Sometimes, the deliverance we need is from ourselves

[JohnC]

Going through the book of Judges....
Compare Samson - Ch. 13-16 vs the rest of the book previous...

Tim Keller's commentary on Judges brought out a point that I had never picked up on before....

In all of the prior Judges - Israel had cried out to The Lord for deliverance... THEN - God sends a deliverer...
In Samson on the other hand - God sends the deliverer when Israel has not cried out... In fact - if you look, the next recorded "Crying out" for deliverance is over 120 years later in 1st Samuel 7...

Israel had become so comfortable that they were no longer crying out for deliverance - they were simply content to assimilate....

Then - you read about Samson... All the seemingly random, destructive acts that don't accomplish anything.....

But - what did Samson really achieve? He drove a wedge between Israel and the Phillistines... He started to make it impossible for Israel to just meld into the Phillistine culture... Started to foster a hatred of Israel by the Phillistines.. Force a separation... Force the Phillistines to take a heavy hand toward them... To "Vomit out" Israel from their own culture...

What happens when we are no longer crying out to God for deliverance from the evil, sin, and abuse of the world - but start cozying up... We become "Numb" to the sin, evil, and pain... We are perfectly happy to go along for the ride and eventually to facilitate all the evil the world has to offer...

Don't be surprised that we see wedges driven between us and the world... Separating us so that we can't so easily be "Of the world".... So it's not so comfortable to be an integral part of the world at large... Where the world starts lashing out against us - even though we protest against it....

This sort of "Deliverance" doesn't feel like deliverance... because WE don't really want "deliverance" - we are too comfortable...

"Do not love the world or the things it offers you for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you" 1st John 2:14 (NLT)

Thanks

 

[Fish Catcher Jim]

Going through the book of Judges....
Compare Samson - Ch. 13-16 vs the rest of the book previous...

Tim Keller's commentary on Judges brought out a point that I had never picked up on before....

In all of the prior Judges - Israel had cried out to The Lord for deliverance... THEN - God sends a deliverer...
In Samson on the other hand - God sends the deliverer when Israel has not cried out... In fact - if you look, the next recorded "Crying out" for deliverance is over 120 years later in 1st Samuel 7...

Israel had become so comfortable that they were no longer crying out for deliverance - they were simply content to assimilate....

Then - you read about Samson... All the seemingly random, destructive acts that don't accomplish anything.....

But - what did Samson really achieve? He drove a wedge between Israel and the Phillistines... He started to make it impossible for Israel to just meld into the Phillistine culture... Started to foster a hatred of Israel by the Phillistines.. Force a separation... Force the Phillistines to take a heavy hand toward them... To "Vomit out" Israel from their own culture...

What happens when we are no longer crying out to God for deliverance from the evil, sin, and abuse of the world - but start cozying up... We become "Numb" to the sin, evil, and pain... We are perfectly happy to go along for the ride and eventually to facilitate all the evil the world has to offer...

Don't be surprised that we see wedges driven between us and the world... Separating us so that we can't so easily be "Of the world".... So it's not so comfortable to be an integral part of the world at large... Where the world starts lashing out against us - even though we protest against it....

This sort of "Deliverance" doesn't feel like deliverance... because WE don't really want "deliverance" - we are too comfortable...

"Do not love the world or the things it offers you for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you" 1st John 2:14 (NLT)

Thanks

Do not love the world or the things it offers you for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you" 1st John 2:14 (NLT)

This scripture is teaching us to NOT love the things of this world.....God gives us all things richly to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6:17....God did not say we could not like them or enjoy them but DO NOT LOVE THEM....WHY ? Because GOD IS LOVE......We love God and His written word and His ways and People.........This is where Love needs to stop...I love cokes is a poor or sloppy use of the word Love, when God is Love.

Now then do not have the Love of the Father in you does NOT mean God does not love you or you do not love God BUT what it means is that you DO NOT TRULY KNOW TYHE LOVE OF GOD...Another words you do not have a real clue to HOW MUCH GOD LOVES YOU...

We do not need deliverence from the world or worldly things. We must seperate our selves by the renewing of our minds with His written word. God tells us to come out of this world or separate our selves from it and do not touch their filthy things..........God is referring to the Babylonian system or the worlds system of doing things. This is what the babylonian system is....people trying to meet their own needs with out God.

