Turning Life Into a Formula

I’m reading a very interesting book a friend loaned to me in a recent visit with him. As with much of what we see and hear, there is a growing awareness of enjoying the meat along with spitting out the bones.
This is very much in my thoughts in continuing to read this book, that rather than simply being encouraged by the Father, so often the writer or speaker inevitably turns it into a formula or a principal for whatever point they have made from the scriptures, to be followed out in our lives.

Is it remotely possible that various events that naturally took place within the scriptures, within the lives of real people were in fact things uniquely prompted in them by the Father of their spirit, and had nothing to do with some smart ass coming along and turning it into some principle/precept thang?

Rich

I Don’t Have All the Answers

In the introduction to the book Life After Death by William Landon, he lays the foundation of a discussion of the actualities of the human soul, particularly life after death. He addresses ‘problematic verses’ and apparent inconsistencies that we will or have encountered in reading the scriptures. When this occurs, we need simply to wait and see how the Lord brings the needed clarity. This will prevent us from either throwing the bible out or trying to make things fit to our way of thinking!

I too am one of those many followers of Christ who is living more and more in the realm of not needing or having to know or have ALL the answers. We will receive the understanding from God when we need it. As Jesus said to his disciples, “There are many things which I desire to share with you, but you cannot bear them yet.”

In this dynamic tension of things not gelling or fitting together, our very real adversary the Devil is only too quick to oblige us. To quote Bill, “One of the ways Satan tries to trip us up is by giving us knowledge we are not equipped to constructively handle. This is what happened in the Garden of Eden: You shall not surely die, ‘the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.” (Genesis 3:4)

“How Satan trapped humanity through the temptation of Adam and Eve in eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to get our ancestors to take on an understanding they were not ready to receive constructively. The lie of the serpent was that Adam and Eve were ready to receive the knowledge of good and evil. In reality, the fall came as a result of humanity taking on a kind of knowledge that they did not have the right kind of life to use properly (a spiritual life and not just a physical/psychological life)." Case in point: my wife once heard that if a child is exposed to pornography at an early age when s/he is not emotionally or psychologically mature, that the child’s nervous system can actually become permanently impaired. If we are to subscribe to the truth that God is love, we must believe that he knew, in his love for them, that Adam and Eve were not yet ready to receive the knowledge of good and evil.

As a side thought here, later in Genesis 3 God says, “Behold the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.”

The kicker here in my thinking is that the knowledge of good and evil was not evil, but it was the motive behind obtaining it apart from God’s timing. There was NO need to be like God, but there was a need to be one with Him, to be joined to Him.
That knowledge they obtained via the serpent was a loaded gun so to speak without, as Bill alluded, the ‘right kind of life’ to handle it.

My pondering on all of this has significant ramifications far removed from the Edenic story. In the instant, click-of-a-mouse knowledge-infused Internet-charged world in which we live, is there this same propensity within our flesh to think that through obtaining ‘knowledge’ we can circumvent having to wait or trust God to prepare us for that which we need to know?

Rich

The Simplicity Of The Message

Without revelation of the finished work of God in Christ, although perfectly there in us as us, we will do what we never dreamed we would do, try and cover up our hounding nakedness. “Who told you, you were naked?”
In Colossians 2 it says, “Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in Him.”

It was by hearing the truth and believing it that we received Him, our continued growth simply follows suite, being continually exposed to the same truth of Christ IN you, the hope of glory, and setting our minds on it.
Unfortunately, this is too arduous for those wanting a quick fix.

I love how Paul puts it here, “My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving. Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything. “

There are so many who have this fixation of returning to that Edenic place that Adam held before his mutinous rebellion and tried to be “like God.” Thing is, the glory of God covering his nakedness was only exterior to him, and yes, as great as that was, it paled in comparison to Christ IN you, the hope of glory!
It is out of seeing and knowing this glorious One we are transformed more and more, “put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.”
As we gaze intently on this glorious one in us, the scriptures assure us, that we continue to BE changed from, glory to glory.

From Brennan Manning’s book, Ruthless trust, “The late Karl Rahner insisted, ‘In the days ahead, you will be a mystic, i.e., one who has experienced God or nothing at all.” If Christianity is merely an ethic, a moral code, or a philosophy of life, it will not withstand the incursion of suffering. The graced experience of the divine kabod is not something esoteric reserved for an elite few. When Thomas Merton was asked who might receive this gift, he replied, “The answer is obvious: everybody.”

