Leaving the System~Bon Voyage

How many times have I heard someone refer to the “system” as being synonymous with the institutional entity erroneously called the church? I don’t know. All I do know is that it is way too confining a definition, too small a picture for me. Why? It’s because “we know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one”. This control is in actuality the matrix of religion, otherwise known as the world system, and it has completely saturated our beliefs, outlooks and thought processes.
This matrix of religion exists within and is entrapped by our soul and is what fuels beliefs, philosophies, creeds, etc. There has to be an impetus, otherwise all such ideologies would be a house of cards. Satan, being the father of religion, is both the impetus and the instigator.
I want to make it clear that Satan operates from within the arena of the soul. That is the location from which not only evil emanates but also where truth wishes to reside, (be fleshed out) contingent upon our choices. Our spirits (if we have been born-again) are pure and perfect forever, having been indwelt by the spirit of Christ.

“Leaving the system” is usually interpreted as making an exodus from a religious or institutional setting, and yes it is, but it is only a very miniscule part of the departure. Everything outside of being ‘in Christ’ is religion. This includes our moral conduct, how we choose to live our lives, our definition of right and wrong, etc., and it doesn’t matter one whit whether one is a believer or an atheist. Religious organizations may be flavoured differently but are but one expression of the father of lies’ intent to draw Christians away from the simplicity of the gospel - which is there is NOTHING we can do to earn God’s favour. Our good works, our ‘holiness’, our right living are all based on Satan’s deceptive assertions that by our ‘doing’ or being a good person we can be ‘like God’.
So, leaving the “system” does not/cannot extricate us from Satan’s influence in terms of the religious bondage he has intertwined within the strands of our soul. This may come as a surprise. Many who have left institutional Christianity blame their former religious leaders for duping them and leading them astray from the truth. That may be partly true, but it is essential to remember that these religious leaders have been lied to by the same enemy that exists in everyone’s soul. In other words, these leaders are just as deceived as you and I who have begun to see the truth. Our anger is misdirected; it’s not the leaders or the system that is responsible for the deception: it is the Father of Lies himself. In gratitude to Christ for opening our blind eyes, our response should be to pray for those leaders still enslaved within the chains of religious bondage.

Rich

Lifestyle

Those who don’t know the Lord are often contemptuous of those who do. They think believers are stupid at best or brain-washed at least. They don’t realize that they, too, have been totally duped by the enemy of their souls.

EVERY person alive exists within the confines of his/her own personal matrix, custom-designed to keep him/her blind from seeing the truth. What is this matrix? It’s religion, pure and simple. But how can people who don’t pretend to believe in God be entrapped in religion? It’s because we typically think of ‘religion’ as being something which goes hand in hand with one’s particular faith, when actually religion is one’s lifestyle. It’s how people choose to live their lives. “I may not be the best person in the world”, they say, “but at least I don’t abuse my sick days at work”. “I don’t claim to be religious, but I am kind to others and give money to charity.” “I don’t believe in God but I consider myself to be a moral person” etc. etc. etc. In this sense, even atheists are religious, because they live their lives according to their own personal moral code.

Religion was instituted by Satan in the garden as a means to circumvent having dependency on God. Merriam-Webster defines religion thus:

- a personal set or institutionalized system of attitudes, beliefs and practices
- a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

What better temptation could Satan have contrived than one that would persuade humankind we don’t need God? That we, by virtue of our own ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’ could decide for ourselves what is an acceptable code of conduct, or what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’? What people don’t see (because they have been blinded) is that apart from Christ, there IS no ‘morality’. Why? It’s because at the moment when Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation, a cataclysmic event disfigured their souls, and Satan has been able to replicate himself in the flesh of every person born since. That’s what the scriptures mean when humankind is described as having been ‘born in sin and shaped in iniquity’.

The truth is, without knowing Christ as our life, we are eternally, totally lost and without hope - and no religion or religious set of beliefs is going to alter that fact one whit. Non-believers (and many believers) have absolutely no concept as to the utter depravity of their own souls. They blissfully live their lives in utter ignorance, endeavouring to be ‘good’ people by following the rules, playing nicely with others and adhering to social mores.

This religious veneer, however, is incredibly thin. No one has any idea what s/he is capable of when backed into a corner. When consumed with fear, rage, jealousy or hunger, people have done horrendous things (check out the daily newspaper). It’s at those moments that people come face to face with the evil inherent in the core of their very beings. “I would have never thought she was capable of murder!” Oh, really? We are ALL capable of the most horrific, despicable acts. There is not one of us better than any other.

