9/11: Application of the Spiritual Life in Time of Disaster
Why is this attack of terrorism happening to the United States
of America? Because believers in this country have failed! We have not put first
things first! The Lord wants to get our attention, to remind us of the
importance of the spiritual life! Will we fall apart paralyzed by fear, or will
we utilize Bible doctrine and share the happiness of God—"the peace of
God which surpasses all comprehension"?
When believers fail, the client nation is punished. Believers
fail because they refuse to rebound from carnality, they neglect or reject
completely the infallible Word of God, and they do not follow the colors to the
high ground of spiritual maturity. But the nation still has a chance to recover
if believers will "humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn
from their wicked ways."
Recovery of the nation turns on whether or not you fulfill the
very purpose for which you are still alive. Bible doctrine must be your first
priority! As you understand the depth and breadth of God’s love for you from
Bible doctrine resident in your soul, you respect Him, you accept His authority,
you obey Him, you are motivated by reciprocal love for Him to advance to
spiritual maturity, and you glorify Him. When you execute the unique spiritual
life and glorify Him, you contribute to the preservation of the nation.
Historical crisis presents you with the maximum opportunity to
focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. The solution to any adversity is to be occupied
with Him. As you concentrate on Him in disaster, you have a happiness and
stability which is beyond your imagination. You are absolutely confident that
God even works terrorism for your ultimate blessing. "To those who love
God He causes all things to work together for good." (Series No. 376,
Spiritual Dynamics, lessons 1992 to present)
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Reciprocal Love for God is the
highest form of human love that can ever exist, a system of thinking beyond any
human attraction, sentimentality, or emotion. Such love reflects the worship,
respect, awe, deference, and enduring devotion that the mature believer
possesses for God the Father, the Author of the divine plan; for God the Son,
the Savior who accomplished the plan; and for God the Holy Spirit, who empowers
the plan in the life of the believer. In short, this doctrine defines the love
relationship between God and the believer through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
At the moment of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, you
become the recipient of God’s personal love. He imputes His own righteousness
and eternal life to you. He provides you with the solution to postsalvation sin—rebound.
He gives you the unique spiritual life of all human history. He provides Bible
doctrine for momentum in your spiritual life. He disciplines you to correct your
course. His love pursues you all the days of your life.
The personal love of God becomes your point of reference for
the spiritual life. When you get to know God through Bible doctrine, you respond
with respect for Him. When you respect Him, you accept His Word as your
authority and guide. When you accept His authority, you obey His mandates. Now,
you are growing in grace. You are gaining the capacity and means to truly love
God. Reciprocal love for God is your response to the unfailing love of God. In
reciprocity you have true motivation to continue learning Bible doctrine so that
you can advance to spiritual maturity. Only in the status of spiritual maturity
can you share the happiness of God, be occupied with the Person of Christ, and
glorify God to the maximum. (Series No. 376, Spiritual Dynamics, lessons 1744–1792)
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The Royal Law The greatest act of injustice in human history is also the source of
our so-great salvation! The impeccable humanity of Jesus Christ received the guilt and
punishment for all the sins of the human race, even though He was not guilty of any sin.
Never was there a Person more exalted; never was anyone of higher station in life—the
greatest royalty, the only lasting royalty in time and into eternity. Yet, God the Father,
who eternally loved His Son, Jesus Christ, poured out on Him every sin—past, present,
and future—and judged them.
How was the innocent Christ able to remain on the cross and endure the imputation and
judgment of our sins? By fulfilling the royal law! Motivated by personal love for God the
Father, the human nature of Jesus Christ perfectly executed the Father’s mandate of
impersonal love for all mankind—"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
This love is the exemplar of the royal law. Christ disregarded the injustice. He accepted
the judgment. He never held a grudge nor did He react to our sins. There was no anger, no
rancor, no bitterness, no implacability, no retaliation, no vengeance, no hatred toward
anyone.
Christ has bequeathed this same royal law to the royal family. We all face injustice.
