Waking Up

Inception | Leonardo DiCaprio | ReelzChannel Spotlight | Movie Trailer

In many similar ways the movie Inception has touched upon things within me as the movie The Matrix did and continues to do.
For a summary of the move Inception, you can read it here.

A premise I have been working on after watching Inception a couple of times is in my opinion something that was done to humanity beginning in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. These scriptures in particular stand out me pointing out as it were a spiritual abortion taking place while hypnotizing this first couple.
Many years after this Paul alluded to (imo) this reality of ‘true-lies’ this couple ingested; speaking to a group of believers, “Who has bewitched (charmed) you, caused you to move away from the truth of Christ being your only true source of life?”

In the move Inception, the extraction and inception that took place was done within the soul more specifically within their mind by inducing them into a dream state of unconsciousness.
What I see happening in our re-birthing was something similar but vastly different in this respect, what the Lord did in joining us to Himself thereby making us one with him freed us from the dream (Matrix) world that we were all plunged into through man, Adam and Eve choosing for us. As in Inception, “What is the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood. That sticks, right in there somewhere (pointing to his head). The seed planted in the mind will bring forth an idea that will ultimately totally define the person.

We are encouraged by the spirit of God to be transformed by the renewing of our mind; to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, which is a life time journey and unfolding process.
If there really isn’t a greater reality founded and rooted into the eternal love of God the Father for us and in us by our union, than its merely pissing in the wind for any of us.
This ongoing transformation is going to set into motion seismic shits of unparalleled proportions, and not understanding the source of our assaults which try to keep us from knowing the truth of our secret source of power and freedom in Christ will only perpetuate the illusionary dream world we live in.

I’m including the following thoughts from T.A. Sparks that flow seamlessly with what I am seeing in the heightened awareness of discerning between what is true and what isn’t. I am only including part of it with the rest to follow.

Rich

The place of union is "the inner man of the heart," to use the New Testament phrase. Paul was fond of using that phrase: "...our inward man is renewed day by day," "...that He would grant you... that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man" (Eph. 3:16; A.S.V.). What is the inward man? It is our spirit, the innermost place of our being. That is the seat of union. Union is not first of all physical in character. That needs no saying. Union between us and God is not in its genesis of a mental kind, neither is it of an emotional kind. Union between us and the Lord is not in the realm of our soul at all in the first instance. It is in our spirit. It is a thing which is deeper than our soul; that is, deeper than our reason, deeper than the powers of our natural mind either to analyze or understand. It is deeper than our emotions, deeper than our feelings. The fact of union with the Lord, when it is established, abides when all our feelings contradict it, and when all our power of reasoning is completely confounded. When in the realm of the reason and in the realm of the feelings there seems to be greatest evidence that the union does not exist, it remains.

It is an important thing for the Lord's people to get that well settled, that union between us and the Lord has nothing whatever to do with our feelings nor our reasoning. If we sit down at times and allow our reasonings to carry us on, we shall conclude that the union does not exist, because there is so much which argues strongly and positively against any such union. If we allow our feelings, or our lack of feelings, to be the criterion, we shall give it all up and declare the whole thing to be a myth. From time to time feelings are altogether against the fact of union with the Lord. It makes no difference; the union is there if it has been brought about. People who take the position that they must feel it or else they will not believe, are going to have a bad time. The same applies to people who demand that they shall be able to follow this thing through with the completest mental argument.

Just Imagine

Imagine simply being me, you, no longer attempting to sell anyone on our Jesus?
What if there were no more use of words (and mere words are nothing apart from having an impetus to them) such as my ministry, or ministering, or God using me, or I had an opportunity to ‘share Christ’, with someone, and probably so many more?
Would it be like sowing up the pockets of a Frenchman, or an Italian man with their hands in their pockets, causing them to hyperventilate in no longer being able to talk?

The extent of the invasive saturation of the religion of the Matrix is mind boggling, and the inner transformation of His grace freeing us from these cheap artistic (according to us) expressions of trying at best to imitate His life is beyond liberating. OH, can’t you just feel how much lighter that even sounds?

This is not intended as an indictment or a mocking of anyone who still finds themselves sounding or acting this way, freedom is a continuous journey of restoration, discovering from the moment we had been adopted in the family of God, we had everything we ever needed to navigate through the happenings of our daily living.
Sadly though, through the infinitesimal slow but steady erosion of our being seduced into a religious mindset that subtly drew us from our only source of life and freedom, has brought us to a place of having but a form of godliness, with no power or liberation.

