tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984344.post2558072351962238767..comments2023-10-18T03:19:36.584-04:00Comments on outWORD by Matte Downey: praying for healingMatte Downeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13475890740790772858noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984344.post-31299065494332867902013-07-25T19:21:01.123-04:002013-07-25T19:21:01.123-04:00Well said! I couldn't agree more. In this post...Well said! I couldn't agree more. In this post you are basically challenging Kingdom Theology, although you have not fully problematized it. It's so <br />American to believe that a few mumbles moans and waves will bring <br />wholeness. In my opinion the Vineyard confuses feeling and group psychology with God's actual presence. God is. God's presence is. But that might not have anything to do with our feelings.<br /><br />It seems to me that what we are offered in Christ is not a relationship with the divine. What we are offered is a difficult path, the promise of <br />the kingdom. Our duty, our cross, is to die with Christ before the kingdom comes. Our duty is to try to incarnate the hope and love of Christ, because he can not operate in this world. This is not the path of the generous, but that of the selfless. Instead of justice it seeks sacrifice. Instead of health and wholeness, it requires the cross and self denial. Instead of governance and law it demands love and forgiveness. Instead of institutionalism it offers freedom. Instead of status <br />and riches it celebrates the lowly & poor. The Christian path is pretty much the complete inverse of the middle-class evangelical wet dream. It's the promise of God without the spoils of the Kingdom or the spoils of this world. <br /><br />I have a different answer to your "why?". The purpose of associating the presence of God with the human feelings that come from ritual prayer is dubious: the purpose is to confuse the will of the group (or group leader) with the will of God. God's will in principle is well established; His will in the specific can be almost unknowable. It is by such association that Christianity has become inverted and twisted to serve the purposes of the kingdoms of this world.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984344.post-48606141497356632282013-07-15T19:20:47.995-04:002013-07-15T19:20:47.995-04:00Me too. I cringe and whither and hesitate too.
...Me too. I cringe and whither and hesitate too. <br /><br />And I agree whole-heartedly. It's already and not yet; both/and. I don't understand it either, but I have seen His power and presence more in His comfort, transformation, redemption and beauty for ashes exchange in our suffering, than I have in miraculous physical healing. Not only there, but just more often.Shelleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12295453584404376725noreply@blogger.com