My desires are quickly changing.
Not too long ago I had a good amount of trouble with watching my weight, and eating the right things in addition to working out (eating enough, but not too much). Perhaps a longer amount of time ago I was addicted to all sorts of media: Video Games, Music, Television, and yet...
I allowed these hindrances into my life. It was not as if they barged into my life...I accepted them and allowed them to grow in importance, and when they became so great they hindered the purposes God had for my life.
This is the reason why Philippians 4:8 says
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Understanding why I ever let them in my life is important.
It was not as if I had previously devised that I would fill my life with things that would hinder God's purpose for my life. If God had placed some sort of importance on my life I wanted to see it through.(Side note...God has a specific purpose for everyone's life: Jeremiah 1:5)
As a timid young boy, shy and lacking in confidence, I tried to remain neutral in all things, which as I have come to learn is impossible. My neutrality was code for comfortable. I told myself the lie that I was neutral...as well as a generally good person (I tried to help where I could, but nothing drastic)...I didn't hurt them, they didn't hurt me...and I was certainly alright with that.
However, the more I cushioned myself into life the less useful I became. I wish that I could go back and relive those first 10+ years of my life, because they simply weren't effective and I find myself now fighting against the person I was. This is because as I stated before...we are all impacting one another especially ourselves.
It is impossible for a person to remain neutral, and I'm truly surprised how long it took for me to grasp this.
Things that impact your life cannot have a neutral impact. An impact on your life can only be positive or negative. We're all constantly impacting the world around us, and we are creating a positive or negative impact even if we may not see how far our influence reaches.
Those that try not to bother other people are just creating a lesser impact. When we create a lesser impact in weight-lifting they call that weak(ness).
Going from one place to another trying your best not to influence another person or step on other people's proverbial toes is weak.
Obviously, there are always given situations where it is best to do nothing and to leave well enough alone, however there are infinitely more situations to do good as opposed to nothing.
Determining the best times to speak up and to shut up is probably the hardest part of this process of impacting one another positively (or negatively if you want to be a jerk).
Charging a heavily fortified Citadel on your own is probably not the best time to try to take it, but when there are hundreds or thousands attacking that location it is infinitely more effective.
But how can we stumble onto such coordination...especially in everyday situations where no person quite knows the whole story of everyone there.
The BEST way that I have learned to impact people for God (good...Love...righteousness ..etc.) is spending time in prayer with God and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me in all things throughout the day.
"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." -Matthew 12:30
Prayer is where we gather to God..and engage in relationship with Him...I'm always re-energized after praying, because God gives me strength and guidance in my life showing me where I can best be used.
I'm not saying that He always leads me, I always hear Him or that I always listen, because it's hard to forsake yourself in order to submit to God, (especially when pushed to the breaking point) but earnestly want to do His will and Love Him.
Yet even when we fail His grace is sufficient for us. All He asks is for us to try to do His will to the best of our ability. When people don't try (at all)...they generally end up in bad situations (Because they're not in God's will, which God's will won't always be a cake walk...but it is good and just and righteous).
God speaks about those neutral people who aren't trying to be for Him in Revelation.
"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." -Revelation 3:15-16
People who do not Love God do not seek Him will be spit out of His mouth...no matter how many times they've been to church.
Misunderstandings are not my intention. The Lord is not looking for some sort of cream of the crop type situation where only the most pious and religious attain His pleasure.
On the contrary, Christ offered His kingdom to a despised tax collector, a blind beggar, a demon possessed prostitute and a thief hanging next to Him on the cross. It is the humble as opposed to the self-righteous that please Him. He is looking for a group that will lay themselves down in order to do His will and seek His face.
"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." -Jeremiah 29:13
"But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." -Deuteronomy 4:29
The kicker for me is that this sacrifice isn't much of one at all...
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33
I give up my life and He makes it better than it ever was...perhaps less comfortable, but certainly stronger, more righteous and more loving.
The things that I was seeking before seem foolish and trite. They never satisfied no matter what I tried, but God does satisfy and He is leading me, improving me and responding to me. Likewise... I am responding to Him as He fills my life where so many bad influences left holes.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
"Stop"
Rare is the time that I get to relax. Time may not be the thing I’m short on, but the concept of relaxation escapes my grasp often. What my head believes and what is true often conflict, and even though my head says that a television should help me relax I do not feel much less busy after watching a movie or a television show. Similar feelings arise when listening to music, other art/entertainment forms or even spending time with friends.
A deep need for “stop” arrives in my mind. Physical or mental remedies are wasted on fulfilling this desire.
My heart sinks and it bothers me that I spent time to be entertained or to enjoy myself thinking that it would satisfy my need to be comforted, and time after time I leave those activities more stressed than before.
Rare is the time I get to relax, but it came to me today.
Something beckoned me to turn off the television, stop eating and pray. In the time of prayer peace came over me, and as I opened my Bible to start to read there was a sublime nature to the words. To be honest I don’t always know what God means for me when I read it, but I know that it’s true and good.
When I had finished praying, and when I had finished reading, and when the world seemed quiet and calm: I lay there next to my dog, and she moved close to me.
The kind of closeness that is felt when a dog snuggles up to its owner is not a new experience to me, nor is it overwhelming in any sense.
Dogs however amaze me. They remind me so much of humans, but more comical in almost every way. For what can I gain from a dog? My intellect cannot engage them, nor does my body lust after them and my life is certainly not fulfilled by them. Nothing do they offer, but a want to be close.
As I lay there patting my dogs head soaking in this moment between master and servant I can’t help but think of a parallel between God and I and my dog and I.
Nothing do I offer to Him, but a want to get close and somehow that’s enough.
As the metaphor continued my parents returned home and my dog lost interest. Soon she was not nearly as content as she had been, and began begging for scraps of what my parents had brought home. Even when I see her get what she desires from the table she’s never satisfied.
A deep need for “stop” arrives in my mind. Physical or mental remedies are wasted on fulfilling this desire.
My heart sinks and it bothers me that I spent time to be entertained or to enjoy myself thinking that it would satisfy my need to be comforted, and time after time I leave those activities more stressed than before.
Rare is the time I get to relax, but it came to me today.
Something beckoned me to turn off the television, stop eating and pray. In the time of prayer peace came over me, and as I opened my Bible to start to read there was a sublime nature to the words. To be honest I don’t always know what God means for me when I read it, but I know that it’s true and good.
When I had finished praying, and when I had finished reading, and when the world seemed quiet and calm: I lay there next to my dog, and she moved close to me.
The kind of closeness that is felt when a dog snuggles up to its owner is not a new experience to me, nor is it overwhelming in any sense.
Dogs however amaze me. They remind me so much of humans, but more comical in almost every way. For what can I gain from a dog? My intellect cannot engage them, nor does my body lust after them and my life is certainly not fulfilled by them. Nothing do they offer, but a want to be close.
As I lay there patting my dogs head soaking in this moment between master and servant I can’t help but think of a parallel between God and I and my dog and I.
Nothing do I offer to Him, but a want to get close and somehow that’s enough.
As the metaphor continued my parents returned home and my dog lost interest. Soon she was not nearly as content as she had been, and began begging for scraps of what my parents had brought home. Even when I see her get what she desires from the table she’s never satisfied.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
As a Christian
I want to do well in the work God has set before me....
but it's sometimes difficult to have a passion or Love for my work, because I know it won't satisfy....
So I don't look to my work for fulfillment like others...but I look to God for my fulfillment and the things he tells me to do are my work, yet even knowing this and knowing that my work is something God has woven into his plan....it's still difficult.
but it's sometimes difficult to have a passion or Love for my work, because I know it won't satisfy....
So I don't look to my work for fulfillment like others...but I look to God for my fulfillment and the things he tells me to do are my work, yet even knowing this and knowing that my work is something God has woven into his plan....it's still difficult.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Today
It's my birthday...and I'm about to go to bed and wake up expecting it to still be my birthday, but also that it's not gonna' mean a whole lot.
Wrestling with the temptation of glory. There is so much in my heart that yearns to work and be good at something. To be known. to be famous. To have independence and free reign...