It truly is sheer delight hearing throughout the body of Christ those questioning just about everything they once simply dumbed down without in many cases even giving it a second thought. Viva the revolution!

Rich

It Doesn’t Work %#$@!”*&^%!!

That’s what my daughter said as she tried for the umpteenth time to get the new external hard drive we bought her to work on her Mac notebook!
I/we love our precious daughter more than anything (and if our son ever reads this, we love him mucho as well) and we we’re ready to go the distance to resolve this problem for her before she headed back to Montreal.
Where we bought the hard drive was in a city that is about an a 50 minute drive from us, so in the flurry of trying to resolve this dilemma my wife took our daughter to a PC store here in our city, the guy tried a new usb cable, bingo, it worked. They got home only to hear, “it doesn’t work,” what we said!
Long story short, the problem wasn’t with the external hard drive or the USB cable, our daughter unknowingly had hooked it up to her Mac using the wrong USB cable, she had used her boy friends USB cable that works with his camera-DUH! Problem solved, IT WORKS!!

This may not be the perfect illustration but, how is it any different really if we who are in Christ and have become a new creation, to try and live out the rest of our lives here on Earth trying to make outer laws, (the wrong USB cable) Mosaic or contemporary laws, rules, regulations work in governing our lives?

I want to encourage anyone who is a follower of Christ or who has had any kind of encounter with God to take the time to read a great book, which I can not say enough good things about. I free download is available here.

I’m sure as read again what I feel Father is (reassuringly) speaking to my heart, I will be putting up additional thoughts.

Rich

Truth In The Inward Parts

Jesus enters with us into a kind of marriage relationship, and our earthly marriages are comparable to this spiritual union with Christ. This is why it's so essential for believers to try to salvage and work through problems in our marriages. We usually enter into matrimony wide-eyed, dreamy and full of hopes for the future. We gaze at each other and see mirrored in each other's eyes mutual wonder and admiration, but sooner or later we are faced with a dilemma – the faults and foibles that we have hidden so well inevitably become visible to our mate. Nobody likes to see what we like to keep hidden reflected in the eyes of a loved one, especially when s/he keeps bringing it up, exposing it to the light of scrutiny. Whatever happened to that gaga, blissful, you-can-do-no-wrong ideal of the honeymoon? In the harsh light of marriage, we are laid bare in the Petri dish of life, and our self-centered attitudes and childishness become evident. How do we behave in the nasty now-and-now of daily matrimonial humdrum, such as when we have to take out the garbage, clean up someone else's mess, take care of kids when we'd rather be doing something else, etc. etc. Many people these days want to walk away from their marriage when things just get too tough or irksome. Yet these are the very floodlights the Father chooses to expose the sin in our soul.

And, similar to a marriage relationship is our first encounter with the living Christ. We look into each other's eyes, as it were, and see reflected passionate, adoring love. As time goes on, however, we become aware that Jesus can see the perversion of our hearts, and we don't like that! We try to hide or even run away from his all-seeing gaze. We may become so uncomfortable with our soul's perversions being made bare and brought to the surface that we 'divorce' Him, rather than acknowledge that by Jesus exposing our hearts is the only way He can heal us. Remember He is revealing to heal us!

And the Lord is relentless in bringing our sin to the surface (please remember anything that is not of faith is sin). It's like a band-aid covering a wound. When it's time to remove the band-aid, Jesus doesn't pamper us by gently lifting the edge, asking permission to continue: "Oh, is that too uncomfortable? Okay – we'll try again another day". Instead, he rips that band-aid off, regardless of our howls of protest! Marriage is not supposed to be for hurting, but for healing…but first we have to learn to work through the hurting before we can access the healing. If both partners are willing, a marriage relationship is the perfect crucible for the Father of our spirit to be able to demolish, tear down, pluck up and uproot all that is contrary to Whose we are.

Rich

What’s in a Name

I thought rather than leave the following epistle on Jim’s blog, I would share my thoughts on what he was musing on over at, Lord, I Believe; Help My Unbelief. (I just feel real awful about God)

I love your real and honest plea for the Truth Bro, it is most refreshing.

