Keeping in Step

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.

Adopting A Christian Life

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

Richard'z Rantz

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

No Frown On Father's Face

The involvedness and the fullness of what we receive through the simplicity of saying yes to God’s offer of becoming His child and a living member of his family is not just a life long journey of continued discover and celebration, but something I believe is going to be but the first baby steps that long continue as we step into eternity.

There never has nor will there ever be any sign of disgust, frustration, impatience on the Father’s part regarding us who have been re-birthed out of the intensity of His love, you will never witness at any time a frown on His face! We are an infinite treasure that never ceases to bring a smile to his heart in light of our discovering the wealth that is ours in his son Christ Jesus.

This salvation he has provided for us was never intended to be something, although perfectly completed and finished by making us one in and with him in our spirit, a place whereby we choose to settle and simply wait to be called yonder.
It is out of this vast inexhaustible place of perfection and completeness that becomes the very impetus of making us eye witnesses to this same salvation invading our entire soul, mind will and emotions.
As it were the power and kindness of his unconditional love opens up the arteries of our inner being to let that love flow and as it does, brings along with it all that we stand in need of, full maturation.

I am convinced that without some knowing, some measure of the experiential reality of the Father’s total and unconditional love for us, the demolition that He has to undertake within our lives will demoralize us.
We are All blinded to the existing default under tow of self-reliance within Sin that still exists within our flesh, and it this nefarious parasite which desires to keep us locked into a performance based approach to life and living.
On finishing these thoughts I want to conclude with what my friend Art has said and I quote him here, “It is by regeneration in our spirit that we’ve already received everything that Christ is to us, including peace. Christ does not give peace; “Christ Himself is made unto us peace, rest, wisdom, and sanctification (holiness)” (1Cor 1:30). He Himself, as peace, indwells our spirit.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me (in union with me) ye might (may) have peace (Greek. eirene, meaning “rest”). In the world ye shall (will) have tribulation (Gk. thlipsis – “pressure”)” (John 16:33).

We enjoy Christ as our peace and rest by abiding, not in the world, but in Him who is always there, abiding in our spirit. The “ye,” in John 16:33 above, which is called to abide in Him is the “ye” of our soul-self, our self. We have a part in living by His life, we are called to abide in our inherent union we have with Him in our spirit. Thus our soul self is called to “walk in the spirit,” that is to remain in union with Him and subservient to Him in our spirit.

Since Christ now indwells the believer’s spirit (2Tim 4:22, Rom 8:8-9) and Paul says Christ is “all” (Col 3:11b), then the believer has no need of anything more. In the light of these facts one might ask, “So then, why don’t I live overcomingly, with His peace and rest?”

An admission of recognized failure to live overcomingly with rest and peace is necessary and usually produced by the situation we may be suffering; it is “good” for us. It is good because the suffering exposes us and reveals to us the gap between our rock solid “standing” or position “in Christ,” and that of our present feeble “state of being.” Recognizing the failure of “our way” is a necessary Christian crisis and a blessed realization that we must have if we are to let go of self-reliance and choose to live by relying upon His love, grace, and life within us.

Rich

Is Grace Just A Concept?

It says that the Law came through Moses, but that grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. In another place it says, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” And, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”

Is truth simply relegated to the best translation of the scriptures and if so, then why the sending of the Word that was made flesh? Meaning, for some, they see it like this, there’s God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Holy Scriptures.
What if in the Word becoming flesh as a man, that all the arguments would be removed in trying to wrestle and debate over rightly understanding whose concept was the right one?

Maybe “grace and truth” is so much more than the religious abstract theological puzzle pieces men have used to keep us from responding to His closeness?
The Father’s closeness came among men through his son Jesus only to become that closeness within us through the finished work of God.
The work of the Father as I see it is now in the “now-here” in this moment of wanting to bring revelation, not a concept of who and what grace and truth really is, and what that discovery will further unleash in the world you and I live in!

