and then Life happened

Was Jesus a Dumb Ass

2011-11-22T07:50:00.001-05:00

I want to link up with a friend's blog by Stephanie, the link is here.

Rich

Holding On Loosely

2011-11-20T15:07:00.005-05:00

Deep Calls To Deep

I read the following blog entry today and was so enriched with the gracious and encouraging words, I thought I would post a link to it here.

Rich

Who is the Bride of the Lamb?

2011-08-11T12:38:00.005-04:00

(Thought to be written by: Paul Sadler, President, Berean Bible Society)

Thankfully, we do not have to rely upon our own human reasoning for an answer to this perplexing question. The Scriptures are explicitly clear that the "Bride" is Israel .

One will search in vain to find any of this terminology in St. Paul 's epistles. In fact, Paul frequently makes reference to Christ as Savior, Lord and Head, but he never speaks of Him as the Lamb of God and for good reason. In prophecy, God had graciously imparted the sacrificial system which foreshadowed the once-for-all sacrifice

It is essential that the reader keep in mind that the Church, the Body of Christ was hid in God from ages and generations past. Thus with the advent of the administration of Grace a number of new metaphors are applied to the Church, such as: Body, stewards, ambassadors, etc. Some seem to think that Paul does, indeed, speak of us as the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5. But they have failed to distinguish between Paul's usage of a metaphor and a simile.

The following is reprinted from the “Berean Searchlight”, the official organ of the Berean Bible Society, Volume LVI Number. (It is thought to be written by: Paul Sadler)

As we plow through mountains of correspondence here at the Berean Bible Society, there is often a recurring theme. Of late, many have been inquiring as to whether or not the Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ. We have always taken this to be the leading of the Holy Spirit since these letters come from different parts of the country, indeed, the world. If the ministry has taught us one thing, it is this: Birds of a feather flock together! In other words, if one has a question of this sort others are normally standing in the shadows pondering the same thing.

Although the Bride of Christ falls under the classification of a “secondary issue” the very nature of the subject has a profound effect on how certain passages are interpreted. Through the years, Pastor Cornelius Stam and I have been in about 85 percent agreement when it comes to rightly dividing the Word of truth. However, one area that we have never seen eye to eye on is the issue under consideration. Brother Stam believes that the Body of Christ is numbered with the company of believers commonly known as the Bride of Christ. We have had a number of spirited discussions on the matter, all of which ended in the old “Mexican standoff.” There were times as we left the room together, he would chuckle and exclaim, “Paul, some day you will see the light!”

Mindful of whom I was discussing these eternal issues with, I have weighed the evidence very carefully under the microscope of Paul’s gospel. After bringing everything into focus, I am more convinced than ever that the Body of Christ is not the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. To me it seems terribly inconsistent to make distinction after distinction between Israel and the Church and then turn around and say that they are one in the same, that is, the Bride of Christ. Of course, some teach that the “Body” is the Bride, not Israel , but this is simply not supported by the facts. One thing is clear in this discussion: The opinions of men are inconsequential in view of the eternal question, “What saith the Scriptures?”

WORDS AND PHRASES

In our quest to rightly divide the Word of truth certain “words” and “phrases” are identified with the Prophetic program while others are associated with the Mystery. Interestingly, the “Bride of Christ” is an unscriptural phrase that is foreign to both programs of God. It is merely a theological expression that originated in the futile mind of man to describe those who will be present at the marriage of the Lamb preceding the kingdom (Rev. 19:7-9). The exact phrase used in prophecy is only found in the Apocalypse where one of the seven angels said to John: “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Rev. 21:9).

The terms “bride,” “Lamb,” and “wife” (in relation to the marriage of the Lamb) are woven throughout the pages of prophecy. For example: “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom” (John 3:29 cf. Jer. 2:32). “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 cf. Isa. 53:7). “. . . for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7 cf. Isa. 54:4-7).

One will search in vain to find any of this terminology in St. Paul ’s epistles. In fact, Paul frequently makes reference to Christ as Savior, Lord and Head, but he never speaks of Him as the Lamb of God and for good reason. In prophecy, God had graciously imparted the sacrificial system which foreshadowed the once-for-all sacrifice. Thus, Christ was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who satisfied the righteous demands of the law. He was consistently portrayed as the innocent victim--a lamb being led to the slaughter (Lev. 4:3235; Isa. 53:3-8).

With the introduction of a new dispensation, Christ is portrayed in a completely different light by the Apostle Paul. Today, He is the Lord of glory, the mighty victor who has conquered sin through His death and resurrection (I Cor. 2:8; 15:20-23).

THE BRIDE IN PROPHECY

Who is the Bride of the Lamb?

Thankfully, we do not have to rely upon our own human reasoning for an answer to this perplexing question. The Scriptures are explicitly clear that the “Bride” is Israel . When John the Baptist was asked why all men sought the Master and his ministry was fading in glory, he responded: “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29,30).

Working in reverse order, clearly the “friend of the bridegroom” is John the Baptist. John says that it was cause for rejoicing upon hearing the voice of the bridegroom. “. . . this my [John the Baptist’s] joy therefore is fulfilled.” The “bridegroom” is none other than Christ Himself. In the previous verse John stated that he was “. . . not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him” (vs. 28). He then confirms this by applying the illustration of the bridegroom. John was merely the forerunner to prepare the way for the Messiah. Hence, “He [Christ] must increase, but I [John] must decrease” (vs. 30).

Bearing in mind that the gospel according to John is a record of the earthly ministry of Christ, the “bride” is obviously Israel . John the Baptist plainly declares in this record: “And I knew Him not: but that He should be made manifest to ISRAEL , therefore am I come baptizing with water” (John 1:31). Did not our Lord instruct His disciples to “Go not into the way of the Gentiles.... But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of ISRAEL ”? (Matt. 10:5, 6). Did not our Lord say concerning Himself at that time: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of ISRAEL ”? (Matt. 15:24).

Moving farther along in the gospel according to Matthew, we have the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13). Here we learn that only believing Israel will participate in the actual marriage of the Lamb. You will recall that there were five wise virgins and five foolish. When the bridegroom delayed his coming the lamps of the unwise virgins ran out of oil as they slumbered. Therefore, the five foolish virgins, representative of the unsaved, were unprepared when the midnight cry came “Behold, the bridegroom cometh!” While they went to purchase oil, the Bridegroom came “. . . and they [five saved virgins]that were ready went in with him to the marriage” (vs. 10). In addition, this portion teaches us that the marriage will take place when our Lord returns in His glory at the close of the Great Tribulation (vs. 13). (Note the church, the body of Christ will have been raptured to heaven before that time. AJL).

The above is confirmed by the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation.

“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19:7,8).

Here in the context of the Second Coming of Christ, believing Israel is said to make herself ready. This is in keeping with the Prophetic program insofar as the kingdom saints (not “the body of Christ”) did not have the assurance of their salvation. Consequently, they were instructed to overcome, seek and ye shall find, endure to the end, etc. (Matt. 6:33; 24:13; I John 4, 5). Surely, this cannot be said of the Church, the Body of Christ. We are not only eternally secure, we have the assurance of it. As members of His Body we are accepted in the Beloved and therefore complete in Him (see Eph. 1:6; Col. 2:10).

It should also be noted that John refers to Israel as the “wife” of the Lamb. Of course, this excludes “the Body of Christ” as participants in this ceremony inasmuch as Paul always addresses us in the masculine gender. Christ is our “Head” (The Head of “the body of Christ”), not our groom.

But in what sense is Israel the “wife” of the Lamb if she is to be united to the Messiah in the holy bonds of matrimony? The answer lies in the law of the betrothal (Deut. 22:23-25).

