http://jerusalemhill.revelife.com/755620600/finetuning-the-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit/

I am the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. To say He has led me down paths traveled by few of my fellow servants is quite an understatement. So it is inevitable that He has shown me things many of my fellow servants have not seen and may never see. While I do try to remain focused upon the task at hand, to be totally a Spirit- led man, so long as I remain bound within this body of flesh my carnal side will impress itself upon my thoughts and sometimes even in my words. And it is from this carnal side I find my mind wandering into judging my fellow servants, even as I demand my fellow servants refrain from judging me. So I’m not surprised, nor do I at all resent it when My Lord corrects me using passages of scripture. Today it was this one, from Romans 14:

4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord;[a] and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose[b] and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Thank You for correcting me once again, Lord Jesus!

"There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."

Roger Williams                                      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priesthood_of_all_believers

Notice how many Protestant Christians are constantly asking God to send "revival?"   Most of these are seeking a refreshing of the Holy Spirit among believers and not a continuation of the Reformation.  But I believe God is now already working among us to bring a fresh, reformed understanding of the Christian lifestyle, a more individual and personal immersion into the Christ's ongoing life on the earth through His Holy Spirit.  And the remaining accepted structures of leadership in the church are actually hindering Him!

"About every five hundred years the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity, whatever they may be at that time, become an intolerable carapace that must be shattered in order that renewal and new growth may occur.  When that mighty upheaval happens, history shows us,there are always at least three consistent results or corollary events:

First, a new, more vital form of Christianity does indeed emerge. 

Second, the organized expression of Christianity which up until then had been the dominant one is reconstituted into a more pure and less ossified expression of its former self... 

The third result is of equal,if not greater significance, though.  That is, every time the incrustations of an overly established Christianity have been broken open, the faith has spread -- and been spread -- dramatically into new geographic and demographic areas..."

Today in America there are many, many Christian believers who adamantly proclaim their faith when asked but who no longer attend church regularly, much less actively participate in a particular, local church.  The reasons offered for this by "the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity" are growing quite stale and unacceptable.

I believe the major reason for this trend is that too many local churches indoctrinate and enforce old traditions of New Testament religion instead of introducing and encouraging believers into ever-deeper, personal -- I mean One-on-one as an individual -- personal relationships with the living, now-at-all-times-and places, very-present Spirit of Jesus.

In my own home church, there is at least some emphasis on entering fellowship with the Holy Spirit as a group, but when and only when we are gathered together for corporate worship.

What do you find in your own local church?  Or, is this issue the one which hinders you from attending church at all?

...

The following was copied from Plain Truth Ministries Weekly E-mail Update.  

October 8, 2007.        http://www.ptm.org/Sunni/resources/resources05.htm

(Disclaimer: I wholeheartedly agree with PTM regarding the problems of legalism and misapplications of Scripture.  Therefore, I agree with most of the views expressed below and wish to share them here.

However, I also wish to point out that I do disagree with PTM regarding Biblical eschatology. --  Jerry)

Can someone who commits adultery remarry?

Q. I have a Christian friend who committed adultery and divorced her husband. She then realized, through God's changing of her heart, what she had done and tried to reconcile with her husband. She sought this reconciliation whole-heartedly and her love for her husband was renewed despite their ongoing problems problems. After counseling and trying for over a year, her husband gave up on their marriage. He said he didn't want to work on things anymore. She was completely broken. She wanted to reconcile her marriage so badly.

Since then she has met someone. They are not serious, but could be someday. The pastor of our church said that she is never free to remarry because she was the unfaithful one. He said that her only biblical options are to remain single or reconcile with her ex-husband. He also says that because her husband did not have the affair, he is free to remarry.

It seems to me that they both had roles in their current situation. The only difference between the two is the affair. Is she required to remain single if her husband is not willing to reconcile? If she does get remarried eventually, is she/her new husband sinning against the Lord? Is she forever marked by this despite God's forgiveness and grace?

A. Here, in brief, is what I (Greg Albrecht of Plain Truth Ministries) understand the Bible to say about this issue. Let's discuss this in terms of what the Bible reveals about the relationship Christians enjoy with God.

God hates divorce. He hates any sin -- lying, gluttony, envy, lust, malicious behavior of any kind, spiteful and backstabbing gossip, racism, pride, arrogance, adultery, disrespect of parents, stealing, murder -- the list is endless, isn't it? God is not in favor of any of these.

Our relationship with God is therefore estranged -- we are alienated. The only way we can be reconciled is through our Advocate, our Intermediary, our Savior -- who has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We are not capable of a) either adequately paying for our past sins, or b) guaranteeing, through some super-human efforts, that we will never sin again.

Because of the cross of Christ, God takes our debt and cancels it -- he forgives it. It's like a financial, or a legal action. He absolves us. This forgiveness is dynamic -- it is ongoing. We are not merely forgiven of every sin we have ever committed up until the specific point in time that we seek forgiveness, but we enter into a new way of relating to God. We enter into a relationship based on grace -- and this relationship includes the fact that God accepts us as we are, knowing full well that we are mortal and that we will sin again and again and again as long as we are in this flesh. In full knowledge of our imperfections and flaws, he pronounces us righteous. The New Testament calls us saints. This "title" is given to us because of Jesus -- not because of some performance that we have achieved, or will achieve in the future, on the strength of our own merits. Thus God forgives us of every sin we will ever commit -- for he knows we will continue to sin.

