tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876933803200242837.post1691120562435326077..comments2024-01-31T20:16:44.727-06:00Comments on Baxter's Ongoing Thoughts: Jesus, Inclusivism and DogmatismC. Baxter Kruger, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18109712975412765686noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876933803200242837.post-29809513128334081122008-09-30T03:28:00.000-05:002008-09-30T03:28:00.000-05:00Hello Baxter,Nice writing. Please excuse me for b...Hello Baxter,<BR/><BR/>Nice writing. Please excuse me for being unfamiliar with your thought. Before today I hadn't heard of your writing, a freind told me about you. I was wondering how or if you define the inclusiveness of your beliefs, specifically how you view Salvation, and your views on the Afterlife.<BR/><BR/>Thank you for your time.<BR/>God Bless,<BR/> Jim Clark<BR/><BR/>www.theparadigmexperiment.blogspot.com/Jim Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13815483599664355248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876933803200242837.post-42591347471664632192008-08-25T11:02:00.000-05:002008-08-25T11:02:00.000-05:00Baxter,Beautiful. Thanks for this encouragement.I ...Baxter,<BR/>Beautiful. Thanks for this encouragement.<BR/><BR/>I loved what you said here:<BR/><BR/>"It is the uniqueness of Jesus that gives (or should give) the Christian community the freedom to embrace, to relate, to tolerate, and to love, knowing that Jesus has embraced us all, and that the Holy Spirit (sent through Jesus ) is steadily at work doing what none of us can do—give people eyes to see and ears to hear Jesus himself."<BR/><BR/>Blessings,<BR/>~Amy :)<BR/>http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876933803200242837.post-86122752923093126882008-08-25T09:35:00.000-05:002008-08-25T09:35:00.000-05:00Thank you for your wonderful word of encouragement...Thank you for your wonderful word of encouragement. I find my mind totally at peace with what you have written, experiencing the boldness and confidence in me that can only come from God. Recently I was told not too speak of these things within a congregational environment; needless to say I no longer attend this institution of higher mans learning. I say this tongue in cheek for I spent many years living and promoting the same illusion of rightness, and I have great compassion and a desire for them also to come to know Jesus as true reality for all. I see everyone spiritually birthed in Jesus. How else could anyone even exist? I also embrace people today knowing that there is no separation between Father, Son and Holy Spirit and all humanity. Where else would the goodness come from that people display? Here is a short Devotion that came mostly from other inspired writers.<BR/><BR/>Faith Not Sight!<BR/><BR/>Why is it so difficult to just let go and live life loved? Even though His life is spurring on incremental freedom, I still find myself at times playing in my own compost heap, from my own reservoir of stinking thinking.<BR/> <BR/>I have been taught that theory leads to practice or vision to action! I did not even connect these expressions to myself until I read a book called “Proper Confidence” by Lesslie Newbigin. Walking by sight to attain certainty works so well in the world, doesn’t it? Or does it? <BR/> <BR/>As one example in the realm of religion this means God is holy, (and of course He is as One Holy) the theory or vision, and that I must respond in my action or practice to become holy. This was how I was trained to behave in my value system as I tried to connect and please God.<BR/> <BR/>This is so far removed from the Bible story of Jesus in which He asks that I come to participate in His faith relationship. There is no theory, vision, action or practice here, all He is asking is for me to rest in space-time in His faithfulness in what He has done and is now choosing to do through me. <BR/><BR/>So how does this relate to me? Is my hope in all the things I do for God? Or am I resting in the things not seen, the objective reality, and the only hope for me! All my life I have been jumping through hoops trying to make things happen, so when Jesus says without me you can do nothing, this seems at first glance a pretty hopeless statement. In fact I am being told that my own value system from my own thinking in which I have trained for so long is a hindrance rather than an asset! It was my own action brought on by my vision of ideas and laws. In essence it was my thought, purpose and action that made me who I was. <BR/> <BR/>When I became a believer within these parameters I fitted in, not purposely, my god of the universe who then became part of my illusionary value. It was very subjective where ultimately meaning and truth came through what I sensed as relative. If it did not make any sense, it could not be true. <BR/><BR/>The problem with this thinking is that I became god without truly knowing God as true reality. All He became for me was a value statement, a sense of false assurance. Some radical action needed to affect my thinking! It was either participate living from new foundational thoughts where God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the only purposed action reality or continue to live in my own composition (compost) of self-accepted mythological wasteland. I was in a mind block and needed a paradigm shift from focus on me to who God is and how I relate to Him. It also meant I needed and continue to need to be trained in the right standing that I already have in Jesus. <BR/><BR/>It is not living from my values by sight that give life, rather having my mind renovated to live as a unique individual in the certainty of the faith story (His history) of Jesus. As I write this, the story is still unfolding for me as I learn to live from His thought, purpose and action. This is not only true for me, but for every person on the planet for we all live, move and have our being in Him whether we know or believe this or not! It is “Learning to live loved!” (1), not by sight but by faith!<BR/><BR/>Paul Young’s “The Shack” page 175 <BR/> Thanks again BaxterJohn Geerlingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17187825507505442947noreply@blogger.com