Deuteronomy 22:23-25 If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; ²⁴Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. ²⁵But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:

In days of old, when a man and woman came together before a rabbi, they were betrothed to one another. Similar to our present day engagement, the betrothal was a binding agreement wherein the parties were actually classified husband and wife. Upon completion of the ceremony, the couple returned to their respective homes for one year. This period was to give the husband an opportunity to prepare a home for his bride-to-be. It was also to ensure that the woman had been faithful, and was not with child. Of course, it was during this time that Mary was found with child before she and Joseph had come together in the intimacy of the marriage relationship (Matt. 1: 18-25).

In this regard, Christ has returned to heaven to prepare a place for His bride in the kingdom. Since this aspect of the kingdom of heaven is brought to the earth, it will be like heaven on earth. As the tribulation period runs its course, Israel will be observed to determine who among them have been faithful to the commands of Christ (law) contained in the kingdom gospel (John 14:1-3 cf. Luke 19:11-27).

It is imperative that we glean from all of these principal passages that the marriage of the Lamb will occur on the earth when Christ returns to set up His kingdom. Following the wedding, the Apostle John was instructed to write:

“Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).

These guests are undoubtedly the kingdom Gentiles (These were saved to “the kingdom” (they were not saved under “the dispensation of the Grace of God”) during the Tribulation and Millennium) who will be invited to enjoy the blessings of the coming Golden Age (Matt. 25:31-46; Luke 14:15-24).

THE BRIDE AND PAUL’S EPISTLES

It is essential that the reader keep in mind that “the Church, which is the Body of Christ” (Eph 1:22b, 23a) “was hid in God from ages and generations past” ( Col 1:26). Thus with the advent of the administration of Grace a number of new metaphors are applied to the Church, such as: Body, stewards, ambassadors, etc.

Some seem to think that Paul does, indeed, speak of us as the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5. But they have failed to distinguish between Paul’s usage of a metaphor (A “figure of speech” in which an implicit comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common) and a simile (only “a resemblance”). A well-respected theologian from the turn of the century writes:

“The confounding of the Church as the Bride in Ephesians 5, has resulted from not seeing the Figure of Speech used throughout the passage is that of Simile, and not Metaphor: ‘Metaphor’ places one thing for another. It is representation. ‘Simile’ is but resemblance. We must therefore not say when comparing one thing with another that that one thing is another. Observe the continued comparison between Christ and the Church of His Body , and the conduct of wives and husbands. Note the presence of simile in every instance, and the absence of metaphor.”

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, AS UNTO THE LORD” (vs. 22).

“For the husband is the head of the wife, even AS CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH”(vs. 23).

“Husbands, love your wives even AS CHRIST ALSO LOVED THE CHURCH, and gave Himself for it” (vs. 25).

“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even AS THE LORD THE CHURCH” (vs. 29).

(These above are all “similes”, not “metaphors”.)

So then, the apostle by using a simile instead of a metaphor is desiring to show the resemblance between the marriage relationship and Christ and His Church. Paul points to the love relationship to demonstrate that “as Christ loved the Church,” husbands should love their wives. In like manner, wives are to emulate the Church by submitting to their own husbands. Nowhere in the portion under consideration does the apostle use the metaphor of a bride. In fact, just the opposite is true: “. . . and He is the Savior of the BODY” (vs. 23). “For we are members of His BODY, of His flesh, and of His bones” (vs. 30).

( I might ask, “What is closer to you, is it your wife or your own body?)

“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you AS A CHASTE VIRGIN TO CHRIST” (II Cor. 11:2).

Insofar as the Corinthians had a propensity to live carelessly, the apostle again uses the marriage relationship to show the importance of living a godly life in Christ Jesus. Marriages are built on trust, fidelity, purity of heart and life. Paul was challenging the Corinthians to be faithful to the one who called them into His grace. We should add that since the apostle uses the pronoun “you” in this context it would seem to indicate that he was merely addressing this local assembly of believers, and not the whole Body of Christ. Paul had founded this assembly and naturally had a godly jealously over them as their spiritual father. Of course, we would do well to heed the apostle’s admonition lest we too follow in the footsteps of the Corinthians. It is our firm conviction that the Body of Christ is not the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. We believe to teach otherwise is to bring a kingdom truth into the Body of Christ where it is not only unnatural, but a forced interpretation. May God in His grace give us a Berean spirit to study to see if this be true.

Fretting

2011-08-07T15:18:00.002-04:00

By nature some persons fret easily. They have difficulty separating their personal antipathies from the burden of the Spirit. When they are grieved they can hardly say whether it is a pure and charitable thing or merely irritation set up by other Christians having opinions different from their own.

Of one thing we may be sure, we can never escape the external stimuli that cause vexation. The world is full of them and though we were to retreat to a cave and live the remainder of our days alone we still could not lose them. The rough floor of our cave would chafe us, the weather would irritate us and the very silence would cause us to fret.

Deliverance from a fretting spirit may be by blood and fire, by humility, self-abnegation and a patient carrying of the cross. There will always be "evildoers" and "workers of iniquity," and for the most part they will appear to succeed while the forces of righteousness will seem to fail. The wicked will always have the money and the talent and the publicity and the numbers, while the righteous will be few and poor and unknown. The prayerless Christian will surely misread the signs and fret against the circumstances. That is what the Spirit warns us against.

Let us look out calmly upon the world; or better yet, let us look down upon it from above where Christ is seated and we are seated in Him. Though the wicked spread himself like "a green bay tree" it is only for a moment. Soon he passes away and is not. "But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble." This knowledge should cure the fretting spirit.

Keeping in Step

2011-03-27T16:37:00.005-04:00

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)

That which is called Christianity is essentially a spiritual thing, and not an earthly order or system, and every fragment of it has to be entered into in a spiritual way, by way of Life and Revelation. There is all the difference between imitation and Life. Oh, what a difference there is between seeing a thing in an objective way and coming into it in Life! It is just there that the wonder, the glory, the vitality, the energy, the power of things is found. You have perhaps talked for years about things in the Word of God, as in the Word of God, and you believed them and gave them out as truth, and after doing that for years suddenly you saw what they meant, and the whole thing came in another way. All your talking, and preaching, and believing before was quite true, quite right, correct as to doctrine, but what effect had it on you? Now that it has broken like this it is transfiguring, and has brought real joy and delight, life and ecstasy. That is what we mean by entering into things by Life and by Revelation. In other words, it is coming into things by the Spirit and seeing...

If we become spiritual in this sense, if the Holy Spirit is the commanding reality in our life, and we are walking by the Spirit, we are bound inevitably to come into all God's thought. The Lord wants a people to come into His full thought. That is only possible as they cease to be governed by some outward order of things, and learn what it is to move with God in the Holy Spirit.

Giving Sight to the Blind

2011-03-20T14:01:00.004-04:00

There is no doubt about Saul of Tarsus and his blindness; but his was the blindness of his very religious zeal, his zeal for God, his zeal for tradition, his zeal for historic religion, his zeal for the established and accepted thing in the religious world. It was a blind zeal about which afterward he had to say, "I verily thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth" (Acts 26:9). "I thought I ought." What a tremendous turn round it was when he discovered that the things which he thought, and passionately thought he ought to do, in order to please God and to satisfy his own conscience, were utterly and diametrically opposed to God and the way of right and truth. What blindness! Surely he stands as an abiding warning to us all that zeal for anything is not necessarily a proof that the thing is right, and that we are on the right road. Our very zeal as a thing in itself may be a blinding thing, our devotion to tradition may be our blindness.

I think eyes have a very large place in Paul’s life. When his eyes spiritually were opened, his eyes naturally were blinded, and you can use that as a metaphor. The using of natural eyes religiously too strongly may be just the indication of how blind we are, and it may be that, when those natural eyes religiously are blinded, we will see something, and not until they are do we see something. For a lot of people, the thing that is in the way of their real seeing is that they see too much and see in the wrong way. They are seeing with natural senses, natural faculties of reason and intellect and learning, and all that is in the way.