This is the good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is that we are irreparably flawed, depraved and rotten to the core. The good news is that we are irreparably flawed, depraved and rotten to the core! It’s bad news for those who live their lives according to their own moral code, who don’t recognize that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the only hope. It’s good news for believers, because it testifies to the fact that we can do NOTHING to measure up or to try to attain to God’s holy standards. It sets us FREE from trying (and failing) to keep the rules and agonizing over our total inability to change ourselves – because HE HAS DONE IT ALL FOR US (but that’s another blog entry)!

Rich

Anti-Virus Update

To run any computer without some kind of protection as in anti-virus software, is simply an impending computer accident of the night mare kind just looking for a place to happen.
Don’t leave home without it!

What internal software are we as believers running regarding the nasty contaminates just waiting to bring us down into another form of polluted corruption?
I love with sobering clarity the words Jesus spoke regarding becoming polluted, corrupted and defiled, He said, “It’s not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man. That which proceeds from the mouth, comes from the heart, therein lays the defilement.”

This hidden but lively poison is resident within all flesh; yes even the “Christians” flesh.
Recently a colleague of mine phoned in sick to work, as natural as breathing the thought came flooding into my consciousness, “He’s simply pulling a fast one,” of course this was based upon factual knowledge, right, WRONG!

Here is a joke to lighten things up here for a moment, what is a mental gymnast, someone who jumps at erroneous conclusions. Ha!! Of course this never happens in a Christian’s life or thinking does it-ha!

Such full of life and hope, these words spoken to those who have ears to hear from Paul: “In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing. Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining those who are in honest and serious prayer before God. Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God's servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil's trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.”

As well as these words of encouragement from John: “If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth—we're not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.
If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.”

Talk about a fabulous and totally dependable means of keeping free from the nasty inner workings of the flesh trying to bog us done with condemnation.
Along with the new Operating System of His grace and love, is this built in anti-virus software that works better than the law of gravity!

Rich

Fairy Tale-Thinking

The following quote is from my friend Bill Landon, from his book entitled, “The Devil You Don’t Know”.

“It is not a mark of shame that we have a set of misconceptions incorporated in our basic understanding. This is not evidence that we are stupid, immoral or slow-witted. Think of where we came from. We all have come out of the world. This is a world that is awash in misconceptions, ignorance and outright dishonesty. You must always keep in mind that the world is under the control of the evil one: “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19). So we all come into the life of Christ with an impressive set of fairy tales about the way things are. This reality is difficult to accept, especially for us who are convinced that we are pretty savvy about how things are. It is nonetheless, true.

We need to consider some things. What is more important—coming to a deeper understanding of the Father, His world and ourselves or preserving our own foolish pride? To me, there is nothing sweeter than coming to know the truths of God. I am practical enough to realize that this sweetness may be too esoteric for many people. Then consider the pragmatic advantages of growing in the understanding of the truth.”

I want to add some thoughts of my own especially in light of this, “So we all come into the life of Christ with an impressive set of fairy tales about the way things are.”
There is a growing sense within me that once gain how even the wonders of the ‘grace message’ seems to becoming in just another form of self-righteousness, let me explain if I can.

The evil one’s influence is not a done deal in the life of a believer, really, duh! The heart beat of our God and Savior is ‘compassion’ and that word in and of itself is so bankrupt of describing the intensity of what He actually feels to and for us, lost and found humanity.
Without seeing, encountering His closeness I see experiencing grace as a meaningless venture if in fact more of His compassionate heart does not set aflame our inner most being for those He died and rose again for.
Our continued ability to see more clearly and compassionately toward those who still continue to choose death, religion etc. is out of a growing cognizant sobriety that His grace engenders.

In my continued journey I am choosing to embrace the truth of His great love in exchange for my present and yet to be recognized fairy tale mentality.

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

Mystics, Clowns and Artists

The art of story-telling is a language that targets the heart, and as Jesus said, “he who has hears to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying.”

Slowly I am continuing to peck away at reading more of Brennan Manning’s books, the one I’m in right now is, “A Glimpse Of Jesus” and it too is deeply touching my heart, hearing the truth as freeing as it is, is also very painful!
Something (there are so many things I’d love to share from this little book) that spoke volumes to me today was from Manning quoting (which he does a lot of) journalist and Christian apologist Malcolm Muggeridge.