Here's a real kicker to muse on, what you quoted here. “If you only see God as Father, you will balk when He has to render judgment. You'll only want to crawl into His lap, when maybe it's more appropriate at the moment to fall at His feet. (And even your idea of a "father" will be based somewhat on flawed human experiences.)
If you only see Jesus as your Friend (read: "Homeboy"), you are more likely to relate to Him with hi-fives and chest-bumping, and you won't show the proper respect that is due the Creator of the Universe.
If you only see God as a Judge, you will likely be legalistic, inordinately hard on yourself, and even harder on others--and you won't let yourself get emotionally close to God.
If you only see Jesus as the Bridegroom and a Lover--admittedly, that can get just plain weird." I see all of these tags, descriptions, metaphors and so much more in such simple words as Papa and Father!"

Not trying to be wise guy here at all, but without the Spirit making alive the person behind the name to and in me, what the heck does it even matter, what we call Him?

In my opinion so many have the T's crossed and the i's all dotted but without His Spirit bringing revelation to their little heart, of the One hidden within our tagged descriptions of Him, it’s just a name.

Barb,

I so loved what you said here, "but wasn't it God himself that asked to be called Jesus - a common name for a man in the form of a carpenter? Jesus said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. It just seems to me that he came to smash some of our preconceptions of a God who is only to be reverenced."

The Almighty had been worshiped, revered, held in great awe etc etc, for a very long time, and here in the fullness of time he sends His Son Jesus to do what, reveal the Father, and to make His name known to us! Once again, we can use whatever name we deem is the 'right one' but along with what Jesus came to do in making His name known was going to mean squat without revelation to our heart.
Jesus was making God the All Mighty more approachable than He had ever been since the Garden, and here He is incognito in Jesus and people are slowly warming up toward this One who says, If you've seem Me, you've seen the Father Himself! I find it strange that there seemed to be NO disrespect or cheapening of who the Father was and is being vividly portrayed through the Son of God!!

I encourage any to feel free to share any additional thoughts you might have.

Rich

More on “Man-up”

For those who haven’t read the original post, I encourage you to read it here.

The following are comments between my wife and our daughter. Our daughter is at University right now and one of the English courses she is taking has brought her to reading Paradise Lost by Milton, she our daughter is a true artist in numerous ways, one being a poet.
I love how Papa is making the sureness of His unalterable love known to so many, especially my precious wife and daughter, and of course, not forgetting my first born, Matthew!

Please feel free to dive in and hear Father’s heart of love calling you to BE HIS treasured one!

Rich

I was thinking about your Paradise Lost classes: you said they were boring, so... just to shake things up, when you get to the part where Eve gets blamed for everything, just innocently ask, "Where was Adam when the serpent tempted Eve? Wasn't his job to protect her?"

Because...I have this theory and it's that not only was Adam fully aware of what was going on with Eve and Lucifer, but that he LET HER TO TAKE THE FALL!!! Yes! I think HE was the one who secretly harboured a feverish desire in his heart to eat of the forbidden fruit, made all the more attractive because God said he couldn't have it! Adam was right there and could have stepped in at any time to throw Satan out on his pointy ear...but he did not. The result? 2000 years later, women are still getting blamed, and men are still ruling.


The whole man-up theory came to me after having spent the morning talking with our house guest, Ron. I started to think about how women most often have to shoulder the responsibilities for wimpy, indecisive, non-committal men (think single moms raising kids while working 2 or 3 jobs, getting no child support, etc.). Women who man-up more often and more effectively than men!

I'd be interested in your thoughts.


I am enjoying the Milton class more now that we're delving into paradise lost. In the text, Adam and Eve were working together in the garden, and Eve wanted to assert her independence and capability and suggested they work separately to get more work done. Adam consents nervously, as he recently had had a conversation with an angel about the danger they are in, especially eve, in terms of temptation. So they were separate at the time, but you're right, Adam, knowing that Eve was in danger of getting seduced, consented. This may suggest his own desire for the tree of knowledge vis a vis Eve. And then when she eats of it, Adam just couldn't live without her and so he eats too. That excuse seems pretty see-through, you're right.
I may very well write about this as there's a while lot to say about how this story represents the intense subjugation of generations of women after.
I was also thinking about writing about book two of P.L, when the council of the fallen angels meet. It's very ironic how they are so polite, cunning, and extremely reasonable with each other - it completely mirrors the political 'values' of today - how one can rationalize any evil and make it look reasonable!

I also know very well about wimpy indecisive non-committal men. Frank and Steven were both, fortunately, committed. However, they were both wimpy and indecisive! I've always craved that stability in a partner, one who I feel completely safe around, one who is a solid support. I want someone who I can trust to make decisions so that I am not the one doing it all the time. Neither has ever been able to put me in my place, which I do crave, because I get all the power that I do not especially want.