Rich

Three Levels of Deliverance

The following is a wonderful picture of His amazing grace in operation as we continue in our journey with our God and Father.
This is taken from an ongoing series of articles by my friend Art Licursi.

Rich


Paul and his co-workers suffered many difficulties, such as coming close to death, in their travels and effort to spread the mystery “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) that Jesus gave to Paul for us. Here we see mention of the “trouble” that came to Paul and his co-workers.
2 Cor. 1:8-9 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 9But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, (so) that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

Paul mentions three levels of deliverance as relates to the troubles believers will endure. In the following verses we see that Paul speaks of “deliverance” that was working in his life in three ways; 1) “delivered” (past tense), 2) “…doth deliver” (present tense) and 3) will “yet deliver” (future tense).
These three “deliverances” apply to three parts of man’s being, his spirit, soul, and body (1Thes 5:23), occurring at three differing times. as it now is in the life of all Christians.
2 Cor. 1:10

Who delivered us (Who has delivered us by flowing His life to us in our spirit) from so great a death,

and doth deliver (Who is continuing to deliver us by flowing His life to us in soul):

in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us (Who will yet deliver us by His resurrection life manifested as our new incorruptible “spirit-bodies” - see v9b)

I interpret these three levels of deliverance as follow.

1) At our rebirth our human spirit was delivered by regeneration (Titus 3:5), by the “spirit of life in Christ Jesus”; thus our spirit is now totally delivered (1Cor 6:17, Col 1:27).

2) While we live our life on earth our soul is “being delivered” - it is being “renewed” (2Cor 4:16, Rom 12:1-2). Thus, Paul commends us to be renewed in our soul’s mindset or attitude.

Philippians 2:5 Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus:

3) We as Christians are yet to “be delivered” in body - in the twinkling of an eye we will exchange these corruptible bodies for incorruptible spirit bodies (1Cor 15:52). Philip. 3:21 Who shall change (metaschematizo, transfigure) our vile (earthly) body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Mankind has been dead toward God, much as we might say a phone line is said to be dead. There had been a break or cessation of communication and relationship between fallen man and God since the fall of Adam; Sin had separated mankind from God.

1) All mankind is born into this world “dead in spirit” toward God, since sin in his being has made him unable to live righteously. Due to the effects of sin in man’s being, fallen man is strong toward sin and weak toward righteousness. If we deny this we lie or we’re burying our head in the sand.

2) Our bodies have a sentence of death in them. The death rate is still unchanged – one per person. These vile bodies will one day be exchanged for a glorious body like unto Jesus’ resurrected body. Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Sin works death in us completely, 1 Cor. 15:56a “The sting of death is sin.” Thus, we see that Christ came that we might have His resurrection life (Gk, Zoë, spirit life) and have His life more abundantly (John 10:10) – that is His life is to permeate our entire being, eradicating death in our spirit and our soul, and then yielding our new spirit-body.

So what is it that we are we being delivered of or delivered from in the three parts of our being? We see in 2Cor 1:9 (above) that Paul is speaking of deliverance from of “the sentence of death.” We were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1b). God delivered us by depositing the life of His Son into our spirit ( Col 1:27. God has already regenerated us in spirit, (Titus 3:5) by depositing Christ’s “spirit of life” into our spirit (1Cor 6:17). We were made alive in our spirit where we had “been dead in trespasses and sins”

“And you hath he quickened (Gk. zao, made alive), who were dead in trespasses and sins;” (Ephesians 2:1)

Christ’s life in our spirit is now flowing to renew and bring life to our soul, delivering us from the mindset of the flesh which ends in death. Romans 8:6a For to be carnally minded is death…He is now making us alive in soul by bringing us to renew our mindset to trust Him in all things. Romans 8:6 … to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Now we also look forward to the day when our physical death will be swallowed up of His life. He will “yet deliver” our body by making it incorruptible.

