Father, I thank you for allowing me to experience You, to know You!
The many experiences I have had in following you have never been given to make me shine, look special, it is only in experiencing you, my Father, this alone, truly satisfies the longing in my heart.
Rich
A quick thought here before I head out to work.
I am enjoying like a pig in mud my new note book.
I try as best I can to keep it tidy and neat inside and out. I usually use it (although it is hooked up to a wireless router) in our main PC room, in there at best I'm working with lamp lighting and some outside light coming in through the window.
I can look at my screen and say it looks very clean, but take it out on my dinning room table and let the Son shine touch the screen, and ouch, what filth, dust all over it..how the hail did that get thar??
All of this to say...The Father's heart alive in our King, Jesus, is going to address our thoughts regarding His kingdom, and they, our thoughts just might be in disarray.
When Jesus was about to confer upon his beloved friends a Kingdom, and walked it out in the upper room, when He striped himself down to a servant and proceeded to wash Peter's feet, there was a NO from Peter, No Lord you will not do this to me.
Jesus said, unless you allow me to do this you will have No part in Me.
He is that Light shinning ever so much more brightly into our hearts, and I welcome it.
There will be NO decreasing without seeing Him! None!
So much of what most of us believe is pre Job 42..you know, all that Job knew of God was founded in what others had said..after Job 42 we see it is in his seeing God for himself, that his life took a drastic turn.
It is in His light we will see.
Shine Jesus shine. Who do you say that I AM?
Rich
He was, and ever shall be, The King of Kings and Lord of Lords-Jesus Christ!
The Father's foolishness will always be so much more wiser than man's so called smarts.
In sending His son, how could this be construed as a threat? He didn't come leading a army of soldiers mighty in battle arrayed with all of the trappings of military might.
How could this unseen fetus growing in the womb of a young virgin maiden be a threat to the Prince of darkness and all of his hordes?
Why would Satan suddenly seem to come unglued in his attempts to set into motion such devastating destruction to stop this One?
Did this One come as an invader, ushering in an invasion? Or did he come to make known that which has been buried/hidden from all eyes..the revelation of His Father heart for man?
Without seeing His heart FOR us, all of the kingdom speak will be just that, more religious verbiage.
In this unknown child, Jesus, was hidden to the world, the unspeakable gift..the Father's heart!
This was not an invasion of military pomp, might and majesty, it was a royal invitation to receive His gift to us.
More to follow... Part 2..Satan Stole, Jesus Invited.
Rich
Religion Can't Save You
Romans 2:18-20 (The Message)
If you're brought up Jewish, don't assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you're an insider to God's revelation, a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God's revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I'm quite serious. While preaching "Don't steal!" are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law. The line from Scripture, "It's because of you Jews that the outsiders are down on God," shows it's an old problem that isn't going to go away.
I trust that my heavenly Father is healing me of my blindness of heart.
Not knowing and continuing to grow in the true knowledge of God's love for us becomes fertile soil for all kinds of weeds to grow, which only hinder us from seeing clearly as He sees.
Speaking for myself, in my own life, I am slowly beginning to know a dimension and security of the Father's love whereby I can not only make room and allowances for my halt and lameness often coming to the surface from within my soul, but also in the lives of others.
There is a story in the New Testament where it says that Jesus came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho, great crowds followed along, there along the way was a blind man, Bartimaeus, when he heard that it was Jesus, he yelled out for him to have mercy upon him.
The crowd thought this to be most inappropriate, and told him so......BE QUIET!~SHUT UP!
Recognizing his desperate need, this blind man yelled out even the louder. He was ushered into Jesus presence, and as we know, those having read this account, he was healed.
The blind although very much saved, whatever that might mean, are in my opinion in many cases doing just the opposite from what well meaning Chrischuns are telling them..be quite, there, there, now now!
It seems to be incongruous to be a Christan and yet be so needy, yes needy, I thought it was the needy that qualify for the Doctors help?
I am learning it is only in being as real as I know how to be with Him, my Father, that I can be truly comforted, and in like manner can I comfort others with His comfort.
I want to make room for the crippled, lame, blind and halt of soul whoever where ever they might be, rather than giving them something that only anesthetizes their symptoms.
Rich
Getting back to that infamous Sunday morning when I heard the 'Voice'.
I was trying to fit in, going through the motions at least, when suddenly what I saw next was most perplexing. It was as if I was at a big screen movie showing. There was this large and rushing water fall that seemed to descend at almost a 90 degree angle into a pool of water that stirred up much turbulence.
There were many large fish floating belly up from having tried to go against the vicious current, and as I pondered upon this site one of the live fish swam up to me singing, this is like heaven to me.
I immediately said..NO, this not like heaven at all.
It was as if this fish could read my thoughts, pointing out what was stirring hidden within my thoughts..you're not thinking of trying to go up stream are you? To which I replied-YES. He then said, you know you will be killed if you try, I said, yes that is most likely true, but this I know, if I stay here I am already dead!
It was on the heels of this sight, I then heard my Father speaking to me and giving me an invitation, you can go and live, or stay and die.I had no understanding of what awaited my going and living, why, because my whole identity was barnacled to the sinking ship of religious temple service/activity.
Staying and dying I knew only to well, that trough I had been feeding out of for some time.
This had to be one of the saddest and at the same time painful days of my life. Everything I had ever wanted, everything I had known was connected to being in the 'ministry', I had been willing to sacrifice anything in order to follow Him. Going and living was most appealing, vs. staying and dying, but..was there Life outside of temple worship and all that had shackled me there?
I sat on what I saw and heard for some time, only sharing with my wife the events. I later shared this with my pastor my once fellow colleague, and he blessed me/us in cutting our ropes from the ship of religion, although he had no more understanding than I did at the time, but I knew to do anything less was now not an option.
This dismantling of my/our lives was set into motion in an accelerated fashion, there was no escaping our appointment with being buried alive.
It's funny how Father brings things back to our memory, especially during this most suffocating time.
He spoke to my heart about that time back in the 70's when it was cool/fashionable to have friends write a blessing of some kind in the fly leaf of our bible, I remember our pastor writing from Phil. 3..That I might know Him etc..The Lord was now speaking to me saying, you had that written in the fly leaf of your bible, but I am going to write it into your heart.
No man is going to see God and live, there has to be a death, or better yet a continuous dying, being separated from the lies of that which had fashioned my identity was much like a petrified corpse, and Satan was not going to roll over and play dead in seeing me delivered.The daily deliverance of trusting Him to save me from returning to those lies, is an ever living gift of His love.
Those were the days my friend, we thought they would never end, the song says, and yes that was but the beginning of being awakened to a world/realm of living that had no ties or connections to temple living/worship.
This newly found and unfolding discovery of Him being my freedom was most humbling as well as unnerving. His intention was to finish that which He had begun, but there were many more tunnels to yet pass through.
The illusion we buy into, is that once you have been through something as crushing and dismantling as what I and so many others have faced, you are into a zen like flow now.How wrong can you be. There are seasons of the soul, and the Father's training is prolonged until we get home.
Are we there yet??
Rich
I remember that fateful morning looking back seemingly so far and long ago. Sitting or perched in my spot within the sanctified building enduring another Sunday morning 'church service'. To this day I have NO recollection of anything that was going on around me that morning, but I was THERE!
There is so much that precedes this snap shot moment in my story, but suffice it to say, long before this morning of the axe being laid to the root of my tree, I had said to God, 'Lord, I do not want to ever even think of leaving or doing anything that is simply me being disillusioned or being impulsive.'
When I said this I meant it, but never dreamed He would in fact be confronting me, as He put it, 'You can go and Live, or stay and Die'!What He was saying to me has no reflection upon those (my brothers and sisters in Christ) who were there with me that morning, I have no idea of what, or anything He might have been saying to them, BUT, I was wide awake to Him speaking to me.
Its as if I was dreaming, or as Ray (Kevin Costner) Kinsella said in the movie the Field of Dreams.."I'm 36 years old, I love my family, I love baseball, and I'm about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice, I'd never done a crazy thing in my whole life." I'm throwing this other quote in here as well re: dreaming..I love this conversation taking place in the movie..."Is this heaven? No, its Iowa! Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven. Is there a heaven? Oh yeah. It's the place where dreams come true...maybe this is heaven."