Rich

Angst Over The Truth

I would love to be able to use this cartoon that Mark Parisi has drawn, but I’m not going to pay $$ for it.
It is in the lower right corner, the original scarier version of Star Wars, I laugh every time I see it!
See it here.


What a melt down discovering the truth of God extending to us his unconditional love, this sharply cuts through the veneer seeing through the believed ‘real world’ I thought I was living in, the one that I used as my unmovable point of reference that defined what life and living were all about.

I have heard many times over the years countless stories of children now grown up as adults discovering for the first time that those two closest people in their lives, mom and dad, where in fact their adopted parents. On the other hand, many adopting parents have made it, the truth of their being adopted known to that child or children as the parents deemed best in its timing.

What I want to share here is the scathing assault upon the blind leading the blind within the religious world so many have and continue to be extricated from.
None of us born into this world have escaped the sad reality of when born; we were by nature children of wrath, sons of disobedience as the scriptures so clearly point out. Within that Matrix and it being our only ‘true’ point of measuring anything and everything about life and relationships, little did we know that it was ALL about performing, measuring up, love if you want to call it such, but filled with little or many conditions!

There are many being brought to a beginning point to see the truth that the religious establishments refereed to as “churches” were not their true authority figures, a father or mother, but in fact a surrogate or adoptive replacement for knowing intimately the one who had Fathered them in the first place.
Why shouldn’t there be a violent crashing into the consciousness in these sons and daughters, an intense sense of rage, angst, out of the truth beginning to dawn on them of whose they really are, but all along having this hidden from them?

Performance (law) based living does what it does best, filling our inner being with something we were never designed for, angst, fear, anxiety, self-analysis, comparing and competing with the constant shifting and changing of the rules by the rule making gurus.

There is so much, so many thoughts I have on this matter, but suffice it to say, as I and so many others are learning by drinking deeply into our lives the reality of being loved so powerfully and unconditionally, that the angst and deep anger of having been duped is displaced by a sobering realization that I didn’t have to go to my grave seeing life and love being based upon what anyone person dictated for me.

Rich

Growing or Dying

Much like trees, we are either growing or dying. One of two options waits our choosing, existing within the false stability of spiritual death (stagnation), or to be corrected and to further experience the fullness of life offered to us in knowing Him.

Without the merger we have in being one with God through our spiritual union, there would be no possibility of any uploading (transformation) taking place in our continued maturation.
In my opinion continued growth is contingent upon what Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that is given to us from the mouth of God.”
With the increase of new insight and information there will be at first a contesting as we are prone to become very static in what we believe, the integrating is never done seamlessly.
The influx His life brings within us will always cause a radical disruption to fixed and established previously held “incomplete” thoughts.
It is this very rigidity that Jesus spoke of in connection with pouring new wine into new wine skins. It is within the every day encounters we face that I see Him using to keep us inwardly malleable, which allows Him to further expand our capacity to further emerge from the fairy tale way of looking at life and what it means to be a “Christian.”

I like what my friend and brother Bill Landon says about this, “What most people see (and practice) in this world is religion and not Christianity. Christianity, real Christianity, is a state of being and a personal relationship with the Father. Religion is outward works, rites, and rituals. Religion is primarily about looking good and smelling good and doing the “right things.” Real Christianity is about living and further, Christianity is a life not to be seen. Jesus addressed this reality by saying, “What you do in secret, your heavenly Father will reward you openly.”

Rich

Flourishing Or Floundering

One of the main tactics the father of lies employs is to convince us that things are all quiet on the religious front, while simultaneously trying to keep hidden from us that there’s an accelerated exodus taking place within organized, institutionalized religion. This is reminiscent of the scene in the movie The Wizard of Oz, in which the fraudulent so-called “wizard”, having been shown up for the fraud he really is, bellows out, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

I’m sure there are more reasons than any of us know as to the reasons for this exodus, but I am wondering if their Heavenly Father is doing what he does best, namely, beginning to reveal and make real His life in them as them, which is totally incongruent with a value or virtue-based approach to life and living.

Is it possible that our brother Paul’s insightful warning was prompted by an inside knowledge of the wiles of the Prince of Darkness?

