Spirituality

[Phil]

As a former member of the hardline coC (for my first 35 years) I was spiritually stagnant and always longed for something beyond what the coC had to offer. So I embarked on a long journey to learn what existed beyond the walls of the coC religion. What I found was astounding, and as I studied all aspects of the Human spirit and inner consciousness I realized that the coC had no idea what inner NT Christianity had to offer. Everything they taught was about outer behavior and external legalistic practices and had nothing to do with addressing the inner qualities of the Human spirit.

If anyone is interested in exploring the deeper inner aspects of NT Christianity I would love to enter into a dialogue with you.

[B.H.]

Could you go into more detail about what you mean about "deeper inner aspects of Christianity"?


Someone on the old board said the CoC is like a college professor who just goes over the syllabus everyday in class.

[ena]

I was spiritually stagnant and always longed for something beyond what the coC had to offer.

Good luck finding the right mentor. I am still searching too. I feel like a Spiritual cripple. There is something beyond but I cannot tell you what it is simply. You do have your work to do shucking the BS. The CoC is full of the doctrines of men. Many things are not God's. The way you tell is ask yourself is this loving towards others. An example is: "We are all in a basket headed to heaven while everyone is headed to Hell." Does that care about others? Has God limited himself that much? Don't presume very much. Many things will fail the test. Most of all do test! The problem is that many people look for the fantastic. God does not have the need to show off. Don't ignore the simple things. It can be as simple as the person that crosses your path. I don't know much but have people around me that do. Don't sell everyone short. Expect a mixed bag.

[Phil]

B.H. Often times the truth can be subtle and a bit hard to describe in words. The NT principle that life can be found in death, and that we are made strong through weakness, and that the first will be last and the last will be first are all very difficult to comprehend by the logical thinking mind. Yet these are spiritual truths that require us to surrender something to experience gain. Most of what the coC teaches is that we must become pro-active in our pursuit of righteousness and salvation. Yet the NT teaches otherwise...and they (coC) don't see this. Never were we asked to allow the Truth to work in us. Instead we were taught to use our intellect minds to figure this stuff out, as if the flesh is capable of understanding spiritual truth. In their system the ones who would be saved are those who are intellectually competent and self disciplined. In the coC, the smarter you are the better chance you have of figuring out the meaning of the words of scripture. And the more self-disciplined you are the better chance you have of achieving salvation. True or false? ...Yet the Bible teaches that those who are poor in spirit are the ones to which he is pleased. The smart and the self-disciplined are not poor in spirit, so God is not looking for these types. They are full of themselves and proud of their abilities, as if God cares about our fleshly capabilities.

The Spiritual path is one of surrender, in which we are made strong through the process of allowing God to work in us when we realize just how weak we really are. When we die to self then God has a chance with us a we have made room for Him to give us what we can't give ourselves.

The coC is opposed to anything Spiritual because they are empowered by their own competency to intellectually figure out the truth through their ego-centered pursuits.

There is another way. Yet it's very subtle and missed by those who see themselves as competent and worthy.

[margin overa]

Someone on the old board said the CoC is like a college professor who just goes over the syllabus everyday in class.

I hadn't read that one - funny!

[fieldsofdreams]

The Spiritual path is one of surrender, in which we are made strong through the process of allowing God to work in us when we realize just how weak we really are. When we die to self then God has a chance with us a we have made room for Him to give us what we can't give ourselves.

The coC is opposed to anything Spiritual because they are empowered by their own competency to intellectually figure out the truth through their ego-centered pursuits.

I would replace "Spiritual" with "actual Christian," and then find this statement absolutely dead on, give or take a couple words. Christianity has never been about what we do but what God does.