Of course all of the sinful ways are included in this system as well. We can how ever enjoy things of this world, just NOT sin...If we are smart that is. lol
Blessings
Jim

 

[Juk]

Do not love the world or the things it offers you for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you" 1st John 2:14 (NLT)

This scripture is teaching us to NOT love the things of this world.....God gives us all things richly to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6:17....God did not say we could not like them or enjoy them but DO NOT LOVE THEM....WHY ? Because GOD IS LOVE......We love God and His written word and His ways and People.........This is where Love needs to stop...I love cokes is a poor or sloppy use of the word Love, when God is Love.

Now then do not have the Love of the Father in you does NOT mean God does not love you or you do not love God BUT what it means is that you DO NOT TRULY KNOW TYHE LOVE OF GOD...Another words you do not have a real clue to HOW MUCH GOD LOVES YOU...

We do not need deliverence from the world or worldly things. We must seperate our selves by the renewing of our minds with His written word. God tells us to come out of this world or separate our selves from it and do not touch their filthy things..........God is referring to the Babylonian system or the worlds system of doing things. This is what the babylonian system is....people trying to meet their own needs with out God.

Of course all of the sinful ways are included in this system as well. We can how ever enjoy things of this world, just NOT sin...If we are smart that is. lol
Blessings
Jim

Great post m8

 

[Juk]

Going through the book of Judges....
Compare Samson - Ch. 13-16 vs the rest of the book previous...

Tim Keller's commentary on Judges brought out a point that I had never picked up on before....

In all of the prior Judges - Israel had cried out to The Lord for deliverance... THEN - God sends a deliverer...
In Samson on the other hand - God sends the deliverer when Israel has not cried out... In fact - if you look, the next recorded "Crying out" for deliverance is over 120 years later in 1st Samuel 7...

Israel had become so comfortable that they were no longer crying out for deliverance - they were simply content to assimilate....

Then - you read about Samson... All the seemingly random, destructive acts that don't accomplish anything.....

But - what did Samson really achieve? He drove a wedge between Israel and the Phillistines... He started to make it impossible for Israel to just meld into the Phillistine culture... Started to foster a hatred of Israel by the Phillistines.. Force a separation... Force the Phillistines to take a heavy hand toward them... To "Vomit out" Israel from their own culture...

What happens when we are no longer crying out to God for deliverance from the evil, sin, and abuse of the world - but start cozying up... We become "Numb" to the sin, evil, and pain... We are perfectly happy to go along for the ride and eventually to facilitate all the evil the world has to offer...

Don't be surprised that we see wedges driven between us and the world... Separating us so that we can't so easily be "Of the world".... So it's not so comfortable to be an integral part of the world at large... Where the world starts lashing out against us - even though we protest against it....

This sort of "Deliverance" doesn't feel like deliverance... because WE don't really want "deliverance" - we are too comfortable...

"Do not love the world or the things it offers you for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you" 1st John 2:14 (NLT)

Thanks

Gr8 post m8.

 

[JohnC]

For those of us in the USA.... Look at the events going on in the USA... The continuing erosion of secular/civil values... The continuing ejection of everything related to Our God out of the culture.....

See - I think "Christians" in the USA allowed ourselves to get far too comfortable *Within* society.... We saw the secular society as "Our culture" - and we feel like we have to stretch out to try to fix it.... If only we could get society to do X - that would help push it back in the right direction.. A direction we are more comfortable with.... and you pick the X.... Perhaps it's reduce divorce.. Maybe bring prayer back into schools, separate our boys and girls into different schools, fix civil rights, promote Justice and equality, remove discrimination, eliminate/restrict abortion, hang up the 10 commandments in public places, reduce teen pregnancy, or maybe even "Fix" marriage.....

But - that's not the root of the problem... The root of the problem is that it's a secular society, Not a Christian society - and I truly believe that God wants the "Secular world" to see a difference between Christians/Jews and the secular society... For a long time - "Christians" didn't really stand out in American society as anything different - because secular society had adopted so many "Biblical values" - Ethics, disallowing divorce and abortion, value of the Family, trying to live by the 10 commandments and "The golden rule", etc... Since the 1960's - this has been changing... "Secular society" has been rejecting our "Biblical values" - much to our chagrin... We are trying to fix the secular society back up, trying to "Shore up the gaps" - and for the most part, we are losing the battle for our secular society...

What I am getting at is that this is God's plan... That this is intentional on God's part... God doesn't want to create a perfect Secular society where everything is right without Him (He is not simply a Divine Watchmaker - winding up the universe then walking away)... God wants to show the unbelieving Secular world that HIS ways are the best - and that you can't get "His ways" without Him.... This is where we need to be delivered from ourselves - that we aren't here to "Fix" the broken secular world that has no interest in God, but rather to SHOW the secular world what God brings to the table...

