The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas Step Four

The fourth step of this ladder of love is that whereby there is caused in the soul an habitual suffering because of the Beloved, yet without weariness. For, as Saint Augustine says, love makes all things that are great, grievous and burdensome to be almost naught. From this step the Bride was speaking when, desiring to attain to the last step, she said to the Spouse: ’set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love—that is, the act and work of love—is strong as death, and emulation and importunity last as long as hell. The spirit here has so much strength that it has subjected the flesh and takes as little account of it as does the tree of one of its leaves. In no way does the soul here seek its own consolation or pleasure, either in God, or in aught else, nor does it desire or seek to pray to God for favours, for it sees clearly that it has already received enough of these, and all its anxiety is set upon the manner wherein it will be able to do something that is pleasing to God and to render Him some service such as He merits and in return for what it has received from Him, although it be greatly to its cost. The soul says in its heart and spirit: Ah, my God and Lord! How many are there that go to seek in Thee their own consolation and pleasure, and desire Thee to grant them favours and gifts; but those who long to do Thee pleasure and to give Thee something at their cost, setting their own interests last, are very few. The failure, my God, is not in Thy unwillingness to grant us new favours, but in our neglect to use those that we have received in Thy service alone, in order to constrain Thee to grant them to us continually. Exceeding lofty is this step of love; for, as the soul goes ever after God with love so true, imbued with the spirit of suffering for His sake, His Majesty oftentimes and quite habitually grants it joy, and visits it sweetly and delectably in the spirit; for the boundless love of Christ, the Word, cannot suffer the afflictions of His lover without succouring him. This He affirmed through Jeremias, saying: ‘I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth and tenderness, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness. Speaking spiritually, this denotes the detachment which the soul now has interiorly from every creature, so that it rests not and nowhere finds quietness. This fourth step enkindles the soul and makes it to burn in such desire for God that it causes it to mount to the fifth, which is that which follows.

The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas Step Four

The fourth step of this ladder of love is that whereby there is caused in the soul an habitual suffering because of the Beloved, yet without weariness. For, as Saint Augustine says, love makes all things that are great, grievous and burdensome to be almost naught. From this step the Bride was speaking when, desiring to attain to the last step, she said to the Spouse: ’set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love—that is, the act and work of love—is strong as death, and emulation and importunity last as long as hell. The spirit here has so much strength that it has subjected the flesh and takes as little account of it as does the tree of one of its leaves. In no way does the soul here seek its own consolation or pleasure, either in God, or in aught else, nor does it desire or seek to pray to God for favours, for it sees clearly that it has already received enough of these, and all its anxiety is set upon the manner wherein it will be able to do something that is pleasing to God and to render Him some service such as He merits and in return for what it has received from Him, although it be greatly to its cost. The soul says in its heart and spirit: Ah, my God and Lord! How many are there that go to seek in Thee their own consolation and pleasure, and desire Thee to grant them favours and gifts; but those who long to do Thee pleasure and to give Thee something at their cost, setting their own interests last, are very few. The failure, my God, is not in Thy unwillingness to grant us new favours, but in our neglect to use those that we have received in Thy service alone, in order to constrain Thee to grant them to us continually. Exceeding lofty is this step of love; for, as the soul goes ever after God with love so true, imbued with the spirit of suffering for His sake, His Majesty oftentimes and quite habitually grants it joy, and visits it sweetly and delectably in the spirit; for the boundless love of Christ, the Word, cannot suffer the afflictions of His lover without succouring him. This He affirmed through Jeremias, saying: ‘I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth and tenderness, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness. Speaking spiritually, this denotes the detachment which the soul now has interiorly from every creature, so that it rests not and nowhere finds quietness. This fourth step enkindles the soul and makes it to burn in such desire for God that it causes it to mount to the fifth, which is that which follows.

A bit of Humor…

New Bar In Town

In a small mid western conservative town, a new bar/tavern started building a building to open up their new business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed, however right up till the week before opening, when a lightning strike hit the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the buildings demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made it’s way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hear ing and commented, “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner that believes in the power of prayer , and an entire church congregation that doesn’t!”