Yet I know there's nothing in that. I have people come up to me to compliment me on Guitar skills, artistic skills and all the kinds of skills that girls like....girls only like guys with skills. But.
The talent comes from God. The drive comes from God...success in its own complete form is God. a state of being...is all success is... if you are successful...you...are...
Yet I try so much to be
When I already am
and this birthday should be the biggest reminder to me of it.
It's one of the few celebrations that celebrates God's creation. You may not see it that way, but why are we celebrating? It's not because you're a great person...or because you did something great...it's because you are...it's a very Christian concept.
God Loves us because we are...yet I disregard that Love so many times, and go looking for satisfaction in other places...whether in friends, art...or music...or both...It boils down to the fact that God made us to be fulfilled by him.
Receiving praise is ok...but I've never gotten compliments that have made me feel better than when I am showing Love to someone else...or helping someone else...
Just as a birthday is a celebration of someone's being...so it is a reminder of our equality...
It's not just a frivolous thing...where we get to focus on ourselves...it's a reminder of all of our beings...
While my being started c. 19 years ago...This day isn't about me. It's about God's Love more than anything. That before I was in my mother's womb...he had a plan for me...and a future...
When I have a birthday I can't help, but look at all these people...they all have birthdays...they all are beings...and God Loves them just as much...some of them know it...some of them don't...and some just don't believe that...
Yet I look at them...and I see worth.
Wrestling with the temptation of glory. There is so much in my heart that yearns to work and be good at something. To be known. to be famous. To have independence and free reign...
Yet I know there's nothing in that. I have people come up to me to compliment me on Guitar skills, artistic skills and all the kinds of skills that girls like....girls only like guys with skills. But.
The talent comes from God. The drive comes from God...success in its own complete form is God. a state of being...is all success is... if you are successful...you...are...
Yet I try so much to be
When I already am
and this birthday should be the biggest reminder to me of it.
It's one of the few celebrations that celebrates God's creation. You may not see it that way, but why are we celebrating? It's not because you're a great person...or because you did something great...it's because you are...it's a very Christian concept.
God Loves us because we are...yet I disregard that Love so many times, and go looking for satisfaction in other places...whether in friends, art...or music...or both...It boils down to the fact that God made us to be fulfilled by him.
Receiving praise is ok...but I've never gotten compliments that have made me feel better than when I am showing Love to someone else...or helping someone else...
Just as a birthday is a celebration of someone's being...so it is a reminder of our equality...
It's not just a frivolous thing...where we get to focus on ourselves...it's a reminder of all of our beings...
While my being started c. 19 years ago...This day isn't about me. It's about God's Love more than anything. That before I was in my mother's womb...he had a plan for me...and a future...
When I have a birthday I can't help, but look at all these people...they all have birthdays...they all are beings...and God Loves them just as much...some of them know it...some of them don't...and some just don't believe that...
Yet I look at them...and I see worth.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Swaying back and forth isn't Dancing.
Life pushes and pulls us to the brink of disaster. Lovers of life will tell you they tire, but press on despite its hardships.
Yet their nights are darker than the blackness that sits deep within any imaginable place.
Bring me down to that place. Show me wonder that will never upset. What pleasure will not be exhausted before I am satisfied? How much sin must I don before living takes place?
Before time God set what is and isn't. The repercussions of truth echo through the ages, and scientific deduction and induction may last forever and yield nothing of it.
Here is truth. There is nothing new under the sun. Everything that is has been before. There is no new Malady for Mankind, and there is still but one irresistible cure.
Jesus Christ is that cure. He has come as the bread of life. He has come that all might have life. He has come that all might be saved.
He has come that we might have more life and live it more abundantly. That truly when I thirst it may be quenched through him. When I hunger I may be filled in him. That when I tire I find strength in him. There is no hope for mankind outside of the blood of Christ.
Truth is found in the weighing process. I have tested the weight of God's word and found its truth overwhelming. That God is completely Holy set apart from us, and truly only someone set apart from us could fix a problem that is so near.
That the Son of God would from afar place himself near to fix our malady for no other reason than Love speaks wonders about the ways of God.
Even if God wiped us off the face of the earth He would still be just as Holy, Just and Good, and unmistakably so.
According to rights we are dead, but Christ satisfied the need for such a sacrifice that we might live. Yet so many live a life saturated with death. Oh That you would Live!
To discover that Life is not tacking good deeds onto your plans and aspirations. To understand that Life is from God and he is Life. To comprehend what pleases him and his completely holy goodness. For mountains as far as they reach to the skies will never be anything more than God has allowed, but to place ourselves in the good graces of the lord that we would Love as he Loves, Live as he Lives, Breath as he Breaths. That we would escape ourselves and the eminent death that lives within us. Oh that we would be born again not breathing the air of this world, but the with the breath of God.
Not of this world. Not chasing after satisfaction. But chasing after the will of the Father that he might tend his Children with the blood of Christ.
Resurrect the Dead
That they might be in Christ to never die. Live with life so abundant that the dead will know.
Yet their nights are darker than the blackness that sits deep within any imaginable place.
Bring me down to that place. Show me wonder that will never upset. What pleasure will not be exhausted before I am satisfied? How much sin must I don before living takes place?
Before time God set what is and isn't. The repercussions of truth echo through the ages, and scientific deduction and induction may last forever and yield nothing of it.
Here is truth. There is nothing new under the sun. Everything that is has been before. There is no new Malady for Mankind, and there is still but one irresistible cure.
Jesus Christ is that cure. He has come as the bread of life. He has come that all might have life. He has come that all might be saved.
He has come that we might have more life and live it more abundantly. That truly when I thirst it may be quenched through him. When I hunger I may be filled in him. That when I tire I find strength in him. There is no hope for mankind outside of the blood of Christ.
Truth is found in the weighing process. I have tested the weight of God's word and found its truth overwhelming. That God is completely Holy set apart from us, and truly only someone set apart from us could fix a problem that is so near.
That the Son of God would from afar place himself near to fix our malady for no other reason than Love speaks wonders about the ways of God.
Even if God wiped us off the face of the earth He would still be just as Holy, Just and Good, and unmistakably so.
According to rights we are dead, but Christ satisfied the need for such a sacrifice that we might live. Yet so many live a life saturated with death. Oh That you would Live!
To discover that Life is not tacking good deeds onto your plans and aspirations. To understand that Life is from God and he is Life. To comprehend what pleases him and his completely holy goodness. For mountains as far as they reach to the skies will never be anything more than God has allowed, but to place ourselves in the good graces of the lord that we would Love as he Loves, Live as he Lives, Breath as he Breaths. That we would escape ourselves and the eminent death that lives within us. Oh that we would be born again not breathing the air of this world, but the with the breath of God.
Not of this world. Not chasing after satisfaction. But chasing after the will of the Father that he might tend his Children with the blood of Christ.
Resurrect the Dead
That they might be in Christ to never die. Live with life so abundant that the dead will know.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Dance it Around Town!
When looking around at all the wonderful lives that have blessed my own there is a constant reminder of how different my life is and was. These differences used to enrage, frustrate and complicate situations to no end. Comparisons of lives always seemed to give others a longer stick, better everything, yet now praising the Lord is all the comes to mind.
There is no doubt life has played a little differently as compared with others, but looking back they were all (mostly all good decisions). Example: Far before any of my friends started to even think about girls they entered my domain, and never did action follow. Sometimes regret entered as a result, however if response had ensued to date any of these females the world definitely would have blotted out much of my foundation.
Something that God has blessed this humble life of mine with is a truly awesome foundation. Two Loving parents, a wonderful house, strong community, great education, siblings and dog that make up this God dipped life I've lived for the past 18 years. Perhaps I wasn't always a Christian, but like my parents told me "the word of God was put into your heart at a young age and you can't ignore it once you've heard it" (it was a summation really)
Looking back having a girlfriend seemed like such a big deal, and so did a lot of other things. Yet it was a complete waste of time for most of those people, caused a lot of emotional scarring or pain, led to drama, divisions among friends and most of all put something before God that should never have been (not all cases but a majority).