Steven is a solid support emotionally and in terms of commitment, but boy oh boy is he wimpy and indecisive! I feel more like the man most of the time (sometimes a tyrant), cooking and making decisions, helping him out a LOT in that way. He's very non-confrontational and has never had to work while he's in school. He cowers pathetically under his father's support. Plus he's a thirty year old man and this is the longest relationship he's ever been in. I took BIG issue to his past of non-commitment and strings of girlfriends. He can't possibly comprehend why that would bother me, and then turns the guilt onto me for 'bullying' him about his past!

Do I not have a reason to have a hard time trusting someone who has dated innumerable girls and broken many a heart? Stephen is a sweet guy to the core, but he is a fearful guy when it comes to that. So it is an honour and a curse that he is so devoted to me because I have somehow broken this chain, but I am also schooling him constantly about what a relationship is after the honeymoon: work!

I loved reading your letter! I love how you think! You made ME think!

You wrote: So they were separate at the time, but you're right, Adam, knowing that Eve was in danger of getting seduced, consented.

Now, Milton is taking some license here, of course - he had to think up something to explain Eve's downfall. So he intimated she had set the stage herself by not being submissive to Adam - making her out to be the guiltier of the two.

Here's the actual biblical account:

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

"WHO WAS WITH HER"!!!

The CAD!!!

(Guess Milton missed that little clause about Adam standing right there)

And for ages we've been led to believe, as Milton suggests, that 'Adam just couldn't live without her'. Yeah, right. My guess is that he couldn't wait to take a bite! He was standing right there, listening to every word and didn't do a blessed thing. I'll bet he was counting on Eve taking the rap! After all, he described her to God as "the woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree" As if he was absolutely powerless, the poor thing! AND - it sounds to me as if he's also trying to shift the blame on God when he says 'the woman whom YOU gave to be with me". If God had not given him that woman, well, none of this would have happened!

Let's not forget that Adam had been given authority and dominion over everything on earth, including the fowls of the air and the fish in the sea! But there was one thing he did NOT have - and that was the knowledge of good and evil. Hmmmm...

Bottom line? They were both equally responsible, but over the centuries man has distorted what actually happened in the garden to his own advantage to justify his subjugation of women.


Just my thoughts, but fun to think about!

I liked the picture your dad used on his blog to go with the "Man-up" article. If you look closely on the "Manly Man Sale", somebody has written "Doesn't Exist"!

Too Good to be True

I phrase I remember reading in a book by Hannah Whitall Smith; “Some believers wear their Christianity like a crown, and others were it like a headache.”

One of the things Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings along with Paul Young are being accused of especially since the release of their joint collaboration on the book, The Shack, is making God way to friendly and loving, can you believe that?

Quoting Wayne Jacobsen here from The Naked Church, this is sweet. “Without a proper understanding of how we participate in God’s righteousness, we are prevented from fully tasting God’s goodness. Nothing pales the temporal happiness that sin offers any faster than the joy of God’s presence. Many people have never seen a Christianity that exciting and vibrant. All they’ve seen is people weighed down by the obligations of church attendance, Christian works, and ethics.”

This whole thing of being Righteous is a scary proposition in the mind that sees it only possible through much sweating and labouring over performance based behaviour. I love how Paul spoke of righteousness, being a by product of faith, one that is produced in those who simply respond to being Loved!

While still in the institutional box of the Vineyard, I remember singing one particular song, one of the lines went like this; “Holiness (righteousness) is your life in me making me clean through your blood. Holiness is your fire in me, purging my heart like a flood. I know you are perfect in Holiness your life in me setting me free making me holy.”
Today those are no longer mere words song in a quasi artificial setting, aka a church meeting, but in fact it is a living beat that I now wake up to. Each day I am discovering I am loved of the Father, no longer trying to be loved because of my vain and foolish sweat stained works.

Why is this so difficult to grasp, “Anything that is not of faith IS sin?” Whatever is NOT initiated in the heart of the Father is sin.
So many times our brother Paul was fully anticipating a receptivity by the family of God whereby he would speak freely of the hidden wisdom of the Father only to discover so many were yet so immature, and acting like mere men, as without the spirit of God within them.
Maybe that is what is alluded to here from Hebrews; “Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

This encounter of the most holy kind I am continuing to experience on a daily basis is just too good to be true.
I am learning to wear my Christianity like a crown, the crown of Life.
The training and equipping that I am experiencing in my moment by moment living in Him, is a revelation, no longer a lifeless seminar.