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart”

Is it possible that even we, His sons, can have a darkened, ignorant understanding which can effectively cut off or alienate us from knowing and experiencing the true source of our only Life?

There will always be a select few superheroes who, due to their “natural” or soul-based predisposition outwardly appear to excel and flourish as they operate within a values (a.k.a. ‘law’) based religious environment, but for the vast majority of us mere civilians it will hit us sooner rather than later that at best, we are floundering!

I am including something from Oz Chambers that fleshes this out with much more insight and detail. You can read it here.

Rich

Blame Versus Intent

If we have derived any portion of an identity apart from the true knowledge of God the Father’s love, it is an accident looking for a place to happen. I cannot escape the grip of His total and consuming love for me, drawing me ever deeper into the true knowledge of “Whose I am,” which gives definition to who I actually am.

The truth is an amazingly sharp and penetrating liberator as it is being applied to the lies that have shaped me into someone, something that has no resemblance to what He has purposed me to be – which is to be 100% His. It continues to be the truth of His love for me that is unraveling the grave clothes that have kept me bound in fear, long after He apprehended me. It is this love that empowers me to embrace this skilled heart surgeon to finish extracting me from all and everything that has blinded me from a true view of my God and Father. It’s our view of Him that defines our lives!

My wife was sharing with me this morning something she overheard on the Dr. Phil show, a program she rarely watches - but that morning she heard Father speaking through Dr. Phil. The following exchange is in many ways similar to my own my story, including the money issue.

Background information: the guest on Dr. Phil was an accountant who had lost his entire life savings in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme:
The accountant told Dr. Phil that his hatred of Bernie Madoff now consumes him, all day, every day, particularly since Madoff continues to live in his $10 million dollar apartment awaiting his court date, while the accountant and his wife were ruined financially. Dr. Phil replied:
"Have you forgiven yourself? Because the only thing worse than this guy stealing your money is him stealing your life...and if he can steal your life he can steal your spirit."
When the accountant said he blamed himself for what happened (because as an accountant he should have known better and he should have seen it coming), Dr. Phil said:
"There's a huge difference between blame and responsibility. Blame implies intent. You don't have blame without intent."
He went on to ask the accountant whether by investing with Madoff he had intended to lose his life’s savings by getting caught up in a colossal fraud.
The accountant replied no - his intent had been to increase his savings so he and his wife could retire comfortably. At the time he thought he was doing the right thing. Dr. Phil told him therefore he was not to blame for what had happened because his original intent had been good. The responsibility, and ultimately the blame for what happened was Madoff's, not the accountant's.

How is this story similar to mine? Well, shortly after being gloriously born again I felt the ‘call’ of the ministry. Dozens of others agreed in the ensuing years. I lost count of the number of ‘prophetic’ words that were spoken over me. I really did believe that being in the ministry was God’s plan for my life. I ended up achieving that status, only to see it all crumble before my eyes. I was not only out of a job, but my family suffered greatly in many ways – not the least of which was financially. We lost everything we owned and were left essentially homeless for a while.

This all surfaced last weekend when I told my wife how I held a lot of anger against people who had money to burn. Then I had a nightmare in which I was accused over and over about how I had ruined my family and hadn’t even provided for them financially.

It was in hearing this story of the accountant and his life being sucked out of him and what Dr. Phil shared with him that spoke such life, hope and freedom for me with regard to so much self imposed blame and irresponsibility that I had taken ownership of.
As this eye opening insight washed over me, I went about my day seeking His further objectivity on so much I seem so blind to, knowing that it is only in His light that I will continue to be set, made free.

Rich

Truth

Truth

Where does the Truth deal with the wrestling, the struggling to believe in the midst of all the lies?

Rich

But You Don’t Know…

You have no idea what I’m going through, you have no idea how painful this is, this crippling fear, lost my job, rebellious children, someone broke into my house, my dog and cat died, my wife/husband left me, found out I had cancer etc. etc!

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." How much evil has begun to threaten you to-day? What kind of mean little imps have been looking in and saying - Now what are you going to do next month - this summer? "Be anxious for nothing," Jesus says. Look again and think. Keep your mind on the "much more" of your heavenly Father.