Well I had done some very crazy things in my life and walk with the Lord up to this point, but there was more unfolding than simply being disillusioned here.It was the worst of times that morning as well as the best of times, but, it was just the beginning of my world being dismantled.
Thank you Father.
He then proceeded to fill in some of the blanks for me..Stay tuned.
Rich
If the whole world lies under the power or influence of (the evil one) Satan, then everything outside of Christ is religion!
Nothing is as it appears to be, we live in world of illusion, which has been pulled over our minds, making all of us prisoners to the Matrix that the father of religion has constructed.
Religion, no matter what color, size, shape or packaging it comes in, is powerless to keep a person ensnared without there being something hidden from sight, some impetus that gives the Matrix of religion its enslaving power.
That power is Satan working, maintaining and keeping this illusion alive and well in to many minds (souls) to count.
The movie The Island, clearly depicts this subterfuge of the Matrix, as soon as there is the slightest rip, or tears in the fabric of the lie/s being used to keep minds held captive, something happens as in a shift of focus to distract one from ever seeing the Truth, but as the truth is revealed to the two main characters in the movie, they are used to free the rest of those still imprisoned.
For all of us who have been rebirthed, the truth is at first and best simply (although we use the right language) a conceptual thing.Seeing the truth as in the person of the Christ is not what the father of lies and religion can ever afford anyone to see.
The Truth sets the clouded mind free, as so well put by Paul when sharing with certain believers, ‘Who has bewitched or beguiled you’?Religion at best is bewitching, casting as it were a spell over the soul, giving the impression of freedom which is its power of illusion.
So many are becoming disillusioned in and with churchianity, but this is just the beginning, it will take much more than being disillusioned to be extricated from this prison house. The house will have to be torn down; unfortunately it is in the demolishing of this structure, which is defined in us as an identity that is false. (A form of godliness, but no substance to it)
As this process of separation unfolds the temptation to want to take the ‘blue pill vs. the red pill’ (see the movie The Matrix) will never be so real.
Hells lies are being exposed for what they are in light of Him the Truth. Our enemy although defeated by the One, who is our only Life resident in us, knows whether we know Him as Truth or simply a mind-conceptual thing.
He (Satan) will, and is contesting this attempt of the light shinning into the darkness. He knows that a person can not loose their salvation, but, he also knows that through trickery and cunning deceit, he can keep the believer from ever becoming a threat to the lies that still keep so many captive to the Matrix of religion.
The saying, “Most have more faith in Satan’s ability to deceive us then in God’s ability to lead us” has never been truer than in the hour we now live.
Jesus constantly used comparisons-contrasts…I am the ‘True vine, bread, shepherd etc.’ there is the Father, and then there is the father of lies as Jesus referred to Satan.It seems in our not knowing Him as our only Life; we readily accept the word-voice of the father of lies instead. Our blindness in not seeing and in hearing the lover of our soul speaking to us, further ensures our prolonged stay in the prison of the matrix.
Rich
I was watching an episode of the X-Files the other night, and the story reminded me of something that is becoming very clear to me.
Shape-Shifter ~One that seems to be able to change form or identity at will.
"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."
Mulder and Sculley were investigating a supposed murder and in the process of their investigation stumbled into discovering a cave, but before they went into this cave they accidental stepped on some mushrooms that exploded with a release of spores.
Little did either of them know, that by stepping on those mushrooms and ingesting the spores, that this was a deliberate and planed strategy by something that had no resemblance to what was going to try and kill both of them.
Deep beneath the surface there was this plant life that covered numerous acres, it was a fungus plant life that needed to feed on living (human) tissue. Before it could begin its work of dissolving the tissue, it attacked their minds, sedating the victim and rendering then powerless. Maybe this looks something like this in one of the conversations Paul was having with a group of believers.
Paul: "Will you put up with a little foolish aside from me? Please, just for a moment. The thing that has me so upset is that I care about you so much—this is the passion of God burning inside me! I promised your hand in marriage to Christ, presented you as a pure virgin to her husband. And now I'm afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ.It seems that if someone shows up preaching quite another Jesus than we preached—different spirit, different message—you put up with him quite nicely."
I think Paul saw through the smoke screen here and was warning them and us that there are no other options to consider in knowing Freedom. The baited hook that was and is offered to us all as it was in this setting was an enlightenment, but hidden within it was the entrapment.
All the time, in this case with Mulder and Sculley the hallucinogenics from the spores from the mushrooms were working in giving then the illusion of being somewhere else, living their normal existence, but in fact they were being slowly dissolved by this fungus.
They both ended up escaping, but just barely.
Isn't it interesting that Satan can not stop the miracle of grace translating a person out of his kingdom into the realm of the Father, but it does not mean by a long shot that he simply rolls over and says, the hell with it!He is the hidden shape-shifter in us all, and until, (and this is a process), we come to see that even though rebirthed, we can still be very busy, according to our understanding, following hard after God, doing the stuff, whatever that might be. But maybe as in the episode I watched, the hallucinogens of religion working its work in us, gives us something tangible, measurable, what we think is really happening, but in fact we're going fast nowhere.
It was for this purpose that the Son of God was manifested in the flesh, that he might destroy the enemy's bewitching/beguiling works, or release us from the religious Matrix that wants to keep us trying, resorting to our efforts to please God, by trying just a bit harder.
Why is it so soon in most cases after a person has been rebirthed they end up sucked into something so far from reality? Maybe it is because we are trying to mix or blend this relationship with the Father with something that has nothing to do with Life.
The shape-shifter (Satan) hidden within our flesh is working through the hallucinogens of religion to keep us believing we are in fact pursuing and pleasing God.
Our enemy knows that there is only one thing that can shift and shape our being and that is the Love of the Father, and so he works with whatever it takes to keep the believer fixated on lies that will flatter the persons fleshly ego.
I love this quote from A.W. Tozer.."We are to a large degree the sum of our loves and we will of moral necessity grow into the image of what we love most; for love is among other things a creative affinity. It changes and molds and shapes and transforms. It is without doubt the most powerful agent affecting human nature next to the direct action of the Holy Spirit of God within the soul."
Rich
I read this, this morning, and reflecting upon it, I see some things that tie in with what I posted earlier regarding seeing who and what ‘family’ just might be.
As our loving Father brings in the needed and ongoing separation between our spirit and our soul, that internal separation will spell (and spill out) more often than not an external separation, i.e. great loneliness, and isolation, but there is a divine and loving heart behind all of this newly discovered prolonged pain.
It has nothing to do with trying to be better than (there is nothing sacred about being sanctimonious) or trying harder to please God by trying harder. But in fact it is us being drawn into a realm of reality that yielded to will bring forth Life out of death, Light out of darkness, but it is a process, being processed by the very Word that was fully processed by the same Father, our Father!
How many times has this same story unfolded through out the centuries, from the earliest of times even shortly after the church was birthed on the day of Pentecost?
“Christians have always tended to transform the Christian Revelation into a Christian religion. People tend to transform Christianity into a religion because the Christian faith obviously places people in an extremely uncomfortable position: that of freedom guided only by love and all in the context of God's radical demand that we be holy.”
I wonder as I am being awakened in this new world of His reality, ‘without holiness, no man shall see God?’
The Holy One is in His temple, in me, but is this reality worth all that it will cost me?
Lord, be it done in me according to your Word!
