tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.comments2021-09-30T13:23:26.603-04:00The Faith MatrixBill Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10824694324040624273noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-81059296814970985312018-11-08T06:42:43.182-05:002018-11-08T06:42:43.182-05:00Yes!Yes!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06985795577787456658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-69077240514729316532018-02-03T09:53:27.576-05:002018-02-03T09:53:27.576-05:00Ah yes, as Martin Luther should have said, the dog...Ah yes, as Martin Luther should have said, the dog relieved himself in the holy water.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15609061707695099910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-90429110572114356442017-11-30T12:39:04.916-05:002017-11-30T12:39:04.916-05:00Thanks again for your comments, Mike. Thanks again for your comments, Mike. Bill Fleminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10824694324040624273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-55972885797571436652017-11-29T10:48:45.957-05:002017-11-29T10:48:45.957-05:00The Lord shared something with me on this several ...The Lord shared something with me on this several years ago. If the church is His Bride (and I emphasis HIS) and leaders choose to do whatever they think best with His Bride, then that's pretty much the same as "man-handling" the Bride. As you said, instead of decerning what the Holy Spirit wants us to do in any given moment, we often behave as if He left His Bride here for us to do with as we think best. Thus, "man-handling" Her. <br /><br />I'm sure He'll be fine with that. You'd be fine if we man-handled your bride wouldn't you? <br />(All sarcasim intended.)Mike W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06707250212558878939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-31342218713285179062017-11-18T07:26:39.981-05:002017-11-18T07:26:39.981-05:00I really appreciate you comments on this. You and ...I really appreciate you comments on this. You and I seem to agree on what we see happening in the church. <br />As far as the impurities in the church go, I think they don't just come from the Enemy. They come from within ourselves. We all have a tendency to take our eyes off God and put it on ourselves. our own pride leads to infighting within groups, the exclusion of people with different perspectives, and a desire to control what the Spirit is doing. The Enemy plays up these weaknesses, of course.<br />My biggest concern right now, is that when we look at others, we concentrate on that they are saying or doing right. As long as we can keep our eyes on Jesus, and our relationship with Him, He forgives the parts that are wrong and emphasizes the things we do right, shaping us into more like him,<br />Speaking of elephants, I remember an old joke about them. How do you make a marble statue of an elephant. Simple--you start with a block of marble and take away everything that doesn't look like an elephant! So how to you see Jesus in the church? you start with an ugly mass or ordinary sinners, and look for the parts that look like Jesus. Gradually, as we look for Christ in the church--any church--we see Him arising in different places. One church may show His compassion, another His power, another, His joy, another his discernment, etc. As we emphasize those parts that are good, Christ's full picture emerges. The Holy Spirit does the weeding and perfecting. <br />Bill Fleminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10824694324040624273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-73030740907328032472017-11-17T14:50:21.371-05:002017-11-17T14:50:21.371-05:00Something I've noticed among christians who de...Something I've noticed among christians who desire to find something deeper is a tendancy to become a certain type of christian: A pentecostal christian, a kingdom christian, a calvinist christian, a baptist christian, a contemplative christian, a messianic christain, an evangelical christian, etc. At the end of my journey on this earth I don't want any adjective stuck in front of the name christian. Christian,as in follower of Christ, is all I can hope to achieve. In longing for something deeper we can become vulnerable to becoming a certain type of follower based on which ever group we are drawn to. <br />It seems that each group takes on some identity and forms some institutuional characteristics, that the Enemy finds a way to use our flesh and start attaching things to the movement that are not of the Holy Spirit. I look at some of the different groups out there and almost always end up finding things that are genuine leadings of the Holy Spirit and things that have become part of the movement that are not of God or that seem to go against scripture. For example, when your trying to make a snowball, you usually are trying to roll it out so that it's as pure white snow as possible. But for those of us in the south, this beautiful, pure snowball also gathers up leaves, twigs and dirt as we roll it around trying to make it larger. Since we have small accumulations of snow, debris naturally gets included into what we'd hoped to be pure.<br />This seems to be true of being drawn to becoming a certain type of christian, no matter which type. You start out in the new or old association and find stuff in it and wonder to yourself, how did this get in here? Other things sound pure and refreshing, but then there seems to be somethings that are not of God, but manmade. Eventually you experience dissolution with being a whatever type of christian you thought you wanted to be. <br />I guess this is why we are to trust in the day by day, moment by moment leading of the Holy Sprirt and scirpture so that He makes us into the "type" of christian He wants us to be.Mike W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06707250212558878939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-91729627765582240032017-11-08T15:26:49.681-05:002017-11-08T15:26:49.681-05:00Thanks for your comments, Mike. I hope you'll ...Thanks for your comments, Mike. I hope you'll also see my next one, which will come out next week. I will be saying a few words about what can be done about it. <br />I agree with your comments about sanctification as well. <br />Bill Fleminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10824694324040624273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-40469107411443254102017-11-08T14:33:03.851-05:002017-11-08T14:33:03.851-05:00For several years now I have experienced increasin...For several years now I have experienced increasing frustration with the shallowness of the american church. Fortunately, the Lord has shown me through His word the reason for this as you have stated better than I could. The condition of the american church reminds me of many retail businesses (in no way should the Bride of Christ be run like a business). They are constantly running promotions to entice new customers, not for actual growth, but to replace customers who wised up to their hipe and have fled. Then the new customers eventually wise up as well and the cycle goes on indefinetly. Why are so many of us willing to settle for lousy crumbs, when we are offered entry in the Kingdom of God and begining our experience of the eternal kind of life that He offers to us now? Several years ago it dawned on me ( with the help of he Holy Spirit) that I hadn't heard a sermon or teaching on Sanctification in well over a decade. That's an old school word for spiritual transformation that the church used to talk about, but it has fallen off the radar now. <br />Thanks for posting your "rant". I tend to agree with it as well.<br />Mike WilliamsMike W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06707250212558878939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-68432382010595425672017-10-12T17:33:01.035-04:002017-10-12T17:33:01.035-04:00Good fuel for thought!