The longing of our heart is to KNOW an absolute security and folks it’s found in one place, person, Christ Jesus the Lord, and frankly I don’t give a rats ass how this may sound harsh or insensitive to any reading this especially those who are in some of the pain filled scenarios I’ve listed above.
Bottom line, “Today” is the day of salvation!

What you need, not what you or I want, is as close as the mention of His name, JESUS!
You ask, “If God loves me so much, then why am I looking up only to see bottom,” great question. It takes what it takes to bring us to an awakened need and somehow believing it can only be met in turning to Him.

Our world is filled with unthinkable terror, horror, pain and defilement, but it is this world that God sent His only begotten Son to become flesh to fully identify with you and me. Our humanity is something that he fully embraced, as a matter of fact; Jesus the Word introduced into the God head forever that very humanity.

Friend, stranger, brother, sister, He loves you as you are, He has removed ever obstacle that would try and convince you that there is NO way to find any reason or purpose for being alive.
I am convinced that anyone who has committed suicide did so not because they were tired of life, but actually tired of NOT having life.

Rich

Willing to Give Up

The past couple of pod casts from the Free Believers Network, into the wild have been so refreshing I thought I’d mention them here.
The one from two weeks ago was, “Should I be doing more” and last weeks, “Giving up.”
Here is a bit of what Darin shared on the giving up pod cast. “What are you willing to give up, if it meant by giving it up you would open a part of your heart to know the truth about God? What separates those you get it and then continue to get it and grow in it and continue to get more and more and more of the real heart of God, what separates those people from other people has to do with blockades that we have in our minds that restrict us from hearing or from seeing and actually getting the message.
I’m beginning to see things in peoples lives that don’t get it, and you can see immediately why they don’t get it, like its immediately you can see they don’t get it because they refuse to let go of this that and the other and because of that they will be blinded and until they are willing to give that up.”

One of the greatest hindrances to our continued walk of faith in coming to know the truth of the Father’s love for us and to live out of that reality, is being seduced into believing what our soul senses are blasting us with is in fact the truth.
I’ve shared this quote several times already, but it fits in here well. “The primary realities of this universe are NOT observed by physical senses. God’s presence works at a far deeper level than eyes, ears, and rationalism can touch. Faith is our link to what is UNSEEN, helping us to see God’s will and giving us the strength to obey it.” (Wayne Jacobsen-The Naked Church).

Here is an additional quote from The Naked Church, “Get involved with people in need. People who say the church doesn’t need a miracle today aren’t spending time with anyone who really needs one. When you see human need in light of God’s love, you won’t be able to sit back unaffected. The disciples got involved, even if unsuccessfully. But only people who are willing to risk failure in the use of supernatural power will engage the process to grow in its use.”

The Scripture I was musing upon the past couple of days is about a prophet named Elisha who has warned the king of Israel about an impending assault on the city by armies of the Arameans, here is some of conversation, “One of his servants said, "No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom." So he said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him." And it was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan." He sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see” And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

It seems over and over Father is driving home to my heart the knowing reality that this walk/journey we have been called into, is to BE a supernatural-natural everyday expression of seeing Him and what He is doing.
It is a continued revelation of Papa’s love for us that will free us to lay down, give up that which unknowingly has kept us living as people with our eyes wide shut to His active involvement in our lives and the lives of those around us.

I encourage you to do what Jesus said to do, “Try me, test me, prove me, and see if I will not pour out unto you a blessing.” In my opinion that blessing is in realizing because of the purity of His heart that we are one with, we have an open window to see Him in the now!

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)

My Father’s Voice

This is a repost from last year that spoke to my heart in light of His growing intense fondness of the one He chose to call Richard.



The entrance into the Kingdom (or the Kingdoms entrance into you) is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man's respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life.

The above quote is from Oz Chambers.

I woke up this morning with the clear and distinctive sound of my Father's voice saying to me, 'Why do you call me good?' I believe this was Him wanting to further illuminate what I had been pondering on from Oz's quote, and how it was used to speak so deeply to me.
You can read the full account of this (in the bible) dialogue between Jesus and the young rich ruler who came to Jesus and asked the quintessential question, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life"? Then Jesus says, "Why do you call me good?" Following this it gets real dicey.

I do not see God the Father coming to lost humanity and saying to those like this young rich ruler, you've managed your life well, and have such admirable and sought after qualities, I'm going to now simply add (grant you your one wish) Me to all of that which has been working so well for you in your life~ha!