“Only mystics, clowns and artists, in my experience, speak the truth, which, as Blake keeps insisting, is perceptible to the imagination rather than the mind. Our knowledge of Jesus Christ is far too serious a business to be left to theologians and exegetes alone. From the Middle Ages these professionals have monotonously neglected art and the imagination as guides to religious truth. I find myself in complete agreement with those who wish to reinstate the mystics, clowns and artists alongside the scholars. The imaginable is the believable.” To modify Wittgenstein: ‘What we cannot imagine, we must confine to silence and non-belief.’

Rich

Shape of Things to Come

You wrote: "God loves us, we love him, and life happens" which is interesting because "And Then Life Happened" just happens to be the title of my blog. I chose that title because it's the chords to the song the Lord is playing as he directs my life.

Due to the length of my wife's musings, I thought I would answer your question as a new entry in my blog.

This is a combined response, btw. My wife, Margo, is adding her input below:

From Margo:

Dear Beth,

You are a very good writer, and we both love how the Lord is revealing his heart to you, personally, as an individual. Love that about him!

Here's my take about the advice you were given:

I think the advice was good (thank heavens for the Internet!), but even if you didn't have access to cyberspace I believe God would have been able to answer your question. Why? Because you appear to have a sincere, inquiring heart...and I believe that sort of thing gets him all fired up (not being disrespectful...but I am coming to know him as a person and I do think he gets excited about some things)! Life does tend to happen to everyone and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to discern that good and bad things occur all the time for no apparent reason. Having access to the scriptures is nice but not necessary. Case in point; Job didn't have a bible either!

The book of Job has played a big part in our lives, simply because we had our own kind of Job experience that lasted about ten miserable years. During that time, God not only crushed and ground us to bits but then pulverized the resulting dust. You may ask why a God of love would do such a thing, as did we - billions of times!

I think there are innumerable things our finite, clay-based minds cannot possibly comprehend about our Heavenly Father - the wonder, the terror, the majesty, the meekness...BUT - there is one thing that's a constant, and that is God is love. Until we get our minds around that truth, and know it as an unchanging, unalterable fact (no matter how chaotic, cruel or nonsensical life can be) then nothing else is relevant. I can take comfort in that never-changing truth: God is love. It seems so simplistic, yet is so all-encompassing. It seems like a platitude, but it's pregnant with truth. And at times, that's all we can manage to whisper when we are broken with grief or horror or disappointment or depression or gut-wrenching sorrow: "God is love".

God is love. I guess that's enough for us to know right now. One day we will understand, but until we get to the sweet by-and-by, in the nasty now-and-now that's where faith comes in, faith founded on the truth that "God is love".

I recall the story of Helen Rosevere. She was a medical missionary doctor stationed in the Congo. Eventually, guerrilla forces overtook her camp and she was savagely beaten and brutally raped many times. She demanded to know from God why he had allowed it to happen, particularly when she had sacrificed her own life in order to serve him. I won't ruin the story for you in case you ever read the account, but when God gave her the answer she was ashamed she had asked. It was sufficient to her to know...God is love.

And yes, I do agree: "there is nothing greater than being with God, in all meanings of that preposition." With God, in God...love those prepositions!

Re Job: You already know God took away all that he had (children, livestock, real estate, health, respect etc.) But isn't it interesting that at the end of his life, God replaced it all - in double portion - everything that is, EXCEPT his children. Job originally had ten. You would have thought that the next family would consist of twenty. Now, why do you think that was? I think I know the answer but I would be interested in hearing what you think!

From Richard:
Beth,

Here is a link, see here, to something that reaches into the depths of my being. I perceive what is penned here to be succinctly relevant to what is being postulated by us both.

In Him,
Rich/Margo

The Shape of Things to Come

In the ongoing continued inner dealings of the spirit of God, our being trained in the schooling of being loved, is the Father of our spirit pontificating or is he postulating regarding the intense breaking that continues their redemptive crushing and crashing upon our souls?

Is that how it seemed to our brother and friend Job when God basically told Job to stand up on his hind legs and listen to a wisdom that was intricately apart of all that was undoing this man’s life!