1 Corinthians 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality (eternal life), then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

The life of Christ we received into our spirit at the moment of our rebirth has forever enlivened and is “sanctifying us completely, in (our) spirit soul and body” (1Thes 5:13). Christ’s life is fully dealing with the sentence of death within His own.

Romans 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

He Is Before All Things

Shadow Chasing

Webster defines Christianity as "the religion of Christians, or the system of doctrines and precepts taught by Christ; conformity to the laws and precepts of the Christian religion."

Sadly, most Christians today would agree with that definition. And so would I. That is the Christian religion. That is Christianity. So under this definition and description I must declare to you that I have once and for all time rejected Christianity!


But Rich, what are you saying, have you rejected the doctrines and precepts taught by Christ? No I have not. But I have rejected the idea that the teachings of Christ can be separated from the Person of Christ. The teachings or doctrines are there to point us to the Person. The teachings within themselves are not the goal. The Person is the goal!

So we have created this system called the Christian religion or Christianity and it has become just another "thing." Jesus never started the Christian religion. He never started any religion. He only pointed people to the only Way to the Father. And then He told us that He is the Way. The problem with religions is that they all point to a teaching, a concept, a philosophy, a method, or a program to help you reach spirituality or your acceptance with God. But Jesus only pointed to a Person.
This glorious Christ is so much bigger than any mere religion! No religion can contain Him. No doctrinal system can define or explain Him. No set of things or 'its' can ever confine this unlimited Christ. Even your thoughts and ideas about Him can never restrain this all sufficient Person. The confines of man-made religion (including Christianity) can never harness the Christ who is before all things. No thing can contain this vast Christ, and, anything less than Him will never satisfy the human heart.

Yet we continue to settle for lesser things. We continue to settle for things about Him instead of just Him. We continue to live in the shadows instead of the substance. I don't know about you, but I am tired of living in the shadows. I want to live in reality. I want to grab hold of the substance of this Person. I desperately want to live this Christ who is the All in all!

I would love to hear how this might be speaking to you!

Rich

Vicarious Living

There are many expressions of dis-ease that religion has produced in Christians such as, dissatisfaction, frustration, disillusionment, anxiety, guilt, shame just to name a few.
What started out as a ‘big bang’ supernaturally being brought into a living relationship with God has somehow, somewhere been hijacked, and that is what is on my heart to talk about.

With out continued revelation, “(Man shall not live by bread alone, but by ever word that comes from the mouth of God”, and, “In the same way you have received Christ Jesus, continue to walk in Him),” its just a matter of time before we start acting as Jesus impersonators, and how is that done you might ask?
Well, its always the same, we started out in, by and through His spirit, in the beginning we had no need for surrogate or foster parenting, we operated freely for some, a very short time and some longer out of the unlearned intuitive flow of His life (regulating) in and through us, it was heaven on earth.

Loosing our spiritual equilibrium is sort of like an animal or bird that sees you instead of its real parent in its entry into the world, often there is an imprinting that happens where you are mistaken for its parent.
Because of some shifting at a heart level we slowly become fixated with people we start looking up to, that can be just about anybody that we see as being really ‘spiritual.’ If in fact what we are seeing is truly them living because of the life of another, Christ in them as them, we indeed can learn much from them.
But on the other hand if it is nothing but a form of godliness, then it might simply be, the blind leading the blind.

Where a sibling is living out of His life in them regulating their living, moving and being, as a direct result of the unfolding revelation of Christ to them and we do not detect this, then the next best thing we usually resort to, is trying to apply, walk in a similar walk as they are, but finding out sooner or later that the life God offers has nothing to do with imitation!
One doesn’t have to look to hard or far to witness so many trying to live the Christian life as if that were attainable, trying to make what they have read or listened to from other siblings, to work for them not realizing that this is trying to live vicariously rather then living spontaneously from within.