I think what Oz says in his quote is most fitting in this unfolding drama, not just with this so called self-made, self-righteous young man but of all humanity.
It is my understanding that this fallen world system, aka, the Matrix is something that far surpasses any form or flavour of religion, but in fact has become a diabolical woven scheme that has all of us firmly believing, we're doing our own thing, living our life. It is the only reality any of us have ever known, and that reality has so tainted, so warped our perception, that apart from the normalcy of who God the Father is, and experiencing His love, no one will convince us that what we are seeing, experience is anything but real.

Maybe David was seeing and coming into a dimension of reality that seems to fly way beyond any radar detection?
From one of the illuminating times in his journey he said, "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom.
I love this saying, "Nothing is as it appears to be".

Was it as Oz said, the Holy Spirit being responsible for these crashing panging pains that were hidden as it were from this noble pursuer of exemplary living that were soon to go off in his life as if stepping on a land mine?
I do not know how any of us can begin to understand this God of love when its through such devastation that He brings into our lives. Yes devastation, why, because we have only known a false reality, a lie that has defined who we think we are.
Again as Oz says, this most needed and necessary crashing intrusion into our lives is the preliminary steps our Father takes in "forming the life of His son in us".
Those whom He foreknew, he predestined them to BE conformed into His likeness and image.

I trust this will be something from His heart to mine, to you that will provoke you to think way beyond what we think is the norm.

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

Blinded by the Light

As a result of man choosing to live separate from God, and because there are no vacuums, a whole new ‘reality’ plunged us all into a world where the flesh became the dominate ruling force.

All of us are born separated and alienated from the Life of God. Every person comes into the world with a flawed life—a life directed by the flesh, or as the Scriptures say, “All have sinned and fallen short of His glory.” True to our newly acquired nature, everything in man’s living was now directed after the flesh. Most people refer to this as ‘human nature’, but there was nothing ‘human’ about this nature! Jesus said, “a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit and a bad tree is powerless to bring forth good fruit.’ Because of the nature of the beast (Satan in our flesh) and the sophisticated shape-shifting ability this liar has as a maniacal master of illusion, we have all equally been blinded to what is real.

I like what Kent shared here, as I see it pertinent to my thoughts regarding this reality of the flesh and how an erroneous identity has been formed in us all.

“Who knows, maybe I would have been a drunk, a drug addict, a flaming liberal, a Muslim, a Communist or a thief, to name a few possibilities, had I been born somewhere else to different parents and shaped by a different environment? These might be barriers humans rarely desire to cross over if they are vastly different experiences than what they have ever been exposed to....but Jesus knows no barriers and grace and love have no rivals.”

All of these descriptions Kent has used here are expressions of the nature we all have been born with, and yet there are so many other features of this nature that are misunderstood. It is very easy to see the overt expressions of the flesh in many people: liars, cheaters, killers, abusers, etc. but what about the slick, polished expressions of this same nature such as politeness, morality, kindness, consideration, caring, dedication to one’s community, volunteering at the YMCA, becoming a Big Brother/Sister ad infinitum? These are the ‘socially acceptable’ expressions of the flesh, or as Bob George put it in “Classic Christianity” U.S.D.A. Choice Flesh – but it’s still flesh, nonetheless! Some people have explained away this ‘socially acceptable’ flesh as being some sort of remnant of God’s goodness in mankind, but this is a bogus assumption. Without God’s spirit indwelling the human spirit, there is no ‘remnant’ of God whatsoever. We are lost and irreparably depraved, desperately needing a Saviour to set us free. Yes, we needed forgiveness, but much more to the point is the fact that we needed LIFE and within that life was the very nature of God.

Is it possible that the father of lies within all of us has established within our thinking a categorizing of those who are good and those who are evil? Since we’ve all been born with a faulty nature, any expression of our flesh is totally void of any goodness.

It is only the one life, the Life of God the Father that is good, and it is that very life that has been made available to all who were born lifeless. When we accept the gift of life through Christ we are made new by the transforming power of a new life in our spirit. In salvation we have a replacement of our old life situation by a new life opportunity. This is entirely Christ’s work and none of our own.

I am convinced that apart from the goodness of God the Father opening our eyes - especially those who still see themselves as being ‘good’ apart from His life - those who didn’t get hammered into the overt ugly fleshly expressions, might see grace as being something they have earned by their own ‘goodness’.

