Thoughts from Two Trees (Continued)

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Still reading "There Were Two Trees in the Garden" by Rick Joyner. Allow me to reiterate what I said before. Buy it! It will be a $8.00 well spent. This book is chock full of stuff that will challenge your previous thinking and introduce you to new ways of thinking. Very provoking.

Here are some thoughts that I found especially interesting:
  • (referring to Babel) We are still trying to build towers to heaven and make names for ourselves. Regardless of how piously we attach the Lord's name to our works, everything motivated by selfish ambition will come to the same end as the original tower...confusion and scattering (James 3:15-16).
  • It IS possible to understand all Christian doctrine accurately and yet not be a Christian.
  • Babylon is not just a physical reality. Babylon is in the heart.
  • There are some who have truth without life. And yet there are some who have life in Jesus but may not understand all doctrine correctly. As Thomas a Kempis reflected in his classic work Of the Imitation of Christ, "I would rather feel contrition than know the definition thereof...what does it avail a man to be able to discourse profoundly concerning the trinity if he is void of humility and thereby displeasing to Trinity?"
  • Of course truth is important. Certain truth is essential and leads to life (Jesus). But there are many doctrines not in this category over which believers through the ages have separated. Christians, who are supposed to be recognized by their love, have demonstrated the uncanny ability to agree on 98% of their doctrine and separate over the 2% on which they disagree. Required agreement on non-essentials is almost always rooted in insecurity. Insecurity among the leadership of the body of Christ has been the source of as much division as any other single factor.
  • Our unity is not based on our doctrines, it is based on Jesus! Focusing our attention on loving God and man is far more important than all of us having the same doctrine.
  • Many Christians seem to have more faith in the Devil to deceive them, than they do in the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth!
There is something on every page of this book. I will stop there for now. Any thoughts on any of this? I hope that you don't find it too boring. I learn by reading, then writing, then teaching.
--Noah