Rich

Living Loved

In my opinion because of the innate desire within us (in our flesh) the hunger for knowledge, the father of lies is constantly appealing to our independent self, we are consumed with learning facts about the “Christian” Life.
Why, well of course that we might live it as best we can, right..wrong!

Maybe the all consuming burning desire of the Father of our spirit is, in us learning to live in a confidence of Papa’s unfailing, never ending stubborn Love for us?

If this isn’t the central focus of our hearts, discovering moment by moment, the truth of how loved I am of the Father, then that void will be filled with, not necessarily bad things, but if you have ever seen the majesty of the ocean, how could you dare compare a little side eddy with such grandeur!

In my heart I continue to hear His voice, “I AM.”

Rich

Lifeless Protocol

I’m sure that might have been one of the many thoughts (religious nut case) crashing into the world of those who were making a huge profit by merchandising the souls of the people in the following account:
In the Gospel of John chapter 2 it talks about several things, but the one I’m focusing on is the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem.
After this cleansing Jesus said; "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business."

Jesus is then challenged by these religious mercenaries; “The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body.”

I would love to hear any feed back on what others might see in what I’m processing here.

As I am continuing to read, The Naked Church by Wayne Jacobsen, I came upon this. “But his words of destruction (regarding the temple) were still directed at the physical building in which he stood. For the temple was more than just a misused place of worship; it was the heart of a theological system unworthy of the new covenant which Jesus had come to inaugurate. The temple represented God in a box, neatly packaged and removed from the mainstream of human experience. This is not what God intended when he gave Moses plans for the tabernacle. He wanted them to know that he lived among his people. Jesus now wanted them to know that God had come to live in them.

So he challenged them to destroy the temple-if not the building itself, then at least what it had come to convey.”

I know our battle, warfare is NOT with flesh and blood, and so what is the Father wanting to establish if it’s not just another religion called, “Christianity”.
I am inclined to believe that from the fall in the garden, what was established as a substitute for relationship with God the Father was ‘religion’, and this all came to be through the father of lies-religion. What we have at best apart from Christ in us as us, is a form of godliness with NO power!
Religion at its best has always devolved into trying to reduce and keep God in a box.
The spirit of religion is infused with the very spirit of the father of lies, and as Jesus said, it takes only a little leaven to totally corrupt everything.

I see as a result of the Truth, Christ in us, making the life of the Father real in us, the church which IS His body, the visibility and clarity that is beginning to permeate us, is drawing a sharp and vivid distinction between a lifeless theological system and that which is vibrantly alive.
Earlier in this entry, I quoted the following: "The temple represented God in a box, neatly packaged and removed from the mainstream of human experience." The modern institutional church is no different from the ancient temple in that it has given rise to ‘God in a box’ religion. This religion is trying to usurp the rightful place of the Father of our spirit being the only one we are to answer to. In temple times, people could not come to God Himself. They had to worm their way through protocol. All that ‘protocol’ has been removed in the finished work of God for the believer.

It was for freedom you were set free, therefore, stand fast in your freedom, and no longer allow yourself to be enslaved by any religious oppression.

Rich

Additional thoughts from The Naked Church.

"Do you see why Jesus was so passionate that morning at the temple? If he couldn't break the mentality of God-in-a-box, he couldn't inhabit their lives, which is exactly what he wanted to do. This is true spirituality, the transcendent God living in us, involved in our affairs and leading us to an abundant life in his love."

"The thought of being a temple of the Lord, Paul said, makes everything else in this life look like the rubbish it is. His ultimate passion was to know Jesus in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Who in his right mind would not want to live every moment to the will of God?
His desires for us are "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." (Ephesians 3:20)

You're Suffocating Me

The truth is, that apart from the Truth experienced in the person of Jesus Christ, religions best, is but an opiate induced stupor, dumbing us down even further.
Our spirit was created to be filled with His spirit, the Life giving spirit, “I have come that you might have life fully meeting every need within your heart.”

There are many ‘gos-pills’, but what our Father has to offer us is not an escape from reality, but showing us the way through the portal of grace and having our eyes opened to reality.
In the movie The Matrix, when Neo was finally confronted with what was really real by Morpheus, it physically caused him to over load and throw up, it was too much to handle.
Friends we were created for the Truth, and if we continue to follow Him, we will know the truth and the Truth will make/set us free.

