I love my small group for the diversity of opinion and reasonings people can give, along with the ideas they make me ponder about. I dislike my smal group because....(for that, you can ask me in person)
A lot of thoughts ran through my mind in small group this week, and a lot of questions came from it too. Without going into an uber-philosophical tirade, I find it helpful to at least mull about the implications of such questions and issues that popped up. Any one of these can be a good conversation in and of themselves, but for purposes of mental exercise, the thoughts about them will be short.
Can we still grow/change, even if we know the answers?
I liken it to a robot that has all the information in the world fed into it. It's at the apex of development where any other information would seem redundant. However, if there is nothing further for it to learn, can it become any better at all? In our walks of faith, we find that even if we do know what the Bible says, that our own personal development is stunted without being tested. Whatever testing that may be - we can still grow, whether by changing our perspective, rearranging our priorities, or understanding a greater importance.
Faith & works go hand in hand, but can you develop faith through your works?
It takes effort and will to develop faith. One can go about life easy and "believe" anything, but the main proof is whether you live your life on that belief thinking that it is or should be true. A child could believe in Santa Claus, but if they start buying their own presents and not wait for him to show up, then we would say that they don't believe in him, even though they declared it so. When we say faith, the connotation is that it's a good thing, particularly in the Christian realm. If one were to do good works continuously, without obligation to do so, I believe they start growing into that mindset of a deeper morality. One's mind begins to change, not simply because they are doing something, but rather because they're coming to a realization in their lives by doing do.
Who is in charge of the renewing of the mind?: (Romans 12:2)
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
People wanted to avoid talking about pre-destination. One person in our group believed that it's a joint effort. I can't consider any alternatives where it's 100% God or 100% man, since if it's 100% God, then He wouldn't need to renew it, and if it's 100% man, it wouldn't be possible since by nature we despise Him.
Are we replacing our thoughts or are we transforming them?
I don't think we are replacing our thoughts, though i can see that we do blur the lines. Sinful thoughts do and will exist, and it will happen. In one case, I can see us moving towards the point where certain desires are dulled out to the point, but are never gone. We are not "brainwashed" in the sense that there is some deviousness or malicious intent to change one's thoughts. Rather it is the forced choices that the world makes us make that if we were to choose a Godly perspective, that by not conforming to the patterns of the world, we are being mindless, stupid, ignorant, etc.
We are forced by choice, not by will, to choose between God and the world.
I talked about this before in the previous issue. I believe that our wills are blank slates in that they can be molded and not be preset. I think there is some part in all of us that desire to glorfiy God, but it's not recognized internally yet, or we're being distracted (i.e. other choices). Every decision we make up until the point of death is whether or not we choose God. It sounds melodramatic but I do believe it is realistic to believe so.
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