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To: don-o
Does God have to mail a letter to men or hit them over the head with a Fed Ex to get their attention?

No, that's not the way the word of God tells us God interacts with us. God is spirit, and He reaches men spiritually.

That's what the "plain sense" of Scripture tells us.

"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

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.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." -- Romans 8:5-11

Carnally-minded = death.

Spiritually-minded = life and peace.

700 posted on 07/19/2010 7:31:40 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
No, that's not the way the word of God tells us God interacts with us. God is spirit, and He reaches men spiritually.

Let us be clear and honest as well. This is the way that a selected part of the word of God tells God interacts with us.

The Incarnation is a mystery that seems to not get very much consideration around here. But, for me, it had a great part to play in my changing my worldview. In short, matter matters.

The Creator of the universe - the Omnipresent, Omniscient Immaterial Spirit who existed outside of time and space entered the world that He created. He entered it in reality. He wore a diaper.

Shocking. Scandalous.

He did this, not to satisfy His offended holiness over man's disobedience, but to destroy death (by death). He came to redeem ALL of His creation.

For me, when I first heard of this, the Sacraments, which I once thought to be at best, symbolic and at worst instruments of bondage and control, could be understood, or at least thought of in a different way. And the importance of the individual human being, as an image and likeness of God, took on a different aspect.

A radical spirit/matter divide is not orthodox (small O) Christianity. It IS, however a component of various pernicious heresies that troubled the church from the beginning and continue to do so.

The ancient faith has a "fullness." Heterodox beliefs discard that for the sake of one or more particulars that seem vital at the time.

All of the above are my own thoughts, as I have been taught and come to believe. I ask correction where I may have clumsily represented the ancient faith.

781 posted on 07/20/2010 4:05:02 AM PDT by don-o (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.)
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