The following quote from The Naked Church so encouraged me., by Wayne Jacobsen.

“Elijah is fortunate that he didn’t come to me for counseling a few years ago! I know how hard I would have tried to get his mind off his feelings. “You can’t run on feelings, you know. God is always with us no matter how bad it looks. Just trust Him and everything will work out okay.” In doing so I would have robbed Elijah of perhaps the most important moment in his life. God instructed him to go to Mount Horeb and stand on the edge of a mountain as he watched a mighty wind and a devastating earthquake. Then in a gentle whisper God came and Elijah stood before him.
Elijah knew he NEEDED the presence of God, and he found it.
He trusted God enough to risk being honest and vulnerable before him, and found God was bigger than his own doubts or fears. The same opportunity is yours. You’ll find that he wants to BE a practical part of your life, and that reality is nothing to fear at all.”

I remember when we (my family and I) were with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) back in 1985, Dr. Bruce Thompson was teaching on the ‘Divine Plumb Line’. He was a medical missionary over seas and was very good at what he did, until one day he was brought up short. The Lord brought it to his attention that what he thought he was doing so well was in fact merely anesthetizing the symptoms in his patient’s lives, as it were putting a gag in their mouths, muffling their desperate cry for help.
It was soon after this loving but caustic encounter with the Lord that Bruce was instructed of the Lord to address the real problems these symptoms in his patients were pointing to.

This has always been a powerful story to me that reveals how much our Father delights in us being real. Mark 10:46-52.
This man needed to see, nothing was going fill the void in his life apart from a miracle, and by damn if he was going to sing the party line and just simmer down and be NICE!
When he was told raising his voice was uncouth, he yelled out even louder. Funny thing is, God’s not deaf, but we are, both deaf and blind, and all it takes is to acknowledge that before the Father, and guaranteed you will never get a placebo from Him.

Instead of praying to the Father on behalf of those who are questioning, struggling with life, the religious minded ones are doing their best to mute, gag them with more doctrine, just say this after me, there, now you’re a Christian, everything is all better.
The desperate cries I am hearing from so many are but the symptoms of needing revelation, not more leaven laced gos-pills.

Rich

What Now

Consider the plight of Olympians whose athletic career is now over. What now? What does one do with one’s life, when the vast proportion of it has been devoted to one goal: winning Olympic gold? These athletes, whose lives have been regimented thus far, often find the prospect of retiring frightening (see article: “Post Olympics not all fun and games”).

The word ‘vertigo’ comes to mind thinking on this matter, and the over powering parallels between these athletes and those who are now outside of the regimented confines of organized religion, especially with those in leadership who have ‘unselfishly’ abandoned all in the name of winning their gold.
The dizziness, disorientation is a mind numbing paralysis that stares them down; they see no solution, no way out of that which has become their hellish prison.

I have experienced this paralysis first hand, in being (euphemistically) ‘let go’ from my leadership position as a pastor years ago, I nose dived, crashed and burned.
There were initially two or three years I lived in deep depression, seeing any value, or worth being stripped from me as a man, a husband and as a father.
I was enveloped in a great sadness that hounded every breath I took.
Little did I realize at the time, this was going to be the very place where I was going to begin to discover what my true worth, value and purpose was as God’s child.

Apart from the goodness of God brining us to a place of sobriety and recognition that we are loved for who we are, something only His unconditional love is able to do; we will travel the well worn roads leading nowhere.
It’s as if this unconditional love of God the Father is like a portal that transports you into a whole new world, you step into it on this side of what has been defined as life to you, only to discover what has been guarded and reserved just for you regarding your worth, value and significance has been waiting but your arrival.

This security of being loved of the Father that has its source, roots deeply embedded in who God is, is going to press a lot of buttons in the lives of those who will fight to the death defending a God who is neither kind nor safe to approach.

The wastefulness of His love is all that is required to free us to walk free from our personal vertigo.

This video clip from youtube speaks of this vertigo many have or are experiencing.



For the die hard vertigo movie fans, this is for you.

Rich

Free Will

City of Angels is one of my favourite movies and not because one of the actors lives in our city either. This clip from the movie always makes me smile and frees my heart to choose Life.