God continues to show how being a virgin of so many things has really allowed him to shine through in those areas. Not to say having a girlfriend, for example, is by any means a bad thing, but realize that God recognizes the sacrifice of allowing him into such an intimate position. When trust conquered desire He was given room to work, and side-stepped a host of mistakes.
At the time it was merely following family rules or thinking things through logically, but now it is consciously making the decision, knowing why and thanking the Lord for his Love and Grace.
All our lives are so blessed. It's a matter of seeing it. Like Balaam's donkey that wouldn't move past the angel in the old testament, so Balaam beat his donkey repeatedly. Then the donkey accidentally steps on his foot, breaking it, and gets an even worse beating. At the end of the pummeling of this poor creature balaam looks up sees the angel of the Lord with a sword and knows it would have killed him if not for the donkey.
Those things that I wanted so badly would have killed me, but maybe I just got off with a broken toe or something.
That's why I Dance it Around Town!
There is no doubt life has played a little differently as compared with others, but looking back they were all (mostly all good decisions). Example: Far before any of my friends started to even think about girls they entered my domain, and never did action follow. Sometimes regret entered as a result, however if response had ensued to date any of these females the world definitely would have blotted out much of my foundation.
Something that God has blessed this humble life of mine with is a truly awesome foundation. Two Loving parents, a wonderful house, strong community, great education, siblings and dog that make up this God dipped life I've lived for the past 18 years. Perhaps I wasn't always a Christian, but like my parents told me "the word of God was put into your heart at a young age and you can't ignore it once you've heard it" (it was a summation really)
Looking back having a girlfriend seemed like such a big deal, and so did a lot of other things. Yet it was a complete waste of time for most of those people, caused a lot of emotional scarring or pain, led to drama, divisions among friends and most of all put something before God that should never have been (not all cases but a majority).
God continues to show how being a virgin of so many things has really allowed him to shine through in those areas. Not to say having a girlfriend, for example, is by any means a bad thing, but realize that God recognizes the sacrifice of allowing him into such an intimate position. When trust conquered desire He was given room to work, and side-stepped a host of mistakes.
At the time it was merely following family rules or thinking things through logically, but now it is consciously making the decision, knowing why and thanking the Lord for his Love and Grace.
All our lives are so blessed. It's a matter of seeing it. Like Balaam's donkey that wouldn't move past the angel in the old testament, so Balaam beat his donkey repeatedly. Then the donkey accidentally steps on his foot, breaking it, and gets an even worse beating. At the end of the pummeling of this poor creature balaam looks up sees the angel of the Lord with a sword and knows it would have killed him if not for the donkey.
Those things that I wanted so badly would have killed me, but maybe I just got off with a broken toe or something.
That's why I Dance it Around Town!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Taking off my coat makes me cold,
but as long as I am holding onto its warmth for myself
I have no way of sharing it or giving it.
Instead of giving it to someone else I might even fight over it, as opposed to giving to those who have asked for it.
In some scenarios I might even stock pile coats and wear multiple ones.
At first the coat is warm.
Then it gets comfortable.
Before lickety has split body and mind forgets there is a coat.
And slowly, very slowly it begins to get hot.
Such is our predicament.
I have no way of sharing it or giving it.
Instead of giving it to someone else I might even fight over it, as opposed to giving to those who have asked for it.
In some scenarios I might even stock pile coats and wear multiple ones.
At first the coat is warm.
Then it gets comfortable.
Before lickety has split body and mind forgets there is a coat.
And slowly, very slowly it begins to get hot.
Such is our predicament.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Adventures In God
Adventures In God
by
John G. Lake
A Classic
Harrison House
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Copyright 1981 by Harrison House, Inc.
This information is taken from a time stained book that I found lying around my parent's house.
Truly God wished for me to find it. Not quite sure what it's all about, but I've read 50+ pages into it tonight, and it seems to be a collection of testimonies from a man named John G. Lake.
Here is the Foreword and a few testimonies from the book. They are powerful, yet these beginning few are pretty weak compared with the rest of the book.
"Foreword
John Graham Lake was a man of prayer and commitment.
To better understand the quality of his life, you willl want to read his consecration to God at the close of this book.
At the Lake Healing Rooms in Spokane, Washington, 100,000 healings were recorded in five years. Dr. Ruthlidge of Washington, D.C., called Spokane the healthiest city in the world as a result of Lake's Healing Rooms.
John G. Lake was born March 18, 1870, at St. Mary's, Ontario, Canada. While he was still a child , his parents moved to the United States.At the age of 21, he became a Methodist minister, but later chose to start a newspaper instead of accepting a church ministry.
After his marriage, Lake's wife entered into a prolonged illness, but was miraculously delivered under the ministry of John Alexander Dowie in April, 1898. This experience forever altered the direction of John G. Lake's life and ministry.
All that he accomplished as a result of his intense regard for the Word of God stands as an example to all Christians of what is possible for any person who will believe and act on the Scriptures.
Adventures In God
I found God as a boy, so for years- 50 of them almost- I have been walking in the light of God, understanding fellowship with Him and listening to His Voice.
I want to call to your attention some of the things Christians enjoys that others miss.
---------------------------
A dear man received an injury that caused his death in a motor accident not far from Beaverton. The day after this man was killed, I was visiting some friends in Beaverton an they told me of his injury. After our visit, my wife and I were driving into the city. As we were coming up one of the highways, a Voice said, 'Pull onto the left of the road and stop.'
Don't you know that Voice, Christian heart? That Voice is so common that I never even spoke of it to my wife.
The left side is the wrong side of the road, and you are breaking the traffic law to be there. But I have listened to that Voice so many years that I have learned in most cases to obey it. Jesus said, 'My sheep know my voice.' (John 10:27)
(The thought I am trying to bring to you, dear friends, is the value of konwoing the Lord and what communion with God means. Salvation is not just something God gives you that is going to bless you after you die; it is having the presence of the Lord now. God has promised to the Christian the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.)
I pulled onto the left-hand side of the road, ran the wheel of my car close into the ditch, and stopped. Immediately, I heard the grinding of a great truck coming around the curve. I had not seen it before. Instead of coming normally, it was coming down the driver's left-hand side of the road at a 45-degree angle. The truck had gone out of control and was covering the whole road!
If I had been on my side of the road, it would have sideswiped me and pushed me over the bank. A 100-foot drop down! But I was on the other side when the great thing swept past me.
The truck went 50 to 100 feet beyond me, struck a rough spot in the road, and righted itself. The driver got the truck under control and went on.
Dear friends, men in the Word of God were guided by the Voice of God. God talked to them. This is the inner thing of real Christian experience, the reason men seek by the grace of God to enter into the real heard of God -- into the real soul of Jesus Christ -- into the place where He lives within you -- where His Voice speaks in you heart.
--------------------------------------------
I was sitting one day in the home of the DeValeras in Krugersdorp, South Africa, When a man arrived who had traveled all over the country. He had been following me from place to place, trying to catch up with me. he suffered a sunstroke which had affected his mind and he also had developed a large cancer.
He came into the house and proved to be a friend of the family.
In a little while a six-year-old child who had been sitting near me went across the room, climbed on the man's knees, put her hands on the caner on his face, and prayed.
I saw the cancer wither. In half an hour, the thing had disappeared. The wound was still there, but in a few days it was healed.
After the child had laid her hands on top of his head, he arose, saying, 'Oh! The fire that has been in my brain has gone out,' and his mind was normal.
Power belongeth unto God (Ps. 62:11). The simplest soul can touch God and live in the very presence of God and in His power."
There are quite a few testimonies that he records in this book. In the preface it states that there is no chronology to the book, but that these merely are his personal records.
I implore believers to get this book. Reading testimony after testimony is incredible. Even one incident of doctors monitoring his brain cells and those of someone being healed. All the ways that God has used this man are so incredible.
by
John G. Lake
A Classic
Harrison House
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Copyright 1981 by Harrison House, Inc.
