Posted on 05/21/2008 8:40:11 AM PDT by svcw
May 21st.
DIVINE REASONINGS OF FAITH "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33
Immediately we look at these words of Jesus, we find them the most revolutionary statement human ears ever listened to. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." We argue in exactly the opposite way, even the most spiritually-minded of us - "But I must live; I must make so much money; I must be clothed; I must be fed." The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God, but how we are to fit ourselves to live. Jesus reverses the order: Get rightly related to God first, maintain that as the great care of your life, and never put the concern of your care on the other things.
"Take no thought for your life. . . ." Our Lord points out the utter unreasonableness from His standpoint of being so anxious over the means of living. Jesus is not saying that the man who takes thought for nothing is blessed - that man is a fool. Jesus taught that a disciple has to make his relationship to God the dominating concentration of his life, and to be carefully careless about every thing else in comparison to that. Jesus is saying - "Don't make the ruling factor of your life what you shall eat and what you shall drink, but be concentrated absolutely on God." Some people are careless over what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, and they look as they have no business to look; they are careless about their earthly affairs, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the great care of the life is to put the relationship to God first, and everything else second.
It is one of the severest disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.
The “open” tag was removed because all “devotionals” are closed to debate of any kind.
Devotional threads are closed to debate of any kind.
Caucus threads are closed to any poster who is not a member of the caucus. If it says Catholic Caucus and you are not Catholic, do not post to the thread. However, if the poster of the caucus invites you, I will not boot you from the thread. The caucus article and posts must not compare beliefs or speak in behalf of a belief outside the caucus.
Ecumenic threads are closed to all anti arguments. Posters may express the beliefs they are for but not those they are against. They may also ask questions. Posters who try to tear down others beliefs or use subterfuge to accomplish the same goal are the disrupters on ecumenic threads and will be booted from the thread and/or suspended. Do not pick at scabs by mentioning prior open threads. If you need to make a point previously made on an open thread, summarize it anew.
Open threads are a town square posters may argue for or against beliefs of any kind. They may tear down other's beliefs. They may ridicule, similar to the Smoky Backroom with the exception that a poster must never make it personal. Reading minds and attributing motives are forms of making it personal. Thin-skinned posters will be booted from open threads because in the town square, they are the disrupters.
So if I do not use the term “devotional”, I could repost Oswald Chambers and invite discussion?
If you are using the same source then (a) it is a duplication and (b) it is a devotional.
But if you are using another source for Oswald Chambers' material, then yes, it can be reposted as an "open" thread.
Or perhaps, for a Devotional thread you would like to have discussion on or have Open, you could start a separate thread for discussion of the Devotional? Just a thought.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2019366/posts?page=2
Yes
You got it.
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