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To: Dr. Eckleburg; betty boop; grey_whiskers
Thank you so very much for sharing your testimony and insights, dear sister in Christ!

And how do men show their love to God? By obeying Him and worshiping Him in truth and love.

If that is done, everything else falls into place.

But if we worship something other than the Triune God and swear allegiance to part of the creation instead of the only Creator, we can never be right with God because that skewed trajectory is only taking us ever farther from Him.

So very true. There is only One Great Commandment and that is to love God surpassingly above all else (Matt 22:37-38).

Seems to me that some of my brothers and sisters in Christ are most spiritually aware when they are by themselves, some on a mountain or lakeshore, others when they are holding a newborn child, others when they are participating in worship in a grand Cathedral and so on. And I thank God for all of these opportunities.

Likewise God has given us His words which are nourishment to our souls. And He has also given us things to 'act out' - e.g. celebrating the Lord's Supper, washing each others' feet - bringing Spiritual truth to the foreground and committing our whole person to it. And He has gifted some for evangelizing, teaching, helping, nurturing, encouraging, etc.

And most importantly He has given of Himself to each and every one of us:

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. – Romans 8:9

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. - I John 2:27

So the Christian who needs only the Scriptures and a little quiet time will have what that he needs. And the Christian who needs the teacher and the grand Cathedral will have what he needs. And even the huddled Christians worshiping in small groups in secret in a Communist country with not a scrap of Scripture among them will have what they need.

For if they keep that one and only Great Commandment and the distant second to love their neighbor as themselves - then they needn't "sweat the details."

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. – Matthew 22:37-40

To God be the glory!

218 posted on 07/14/2009 9:54:43 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Alamo-Girl; Dr. Eckleburg; grey_whiskers
So the Christian who needs only the Scriptures and a little quiet time will have what that he needs. And the Christian who needs the teacher and the grand Cathedral will have what he needs. And even the huddled Christians worshiping in small groups in secret in a Communist country with not a scrap of Scripture among them will have what they need.

Oh so beautifully said, dearest sister in Christ!

And this from Dr. Eckleburg bears repeating:

And how do men show their love to God? By obeying Him and worshiping Him in truth and love.

If that is done, everything else falls into place.

But if we worship something other than the Triune God and swear allegiance to part of the creation instead of the only Creator, we can never be right with God because that skewed trajectory is only taking us ever farther from Him.

I'd further add: Absent God, we cannot even be right with ourselves. As Benedict says, "Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is."

Thank you so very much, dearest sisters in Christ!

230 posted on 07/15/2009 9:18:39 AM PDT by betty boop (Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. —Pope Benedict XVI)
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