A bit of Humor…

New Bar In Town

In a small mid western conservative town, a new bar/tavern started building a building to open up their new business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed, however right up till the week before opening, when a lightning strike hit the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the buildings demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made it’s way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hear ing and commented, “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner that believes in the power of prayer , and an entire church congregation that doesn’t!”

Day of Fasting and Prayer for Ken Silva is Today

Please take some time today to pray for Ken Silva.

You may comment and pray there if you want, but please this is not a time of being “anti” something and have respect for Ken… but a time to spread hope and express to God that we love Ken Silva and desire God’s best for him.

Blessings,
iggy

Day of Fasting and Prayer for Ken Silva is Today

Please take some time today to pray for Ken Silva.

You may comment and pray there if you want, but please this is not a time of being “anti” something and have respect for Ken… but a time to spread hope and express to God that we love Ken Silva and desire God’s best for him.

Blessings,
iggy

MacArthurite Values… Modernity double speak

I found this one poster the first and maybe the only poster that was remotely close… Personally I see that we all still use the “tools” of modernity as well as “post-modernity” yet the values of both are not “Christian”. In fact as I learned that in the emerging church from other emerging Christians! We do not believe in “post-modernity” as THE answer.

Yet, the hypocrisy becomes clearly evident from Phil Johnson and Crew who developed these posters. These men are also apologist fro John MacArthur so this double speaking hypocrisy does not surprise me at all considering the source.

Here is a quote from Phil Johnson as he once promoted an pro Spurgeon/anti modernity stance in contrast to this poster that seemingly pokes fun at “emergents” but reveals that they are FOR MODERNITY! LOL!

“Even if I lived well into my eighties, I could probably
post Spurgeon excerpts twice a week from now until I die and still not run out of material where Spurgeon was declaring his contempt for modernism. All of it would demonstrate conclusively that the various paradigm-shifts convulsing the evangelical movement today are nothing but recycled versions of the same old errors that were being foisted on church leaders by so-called “advanced thinkers” in the Victorian era. That movement ultimately grew stronger despite the opposition of Spurgeon and others like him. Modernism finally commandeered most of the mainstream denominations, then quickly piloted them to their demise.” ~ Phil Johnson (source 2)

Here is a quote from Spurgeon against modernity:

“The school of modern thought laughs at the ridiculous positiveness of Reformers and Puritans; it is advancing in glorious liberality, and before long will publish a grand alliance between heaven and hell, or, rather, an amalgamation of the two establishments upon terms of mutual concession, allowing falsehood and truth to lie side by side, like the lion with the lamb.” ~ Spurgeon ( Source 2)

Note the source is still Phil Johnson’s now pro modernity blog?

Here is another quote against modernity from Pyromaniac’s Phil Johnson:

“It’s hard not to notice that Spurgeon was on the same side of all these issues—and he was saying exactly the same kinds of things—as those who are most troubled about the drift today. There’s little question that Spurgeon would have appreciated and sympathized with “Slice of Laodicea”; he would have been scoffed at and derided as an intolerant “TR” (“Truly Reformed”) by certain small-minded critics who apparently cannot imagine a more scathing insult; and he would have been mocked and dismissed by more “enlightened” minds who (in the name of
catholicity) reject and exclude every person who raises any biblical concern about the direction they want to go.” ~ Phil Johnson

Again, with this poster Phil seems to have flipped flopped his position like Al Gore when he began to run with Bill Clinton, to now say by this poster that:

“Modernity now is alive and is a good thing because emergents are against it.”

(*Phil never stated that other than what is implied by this poster.)

I wanted to thank CRNinfo for bringing this to my attention.

Source 1: Looks like the Spurgeon-followers finally got one right
Source 2: Pyromaniacs
Source 3: More Signs of the Times

Blessings,
iggy

MacArthurite Values… Modernity double speak

I found this one poster the first and maybe the only poster that was remotely close… Personally I see that we all still use the “tools” of modernity as well as “post-modernity” yet the values of both are not “Christian”. In fact as I learned that in the emerging church from other emerging Christians! We do not believe in “post-modernity” as THE answer.