Somehow in not having the eyes of our heart opened to see and know (the true knowledge) of whose and who we are, we begin to resort to acting out of the residual lies embedded within our flesh, and the lie of all lies is no different than the first one offered to Adam and Eve, “You can become like God.”
The short cut is most alluring to our flesh, we can attain at the click of a mouse, or listen to a pod cast, read a book, and think in the assimilation of that information we can mature, grow, and yet if there is no revelation we have only retarded and stunted our growth by being puffed up rather than being built up.

Can you hear the Father’s call to you, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Rich

Achilles Heel

I love this saying, but the first time I heard it I said, what the heck! “There never was a you, you.”
From my understanding the first man, Adam (and Eve) were never created with a (human) nature, I know, I can hear the hair pulling, teeth grinding already, but please just hold onto your underwear from getting all knotted in a bunch. There, take a deep breath, isn’t that much better, whew?

I see the two trees pointed out by God, placed in the middle of the Garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, pointing to a reality so much larger than just eating or not eating of its fruit. Each of these trees represented an nature, one being the very nature of God, the ‘zoe’ life that is much more than what Adam had, as all created things became alive by having what I will call the ‘life-spark’ in them, but in man’s (Adam’s) case, when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, he according to scripture became a ‘living-soul’, having what I will call, ‘life on loan.’
He, man, was of the highest order of all that God had created, making man in His likeness and image.
Before going any further I need to say this, it is a necessity to ask God the Father to bring revelation to our understanding of our composition, how we were formed, put together, and believe it or not, he is only to obliging. It is with this revelation coming from him that we gain true understanding and needed insight of the Mystery our brother Paul was delivered, Christ in you the hope of glory.

In the act of defiance (it was a mere defect in man) man died, “IN the day you eat of the fruit you shall surely die, speaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
What filled man was a ‘death-life,’ yes I realize this is an dissident sounding set up, but it was just that. It was the father of lies and religion, Satan disguised as the serpent who entered man, the sinner from the beginning, he took up residence in man as man, ergo, there never was a you, you!
We were designed to be governed by having to have a nature, not just a life-spark, but an actual nature.

The last Adam, the second man Christ Jesus, came to be a life (quickening) giving spirit. Apart from availing ourselves of His grace while its called today, our ‘life on loan’ will be returned back to its source God, when we have taken our last breath, otherwise in availing ourselves of his offer of Life, (he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit) we become eternal with an everlasting indestructible ‘zoe’ life.
There are so many different ways of verbally trying to use the ‘right’ words to describe what I want to say, but none of that will matter at all without His living giving, quickening spirit to breath upon what we see or are trying to say.
Many believe that in our re-birthing it went something like this, God coming in, and Satan going out! According to so many, we are operating with but one nature (and with this I am going to close here with these first thoughts) but that is NOT true. As I said earlier without Father God giving us revelation to our created physiology in the beginning, body, soul and spirit, this will be but a moot point, and believe me so called much wiser wise guys could so easily make spin in my tracks in their sound and founded teaching on us having but one nature.

What a profound delight knowing you Father, and that you have hidden all truth from the wise guys, and yet made it readily available to mere babes.
I will share more of where I want to go with some delightful thoughts still percolating in my heart.

Rich

Turkish Delight or, His Delight

Caution, long post ahead, don’t say you weren’t warned~ha!

The following is some back ground insight to what I am going to tie in with later, the story is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Because of the length of this, this is going to be part 1.