Rich
Faith vs Belief by Jacques Ellul
Belief provides answers to people's questions, so as to find assurance and provide a solution; so as to fashion for themselves a system of beliefs. Faith is not to supply us with explanation, but to get us to listen to God's questions. Belief talks and talks, it wallows in words, it takes the initiative to explain. Faith listens patiently. Belief brings people together, joined in the same institutional current, oriented toward the same object of belief, sharing the same ideas, following the same rituals, enrolled in the same organization, speaking the same language. It has the social benefit of consensus and identification. Faith individualizes. It has to do with a personal relationship with God in which God confers each with unique identity. Faith separates people and makes them unique, set apart for what God wants to do. Belief is antithetical to doubt. It is the basis of fundamentalism; people unbending in their convictions, intolerant of any deviation. In their articulation of belief they press rigor and absolutism to their limits. Belief is rapidly transformed into passwords, rites, orthodoxy. Faith recognizes doubt. Faith puts to the test every element of my life and society. It leads me to question all my certitudes, all my moralities, beliefs, and policies. It forbids me to attach ultimate significance to any expression of human activity."
taken from Jacques Ellul - Living Faith.
The reality and Life of the Father suddenly appears to burp up into our consciousness and this is but the beginnings of great turmoil and pain!
Why? We either continue to play the game (make believe) or we dare look into seeing how deep this rabbit hole in fact just might be.
In the process of trying to share our pain, confusion, with 'family' as a direct result (although this is not seen at first) of the Life of the Father gripping ones soul and only being brought to a place of total bewilderment when those faces do not reflect a message of, wow, oh yes, I understand what you are saying, going through. If anyone should understand it, it would be family..right? Maybe we need to take a fresh look at who and what family just might BE.
I love the story a friend of Wayne Jacobson's (Jack) shared with him on a recent pod cast, http://www.thegodjourney.com/wordpress/index.php
'When You Can't Play The Game Any Longer', and it is this part in particular I want to capture, as it ties in so well.
"I don't understand this, I'm sharing with family and yet something is wrong. He later came to realize he wasn't sharing with family, he was sharing with dear,dear friends,very good friends, but they weren't family, they weren't people on the same journey. They were just good people, good Christan's trying harder to please God by trying harder."
I know the Father is no respecter of persons, but just maybe he is a respecter of hearts..you know, Man judges a book by its cover, sees man on the outside, but our Father looks upon the heart.
Here is an interesting scenario unfolding as Jesus is interrupted while sharing His heart with the people..
Matthew 12 (The Message)46-47
While he was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers showed up. They were outside trying to get a message to him. Someone told Jesus, "Your mother and brothers are out here, wanting to speak with you."
48-50 Jesus didn't respond directly, but said, "Who do you think my mother and brothers are?" He then stretched out his hand toward his disciples. "Look closely. These are my mother and brothers. Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys my heavenly Father's will is my brother and sister and mother."
This isn't about me-us vs them, but it is very much about learning who my family..brothers and sisters are. There are those who are sent ahead as it were into this living hellish crucible and coming out of it on the other side, much like how it is portrayed in science fiction shows when someone passes through a worm hole. They have come into a whole new world of reality that may not have anything to do with how they sized things up (measured reality) in their previous world.
We have all been born in sin and shaped (defined by its power) in iniquity. Maybe I, we, are not the people we think we are.
Maybe this Jesus~meek and mild, won't hurt a child is not the (Aslan) Jesus that rebirthed us? He is a Lion, but He is not tame. In this Lion there is the Lamb.
Everything within us has been defined, shaped by this death-life we inherited by being born into the human race. How can that which is man, created to be dependent, ever become independent, and yet that is the lie all of us have partaken of.
The illusion is that we are our own god, living independently of the True God, but in fact Satan living in our flesh has blinded us from seeing that in our defiance of not looking to Him as our All, we became totally dependent upon another-Satan.
Is there any difference at all from that which Neo faced in the movie The Matrix, or as it was so excellently depicted in the movie, The Truman Story? Simply living out a pre written script for us, giving us the opiated belief that we were doing our own thing.
All of creation is standing on tip-toe with baited breath, watching diligently for the manifest sons of God to appear, to liberate them from the curse.
As Jesus went into the wine-olive press alone to be bruised, crushed and broken, so we to are invited to share in His triumph.
It is in coming out on the other side of these most necessary times that we will be there for those being unplugged from the Matrix of religion and Being Him to them.
Rich
Some words from ...Norman P. Grubb
Karuizawa Japan Conference of 1954Topic: “The Liberated Self”
"I just point out what is of course obvious to us who are Bible teachers and Bible students -- how you can trace out in almost every great life of the Bible, the period, the long period that it took for God to get a person to discover his insufficiency, to break to pieces his self-reliance, and then to replace it by God-reliance. And God-reliance is union. In every case you’ll find great moments when these men came out into union. But the union couldn’t be realized until the man had become the nothing so that God could become the everything. It couldn’t! You cannot know a free Christ inside you until you’ve been freed from yourself. You can’t know two people inside at the same time. You can’t know the indwelling Christ in His liberated presence conveying His mind to us, conveying His Word to us, conveying His power to us, and conveying His beauty and purity to us unless we’ve first of all been through that basic experience which has put out the self-sufficient self. Put it out! And it’s a real putting out. It’s as real a crucifixion for me as it is for Jesus Christ in the Spirit. When Paul said, “I am crucified,” it wasn’t a theory. It was something he had gone through. Those nails had pierced his personality even as they had pierced those Holy hands and feet. And we all no doubt take delight in digging out those simple facts for ourselves and expounding to others the evidences in the histories of the great biographies of the Bible. The years it’s taken God to give blind, earnest, utterly consecrated men such an eye opener to their helplessness, and then the replacement of their helplessness by Himself. That’s the meaning of the burning bush. We all know the story of Moses. I needn’t dwell much on these things because we know them so well."
Rich
I was thinking about obedience being better than sacrifice, yes I realize this is from an OT (Old Testament) quote, but hear me out.
Without knowing, (seeing-hearing) the work of the Spirit or how Father is speaking to a person, at best, most imitate/fake it, and expect there to be some kind of results. When that doesn't work, well, just try harder right??
Of course if the bottom line is.."It works" then one can't go wrong, or can they?
Knowing His love, produces (for it is Christ that works in you both to will and to do) what He desires for us.
Is Jesus looking to be flattered by us imitating Him..."Imitation is the greatest form of flattery?"
But isn't that what religion has done from the very get go? It takes Him initiating the work, we at best stumble into the outer expression, in the visible realm where it suddenly appears that we have in fact done the right thing!
Multitudes seem to be wanting to simply follow or mimic the actions of those that are 'led' by/of His spirit..you know, 'Those that are led of the spirit, they ARE the sons of God stuff!
I remember reading a story once where this person who worked in a group home for the hearing impaired as well as the deaf.
He was listening one day to some great tunes on the radio, bopping and grooving to the beat, snapping his fingers and tapping his foot. He was in sync with the beat~man.
There was this deaf boy watching this interesting drama unfolding. Not having ever had the use of his ears or being able to hear from birth, he tried to mimic the other hearing boys actions.
It was most humorous (but sad) to see, the deaf boys actions were not in time or sync with the music or beat, it was like watching a bad movie.
Isn't it much the same with what churcianity has been doing for a very long time, their inability to hear for themselves, the individual, have been imitating those that can and do hear from the Father.
Is it any wonder that this to has appeared as a bad B Japanese dubbed movie?
Is our Father lacking in creativity, or is it us, so afraid of being the one and only unique expression of Him in you, marching to His beat?
I guess there is always the option of just blending in.
Rich
Was it just a shift, a new paradigm that Saul needed in his hellish bent and determined madness of coming directly against the Lord?Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting ME?
I guess if one is 'sincere' it can't be all bad, right? Wrong!! No doubt about this mad man being sincere, but most sincerely wrong. His life was an accident looking for a place to happen.
It will never be about developing a new language, or getting the words/wording right, aka, a new paradigm. It is and continues to be an unfolding revelation of Him..He must increase, I must decrease.That sounds pretty easy, we've got the formula, lets get on with the show~ha!
It is much more than simply trying to wade through a mixture of muddled thoughts. It is going to be a hellish night mare, the Prince of Peace welding His sword and plunging (impaling) it deep into the core of our being.
His (Him being that Living Word-sword) word is sharper than any lazar man has, (man can separate the bone from the marrow) in bringing division between the spirit and the soul.
To my way of thinking this is a fulfillment of that which the Lord did through the prophet Jeremiah, Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish,And then start over, building and planting." Sounds like fun? A piece of cake this transition will be...right?
