𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️

When I look at myself, I don't see how I can be saved. But when I look at Christ, I don't see how I can be lost. - Martin Luther

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

'Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus' from Hebrews 12:1-3
My latest sermon at my church.

Let's lay aside every weight, run with endurance, and fix our gaze on Christ, who endured the cross for the joy set before Him!

Watch here: https://t.co/Z0oCPAzhlf

#Hebrews12 #ChristIsKing

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks Fasting simply strips away our physical comforts to force us to realize how utterly dependent we are on the Spirit. It is the faith and dependence on God that casts out the demon.

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks Fasting is the physical expression of humility, mourning, and desperate dependence on God. When the disciples failed to cast out the demon, it wasn't because they had eaten too much lunch; it was because of their 'unbelief' (Matt 17:20) and their self-reliance.

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks Jesus said in John 15:5, 'Apart from me you can do nothing.' He didn't say, 'Apart from me you can only do a little bit, according to your natural strength.'

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks Look at Galatians 5. The 'fruit of the Spirit' (love, joy, peace, patience, self-control) are the supernatural result of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside a regenerate heart. A Christian who exercises self-control does so because they are walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16).

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @adp5121 @johncdirks I'm just saying what God has spoken

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks If a saint can hear my silent, internal, unvoiced prayer, they are exercising the exact divine ability that 1 Kings 8:39 says belongs to God alone: searching and knowing the internal thoughts of the human heart.

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks Because whatever you label it, it is an incommunicable attribute of the Creator that no finite, created soul possesses.
1 Kings 8:39 teaches this.
Revelation 2:23 confirms: '...and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart.'

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks Peter was a fisherman and a married man who traveled with his wife (1 Cor 9:5). Paul was a tentmaker. They didn't flee to the wilderness to achieve monastic 'dispassion'; they plunged into the filthy, pagan cities of the Roman Empire to plant churches in the face of martyrdom.

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks You call it 'carnal' because your paradigm is still infected with the Platonic idea that the physical world is something to be escaped rather than redeemed.
In John 17:15, Jesus prays for His disciples and explicitly says: 'I do not ask that you take them out of the world".

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks Furthermore, you said this extreme effort should be 'calibrated to their own strength.' But help me look at Galatians 5:16 and Romans 8:13. We do not mortify the deeds of the body by our 'own strength' or willpower; we do it by the Spirit. Relying on your own strength is Pelagian

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @DescartesIdea @johncdirks Paul addresses the EO mindset in Colossians 2:20-23. He warns against ascetic rules like 'Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch.' He explicitly calls this 'severe treatment of the body.' And what does the Holy Spirit say about this extreme physical discipline?

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @adp5121 @johncdirks The only difference between us is what is sitting in the center of the circle. My ultimate, self-authenticating authority is the infallible, objective, written Word of the living God. Your authority isn't.

[𝐿𝒦 𝐵𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒹✝️ @LukeBaird2016]

@sparklingxnacho @adp5121 @johncdirks So I ask you the exact same question:
What authority dictates the correct interpretation of the Church?
If you say, 'The Church dictates the interpretation of the Church,' then congratulations: You are in the exact same circle I am.