: Pull Up a Chair: Dinning With the Apostles and Prophets

This is excellent Brother.

Thank you!

Psa 138:2 I will worship toward Thy holy temple,

and Praise Thy Name for Thy Lovingkindness and for Thy Truth:

for Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name.

 2009/4/7 0:47
KingJimmy
Member



Joined: 2003/5/8
Posts: 4419
Charlotte, NC

 Re:

I really like that verse, especially the last part, "thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name." Good stuff. Thank you for sharing.


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Jimmy H

 2009/4/7 8:54Profile









 Re:

Thinking of your message, there were more verses that I was thinking of Brother, that I find amazing as well -

Psa 56:4 In God [b]I will Praise His Word,[/b]
in God I have put my trust;
I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

Psa 56:10,11 In God will [b]I Praise His Word:[/b]
in the LORD will [b]I Praise His Word.[/b]
In God have I put my trust:
I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.


Amazing. "Dining" with Him gives courage besides, even as Corrie Ten Boom has written.


Thanks again - Good Food!

 2009/4/7 10:34
KingJimmy
Member



Joined: 2003/5/8
Posts: 4419
Charlotte, NC

 Re:

Thank you for the subtle typo correction :-)


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Jimmy H

 2009/4/7 12:52Profile









 Re:

Brother, I'm not that bright - I didn't see any typos.

I just love His Book and how post 1 spoke to my heart.

Thank you!!

 2009/4/8 11:15
KingJimmy
Member



Joined: 2003/5/8
Posts: 4419
Charlotte, NC

 Re:

Oh, ok :-) Well, you did cause me to realize I made a typo, and I thank you for it just the same.


_________________
Jimmy H

 2009/4/8 11:52Profile
wayneman
Member



Joined: 2009/1/24
Posts: 453
Michigan

 Re: Pull Up a Chair: Dining With the Apostles and Prophets

Everything in the life of the Spirit begins with the Word of God. It is the vehicle by which He reveals Himself to us and implants new life in our hearts and renews our minds. The old Brethren preacher G.H. Lang put it this way:

"It has pleased God that new life in every kingdom should grow up out of a 'seed' that in itself contains the life-principle to be developed. Therefore, as is the seed so is the life. No seed can produce any other life than is contained in it; so there must b a change of seed if a new crop is to be grown.

"In the realm of thought and morals words are seeds. A few words spoken to Eve by Satan produced in her heart a new and sinful nature, leading to such hateful growths as doubts of God's goodness and resentment against His holy commandment. A corrupt heart and a depraved life grew out of those words as surely as thistles grow from their own seeds.

"Similarly it is by man receiving into the soil of his heart some words of God that he finds a new and holy life growing up within him. In the bodily realm a physical seed is needful but in the realm of the spiritual this is not so, but an immaterial seed produces the spiritual change. 'We are begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God which liveth and abideth.' 1 Pet. 1:23; and therefore the Son said, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath etrnal life and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life.' John 5:24 'Hearing the word' is the seed falling into the ground; 'believing' what is heard is the soil receiving and nurturing the seed, that is, the heart welcoming and obeying the message of God. Not by diligence in external matters, but by humbly attending to the Word of God does His life find entrance to the heart, and there brings forth its own, that is, His own nature within us, for His words 'are spirit and are life.'

"We may not understand the process, but neither do we that of grains of wheat causing a harvest of wheat to grow in a field where that form of life was before unknown. But we can grow the wheat without comprhending the process; and equally so we can receive the divine life by welcoming God's words into our heart. To receive thm with the mind alone is for the grain to lie on the surface; to trust those words with the heart, so as to obey them, is for the grain to fall into the soil, making growth possible. Without God's Word no one is born again; by means of it myriads have received the new nature and life."


_________________
Wayne Kraus

 2009/4/8 12:19Profile





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