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8.18.2006

Plain like Ockeghem



Keep the faith plain (simple and complete). Pure, bold, practical, and plain.

Five solas.

The means of grace: the Holy Bible, prayer, and fasting.

Practice to think and act and speak from the Bible.

UPDATE:

>Wouldn't you consider the sacraments a means of grace as well?


Yes, but how often do you get baptised? See? So cut the two sacraments in half (only half a measure of grace from the sacraments now). Then, what do you actually do in the Lord's Supper? It's a visual parable.

I tend to associate the means of grace with the living Word and the intake and meditation upon it and the overal effort to conquer it in understanding; and with prayer and fasting (a deeper understanding of fasting provided by - or starting with - Isaiah 58:6) and also with the two great commandments of Jesus (they correlate, to me).

Practically speaking, any means of grace involves the taking in of the Holy Spirit, in lesser or greater measure, and the containing of it (not so easy as the flesh wars with the Spirit) so as to manifest the effect, or fruits, of it, to ever greater ability, with the aim of glorifying God.

Prayer and loving God requires a state of being (in the presence of God, watchfulness, awake in the moment) that is conducive to accumulating the Spirit. Fasting and loving your neighbor (especially enemy) as yourself is conducive to containing the Spirit (it involves inner control and separation from the world and the flesh, and even separation from the devil, in the moment).

It's difficult to call a one-time ritual a means of grace. And likewise it's difficult to consider a ritual as mechanical and loosely defined as the Lord's Supper (how many times do you observe it? do you use little plastic cups of grape juice or one big communal cup of wine?) a means of grace. They are rituals, they play a role regarding the visible church as visual parables (they speak to the senses), but to rely on them as the means of grace is to play games with common-sense. The Bible is clear about such things as the Spirit and prayer and fasting and the two great commandments, and grace is involved in all the wide meaning of that word.

1 Comments:

Blogger c.t. said...

Yes, but how often do you get baptised? See? So cut the two sacraments in half (only half a measure of grace from the sacraments now). Then, what do you actually do in the Lord's Supper? It's a visual parable.

I tend to associate the means of grace with the living Word and the intake and meditation upon it and the overal effort to conquer it in undersanding; and with prayer and fasting (a deeper understanding of fasting provided by - or starting with - Isaiah 58:6) and also with the two great commandments of Jesus (they correlate, to me).

Practically speaking, any means of grace involves the taking in of the Holy Spirit, in lesser or greater measure, and the containing of it (not so easy as the flesh wars with the Spirit) so as to manifest the effect, or fruits, of it, to ever greater ability, with the aim of glorifying God.

Prayer and loving God requires a state of being that is conducive to accumulating the Spirit. Fasting and loving your neighbor (especially enemy) as yourself is conducive to containing the Spirit.

It's difficult to call a one-time ritual a means of grace. And likewise it's difficult to consider a ritual as mechanical and loosely defined as the Lord's Supper (how many times do you observe it? do you use little plastic cups of grape juice or one big communal cup of wine?) a means of grace. They are rituals, they play a role regarding the visible church as visual parables (they speak to the senses), but to rely on them as the means of grace is to play games with common-sense. The Bible is clear about such things as the Spirit and prayer and fasting and the two great commandments and grace is involved in all the wide meaning of that word.

August 19, 2006 at 6:13 AM  

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