Um, dear sister, I certainly hope I am misunderstanding you here but this has me squirming. It may in part stem from hearing a similar telling of some pastor speaking to Benny Hinn a number of years ago about God being 'sad', that the Lord told him; "[i]My children are being disobedient[/i]" and how [i]he[/i] said something to the effect of "I will stay here all day and comfort You" and everybody oohed and ahhhed ... And I literally became sick to my stomach, and grieved tremendously that such an idea could be forwarded without question but readily accepted.
[i]God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?[/i] Num 23:19
This seems an entirely human idea that God needs [i]our[/i] sympathy or our comfort in this way. It is a condescending isn't it? Wouldn't this idea put us in a place above Him, that He would need to be comforted? Sympathized with? Is there any scriptural warrant for this?
You seem to be the only one to notice; Who is really establishing our thoughts?
Without this we will miss the rest.
Why do you think the voice comes from behind?
I love the way you ask these kinds of questions brother. It is almost picturesque to dwell on it, to harbor a thought, a guess, perhaps it's partially that our faith is 'out front', in front of us and the voice is behind us, driving us forward. Having our thoughts established in trust and committed ... That word stopped me short here. "Committed" seems to carry a continual sense of past, present, future, ... 'continual', 'constantly' ... 'established' being fixed, the refuge we flee to, [i]God's thought[/i].
[i]And He that sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things which please Him.[/i] Joh 8:29
[i]But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.[/i] Joh 14:26
Oh brother, this is very stirring to think on. There is something very rich in what you are asking here. I think I may be only touching on aspects of it but am very much concerned and have been for some time that this area is where we as the Lords disciples and as the Church have gone off the rails in large manner and why something like this setting has such great importance. It is in thinking, in the thought life, Chambers called it "[i]brain sweat[/i]".
It's been many years now that I pulled together something that had 'secular' sources and at the time feeling compelled to 'balance' them out with the spiritual, scriptural ... See if I can dig it up, have it tacked to the wall next to me. Actually better to post it separately.
To digress back to the Lord's "always" ... Ah, is this not the souls desire? To be well pleasing to the Lord ... again a notice stopping me short again, [i]"for"[/i], could this be part of our seasons of ... 'separation anxiety' from the Lords presence, the "for" being overlooked, a hinge word to what preceded it.
The other verse, that of the Holy Spirit bringing [i]all things to (our) remembrance[/i], again part of the established thought. In our case it is that which [i]is written[/i]. Is it not so? Even here, writing in this forum, it is the drawing on the Word that is hidden in the heart, entrenched into the fabric, seared into the marrow ... [i]established[/i]. All throughout the day, the conviction that comes, the encouragement, the re-thinking and processing, both cerebral and more profoundly spiritual, [i]deep calling unto deep[/i].
I apologize for going on here and for the many framed words in 'quotes'. Words are fascinating to me, meaning, what is meant, what is conveyed, what is [i]back of it[/i] in Tozeresque parlance. But this question, [i]Who[/i] is establishing our thoughts. Of late another constant question has been, "Is it so?" Not as accusatory, but as, is it true, is it as the Lord has said? As a prayer, "Is it so, Lord?". And that carries a weight of responsibility in what I may be holding to, "Is it so?", "Am I off here? Have I missed something? I believe I may be wrong, I need to investigate this". It is why there is such a constant outcry about presuming and assuming too much of each other, giving no place to challenge upon our assumptions. No patience to allow others to sort through things on their own. But I am also not speaking of doubts upon that which is established, just that we are under it, not the other way around.
