TODAY’S SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE: Everyone knows that principles are higher than thoughts, ideas, and concepts. Principles are things such as “line upon line- precept upon precept, here a little there a little” Isaiah 28: 10. Just as God’s program for mankind was not totally installed in one instant, but was built precept upon precept throughout the Bible; the dismantling of God’s program can and has been accomplished by pulling (or changing) one precept from the building and then another. We see another principle that works for the believer: For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith Romans 1: 17.
My twenty six year graduate level exploratory of faith was certainly a lengthy and frustrating trip; it was here a little, there a little. Sometimes it resembled a backup step here, a backup a step there. Actually the process was similar to the old gold prospectors of the last century; search the pan for a little gold here, then move on to find more gold there. At my last church stop (before the new old one at United Methodist), I just concluded that I had accumulated about all the gold (basic principles) that there was to find. That’s not to say that I know it all; I do however have the key precepts and I’ve seen just about all the sights.
Of all precepts within the Kingdom of God, two stand above all others. Love (God’s kind of love) is the very basis of the entire plan of God. For His type love to work, the called and chosen must buy into His love program. Buying into His love program is called “faith”. Neither His love program or faith for it is capable of operating effectively unless the fullness of His program has been established, one upon another. Re-birth (spirit baptism) is an example of other vital precepts. The entire building is defective as it’s key precepts are altered.
Loss within any institution is most easily recognized when one or more of the unconditional precepts has been tampered with and weakened. The “integrity and character” of the original institution being weakened will never be the same thereafter. When “the love of God” in its truest state has been counterfeited, corrupted, and hijacked into being “sloppy agoppy” rather than true “agape”; much character and integrity of the gospel has eroded. It will never accomplish its purpose. Likewise, when the integrity and character of God’s concept of “faith” has been eroded to the point that a man-made institution is called “faith”; God type faith has been gutted. We hear Bill O’Reilly state that the Catholic Faith, or the this or that faith has done this or that; the concept of God faith has been gutted.
Let me quickly close this; you guys are a quick read. The love of God (agape) is a sacrificial love that requires one to defer his own interest onto the interest of others. God Himself being that primary “other”. A love of this type engulfs the entire being of the giver and is seen as a witness of that love in all he or she does. This has a simple explanation; it is called “walking in the Spirit”. None except Jesus Christ are perfect at this but that’s where the Spirit intercedes as our “conscience”. The God type faith believes and then it speaks. I could write an entire book on Biblical faith; it is so very far from the Catholic Faith, or the Baptist Faith. God faith speaks. Here is a brief Biblical example (short of being an entire book), We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak. Maybe I’ll get around to writing that book on true Bible faith from a pure heart. People with impure hearts have pulled the very stones out from the faith building just as those sloppy agoppy lovers did to the God type love.
The God-Connect - Jerry Glover 