This information is taken from a time stained book that I found lying around my parent's house.
Truly God wished for me to find it. Not quite sure what it's all about, but I've read 50+ pages into it tonight, and it seems to be a collection of testimonies from a man named John G. Lake.
Here is the Foreword and a few testimonies from the book. They are powerful, yet these beginning few are pretty weak compared with the rest of the book.
"Foreword
John Graham Lake was a man of prayer and commitment.
To better understand the quality of his life, you willl want to read his consecration to God at the close of this book.
At the Lake Healing Rooms in Spokane, Washington, 100,000 healings were recorded in five years. Dr. Ruthlidge of Washington, D.C., called Spokane the healthiest city in the world as a result of Lake's Healing Rooms.
John G. Lake was born March 18, 1870, at St. Mary's, Ontario, Canada. While he was still a child , his parents moved to the United States.At the age of 21, he became a Methodist minister, but later chose to start a newspaper instead of accepting a church ministry.
After his marriage, Lake's wife entered into a prolonged illness, but was miraculously delivered under the ministry of John Alexander Dowie in April, 1898. This experience forever altered the direction of John G. Lake's life and ministry.
All that he accomplished as a result of his intense regard for the Word of God stands as an example to all Christians of what is possible for any person who will believe and act on the Scriptures.
Adventures In God
I found God as a boy, so for years- 50 of them almost- I have been walking in the light of God, understanding fellowship with Him and listening to His Voice.
I want to call to your attention some of the things Christians enjoys that others miss.
---------------------------
A dear man received an injury that caused his death in a motor accident not far from Beaverton. The day after this man was killed, I was visiting some friends in Beaverton an they told me of his injury. After our visit, my wife and I were driving into the city. As we were coming up one of the highways, a Voice said, 'Pull onto the left of the road and stop.'
Don't you know that Voice, Christian heart? That Voice is so common that I never even spoke of it to my wife.
The left side is the wrong side of the road, and you are breaking the traffic law to be there. But I have listened to that Voice so many years that I have learned in most cases to obey it. Jesus said, 'My sheep know my voice.' (John 10:27)
(The thought I am trying to bring to you, dear friends, is the value of konwoing the Lord and what communion with God means. Salvation is not just something God gives you that is going to bless you after you die; it is having the presence of the Lord now. God has promised to the Christian the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.)
I pulled onto the left-hand side of the road, ran the wheel of my car close into the ditch, and stopped. Immediately, I heard the grinding of a great truck coming around the curve. I had not seen it before. Instead of coming normally, it was coming down the driver's left-hand side of the road at a 45-degree angle. The truck had gone out of control and was covering the whole road!
If I had been on my side of the road, it would have sideswiped me and pushed me over the bank. A 100-foot drop down! But I was on the other side when the great thing swept past me.
The truck went 50 to 100 feet beyond me, struck a rough spot in the road, and righted itself. The driver got the truck under control and went on.
Dear friends, men in the Word of God were guided by the Voice of God. God talked to them. This is the inner thing of real Christian experience, the reason men seek by the grace of God to enter into the real heard of God -- into the real soul of Jesus Christ -- into the place where He lives within you -- where His Voice speaks in you heart.
--------------------------------------------
I was sitting one day in the home of the DeValeras in Krugersdorp, South Africa, When a man arrived who had traveled all over the country. He had been following me from place to place, trying to catch up with me. he suffered a sunstroke which had affected his mind and he also had developed a large cancer.
He came into the house and proved to be a friend of the family.
In a little while a six-year-old child who had been sitting near me went across the room, climbed on the man's knees, put her hands on the caner on his face, and prayed.
I saw the cancer wither. In half an hour, the thing had disappeared. The wound was still there, but in a few days it was healed.
After the child had laid her hands on top of his head, he arose, saying, 'Oh! The fire that has been in my brain has gone out,' and his mind was normal.
Power belongeth unto God (Ps. 62:11). The simplest soul can touch God and live in the very presence of God and in His power."
There are quite a few testimonies that he records in this book. In the preface it states that there is no chronology to the book, but that these merely are his personal records.
I implore believers to get this book. Reading testimony after testimony is incredible. Even one incident of doctors monitoring his brain cells and those of someone being healed. All the ways that God has used this man are so incredible.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Dance it Out!
Personally I ask for forgiveness.
Cyberspace took its toll on me and distracted me from my purpose. My purpose is not to write down my thoughts for the vanity of having them. While this blog was not always like that some of the entries that I have re-read deal solely with myself wanting to hear myself talk. That's not righteous.
In this new title "Dance it Out!" I have been reminded of the truth
"An old adage that my friends and I held onto was this concept of "Dancing things out" Didn't quite mean much in and of itself, except perhaps that we might eliminate our problems through movements that seem quite similar to debauchery (which doesn't work). Yet in saying it to one another we knew that dancing was more than movement, and that we were in this together. Helping one another was the focus of the adage and it is the focus of this blog."
Getting thoughts and feelings out there are good, but what is their worth if there is no solution, no point?
Yes, getting thoughts and ideas out there helps, but truly there's only one truth and grace that we should be committed to and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
My Lord
and hopefully your Lord
consequently he is the solution.
yet its so easy to get wrapped up in this nothingness that is cyberspace and believe that we can rule a page where we spout from our soapbox.
It's not Righteous.
So now I have a missions statement for this blog, which is also its title. I'm fairly confident I will not be changing it anytime soon.
Cyberspace took its toll on me and distracted me from my purpose. My purpose is not to write down my thoughts for the vanity of having them. While this blog was not always like that some of the entries that I have re-read deal solely with myself wanting to hear myself talk. That's not righteous.
In this new title "Dance it Out!" I have been reminded of the truth
"An old adage that my friends and I held onto was this concept of "Dancing things out" Didn't quite mean much in and of itself, except perhaps that we might eliminate our problems through movements that seem quite similar to debauchery (which doesn't work). Yet in saying it to one another we knew that dancing was more than movement, and that we were in this together. Helping one another was the focus of the adage and it is the focus of this blog."
Getting thoughts and feelings out there are good, but what is their worth if there is no solution, no point?
Yes, getting thoughts and ideas out there helps, but truly there's only one truth and grace that we should be committed to and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
My Lord
and hopefully your Lord
consequently he is the solution.
yet its so easy to get wrapped up in this nothingness that is cyberspace and believe that we can rule a page where we spout from our soapbox.
It's not Righteous.
So now I have a missions statement for this blog, which is also its title. I'm fairly confident I will not be changing it anytime soon.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Destiny
Long arduous.
Singing breaking clapping
swift like running, but coarse like water...
destiny tends to me in this way
never on line, never out of control
simply shivering around a corner
new perspective
new perspective
new perspective
look
look
new perspective
new truth
new definite?
no
new maybe
to the point where slaves are like light
and light is like crimson
and crimson is the sun as it beats down on us
we are like slaves
understand do...change
but become
Don't live like a thing
live
Live
Like a being
Life is a state
A state is autonomous
State yourself by being?
Be by being
We're told to describe words with other words.
It doesn't work.
A word is a word. It cannot be compared.
By doing so we've skewed two definitions and neither are what they were.
Christians aren't good people.
Christians are followers of Christ
Christ is God
God is good all the time, but we are not God
truth is not what it is, because we pull it in too many directions and it's an unforgiving material.
Mentally
Sense it
look at your face
now become colorful with your vocabulary.
describe to someone who doesn't know what you look like on the phone what you look like.
Have them draw you a picture
have them use new words to describe you
Then correct them when they're wrong
We Love our words how they photoshop all that we wish to hide...
God will help me, but who's your god?
Bring it.
Singing breaking clapping
swift like running, but coarse like water...
destiny tends to me in this way
never on line, never out of control
simply shivering around a corner
new perspective
new perspective
new perspective
look
look
new perspective
new truth
new definite?
no
new maybe
to the point where slaves are like light
and light is like crimson
and crimson is the sun as it beats down on us
we are like slaves
understand do...change
but become
Don't live like a thing
live
Live
Like a being
Life is a state
A state is autonomous
State yourself by being?
