Quote from Forum Archives on August 15, 2003, 8:28 pm

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

Yesterday I wrote about the marriage commitment. One person
wrote back to me with some concerns about the rigidity in which
the author claimed that there is only one allowance for divorce.
Matthew 19 used this wording, but when taken in context with
other passages, such as 1 Corinthians 7, it is clear that
unfaithfulness also plays a major role - cheating, desertion,
abuse - clear cases in which a covenant has been broken, are
permissible reasons to divorce. Both Paul and Jesus spoke
extensively about how the marriage covenant is similar to God's
covenant with us, it's not intended to be broken at all,
allowances are made, and we may be forgiven, but that's because
of our sinful nature, not the original intent of the arrangement.

Today, let's shift gears a bit and look at the signs of a new
birth - a new attitude, a change in the entire way we think and
live - a change brought about by the Spirit of God Himself.
Oswald Chambers takes a pretty hard stance himself on the subject
of being reborn in our spirit and the result that this has in
both our attitudes and our actions.

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

____________________________________________________________
Friday, August 15, 2003

Signs Of The New Birth

"Ye must be born again." John 3:7

The answer to the question "How can a man he born when he is
old?" is - When he is old enough to die - to die right out to his
"rag rights," to his virtues, to his religion, to everything, and
to receive into himself the life which never was there before.
The new life manifests itself in conscious repentance and
unconscious holiness.

"As many as received Him." (John 1:12.) Is my knowledge of
Jesus born of internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I
have learned by listening to others? Have I something in my life
that connects me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Saviour? All
spiritual history must have a personal knowledge for its bedrock.
To be born again means that I see Jesus.

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God." (John 3:3.) Do I seek for signs of the Kingdom, or do I
perceive God's rule? The new birth gives a new power of vision
whereby I begin to discern God's rule. His rule was there all the
time, but true to His nature; now that I have received His nature
I can see His rule.

"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." (1 John 3:9.)
Do I seek to stop sinning or have I stopped sinning? To be
born of God means that I have the supernatural power of God
to stop sinning. In the Bible it is never - Should a
Christian sin? The Bible puts it emphatically - A Christian
must not sin. The effective working of the new birth life in
us is that we do not commit sin, not merely that we have the
power not to sin, but that we have stopped sinning. 1 John
3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin; it means that if we
obey the life of God in us, we need not sin.

www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi

Heartlight wants to thank Oswald Chambers Publications for their
kind permission to make this available on our website.

Taken from My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. (c)
l935 by Dodd Mead & Co., renewed (c) 1963 by the Oswald Chambers
Publications Assn., Ltd., and is used by permission of Barbour
Publishing, Uhrichsville, Ohio. All rights reserved.

HEARTLIGHT? Magazine is produced by Heartlight, Inc. HEARTLIGHT
is a registered service mark of Heartlight, Inc. Copyright (c)
1996-2003. NLT? Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy
Bible, New Living Translation copyright (c) 1996. Used by
permission.

=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/

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