Maybe the devastation that comes as result of His word rooting out (sorting out things aka separating) in the depths of our being might have something to do with..Blessed are those who mourn-grieve, for they shall be comforted.
What might one be mourning-grieving..maybe the lose of that which was most failure to us, that false identity we thought was really us.
As He is tearing down all that has been established within our lives that represented who we thought we were, might it not be an occasion to 'rebuke the devil', thinking, this couldn't be my Fathers work..could it?????
I am seeing more and more that this evolution-transition-transformation, is going to bring more and more instability into my equilibrium before the unshakableness of His life in me becomes evident.
I do NOT see Jesus ever saying or implying that this miracle of being transfered out of the kingdom of darkness into the marvelous kingdom of light and love of the Father is ever going uncontested by the enemy of our soul..NEVER! The gates of hell will NOT prevail, but there is going to be a contesting!
Can you just hear Jesus (according to our self-preservation) saying to Peter..Satan has asked over and over to have you..to sift you as wheat, and I have given him the okay to do this. No reason to fear Bro, the transition is going to be totally pain free~ha!
Yeah, that's what our fleshly, carnal thinking is purposing. I want to know Him deeply, I want a growing relationship with Him, but none of this ongoing work of the cross please.
It was hellishly painful for Peter to be thrust into this living nightmare at the hands of the Lord saying, go ahead Satan, give it your best shot.
Another picture that is somewhat askew in our muddled thinking, the young rich ruler asking Jesus what he needed to do to have everlasting life?
Jesus seeing that this fellow was being ruled by what he though he ruled with and over, said, go sell all that you have and give the money all away, then come and follow me.
Many would love to read it like this..Jesus speaking to the young rich ruler, Now listen up Bro, it's not as bad as you think it's going to be, I'm going to make this transition to be as painless as possible for you, remember, meek and mild, I wouldn't hurt a child Jesus...well thats me, you just keep what you have and follow me~ha!
I especially see a loving Father amputating another one at the knees, this time it being Saul of Tarsus. It wasn't just a minor tweaking, or new paradigm shift this murderer needed.
The transition was going to come out of a head on collision with the God and Father of all comfort, but first, it was going to feel much like a hellish BB-Q taking place.
Is it any wonder in the ongoing miracle of His grace bringing into alignment, our spirit with our soul, that it might be looked upon as the enemy's activity instead of a loving Father's care?
I love the real/true illustration Steve McVey used in his first book he wrote, talking about the time he rushed his son to the emergency room at the hospital, and finding out that his son was in most critical need of immediate attention to alleviate a build up to toxic poisons as a result of a blocked bladder.
The Doctor needed to insert a catheter into the boys penis, this was more than the little boy could stand, the pain had him writhing like a slippery snake.
The Doctor insisted that his dad forcefully hold his son down while this was inserted in the boy. Steve's son already consumed with fear and crying asked, Dad, why are you letting this man hurt me? Only to see his dad now forcefully holding his weight down upon his sons chest holding him still while the doctor caused even greater pain.
This was too much to bear, not just for the son, but even more so for Steve, the father.
Our Father's intention is not having us living a pain free life, in other words, His top priority is not our immediate happiness, but to be conformed into His likeness..that transition is going to be much more than 'a new learning curve-paradigm' cross over.
Our Father's continuous work is to destroy in our flesh the plans and purposes of Satan, in destroying this hidden destroyer, we will not understand much of the needed amputation taking place at all, but, do we really want new wine in an old wine skin?
Rich
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit!
Was the Father offering nothing but a religious (illusory) fantasy to the poor through His Son?
Or is that the best that religion has to offer mankind?
Who and what is the oppressor of mankind, is it not the father of all religion, Satan, hidden, incognito within all flesh, the one that torments and rules man, rather than man ruling?
Jesus said you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
"Speaking to the people, he went on, "Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot."
I found what Marx had to say about religion to be most insightful as far as it went, and especially that religion was but in fact a 'symptom' of a far greater disease.
This 'dis-ease', a lack of confidence, (significance, worth, value) security, strength, hope can never be found in the soul candy-cocaine that religion hands out to us!
Jesus did not come to bring Utopia to earth, or Shangri-la, but he came to give His life as a Ransom, to liberate man from the one hidden within him that was slowly but certainly destroying him.
This Peace was going to be defined in the person of God's Son, Christ Jesus...He himself said, I have not come to bring peace (in fact He was and is the Prince of Peace) but a sword.
The rule and reign of this peace is only available in His person-Life, the ability to stand, having done all...STAND! No longer being tossed to and fro by the cunning and craftiness of men.
Being extricated from the Matrix of religion is a most painful and costly adventure..as one man put it (the apostle Paul), because of this Man, I have suffered the loss of ALL things.
Rich
Is Religion the Opiate of the Masses?
This quote is reproduced a great deal and is probably the only Marx quote that most people are familiar with. Unfortunately, if someone is familiar with it they are likely only familiar with a small portion that, taken by itself, tends to give a distorted impression of what Marx had to say about religion.
Religious distress is at the same time the _expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, Or is that the best that religion the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
Usually all one gets from the above is "Religion is the opium of the people" (with no ellipses to indicate that something has been removed).
Sometimes "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature" is included. If you compare these with the full quotation, it’s clear that a great deal more is being said than what most people are aware of.
In the above quotation Marx is saying that religion’s purpose is to create illusory fantasies for the poor. Economic realities prevent them from finding true happiness in this life, so religion tells them that this is OK because they will find true happiness in the next life. Although this is a criticism of religion, Marx is not without sympathy: people are in distress and religion provides solace, just as people who are physically injured receive relief from opiate-based drugs.
The quote is not, then, as negative as most portray (at least about religion). In some ways, even the slightly extended quote which people might see is a bit dishonest because saying "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature..." deliberately leaves out the additional statement that it is also the "heart of a heartless world."
What we have is a critique of society that has become heartless rather than of religion which tries to provide a bit of solace. One can argue that Marx offers a partial validation of religion in that it tries to become the heart of a heartless world. For all its problems, religion doesn’t matter so much — it is not the real problem. Religion is a set of ideas, and ideas are expressions of material realities. Religion is a symptom of a disease, not the disease itself.
Still, it would be a mistake to think that Marx is uncritical towards religion — it may try to provide heart, but it fails. For Marx, the problem lies in the obvious fact that an opiate drug fails to fix a physical injury — it merely helps you forget pain and suffering. This may be fine up to a point, but only as long as you are also trying to solve the underlying problems causing the pain. Similarly, religion does not fix the underlying causes of people’s pain and suffering — instead, it helps them forget why they are suffering and gets them to look forward to an imaginary future when the pain will cease.
Even worse, this "drug" is administered by the same oppressors who are responsible for the pain and suffering in the first place. Religion is an _expression of more fundamental unhappiness and symptom of more fundamental and oppressive economic realities. Hopefully, humans will create a society in which the economic conditions causing so much pain and suffering would be eradicated and, therefore, the need for soothing drugs like religion will cease. Of course, for Marx such a turn of events isn’t to be "hoped for" because human history was leading inevitably towards it.
So, in spite of his obvious dislike of and anger towards religion, Marx did not make religion the primary enemy of workers and communists, regardless of what might have been done by 20th century communists. Had Marx regarded religion as a more serious enemy, he would have devoted more time to it in his writings. Instead, he focused on economic and political structures that in his mind served to oppress people.
For this reason, some Marxists could be sympathetic to religion. Karl Kautsky, in his Foundations of Christianity, wrote that early Christianity was, in some respects, a proletarian revolution against privileged Roman oppressors. In Latin America, some Catholic theologians have used Marxist categories to frame their critique of economic injustice, resulting in "liberation theology."
Marx’s relationship with and ideas about religion are more complex than most realize. Marx’s analysis of religion has flaws, but despite them his perspective is worth taking seriously. Specifically, he argues that religion is not so much an independent "thing" in society but, rather, a reflection or creation of other, more fundamental "things" like economic relationships. That’s not the only way of looking at religion, but it can provide some interesting illumination on the social roles that religion plays.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
From~Faithfully Dangerous
http://nthegarden.blogspot.com/Jesus demonstrated the life for his followers so clearly and in turn we make it fuzzy. We then proceed in setting down hard lines and boundaries Jesus never spoke of or demonstrated.
