J Heinrich Arnold-Freedom from sinful thoughts.pdf

FREEDOM FROM SINFUL THOUGHTS - T H E A U T H O Rafter year, he always turned them onward – beyondtheir preoccupation with their sins or their personal holiness– to Christ.Arnold knew well that he did not have all the answers.Often he said that he needed to think about a matter inquestion or wished to consider it in prayer, or simplyfelt he did not know what to do about it. Asked to explaina difficult verse, an apparent contradiction, or themeaning of a mysterious passage in the Bible, he mightsay, “I have thought about these words a great deal, butI do not fully understand them myself. Let us leave it toGod. Some day it will be revealed to us” – and he wouldnot attempt an interpretation. Though widely read andentirely at home in the Old and New Testament, he wasa man whose education was the education of the heart,whose knowledge was the knowledge of the human soul,and whose understanding of God’s ways was born of hislove for God, for Jesus, and for the church.Most important, Arnold was able to listen: he listenedto his brothers and sisters, he listened to friends, strangers,to critics, and most of all he listened to God: “I wantto listen with my inner heart to the voice of God speakingthrough the brotherhood. I want to confess Jesus inour time. I want to be poor…spiritually poor. I want tobe obedient and go where the church sends me, andto do God’s will.”80