Rich

With some prodding, the Queen discovers that Edmund is a human child. Though she had looked stern and threatening to Edmund at first, when she hears that he is a human she suddenly becomes very attentive, and invites Edmund to sit in her sledge under her fur mantle and talk with her. Edmund does not dare disobey her orders. The Queen conjures up food and drink for him, which consists of a hot drink and a box of Turkish Delight (a type of chocolate). As he eats and drinks, the Queen asks him many questions. Edmund might have been wary of trusting this strange, imposing woman, but he is completely fixated on the sweet food. The narrator explains that the Turkish Delight is enchanted, causing whoever eats it to feel an insatiable greed for more. This chocolate compels the unfortunate eater to keep on eating it until he is prevented from doing so or until it kills him. Since Edmund is distracted by his desire, he does not notice the ominous signs when the Queen interrogates him sharply about his family, particularly his brothers and sisters. She seems intrigued to hear that there are four children in his family, two boys and two girls. Edmund also tells her that Lucy has been to Narnia and met a faun.
When Edmund finishes the Turkish Delight, he desperately hopes that the Queen will offer him more, but she does not. Instead, she asks him to bring his brother and sisters to Narnia to meet her. The Queen does not give Edmund an adequate explanation for why she wants to meet them, but she tells Edmund that she will give him all the Turkish Delight he wants if he brings them to her. This is reason enough for Edmund. The Queen sends him back to the lamppost. There he meets Lucy, who tells him she has been with Tumnus, who is well and has not been punished by the White Witch for his treachery. Edmund asks her for details about the White Witch, and he realizes that the Queen of Narnia is the same person. Edmund, however, is still obsessed with Turkish Delight and rationalizes that the Witch and the Queen are not the same entity. Edmund and Lucy go back into the wardrobe to the Professor's house. Although Lucy is ecstatic that now Edmund can support her story, Edmund is not eager to look like a fool because of his original skepticism.

The Witch's manner when she meets Edmund is initially unfriendly, and for a moment she seems close to killing him. Once she has given him the magic Turkish Delight, however, Edmund cannot see the Witch's cruelty and viciousness. The Witch's kindness and generosity is artificial, but Edmund does not seem to notice or care. Significantly, the narrator says that the magic Turkish Delight causes greed, not that it blinds Edmund to the Witch's true character or alters his perceptions of the Witch. If the narrator had said that Edmund's mistake was directly caused by the Turkish Delight, then Edmund would not have been truly responsible for his actions. Instead, Edmund falls victim to his own gluttony. He does not have to allow the Turkish Delight to control him and cloud his judgment. If Edmund's concern for his siblings had been deeper or his sense of morality stronger, he might have understood the Queen's character despite the enchantment of the Turkish Delight.
The Turkish Delight is a symbol for the sins of the flesh—for example, greed, gluttony, and lechery. These sins of the flesh are not devastating by themselves. Rather, they become destructive when the sinner indulges in them and then is unable to distinguish between right and wrong as a result. The act of eating the Turkish Delight is not Edmund's real sin. Edmund is unable to choose to eat the chocolates, so he has no free will. Edmund's true sin is in allowing the Turkish Delight to distract him and obscure his thinking and his notion of morality. When Edmund allows his greed to get the better of him, he shuts his mind to the belief that the Queen is really the White Witch. As we will see more clearly in the next chapter, the power of sin to corrupt and influence a person's behavior extends far beyond that person's first sinful act. Edmund's first sin in this case is his greed for the Turkish Delight. While he was not under the direct influence of the Turkish Delight, Edmund had the choice to regain his equilibrium and moral awareness. Instead, Edmund dwells on the memory of the chocolate, allowing it to taint all his subsequent actions and decisions. This scene shows the power of sins of the flesh to cloud the sinner's judgement in other, more important, matters of morality. The resulting sins are far more damaging than that of the original sinful action.

Measuring Ourselves

I’m not trying to nail anything down here just thinking, but the stirring that is happening throughout the earth regarding the massive exodus from established expressions of religion and trying to launch something new is it because there was a knowing in measuring themselves they came up short?

If we have not grasped the truth of His love, life, in us as us, won’t it be the same old thing only wrapped up in a new set of duds? Who told you were naked in the first place?
The longing for God the Father that has been awakened in so many, wanting to gain a whole new dimension of closeness is not found in anything short of his spirit making known, revealing His heart for us!
It’s going to take whatever it takes to bring each and every person in this freshly awakened journey to come to the end of being sick and tired of swallowing a whole new batch of gos-pills marketed in an enticing format.