Paul stands to tell us that sometimes, in order really to see, it is necessary to be blinded. Evidently that left its mark upon him, just as the finger of the Lord left its mark upon Jacob, for the rest of his days. He went into Galatia and later wrote the Letter to the Galatians; and you remember he said, "I bear you witness, that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me" (4:15); meaning that they noted his affliction, they were aware of that mark which had lasted from the Damascus road, and so felt for him, that if they could have done so, they would have plucked out their very eyes for him. But it is wonderful that the commission which came when he was naturally blinded on the Damascus road was all about eyes. He was blind, and they led him by the hand into Damascus; but the Lord had said in that hour, "to whom I send thee to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God".
Rich

Adopting A Christian Life

2011-01-11T08:09:00.001-05:00

A Lost Impact

We are going to be occupied with the meaning of Christ. Before we come immediately into touch with that matter, there are a few preliminary words that I want to say, and they have to do with something of which we are all conscious, a matter which is troubling, I think I can say, the majority of real Christians. It is the matter of the lost impact of Christ, of the Gospel, of Christianity. We are suffering from a handicap, and that handicap is tradition.

Christianity has become that - a tradition so largely, something handed down from generation to generation. It has become a theology, a set of doctrines, of statements about God, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit, and many other things, and as such it has passed very largely into the mental realm - a thing to be worked out in thought, a matter of reason. It has also become a great mystical cult. It has passed into the realm of art, and music, so that you can accept Christianity on that basis and be a Christian along that line, and yet that it shall stand completely out of relation to your inner life. Think of all that goes to make up Christianity as it is known today, of the external, the soulish appreciation; and it has no impact. There is the great need, surely, - and this is what we are seeking to come to at this time.

The great need is to get back to the real meaning of Christ, so that a new impact may come upon ourselves, and there shall come a new impact upon the world through us.

Rich

A Heavenly Order Not An Earthly System

2011-01-10T00:05:00.000-05:00

Now, if I were talking to people who were responsible in the matter of Church building, that would be a very profitable matter with which to stay for a little while; but it just amounts to this for us. We take the Acts and the Epistles as setting forth the technique of the Church and churches and adopt it as a crystallized system of practice, order, form, teaching, and the weakness in the whole position is just this, that that is something as in itself, and the Lord Jesus has been missed and lost. I wonder if you detect what I mean by that? You see, the Holy Spirit's way is to take Christ and open up Christ to the heart, and show that Christ is a heavenly order; not that the Epistles set forth as a manual a heavenly order, but that Christ is that order, and everything in the matter of order has to be kept immediately in relation to the living Person. If it becomes some thing, then it becomes an earthly system; and you can make out of the Epistles a hundred different earthly systems all built upon the Epistles. They will be made to support any number of different systems, different interpretations, represented by Christian orders here, and the reason is that they have been divorced from the Person.

If only we keep close to Him who is the sum of all truth, and move with Him and learn Him, we shall know the course of things. We shall know what is imminent. We shall have in our heart whisperings of preparation. The best Advent preparation is to know the Lord. I am not saying that there is nothing in prophecy: don't misunderstand me. But I do know that there are multitudes of people who are simply engrossed in prophecy as a thing whose spiritual life counts for nothing, who really have no deep inward walk with the Lord. We have seen it so often.

Rich

The Light Is Growing

2011-01-09T11:10:00.003-05:00

THE PURPOSE OF GOD

What is the purpose of God? What is God's end? And I think it can be put in one way amongst others. We can say that God's purpose is that there shall come a time when He has a vessel in which and through which His glory shines forth to this universe. We see that intimated in the case of new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, her light like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal. "Having the glory of God!" That is the end which God has in view for a people; to be, in a spiritual sense, to His universe of spiritual intelligences what the sun is to this universe; that the very nations shall walk in the light thereof, no need of sun, no need of moon, for there is no night; and that is only saying that God wills to have a people full of light, "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." That is the end, and God begins to move toward that end immediately a child of His is born from above; for that very birth, a new birth from above, is the scattering of the darkness and the breaking in of the light.

All along our way in the School of Christ, the Holy Spirit is engaged upon this one thing, to lead us more and more into the light, "of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ", that it shall be true in our case that "the path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (mid-day) (Prov 4:18) Many people have thought—and, thinking so, have been disappointed—that that means it is going to get easier and easier, brighter and brighter, the more cheerful as we go on. But it does not work out that way. I do not see it to be true in the circumstances and outward condition of saints anywhere at any time. For them the path does not become brighter and brighter outwardly. But if we are really moving under the Spirit's government, we can say with the strongest affirmation, that in an inward way the light is growing. The path is growing brighter and brighter; we are seeing and seeing and seeing. That is God's purpose; until the time comes when there is no darkness at all, and no shadow at all, and no mist at all, but all is light, perfect light: we see not through a glass darkly, but face to face, we know even as we are known. That is God's purpose put in a certain way. Does that interest you? Are you concerned with that?

And that has a crisis and is also a process in spiritual life with a glorious climax in rapture. What I am especially concerned with now is the process.

Rich

Open Our Eyes Lord

2011-01-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

2 Kings 6:8-18 Now the king of Aram was warring against Israel; and he counseled with his servants saying, "In such and such a place shall be my camp."The man of God sent word to the king of Israel saying, "Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Arameans are coming down there." The king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God had told him; thus he warned him, so that he guarded himself there, more than once or twice. Now the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this thing; and he called his servants and said to them, "Will you tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?" One of his servants said, "No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom." So he said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him." And it was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan." He sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see " And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, "Strike this people with blindness, I pray." So He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

I grow so weary of allowing myself as well as those around me of settling for an ingrained defiant and rebellious mind set that dismisses the ultimate reality that is mine in Christ Jesus! The world (especially those from Missouri) has a deeply imbedded philosophy that says; “Show me and I’ll believe you”, or, “seeing, is believing.”
What is not possible with the natural minded man is trying to see by believing first ergo, then seeing, or as the scriptures point out, “That's why only someone who has God's Spirit can understand spiritual blessings. Anyone who doesn't have God's Spirit thinks these blessings are foolish.”
Speaking of “spiritual blessings” this is in my opinion one of the chief corner stones of all that is ours, but apart from the Father by his spirit opening the eyes of our heart, we will whine, debate, bitch and grip about the unfairness to much of what we call life and living.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

A great portion of our brother Paul’s commissioning was spelled out as follows, “But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an ^K)">(inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”
I believe operative within each of His redeemed ones, my fellow siblings in Christ awaits to be seen, revealed as it was to Paul this One who continues to open our blinded eyes in order to displace (expel) the darkness that rules over the hearts and minds of those we are being like wise sent to.
This is the first part, the second is forth coming.

Rich

Now that which was born of the flesh has gone; in resurrection it is that which is born of the Spirit, the spiritual man. That is you in resurrection with the Lord Jesus! And what is true of the death and resurrection, is true of the exaltation, that when He was exalted YOU WERE EXALTED in Him at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Have we grasped that Christ's being there is our being there in representation? That is not just some objective truth, but is made real by reason of His ascended life being now within us, and the Holy Spirit having created the living link between Him in heaven and ourselves as here. The fact that He is above all says that we in Him are also above all.

You say: "That may be true theoretically, doctrinally true, and I do not dispute what is said, but that is not true in my case." That is not the Lord's fault! It is because we have not learned to live on the basis of His resurrection life. We have still tried to live a Christian life on the basis of our own life, and that can never come to the Throne. People who are trying to be Christians by effort, by endeavor of their own, are always far from reaching the Throne. They are the playthings of all the forces which are antagonistic to Christ. But when we know the secret of living on His life by the Holy Spirit, we know in a growing, a progressive way, that it is true that He is not there apart from us, but that there is a union between Him in dominion and ourselves in the power of His Own life. Resurrection life is in itself the very life of Christ in dominion. Whenever resurrection life in us has its way, it brings us into dominion. Whenever there is a working of His life freely in us, it puts us in a place of ascendancy, it lifts us above, it is spiritual power and dominion.