We all must imitate our Lord’s fulfillment of the royal law in our own spiritual
lives and learn to rely on the Lord to balance the scales of justice. His judgments are
always perfect. The Supreme Court of Heaven is always in session! (Series No. 376,
Spiritual Dynamics, lessons 1335 to 1378)
Learn and Live is the pattern for the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. You
must learn doctrine and then you must live doctrine. Learning by inculcating
doctrine and living by applying doctrine under the power of God the Holy Spirit, you
advance to maturity in the spiritual life—the easy way.
But there is another way: Live and learn!—the hard way. When you live life
ignoring God’s Word, the only way you will learn is under the ordeal of divine
punishment. "For those whom the Lord loves He punishes, and He scourges every son
whom He receives." God’s love for you never diminishes even in punishment, yet
it is a painful way to be motivated in the spiritual life.
How do you reverse the pain of live and learn? Rebound to stop grieving and squelching
the Holy Spirit. Concentrate on the accurate teaching of the Word of God. Live according
to the divine viewpoint that resides in your soul and you will advance in the spiritual
life. The cursing of punishment becomes blessing. You will be singed, but you will
survive. You will rise like a phoenix out of the ashes. You will enjoy the most fantastic
life of meaning, purpose, and definition. You will glorify the Lord as a mature believer,
and you will do it the easy way. Learn and live will be the greatest profit of your life.
(Series No. 376, Spiritual Dynamics, lessons 1467–1473)
Divine Punishment and the Lukewarm Believer Are you a "lukewarm"
believer? Were you once ‘hot’ for Bible doctrine, but have now ‘cooled
off?’ Lukewarm is a metaphor used in Revelation 3:16 for the wealthy and prosperous
believers of Laodicea who had become distracted from the Word of God and rejected the
source of their prosperity. Without divine problem-solving devices they could not prevent
the outside pressure of prosperity from converting into the inside pressure of stress in
the soul. Controlled by the lust patterns of their sin natures—power lust,
approbation lust, pleasure lust, social lust, sexual lust, chemical lust, crusader lust or
activism, monetary lust, inordinate ambition, lust for revenge, and criminal
lust—they were in self-fragmentation and reversionism.
Because these lukewarm Laodiceans were bilious to the Lord, He placed them under
warning, intensive, even dying punishment. The Lord would "vomit them out of His
mouth." Such is the fortune of the lukewarm believer.
This series presents a rarely voiced perspective on divine punishment. As part of
the spiritual life, divine punishment is an expression of the love of God designed to
awaken the lukewarm believer to rebound and to motivate him to return to Bible doctrine.
When you respond to the punishment by rebounding and metabolizing doctrine, momentum in
your spiritual life is recovered. You are once again "hot"! (Series No. 376,
Spiritual Dynamics, lessons 1507–1526)
Forgiveness of Sins Beware of false teachers who say, "You don’t need
to name your sins to God; they were already forgiven at the cross." With this
distortion, rebound becomes irrelevant! This false doctrine attacks the very foundation of
your spiritual life. To believe this lie is to live a life of perpetual carnality,
reversionism, and eventually die the sin unto death.
The Bible teaches that your sins were not forgiven at the cross. Unlimited
atonement, reconciliation, propitiation, and redemption were accomplished by the
substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. All personal sins of human history were imputed by
God the Father to Christ and judged, not forgiven.
When are your sins forgiven? At the moment of faith alone in Christ alone, all of your presalvation
sins are forgiven. The work of Jesus Christ redeemed mankind from the slave market of sin
opening the way of salvation and forgiveness for anyone.
What about the sins you commit after salvation? Every time you name your sins privately
to God the Father, those postsalvation sins are forgiven. When you use the rebound
technique, He is faithful and just to forgive those sins and purify you from all unknown
sins. Rebound is the only means to regain the filling of the Holy Spirit, restore your
fellowship with God, and resume your spiritual life.
Redemption is God’s provision; forgiveness is your option. Learn to make the
distinction between redemption and forgiveness; your spiritual life depends on it! You
cannot have a spiritual life without redemption. You cannot continue your spiritual life
without forgiveness. (Series No. 376, Spiritual Dynamics, lessons 1385 to 1395)
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Copyright
© R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries
Last Modified: 02/16/05 10:44 AM
