Genesis Chapter 18

I found the following chapters to be of interest, when the Lord appears to Abraham he appears as “three men”…

1
And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
2
And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

First to note is that he appears as three men, so there is some reference to the Trinity there, but even more curious is that the Lord can appear as a person if he chooses to, such that you could have a conversation with him and not know that it wasn’t a regular human being. This also is something that happens when an angel of the Lord appears. They are often not described as an obvious angel, translucent or glowing white; my impression is that an angel would appear to one as an “unusual person” who was just suddenly in the right place at the right time..." The impression the Bible delivers is that the person who is talking to an angel of the Lord is unaware that its an angel. As above, Abrham acts as though its just three men that appeared or speaking to him as a prophet, not God himself.

Maybe the Lord or an angel of the Lord has appeared to you already. Maybe you have had a conversation with him and didn't know it.

Queen Jeanne d'Albret of Navarre (1528-1572)

"...[N]either have I undertaken, as you assert, to implant a new religion, but only to restore the ruins of the ancient faith."

I just read that just as it's mine Psalm 27 was Queen Jeanne d'Albret of Navarre's (1528-1572) favorite psalm.


Read about her. Here too.

Her Wikipedia page has been worked over by Roman Catholic internet apologists (as has just about every Protestant-related article on Wikipedia has been, they are dogged workers for their anti-Christ Pope, and they are all about the most crude propaganda as well; they enjoy most choosing the most unattractive images of Protestants they can find to accompany the smears they relate alongside them, all usually copied from old Roman Catholic sources; but those kinds of lies and propaganda never lose their value; may they have to answer for it at their judgment).

Psalm 27

Awhile back I came to realize that if there is a passage of Scripture that speaks to me in a more than usual sense, or that I've kind of adopted without realizing it, it is Psalm 27.

Psa 27:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psa 27:2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Psa 27:3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
Psa 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
Psa 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Psa 27:6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
Psa 27:7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
Psa 27:8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
Psa 27:9 Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
Psa 27:10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
Psa 27:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
Psa 27:12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
Psa 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Psa 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

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As I read I might post some bible verses that stand out to me as interesting. Last night it was this one:

Chapter 12

1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:


This stood out to me as a being a command to take up the Way. A command to Work. You have to leave your old life behind and go to the land that God will show you. Roughly speaking "to get thee out of thy country" means to leave your ordinary states, the state that you live in all the time, your level of being. "To leave thy kindred" again means to leave the ordinary cycle of states and many I's. To leave your father's house really means to leave the devil, as for fallen man that is his house. You have to be willing to let all that go, to leave it, and go to a new country.

Simon of Australia

Email exchange

It's a great title, by the way. - The Puritan

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The title is interesting, I think. I played with a few ideas but then this one just shouted out at me. It may not have occurred to me, but ...

I awoke this morning from what seemed like a dream drenched night of sleep. The usual story, I was losing the greater part before my eyes had opened. I remember this, seemingly important fragment:

I am in my living room hurriedly packing a bag to go somewhere. It isn't anywhere important, nor will I be away for any great length of time. I have my camera and lenses pretty much already filling the bag. I then grab this big hardback edition of Gail Riplinger's In Awe of Thy Word. Some friends are sat on the sofa observing all of this. They seem utterly bemused that I am trying to cram this large book into an already bulging bag. Their expressions only add emphasis to my understanding that I
will only be gone a few hours. Yet somehow, it is imperative in my mind that I have this book with me. I am even thinking it odd, like you would have the Holy Bible first - yet there is something so important to understanding the Bible in this book that I cannot be separate from it for any time at all.

Paul of England

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I think the realization, which Tyndale and those guys had, that the Bible is contained in itself is a powerful realization. Riplinger, in her brave innocence and also in her dogged researching, presents it in that book. Even if just pieces and traces, it's enough.

There is power in being concentrated. In Elizabethan times they could concentrate on a handful of powerful influences and have all they needed. - The Puritan

To walk after the Spirit 2

When I take nothing more seriously than the commands of God found in the Word of God then I walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.

It's difficult because you have to remember the commands of God in real time, and in difficult moments and events.

To ask God in prayer beforehand is a way to be able to remember the commands of God when I get into difficult moments and events. Ask and ye shall receive. ("Father in heaven I ask that you will enable me to remember your commands from your Word when I find myself, inevitably, in difficult moments and events when acting from the flesh is an easy temptation. I ask this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.")

This is real will, or, acting from God's will.

John Calvin, mystic, Riplinger, Witsius, Fourth Way, Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, Cathars, Puritan, Waldensian, Geneva, trail of blood, Paris Hilton

To walk after the Spirit

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Definition of 'to walk after the Spirit':

To be guided by the counsels and influences of the Spirit, and by the word of God. - The Free Dictionary

This is a very practical take on the biblical phrase to walk after the Spirit. Acting from the teachings and commands in the Word of God rather than from self-will and life in general.

Note: modern versions of the Bible (i.e. versions other than the Authorized King James Version) delete the second half of Romans 8:1 "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This has been done on the authority of a scholar named Griesbach. If I fear and revere man more than God I may want to follow Griesbach as well; or, I could follow God and what the Holy Spirit has given all of us to be His Word.

John Calvin's commentary on this verse: After the Spirit. Those who walk after the Spirit are not such as have wholly put off all the emotions of the flesh, so that their whole life is redolent with nothing but celestial perfection; but they are those who sedulously labor to subdue and mortify the flesh, so that the love of true religion seems to reign in them. He declares that such walk not after the flesh; for wherever the real fear of God is vigorous, it takes away from the flesh its sovereignty, though it does not abolish all its corruptions.

John Calvin of course didn't have the benefit to live in the enlightened "Age of Griesbach" and the "new and improved" modern versions of the Bible...