Good fuel for thought!<br />Edna C. Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03035742218132690431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-45574737856499260742017-10-09T17:29:17.021-04:002017-10-09T17:29:17.021-04:00Enjoyed Your Blog. I still miss the old hymns we u...Enjoyed Your Blog. I still miss the old hymns we used to sing in church!<br />Edna C. Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03035742218132690431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-12431556875758687392017-08-17T14:30:10.618-04:002017-08-17T14:30:10.618-04:00Thank you so much for your comments. I appreciate ...Thank you so much for your comments. I appreciate your sensitivity to discerning the will of God, and how difficult it can be to know whether or not we have been called to a particular congregation. Down the road, I hope to be able to address that here, but you can, if you like check out my Youtube videos on the faith matrix channel. Some of them apply to what you are writing, especially the ones on discernment. <br />One book that has meant a lot to me about my feelings of the church is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's little volume Life Together. He makes the point that the church is not called together on the basis of our feelings, but for our sense of God's calling. In the church, sometimes we are called to a congregation as member to grow though disagreement and conflict. <br />my favorite image of the church is that of a rock tumbler. It's cylinder where you put rocks to be polished. When it is turned on, the rocks clash together. through this friction, they become polished into gemstones. <br />When we see our place in the church as one free from conflict, we sometimes miss out on God's polishing process. <br />Again, thank you so much for your comments. I will be praying for you as you struggle with where God wants you. <br />Bill Fleminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10824694324040624273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-54860776663538257222017-08-17T14:18:22.181-04:002017-08-17T14:18:22.181-04:00Hi Bill,
I appreciate your effort to bring some b...Hi Bill,<br /><br />I appreciate your effort to bring some balance to the understanding of emotions as they relate to our spirituality. So often I have noticed "how good" people feel after a service....and with smiles on their faces they leave the sanctuary to start another day....after an hour or so of "feeling good" in the Presence of God. Recently I attended a service and I admit I much "enjoyed" the time in which I could spend worshipping my Lord in His strong Presence. But then the service moved on fluidly into the sermon and then folks went home. And I am sure everyone "felt good". I was left with many questions as to what more would God want to say and do in a service...in a "gathering"? I was a "visitor" in that small congregation and was "appropriately" greeted upon entering but left without being acknowledged etc.....and wondered...what God do you really want from your people when we gather? I am told this pastor really has the "fire of God" on her and I have only been there once...but do wonder what that means? the other pastor of the congregation is in California doing a "revival"...seeing many saved healed and delivered.......I maybe am making a judgement without giving the congregation and pastor time......and that isn't what motivates me to attend a congregation or not....I don't know yet if I am "assigned" to that congregation. I have sensed my assignment where I have been has ended....and my "job" there was to be there, occupy the space and time and be in the place spiritually where I invite and allow God to do in that service what He wants...and trust He is doing. And I rarely ever "saw" what God was doing....but I knew I was there in part to call His plan and purpose into that time frame....and I was always blessed with that time "in Him" and so I was always blessed with the stirring of the Word when the preacher preached. But I know there is more....so keep on preaching and seeking Bill.<br />Renewed Hopehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09226386866720564247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80853083761136557.post-84415488742615359302017-06-20T08:28:00.099-04:002017-06-20T08:28:00.099-04:00Bill, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment....Bill, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. Even committed Christians are embroiled in politics, the economy, entertainment, and other worldly pursuits and have failed to follow the clear purposes of Christ. Why speak to our neighbors and family about Christ when our noses are buried in the latest iphone. God save us from ourselves.Ray Ashmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18128940908031138141noreply@blogger.com