Christian Spiritual Growth
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| When you say good and evil are closely related, I can understand that to a point. To paraphrase very simplistically, we put ourselves in a position where we choose between what we think is going to be beneficial or not beneficial for us instead of going straight to Jesus and letting him direct us. Is that correct? |
In a broad sense, good and evil are defined differently by different cultures and over different time periods.
But to respond directly to your question, yes, when we choose from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we are choosing what we think is beneficial.
However, when we are eating from the Tree of Life—abiding—we don't have to go "straight to Jesus" because we are already there. When we have been savoring His Life moment by moment—abiding—He releases us and also provides for us. This is such an exciting place to be.
from the constancy of
His unchanging love and life
operating in us,
not from fear or anger or unbelief.
Although there can be times when God does direct us specifically, most of the time He doesn’t. In most cases, He does not answer our every question and prayer with a specific pattern to follow or with words for our exact circumstance. In fact, it's practically the opposite.
He releases us to live,
to truly live with liberty!
When His life and love begin to flow through us because we have opened the door for Him to enter in—through our response to Him through obedience—He releases us from the Law that is our tutor to lead us to Christ to the "law of liberty" (James 1:23-25) because it blesses Him to watch the decisions we make based on His life flowing through us rather than following a pattern of man.
Currently (as of 2008), I am experiencing this process with my 18-year-old daughter. She will ask me, "Mom, what should I do about such-and-such?" and I'll respond, "What do you want to do?" I am so blessed when she makes decisions that reflect Christ in her. She has tremendous freedom because the Life of Christ dwells richly in her. I trust her, and I provide for her when she needs provision.
Because she is a steadfast child, I have released her to the Lord. And now I am more her mentor than her parent. Because of this dynamic in our relationship, we now provide for each other. She helps me so much to process things, which provides insight, encouragement, exhortation, and overall blessing; and she experiences that deep relationship with me as well.
Although I don’t provide insight, encouragement, and exhortation to the Lord, He certainly does for me. We bless each other, however, because of the relationship we enjoy.
| But then the semantics of it start to mess with my thinking and processing. When you say we need to choose between good and LIFE, my thinking is that LIFE is good; and surely if we choose life, we are by default choosing something 'good.’ |
Have you done any studies in logic? If so, you may remember that the converse of a statement is not always true. For example, "all squares are rectangles" is true, but "all rectangles are squares" is not true. Here's another example: "All girls are people" is true, but "all people are girls" is not true.
In this case, "If one chooses LIFE, one has chosen what is good" is true, but "If one chooses good, one has chosen Life" is not necessarily true. Do you see the difference?
| I have also struggled to have complete understanding when you have referred to images on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Can you explain that further please, perhaps with an example to clarify it further. |
A dear, sweet friend of mine recently shared with me that her daughter wanted to post a home-made video about her trapping experiences to a Christian website. This little girl has a marvelously tender relationship with her father. They go fishing and trapping and hunting together, and they simply love being together.
But before this young girl posted to the website, she read the instructions that said something like, "Girls must be wearing dresses and post things they do indoors to manage the home..." This image barred her from sharing her precious relationship with her father.
There are so many images in the world, including within the church and the homeschooling community, that bar people from precious relationships.
| I have been reading and re-reading the Rev 22:14 scripture, which refers to the right we now have to the Tree of Life for those who have washed their robes. I just love this scripture! It reads (in the NIV) "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city." What a victorious scripture!! What an amazing picture of the completed work of Jesus! I looked at the meaning of wash their robes in the original Hebrew and Greek, and it explains it as “Those who have by faith appropriated the results of Christ's expiation (I prefer propitiation) as to be regarded by God as pure and sinless.” |
I haven't studied this Scripture in depth. What I see from what you wrote though is that the Lord is revealing the cross to you.
If you read “The Two Trees,” you will see a picture of a Christian’s journey from salvation to the cross to liberty in Christ. As we journey from receiving Christ as Savior to appropriating Christ as Lord, we will have a ”stop” at the cross where Christ mortifies the flesh.
Does that mean we won't sin anymore? Absolutely not! That's a picture of heaven! What a glorious hope!
What it does mean is that "self"/flesh is eradicated from the driver's seat of our lives, to use a metaphor, and God by His Spirit begins His work of cleansing and healing as He becomes Lord of our lives. It's through our obedience to His will, as we surrender areas of our lives that need His discipline, that we experience the cross life to which you are referring.
When Christ is Lord, we then begin to walk in liberty. Managing our freedom in Christ is daunting at first; but the sweetness of such a deep, loving, caring, mutually blessed relationship with the Savior and Lord of our lives give us hope to go on in this world.
These topics are covered in the Spiritual Growth section of this Christian website.
by His Spirit,
give you insight into these mere words
through personal revelation of
His riches for your life.
Please continue with Part 2 of this conversation.
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