The Danger of Living on the Past

2011-01-05T10:20:00.005-05:00

I like these thoughts from the Message Bible very much, My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. “It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects.
God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!”

A time of testing comes in the sovereign ordering of God for all such, and it is found by reason of its present root-dryness, lack of vitality, of energy, of up-to-dateness of life that it cannot go through the testing, it is rooted out. A simple word that, and yet a challenging word which shows us two things: that God, in His sovereignty, does most definitely appoint a time in which He will test the state of everything and everyone which makes a claim to be related to Him. He will do that, and then no amount of past history, good history, Divine history, will stand that thing in stead for the day of His testing. Or to put it another way, God tests to find out just exactly how up-to-date spiritual life and spiritual experience is.

There are quite a lot of people who have had a very sound, thoroughly genuine conversion, but who live back on their conversion of ten, twenty, or forty years ago; and while it is true the history was quite sound, it is something of the past. Its vitality has not been continuous, it is not up-to-date, and such people will find that when the winds of God begin to blow they are lacking, they are wanting, and they will be carried away, not necessarily to be eternally lost, any more than Israel is, but to very great loss.

And then the Lord also tests most definitely, every kind of profession, every kind of response, every kind of attitude or relationship, to discover whether that is a thing which is on the surface, on the face, superficial; or whether it is a thing which has gone right down deeply into the life, burying its roots in the very sub-soil of experience. Here, again, a simple word, but it may be that there is someone here who is attaching themselves to something, attaching themselves to a place, to a company of people; attaching themselves in an outward way to that which represents the Lord, in hymns and addresses and prayers and services and such like; associating themselves, and, in a way, making some kind of answer or response to the things of the Lord.

Have you seen a self-grown forest in a mountain district after a gale? We have a good deal of that sort of thing in Scotland where the seeds have been carried by the wind and have sown themselves in the very thin soil of a mountain slope, a rocky district. They have grown very tall, lanky thin trees, firs or pines; their roots have spread out and covered a great area, and then – a gale – and as you go along after a gale there are those lanky, thin, gaunt trees lying with their roots right up in the air. You wonder how in all the earth they have managed to cling to the shallow soil. There they are everywhere, rooted up because self-grown, and that is Matthew 13 (But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away). Something which has made its own kind of response, given its own response, answer, with reservations perhaps, not going too far, not going to be “extreme,” not going to be “singular,” not going to be “fanatical,” just going to be “perfectly balanced” and “sane” and make their own response to the Lord.

All right, God has appointed the hour for a gale. Yes, there will be a blazing sun, it will be discovered whether God did that planting, whether that was a work of God in the heart or whether it was just something of human attachment or association. It may just be that here there may be one or more attaching themselves from the outside to that which is of the Lord, but they are not right in, buried, rooted, grounded, not in the thing in the Lord. Are you attaching yourself to something religious, or are your buried with your roots in Christ? Rooted in Him?

In light of (for a lack of better words) this “grace awakening, I trust that as the Father allows His winds to blow upon your life, as he permits the scorching heat of the sun and the troubles he does not with hold from touching us, be that will bring ever greater sobriety to a ever growing and increased knowing of your union with the One who is the resurrection and your Life!

Rich

May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality]May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];

As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him. Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving. See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).

Rooted from Christophe Bruchansky on Vimeo.

The Growth of the Church

2011-01-04T00:04:00.000-05:00

Life Centers

Thank you Father that the building and establishing of your Church rests in the secure and certain hands of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Rich

We have already touched upon this, but let us repeat and re-emphasise that the growth of the Church is on the principle of life. We can never go about this world gathering people together, asking them to accept certain things which we say about Christ, and then forming them into churches. The Lord has not called upon us to form churches. That is not our business. Would to God men had recognised the fact. A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that had been recognised. It is the Lord Who expands His Church, Who governs its growth. What we have to do is to live in the place of His appointment in the power of His resurrection. If, in the midst of others, the Lord can get but two of His children, in whom His life is full and free, to live on the basis of that life, and not to seek to gather others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis of their acceptance of certain truths or teaching, but simply to witness to what Christ means and is to them, then He has an open way. As witness is simply and livingly borne in this way, one and another will be provoked at length to say: I do wish I had what they have! And another will say: I covet that one's experience. It is just what I have been seeking for! Such as these will either come to inquire the way of salvation, or opportunity will be found to lead them to the Lord.

It is in this way that the Church grows. Its growth may be furthered at a street corner as you preach Christ and someone responds, and believing on Christ with the heart and confessing Him as Lord with the mouth, life is given by the Spirit, and that one becomes the Lord's. The Church is not increased by your going and taking a building and trying to get people to come to it, and to your meetings, and then forming them, by a church roll, into a local church. That is not the way. Growth is by life, and this, to begin with, may be by the entering into life of but one soul, and then after a long waiting time of another; or it may be more rapid. But the point is that it is increase because of life. That is the growth of the Church. For the growth of His Church, the Lord must have life channels, life centres. I believe that, given a life centre, sooner or later one of two things will happen, that it will be abundantly manifest that Christ is fully and finally rejected there, or else there will be an adding, a growth. There is tremendous power in life, and the life of the Lord either kills or quickens. It depends on the attitude taken toward it. He is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. Things can never remain neutral. What the Lord needs is life centres.

The irreducible minimum, and yet the adequate means, to begin with, is two; two who are one in His life, two in whom there is co-operation in that life. He sent them forth two by two. That is the nucleus of the Church. It is such as these that the enemy will endeavour to kill, to quench, or to separate, and thus to ruin them spiritually, so far as their value to the Lord is concerned for propagation. Remember that! The Lord's advantage is bound up with a fellowship of two in the one life.

We can see now why in the main issue it is so important that all the resources of the risen Lord should be tapped by us, should be lived upon, drawn upon, why these spiritual, secret, heavenly resources of His life, His fulness, should thus become the basis of our lives. Their purpose does not end with ourselves, nor is it something for ourselves, and if we turn them to that end we shall die. That provision is for the Lord's end, which is reproduction, the reproduction of His own risen life.

Life Does Not Rest Upon Mechanical Appointment

2011-01-03T11:26:00.004-05:00

It's Out of Our Hands

The Lord does not leave it in our hands to appoint our ministers, to make either the ministry or the minister. The Lord develops ministry by life, and where the Lord develops ministry the Church has to take notice. It may be perfectly true that the appointment has been made by God, but it may be equally true that it has to be made manifest by life before it comes to function. I believe that is partly why Barnabas and Paul were detained at Antioch so long. Paul was definitely called, chosen. There was no doubt whatever that heaven had ordained him as an apostle, and all the signs of an apostle were in him, the supreme sign being that he had seen first hand the risen Lord. Yet, with the sovereign choice, and with the personal commission to him, he had first to go into Damascus to be told what he should do as one in the church, the assembly, and subsequently he had to tarry at Antioch as a member of the assembly there for over a year. Even then the Lord did not come to Saul or to Barnabas, his companion, and say, Now go out to the work to which you know I have called you, the work of which I have told you, the work for which you were chosen! Go out and get on with it! The Lord gave direction through the leading members of that assembly: "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them". And the Church was able to do that, not simply on the basis of a command, but because it had been proved in their own midst that these men were called for this ministry. They had revealed in the assembly by life that they were called to a ministry. That is the way by which the Lord reveals His ministers.