Starting from Job chapters 38 to 41, you are brought into this close encounter with God and a man whose life has been up to this point been defined by misguided and darkened counsel. Soon there is to be a forth coming illumination in Job’s life, out of the whirlwind God is now going to speak.

Rich

Morality, For Christ Sake

In not knowing, knowing internally that is, that the Law was and remains fulfilled by love, is it any wonder that much of what is supposedly conveyed as the “good news,” is nothing more than a counterfeit gospel, (one among a plethora of others), one steeped in morality. Something that gives the appearance of rightness (righteousness) but in fact has not ever been something that lovingly flows from ones heart bringing to pass an outer change because of that which altered them first from the inside.

“Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Last night my good friend Dave sent me a link that is still resonating in my heart (a direct answer to my crying out to God as I went to sleep) and it is the one at the top of what I’m sharing here, it’s about 16 minutes long, but well worth the viewing.

I said to my wife today, If I do not really believe and I don’t mean wish or hope, but deep down where I really live, respond to the reality that God my Father actually lavishly celebrates me as a chosen delight and treasure to Himself, then why the hell would I give a rats ass of concern for anyone else around me, other than to do it with my mouth, but my heart really not engaged in it?

It says that while I was a “sinner-enemy,” He, God, chose to lay down His life FOR me, then why is it a chore to love those still seeing themselves as sinners and enemies of God, unless of course I’m projecting law onto them?

Rich

Additional thoughts continued over here at, SINNERS, STOP IT!

Trashing The Trash, Not People

It is of my understanding from the scriptures, we are to speak the truth in love, the out come being a steady and continued maturation, or being perfected in the spirit of love contained within the truth.
As long as we are in a cemented static fixed heart condition of looking at things, especially what the truth is within the scriptures, we might have gleaned something that we see as being ‘good’ but it will prevent us from seeing the much more readily available, to those wanting to stay fluid in heart and mind.

Fear and intimidation are the common weapons of choice used, hurled, at anyone who opposes the established collective body of knowledge that has become the prescribed template with NO exceptions.
Into this caustic arena Life will always fine a way of trying to woo hearts from having become fossilized and once again embedded in stone, into a living vibrant knowing the truth from the bewitching lies that have ensnared them.

The charges often brought against brothers and sisters who long for a deeper relationship with the Father are not new.
Similar charges of the same sort were spoken of in the account of the stoning of Stephen. “They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place.” (Acts 6:13).
Let’s give our heads a shake, what crimes are these people charging to Stephen? They are upset what they perceive as testimony against a physical place and against the law. You may see right away that these people are wrong to attack Stephen for speaking against a place. You may, however, say it is wrong to oppose the law because it is God’s law. But do we really teach against the law, or do we teach that the law is NOW fulfilled in Christ? This is why these were false witnesses. We do not speak against the law, but against the failure to recognize the new thing that God has done.

What has been is now happening all over again, as people are being driven out of religious (organized churches) institutions because they simply want to go the distance in further discovering further depths and heights of the vastness of His love.
In the rigid mind sets of the adherents of the religious communities, when we speak against the organization of religion, we speak “against this holy place.” When we assert the freedom in Christ, we are accused of speaking against the law.”

What glorious days we the church, His body find ourselves in, being swept into the under-current-tow of a boundless, unmeasured love branding us with the marks of our master.

Some of the thoughts here, I gleaned from my friends book, "Life in the Leper Colony, by Bill Landon."

Rich

Maybe My Compass Is Broken

If my point of reference is me being led by a broken compass going in what I think has to be the right direction, (after all I didn’t skimp out on buying a ‘cheap’ compass) then why the hell do my eyes hurt so much when the truth is realized, my compass was broken? Neo: “Why do my eyes hurt?” Morpheus: “You’ve never used then before.” If nothing is as it appears to be, then why do we suddenly feel so alone, isolated, cut off from this world, as well as from people, unless we begin to see through the lie that our well being, acceptance was only as good as our performance!!

Rich

Unclouded Expressions

Somewhere in the process of being born I crossed over into the Twilight Zone and for the better part of my life it was as if I hadn’t even existed.
It’s one thing to experience guilt for a number of reasons, actual or merely perceived, but to live out of shame; it is an inner branding that poisons everything and screams back at you, “You’re less than shit”!

