The Answer Lies in the Origin

The Answer Lies in the Origin

3/18/18

The root of a problem always comes at the beginning of the story but many times is lost during the situations that succeed the origin.  It is then time to begin digging for the truth again and sometimes this process can be a painful journey for at some point along the way hurtful scenarios have to be encountered.  It is possible to figure out many of our issues if we are willing to give up our selfish behavior and seek for the deep truth about our lives.  God has provided this type of truth findings through the Bible for it gives us so much information about our lives that if we apply its Word of Life to our lives God assures us that He will help us return to His favor for all of eternity.  If we do not ask for God’s guidance then our problems shall only compound and as we clip off the superficial conditions but continue to flourish in the sinful ways of the world and no healing will be possible.

When I was receiving this topic and its contents God spoke and said to me to list a tragedy as an example to use to explain how such incidents were not present in the beginning.  I received this topic a few weeks ago and since time has elapsed there have been numerous tragedies that have crossed our television screens in this country alone.  Countless others have occurred with no coverage what-so-ever and still, are not even known outside of personal accounts.  What does this have to do with the origin of the answer to our problems?  The answer is simple but we have made it a complex issue based upon selfish reasoning and worldly limited truth and while these personal tragedies may not have affected us on an individual level as of now, we must understand that at some point they could and there is an answer as to why such things occur.  God knows that humans shall face tragedy after tragedy but He also wants us to understand that if we place our lives in His hands and live under His Covenant alone He is faithful to protect us from such tragedies through His Laws and Love.

A few days ago we all were witness to an event that was incorporated all throughout our nation when students from schools around the nation led a protest against gun control.  For the most part, this activity was done peacefully but not in all areas was this peaceful atmosphere a true statement for in some areas it quickly became a political statement and in other areas schools did not allow students to participate.  I took advantage of this time to make a quick comment about a picture that I saw with kids kneeling with their heads bowed in a school hallway.  I made a quick comment about prayer and boy the results and comments from others began to pour in my inbox, and none of them were positive.  I knew I would not be a popular person for that statement but even in time of protest the words and actions form those people were divisive on many levels.  As the day progressed no one was coming up with the origin of the problem only superficial regulatory ambitions that will surely fall short of expectations.  A clear example that our hearts are not focused on the vine and where the origins of these issues stem from.

For the last few articles, we have been given a picture of how things were before sin entered into our lives.  The Garden of Eden and the continued presence of God is a wonderful picture to think about and to dream about but we also know that the presence of that scene is gone and our lives are governed by another force that is not so caring.  But in hope, faith, and trust we know that God has provided another way for us to have redemption and restoration and more importantly He has not left us for one moment.  God wants us to remember the origins of our lives because without this knowledge we could not understand where or what our beginnings were meant to be.  Yes, the Garden of Eden existed and the perfect settings that Adam and Eve lived within were real.  Also, God was our Creator and He is still perfect and holy in every way which means that our origins are still intact and can be reborn in the eyes and heart of the only One that matters.  Peace and tranquility were the holy foundations of our existence in the beginning and the light that we have inside our lives is living proof of this truth.  We were not meant to be subject to sadness and tragic events and God wants to make it clear that He is our origin and that everything that we know to be real come from Him and Him alone.

I can just imagine Adam and Eve lounging around in the Garden of Eden when Satan comes along and begins to have relations with them.  I can also imagine how many questions Satan planted into Eve’s mind and heart over the period of time they had together, not to mention the ones he had with Adam as well.  But through these question and answer sessions, he had to have planted his divisive ways and thoughts into their lives because as we all know Satan’s main goal is to destroy God’s perfect prize, them and now us.  I can just hear Satan justifying his presence with a twisted monologue of how he has things better and how he did not have to live according to such rules and that his interpretation of what God commanded proved to be a better report, for he was still around and was not dead.  All of this to woo two people from the perfect inhabitation that they had only known and when eaten tragedy is brought into their lives as they had never known before.  See, God did not provide any tragedy in Adam and Eve’s lives, they believed the lie that was told to them and they allowed the consequences of sin (disobedience) to this rule.