That brings us to this point. You do not know what your ministry is, save as you go on with the Lord. You may have been Divinely ordained, sovereignly chosen. There may be related with your life a ministry of great value. You may not know anything about it yet, but it may be perfectly true that the Lord could say that you are a chosen vessel unto Him; but you will only discover what your ministry is as you go on with the Lord in life. As the Lord's life increases in you, and your communion with the Lord goes on unhindered in all its meaning and value, then you will discover that the Lord is moving in you in a certain direction, and that you are becoming exercised unto a certain ministry. None of us really discerns his ministry by being told beforehand. We only know it as we go on with God, and His life has its way.

That is an important thing, for ministry hangs upon life. It does not rest upon mechanical appointment. We cannot make ministers. It is only the risen Christ Who can make ministers, and He makes them in the power of His risen life. Disaster lies before the man who tries to be a minister without the risen life of Christ. The Lord deliver us from ever trying in any way to be ministers without its being the outcome of His life in us. The life of the risen Lord takes its own form, expresses itself in its own way, according to the mind of Him Whose life it is.

Rich

It Doesn't Make Sense

2011-01-02T08:44:00.002-05:00

You can read this over at

Rich

The Resurrection is the Basis of Light.

2011-01-01T17:11:00.003-05:00

The Ministration of Life

Life and Light expressing itself in and through us as us is something that is capturing my attention. The following is from something I am reading from T.A. Sparks.

Rich

We pass to the second point, namely, the ministry of life. In the fourth verse of the first chapter of John's Gospel we read: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." Mark the words of the second half of the verse: "the life was the light of men." The life was the light! That is the ministry of life. We might very well in this connection re-read that difficult passage from Acts 26:22-23.

"Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come; how that the Christ must suffer, and how that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles."

It is the closing statement that is so significant - "that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light..." The first proclaimer of light was Christ, and the ground upon which He proclaimed light was resurrection. That is but a different way of expressing the second half of John 1:4 "the life was the light." The resurrection is the basis of light.

The point to be noted is that the life expresses itself in a certain way. It is seen to do so as light. If you follow through John's Gospel you will note other things: for instance, the life expresses itself in liberty: "If the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). But here the inclusive thought is that life has its own ministry, and that ministry is a matter of life. As we have said, ministry is not first in word, but is firstly a question of life through the word: it is not doctrine. Ministry is not merely the imparting of truth, but the imparting of Christ through the truth. If the truth does not minister Christ then it is dead, it is valueless. All truth, all doctrine, teaching, must be a ministration of the living Christ, and not a ministration of information about Him. The test of everything is as to how far it ministers Christ in a living way. When any given bit of ministry has been concluded, the question is not as to whether it was interesting, edifying or instructive, not whether it was beautiful to contemplate, not whether it was orthodox - those may be important factors, but they are altogether apart from the issue - when all is finished the vital question is, Am I standing possessed of a further measure of Christ? Has Christ in a fuller measure livingly become available to me through that ministry? Am I confronted with the question of Christ as my life in a way that has not been so before? That is the test of ministry. Christ may come to us through explanations, through definitions, through truth, but when these things remain something in themselves then that is not true ministry. All must minister Christ, and that ministry is not just the ministry of certain individuals called ministers. The whole Church is called into the ministry or ministration of Christ. All the members are to minister Christ to one another, and when believers are gathered together it ought to mean life to all who are present. That place ought to be a place of life. Going to that gathering of the Lord's people such as are feeling spiritually, mentally, or even physically spent ought to go away saying, I feel wonderfully better! That has been life to me! This life we have in His Son.

You see what the ministry is. Is it not a very blessed thing that when the Lord has a company of His Own children gathered together in Himself and many of them come in tired, discouraged, disheartened, worn out physically, spiritually baffled, mentally bruised, and feeling they have no more resource to go on, He is able in the fellowship to minister life, which is a ministration of Christ, so that such go away lifted up and refreshed. It is wonderful to come together for that alone, apart altogether from expositions and addresses. And that is ministry. When the Lord's people are really together in living relationship with Him as the risen One they do fulfil ministry though perhaps in large measure unconsciously. Others coming in go away saying: Well, it was not what was said, but there was life! I do not understand the teaching, but I am better for being there! That is the ministry, and we are all in that together. Do not think of the ministry as something that is carried out from the platform all the time. You are all in the ministry, and it depends entirely upon whether the Lord's people are living upon the basis of this life as to how far they will fulfil ministry. The life was the light!

In Him We Live...

2010-12-29T08:35:00.002-05:00

I love the following thoughts.

Rich

That leads us on, then, to further things, and to our seeing that for the Apostles Christianity and the Church were not a system of doctrine, nor a system of orders of practice, but for them Christianity and the Church had relation to the living Christ. Christianity and the Church existed on the ground of Christ being alive, after having been crucified and buried. There is much more bound up with that than maybe would appear.

Christianity was the expression of Christ's being alive. The fact that Christ was alive was being expressed and the Church simply became the corporate vessel of that expression. Christianity and the Church had no being, no existence, only in that Christ was alive. Therefore neither Christianity nor the Church could be anything in itself, only in Christ as living.

That is what we mean when we say that the pre-eminent, predominant issue is life. It is not an abstraction, it is a Person; it is Christ living. Thus the basic and all-important reality with the Apostles and the believers of those days was the risen Lord, and living union with Him. That which was basic to everything was Christ as alive, and their being alive together in union with Him. We have to see what that union was, but we leave that for the moment.

Out of this every other thing arose. All doctrine came out of the fact of Christ being alive, and believers being in union with Him. And all order of assembly came spontaneously out of that two-fold fact; Christ alive, and believers livingly joined to Him. It came out of that. There is no other way in which to get either doctrine or order in a living way. That which spread its power and its significance over everything for them in those days was the resurrection of Christ. You find it touching everything on every hand.

Be Like This

2010-09-16T19:04:00.005-04:00

This afternoon while waiting to finish up my shift I was sitting outside on the dock reading, thinking, and praying, in the midst of so many things swirling around in my heart, I happened to look into the back of my truck which was but inches away, when I heard my caring and loving Father speak to my heart.

“Son, be like this.” Immediately my mind kicked into gear thinking, what do you mean? I then sensed he was making a point to me right where I was, in my daily routine, “I want you to be like what you’re seeing here, “be empty” so that I might fill you afresh to over flowing with a greater understanding of my love.”

Somehow I knew intuitively that the different ones that were so set upon my heart with the intensity of their struggles, that their needs like my own could only be realized and met in a similar manner, a fresh knowing that in their emptiness, He would be their fullness!

Rich

Good News

2010-09-09T11:03:00.004-04:00

The Gospel is not the news that you can be involved with Jesus, if only you get your religion right. The gospel is not news of what can be at all. It is the news of what is. It is the news that you are involved. It is not a dream.

Through bearing our rejection, Jesus has access to us in our darkness. Indeed, he used our rejection to establish a relationship with us at our very worst.

The stunning truth is that Jesus exists in union with his Father and the Spirit, and with us in our darkness. He has included us in his world, in his life and communion with his Father, in his anointing with the Spirit. He is sharing his own heart, his own knowledge of the Father, his own assurance and hope and joy with us all. He is putting his communion with His Father inside our endarkened souls.

Quoted from Baxter Kruger-Across All Worlds.

Rich

It’s Not About Being Right

2010-09-08T19:21:00.003-04:00

One of the most liberating things as an inner and out working expression of learning to live loved is, that I do not have to have anyone agree with what I think or say.
To quote an old fast food chain motto, “Different is good” in living and thinking out loud, not necessarily better than.
It is no longer living with the mind set of, “what if I get it wrong” but knowing I am unconditionally loved whether I get it right or wrong! My stability and security is becoming more and more of a fixed yet malleable growing and expanding reality rooted in the certainty of the Father’s stubborn love for me that refuses to let go.

The much needed continued transformation and the renewing of our minds is either a marvellous out working of living loved or something we end up once again striving for, and back to, what if I get it wrong.

