Marshall Stiver
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Marshall Stiver exhorts the Church of God to humble itself so as to accurately perceive its spiritual condition and to grow into a unified body that reflects the image of the God Family.
We typically assume that our own distorted perspective is accurate, but this only serves to break relationships and separates us from God. Distortion of God’s viewpoint will offend and ultimately quench the Holy Spirit. Because the natural mind opposes God, God’s intervention through His Holy Spirit is required. Keeping the Law scrupulously is necessary, but it is not enough. We also must learn to love as God loves, beginning first with a repentant, humble mind. Pure truth is perceived in humility through the gift of His revelation. We seek God’s perspective zealously by asking Him to try and know our heart, and then following up that request by meditating on and studying His word, which in turns begins aligning us with Him. A body that reflects Christ will represent Him and His message to this world. We, individually and collectively, are the epistle.
Keywords:
Beatitudes – Coals of fire – Count it all joy – Division – Easily entreated – Ephesians 4:25-31 – Example – I Corinthians 12:12, 25, 3:1 – Forgiveness – Gospel – Humility – Identity of the Church – Jeremiah 17:5-12 – John 13:34 – Luke 11:39; 18:9-12 – Mark 1:14 – Matthew 5:3 – Mercy – Perception – Pride – Proverbs 18:12-13 – Psalm 139:23, 119:145 – Romans 12:19 – II Corinthians 3:2 – Self-reliance – Self-confidence – Self-righteousness – spiritual blessings – Spiritual organism – Tender hearted – That all men come to the truth – The heart is deceitful, desperately wicked – Truth
