Author	Thread: SIMPLICITY
Admin	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 12:42 PM Your destination is on the other side of a snow capped mountain range. No one (except one) ever completed the trail, however it is rumored he was no ordinary human being. The trail is difficult, hard to discern in some places and impassable by mere humans. So what do you do if you want to get to your destination? Do you start at the trail head declaring to yourself and others "this is the way!" OR... Do you find the guide, one who has traveled this trail before? (no brainer......right?) Ok, you find the guide, now what? Do you follow the trail or the guide? Hmmmm.... If you follow the trail and not the guide then why did you need him in the first place? If you follow the guide, how can you not follow the trail? The trail is the Law, The Guide is the promised Holy Spirit. *Simplicity* However there is a "rub" which I have left open for discussion. Anyone know what it is? Post Reply
View Profile History	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 01:25 PM Whose going to tell you who the guide" is? Post Reply
MargoSolo View Profile History	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 01:34 PM Really good point, Kat. I would also add - Even if you know the trail and follow it, you still need the guide to pick you up when you fall down along the way and to help when you don't follow it exactly. I would also add that if the guide starts at with you, you are guaranteed to get to the other side - but you still have to physically cross to it. You absolutely need both the trail and the guide. Post Reply
View Profile History	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 02:01 PM Thank you Brave Women for jumping in with great points to consider. Picking the right guide is definitely important and many people fail at that point even to finding one disguised as the one who has really traveled the trail. And realizing to accept and look for help from our guide as a traveling companion is also important. Lets say our guide and helper is Jesus...... What happens when our guide takes a different route than what we interpret the trail going? Post Reply
MargoSolo View Profile History	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 02:37 PM Then we've either interpreted the trail wrong or we are not following the right guide. Back track on the trail, question the guide. Wait. Do not go forward until they agree. Post Reply
View Profile History	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 03:20 PM Margo you nailed it! Isn't that what usually happens ? People declare that others are off the trail, not following the correct guide because they interpret the trail different. People declare others are law breakers, not being led by the Holy Spirit because they interpret the law different. So now what? Post Reply
View Profile History	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 03:55 PM This reminds me of the story of the Donner Party. They had been traveling with a larger group and they had a guide and a well known trail, but some of the people in the group had a book that gave somewhat sketchy directions that would be a shorter and quicker route. They may not have know it at the time but the writer of the book had never actually finished the trail and was unfortunately wrong in his calculations. When the Donner party split off the larger group with their book in hand believing they would be waiting for the other group to arrive much later than they had. Unfortunately many of them died during the winter and some of the survivors had resorted to cannibalism. When they were found and brought to their original destination they met the others from the original party to find they made it to their destination in tact and on time. The Donner party had no trail and no guide and a lie to follow. Thunder Post Reply
View Profile History	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 04:17 PM Thunder, that really does illustrate what Sparrow is saying. Post Reply
MargoSolo View Profile History	SIMPLICITY Posted : 22 Jan, 2011 04:33 PM Ok, clarifing terms: trail - the law, living out the spirit of the law guide - Holy Spirit I think it is up to us to be aware of our brothers and sisters. First and foremost, are they truly saved? If we see evidence that the essentials are there - they profess faith in Christ and show fruit, they will make it across, perhaps solely by the grace and merit of the guide, even if their theology is not good. (To use your analogy, they are being picked up and carried). If their theology does not include the right guide, we need to introduce them to Him. Without Him they won't make it across. 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV) - 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. Then the question of the trail (interpretation of scripture) is stickier. We can try to help the wayward trailblazer by asking the guide to help illuminate them and light their way, and ask him to help us illuminate our own way as we talk to them and show them the trail. 2 Peter 3:16 (NIV) He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. If we or someone else is on the right trail (interpretation of the trail), one might examine whether they are being rebellious to listen to the guide. They may wander not because they don't know the trail, but because they don't want to follow it obiediantly.We do the same thing - we ask the guide to help them, we point out the trail to them to the truth they know. They too, will be at the mercy of the guide. He will finish the work He started in getting them across. He may discipline them, and in the end, carry them if He has to. Post Reply