What I want to share here isn't an episode from the X-Files with Fox Mulder saying, 'The Truth is out there.' The Truth, Christ in us, is a very real and fixed reality..not..from a distance God is watching over us, crap!
The miracle of the rebirthing (it wasn't the result of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but by the word-sperma of God) became a reality when we cried out to Him....BAMMMMMM!
He clearly says, no one comes to the Father except through the Son, and no one comes to the Son except through His Spirit.
The point being, there was a heart-grace collision that resulted in Life as a result of yielding to His Spirit.
When and where did things get fuzzy, hard lines and boundaries get established, when we no longer stayed in step with His spirit. If it was the Holy Spirit working in conjunction with the Father and Son in the rebirthing, it only stands to reason that apart from the Holy Spirit there is NO way to know this (His) Life that has invaded me!!!
Apart from becoming like unto a child as Jesus stressed, the best we can become (although saved) is in having a form of godliness, but lacking any power (display of Life).
Rich
A quote from Richard Foster..
" All who seek God have a perennial tendency to idolize the means through which he is made known to us. Perhaps it was by means of an altar call that God wonderfully broke into our lives. Perhaps it was in reciting of a particular liturgy, or the singing of a special hymn, or the reading of a specific book, or the unmediated quiet of our home, or while we were in a particular posture. We then take that living experience and calcify it and idolize it as the way to meet God. Without realizing it, we soon turn a vibrant, life-giving reality into a new legalism, which breathes death."
Taken from.. http://thegodjourney.com/forums/index.php?action=recent
The flesh at best has only insecurities, we will never improve upon its sickness.
Our insecurities are nothing but our flesh trying to live apart from the only source of Life, the Son.
How can we who were created to be dependent, ever live independently?
How can I be secure and insecure at the same time, well, it depends on how we see ourselves? If the Truth is being defined in the person of Christ and He is my only Life, maybe that will shed the true light on who He is and who I am in Him?
When I do not see Him as my only Life, my soul is going to be governed by someone-YOU HAVE TO SERVE SOMEBODY.
Our soul is much like the moon, it has no life-power of its own, our true self is being set free over and over (transformed) to do one thing, like the moon, reflect the Glory of the Greater One, the Son.
We were created to be someones slave, a slave of the the unrighteous one or the Righteous One.
Not for one second does Satan want any of us to Know the Truth, thats why he being the father of All religion, tries to keep the sons of light in darkness.
Perfect love is needed to drive the darkness out, it's not trying to be secure, but only in seeing Him!
Rich
A follow up here with some additional thoughts I think fit in well with what I have previously shared.
The following is an excerpt from Oswald Chambers reading for today.
Rich
Spiritual truth is learned by atmosphere, not by intellectual reasoning. God's Spirit alters the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things begin to be possible which never were possible before. Getting into the stride of God means nothing less than union with Himself. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don't give in because the pain is bad just now, get on with it, and before long you will find you have a new vision and a new purpose.
http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi
Matthew 18:2-4 (English Standard Version)
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
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His grace has made it possible for me to become like a child, and unless I do, the reality of my Father's love, care and provision will be obscured from me.
Seek first this living reality of the Father's love for you, and everything else you stand in need of (every need, every prayer) will be answered as He gives you a greater and fuller revelation of His Son!
In the movie Hook, Peter had grown up in more ways than one. His ability to see who he once was (Peter Pan) was now totally obscured from his mind.
The one scene in the movie where he (Peter) now in Never Land is being examined by one of the children there, as this child squeezes the grown up man Peter's face into strange contortions he exclaims, 'Oh there you are Peter.'
The only way Peter (the Pan) could ever rescue his two children from Hook will be in returning to his childlike identity, and in so doing he will be able to fight, fly and crow...and ultimately, rescue his children. Unless he becomes like a child all over again, his children are doomed.
We have no identity apart from knowing Him, Christ in you the hope of glory. We are encouraged by His spirit to not allow the world to squeeze (conform) us into its empty image, but to be transformed into His image.
A short while back there was a movie out called, The Da Vinci Code, I believe there is another code as it were for the believer called the Mystery (Christ in you) or Jesus Code.
It is an understanding that has been encrypted, (convert ordinary language into code) whereby apart from the Holy Spirit making known to us the true knowledge of the One who has become our only Life, although rebirthed, our true identity is pretty much a secret with held from us.
The reality of Him being our Father on an ever growing experiential level is just not going to happen.
Maybe this is much ado about everything pertaining to His claim, 'I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly.'
What caused such rapturous joy to explode within the Sons heart when he said, 'Father I thank you that you have hidden this true knowledge of who You are from the wise guys, but have made it known to babes.'
And a child shall lead them!
Rich
I wonder if what Oswald Chambers shares below might have something to do with the delight the Father expressed after his Son Jesus came up from being baptized in the Jordan River?
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased-delighted!
Until we discover because of His grace alone, that we ARE a perfect delight to Him, our Father, we will settle for dressing ourselves up with whatever eye candy is available.
Although we remain His sons, we live as orphans, fending for ourselves, and trying to win His affections.
Rich
His
http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi
Our Lord makes a disciple His own possession, He becomes responsible for him. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me." The spirit that comes in is not that of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The secret of the missionary is - I am His, and He is carrying out His enterprises through me.
Be entirely His.
An excerpt from a article my friend Art Licursi wrote.A New Moral Consciousness for Man
By Receiving the Light of Christ’s Life
Rich
http://www.angelfire.com/al4/artlicursi
Mankind Deluded
That first deluded choice was made by Adam and Eve, although it was not totally deliberate on their part, as was Lucifer’s choice. Lucifer’s choice established him as false deity with his self-for-self nature. Adam’s choice placed mankind within Lucifer’s grasp. By this, Lucifer could and did infect Adam and Eve with his false-self, joined to their soul-selves. Lucifer is "that (evil) spirit who works in us the children of disobedience." Eph. 2:1-3. Man was the one 2 Cor. 4:4 In whom the god of this world (the Devil) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
By now I hope you can see that all humans are born under a delusion, thinking of our selves as being self-acting persons, when in actual fact we are expressing another life and nature. We are "driven" to express the nature of an indwelling spirit who is "working" within us. This delusion is the huge lie that prevents Christians from enjoying the life and power of the indwelling Christ as their life with rest in their souls. When we were sinners we thought it was "just us." There never was a "just us." It was formerly "Sin" as us, and now, now being regenerated, it is "Christ" as us.
The Sin-spirit himself – the Devil, was the first to occupy man’s being, and he is at work in all "the children of disobedience". Therefore, the plain and simple outcome is that, through the fall, mankind became spontaneous expressers of Lucifer’s self-for-self nature ("in sin did my mother conceive me" Psalm 51:5), yet at the same time we are deluded into thinking it is just we who are failing and having a hard time trying to be like Jesus of Nazareth. The truth is that we are not to be "like" Jesus; we Christians have Christ alive in us, desiring to live His life through us as the new us.
No Longer I
Paul ultimately saw through this delusion saying Romans 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Paul saw that an indwelling nature, Sin, had usurped mankind and him. Yet, Paul also came to see the remedy that is the Christian’s via the cross. The remedy is ours when we see Christ’s death as our death to our "old man" (Rom 6:6-7), and receive His indwelling life and nature as our new life and nature in place of that old, fallen nature of Sin. Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. This is man made alive by Christ, just as God purposed in Christ Jesus.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they {began} gnashing their teeth at him. Act 7:55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; Act 7:56 and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Act 7:57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. Act 7:58 When they had driven him out of the city, they {began} stoning {him;} and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Act 7:59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on {the Lord} and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" Act 7:60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" Having said this, he fell asleep.
I love how the foolishness of God is greater than all of man's wisdom, and how the weakness of God is greater than all of man's strength. How much of this life we now have in Christ Jesus is assumed to be either ours in a fixed auto-pilot setting, or it happens by osmosis.