Be by being
We're told to describe words with other words.
It doesn't work.
A word is a word. It cannot be compared.
By doing so we've skewed two definitions and neither are what they were.
Christians aren't good people.
Christians are followers of Christ
Christ is God
God is good all the time, but we are not God
truth is not what it is, because we pull it in too many directions and it's an unforgiving material.
Mentally
Sense it
look at your face
now become colorful with your vocabulary.
describe to someone who doesn't know what you look like on the phone what you look like.
Have them draw you a picture
have them use new words to describe you
Then correct them when they're wrong
We Love our words how they photoshop all that we wish to hide...
God will help me, but who's your god?
Bring it.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
I try to sell God.
Often, there rises within me a sort of force that tries to grab people and tell them all the effects of this drug that I use prolifically called God. First I try to tell them it's great, and free, shortly adding, "well there is a cost (side-effects)". Next is the procession where I tell them God gives me "happiness", soon retracting my statement trying to articulate the actual feelings, but there are too many for them to understand anything of what I am saying. Stumbling on in my sales pitch the thought emerges, "well it's not really about feelings or the cost it's about God"
Imagine a man who is dedicated to truth, and not feelings, perspectives or popularity. This man is a Christian. Countless Christians have been branded as simply offensive. Anyone who claims to have truth that is applicable to more than one person is branded as an arrogant, ignorant, intolerant fool.
Bearing in mind that the truth is exclusive, Jesus made quite a reasonable claim. Truth cannot be everything, for everything is also nothing. "Everyone is good, except the ones who kill people" well there's already a stipulation that brings an exclusive look into the word good. If the truth is nothing then I cannot expect an explanation for anything. If there is not anything that follows any sort of rule or organizational structure what am I hoping to achieve by attending college? By definition truth is exclusive. When I look at a bottle it cannot also be a car. One of these descriptions of the object is true...not both.
To be a Christian a person must proclaim a belief in truth. That truth is Jesus Christ. Elaboration reveals him to be Lord and Savior of this person.
Much of the world is shrouded in misconception. Taking part of truth and just bending it ever so slightly.
The savior position dictates that the person was helpless and needed the help of someone to save them, which so many normal people deny (whether they are proclaiming to be a Christian or not). My mind then begs those Christians, "Why do you need a savior if you don't need saved from anything, and want to retain your personality as it is?" In my life asking for forgiveness and thanking God for his saving power is typical, and a major part of repentance. This practice may not be instituted everyday, but it happens enough to be of note. Observation of more mature Christians has shown that this practice only heightens, as they grow with God and understand more fully the sins that are committed regularly.
Lord is the other position Jesus should take in the Christian's life. Jesus as Lord holds sentimental value, because for whatever reason I overlooked this part of the relationship between me and God when I was young. Understanding Savior, but overlooking Lord led me to leave my faith at a young age.
Lord leaves a bad taste in the mouth of a 20th-21st century person. This word conjures up images of kings, aristocrats and men in armor mistreating their subjects who own little more than mud huts if anything at all. Not the most accurate depiction of God, though we do need to listen to him and follow through with obedience. Mainly that is the reason that most fall away from faith. Accepting the fact that you were saved by someone is good, but it does nothing for your immediate condition. Servants understanding that their master has saved them is not necessary outside the fact that it reveals the character of the savior. However, if they know he has saved them it should equate with the honor they show him, but without listening to their master how can they expect to reap the rewards of their master's promises of things yet to come?
For myself I found it infuriating that I never "felt" God or had anything to show for believing in his "saviorism", and this empty relationship left me when I was truly willing in my heart to submit to his authority. What master commands a servant to do something they know the servant won't do? or better yet what master gives a command to someone that hasn't even submitted to being a servant? It is in the greatness of God we find this Love that he does not force us to follow him. Even to Saul he gave no command, but simply inquired "why are you persecuting me?"
Unveiling of Truth is a vital aspect of Christ as Lord. In submission to Jesus Christ/God there begins an understanding that accompanies that individual. Jesus said a good many things, and lived a good many things. From his lifestyle and his words we may derive that the Bible is the word of God and therefore a handbook for Christians, and a truth we may believe in.
Hebrews 4:12 elaborates
"12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." NIV
This verse doesn't sound like it's describing a book, or for that matter a person.
Because the Bible is not just a book, and Jesus was not just a person.
John 1 refers to Jesus as the word of God, and also links God's word with himself. It is amazing that anything God articulates with word is himself. He does not use words frivolously, furthermore each word is a revelation of himself.
Jesus asks his disciples to eat his body. Moses writes that man lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus is a word from the mouth of God, and here we find the answer to what we're selling.
Life
It's hard to describe to a dead person what Life is like. Any description of the living world to the dead goes over their heads, even the fact that the living may be trying to communicate with them. They were once alive, but have forgotten its grandness.
Impossible to search for a proper means to illustrate what we mean when we've "found the Light" we appeal to other things they do know.
God makes you Happy (sometimes, but it's usually more complex than that)
God will always be there for you, though you may not feel it.
Forsaking all that is sacred in a dialogue of desperate communication entitled "What God can do for you" shouldn't be the ideal way of ministry. It bears bad fruit, as does the whole salesman charade.
You're not a salesman. You're not selling a thing. (If you are selling God it holds that you have the power to sell, give or package him, which is not true) At best you get to introduce God. When I spoke frequently of my friend Chad and how great he was to all my other friends (especially Ashley) they wanted to become familiar with him. It's similar with God (Chad is not God) generally a person at least wants to be acquainted to with the person they are pledging themselves to.
Remember the end of the story. We marry God. It's an atrocity on our side to try to get people to accept a bride-groom that we're selling. Gambling's not my thing, but I'd wager that if anyone advertised a member of the opposite sex to be your husband/wife you'd call the cops, laugh in his face, be overally disgusted by the whole thing or all three.
God's a big boy. He lives in us. He can make himself known. All we have to do is listen and obey.
It's not the place of the servant to pledge people to the Lord, but merely to bring those people to the Lord.
Imagine a man who is dedicated to truth, and not feelings, perspectives or popularity. This man is a Christian. Countless Christians have been branded as simply offensive. Anyone who claims to have truth that is applicable to more than one person is branded as an arrogant, ignorant, intolerant fool.
Bearing in mind that the truth is exclusive, Jesus made quite a reasonable claim. Truth cannot be everything, for everything is also nothing. "Everyone is good, except the ones who kill people" well there's already a stipulation that brings an exclusive look into the word good. If the truth is nothing then I cannot expect an explanation for anything. If there is not anything that follows any sort of rule or organizational structure what am I hoping to achieve by attending college? By definition truth is exclusive. When I look at a bottle it cannot also be a car. One of these descriptions of the object is true...not both.
To be a Christian a person must proclaim a belief in truth. That truth is Jesus Christ. Elaboration reveals him to be Lord and Savior of this person.
Much of the world is shrouded in misconception. Taking part of truth and just bending it ever so slightly.
The savior position dictates that the person was helpless and needed the help of someone to save them, which so many normal people deny (whether they are proclaiming to be a Christian or not). My mind then begs those Christians, "Why do you need a savior if you don't need saved from anything, and want to retain your personality as it is?" In my life asking for forgiveness and thanking God for his saving power is typical, and a major part of repentance. This practice may not be instituted everyday, but it happens enough to be of note. Observation of more mature Christians has shown that this practice only heightens, as they grow with God and understand more fully the sins that are committed regularly.
Lord is the other position Jesus should take in the Christian's life. Jesus as Lord holds sentimental value, because for whatever reason I overlooked this part of the relationship between me and God when I was young. Understanding Savior, but overlooking Lord led me to leave my faith at a young age.