Rich

Messin' With my Universe

Lyrics to, "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd







The way in which the Father is able to communicate with us is utterly astounding, and for me it is often done through my passion of watching movies.
The other day I watched again the movie, Pleasantville, wow talk about having my eyes opened. I am utterly fascinated with movies such as The Matrix, The Wizard of Oz, The Island, Pleasantville, Field of Dreams, The Truman Show etc., movies depicting so clearly the lies that are readily imbibed just like the 'kool-aid' swallowed by the Jim Jones followers.

From the scriptures where it talks about us having been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom (family) of God I see this reality and its rippling effects in continuing to shake up my universe.
The two clips I have included from the movie Pleasantville, graphically illustrate by pulling back the curtain and beginning to see what really is real!

The words from Pink Floyd are priceless in being choreographed with the one clip.

What spoke volumes to me in watching Pleasantville again was how the unconditional love of God the Father is able to direct and fulfill our lives without the aid of any external supplements.
Sin has so dumbed us all down into a position of deferring what we perceive the truth to be, because of what somebody else has said it to BE.
The love of the Father is intended to rescue us from being constantly tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and that is usually done through those setting themselves up as the mouth piece of God for our lives, why, so they can control us.
Please don't call merely existing for LIFE. Knowing Him is a celebration of Life in its fullness!

Rich

Failing the Vision Test

I want to point anyone interested in reading something I read over at Ruth's blog, "Come Away My Beloved" it is just too good to pass up!

Rich

Hope

When Jesus was taken to the cross; Satan (in His flesh) had to go with Him: Colossians 2:13-15 (The Message).
If for no other reason than this, Jesus had to have a flesh part of His makeup. This allows the sacrifice of Christ as Jesus to extend to us as the offer of a new life through our death to the old sin-slave-nature. If Jesus, with all the attributes (weaknesses and frailties) that we have, can over come the power of Satan and all that goes with it (written law, condemnation, guilt, etc.) then we have the hope that we can do likewise.
To turn this around, if we have all the attributes of Jesus, the life of God in our human spirit, then we are capable of living as Christ did as Jesus. We can have the confidence that we can live as Jesus lived by the same means, that is by surrendering to the operation of the life of God in our spirit as our only life. However, if Jesus was somehow different from us in His makeup then no such parallel can be drawn.

It is no big deal for God to live without sinning. The only way that Jesus could have significance in our lives is that He had to contain the same components as we do. The only difference in makeup between Jesus and us is that He was born originally (physically) in what we know as a born again state. The only functional difference between Jesus and us was that He always focused on the Father’s life leading in His human spirit and never allowed Himself to be led by the flesh. It is only in Jesus being fully human and fully God that He could serve His intended function in the Father’s plan. It is only in this way that Jesus’ life can be the model for what all of us might become.

It is becoming so much more real to/in me when I read stuff like this (Heb.4:15) and realize that what was available to my elder brother Jesus Christ is equally available to me!

Rich

Don’t Sweat It

If you cannot accept the simple fact that you are God’s child by birth then the promises of the Bible will not be terribly effective in your trails. Many Christians shake verses like the one from 1John 4:4; (“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world).” at Satan in the same way a medicine man shakes a rattle to scare away the evil spirits. The energizing of the effectiveness of God’s promises and truth come only by faith. Our faith must come by Christ Jesus (see Hebrews 12:2). We cannot work up faith out of our own strength.

The wonder of the Father’s love sets into motion the beginnings of a knowing, that we do not have to work anything up.The truth of this, (His) unconditional love is what begins to address/undress our former mis/understandings and further frees us in a loving surrender to the Truth of His Way and Life.

Rich

Love, Freeing us to be Real

I was catching up on some blog reading the other day and came across this from Lisa over at
http://lisadelay.blogspot.com/

I liked very much what Lisa has to say in her response to Cole’s questions.

It was this in particular that spoke to me; ‘What sharing your faith (Christian apologetics) boils down to is something more than just preaching and defending the Good News. Humans are in rebellion against God in their hearts. The bible points this out in the narrative story of God's interaction with people. Many thirst for something missing --which is the missing reconciliation with God. They long for peace, but also many are in opposition to God. And some (basically) hate him. We have to know this when we talk to people who don't believe. Spiritually it boils down to submission, doing things God's way....for you and for those opposed to God. Submission is never easy-- and not very cool in a society that prizes freedom, independence, and choice. Paradoxically, it is God's authority that brings comfort, clarity, and relief.’

Believe me when I say that I know it was the unconditional love and acceptance of God the Father that we were all created for, and it is this love that is doing what NO law could ever do, but!

