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Post by messengermicah on Aug 7, 2008 23:29:18 GMT -5
I have been pondering this for some time.
I believe it is possible for someone to keep the commandments of God, preach to the lost, witness, pray, read the Bible and still not be Christlike.
I believe it is possible to keep the commandments of God, preach to the lost, witness, pray, read the Bible and still fail to have a deep, intimate walk with the Lord.
I do not want just theology. I want a deeper walk with the Lord resulting in Christlikeness.
I think there is too much headiness and not enough heart.
Too much study and too little prayer.
Finney was a studied man but he was also a man of deep fervent prayer. He was broken over the lost.
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Post by John McGlone on Aug 7, 2008 23:48:42 GMT -5
That's good brother.
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Post by pete777 on Aug 8, 2008 7:36:52 GMT -5
Praise God brother, its the truth! God help us to have those deep cravings to be on our knees. If a person is not praying daily and in their mind always, they are struggling with sin, and are most likely in sin! A little neglect in prayer leads to a lot of separation of the Holy Spirit! Matthew 6:33! Seek!!! How do we do this? Pray, Pray, Pray!
Thank you brother,
Matthew
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Aug 8, 2008 13:06:06 GMT -5
AMEN!
A person's theology can be right on, but if their heart is not right, it is nothing at all. 1 Cor. 13 says that without love, basically it doesn't matter. What it all comes down to is loving God and loving each other. If we do not have hearts of love for God and hearts of love for others, our theology doesn't make an ounce of difference. It is not our theology that will change the world, it will be our love. Christ didn't say they will know we are His disciples by our theology, but by our love.
And if our theology does not result in us loving God more, or not wanting to spend more time with God, then surely our theology is not of God! Any theology that repels us from God, or does not draw us closer to God, is not a theology from God!
These are some very encouraging words:
"Take care that you keep your hearts with all diligence, and that your hearts keep pace with your intellectual improvement. If you do not make a self-application of the truth as fast as you learn it, if you do not obey it, it will ultimately blind instead of enlighten you. You must live up to your convictions, or the study of theology will greatly and fatally harden you. Therefore be careful that you grieve not, resist not, quench not the Holy Spirit. Study on your knees. Go to God with every position that is established, and pray him to write the truth in your heart; and rest not till it be adopted by you as your own, as a truth to influence you, to have dominion over you; and as these truths are developed in your intellect one after the other, and established, let it be settled that in the midst of them, and in conformity with them, you are to live and move and have your being.
"If you do this the study of theology will make you a mellow, anointed, devoted, useful man of God; if you do it not, you will become hardened and reprobate. And of all the reprobate minds in existence, they seem to be the most hardened who have studied theology and gone through the course of theology without receiving the truth into their hearts. Every truth that lodges in the head and does not take possession of the heart, is to the student 'the savor of death unto death.' As you value your own souls, therefore, as you value your influence, as you value the cause of God, let it be settled that with much prayer and the utmost honesty and effort you will make every truth of theology your own, and not only in the sense of mastering it with your intellect, but of embracing and obeying it in your heart." Charles Finney
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