Rich

The Quick Fix

2010-02-27T15:38:00.005-05:00

Barriers to Experiencing the New Covenant

Do you know your identity in Christ but still feel “stuck”? Do you know that Christ is your Life but still feel “stuck”? Maybe you aren’t the one who is “stuck” but you know someone who knows the New Covenant who is. In this webinar, you will hear about how to deal with these barriers. One of the key elements of this Webinar will be the emphasis on listening to God to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal your ‘stuck” places. Space to attend this live webinar is limited to 100 people and we still have room for you and anyone you want to invite.

The following was the lead in to an email invitation I received, along with who knows how many others, to take advantage of discovering where the kink (barriers) in my spiritual hose might be and presumably preventing me/us from experiencing the “New Covenant.”

This isn’t about casting aspersion's or to disparage the person sending this email invitation, but somehow to cut through the bull shit smoke screen discerning what is really true and what isn’t .
It seems without fail in situations similar to this that the holy “trump-card” is usually pulled out, “judge not lest you be judged.” What the hell ever happened to where Jesus qualified judging, “when you judge, judge righteously?”
Somehow exercising any discernment is tantamount to black-balling a person, oh God help us!

Rich

Richard'z Rantz

2010-02-26T09:24:00.001-05:00

Please feel free to check out my newest blog, http://rantz72.wordpress.com/

Rich

Simple Truth

2010-02-21T08:35:00.002-05:00

The purpose and goal of God has always been life. This may seem like a simple truth but it is nonetheless one we very often lose sight of. God’s love makes Him interested in the doings of the world but this is not His primary focus.
What I mean by this is that God is not centered on cleaning up world government or stabilizing the economy. The Father is not even primarily working toward social (bight my tongue) justice. How can I say this? I can say this because if any of these things were God’s primary focus they would have been accomplished long ago.
Rather, the Father is principally interested in our living. It is only when we have a proper focus on life that we can produce proper doing (activity).

Take as an example all the religious doings and law keeping that many in Christianity and other religions engage in. In all this activity that fills our days the simple issue of life is often lost in the bustle. As a consequence, all this effort comes to little enduring result. We were created by the Father to live in and by the life of Christ. The works and doings are really only secondary issues to God. Further, these are negative issues to the Father when they interfere with the operation of His life in His children.

Rich

Richard'z Rantz

2010-02-18T08:28:00.004-05:00

Hopefully soon this will be the name of my newest blog. Often the connotation with the word “rant” is seen as negative, that is not my intention, more to the point, I see it simply as a fleshed out version of what I do best, think out loud.
Often folks who are more fear filled than dwelling in the security of Father’s love see this, my ranting, aka thinking out loud as an emphatic “thus says the Lord”!
Nothing could be further from the truth.

Something that once again got my attention in listening to a pod cast was this, “we are all gifted so differently.” What the???
From where I sit, my perspective is that all who have been received of the Father have been given God’s unspeakable gift of His son, which is in fact the most gifted, treasured gift any and all could ever receive. Is it more to the point that He the “gifted One” in us as us, simply wants to uniquely express his giftedness through each of us?

For both my wife and I, it’s as simple as breathing when it comes to this issue of ‘gifting, giftedness.’ Christ was NOT an add on to a great thing we already had going, he came to BE our only life, and out of that life was a love we hade never ever known, and I don’t care how or where anyone cares to point to a certain someone that stands out to them as being “loving”!

Jesus seemed to be quite toxic in not patronizing the suggestion offered to him one day, “Good master what must I do, etc etc.” Jesus spins around and point blank addresses this blatant lie, “Why do you call me good, there is NO one good but God.”
It’s no wonder we have such erroneous misconceptions seeing that it was in our initial conception (born in sin and shaped in iniquity) we were all born into the world (matrix) system of seeing things all ass backwards, not so for Jesus, he addressed humanity’s skewed and twisted misconceptions in its tracks.
“Unless you see the source of all goodness in me as me, then it’s nothing but your version of ethics and morality thinly coating the external so not to see the inward depravity lurking less than skin deep.

Using my wife’s words here, when Jesus’ words penetrate our lives, addressing our blindness, there is a “seismic shift” that is unleashed; it is that which unsettles our neat and tidy sane world of orderly chaos!

Rich

Heeding

2010-02-13T11:09:00.003-05:00

At times God puts us through the discipline of darkness to teach us to heed Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and we are put into the shadow of God's hand until we learn to hear Him. "What I tell you in darkness" - watch where God puts you into darkness, and when you are there keep your mouth shut. Are you in the dark just now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? Then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will talk in the wrong mood: darkness is the time to listen. Don't talk to other people about it; don't read books to find out the reason of the darkness, but listen and heed. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get into the light.
After every time of darkness there comes a mixture of delight and humiliation (if there is delight only, I question whether we have heard God at all), delight in hearing God speak, but chiefly humiliation - What a long time I was in hearing that! How slow I have been in understanding that! And yet God has been saying it all these days and weeks. Now He gives you the gift of humiliation which brings the softness of heart that will always listen to God now. (By Oz Chambers)

"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."

"Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler."

"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut"

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." (Quotes by Albert Einstein)

Rich

I Know You Are, But Who Am I?

2010-02-06T18:43:00.003-05:00

One of the many lines from the Pee-Wee Herman Show that I loved was, “I know you are but who am I.”
Have you been experiencing the wonder of your lovely little world like a rug, only it’s who you thought you were, being pulled out from under you? I have!
I love how certain we think we are; I’m not moody, subject to emotional swings, given to depression, I’m stable as they come, yeah, right you are. Most likely you haven’t met up with this lamb that is a lion, yet. Concepts at best might give one a bad case of mental diarrhea, but turning your life upside down, hardly.

It doesn’t take much scraping off of the veneer of so called stability we think we have to realize that any steadiness we have is but the gracious way our loving Father insulates us from grief. He only has to peel back a little in one tiny area of his protection in our lives and we learn right smartly how empty we are in ourselves.

I personally believe that what each of us is facing, going through, has no known man made template available to assist us while we are being extricated from the matrix of religion.
There is an intriguing definition of unbelief based upon Hebrews 3:12, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” In the sense of that verse, unbelief is “turning away from God.” Conversely then, faith is “staying in the face of God.” When you’re in the furnace of affliction, sometimes the only expression of faith you can muster is that of placing yourself in the face of God.
Many of the Psalms are the chronicles of men who in times of great personal pain cried out-but they cried out in the face of God.

I love how the Father of our spirit hears and sees the cry, longing of our hearts. This morning on my way to breakfast with my friend, brother and boss, Father interjected a thought that turned my day into one filled with a fresh sense of His wonder in and all around me. “Son, you are not free from your circumstances, but you are free to follow me.”
As always, I was being given a wonderful new invitation to receive His embrace in discovering that even my circumstances can’t prevent him from opening up doors that no man can shut.

Rich

Don't Worry, Be Happy

2010-01-25T08:47:00.003-05:00

These are a few additional thoughts to something I shared the other day, you can read it here, “The Tail Shaking the Dog.”

Rich

While all of the positive-thinking techniques seem on the surface to be worthwhile and positively influence human behaviour, the teaching is a major deception. The philosophy that undergirds the technique is not based upon truth. While the principles seem to be in line with Scripture, Jesus is eliminated!
Positive thinking and possibility thinking lead unsuspecting Christians away from looking to Jesus for their identity and life and push them back into focusing their minds upon themselves. While the Bible teaches us to judge the content of our natural life through self-accusation, positive thinking directs us to think highly of ourselves and to hold wonderful thoughts about ourselves. Many positive thinkers consider the consciousness of sin and guilt as negative thoughts which produce negative energy and should, under no circumstances, be confessed. Dr. Paul Vitz of New York University is correct in pointing out that possibility thinking is based upon faith in one’s self and turns God into a mere servant who exists in order to help us achieve our goals.