These are simply a few thoughts here on what I think I saw in Lisa’s words that spoke to me.I think one easily forgets that humans are in rebellion against God in their hearts, and yes we are all thirsting for that which is missing, His total loving acceptance, but there is this innate built in (because of sin) opposition towards God.
Once again I know it’s the Love of God the Father that releases me to be able to relinquish my will (submit-why is that such a bad word) in place of His, aka, doing things His way.

Yes it was by grace through faith that the miracle of the re-birthing took place, but for one to forget or not even see that within our flesh (and I know that is no longer who we are) the residual effects of sin, (and that is not just some defect, but a rebellious (birth mark stamped within us) defiance, the very spirit that permeated Lucifer-Satan that invaded all of humanity) is living a lie.
It is always truth being held in tension that brings forth the real. It will always be within the battle of the struggle and strain that we are experiencing Life, or as one person once said, ‘God doesn’t give us over coming life, but Life as we over come.’

Nothing thrills my heart more than seeing the Captain of my salvation, my elder brother Jesus Christ agonizing in the garden, and that was all about that which was a part of his flesh, that which he took upon himself in the incarnation battling over his will vs the will of his Father.
What I especially love about this royal battle was that he did not try and put on a happy God face as if having to strain-struggle was something drastically wrong with this God-man.
Read the story for yourself, He invites those (his friends) to be with him in this place of great agony.

God forbid that we as believers should ever let anyone see us sweating, straining, struggling, and why should they, there is no more resistance or rebellion in our flesh-is there??

Rich

Illiteracy: The Raping of the Soul

Are there lepers in the house/family of God today, or is leprosy something strictly confined to and defined by decayed and rotting flesh?

My wife has been in the teaching profession for over three decades and the last dozen years she has been working specifically with junior and senior kindergarten children ranging in age from those going on four to five and six years of age.
In her recent research into the issue of boys' illiteracy (that she has dived into with a passion), the issue of boys' failure to learn to read has revealed some sad statistics, the discovery of which has broken her heart. She has shared some of what she is learning with me.
As I listened to some of her documented research I could not help but see this issue of illiteracy being a living metaphor for something just as real and even more heart breaking.

There is way too much on my heart to even try and capture the explosiveness (gut wrenching) of what I am seeing/sensing regarding the deep seated (stigma) shame, within the body of Christ, the masses of re-birthed people who are as it were illiterate to the true knowledge of the love of God the Father for them!
I am beginning to see with new eyes, looking upon the sea (masses) of illiterate people in much the same way that people must have viewed lepers down through the centuries, but now I realize these illiterate ones shouldn't be shunned at all!

As my wife began to spell out in definite specifics the stigma (mortification-humiliation) attached to a person who is illiterate, I could not help but see my own great need.I’m not talking about learning my A, B C’s, and then learning how to read and write, but a far greater need and that being as it were in a most graphic sense, illiterate to truly knowing (experiencing) the greatness of His love for me.
I am more convinced than ever before, the pandemic plague of shame and humiliation attached to this illiteracy of not knowing the love of God is much like a blood sucking leach draining believers of their vitality, the raping their soul.

There seems to be an unspoken but widely accepted notion within Christendom that if one is still ‘straining and or struggling’ in their walk with the Lord, they have somehow not tapped into what grace truly means; otherwise they wouldn’t be so stressed out and filled with fear.

The subtle ploy that appeals to one’s own ego is to be seen/recognized as one who has risen far above such juvenile antics, of no longer straining or having to struggle with those fears anymore (no longer being illiterate) and who now project an image of unshakable confidence in the love of God. Having learned a little spiritual language, they have no compassion or empathy for those still struggling, but instead set themselves up as teachers and guides to those who just can’t seem to find their way. And what becomes of the poor illiterates? Compared to the ‘enlightened ones’ they feel inadequate and ashamed. They think there’s something wrong with them, otherwise they’d be able to grasp these spiritual truths!

However, Jesus, knowing full well where, why and how we are paralyzed, has tender compassion on the illiterate (which, by the way, is ALL of us). He would never kick a man when he was down! But as a mortal man Jesus was limited – that’s why he was planted in the ground like a grain of wheat so that he might bring forth a multitude of his own seed – with the same propensity for compassion He expressed to those enslaved by their illiteracy.

The extent to which every illiterate believer can experience and offer love and understanding to brothers and sisters as they progress on their own journey of knowing and experiencing God’s liberating love for themselves will go a long way to alleviating their shame.

Rich