Consider the Prodigal Son story in the Scriptures (Luke 15): the older son, who faithfully stayed home serving the Father, looked with horror and disdain when he saw his father lavishly pouring out his deep affections upon his way ward brother. How could bad behavior merit His favour, what he with his good behaviour had worked so hard to obtain? To further illustrate this graphic picture, what was obscured in the life of this self-righteous older brother’s view was his failure to see that his very nature was no different than his brother’s, that when we give a mind to the flesh, we cut ourselves off from our only source of Life.

Read Addendum to this post here.

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

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

You Must, You Should

In the following article I read this morning, I was amazed how the sincerity of a person can appear to be so grace-filled, but in my opinion, without direct revelation from the Father of our spirit, just another form of what we know only too well: performance based approval!

I do not disagree with pretty much anything Hanna (the author) has to say, except for this one stinking fly in the ointment: without a deliberate knowing of the Father’s love, although our actions may be most sincere - with regards to her use of the word ‘must’, isn’t it us trying to get what is already ours, only we are totally blind to it?

Let’s look into this for a moment okay? In the story of the ‘Prodigal Son’, there is a point where knowledge without direct revelation (because of right relationship) is totally not there.

All this time the father’s older son was out in the field. When the day's work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, 'Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.'
"The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!'
"His father said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'"

It’s interesting how one can be ‘doing all the right things’ and yet working out of fear (submitting to some outward law) rather than simply responding, or being obedient to the Life of God within us.

Never before has there been such a plethora of ways and means to obtain a desired status with God without having to depend upon Him alone for this reality to actually unfold within the core of our being. Heck, I’ve read the newest, hottest books by the latest gurus; I am an avid listener to the most cutting edge pod casters; I even attend the most avant-garde conferences available and somehow there still seems to be this irksome emptiness gnawing its way through my religious performance and into my consciousness. Oh my!

Has anything really changed regarding our Father desiring obedience rather than resorting to sacrifice?
Interestingly it is clearly evident that God’s only begotten son, Jesus, although God in the flesh has this said about him… ‘Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him’.

I love how so many within the body of Christ are learning (experientially) along with our elder brother Jesus Christ, the firstborn of many sons, that His love alone frees us to only do/say that which flows out of an abiding relationship with our Father as His child.
Less and less is there the need to try and impress myself or others with outer appearances and behavior that will merit me a recognized status.

Just as the summer rains and sunshine are the daily staples required to expedite the miracle of that which is hidden beneath the surface of the earth to spring forth into a sensual ecstasy, we too need a catalyst (the source of love) to make that love known to us so that we don’t feel the compulsion to ‘must’ or ‘should’.

Rich

I Must Turn Aside and Look Into This Matter

In some of my recent thoughts (on both of my blogs) I have shared about the inevitable struggle-grind we all are confronted with.

It was in becoming flesh that God in the person of His son Jesus Christ fully entered into our plight/struggle, and transformed it, and in so doing has established a living hope for all.

From the book, Amazing Grace, (A Vocabulary Of Faith), Kathleen Norris shares this: ‘I am grateful now for that experience of pain and struggle; it makes my present enjoyment of worship all the sweeter.’

And this: 'I didn't do living right, at first. When I was six months old, I nearly died. All wrong, for an infant, to be so caught up in the last things. Naturally, the hospital was called Providence; in all likelihood, as I was in danger of dying, a nun baptized me there. My official baptisim came four months later, in the arms of my grandfather Norris, a Mthodist pastor. Six months of age is too early to learn that one's mother and father are helpless before death. But the struggle that took place in my infant body and still-forming, pre-verbal intelligence was between life and death, and I am convinced that a sense of something vast, something yet to come, took hold in my unconscious and remains there still.'

Rich

Discovering Delight in the Mundane

Yesterday I shared some thoughts regarding the mundane repetitious stuff we all have to face.

I talked about how many either by omission or with intent don't necessarily lie, but maybe fudge the truth somewhat in saying things like, 'I love my job, my kids, my car, the street I live on etc.' I liked this photo, noticing the beauty in the mundane.

I was so delighted to discover the same spirit and heart being so wonderfully and simply expressed by the same spirit and Father through another brother, Jim, over at Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!

His entry is a must to read, Status Quotidian

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