It has only been within the last twelve years or so that out of this dung heap of an identity of shame that my precious, kind and caring Father has made it possible to begin to know the reality of not measuring my worth based upon what I have or don’t have, and that includes being born and all that which unfolded within my life from that point.
He has and continues to draw me ever deeper into the light of his consuming love, and as I am beginning to adjust to my belovedness in Him, the clouds of fear and shame that have tried to define who I am are slowly melting before my eyes.

As the clouds roll away, the unclouded expression of His deep affection and love for me reach out like a heat seeking missile seeking other lost and shamed gripped orphans.
The abundant fruitfulness that is coming forth from my utter infertility is gripping my soul with such awe and wonder, I hesitate to even consider what yet lies ahead.

Rich

I Love You Father

For me, living out loud, sharing my thoughts here on my blog/s are primarily to do with my continued and growing relationship with God my loving heavenly Father.
It is out this budding revelation I want to share these fresh from the oven thoughts that came straight from His heart to mine this morning.

Because of how fear has so polluted and imprisoned me, whenever the Lord would try to speak to the hurts in my life, usually through my loving caring treasured wife, I would usually be launched into a diatribe defense of myself, but this morning was another glimpse into what is being undone in the depths of my being.

I have a problem with excessive talkativeness. Probably everyone around me could attest to this – everyone, that is, except me! It has only been within the last two days that the Lord has finally been able to infiltrate the slightest crack in the veneer I had created for myself that has existed since childhood. When I shared with my wife how exhausted I was after talking for hours with a house guest and how I couldn’t seem to keep myself from going on and on, she noticed that it was the first time I had ever admitted to having a problem in this area. In the past, when she noticed how others would politely zone out after a while and suggested I learn to listen more and talk less, I would get very angry. I’d immediately come to my own defense and shut her down, saying, “I talk because that is how God made me! If people don’t like it, it’s tough!”
However, today was a different story. I admitted that I didn’t know how to stop myself from talking on and on. My wife said she felt it was a nervous reaction, and by me finally admitting it as such was the beginning of seeing this bastion that has so negatively shaped my life starting to crumble.

On the heels of this Father spoke this heart message to me, Son, it was out of fear you carved, established an identity to compensate for all of the terror, trauma and abandonment you experienced in growing up as a child, but know this, it is my love for you that is setting the stage for this to all be dismantled, it is my love that will calm your soul and as you rest in the security of my Love for you, this surgical procedure will release and bring to the surface your true identity, one totally established, rooted in a love that has NO conditions!

Father’s day being just around the corner and seeing as how my dad passed away January the 21 2006, I wanted to honour him as well as my heavenly father with what I have shared here.
Speaking of my earthly dad, Father brought back to mind a memory of mine that happened a few short years before he died, it was while I was visiting him in a nursing home, when I said to him just before leaving to head back home, “Dad, you owe me nothing, I owe you everything.”
Later Father spoke to me about that which I said to me dad, “Son, do you know what you are doing, I thought, Lord, I’m not sure I’m hearing you right, He said, you are fathering your father, as you are discovering the truth of my healing, restoring love as your Father, you are presenting your father with a father he as well never had.”

Father, Papa, I LOVE YOU!

Rich

Truth Serum

In some dialogue with a good friend today, Dave said, “That most don’t give one another the freedom to be imperfect, rather we want someone with the answers for all our woes, so you better be that perfect person and not screw up.”

It’s totally liberating to know the power and growing scurrility of Father absolute unconditional love for us, it frees us to perfectly speak of that perfection within all that is so imperfect in us!

None of us being born into a fallen sinful race, shaped in iniquity have escaped the inner desolation, devastation or utter bankruptcy, none! The scriptures paint a clear picture for us all being cut off, alienated from the very life of God, but God who is rich in mercy and kindness loved us and died for us while we were yet His enemies-wow.
The work of sin entering into the whole race by the first Adam was such a perfect work of an inner corruption and releasing within us total depravity, or did God get it wrong when He said, “All have sinned and fallen short of His glory?”

Our desperate need is to know of His unspeakable unconditional love He has for each of us, it is a perfect love that wants much more than to simply save and unite us within our spirit, but also to redeem, transform us within our poverty stricken soul.
Here in lies the good news, it has nothing to do with us doing things perfectly as much as it is in a moment by moment encounter with His perfect love displacing the residual affects of the hellish tormenting fearful grip of that which tries to cling to us like a blood sucking lamprey robbing us of our very birth-right.