Lord leaves a bad taste in the mouth of a 20th-21st century person. This word conjures up images of kings, aristocrats and men in armor mistreating their subjects who own little more than mud huts if anything at all. Not the most accurate depiction of God, though we do need to listen to him and follow through with obedience. Mainly that is the reason that most fall away from faith. Accepting the fact that you were saved by someone is good, but it does nothing for your immediate condition. Servants understanding that their master has saved them is not necessary outside the fact that it reveals the character of the savior. However, if they know he has saved them it should equate with the honor they show him, but without listening to their master how can they expect to reap the rewards of their master's promises of things yet to come?
For myself I found it infuriating that I never "felt" God or had anything to show for believing in his "saviorism", and this empty relationship left me when I was truly willing in my heart to submit to his authority. What master commands a servant to do something they know the servant won't do? or better yet what master gives a command to someone that hasn't even submitted to being a servant? It is in the greatness of God we find this Love that he does not force us to follow him. Even to Saul he gave no command, but simply inquired "why are you persecuting me?"
Unveiling of Truth is a vital aspect of Christ as Lord. In submission to Jesus Christ/God there begins an understanding that accompanies that individual. Jesus said a good many things, and lived a good many things. From his lifestyle and his words we may derive that the Bible is the word of God and therefore a handbook for Christians, and a truth we may believe in.
Hebrews 4:12 elaborates
"12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." NIV
This verse doesn't sound like it's describing a book, or for that matter a person.
Because the Bible is not just a book, and Jesus was not just a person.
John 1 refers to Jesus as the word of God, and also links God's word with himself. It is amazing that anything God articulates with word is himself. He does not use words frivolously, furthermore each word is a revelation of himself.
Jesus asks his disciples to eat his body. Moses writes that man lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus is a word from the mouth of God, and here we find the answer to what we're selling.
Life
It's hard to describe to a dead person what Life is like. Any description of the living world to the dead goes over their heads, even the fact that the living may be trying to communicate with them. They were once alive, but have forgotten its grandness.
Impossible to search for a proper means to illustrate what we mean when we've "found the Light" we appeal to other things they do know.
God makes you Happy (sometimes, but it's usually more complex than that)
God will always be there for you, though you may not feel it.
Forsaking all that is sacred in a dialogue of desperate communication entitled "What God can do for you" shouldn't be the ideal way of ministry. It bears bad fruit, as does the whole salesman charade.
You're not a salesman. You're not selling a thing. (If you are selling God it holds that you have the power to sell, give or package him, which is not true) At best you get to introduce God. When I spoke frequently of my friend Chad and how great he was to all my other friends (especially Ashley) they wanted to become familiar with him. It's similar with God (Chad is not God) generally a person at least wants to be acquainted to with the person they are pledging themselves to.
Remember the end of the story. We marry God. It's an atrocity on our side to try to get people to accept a bride-groom that we're selling. Gambling's not my thing, but I'd wager that if anyone advertised a member of the opposite sex to be your husband/wife you'd call the cops, laugh in his face, be overally disgusted by the whole thing or all three.
God's a big boy. He lives in us. He can make himself known. All we have to do is listen and obey.
It's not the place of the servant to pledge people to the Lord, but merely to bring those people to the Lord.
Friday, January 22, 2010
My Life Requires Truth
Description falls short of actualizing how much truth is needed to define and regulate life. Math has been absent from my life for about 2 years, and I miss it dearly. It was a pain, trig/precalc, but at the same time refreshing. Trig/precalc was an applicable truth not simply a playing with words, symbols or sounds like in Art. Answers. Only one solution was possible, and much of our generation has neglected the value of an absolute truth.
The distance from myself to the wall. :) It's a fact, as long as I stay here and the wall stays there, it's concrete, there is no variation except in the units of measurement.
Coming to art/music school has left me hungry for and devoid of reality. When I call my leather wallet what it is, and then the man next to me says it's a processed dead cow I can deal with that. There's truth in what he said, perhaps a strange way to view a wallet, but regardless there's at least a twinge of truth in what he said. However, when he calls my wallet a collage of raisins, or he says my wallet is the same exact things as his vat of honey, or better yet that the wallet doesn't exist I writhe to try to explain why nonsense spews from his face.
It's no longer calling a tomato a (tom-ott-oe). It's calling a tomato an emery board, and backing the conclusion with, "they both came from the same store" or "Both of them are edible". Different purposes and uses dominate the items regardless of where they were bought. Emery boards are edible, but they do nothing for your health. Common sense conclusions based upon logic seem to take a backseat to imagination, what ifs and morals that make as much sense as praising a horse for excreting.
20-21st century "virtuous" man is no long a man of strong understanding of himself, good and bad, right and wrong, determination, selflessness, or consistency. Instead we've thrown out the carved statues that were too rigid, strong, offensive and defined for sheets that sway in the wind. "Piety" consists of being a push over. Harmony of this new morality is formed when incompatible ideas are held within one mind and both are ignored. Clearly there is an understanding of belief, but not enough belief for it to influence any part of life. Therefore, everyone's right, because people haven't found enough evidence to prove any possibility invalid.
Ignorance has left crowds of people wondering with no answers. Analytical thinking is put aside when people come out the math class. Logic needs to burn away erroneous works, words and attitudes to magnify the truth that is in our world. However, Logic isn't taught in schools, and sadly enough Students wouldn't want to take the class anyway. Even though simple logic could fix a large portion of their problems ahead of time.
Students who enter college are entering a junction. Adolescence is wearing off of the upcoming generation, new ideas are bombarding them and the people who influenced them up till now are mostly gone. Definition of the person in this situation is imperative. They need to find who they are. They are a liquid material ready to be caste into something, but molds aren't natural. Molds aren't individual. Molds are man-made copies. Yet many of us look at something and say, "I want to be like that, but with a blend of this," or "differently the same," Something along the lines of an individual copy. "A statue like that, but with a hat on."
Most people aren't looking for a mold (though they may have that image). In most minds there is a want to discover who they are. What they were made to do. purpose. Learning, changing, improving, but still a similarity in the character of who they are. It dawns on us that we aren't a material, because we're growing, living, so focus diverts to how to live. Unfortunately life is viewed as a long corridor and when you walk through the door at the end...it's done. You're life is complete.
Considerably a bleak outlook that no one should ever actualize. (and if it is a reality I pity you)
Interestingly enough, when artists viewed their lives as a straight path they passed without much notice. Not until artists began to use more than the right side of their brains that they became noted. The two most famous artists: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, along with many other artists of the time weren't exclusively artists. Leonardo did a million things, Engineer, scientist, painter, blah blah blah. The man was brilliant, and Michelangelo was similar, Sculptor, painter, Architect...Both these men brushed on mathematics quite a bit.
In the past artists were respected for honing a skill and craft, however after/during the renaissance artists belonged to a much higher caste.
Also the other end of the spectrum is easily as at fault. What mathematicians are familiar to most people?
Are they the ones that innovate with creative ideas or the extremely analytical ones that do exactly what was done before with a little bit of difference?
A balance in life must be struck. Aristotle argued that Ethos, Pathos and Logos must be present in an argument (a belief) for it to hold water. Ethos-credibility, Pathos-Emotionality and Logos-Logic. A mind detached from its heart is ruthless, and predictable. A heart detached from its brain is overly sentimental. Neither of these two are credible in their state without one another.
Yet most people detach that logical skill that claims an answer from their lives when they make individual choices, and it leaves them luke-warm to everything, harnessing nothing. Similarly people detach their emotions and they claim a logical answer, but miscalculate, by not including their emotions. (like plugging in an equation, but leaving out a variable or two.)
What I see before me is a future of highly emotional people without logic, and a group of highly analytical people without emotion, which makes them equally illogical.
These need to blend into an intellectual that isn't so calloused and pompous that he loses track of where he is, and an average working man that is educated enough to evaluate and defend his beliefs intellectually.
God will show himself in a setting where these two attributes synthesize with one another. God is logical, yet he Loves us ever so dearly.
The distance from myself to the wall. :) It's a fact, as long as I stay here and the wall stays there, it's concrete, there is no variation except in the units of measurement.
