Tradition

Tradition
T. Austin-Sparks

From the latter days of the Apostles till now, the history of Christianity is a history of prisons. This history is not of literal or material prisons, though there have been not a few of these. It is a history of prisons, which are the result of man's long established habit of bringing the Spirit into bondage.

How many times has the Spirit broken loose and moved in a new and free way only to have that way brought under man's control and crystallized into another form, creed, organization, denomination, sect, order, community, or the like! The invariable result has been that the Spirit's free movement and life has been cramped or even killed by the prison of the framework into which He has been drawn or forced.

Every time we seek to express something divine in word or form, we at once limit it. When that expression or form becomes the established and recognized formula, we have, in effect, put fetters on the Spirit. God gives a vision, and every God-given vision has unlimited potential and possibilities. But all too soon the vision is laid hold of by men who never received it by the Spirit. Then the grapes of Eschol turn to raisins in their hands. So very many of the living fruits of the heavenly country have suffered in this way and become dried, shrunken, and unctionless shadows of their early glory.

Successors, sponsors, or adherents build an earthly organization on a living movement of the Spirit, born with fire in the heart of some prophet. They imprison the vision in a tradition. A message becomes a creed; a heavenly vision becomes an earthly institution; a movement of the Spirit becomes a work, which must be kept going by the steam of human energy and maintained by man's resourcefulness.

Any real (or seeming) departure or diversion from the recognized and traditional order of creed or practice will sooner or later become heresy, to be violently suspected, repressed, and cast out. What was, at its beginning, a spiritual energy-producing living organism, expressing something that God really wanted and to which He gave birth has too often become something which the next generation has to sustain and struggle hard at to keep going. The thing has developed a self-interest, and it will go hard with anyone or anything interfering or seeming to interfere with it. The Spirit has become the prisoner of the institution or system, and as a result the people become limited spiritually.

All along the way the Spirit must be referred to and deferred to. In anything in which the Spirit may have His liberties limited, the Spirit will be a rebel. And if He is in us, He will make us to rebel against unspiritual restrictions.

Rich

Love, Freeing us to be Real

I was catching up on some blog reading the other day and came across this from Lisa over at
http://lisadelay.blogspot.com/

I liked very much what Lisa has to say in her response to Cole’s questions.

It was this in particular that spoke to me; ‘What sharing your faith (Christian apologetics) boils down to is something more than just preaching and defending the Good News. Humans are in rebellion against God in their hearts. The bible points this out in the narrative story of God's interaction with people. Many thirst for something missing --which is the missing reconciliation with God. They long for peace, but also many are in opposition to God. And some (basically) hate him. We have to know this when we talk to people who don't believe. Spiritually it boils down to submission, doing things God's way....for you and for those opposed to God. Submission is never easy-- and not very cool in a society that prizes freedom, independence, and choice. Paradoxically, it is God's authority that brings comfort, clarity, and relief.’

Believe me when I say that I know it was the unconditional love and acceptance of God the Father that we were all created for, and it is this love that is doing what NO law could ever do, but!

These are simply a few thoughts here on what I think I saw in Lisa’s words that spoke to me.I think one easily forgets that humans are in rebellion against God in their hearts, and yes we are all thirsting for that which is missing, His total loving acceptance, but there is this innate built in (because of sin) opposition towards God.
Once again I know it’s the Love of God the Father that releases me to be able to relinquish my will (submit-why is that such a bad word) in place of His, aka, doing things His way.

Yes it was by grace through faith that the miracle of the re-birthing took place, but for one to forget or not even see that within our flesh (and I know that is no longer who we are) the residual effects of sin, (and that is not just some defect, but a rebellious (birth mark stamped within us) defiance, the very spirit that permeated Lucifer-Satan that invaded all of humanity) is living a lie.
It is always truth being held in tension that brings forth the real. It will always be within the battle of the struggle and strain that we are experiencing Life, or as one person once said, ‘God doesn’t give us over coming life, but Life as we over come.’

Nothing thrills my heart more than seeing the Captain of my salvation, my elder brother Jesus Christ agonizing in the garden, and that was all about that which was a part of his flesh, that which he took upon himself in the incarnation battling over his will vs the will of his Father.
What I especially love about this royal battle was that he did not try and put on a happy God face as if having to strain-struggle was something drastically wrong with this God-man.
Read the story for yourself, He invites those (his friends) to be with him in this place of great agony.

God forbid that we as believers should ever let anyone see us sweating, straining, struggling, and why should they, there is no more resistance or rebellion in our flesh-is there??

Rich