Rich

Indestructible

My buddy Mark is someone on the outside who can so easily be seen for who he isn’t, you know judging a book by its cover?
What Mark use to be and who he is now and is becoming, is a living oasis in a barren desert world, it is my deep delight in knowing him as my friend and brother in Christ!

Mark has two dogs, both obtained from the pound, the last one named Harley is a cross between a Newfoundland/Lab and Chow, and he now weighs about 140 pounds. If Harley bumps into you, it is you that moves not him. I remember Mark telling me about one of the times when Harley was much lighter, only 90 pounds that in his doggy brain seeing himself as being just a pup, decided to jump up onto Mark’s lap, well to say the least, it proved to be most interesting.
I’ve told Mark, Harley should be the poster dog for Pet Smart, meaning this dog has repeatedly proven that the guaranteed ‘indestructible’ label on various dog related products are meaningless to this canine masticating punisher.
Mark has gone back several times already to have Pet Smart come up good on replacing the previous product he purchased reading, “indestructible”!

This highlights to me something else that far surpasses the label of being indestructible, and that is the Life that is ready and available for whom so ever wills, to simply receive it.
It is that life I want to speak of here in some quotes from Austin Sparks.

“This divine life is incorruptible and therefore indestructible. It is deeper down than our consciousness, deeper than our souls, deeper than all our sensations. Yes, deeper than this human frame, deeper than this mental constitution, deeper than the whole organism of our physical and nervous life, so that we may even lose our reason and spend the end of our years in a lunatic asylum, and it makes no difference to the deepest reality. Very often in unconsciousness there is that that can be touched by prayer. There is a point of communication.
You may find some real child of God, in whom His life has not been paralysed, but who has been in communion with Him, and that one falls perhaps into a great sickness, and in sickness loses consciousness. There is no communication on the outside with anyone, no response to anything said; but kneel down beside that one and begin to pray in the Spirit, and you find a point of contact. There is response, quickening, peace comes in where there has been torment or delirium, perhaps life begins to flicker again. You have a point of contact. It is spirit to spirit. It is one life.

This life of God is a mighty thing within the renewed spirit of man. This is our point: that is the divine basis upon which His end concerning man is to be realised. The one thing that Satan is against is the getting of Christ inside. He will have any kind of substitute in Christianity and religion, just so long as you do not come too near on the question of regeneration or rebirth, which means the introduction of Christ into the innermost part. Anything but that. Any lie but that.”
That is what we meant when we said that God’s thought becomes much more positive by reason of the conditions obtaining through the fall: that is, there have to be these active, energetic factors now implanted in man. It all becomes a matter of conflict to get that.

Rich

God in a Box (Concept)

The following quotes are from Wayne Jacobson from his latest issue of Body Life, you can read it here.


“You would think that if one of us was serving the Living God, it would look differently.”

“Religion is the same all over the world. It is a prescribed set of doctrine, rules, rituals, and ethics. It celebrates sacred space, exalts holy-men as gurus and tries to muscle its way into the culture. For 2000 years many have practiced Christianity as a religion, essentially no different than the others, except in who it claims to follow. But if one of us was serving a Living God, wouldn’t it look very different?”

“When we cram the life of God into a box, we rob it of its life and power and only distinguish it from other religions by claiming a more truthful doctrine. Could that be why Jesus didn’t teach his disciples how to gain a following or build institutions. He didn’t teach them how to meet on Sunday mornings at 10:00 with a worship band and a leader to lecture the others. He didn’t give them a prescribed set of behaviors that people were suppose to follow as the means to serve God.”
“No, he invited them into his Father’s house, and a reality of relationship with his Father that would transform them and opened the way for them to share that love with others. That you can’t put into a religion and trying to only chokes out any hope of relationship. Putting creed and doctrine above a growing friendship with him supplants the reality he offered us, no matter how correct our doctrine or moral our ethics.”