Loving One Another

2010-01-18T09:07:00.004-05:00

I so enjoyed these thoughts from my reading this morning, I’m including them here.

Rich

Loving One Another
George A. Maloney

From the first time we wept as infants left alone by our mothers, we began learning that no one can be happy without love. By ourselves we are helpless, threatened, anxious, and fragile as cut flowers. Without our roots deep in the common soil, touching the roots of others, we dry up and wither. Only by touching another do we know where we leave off and the mystery of the other begins; only by love can we penetrate that mystery. As babies raised without the touch of love pine and die, so do adults if they separate themselves from those who would love them and be loved by them.

The energy of God meets itself coming and going when two of God's children meet heart to heart, eye to eye, loving and being loved. That love that moved the sun and other stars precipitated the Word, Jesus Christ. He was enfleshed as man so that we could by knowing and loving Him be gathered up in the arms of God the Spirit, out of the swaddling clothes of our flesh.

God wants to give Himself to us in every possible way: first through Jesus, who loved and touched His people with human heart, human hands; then through the Holy Spirit, who knits us all into one seamless cloth that wraps the world; and finally through the hands of another human being, laid on us in love, as ours are laid on that other person. When we open ourselves to this other person, we open ourselves to God and God can touch us, like the sun touching the heart of an unfurled flower. Closed, we can't be reached. But a life spent loving is a life spent open. To reach out and receive, we must open our hands; to be loved, we much first love. The wife or husband [or friend] next to you is more than your spouse [or buddy]. He or she is your path to God. In the face of a wife laboring in birth or a husband crushed at the loss of his job, you see the face of God, open to your love, wanting you to give it.

Deeper, deeper you go, till you touch the place in the other where God is, dropping your own veils of ego, self-defense, falseness as you go, until you both stand before each other and God naked as newborn babies. At this moment when you see God in each other, you see. . . the image of Christ as He might have looked walking the earth. As the veils fall, we see God not through a glass darkly, but face to face in the light of love, in the one through whom God sees and touches us. And each moment in which we give and take love, we touch God.

Without God, we cannot love; without the other, we cannot show our love. . . In our love for others, we express the link between flesh and spirit, as God expressed it in the Incarnation. Like God, we are an intimate community of love, pouring ourselves out so that we can fill others and be filled.

Growing up means 'growing out,' dropping our walls and opening in selfless love to another. We become a two-way channel through which the uncreated energies of God flow. The more love we give, the more love grows in the place we have planted it.

Love has everything to do with the ordinary events of daily living, since the giving of all we are and the receiving back of all we can be happens in the workshop, the nursery, the office. When we discover the energies of God in each other, we pour those energies into all we do, reconciling the world to the Father.

True love - God's love - is to see others as God sees, knows, and touches them. To love truly is to see with the eyes of God, to go beneath the skin and plunge straight to the heart, where the other shows him or herself to be as unique as if alone in the world, the sparrow whose fall God notices, the lamb for whom Jesus died. True love is caring for the other, mindful only of the others good. It is being quick to hear the others need, to serve the other's growth toward his or her true self and carrying the other into deeper touch with God. The prayer of Jesus before he underwent death was that we would be ONE as He and the Father are one (John 17:21-23). It happens as we love one another.

--Excerpted from Loving the Christ in You.

Affirmation is a Big Deal

2010-01-13T07:40:00.002-05:00

Because of sin and the impetus of its source entering into humanity there was set into motion this insatiable craving for identity, purpose, definition, worth, value, significance, and affirmation to mention just a few things.
Self in the fall became blinded in having its eyes opened, blinded to the reality of knowing that true lasting acceptance and affirmation had nothing to do with our feeble efforts but everything to do with His unspeakable total unconditional love for us!

This week I was listening to a pod cast that Father used to spell out, flesh out in my thinking some wonderful additional insights to something I harp on a lot, “the Matrix of religion.”
If you are interested you can listen to this here at the Family Room Media, entitled, Spiritual Abuse. Just scroll down until you see the pod cast.

As brought out in the pod cast, our need for affirmation is genuine but apart from the Lord himself unveiling, revealing to each of us, all that we have been looking for became ours when we were received of the Father and we received the spirit of adoption, the spirit of son ship.
What none of us saw in becoming part of the religious system, and please know it matters not what label you prefer to pretty things up by calling what and where you went as this church or that church, you where blindly imbibing from a system whose intent was to keep you from knowing who, and whose you where!

It doesn’t matter how sincere you were or the leaders were in the system you were apart of, bottom line we were all sincerely wrong in giving allegiance to something other than Christ alone. This is not an indictment; rather it is a picture of our blindness.
Just a thought for you to chew on, when Jesus said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” what do you think he was pointing out? In my opinion he was revealing that which is in man to make him into one of these people, ‘leaven.’
It only takes a very small portion of leaven to do its invasive undermining in the soul of a believer, trust me on this.

Rich

How Does One Get It?

2010-01-10T19:09:00.004-05:00

The quintessential million dollar question being asked all the time of those trying to expound upon living out, living loved, sadly falls upon deaf ears of those with un-renewed minds, trying to adapt and adopt this freeing and thrilling good news much like trying to make a new piece of cloth fit with the torn religious garments they have been wearing.
What God the Father is doing in building his church, he has NO need to duplicate or clone to adapt to whatever the buzz-word term happens to be (ex. ‘free believer’, ‘free ranger’, etc.)
This mystery gospel has and continues to be deciphered by one source alone, God the Holy Spirit, aka, the Spirit of grace and truth. To elucidate this further, let’s take a look at what scripture says in this regard. “In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life~So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.”

Until the realization-revelation dawns upon us that it isn’t something we get, rather it’s someone who has gotten (into) us in way and fashion that is irreversible, we will blindly continue clamouring over trying to get into some (one) thing we’re already IN!

I love how my wife dramatically illustrated this “getting it” with me today while listening to a pod-cast. She likened it to any one of us who up to a certain point had been getting swimming lessons, but our experience had been confined to the safety of the shallow end. Along comes the Divine Lifeguard, and what does He do? He tells us simply to trust in Him, leads us to the deep end…and then abruptly pushes us in! Oh, we can see him standing there, smiling, arms crossed across his chest, as we struggle and sputter. “Save me!” we scream in our panic. “Oh, you’ll be just fine!” He calmly replies, totally unconcerned with our crazed thrashing. “I’m right here! Just stop struggling. I’ve given you the ability to float! Just relax!”

Upon the initial discovery of his direct and personal involvement in our life (and this seemingly becomes often more apparent when one has been led out of the matrix of religion), we thought our growth and maturation was dependent upon the swimming principles but in fact what we thought was ‘swimming’ was being done in the safety of three feet of water.
What none of us sees at first is that within the overwhelming seriousness of suddenly finding ourselves in over our heads, lies the newly engrafted innate ability to discover who and whose we are. It is out of the abundance and overflow of his consuming love for us we begin taking the necessary baby steps, drinking in of his unconditional love, freeing us from the knee-jerk reactions that are so deeply entrenched, freeing us from being consumed with fear.
Rich

Assimilation or Celebration

2010-01-09T17:50:00.003-05:00

To quote a friend, “I have become quite content with sharing Jesus and pointing others to Him right where I am in my little, unadvertised neck of the woods. Anything beyond that seems more intended to bring the focus to ME.”

Is it just another religious (grace) cause, crusade, we have been called to join, or is it rather that we through grace have become joined to Christ himself?
There is such an insatiable hunger and longing I detect in so many for real authentic community without the covert toxic additives of some man/woman’s (unbeknownst to them) desires to exploit them even further.
I love where Paul illustrates (in my opinion) this divisive maniacal undetected heart exploitation of men to make merchandise of those the Father has re-birthed.

