Church was a rather hearty soul full. Pastor at my sister's church had a lot to say about 1st Peter saying not to complain about anything but to be thankful in all circumstances. He began the sermon by citing an article stating the benefits of gratitude and the detriments of complaining. After saying all that he stated "Ok, so does this scientific research make you more prone to stop complainig and be grateful?" That threw me for a loop. It's true. I knew it was, and I almost always include that in my prayers that God would somehow make me more obedient and humble. I don't know how to make myself that way or how to be that way. Submission is something of a two way street in my mind. If I am elevated, my behavior tends to be more careless as I get excited and just start running through the store like it's all for me. Eventualy the high dies, and I realize I've been selfish and destructive.
Submission tho? I honestly don't even have the faintest idea of how to do that. If I were to go more than 5 minutes in isolation and relative silence I'd probably crap my pants. Or my teeth would start clattering and my head would explode. I just can't fathom the concept of waiting hours on end for God to give me a direction and I don't even know if God has anything specific He wants me to do. What is my calling exactly? Is it possible I'm producing much fruit relatively speaking without doing much of anything at all to my knowledge? I don't think I have nothing. But I also don't know if the phrase "without measure" really applies to The Holy Spirit's involvement in my life. A.W. Tozer addressed this in one of his books. And early in it he says the first step is you have to want it & then says if you were hoping to get a step by step instructional guide on how to be filled with The Holy Spirit, you may as well stop right here and do something else. Well, so much for that (heh). I've been reading another semi-ancient Christian guidance author by the name of D.L. Moody. I can't remember the name of it but it's about what a Christian life is supposed to look like. So far it's a rather abstract writing, IMO. I'm not very far through it. As a side note, the book was free b/c the author's been dead for more years than he was alive and no natural or manmade resources were required to make the book available in electronic fashion, except bandwidth which is hardly anything. It's not like anyone sits at their phone 24/7 reading free books on their Kindle app all day long. It's a short book too. Maybe 100 pages.
I still need to try reading that Ravi Z book BEYOND OPINION. And I finally looked up that passage "don't toss your pearls before swine". It seems obvious now that it's been explained, but I kept reading that and was like "huh?" Jesus says "do not give what is Holy to dogs" And I'm like "such as?" The Gospel is supposed to be shared. Nobody makes any mention of a secret handshake you gotta know before receiving God's word. But the advice given in the article I read made plenty of sense. He was addressing the need to make proper use of restored vision. He says not to engage in hypocrisy but to instead examine your own conduct and change out if necessary and then you'll have the ability to not only draw attn to your brother in Christ's conduct as needed but to discern WHO among you IS your brother in Christ. So it looks like my Facebook pen pal is just a lost cause. He may change his mind. He has all of the facts. He's simply chosen to disbelieve or devalue every single one of them.
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