THEO626_Week 2 Discussion_Post 13 | THEO 626 - Doctrine of God

As I begin in my Theological Reflection Journal, I realize that I do have specific areas of personal spiritual growth and awareness. Faith is an area of personal spiritual growth for me and I am aware of how this area of spirituality was built. I hope to experience in this area of faith a better understanding of how to maintain a spiritual mind in the mist of the tribulation although faith is there and understanding that “…thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”1 Therefore a very specific question that I would hope to answer is since. “we have the mind of Christ”2 how do we exercise this to have control and be spiritually minded during tribulation (while carrying the cross). The Apostles asked for an extra measure of faith, and were pretty much denied and reproofed by reminding them that they were already equipped with everything they need. “… the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea; and it would obey you.”3 Although Abraham is the father of faith, Job is the model of maintaining focus as one goes through, I want to reach the spiritual point where regardless of carnal or physical experiences I incur that I worship and praise God and be spiritually minded during the mist of the tribulation consciously as I experience practical living. This could be a great topic to develop into a sermon series because Scripture is clear that “… God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith,”4 and if exercised it can be matured. This is why I am trying to learn to exercise the continued state of the mind of Christ. d Paul Froese, the author of the book, America’s Four Gods elucidates how I feel about reaching this goal when he states that some people “describe God as an extrovert who is happy to intervene in daily activities.”5 This spiritual growth for me would assist me in the process of “…work(ing) out (my) own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in (me) both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.”6 These personal daily interventions happens all the time if we just give credit where credit is due. It happened in the early church and it continues to happen today. This renewed continuous and conscious mind of Christ will assist me in gaining “an (more) intimate and active relationship with God.”7 If I (with the strength of Christ Jesus) can get to this personal level with God then I can also testify and help someone else to reach this same goal. ________________________