The scathing inner desolation that being born in fear has accomplished in us all is powerless to stop or impede a like wise God breathed inner revelation of His kindness and goodness to us, where sin once abounded, grace (love) will super abound.
In some lives the outer evidence of the inner torment of fear is most obvious, but know this, there is no one apart from knowing, experiencing the power of His tender compassionate love who will ever walk free from this under tow.

There is NO need to be ashamed by discovering my/our need to be yet further and more deeply perfected in the true knowledge of Father’s perfect love, it is the perfect Christ in us encouraging us all to share, speak of that which has become so real to us coming out from under the yoke of fear and its tormenting oppression.

Rich

Don't You See Him Yet?

“For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

If he died for me, then what’s all this being given over to death all about? Perhaps there is a tad more to being identified with this One who was fully identified with us, any thoughts?

Rich

Motivational, Inspirational, Hyperbole

How does one not take seriously extravagant and exaggerated statements or figures of speech to be in fact the truth unless we are blinded by the puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind?

There are those who continue to see their giftedness as something to benefit others floundering in life, they have what I call a predisposition toward being optimistic, effervescent, seldom given to worry or depression always buoyant in a world that depresses the hell out of most sane folks, surly you know the type.
Sadly if these qualities are not the by product of the certain unshakeable power and stability of His unconditional love, then we’re merely building our lives upon cosmetic botoxing.

Becoming further established in the reality of the Father’s unconditional love is the only thing able to displace the fear and torment that continues to try and keep me as a spiritual quadriplegic. God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. The power and sound mindedness are but expressions of what it means to be loved unconditionally.
Maybe this gives some clarity to the scripture that says, “The righteous are as bold as a lion.”

The reality of being loved is not a motivational, inspirational pick me up that dissipates when the first wave of assault comes crashing into my no fly zone.
I am learning that my Father isn’t nearly as interested in changing my circumstances as he is in wanting to infuse my entire being with the true knowledge and enormity of His love, which frees me to embrace life and all that it encompasses head on!

Rich

Without A Prayer

Are we, no matter who we are or where we are in life, truly without a prayer when supposedly “bad things happen to good people”?
I loved this piece from Oz Chambers this morning, it succinctly opens up a whole world of opportunity for us, in that His very life in us as us, is being clearly depicted to a world of people still blinded by the matrix of religion.

Rich

The Habit of Enjoying Adversity
. . . that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body —2 Corinthians 4:10
We have to develop godly habits to express what God’s grace has done in us. It is not just a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved so that "the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." And it is adversity that makes us exhibit His life in our mortal flesh. Is my life exhibiting the essence of the sweetness of the Son of God, or just the basic irritation of "myself" that I would have apart from Him? The only thing that will enable me to enjoy adversity is the acute sense of eagerness of allowing the life of the Son of God to evidence itself in me. No matter how difficult something may be, I must say, "Lord, I am delighted to obey You in this." Instantly, the Son of God will move to the forefront of my life, and will manifest in my body that which glorifies Him.
You must not debate. The moment you obey the light of God, His Son shines through you in that very adversity; but if you debate with God, you grieve His Spirit (see Ephesians 4:30 ). You must keep yourself in the proper condition to allow the life of the Son of God to be manifested in you, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to self-pity. Our circumstances are the means God uses to exhibit just how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure His Son is. Discovering a new way of manifesting the Son of God should make our heart beat with renewed excitement. It is one thing to choose adversity, and quite another to enter into adversity through the orchestrating of our circumstances by God’s sovereignty. And if God puts you into adversity, He is adequately sufficient to "supply all your need" ( Philippians 4:19 ).
Keep your soul properly conditioned to manifest the life of the Son of God. Never live on your memories of past experiences, but let the Word of God always be living and active in you.

Coming From Behind to Shape Our Lives

Please read part one first, here.

Our prolonged stint on earth, where ever that might be and whatever that might encompass, is worth whatever it takes to establish us in His righteousness.

Here is an example that spoke volumes to me regarding the ongoing separation taking place as the Father continues to deal with inner motives, attitudes of the heart: “Take Job, for example. Job was famous for his patience (James 5:11), he was “perfect and upright” (Job 1:1), but God saw a gross imperfection in Job. Nobody else could see it, for as we have already said, it wasn’t because Job had outwardly sinned that God allowed him to be tested. God put him through the kind of trial that forced that imperfection to surface. No ordinary trial would have caused this. It had to be the kind of trial in which his best friends would ruthlessly accuse him. Job eventually got very self-righteous. In the end, however, Job saw himself as he was. He repented in sackcloth and ashes, and saw that he was a great sinner (Job 42:6).”