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”

In being detoxed from our own undetected leaven a whole new world of sobriety begins to cut through the religious malaise we use to accept as the norm. I can hear so clearly the voice of His spirit imploring me (us), to not become entangled all over again with that (or any) yoke of bondage again, so stand fast!

Is being Jesus to others right where we live enough or should we refuse to resist such a crazy notion and simply allow ourselves to be assimilated much like the Borg from the Start Trek series; "resistance is futile, you will be assimilated into the collective.”
Rather than celebrating our uniqueness in Christ and being Jesus to the others God places in our daily living, the charming incantations and potions (cunning craftiness) of men are once again being activated in the “grace awakening” bent on attempting to dupe the dopes into believing that by signing up, joining their own particular brand of Jesus Manifesto the world will stand up and take notice, but I want to ask, take notice of who?

Rich

August Rush

2010-01-07T14:47:00.001-05:00

"The music is all around US, all you have to do is listen."

I just got through watching for the second time the movie August Rush in as short a time as a week. I can't remember having being so profoundly touched by a movie in a very long time.

Those of you who know and are getting to know me, realize how much I love the medium of movies, how Father speaks to the deep places within me, those places that are much like a desert until His voice comes, then they blossom like an oasis.

I found myself unable to halt the tears in different places in watching the movie not once but twice, as David the King said, "at the noise-sound of your voice, deep calls unto the depths within me". Oh how I too resonate with His holy dissonance as He continues to play upon the strings of my heart. What wholly devastation He wreaks as he magically weaves into my life using both the intensity of sorrow and joy. The continued zeal of His love in not wanting me to rest, settle for that which is so good only to miss His very best.
Through whatever crushings are yet to introduce themselves to me, I know in a growing and learning way, to be fully identified with Him lies no short cuts, and for that my heart is enraptured.

I want to finish with a quote from Henri Nouwen…"Joy and sorrow are never separated. When our hearts rejoice at a spectacular view, we may miss our friends who cannot see it, and when we are overwhelmed with grief, we may discover what true friendship is all about. Joy is hidden in sorrow and sorrow in joy. If we try to avoid sorrow at all costs, we may never taste joy, and if we are suspicious of ecstasy, agony can never reach us either. Joy and sorrow are the parents of our spiritual growth."

Rich

There Are None So Blind

2010-01-03T08:37:00.003-05:00

Through a series of things, mostly movies, I have been so richly encouraged this week. My wife rented three movies, Doubt, August Rush, and Changeling. I also watched the TV movie, Defiance. All spoke to me to the depths of my being.

We have all adapted and adopted a false singularity because of being born sinners establishing an alternate identity, one rooted in lies, or as Morpheus said to Neo, "The Matrix (aka religion) is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth." (What truth)? " That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind."

Apart from direct revelation from God the Father there is at best an insidious entity disguised and operating as me and you - the person we think we actually are. Because of sin and shame that have almost totally assimilated us we exist or go through the motions of living people, much like dead men walking.

I love the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. He could have done the whole thing from the get-go but for some reason he invited humans into this miraculous event. First he told the people to remove the stone covering Lazarus' grave. After commanding Lazarus to come forth, he then instructed the people to loose him from his grave clothes.

Those of us who have similarly been raised from the dead are, in my opinion, much like Lazarus, walking around with the clothing that had formerly been our identity. Grave clothes are suited for the realm of the dead, not for the living. There have been so many tags and labels we have given ourselves, along with other people in our life, that have defined who we believe we truly are. It is my contention that the Father, working in the lives of my siblings throughout the earth, is using the very circumstances and situations we are finding ourselves in to remove our invisible grave clothes - which keeps us alienated from the truth of Whose we are!

Here is a quote from a book my wife just finished (which I hope likewise to read) The Elegance of the Hedgehog which spoke life to me: "They didn't recognize me," I say. I come to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk, completely flabbergasted. "They didn't recognize me," I repeat. He stops in turn, my hand still on his arm. "It is because they have never seen you," he says. "I would recognize you anywhere."

Who we are is undefinable apart from a revelation of Whose we are, period. One follows the other; the order is not reversible. He recognizes the real me, the real you anywhere. When we catch a glimpse of Whose we are, the grave clothes of sin and shame are loosed and we are free to become, essentially, ourselves. All of creation is standing on tiptoe with baited breath longing to see the manifest sons of God being called forth.

Rich

Life Versus Light

2009-12-18T16:39:00.004-05:00

The Dominion of Opinion

Make it your aim to be one in the Spirit, and you will be bound together in peace. There is one Body and one Spirit, just as it was to one hope you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is the one over all, the one working through all and the one living in all. (Eph. 4:2-6 Phillips)

I would be very interested in any feed back regarding this article by Milt Rodriguez from his blog.

Rich

Religion Part 2

2009-12-13T17:29:00.002-05:00

Read part 1 here!

Religion is an insidious and diabolical attempt to establish an identity independently from the creator himself. There never has been nor will there ever be anything within the spawn of religion that remotely has anything to do with being the “church” which IS His body.
I grow weary of the erroneous notion of those re-birthed by God the Father emphatically saying or implying they have left the “church”, what they have left is an entity fostered out of the sick madness of one known as Satan who inspired the first man to embrace, to taste his doctrine of, “you shall be as gods” (you shall not surely die.

On the other hand I love where in scripture it says, “that he Jesus by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”
Simply having exited the bondage of a religious establishment is not synonymous with now being free, anymore than the Jews led out of Egypt into the wilderness sadly discovered that the ingrained matrix of religion, that which had polluted there former captors was very much a fixed identity within their hearts.

The tiniest iota of law commingled with grace becomes the food rooted in the doctrines and teaching of demons. A little leaven will totally corrupt just as a mixture of half truths is in reality a recipe for disaster.
Men seem to love religion and its many expressions; it is no different today than it was in the very beginning of the church, here is but one example where Paul is imploring the believers to take heed to what is going on right under their nose.
“For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves! For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!"

Also here where Paul is speaking to the church, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.”

The harnesses that men have in mind for the believer who has vacated the premises of any religious establishment have no idea of how many other entrapment's yet await him, not so much from without, but from within!

Rich

In Awe Of Him

2009-12-01T20:08:00.005-05:00

For those wondering where Rich is, well I'm still here. It's not that I have nothing to write about or share, quite the opposite, I have way too much to write about. I'm simply in awe of my loving heavenly Father and how he continues to burst through the veil of the seen and continues to open the eyes of my heart to gaze upon the unseen which is so much more real than that which is here today but then gone.

Something has undeniably happened and continues to be happening deep within my heart, as I recently turned the corner and discovered I was now 60.

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Rich

Eye Witnesses

2009-11-21T17:53:00.002-05:00

“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

It also says regarding our brothers in Christ from the beginning, “That which we have seen, heard and handled, we have made known unto you.”

The thing is, if our relationship with Christ is tied only through the umbilical cord of what others have seen and heard, where does that leave us?
Is our faith really something that is alive because the author and developer of it is making me/us today, eye-witnesses?
It says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, in a court of law; the only valid and permissible persons allowed to testify are those who are ‘eye-witnesses.’
I’m often reminded of an exorcism that certain Jews were trying to perform on someone, as they got into it the demon in the person said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who the hell are you?”

So much stuff so many are trying to do apart from it being what He alone wants to produce within us as us, and that comes right back to making us eye-witnesses .
At different times and places the scriptures say, “Without a vision (of His redemptive purposes in the earth) we perish, or for a lack of knowledge, a similar fate is very real”.

It was the heart cry of the Father made alive in and through our brother Paul who constantly held up his siblings before the Father, that He would give them (us) a spirit of wisdom and revelation, opening the eyes of our heart to see and know the truth of whose we are, and to experientially know what it means to be fully alive because of the life of another in us as us!

If Jesus lived out of, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word the Father speaks” then how much more so for the many sons alive today?

Rich