We’re either coming to Christ as a blank sheet ready for Him to write into our being Life, or we’re coming to him with our already established religious mind set (conceptual thinking) and trying to make what He says fit into what I have determined to be the truth.
Isn’t that what Nicodemus tried to do, meaning, it was a ignorant Palestinian ‘ditch digger’ Jesus came to in John chapter 3, it was a religious, pious, educated man of learning.
It would be surmised that his morality was well in check, having a good hold on what is good vs bad etc. When he hears Jesus saying to him he needs to be “born-again” he automatically tried to fit a heavenly truth (reality) into his established conceptual reasoning, look out Nick, you’re about to have a brain fart!

Is it any wonder there is such consternation within this demographic called “Christianity?”
I hear so many looking at what God is saying which is “spirit and truth” as merely viewed as a “concept” and trying through the energy of their flesh to make it fit into their living!
What ever happened to putting (that which is heavenly-spiritual) new wine into a new wine skin anyway?

Rich

Disguised

According to Paul formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, “he saw his life being consistent with the Law and found blameless,” until his life was derailed in a head on collision with the resurrected and glorified Christ, the embodiment and fulfillment of the LAW!

If it took this head on collision to bring Saul/Paul to a beginning place of humbly acknowledging his total ignorance of this one who was addressing, confronting him, how is it that we apart from some kind of real catharsis, crisis, and possibly many more crises, is it possible for any of us to experience the living reality of Christ in us as us?

It so often appears to me that for many, it’s simply a choosing, a decision they make to leave the “church” life they have been a part of for however long, a lot like a New Year’s resolution or something. As if its simply turning over a new leaf in coming into a proper alignment to God our Father without having to experience the explosive reality of Him in us as us, colliding with all of the religious shit that has defined us apart from Himself. As if this new phase is nothing more than simply adding grace (as an add-on) to our new walk with the Father.

I am seeing and have been seeing for some time now with the reality of Him making Himself known to his sons that there is a major cataclysm set into motion as a result of this encounter of the most holy kind, turning our religious and orderly world amuck.
Without the God and Father of all grace making Himself known to us in this agonizing time of upheaval, we are ripe for that which appears to be disguised as ‘grace’ nothing more than tips and techniques.

I like what Steve McVey said when questioned about his dramatic and unsettling encounter with the Lord as to whether this was a “second’ work of grace in his life. He replied, I have no idea about that, but it seems it has much more to do with the initial work of grace that apprehended me that I knew nothing of in its fullness.

Rich

Son-Ship!

Father continues to totally amaze me as he in his wisdom keeps walking me through His maze of grace.
I honestly feel like a little kid that you just know by reading his body language that he had to pee some time ago but because of being SO excited having so much fun, well, having to pee just has to wait.
That kid is me for sure today, but it didn’t start out that way, no sir-e-bob. I went to bed early last night being so dog tired, but sometime during the night had a horrible nightmare, which lingered throughout most of the day, but into this crap He dropped a bomb, yup the kind that makes you wanna forget anything else but Him!

It truly floods my soul in how His foolishness is so much better than all of my wisdom, He led me to a site that He used to confirm so much He has been getting me prepared to see in His light and His timing, my soul does magnify His name!

Those who do not know any of my story, suffice it to say that religion, being a “Christian” has cost me more than I can try and put into words. So the very hint of the subverting odor of (leaven) religion, makes me wanna puke!!!
It was hard reading, wadding through this site, http://robrufus.blogspot.com/2009/02/son-ship-vs-christianity.html because of all the religious bull shit, but the wonder of Him drawing me there and keeping me from its entanglements is nothing short of a miracle.
I am resonating in this fresh unfolding of being wonder struck by His great love for me all over again, and knowing this love IS for all of my siblings as well.

There is so much He has poured into my being today even after being slimed last night with the sickening nightmare, I can not get away from His brilliance in connecting so many dots that have been at best abstract and obtuse to me.
I am looking so forward to being able to share some of what He continues to make even clearer to me in the near future.