Often within a total breakdown, we can experience a great ‘breakthrough’ in our lives as we continue to be established in righteousness. As for Joseph, a very important part of his preparation was that he be delivered from self-pity, self-righteousness, and from any need to manipulate his future.

In my opinion it was these dreams that Joseph was given that were being used to accomplish the following: “There was no known precedent for a true child of God being thrown into a pit to die, much less surviving! For a child of God this might this might even be evidence that he was out of God’s will. There would be no way that Joseph could explain to anybody while in a pit that he was in God’s will! The ten brothers said, ‘We shall see what becomes of his dreams’ Gen. 37:20). They were quite sure that they had him in such a fix that nobody could conclude that he was God’s man.” Long before all of his brothers and Father would eventually (according to his dreams) bow before him, Joseph was going to bow in his heart in recognition of the fact that those very dreams were God’s instruments used to establish him in an inward true righteousness! This has everything to do in my opinion with being “called”! (“God Meant it for Good”, by R.T. Kendall)

Joseph, like us, was going to discover that our gracious God and Father comes from behind to shape our past, so that, if we will believe Him and give him time, we will come to see that his hand was with us even at our worst moment.

The following quote is from the book “Unto Full Stature” by DeVern Fromke:

“It is indeed sad that so many have interpreted adoption as though it were the taking of a child outside the family into a new family. This is Western adoption, but not the Biblical or Eastern conception. The Greek, Roman, or Jewish father, adopted none as a son but his own child. Birth made him a child, preparation and discipline brought him to adoption and the full stature of son ship. R. B. Jones, scholarly theologian has written: ‘To be a son is infinitely more than to be a child, and the terms are never loosely used by the Holy Spirit. It is not a difference of relationship, but in position. Every ‘born-again’ child of God has in him the nature of His Father, and is a beloved member of His family. Adoption cannot make the child and nearer or dear, yet it gives the child a status he did not enjoy before, a position he did not occupy. It is recognition as an adult son, the attaining of his majority, the seal upon his growth to maturity of mind and character. A child has God’s nature; a son has God’s character.”

“Yet in the midst of this traditional pattern of confinement by men (man trying to govern the work of His spirit), God has always had His remnant in every hour-those who are pressing unto full son ship and stature. They know that inner stretching and adjustment of the Spirit, and even though painful seem to delight in it, for they realize that such an inward stretching is God’s way of producing a spiritual elasticity, vitality and capacity they could not otherwise know.”

“Yes that stretching takes place when the life is completely governed by the Holy Spirit. God alone can keep one prepared for every emergency and situation. He can keep one properly balanced in determination and flexibility when the sever test is on. We have the stretching of knowledge. One can look at Peter and see that he had developed a fixed position regarding certain laws of the Old Testament and his interpretation of them. From his rigid, static position he argued, “Not so, Lord.” Until he had “thought on the vision” he insisted, “not so, Lord.” He was neither stretchable, teachable nor adjustable. Yet what a tremendous advance, not only for Peter, but for the whole Church when, without giving away any steadfastness or determination, he adjusted to the new light that the Lord gave, and to a new knowledge of the Lord and His ways. This ability to be adjustable to new insights of truth has been a problem throughout the centuries, not just for individuals but with groups as well.”

Even with the Pharisees were not exempted. It was Jesus’ intention to see them likewise be prepared for the new wine of His presence! Let’s listen to what the author has to say about this: “Finally, what does Jesus say about the wine skins? He would seem to say that either they will remain flexible by continuous stretching, or they become hard and inflexible, and by resistance to His will be usable only for old wine. When He looked at the Pharisees in their rigid positions, Jesus could discern that they were like wine skins fixed, and without elasticity. So He insisted that “new wine must be put in new wine skins…” We can almost hear Him say: “Let me make you anew-and keep you forever new.”

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

Amazing Grace

amazing grace, how sweet the sound
i once was lost, but now i'm found
was blind, but now i see
it was grace, that taught my heart to fear
and grace my fears relieved
how precious did that grace appear
the hour, i first believed
my chains are gone,
i've been set free and like a flood His mercy rains
unending love, amazing grace

Rich