Author: Daniel (---.dip.t-dialin.net)
Date: 04-26-06 13:42
> Dear Daniel,
>
> There are many forms of fasting. Some people do “juice-only”
> fasts. Some people fast only certain items. Others ingest
> nothing whatsoever, not even water, for short periods of time
> (look how long Terry Schiavo lived without even water). The
> issue is that it is a “sacrifice” — an expression of
> commitment. If you love ice cream, and you give it up for
> lent, you are expressing the seriousness of your commitment.
>
> But, I repeat, I think it is important for you regularly to
> eat nutritious food. How close is the nearest Salvation Army
> kitchen? If you eat with them, you can share both food and
> fellowship, and the Word of God. And, they always can use
> volunteers to help with serving and ministering to the people
> who come there.
Well I kinda "broke" with my ties to the Salvation Army during that recent backfall to atheism, but maybe it's a good idea to get back at them. Either way, please don't worry, my friend, I am unemployed but given the german social security system I am relatively well off financially, at least such that I can easily afford myself a cheap meal in cheap bistros, and my parents often come and fill my fridge also. What I really would like would be mature people with whom it is a pleasure to discuss scripture and such, or things about politics, or spirituality in general. I have faith that christian spirituality will always turn out better than the spirituality of other religions, even though the answers of reason haven't been spoken yet. What I mean is difficult to say, sometimes we already have the answers to the question which spirituality is better (such as knowing that our Christ is God), and sometimes we haven't. For example, Paul said we christians battle at high places, both worldly and spiritual, and yet in our modern day we still have no "map" of the spiritual places and it's like we're doing our battles in a dream. But perhaps that's how God wants it, difficult to say. As for now, I wanna go into that church nearby, I trust the people there and the pastor is a wonderfully friendly and kind man although I don't know yet if he can exorcise the evil spirits from me.
Ah, and as far as spirits go, I think I can classify them, there are unclean ones, which are neither good nor evil but merely a waste of time to encounter, like flies in the heat, and there are good spirits and evil spirits. Both are not unclean, the good spirits help and teach the favorable, the evil teach the satanic. Both teach God, I think, but the good in the christian way, the evil in the satanic way. Ya know, Christ's ascend brought a lot of trouble to the spirit world because know there is a right and wrong, a righteous and a unrighteous, and the spirits have something to loose. That's why they make their bet, some on Christ, some on Satan. Perhaps they've all been created as such, but with that we're back at the determinism/indeterminism/free will debate which you can't solve. Trouble for the mind!
> The issue concerned the old, Hebrew laws relating to food,
> and in His revelation to Peter, God did away with that. But,
> it also concerns when God cleanses people. The message
> repeatedly is that what God has redeemed, no one can call
> unclean, can condemn. Imagine how difficult it must have
> been, initially, for Christians to accept Saul of Tarsus (who
> became Apostle Paul) after he had been such a staunch
> persecutor of Christians.
Yeah, and I suspect it concerns also ourselves, as christians. For example, it is somewhat the same as knowing we have become washed, and knowing that we will make mistakes, to consider ourselves not as sin-free but as saved, and that only a precious few achieve true sainthood in the way Christ had it, not in the way he granted it. Do ya see the difficulty? There belongs so much to this Christ-like sainthood, including how to do away with dangerous ambitions, spiritually dangerous, I mean. I wanna speak the truth but I don't belong here, this is too much for these earthly places. I'm just a christian too, but I know a few things which I unfortunately have forgotten to hide. See, I hate dishonesty so much that I'd regret deleting these few lines. Dishonesty is a power crooked by the devil, it once just meant to hide evil for the sake of others. The devil made it so that people hide it for their own sake.
> You say:
> >
> > It's fun to be a little courage and tell it to anyone and
> praise
> > God loudly on the streets...
> R: Smiles... joy in the Lord.
Yes! I am often somewhat hesistant to do this stuff, but when I do it it makes for precious memories and an appeased conscience. Like when I tell anyone that Christ loves me. I learned that if I do that with an earnest appearance, no matter how much I want to smile, people will be moved, another step in the right direction!
Just like you do here, your earnesty moves, until people know and then they see kindness :).
> R: The Trinity is beyond the human mind, which to me is just
> further evidence that it is not a creation of the human
> mind. Comprehension of the Trinity is by the Spirit, not the
> mind.