Coming to art/music school has left me hungry for and devoid of reality. When I call my leather wallet what it is, and then the man next to me says it's a processed dead cow I can deal with that. There's truth in what he said, perhaps a strange way to view a wallet, but regardless there's at least a twinge of truth in what he said. However, when he calls my wallet a collage of raisins, or he says my wallet is the same exact things as his vat of honey, or better yet that the wallet doesn't exist I writhe to try to explain why nonsense spews from his face.
It's no longer calling a tomato a (tom-ott-oe). It's calling a tomato an emery board, and backing the conclusion with, "they both came from the same store" or "Both of them are edible". Different purposes and uses dominate the items regardless of where they were bought. Emery boards are edible, but they do nothing for your health. Common sense conclusions based upon logic seem to take a backseat to imagination, what ifs and morals that make as much sense as praising a horse for excreting.
20-21st century "virtuous" man is no long a man of strong understanding of himself, good and bad, right and wrong, determination, selflessness, or consistency. Instead we've thrown out the carved statues that were too rigid, strong, offensive and defined for sheets that sway in the wind. "Piety" consists of being a push over. Harmony of this new morality is formed when incompatible ideas are held within one mind and both are ignored. Clearly there is an understanding of belief, but not enough belief for it to influence any part of life. Therefore, everyone's right, because people haven't found enough evidence to prove any possibility invalid.
Ignorance has left crowds of people wondering with no answers. Analytical thinking is put aside when people come out the math class. Logic needs to burn away erroneous works, words and attitudes to magnify the truth that is in our world. However, Logic isn't taught in schools, and sadly enough Students wouldn't want to take the class anyway. Even though simple logic could fix a large portion of their problems ahead of time.
Students who enter college are entering a junction. Adolescence is wearing off of the upcoming generation, new ideas are bombarding them and the people who influenced them up till now are mostly gone. Definition of the person in this situation is imperative. They need to find who they are. They are a liquid material ready to be caste into something, but molds aren't natural. Molds aren't individual. Molds are man-made copies. Yet many of us look at something and say, "I want to be like that, but with a blend of this," or "differently the same," Something along the lines of an individual copy. "A statue like that, but with a hat on."
Most people aren't looking for a mold (though they may have that image). In most minds there is a want to discover who they are. What they were made to do. purpose. Learning, changing, improving, but still a similarity in the character of who they are. It dawns on us that we aren't a material, because we're growing, living, so focus diverts to how to live. Unfortunately life is viewed as a long corridor and when you walk through the door at the end...it's done. You're life is complete.
Considerably a bleak outlook that no one should ever actualize. (and if it is a reality I pity you)
Interestingly enough, when artists viewed their lives as a straight path they passed without much notice. Not until artists began to use more than the right side of their brains that they became noted. The two most famous artists: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, along with many other artists of the time weren't exclusively artists. Leonardo did a million things, Engineer, scientist, painter, blah blah blah. The man was brilliant, and Michelangelo was similar, Sculptor, painter, Architect...Both these men brushed on mathematics quite a bit.
In the past artists were respected for honing a skill and craft, however after/during the renaissance artists belonged to a much higher caste.
Also the other end of the spectrum is easily as at fault. What mathematicians are familiar to most people?
Are they the ones that innovate with creative ideas or the extremely analytical ones that do exactly what was done before with a little bit of difference?
A balance in life must be struck. Aristotle argued that Ethos, Pathos and Logos must be present in an argument (a belief) for it to hold water. Ethos-credibility, Pathos-Emotionality and Logos-Logic. A mind detached from its heart is ruthless, and predictable. A heart detached from its brain is overly sentimental. Neither of these two are credible in their state without one another.
Yet most people detach that logical skill that claims an answer from their lives when they make individual choices, and it leaves them luke-warm to everything, harnessing nothing. Similarly people detach their emotions and they claim a logical answer, but miscalculate, by not including their emotions. (like plugging in an equation, but leaving out a variable or two.)
What I see before me is a future of highly emotional people without logic, and a group of highly analytical people without emotion, which makes them equally illogical.
These need to blend into an intellectual that isn't so calloused and pompous that he loses track of where he is, and an average working man that is educated enough to evaluate and defend his beliefs intellectually.
God will show himself in a setting where these two attributes synthesize with one another. God is logical, yet he Loves us ever so dearly.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Refining. Part 1.
This past break my foundations have changed. I've noticed how empty I get and how quickly I need to refill myself.
Basic theology for all of you out there: Jesus fulfills, yet not for our sake but for his. Humanity was created with the purpose of Loving God. Make an invention without a purpose and what does it do? God is inherently part of us, and the most important part of all: he provides in us our purpose.
Identify a purpose for anything. We created a pen to write. Writing dominates what a pen does. A train carries people/supplies from point A to point B. The concept is quite simple, yet so important. Purpose dominates
Most apologists would locate the most eminent sin (or thing that makes us incoherent with God) is man trying to be God or trying to replace God. Ironic. Of all the temptations it was first for Eve to try to become greater than God, so that we might rule ourselves. However in trying to do so we died. We tried to create our own ambition, our own aspiration and mold our own future apart from God when we reached for knowledge of good and evil.
Specifically the tree of life is mentioned in the record. Initially God meant us to live forever, but it is that kind of domination that kills us. When purpose dominates and we try to dominate that which dominates ourselves there is only one result, which is death. Sin may become difficult to identify in its abstract definition of separation, incoherence or disobedience with God, but Jesus tells us we may know men by their fruit. In the end there is an understanding of the beginning. End products speak of the process, intent and path that are taken. God never meant for an end in us, but he created one in order that we may understand our beginning and our original purpose.
Deem it a refining process.
Throughout Jesus’ entire ministry it was the exact same sin in the garden that he was dealing with. This sin of man trying to rule their own life and present themselves as self-existing, self-sustaining people who have no need for their God to pierce the core of who they are. Instead they would have Jesus tell them what they need to do superficially, so they could do it and get on with their deaths. All the while they were misunderstanding that God looks through to the heart of situations. God did not care about how nice they were or how much they sacrificed. Intentions have always been at the center of what God desires. God desires our intentions.
Only when our intentions are his intentions can we survive in a state without sin.
1 Samuel 15:22-23 ESV And Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”
New testament tie in:
Matthew 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
(ESV)
Hebrews 4:12 God’s word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (That’s only a part of that scripture.)
Over and over Jesus tried to make us understand who he was, and his purpose. Reconciliation with the father is laid plainly for us in the Gospel of John, and Jesus is made known as our refiner.
John 6:25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread [3] the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus [4] said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
(ESV)
This situation is exactly the same as the first sin with one exception: The ending. Simon Peter answered for the twelve in the best way that he ever could have. It is unnatural to want to give up our right to rule our lives, but is entirely unnatural to rule the lives God has given us. Progress is evident in Simon Peter’s answer.
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Matthew12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. [1] 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
(ESV)
Would you have me leave you? is what Jesus is asking. Then you would have a sign. Matthew records Jesus saying that there will be no sign except his resurrection, which they will deny. However there is an understanding of why he did not show a sign. A wicked and adulterous nation asks for a sign. Power. God has power, but he doesn’t want us to be about his power. We would be an adulterous nation without Love if we did the father’s work only because of a miracle. Everyone Jesus healed believed before they were healed. Miracles were an outcome of their “eating the bread of Life”
The Original Greek word for “eat” that fits into John 6 has a specific connotation behind it. It doesn’t simply mean eat, but devouring with the purpose of sustenance or living. Meat is what is referred to when using this particular word. God refers to himself as bread of life that sustains the body like meat. “Phago is the word, but the o has a strait line over it. I couldn’t find the symbol for it.)
Deuteronomy 8:1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word [1] that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
(ESV)
The Hebrew word used to for “live” in Deuteronomy 8:3 is Châyâh. Meaning to live, to revive, to keep alive, to nourish, to preserve, quicken, recover, repair, restore, Save, to be whole.
Deuteronomy 8 plainly states God’s desires, and they synch exactly with Jesus. Live on God’s word and don’t deviate from it. Moses acted this out when he fasted for 40 days on mount Sinai and received the law.