Thanks

 

[JohnC]

It seems like more and more - the entire universe is just going mad..... I suppose I could be feeling it more acutely... I don't know....

and more and more - I see "The World" picking up on every stupid idea and "Flavor of the Month" possible as a way to "Fill the gaps" - to create a feeling of Fulfillment, Wholeness, Love, Community, and usefulness.... But there isn't any to be found in "The ways of The World"...

The more we double down on Lust, Envy, Fear, Hate, Revelry, Substance abuse, Greed - the more emptiness is fostered in the world - and yet - that's what they are doing.... and so they try to "Combat" this emptiness, fear, hate, lust, etc by Doubling down on it AGAIN!

For example... Gay marriage is a perfect example of this... Convince yourself that you can become fulfilled and combat the emptiness inside by getting Married... If only I could marry my partner - I would feel Fulfilled, Whole, and Content.... Gosh - it works SO well for Straight couples that once a couple gets married - all their problems go away.... So - Obviously - it should fix all the ills of Gay people as well? Right? NO - it's going to open up a whole NEW can of problems that haven't really existed before in the gay community..... It's going to bring MORE brokenness, emptiness, frustration, anger, and fear - not less....

How about Femimism? Gosh - 50 years later and the women in America feel so much more whole and fulfilled since we have taken the jobs away from the Men and give them to the women.... Let's double down and put our women into combat because - then, they will be "Equal" and everything in the world will be BETTER..... Yes - that will fill the void... Make women feel Better about themselves, make them feel content, joyful, and fulfilled....

How about grinding away to drive higher and higher for better and better jobs... Sure - our men will feel so much more happy when they devote 20 hours a day to work... Jump from job to job because the Company has no loyalty to employees.... Let's take men completely out of the family so they wholeheartedly pursue power, status, and money - because that's what will make them feel WHOLE, content, joyful, and fulfilled? Right?

I can go on and on and on......

The root of the whole problem is that THE ONLY ONE who can bring fulfillment, Joy, peace, love, longsuffering, perseverence is Jesus... You won't find contentment in a bottle... You won't find it in somebody else's bed, by getting married, by numbing yourself to the world, through gaining power, destroying "bad people", or building hospitals..... There is only ONE who can fill the emptiness - and that is Jesus.

*Sigh*

 

[Juk]

It seems like more and more - the entire universe is just going mad..... I suppose I could be feeling it more acutely... I don't know....

and more and more - I see "The World" picking up on every stupid idea and "Flavor of the Month" possible as a way to "Fill the gaps" - to create a feeling of Fulfillment, Wholeness, Love, Community, and usefulness.... But there isn't any to be found in "The ways of The World"...

The more we double down on Lust, Envy, Fear, Hate, Revelry, Substance abuse, Greed - the more emptiness is fostered in the world - and yet - that's what they are doing.... and so they try to "Combat" this emptiness, fear, hate, lust, etc by Doubling down on it AGAIN!

For example... Gay marriage is a perfect example of this... Convince yourself that you can become fulfilled and combat the emptiness inside by getting Married... If only I could marry my partner - I would feel Fulfilled, Whole, and Content.... Gosh - it works SO well for Straight couples that once a couple gets married - all their problems go away.... So - Obviously - it should fix all the ills of Gay people as well? Right? NO - it's going to open up a whole NEW can of problems that haven't really existed before in the gay community..... It's going to bring MORE brokenness, emptiness, frustration, anger, and fear - not less....

How about Femimism? Gosh - 50 years later and the women in America feel so much more whole and fulfilled since we have taken the jobs away from the Men and give them to the women.... Let's double down and put our women into combat because - then, they will be "Equal" and everything in the world will be BETTER..... Yes - that will fill the void... Make women feel Better about themselves, make them feel content, joyful, and fulfilled....

How about grinding away to drive higher and higher for better and better jobs... Sure - our men will feel so much more happy when they devote 20 hours a day to work... Jump from job to job because the Company has no loyalty to employees.... Let's take men completely out of the family so they wholeheartedly pursue power, status, and money - because that's what will make them feel WHOLE, content, joyful, and fulfilled? Right?

I can go on and on and on......

The root of the whole problem is that THE ONLY ONE who can bring fulfillment, Joy, peace, love, longsuffering, perseverence is Jesus... You won't find contentment in a bottle... You won't find it in somebody else's bed, by getting married, by numbing yourself to the world, through gaining power, destroying "bad people", or building hospitals..... There is only ONE who can fill the emptiness - and that is Jesus.

*Sigh*

I agree wholeheartedly (if I even know what that means).