Rich

Moving Forward

I’m following the on going series my friend Art is writing and I wanted to post these two portions that spoke to my heart as I continue to move forward in experiencing His overall unconditional love.

Rich

Is Confession of Sins Necessary in the Ongoing Life of the Christian?

As noted in Part 7, the believer’s confession of sins occurring after salvation is not necessary for forgiveness of sins under Paul’s “gift of the grace of God” (Eph 3:7). This is because ALL sin was forgiven at the moment of salvation – past sins, present sin, and future sins; thus, we were accepted in Christ. The requirement for Christians to practice confession of sins for forgiveness is a false doctrine, as if to say a believer “can fall out of grace”; with the result that one minute you’re saved by grace, and then next you’re not. The grace of God’s forgiveness of our sins is freely given and unconditional, covering ALL our sins for all time.

However, there are a few cases that require our confession of sin(s), but not for forgiveness; rather it is that we might come to “the light” of a restored union and fellowship with the Lord, as well as with those around us. These are serious matters of understanding because they affect our daily walk, not to mention the sanity of our mind.

1) There is a place of confession that is not confession to gain forgiveness of sins. It is confession to God concerning sin toward another, such as forgiveness that we may hold against another. Such an acknowledgment before God releases us from the burden of sin.

2) There’s also a place of confession before another believer that is admission guilt before God for past sin. Such an admission releases us from the choking burden of past sin that we may have long cloaked in the darkness of our hidden self-life for many years. We’ve perhaps been locked into a jail of our own making by some sin(s) that we may think of as unforgivable. Sin makes us fear exposure. Sin wants each of us alone. Sin wants to draw me into myself, and away from God and others. The more isolated I am the more control the Sin nature can have over me. Sin seeks the shadows. Sin holds me in the dark, robbing me of complete fellowship with God and others. Others may sense the wall that keeps me from being genuine with them.

Under such darkness, we are easy prey for the accusations of the Devil, whose goal is to literally destroy us. Though the Devil cannot touch God, he tries to destroy God’s image in us.

Jesus said believers are to be lovers of the light. Jn 12:36 While ye have light, believe (pisteuo, trust in, cling to, and rely upon) in the light, that ye may be the children of light… We have these words from the Apostle James to point us to the remedy. James 5:16 Confess (exomologeo, acknowledge, admit) your faults (paratomah, side slips) one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed (iaomai, cured, made whole). The effectual fervent prayer (deesis, petition) of a righteous man availeth much.

Sin toward others brings pain to our own self. Bringing our hidden life into the light of God is not so we may gain forgiveness, but to heal us of sin’s pain. We may be a Christian who is forgiven of ALL sins, and yet be self-condemned due to our supposed unforgivable sin. We may think we were not lovable, not loved of God or by those who we think should love us – all because we don’t accept our self; so we can’t and don’t accept God’s forgiveness.

The problem is our view of our self because we’ve not accepted God’s forgiveness. Since we don’t believe we are forgiven by God, the pain of this is self-inflicted; it’s due to our own forgiveness of ourselves for some sin(s) in our past. The fact is God has long ago forgiven us of ALL our sins, but we have held ourselves as reprehensible.

We are locked into what is a hopeless and helpless condition unless God intervenes. This condition must be brought into the light; therefore God our Father may force the real us to become exposed to our self and/or to others…that we might be healed.

How does the Lord expose us to the light?

The pain rooted in our unacceptance of our self may manifest itself in mental instability and/or physical illness. This may be the end of the road approaching, since our sickness may do for us what we could not do for ourselves, forcing us to be exposed. God does this because He loves us and wants us free of the power of our supposed unforgivable sin(s). The answer is for our self to become exposed, brought under the curative power of the divine radium of God’s light, where it may be confirmed that we are totally forgiven and loved of God, standing blameless before Him in His love.

In the next installment, Part 8B, I will offer my personal testimony of God’s forced exposure of His light upon my needy soul.