Yet, the hypocrisy becomes clearly evident from Phil Johnson and Crew who developed these posters. These men are also apologist fro John MacArthur so this double speaking hypocrisy does not surprise me at all considering the source.

Here is a quote from Phil Johnson as he once promoted an pro Spurgeon/anti modernity stance in contrast to this poster that seemingly pokes fun at “emergents” but reveals that they are FOR MODERNITY! LOL!

“Even if I lived well into my eighties, I could probably
post Spurgeon excerpts twice a week from now until I die and still not run out of material where Spurgeon was declaring his contempt for modernism. All of it would demonstrate conclusively that the various paradigm-shifts convulsing the evangelical movement today are nothing but recycled versions of the same old errors that were being foisted on church leaders by so-called “advanced thinkers” in the Victorian era. That movement ultimately grew stronger despite the opposition of Spurgeon and others like him. Modernism finally commandeered most of the mainstream denominations, then quickly piloted them to their demise.” ~ Phil Johnson (source 2)

Here is a quote from Spurgeon against modernity:

“The school of modern thought laughs at the ridiculous positiveness of Reformers and Puritans; it is advancing in glorious liberality, and before long will publish a grand alliance between heaven and hell, or, rather, an amalgamation of the two establishments upon terms of mutual concession, allowing falsehood and truth to lie side by side, like the lion with the lamb.” ~ Spurgeon ( Source 2)

Note the source is still Phil Johnson’s now pro modernity blog?

Here is another quote against modernity from Pyromaniac’s Phil Johnson:

“It’s hard not to notice that Spurgeon was on the same side of all these issues—and he was saying exactly the same kinds of things—as those who are most troubled about the drift today. There’s little question that Spurgeon would have appreciated and sympathized with “Slice of Laodicea”; he would have been scoffed at and derided as an intolerant “TR” (“Truly Reformed”) by certain small-minded critics who apparently cannot imagine a more scathing insult; and he would have been mocked and dismissed by more “enlightened” minds who (in the name of
catholicity) reject and exclude every person who raises any biblical concern about the direction they want to go.” ~ Phil Johnson

Again, with this poster Phil seems to have flipped flopped his position like Al Gore when he began to run with Bill Clinton, to now say by this poster that:

“Modernity now is alive and is a good thing because emergents are against it.”

(*Phil never stated that other than what is implied by this poster.)

I wanted to thank CRNinfo for bringing this to my attention.

Source 1: Looks like the Spurgeon-followers finally got one right
Source 2: Pyromaniacs
Source 3: More Signs of the Times

Blessings,
iggy

The Pride of Evangelicalism: ‘Man Saves Man’ and Decisions Are The Plan: A Responose

I just read this post… The Pride of Evangelicalism: ‘Man Saves Man’ and Decisions Are The Plan

And my response is…

Huh?

When I was involved in the “seeker/purpose models… we never taught man can save man… salvation is and was and will always be of God….

Even more so I know of not one person who teaches this in the emerging conversation…

For all my years as an Evangelical Christian it has always been taught:

Ephesians 2: 8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”

This was taught in the Evangelical Church… and every church i have attended….

So, all I can say to this straw-man accusational post… is

HUH?

Be Blessed,
iggy

The Pride of Evangelicalism: ‘Man Saves Man’ and Decisions Are The Plan: A Responose

I just read this post… The Pride of Evangelicalism: ‘Man Saves Man’ and Decisions Are The Plan

And my response is…

Huh?

When I was involved in the “seeker/purpose models… we never taught man can save man… salvation is and was and will always be of God….

Even more so I know of not one person who teaches this in the emerging conversation…

For all my years as an Evangelical Christian it has always been taught:

Ephesians 2: 8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”

This was taught in the Evangelical Church… and every church i have attended….

So, all I can say to this straw-man accusational post… is

HUH?

Be Blessed,
iggy