Have a Seat

[SolaDude]

Everybody has an "operational" throne....their own.....through which life is lived...The question is, who or what sits on it?? Much like trust, I do not think there is such a thing as an individual having an empty throne....and the seating is decided by who or what is "trusted" to sit on that throne....Obviously, if one trusts in him or herself to guide his or her own life, he or she will seat him or herself on that throne....if trust is placed in someone or something else, then it will be seated on that throne in place of self....Now, the struggle in a Christian's life everyday is "who am I allowing to sit on that throne"....usually it's a struggle between self and the Lord...and self wins much of the time.....but it is what it is....

In the CofC, however, the only throne recognized ISTM is the throne of God....which is fine and dandy....however what is never dealt with tragically is the occupier of our own throne, IMO...i.e., who or what we allow to rule our lives.....and furthermore, the recognition that there is a vacuum in our lives that will not allow that throne to stand empty....the human psyche just does not operate that way ISTM.....

And there is a great difference between seating the Lord (i.e., God) on that throne or just scripture itself.....because on that throne is seated what we worship, i.e., what we trust in to guide every aspect of our day to day lives.....and worship of scripture is not at all the same as worshiping God Himself.....and will always result in giving a seat to legalism on that throne.....

[KLP]

Well then you were not listening to W R Jones sermons. Particularly in his older years, he ended every sermon with a discussion of how you have to get up off of the throne in your heart to let Jesus take the seat and be Lord and King of your life. If there was a chair up on the stage he would act it out.

I was looking around for a sermon online and found a guy out at Decker Prairie (East Texas) with a sermon by this topic....W R spent a lot of time out at Decker Prairie.

[gordie91]

You know SolaDude, there was something that happened to me in the last church we were a part of that has really stuck with me during our departure and since.

I was asked to fill in for the preacher one Sunday morning so I took over his class and then the morning sermon. I decided, since I wasn't sure where he was in the class, to do my own thing and then take it further in my sermon. I had a point about the Logos and then compared what is in Hebrews 4:12 and Revelation 19:13. The imagery of the perfect sacrifice, better high priest and everything better with Christ in Hebrews and the vivid imagery presented in Revelation that explicitly identifies who The Word of God really is.

I do believe the written word has some power, not inherent power, but that if we strictly view Heb. 4:12 as the "bible" our theology tended to misplace some things and attribute characteristics that belong to and are the sole possession by the Word or Christ. There is an statement by Christ that scolds the scribes for believing they have salvation in the scriptures but if they had read would have seen Him, where true salvation really is located.

The consequence of me making these statements and observations was 1) glare from preacher's wife 2) brief scold about the value of the scriptures (of which I did not deny) 3) Several weeks worth of sermons demonstrating how wrong I was about what I had said by the preacher I had filled in for.

I think the intent is to be right and to follow the rule book. Good idea for sure, but as we have seen on this site that opens up people to form very rigid ideas that need to conform to a certain set of rules as outlined by the restoration movement and all the subsequent purveyors of pattern theology. If the bible is a blueprint, I would agree that strict adherence is needed and that every word should be parsed and followed. But, if the Gospels are a narrative and Acts a record of the response to hearing the Gospels then things begin to change and the chance for strict fundamentalism is diminished and the idolatry of scripture becomes a respect or veneration not a worship of scripture. Just a few of my thoughts

[SolaDude]

You know SolaDude, there was something that happened to me in the last church we were a part of that has really stuck with me during our departure and since.

I was asked to fill in for the preacher one Sunday morning so I took over his class and then the morning sermon. I decided, since I wasn't sure where he was in the class, to do my own thing and then take it further in my sermon. I had a point about the Logos and then compared what is in Hebrews 4:12 and Revelation 19:13. The imagery of the perfect sacrifice, better high priest and everything better with Christ in Hebrews and the vivid imagery presented in Revelation that explicitly identifies who The Word of God really is.

I do believe the written word has some power, not inherent power, but that if we strictly view Heb. 4:12 as the "bible" our theology tended to misplace some things and attribute characteristics that belong to and are the sole possession by the Word or Christ. There is an statement by Christ that scolds the scribes for believing they have salvation in the scriptures but if they had read would have seen Him, where true salvation really is located.

The consequence of me making these statements and observations was 1) glare from preacher's wife 2) brief scold about the value of the scriptures (of which I did not deny) 3) Several weeks worth of sermons demonstrating how wrong I was about what I had said by the preacher I had filled in for.

I think the intent is to be right and to follow the rule book. Good idea for sure, but as we have seen on this site that opens up people to form very rigid ideas that need to conform to a certain set of rules as outlined by the restoration movement and all the subsequent purveyors of pattern theology. If the bible is a blueprint, I would agree that strict adherence is needed and that every word should be parsed and followed. But, if the Gospels are a narrative and Acts a record of the response to hearing the Gospels then things begin to change and the chance for strict fundamentalism is diminished and the idolatry of scripture becomes a respect or veneration not a worship of scripture. Just a few of my thoughts

Right over the middle of the plate in the strike zone as far as I'm concerned Gordie....anyway I thought our pattern is Christ....you know, living like he lived....fulfilling the needs of others (everyone, to include enemies), loving others sacrificially, not out of excess...never understood the church "pattern" thing since every freaking church in the NT was dysfunctional....begging the question, which one of them would you recommend be your pattern for living life??....sorry about the glare from the preacher's wife...whew!!