As Christians, our relationship with God is solely based in and on his grace -- we are in him and he is in us. We live in a perpetual state of forgiveness. God forgives us of sin, no matter what. This does not mean that God miraculously removes physical penalties we may pay -- penalties that natural law enforces or upon which human civil law may insist. A Christian may do hard time in a prison, paying his or her debt to society, but they have already been forgiven by God. At this point, many "religious" people blanch, because they cannot comprehend a forgiveness or a state of grace that powerful -- surely there must be a catch. Or, for that matter, they reason, if God offers such a ongoing forgiveness, why would we not take advantage of his grace?

At the same time, because we live a new life, we are not the same person we were. Jesus now lives his risen life in us (Galatians 2:20). We are, through the work of the Holy Spirit, growing in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18). We are becoming his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). He is molding, shaping and transforming us into the kind of person he wants us to be (2 Corinthians 4:16). And what kind of person is that? A wild, permissive, immoral individual who takes advantage of the unconditional love God offers? No, by very definition, Christians are becoming men and women who say "no to ungodliness and worldly passions" (Titus 2:12) and who are "eager to do what is good" (Titus 2:14).

Therefore, Christians live in this world as both saints and sinners, at the same time. God chooses to see us and respond to us as his very own children, his special saints, righteous and holy in his sight, not because of the works we are doing, but because of Jesus and his work on the cross. At the same time God is not blind. He realizes that we sin -- for such is the nature of this flesh. No one in this life, as a physical human being, will ever be beyond sin (1 John 1:8). When we sin, and it is always a matter of "when" not "if" -- God forgives. All sin. Not just some sin. Not just lying and speeding tickets and gossip and eating too much and being jealous and being nasty -- but big stuff too. All of it. That includes divorce. He forgives divorce.

Since God forgives divorce, how can any human being, in his name, deny remarriage? Well, some might say, if we as a church, or as a spiritual leader of some kind, say that remarriage is ok, then everyone will just get divorced and remarry. Really? What exactly is happening right now? All surveys and studies show that there is just as much divorce within those who call themselves Christians as there is outside of the faith. Man-made punitive measures "have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence" (Colossians 2:23).

The role of the body of Christ is to proclaim the sanctity of the home and marriage. The body of Christ should strive to uphold the family and each individual family unit. But the body of Christ has not been given the right to determine specific sanctions for specific sexual sins, or to parse the specific responsibility as to which partner caused a divorce and which did not (which one was unfaithful and which was faithful). This role belongs to the state, not the church. The role of determining who is lawfully divorced, and able to remarry, is a civil decision. The body of Christ may counsel, proclaim and preach a high view of marriage (and it should) -- but the body of Christ cannot play God and make determinations about who is "eligible" to remarry and who is not. That decision is God's -- and God always forgives.

Should a person be "playing games" and pretending to be a Christian, marrying and remarrying time after time, claiming God's forgiveness when God is not at all involved in his or her life, then that deception will be brought to light by God. God does not deputize Christians as witch hunting lynch mobs, bringing offenders to biblical justice, burning them at the stake (as has been done in the name of God). Such is not our role. If a person wishes to marry and remarry time after time, they don't need to pretend to be a Christian in order to do so. If they wish to do so and pretend to be a Christian, then we are not policemen and policewomen, charged with stopping such behavior.

If the body of Christ, in whatever unit or group it may assemble or be organized or disorganized, believes that some are mocking Christianity while living blatantly immoral lives, we may "withdraw" from such individuals (Romans 16:17; Matthew 18:15-17). If a congregation or small group believes an individual is bringing shame to the name of Christ, as Christians we are free, and indeed we are responsible, to be our brother's keeper -- to counsel, advise, lovingly share our concerns. We may privately advise someone we believe is about to make a big mistake -- in terms of a first, second, or third (or more) marriage. But we are not free to play God, telling those who are divorced that they are not free "in God's sight" (which usually means our own sight) to remarry. The ability and legal right to remarry is a decision made by civil courts, and their freedom in Christ is a decision that a Christian who wishes to remarry makes as they live their life in Christ, and he in them.

Having said all of that -- a brief disclaimer and proviso. Statistics demonstrate that the best chance for a happy marriage is a first marriage -- and that every marriage beyond a first marriage must deal with a variety of baggage and difficulties -- and thus is at a progressively higher and higher risk. Simply because someone is free to remarry does not mean they should. Counseling is extremely important. People contemplating "holy deadlock" after previous failures (whether or not they see themselves as being the primary at-fault party in the previous failed marriage) are wise to carefully seek counsel and advice. Patience and caution are the watchwords -- not haste.

In Christ,
Greg Albrecht

Now from Jerry: This is a good place to proclaim a truth which has been revealed to me through the Holy Spirit.  Much of the Apostle Paul's written advice to the churches he planted in the First Century is NOT God's final word regarding our contemporary circumstances.  Victorious Christian living depends primarily upon our personal conversations with the Living Christ. He is the One Who leads us into all truth, NOT the echoes of truth revealed to earlier generations and written down for our edification, not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New!

The situation highlighted in the Greg Albrecht article above demonstrates the vast disconnect between those walking in the Spirit and those still walking in the flesh, and especially those still in the flesh despite many degrees from "Bible colleges!"   And, God help me, I myself am still too much in the latter category!  Walking in the Spirit of God and avoiding walking in the flesh and/or legalism requires constant re-dedication.

My trusty 1989 Ford LTD hasn't been so trusty lately.  And I need trusty transportation especially now that winter's arrived and my mom needs to be looked after now more than before.  My brother Bill has come to my rescue and provided me with the use of a 1994 Cadillac Sedan DeVille which looks and drives like new!  You can find photos of this model online.  The one I'm driving is Pearl White with a Black Leather Top and Black Trims.  It has a remote starter and is front wheel drive to handle the snow.