John’s Gospel opens with these statements:
John1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, [1] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, [2] and his own people [3] did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, [4] who is at the Father's side, [5] he has made him known.
(ESV)
Jesus is the word of God, and he went into the wilderness before he began his ministry. God's spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove, and he immediately went out into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days. :)
Satan comes and tempts Jesus, but he answers back with scripture. The main scripture he uses is Deuteronomy 8:3.
Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word from the mouth of God.
After a period of 40 days of fasting Jesus began his ministry and started on the real meat and potatoes of what God wanted him to do.
After leaving Egypt the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Archaeologist believe they have found this stretch of wilderness and identified the number of people that made up the nation of Israel. They have come to the conclusion that the number of people, would not be able to survive in the wilderness. Their claim is that the land was too infertile to supply for that many people for more than a week or so.
After 40 years in the wilderness God led the Israelites to their promised land, and what God really had planned for them.
God kept the Israelites in the wilderness until a new generation that was refined was ready to take hold of what he had for them. He was refining until they truly Loved him.
In John 6 he tells the people, because you are hungry not because you saw a miraculous sign you are coming to me now.
So far he’s addressed two types of believers: People who believe because of a sign (a wicked and adulterous nation), and people who believe because they are hungry for the things of this world. On one hand are people who believe in him for the weak reason of what they have seen, and the others believe trying to see what they can get out of him.
But neither group truly believes or Loves
The Israelites in the wilderness saw the parting of a sea, a river flow from a rock in the desert, the sweetening of a bitter river with a tree, they walked around in the same clothes for forty years, bread fell from the sky and quail came when they wanted something new besides manna. All these things happened in a place that wasn't supposed to support them in any way whatsoever.
Yet God is yearning for something more from his children. Something more simple than anything that anyone has tried: Intimacy: A heart that removes itself from everything else and focuses on God. It’s not a heart that memorizes verses or reads the Bible a million (though those things are good). He desires a people that has one thing on their mind God. Not what God is doing, but God. For when we focus on God we do what he wants without thinking about it.
This concludes part 1
I do not know how many parts there will be, but God is doing something with this message and he has opened my eyes to the things he has done in such a different way that it changes the entire way I look at Jesus.
Basic theology for all of you out there: Jesus fulfills, yet not for our sake but for his. Humanity was created with the purpose of Loving God. Make an invention without a purpose and what does it do? God is inherently part of us, and the most important part of all: he provides in us our purpose.
Identify a purpose for anything. We created a pen to write. Writing dominates what a pen does. A train carries people/supplies from point A to point B. The concept is quite simple, yet so important. Purpose dominates
Most apologists would locate the most eminent sin (or thing that makes us incoherent with God) is man trying to be God or trying to replace God. Ironic. Of all the temptations it was first for Eve to try to become greater than God, so that we might rule ourselves. However in trying to do so we died. We tried to create our own ambition, our own aspiration and mold our own future apart from God when we reached for knowledge of good and evil.
Specifically the tree of life is mentioned in the record. Initially God meant us to live forever, but it is that kind of domination that kills us. When purpose dominates and we try to dominate that which dominates ourselves there is only one result, which is death. Sin may become difficult to identify in its abstract definition of separation, incoherence or disobedience with God, but Jesus tells us we may know men by their fruit. In the end there is an understanding of the beginning. End products speak of the process, intent and path that are taken. God never meant for an end in us, but he created one in order that we may understand our beginning and our original purpose.
Deem it a refining process.
Throughout Jesus’ entire ministry it was the exact same sin in the garden that he was dealing with. This sin of man trying to rule their own life and present themselves as self-existing, self-sustaining people who have no need for their God to pierce the core of who they are. Instead they would have Jesus tell them what they need to do superficially, so they could do it and get on with their deaths. All the while they were misunderstanding that God looks through to the heart of situations. God did not care about how nice they were or how much they sacrificed. Intentions have always been at the center of what God desires. God desires our intentions.
Only when our intentions are his intentions can we survive in a state without sin.
1 Samuel 15:22-23 ESV And Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”
New testament tie in:
Matthew 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
(ESV)
Hebrews 4:12 God’s word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (That’s only a part of that scripture.)
Over and over Jesus tried to make us understand who he was, and his purpose. Reconciliation with the father is laid plainly for us in the Gospel of John, and Jesus is made known as our refiner.
John 6:25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread [3] the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus [4] said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
(ESV)
This situation is exactly the same as the first sin with one exception: The ending. Simon Peter answered for the twelve in the best way that he ever could have. It is unnatural to want to give up our right to rule our lives, but is entirely unnatural to rule the lives God has given us. Progress is evident in Simon Peter’s answer.
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Matthew12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. [1] 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
(ESV)
Would you have me leave you? is what Jesus is asking. Then you would have a sign. Matthew records Jesus saying that there will be no sign except his resurrection, which they will deny. However there is an understanding of why he did not show a sign. A wicked and adulterous nation asks for a sign. Power. God has power, but he doesn’t want us to be about his power. We would be an adulterous nation without Love if we did the father’s work only because of a miracle. Everyone Jesus healed believed before they were healed. Miracles were an outcome of their “eating the bread of Life”
The Original Greek word for “eat” that fits into John 6 has a specific connotation behind it. It doesn’t simply mean eat, but devouring with the purpose of sustenance or living. Meat is what is referred to when using this particular word. God refers to himself as bread of life that sustains the body like meat. “Phago is the word, but the o has a strait line over it. I couldn’t find the symbol for it.)
Deuteronomy 8:1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word [1] that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
(ESV)
The Hebrew word used to for “live” in Deuteronomy 8:3 is Châyâh. Meaning to live, to revive, to keep alive, to nourish, to preserve, quicken, recover, repair, restore, Save, to be whole.
Deuteronomy 8 plainly states God’s desires, and they synch exactly with Jesus. Live on God’s word and don’t deviate from it. Moses acted this out when he fasted for 40 days on mount Sinai and received the law.
John’s Gospel opens with these statements:
John1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, [1] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, [2] and his own people [3] did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, [4] who is at the Father's side, [5] he has made him known.
(ESV)
Jesus is the word of God, and he went into the wilderness before he began his ministry. God's spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove, and he immediately went out into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days. :)
Satan comes and tempts Jesus, but he answers back with scripture. The main scripture he uses is Deuteronomy 8:3.
Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word from the mouth of God.
After a period of 40 days of fasting Jesus began his ministry and started on the real meat and potatoes of what God wanted him to do.
After leaving Egypt the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Archaeologist believe they have found this stretch of wilderness and identified the number of people that made up the nation of Israel. They have come to the conclusion that the number of people, would not be able to survive in the wilderness. Their claim is that the land was too infertile to supply for that many people for more than a week or so.
After 40 years in the wilderness God led the Israelites to their promised land, and what God really had planned for them.
God kept the Israelites in the wilderness until a new generation that was refined was ready to take hold of what he had for them. He was refining until they truly Loved him.
In John 6 he tells the people, because you are hungry not because you saw a miraculous sign you are coming to me now.
So far he’s addressed two types of believers: People who believe because of a sign (a wicked and adulterous nation), and people who believe because they are hungry for the things of this world. On one hand are people who believe in him for the weak reason of what they have seen, and the others believe trying to see what they can get out of him.
But neither group truly believes or Loves
The Israelites in the wilderness saw the parting of a sea, a river flow from a rock in the desert, the sweetening of a bitter river with a tree, they walked around in the same clothes for forty years, bread fell from the sky and quail came when they wanted something new besides manna. All these things happened in a place that wasn't supposed to support them in any way whatsoever.
Yet God is yearning for something more from his children. Something more simple than anything that anyone has tried: Intimacy: A heart that removes itself from everything else and focuses on God. It’s not a heart that memorizes verses or reads the Bible a million (though those things are good). He desires a people that has one thing on their mind God. Not what God is doing, but God. For when we focus on God we do what he wants without thinking about it.
This concludes part 1
I do not know how many parts there will be, but God is doing something with this message and he has opened my eyes to the things he has done in such a different way that it changes the entire way I look at Jesus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)