What has had a great part of this musing is in the wonder of [i]how[/i] the disciples, the writers primarily of the New Testament but generally all of scripture as we are told;
[i]All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:[/i] 2Ti 3:16
[i] For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.[/i] 2Pe 1:21
This coupled with our Lords word that the Holy Spirit would bring all things to their remembrance ... My wonder is, during the time they were with the Lord, did they take notes? Am not much one for speculation, but the possibility seems there, Luke comes to mind. Or was it [i]all[/i] brought forth by inspiration alone, by way of the Holy Spirit bringing [i]whatsoever I have said unto you[/i]. It almost seems rather unimportant in a way to disseminate it all. From what I gather of those times, that most things were transfered by oral tradition and the interruption here would be similar to what the critics and naysayers would bring forth, the Dominic Crosson's of the world who would attempt to decide what Jesus said or didn't say, where the Apocrypha would supposedly find it's footing, all these things that greatly overlook what is taking me a long time to get to the point of ... A bit more however before that. Knowing the frailty of human beings and even the very true aspect of what is called the 'telephone game';
[i]Chinese whispers or Telephone is a game in which each successive participant secretly whispers to the next a phrase or sentence whispered to them by the preceding participant. Cumulative errors from mishearing often result in the sentence heard by the last player differing greatly and amusingly from the one uttered by the first. It is most often played by children as a party game or in the playground. It is often invoked as a metaphor for cumulative error, especially the dangerous inaccuracies of rumours.[/i]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_game]Wikipedia[/url]
The premise being that of a certain [i]must[/i], that there must be some error and that it is our duty as rational, thinking beings to be the ones to challenge [i]established thought[/i], (Gods thought, recalling; "Has the Lord indeed said?").
It is this that gets me every time. Almost every time a television program delves into the Bible or a writer that knows nothing of spiritual matters, (actually that is the very trouble), speaks or writes or crafts investigations into Bible times and Bible thoughts it is primarily surface facts, nothing to be afraid of nor not dealt with but the great overlooking of that which is [i]stated, written, ... meant[/i]. It is all disregarded, not mentioned, not even put into the considerations. Surely we know this is true;
[i]Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.[/i] 1Co 2:13,14
And even though it is in plain, open sight, that all the 'proving' ground is outside of this from their perspective, still it is rather bemusing that the Book that penetrates to the soul and marrow ... A bit of a digress here.
Here is my wonder and great incredible, unspeakable joy, the point long in coming. That for all these things, all the possibility of error, to recall that Jesus Himself wrote absolutely nothing. To consider that autobiographies in themselves could still have error, bias, slants, written by human instrumentation and the greatest yet being that;
[i]For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.[/i] 1Co 2:11
The uncanny things is, how did they manage [i][b]not to[/b][/i] botch this? The proof of inspiration is in itself. All the Lords words captured, reprinted as it were unto parchment ... where is the error? The chinks?
[i]Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?[/i] Joh 8:46
Indeed! All of the Lords character, integrity, captured and 'established', written through mere men! It is just a tremendous thing to really dwell on. Collectively the most intelligent human beings on the planet could never in a billion years come up with such a 'historical character' if they tried. It waylays every argument on it's own merits. It proves it's own validity by the force of it's own argument. And that 'it' is a [i]person[/i], Jesus, The Christ, our Lord. I am just as afraid that this might fly right over some of us as another [i]"Well, we know this already[/i]". But is it not the only apologetic needed? I just do not see how anyone who would apply a little [i]brain sweat[/i] and an ounce of concentration and an application to get to the very bottom of things could not be converted by just reading Jesus' words alone. Forgetting anything ever attributed to Him, spoken in His stead, what the Church has said or mangled primarily ... to put all that aside and decide for his or herself whether what Jesus spoke is in fact true, factual and accurate.
Why am I so amazed at all this? Look at ourselves here in this setting. The misunderstandings! And we have reams of thought to consider and wrestle with, place to make correction, adaptations, clarifications and still ... we argue and bite and ... Oh it is so wearing sometimes how slow we are to grasp just the most profound things. And I am most certainly speaking of myself. But here we have Jesus, in His Perfection without even His own hand physically writing but making use of bumbling, stumbling, errant creatures to convey His [i]thought[/i] to [i]perfection[/i]. For all the argument over translation issues and I understand the concern ... it is [i]almost[/i] in a sense impossible to mis-translate what was meant even in the 'accident's or 'on purpose' attempts that we creatures have done injustice to by 'rewriting' things into our present day vernacular. I am speaking as a whole, taken as a whole, all the things the Lord [i]said[/i]. We would have to not just replace a word here and a word there but completely displace whole sections of the Lords statements and write over them completely to dislodge the sheer [i]meaning[/i] that is contained in them.
Oh I pray this is making the sense I could hope for. It is something that I have been giving a lot of thought to and a lot of wonder over, Pastorfrin you just drew it out of me here and I apologize again for taking this in another direction. Truly, looking forward to your thoughts. There is something vast and important that I don't think we have yet tapped into.