So many have assumed wrongly that this arresting of Saul of Tarsus was done without human agency, but I beg to to differ.
Wasn't it Jesus himself that said a very similar thing in his closing moments on the cross..Father forgive them for they know what they do.
Stephen..Lord do not hold this sin against them--those about to kill him.
A door opened up in Christ Jesus through laying his life down that had been closed since the fall in the garden..salvation for whomsoever.
Stephen laying down his life, opened a door for all that were there that day, but for whatever reason, the only one I can see that was affected-infected by this was Saul.
Why is it that we can not grasp the fact the Father is more than capable of making known His heart to us?
For conversation sake, is it remotely possible that the Lord spoke to Stephen's heart and maybe to others about this murder of the church called Saul?
Maybe it was never meant to be a showy thing at all. Those sensing Father's heart in this case for Saul, simply lifted this man up to the only one capable of reaching a very closed heart?
Maybe there was no need to recruit others to pray for this one Father wanted to meet. Perhaps the Damascus Road encounter with the Living God was a natural out working of something the Father had worked into the lives of those not willing to cling to self, willing to loose their lives in order to truly find them
How did they overcome the wicked one, by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony and not clinging to their lives.
Maybe there is a militancy in this Life of the Father that few ever get to experience. No greater love has any man than being willing to lay down their life for another.
Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it will produce a rich and lasting harvest.
Even a blind man can count the seeds in an apple, but only our Father can count the orchards in one Seed.
Maybe the church (the family gathering) Jesus is forming is truly unobtrusive (invisible) as far as anyone wanting to be seen for who they are or what they can do.
Maybe we are to live as His works of art reflecting His glory, with no attempt to solicit anyone to join our denomination, flavour or group.
So live as His works of art, that men may see your Heavenly Father!!
Rich
Paul in addressing the believers of his day warned them of the Judaizers, those wanting to mix law with grace.
What is the current name for our Judaizers?
Did Jesus warn his own of just a little bit of leaven (of the Pharisees) as in, Our pastor preaches mostly grace with only a tiny but of law?
How much Law does it take to make null and void His grace? I think Paul said, it's either all Law or it's all Grace.
But Richard, there is no perfect 'church'. No, but His grace is!
Rich
Values Education
Character Building
Character Education
To me, all the above are nothing more than a smoke screen for the age-old scam – Satan’s diabolical scheme to convince us that we don’t need God.
(By our own self-effort, we can manage just fine, thank you. Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God).
‘Values Education’ would have us focus on improving our self-esteem, our self-worth, self-respect, self-image, etc. Hmmmm…I seem to detect a common thread here: SELF! Contrary to what God says, we are NOT flawed beyond repair. We were NOT ‘born in sin and shaped in iniquity’. We were born good! All we have to do is work on our bad points. We do NOT have to depend upon God because we have it all within our own grasp. By our own self-effort, we can BE LIKE GOD.
My wife often sees what she is doing as a junior and senior kindergarten teacher as merely civilizing them (aging from three and a half to five) and setting up with what she is permitted to do to help them navigate through life.
According to someone, God was supposedly removed from the class room, funny how He is still very much there in the lives of so many teachers, simply being Jesus to whomever.
I find it interesting the wording Paul uses in the New Testament, Ephesians 2:3, ‘By nature we were children of wrath.’
My perception on the whole garden scene was allowing Adam a choice represented by the two trees. Each tree represented a nature, why?Is it possible that man (all those in Adam) were created without a nature? Man was going to be governed or ruled by a nature, God or Satan.
(I love the song by Bob Dylan, ‘You’ve got to serve somebody.’)In choosing to disobey God, man, in eating of the wrong tree then became at that moment one now possessing a nature of a father, but sadly, the nature of one whom Jesus called, ‘the father of lies.’
Sadly in my opinion what we have mistakenly adopted and adapted to is an erroneous name given to our nature as being human.Maybe what happened was the prince of this fallen world Satan himself became cloaked in a stealth mode totally invading man disguised as human nature?
I think it is a pretty normal thing for anyone who has ever had to go to the hospital to have an x-ray taken, and seen the results come back showing clearly what was not seen by the naked eye.Is that what happened for instance when Jesus said, ‘You are of your father the Devil?’
The heart surgeon specialist Jesus, seeing and revealing clearly what in fact was mans true nature, not human but indwelt by Satan himself.This robber, killer, destroyer and liar was being exposed for who he was, and consequently caused a vicious attack by those Jesus addressed as having Satan as their father.
These people that came apart at the seems in hearing Jesus calling them sons of the devil were in fact religious and outwardly good, nice, fine upstanding folk, but don’t look inside, you won’t like what you see. (Pay no attention to that liar cloaked in human flesh)All have sinned and fallen from His glorious purpose, there are none that seek Him-none!
I see Satan being the master architect of all religion and although it wasn’t clearly being presented this way to Adam and Eve in the garden, Satan desired, craved to be worshiped.
There has been birthed within us a whole army of coping tricks (props) and man has become successful in learning and applying them to his living in this world, but at his core apart from the rebirthing there is the illusion of grandeur and superiority of some flesh being better than others.
Flesh is and always will be only flesh Jesus said. In His partaking of and becoming flesh, maybe by experience He discovered that apart from the nature of the Father within him, he could not do anything of himself as he continually reminded us.
It is this very subject I long to see in greater clarity and will share as further light is given to me.
Our enemy Satan has been stripped of his power over our lives, which is all part of the Message of life and hope freely given to us in Christ Jesus, but, there is still a cloaked hidden enemy within our and all flesh. It is the progressive and continued working of grace being applied to our souls that continues to free us from Satan’s influence.The spirit of this world (age) has one intention, to conform us, to shape us from within our souls as if we were play dough and the father of lies Satan displaying an expression of humanity that has become its own god.
Maybe Paul clearly saw through the smoke and mirrors of deception, when he said, ‘Don't be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're animals. Stay clear of these people.’
I hope to continue on this theme as I am further directed.
Rich
What Our Cheers Might Reveal
http://www.lifestream.org/blog/
That may be why so many people who have seen through the bondages of religious systems have yet to find great freedom and life beyond it. It is easy to cheer for the destruction of things that have hurt us. I get emails like that all the time, cheering on things I’ve written about the ineffectiveness of religion. Some of those I know who call out the loudest for the destruction of organized religion as we know it are sometimes the least transformed personally to reflect the compassion and character of God to people around them—especially to those still captive in the system.
Interestingly, I do not get the same cheers back from people when I talk about letting God rework us from the inside and what needs to die in us if we’re going to experience the fullness of his life. If we could only see that our pride and independence are even more destructive, especially because they live with us every day. Real transformation doesn’t happen out there in structures and systems, but first in those who are willing to let him transform them at the most broken places of their lives.
And if you’re not ready for that, then you’re just really not sure yet how much this awesome God loves you. Keep exploring that until finally your joy at his dealing with your pride is greater than your hope at him blowing up religion. Then we’ll know we are well on the path to his life!
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I loved this piece Wayne Jacobson posted on his blog, it reminds me of Pogo-“We have met the enemy…and he is us”.
Jesus, the same yesterday today and forever!The Lord seems to be persistently getting into our faces and asking His probing question, “Who do you say that I Am?”
What the Lord is doing in this hour we’re living in can not be confined by our trite limited band wagon tripe, we sport about with, the next move of God etc, what a crock of crap.In Him we Live, move and be!!!!
He is alive in us now, but without the one-on-one working of the Holy Spirit making known to us His life in us, and our very much obscure and secret identity, we will end up being much ado about nothing.
I have no idea how what I am sharing here ties in with what Wayne shared on his blog, and I’m not overly concerned about it, but I will try and continue to think out loud here.
Kings and Kingdoms will all pass away, but there’s just something about that name-JESUS!
It is most curious to see how many might be saying now that they’re out of the box-outside the camp-outside of the institutional church that they are experiencing great freedom. And yes there is freedom, but His name is Jesus, not something, but somebody.