Yeah, that is a beautiful sentence and I hope I can keep it in "mind". My mind sometimes gives me much trouble. In different languages it seems to be understood differently. I wish there'd be a german word for mind, and that there'd be another word for spirit. Words mean so much, reminding us to our responsibility to it.
> Recall that when Christ Jesus said that His Father was
> greater than He, Christ Jesus was in the flesh — fully man.
> He now is ascended. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One God
> in three Persons.
Yes, and it is beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. It is in some ways a simple peace of art, but then it is the greatest there is. Ya know the aspirations of the artist. Maybe ya know that catholic song, "Oh world I gotta let you go" ... christian life contains a beauty. Ya, but I may not transcend it, "oh world I gotta let you go" ...
Ya know, I'm getting a sense of God's presence, his omnipresence I mean. In my schizophrenic mind, it often comes to life, I think, and the thought of Christ and the thought of his Father conflict, not because they want, but because they're caught up in my mind. Deep peace is different. Christ offers the best in himself, how to get to heaven and all that, the greatest harmony, the rest is for the sinner, pleasure of this world and all. Right now God's spirit called me stupid indeed .. it's really strange, call me silly, but there is a transparence in God's thought that I can barely read. What am I talking about? I better forget. Schizophrenia gets the best of me at times, and then an unclean spirit comes to me to make me loose confidence and the powers of faith, so I don't move mountains I shall not move. And it succeeds and for that I am grateful. Yeah, I'm caught up in life, and God is its Lord and when he says I made a mistake, He is right, it's always so, it's a security also, it means, I can't escape God and that I only have to take care that I live such that I can stand in his presence, that I have Christ and that he knows me when my time comes and I need him to open the door to the mansion, ya know what it means. Oh man, how glad am I that Christ knows me and calls me his child. To be in his life, to be saved, to get saved, to become saved once and for all, sealed by being brought to heaven.
> R: (Rom 12:2): And do not be conformed to this world, but be
> transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
> what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
>
> (1 Cor 2:13-16): These things we also speak, not in words
> which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches,
> comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural
> man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for
> they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because
> they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual
> judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no
> one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may
> instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Ya know, I am sometimes a little frightened by christianity. To always be humble can be a bit difficult .. I'm always a little proud. True humility is different, it seems to open up the doors of life and makes everything easier. In fact, humility can often be a serious strength, but once it acknowledges that, in my at least, I again have to fight pride. I need to find shelter in the good word, thanks a lot for writing to me with such diligence to the truth of God, and for the kindness. I am humbled by your Father, and he treats me with such kindness I'll never forget, treats me like his child, a little stubborn child he has to discipline sometimes for his failures in serious commitment. I'm a schoolboy, and yer one of my schoolmasters. Please forgive me my failures of learning in the past, and the personal insults. I have difficult questions and I hid myself with them from the questions God asks, about repentence, my sin and all that, the weighty questions. Ya know, my spirit's a little foolish. Please keep praying for me now and then, it soothes my soul that you do and kinda helps me do my own prayers too. It's always a good feeling to know others pray for me.
> > It's a little weird, when I seek someone it seems they're
> > never available right now, I always gotta wait and have
> > patience.The world is crooked, but I trust the christian
> > intention, they are my brothers and sisters and when they can
> > help, they'll do.
>
> R: Keep seeking, Daniel. Keep knocking on the door.
Yeah, will do, my friend.
> R: The earth is filled with Christians, Daniel, much, much
> greater than I. There are some right close to you.
Do you say that because you know demon-deliverers and people of strong faith in Dresden? I was meaning this, ya know.
> R: (1 Cor 12:3): Therefore I make known to you that no one
> speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no
> one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
>
> The world does not know Him, Daniel; but, the redeemed do.
Yes, that is true.
Would ya still want to come to Dresden some day? I invite you, if ya just want a bunk in a small appartment, or I can help you find a suitable place for yer suitcase, though I guess you don't need luxuries. They rebuild a big church here, perhaps you heard about it, the Frauenkirche, and people say it's beautiful inside though I've never been there yet. It's been destroyed during ww2 and it's rebuild now, with help from the british, the american, all who bombed this city when it wasn't necessary. War is difficult to destroy ..
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