Maybe I had that coming.
I can't necessarily 'explain it', but maybe illustrate it?
I work for physical bread. But in doing it, I learn spiritual lessons. I have the opportunity to love my co-workers, to work "as for the Lord", and challenges such as what to do with my money, and own up to my many failings. That's just a partial list. I am sure that genuine love is Spiritual. It's the first mentioned of the fruit of the Spirit, after all. For someone like me who really doesn't naturally LIKE many people and is rather naturally intensely self-absorbed, this is something of a miracle. But it's 'growing', not fully developed. The fact that I know this, is spiritual. I wasn't always like that. Life-experience under a sovereign God and my own weakness, stubbornness, and ignorance made me like this...so life experience under a sovereign God will 'unmake me' like this.
If all roads are blocked concerning employment, you are simply currently unemployed. There are reasons for it, and remedies too. Some of them may be 'physical' and some may be 'spiritual'--both reasons and remedies. I have absolutely no idea. Examine your own heart. The 'example' in that passage above wasn't about a man who had no job, but about people with no will to work. The first is physical, the second is spiritual. Spirit is about attitude, motive...things like that. That 'list' is incomplete too.
If folks con us for money to buy dope and get away with it, should we pray for such people or should we bitch and moan? Don't know. We will have done what we did. I might not feel 'inspired' to do either one. Then we examine our hearts (or not) and learn. Some of what we 'learn' may be wrong...always or in some situations. So we keep learning. Or not. Whatever we do, we're going to do SOMETHING. We'll get our 'report card' later...even if it is 5 seconds later. "Dave works and plays well with others, but needs to improve his study habits".
If folk are in need and we give should it be cheerfully or begrudgingly? The Lord loves a cheerful giver. When you give alms, don't be as the Pharisees who make a big show of it. How much is too much of a 'big show'? That's a spiritual question. How much 'cheer' must we muster? Is it OK to fake it? These are spiritual questions. The Lord knows the motives of our hearts. What's hidden will be made manifest.
"When Jesus left the disciples "Died" did they go back to there original physical disposition "I go a fishing" or is it a spiritual matter where without Christ we resort to/lean to our own physical understanding in order to survive."
I reckon they went fishing because they didn't know what else to do. But then they learned. And I don't know whether they never went fishing again. I'm just sure that if they did, they remembered every word that Jesus said to them...maybe the parable of the fishes especially? They physically went fishing and learned from the Lord a spiritual lesson. More than one, actually. But they wouldn't have learned it if they hadn't gone fishing...at least not that way and then. And part of the spiritual lesson involved them 'doing' literal things...can't be a fisher of men if you don't fish for men. You don't fish for men "symbolically" either.
Maybe "spiritual lessons" is too loaded a term too. I develop God's spiritual traits. I am conformed to the image of Christ. I become less of a babe and more of a mature person. I become less riddled with lust of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life and gain more 'contentment with Godliness'. I need these things more than a job, but having a job puts me in a better position to gain them. God has plopped us all down here in the flesh and in our circumstances. He has surrounded us with good and evil, both of which He uses to 'create us in His image'. In other words, we are physical beings having a Spiritual experience.
Better?
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Topic: Ashamed of my conduct (Read 22085 times)