I speak as one that is now living outside of the building-place-meeting mentality, but to say that all and any pride or arrogance that was displayed in my life was because of the institution or its leaders is crap.
The insidious nature of Satan working through any form of substitutes (anti-Christ) is that which causes us to see how clean we can appear on the outside, while missing out on the Life of his Son being formed within.
The longing within my heart is to co-operate with His grace, to continually be transformed for any and all to take notice of the living God my Father very much alive in Richard as Richard.
Rich
I was listening, to a current pod cast this weekend and the person sharing said something to this affect, he was not naturally predisposed toward ever being depressed, and in fact he had a most hope filled out look on life.
Well no harm in that, but! What does a person say with a similar (sunny-perky-spunky) disposition to somebody not dealt the same hand? In other words those struggling with not having a ‘hope filled outlook’ or whatever, they need His grace, but the others don’t?Maybe all of the scripture quoting is nothing more than empty words to someone under the gun in the thick of what they battle on a daily basis. Meaning, the ones not prone to ever being depressed see no need for the grace of God in that area of their lives. Why, because they see no defect within this aspect of their disposition.
I think someone once said, the good is the enemy of the best.
It is so comforting to me having the authoritative and final word on this subject clearly made manifest by Jesus. That which is of the flesh is flesh.
The father of lies persuades Christians (actually humanity) into believing that there is good flesh and bad flesh. A mentality that sees the life of God simply being a add on to their almost sufficient capabilities.
To the degree we do not see the utter depravity (having Satan within our flesh) of our fallen condition, we think just because we are a half full kind of optimistic person we have what it takes to cut the mustard of the nasty now in now stuff we will face. Maybe this is part of what Paul means here, ‘I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by rule keeping, (resorting to fleshly means) then Christ is dead in vain.’
Our ability to boast is not because of any fleshly predispositions we have in the flesh, or out of any of the remnants of the first Adam.As one brother put it, no matter what stock you came from, it all collided at the cross.
If we’re going to boast, it will be in Him, the One who said, ‘It is finished!’
I wonder in light of my musings here about the story of Job, maybe he was one of those good ole boys that was naturally inclined (a predisposition) to being able through fleshly abilities to stay abreast with life’s upheavals.
Maintaining our spiritual equilibrium has nothing to do with being positive vs negative.
It is amazing to see sooner or later how the Lord knows what buttons have to be pressed in our lives to reveal the utter illusion of us being in control or being able to stay positive or optimistic, no matter how great we thought our genes might be.
Perhaps in the reality of the warfare we are involved in like Job, there is a discovery coming into play in our lives that nothing within our human disposition is capable to handle life’s unfolding.
Maybe this infusion of His life was meant to be the source of our finding total fulfillment, (in Him we live, move and discover our purpose) but as long as we believe the lie that we can handle things, we settle for a form of godliness, at the expense of being filled with dead men’s bones.
It is most natural to be drawn to upbeat out going charismatic personality types, but to confuse this with His Life is a sad mistake.If all it takes is, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ then what need was there for the sinless Son of God to die as a criminal in our place?Maybe it is the self-righteous flesh in our lives that ensnares us into thinking we know what grace is, but in fact we have no understanding of it at all?
1 Corinthians 2:3-5 (The Message)
3-5 I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.
Rich
In Galatians 2:20 it says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I see this being all part of the chief corner stone our brother Peter talks about in his letters, a very tongue and grove connecting with what Paul is saying here.
I wonder as I wonder in this journey with Father, is it a thing of, ‘I’m trying to trust you Lord, or Lord, I’m trusting you, or, wow, He is teaching me to trust Him?’
Maybe the truth is as follows, and I do not see this simply being semantics but the difference between being ‘like vs as’.
If in fact we’re living by His faith, then maybe it is, Lord you are my trust! Maybe it is God the Holy Spirit wanting to reveal (make known) the Trust Worthy One??
I do not see this simply being a matter of using the right-correct words vs the wrong ones, but much more to the point of it being a growing revelation of my All in All now present Lord and Elder Brother Jesus Christ. The trust worthy One.
Perhaps this could save me from trying to arrive at this place-destination of trust-trusting? Maybe it is meant to be a journey whereby I can grow in the true knowledge of Him, the trust worthy one?
I simply want to know the Truth, not opinions, not even mine-why? Jesus said if you continue to follow me, you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free!! Free from what I ask? Maybe a whole lot of lies still based upon exerting our fleshly efforts to be ‘like’ Him.
Rich
What do I treasure, who is my treasure?
Where your treasure is, so will your heart be, said Jesus.
I was reading from Oswald Chambers this morning... “He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken.”
http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgiThis ties in with some things stirred up within me after listening to the latest pod cast at the God Journey, ‘Expectations That Ruin The Journey’… http://www.thegodjourney.com/wordpress/index.phpAnother thought here is this, He said he came not to bring peace but a sword, and yet He is the Prince of Peace.My take on this is, anything not rooted, founded established in Him the Prince of Peace will experience the cutting power of the Word that is sharper than any two edged sword (lazar) separating between the soul-flesh and the spirit.
The prophet said to Mary, and a sword will pierce even your own soul--to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.
A good friend of mine has shared with me how he sees the Father breaking in upon the lies that have kept him ensnared in his journey.It goes something like this, Son, I’m thrilled that you love me, but the ME that you love isn’t really me!
Is it possible to be in love with loving feelings etc., Or in love with our expectations? How many were ultimately offended in the Father’s Son’s performance?Maybe this has a lot to do with us as well.Maybe this whole thing of Him coming to us so that we might experience Life in its abundance just isn’t measuring up or out to what we expected.
Many see it this way; I have come that your Hollywood dreams and caviar wishes can be fulfilled.
I have come that you might have an abundance of great and pleasant circumstances and situations.
Is our Life in the Son, plus other things, or did he say-He that has the Son has Life. Period!!!
Maybe that is why we too will be led to a place where our hearts are broken because of motives and expectations that do not line up with His purposes? After all, He is the heart specialist.
PS
For any that read here at my blog, I want to share this disclaimer.I feel there is much I want to say-share on my blog, but I so struggle with using correct grammar-punctuation.My wife whom I treasure and love madly is an English major, but I get so frustrated in my seeming language handicap of waiting for her to bail me out that I have not written anything on my blog for some time now. This isn’t her problem but mine.I refuse to allow this to bring me into a petrified condition, I will trust Him to be the One that will speak His heart through however polished or not what I share here at, and then Life happened!
Rich
The saddest consequence of the effect of organization on Christians is that it poisons our perception of God's working in other peoples lives. We see this in the organizational church leadership's violent rejection of our decision to go on in growth with God. The leadership, of course, does not see the situation this way.The church leadership does not see our awakening as a work of God. The failure of the leaders to see their response as opposition to God is the result of their being poisoned by institutional thinking. The leadership sees our growth as inappropriate, because it does not fit within the bounds of conventional organizational church thinking. This is the same thing Jesus ran into (and illustrated) in healing on the Sabbath. (Mark 3:5)Here is a classic example of people limited by their organizational thinking. A miracle of healing has just occurred in the people's midst. A long period of suffering in a person's life has been relieved. But what is the response of the religious Establishment? The leadership looks for some way to kill Jesus (Mark 3:6).
We tend to think of "the world" as all the parts of our culture apart from the things we traditionally see as sacred, such as the institutional church. In the scriptures, however, we see that the institutional church is another world institution. As it turns out, the organizational church is the most intense opponent to the free expression of Christ as our daily life: (Matthew 12:14).It is quite understandable that the church's opposition to the Christ-life would have the most intense reaction of any of the world institutions. It is the church as an institution that is most threatened by the freedom in Christ.The lessons of the Pharisees and elders plotting to kill Christ has little to do with the first century Jewish religious establishment. This illustration is the more general lesson of the opposition of organized religion to the Christ-life.
We will do well to keep in mind the depth of the deception these first century religious leaders had fallen into. All the time they are discounting Jesus' miracles and trying to kill Him, they are proclaiming their total commitment to protecting God's traditions and honor.
