Knowledge Discussion Moves Forward

So the regular reader may be wondering why I spent three posts to state the obvious about knowledge. Besides being a cumbersome thinker who is talkative, I have an overall goal. That goal, though in line with the sub-title of this blog, is stated so often here in the past two years (nearly that long anyway) my readers may feel cheated--or at least like yawning for the umpteenth time. Well, I hope I am being an effective witness for the narrow way of Jesus in the long run but even I think I am starting to sound like a broken record. (Guess that's a dated simile, but malfunctioning CD's don't repeat the same line over and over just a syllable or note in rapid staccato.)

The reason I posted on knowledge is to develop a background of delineated meanings from which an assertion may be made regarding Christian decision-making on a day to day basis, which then leads to some degree of wisdom-gain over a life time. The next stop is to identify how the common man or woman deals with scripture. There might be generated a complex list if I attempted a no-stone-unturned approach, but for the sake of this blog is not a tome, I will work with a few main possibilities. I came up with three:

• Reaction--meaning the words flip some switch in the heart on and the person goes off. Most of what is thought then is really skewed by this deeply ingrained, emotionally-controlled state which is our baggage in common terms and in secular terms is closely akin to psychosis. (That's a joke, but it may not be far from the truth.)
• Interpretation--sounds formal but for many of us, it is not. Once the switch is flipped back off (this is not completely possible except under one condition but a person must believe it is at least attempted--that's a later post), the person begins to work on understanding what the scripture actually means. I do not mean formal interpretation as if one is a Bible scholar, just the sense that, "Hey, I better figure out what this means. I'll go ask Joe. He knows stuff like this."
• Application--"OK, I got it now and I'm gonna do the right thing by this."
  

For any reason, if one of the readers think another bullet or two must be considered, please help me here.

Idling

Go figure...I said I was gonna write more and school kicks into high gear. I didn't see this coming??

I have a next post in my head and am looking for a spontaneous moment when writing for a few moments fits in. Maybe this weekend even!

Oops

Sometimes I sit to write and begin to throw terms around that I think I understand. Hoping to keep from looking foolish, I check the term in dictionary or encyclopedic sources and discover I am way over my head in either understanding the term or in being able to offer a reasonable opinion related to what I thought I intended to say. In other words, before I checked the sources I was writing something akin to horse manure.

Well, horse manure can harm or help plants in the garden depending on how it is applied. Not wanting to harm the relationship with readers, I have withheld application tonight.

Spirit Knowledge

Now I add a third category of knowing. It is neither intellectual nor carnal, though it is related to both. It is the knowledge fully resident in the new creature being. A knowledge in God, which He shares with us and is about all of life. It wells within the heart and springs from there--under the right conditions--like a river flowing from us to others.

Spiritual knowledge isn't the practice of disciplines which inhibit carnal knowledge expression. Spiritual knowledge is a heart reality become understanding which brings the will into submissive loving of God and the mastery of the body's appetites to rest fully quieted underneath the foot of the believer. These appetites are to be regarded as dead, though a shift in love from God and toward self will cause the animal to rise.

Spiritual knowledge isn't simply the ability to offer a sharp apologetic from the scriptures about life in God. Such is an intellectual exercise which may or may not be a function of one's spirit.

Spiritual knowledge begins with God, develops with God, and results in the glory God deserves as it is the mark of the sons of God for which revelation the earth groans . That mark is the fruit of the spirit which so naturally emanates from individuals who walk in it.

An interesting characteristic of spiritual knowledge is that it is so dependent on God, the possessor is so aware of that connection, that spiritual knowledge never declares itself as the property of the human in which it is found. Spirit knowledge only acknowledges the One who is the source of the knowing.

On a personal note...

I had an epiphany a moment ago about this blog. The two of you that regularly give this site a hit, my kids who check in fairly often, along with a bit wider readership that isn't quite regular will recognize I haven't written very consistently for the past several months. The tech troubles of the late spring notwithstanding, there is a simple reason of motivation behind the paucity of writing. I haven't been engaged for the last six months or so with the blog.

I recognized why this morning. Somewhere along the way--and I'm not sure where--I shifted from wanting to express my ideas to needing to expound well. The emphasis on achieving a quality experience for myself before the reader has undercut my interest. Oh well. I have never been interested in a personal blog in which I journal about my life, nor the casualness of such writing. Yet, by moving to pieces that are thought out and "crafted," I was not enjoying the writing.

Anyway, I think with a little more spontaneity back in the mix of my approach, I will write more often.