Rich
For those who don't know and might be interested in listening, there are some wonderful discussions taking place over at the http://www.thegodjourney.com/audio/ site.
As well at, Rob's Consuming Thoughts Hi Rob,
http://churchbeing.blogspot.com/I read the excerpt from the book Organic Church. I liked it very much.You mentioned you ordered the book, and have started reading it. It ends at this point on line..
Even if we get everything else right but skip this important question, we are not truly the church. Church begins with Jesus: who He is and what He has done: It is all about Jesus, and if it be-
Wondering if you could finish his sentence for me, please?
Also it resonated within me the building of His church being totally tied in with being able to answer His question, 'Who do you say that I am?'
Wayne Jacobson on the newest pod cast~The Man Christ Jesus, delves into this whole thing of, Who do you say that I am?
The point being, if we can not answer His probing question, we will look for something or someone else to fill this void within our lives, ergo so much churchianity and so little Christianity.
http://www.thegodjourney.com/wordpress/index.phpI have always found it most interesting Peter's revelation of Jesus being the Christ, meaning, Jesus seeing that Peter is operating with revelatory insight begins to bring that understanding into crystal clear focus by talking about His impending death on the cross! In hearing this, Peter who moments ago was basking in the elation of seeing the momentary truth of who Jesus is, begins to rebuke the Lord.
I love where it says, 'no man shall see the Lord and live.'
Earlier there were those wanting to see Jesus, Jesus addresses that interest by saying, 'Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it will bring forth a great harvest.'
In my understanding any revelation of who this Christ is spells our death, this isn't a message that will promote us, but rather Him!
In Him we Live,
Rich
Some further times of sharing with others in the past, but speak loudly while it is yet called...Today!
Rich
"You will begin to see who you truly are in Christ and it will look nothing like what the world told you it should. You will never look the way they wanted you to. It will be all of his life and nothing of your efforts. You will never be that false image of what they said you should become."
I gleefully agree, adding, You will never be that false image of what YOU THINK you should become, either.
As grace believers, we're still tempted to do the same thing. We look at other believers and measure them up to our standards of what a gospel believing Christian should look like. But perhaps, just perhaps, their life of freedom will look differently than the freedom in Christ that you experience. Does that mean they're less free or does it confirm that fact that they're free to be exactly the person God has created them to be…?
Re:
'Measure them up to our standards of what a gospel believing Christian should look like.'
I’ve been thinking about what you referred to as ‘our standards’ and suggest the following:
The gospel of Christ eliminates any of "our standards". It has no bearing on the one Life that indwells all believers. I wonder if Paul was trying to "measure the believers up" to Paul’s standards? I don’t think so! The standard was Christ! He is the only standard. Because we are individuals uniquely expressing His life through our mortal bodies, we can’t help but look different.
Maybe the longing of Father God’s heart that seemed to be so evidently displayed in and through Paul was for each and every believer to be brought to a place of "knowing" all that was already theirs in Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:16, 17, Ephesians 4: 13-16)
Was Paul seeing something (Someone) that others were not yet seeing, meaning the standard of Christ, not the standard of Paul? He knew that he could not impart this knowledge to other believers. There are six recorded times he prayed for the believers, that they would come to know, that the eyes of their hearts would be opened and flooded in the true knowledge of Him.
Of course our freedom just might look different, no two people being the same. Though the expression is different, what is revealed is Christ - the One who is our freedom – our standard – the same life in every believer!
The means whereby we have fellowship is based on that One Life that indwells believers, but to the degree that we see that Life as a Baptist Life, or a Pentecostal Life, or a Catholic Life will determine the depth of our fellowship or the lack thereof.
Is it possible to be a Christian yet not see that there’s only one life in the believer, and that it has nothing to do with a denominational bent/slant/belief system, wearing makeup or not, talking in tongues or not, black cars with no chrome, black cars with chrome…from the sublime to the ridiculous in terms of what we have measured in standards as what is ‘holy’?
Maybe like the song says, 'Holiness is Your Life in me', maybe my life is to BE a living extension of the Holy One?!
The following is some heart to heart exchanges made a few years back.
Rich
Yes, I Am Promoting a Gospel of Works!
I've met some Christians who would enjoy doing a study of good works, but not many. Most would rather visit their dentist for a root canal. There's a reason for that. Most Christians have never studied good works. All they've studied is their inability to perform them.
The fact that we've been struggling for so many years with competing answers only makes it clear that we haven't even begun to ask the right questions. It seems Christians should be experts when it comes to understanding good works and how they fit into the Christian life. Unfortunately, opinions vary so widely to suggest exactly the opposite. No, we don't understand good works very well at all.
Are good works required to please God so we can obtain his approval, blessings and protection? If so, which works, how many and how often?
Having received grace, are we now obligated to respond with good works, or should we expect good works to be a natural result of knowing we have received grace? If we think that the end purpose of grace was to perfect our performance, doesn't that kind of miss the whole point of grace?
We promise salvation by grace to new believers but then we demand good works as the fruit by which we discern genuine conversion. Justification by performance doesn't confirm that one has received grace--it is a denial of grace.
Christians have been trying to solve the problem of works for a long time but as Albert Einstein said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
Maybe we just aren't approaching the problem from the right perspective. The problem of works is hard to solve because we're thinking the same way we did when we created the problem. We are focused on our own self-centred performance. What we need to do is turn our man-centred view of works upside-down and begin to see things from God's perspective.
The really interesting thing about us and good works is neither us, nor the works themselves, but the fact that they are "good" works. The New Testament speaks of two different types of good works. God uses earthly rulers to bring about works that are a good "benefit". However, Christian works are presented very differently, using a form of the word that implies "beautiful" works. Christian works should be viewed not so much as labour or obligation, but more like creative works of art.
The reality of life in Christ is not about what you do, but who you are. You are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good works (Eph 2:10). Your faith is not a measurement of good works vs. your bad works; it is a display of the work of Jesus Christ for his own name's sake. You aren't doing his works for him. You are his works of art displayed by him before all of heaven and earth as a testimony to his love (Eph 3:10, 11). You are the divine art gallery.
Now, focusing on the beauty of Christ in you, consider some of the New Testament passages regarding works: It is proper for those who profess Godliness to display good works (1Tim 2:10). Good works are obvious to all who see them and cannot be hidden (1Tim 5:25). God has made you rich in good works (1Tim 6:18). You are a pattern for the world to see and understand what good works truly are (Titus 2:7). Being redeemed and purified by God makes you zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). Those who have believed should be careful not to lose sight of this knowledge, using it to meet the needs of others (Titus 3:8, 14). We are to stir one another to love and good works (Heb 10:24). And good works can even cause those who deride you for your faith to glorify God (1Pet 2:12).
So, yes, I am promoting a gospel of works but not the one you're used to. The next time you're tempted to think of good works in terms of the pass/fail scenario, turn your heart to remember the work of God's grace in you. Christ alone is qualified to live the Christian life and he alone is the source of all good Christian works. Good works are not burdensome efforts or a measure of performance; they are beautiful, creative works of art. God has done glorious things--and Baby, you're it!
* * * * *
For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
I’m convinced that as a believer comes to experience the “true” knowledge of God’s love inwardly there is corresponding expression of it demonstrated outwardly.
Love being the full filment of the Law is a done deal carried out by only one man, the Man Christ Jesus on behalf of all men.
The reality of this finished perfect work was designed to be an imparting and impacting “knowing” within us that we have measured up because of what he has done.
We no longer have to prove ourselves, try to better ourselves. We can as we are recipients of this “true” knowledge of His love just “be”.
His Life is a life that not only worked the miracle of apprehending us but is the same Life working deep within to bring us to the place of “knowing” this all consuming stubborn love he has for us.
It is the same Life that will work out through us in a myriad of ways. The outer things that we do, work,s are but an expression of something far more significant.
Our conscience being purged from dead works, the love of God being poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit etc. Wherever we go His life is dispersed from our being His children.
If in fact no matter how wonderful things were when Paul experienced the Life of God at work amongst the believers and it touching the lost, why was he being directed to pray even more so for these believers to come to an even greater knowledge of Him?
Ephesians 3
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
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