When Eve answered Satan concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he must have laughed within himself because he understood that all of his work was paying off and that it was ripe for executing.  How many times have you fumbled an answer when called upon, exaggerated it a bit, changed the story to embellish or flaunt a result?  We all have done such a thing but when it comes to our origins we cannot afford to mix up or to get wrong for if we do then our entire existence becomes in question itself which defies our origins itself.  Where are our origins and where does it come from?  We have many examples in God’s Word that explain it to us but for this topic, we are going to be in John 15:4-5.  “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” 

Here we have a wonderful and reassuring passage of how we are supposed to view ourselves and while some of us do live in these ways many of us do not believe in such truth.  It brings back the laughing and snickering of those who we tell that we are believers, for in their eyes and minds our stock is placed in a fake entity that has no meaning or contact of any kind.  It is this belief of those who believe in the world alone that stand alone with their origins being served through the branches alone.  Look at all of the responses that we have offered up to the shootings at schools and now the graduation to bombings in this nation, not to mention all of the other tense situations that are present.  They are response issues that serve only the superficial and do not even admit to any root cause or issue which means they do not understand where their origins are thus doomed to not serve a purposeful and true solution.  God’s Word says, right here in these two verses, that nothing will live when belief comes from this branch-like belief.  I ask you, how many of the answers that we are seeking from such problems today are we asking God to provide?  NONE OF THEM!!!  Making new worldly laws will only result in one answer, laughter from the ruler of this world and tears from the Creator of our origins.

These verses are meant to bring fruit to our lives so that we may understand what truth is, for life is truth and holiness is truth.  The answers for which we desperately seek each day serves as the fruit in these verses.  We must take to heart and in truth about what God says here when His Son claims to be the vine and says that we are the branches, this is true statement for it is the vine that the branches receive the necessary nutrients that are needed in order for the branches to produce its life.  A branch alone cannot produce one single item, in fact, when the branch tries to thrive it can only die barren and useless.  It is impossible to achieve any life-giving results to others or to ourselves for that matter if we do not use the source from the vine.  It is the vine that goes into the ground to receive and then provide the nutrients to the branches but if the branches revolt against the vine, rejection can only result.  Remember, God was the one who created the ground in the beginning and it is His Son who says He is the vine which goes right into the ground thus providing the true answers for our productivity, answers, and ultimately fruit.

Yes, this is a kingdom passage for it foretells the results of what will occur when one or the other kingdom is chosen.  Satan cannot produce any life whatsoever for he is a defeated ruler and is on a spiritual legal chain and can only do what God says is permissible.  Why live, supply, take advice from, and cheer on a loser and defeated ruler?  John 15:5 clearly states that the only way a person who can bear fruit has to be living within the vine and receiving the proper life-giving nutrients in order to bear such answers.  God wants people to know the truth but the truth shall not come to our nation or into our lives until we return back to His Ways and turn our hearts back over to Him.  There is a great deal of activity when the branches are pruned and there is a reason why only the branches are pruned as well, a subject to explain at a later date, for the vine itself does not get pulled unless it is completely dead and in this case the vine is eternal and the branches the one that does not produce.

Church, we cannot afford to remain silent while our nation sinks further and further down the eternal drain.  We must get our hearts out from the sand and take a stand for God.  How?  By spreading the news that God is the only answer to our problems and if we return to His Ways He has promised to heal our lands which means not only our physical land will be healed but our spiritual land as well.  As of this moment, it is obvious that this nation has no intentions of returning to God much less asking for His advice in our current issues and to be honest, it looks like we (the Church) have no interest in doing such steps either.  How can we even step foot out into the world and cry salvation when we do not live in Covenant in the first place? 

Our nation and many people are begging to find answers to these issues that all of us face, but we are ignoring the vine that has the answers for us to bear good fruit again.  There shall be no peace and no permanent answers to these problems and to the problems that we will soon face unless we turn back to God and seek His face for our lives.  If we choose not to return to God be prepared for our branches to really stink up the place for the life-giving nutrients from the vine shall not flow because we have voluntarily cut that source off.  Jesus is the only way and the only answer to the issues that we face on every level, God is pleading with us to return to Him and I hope that we shall adhere to this beckoning before it is too late and our branches die.  Jesus clearly states that if we are not in Him then we shall bear no fruit and we all know what Jesus did to the fig tree when He saw that it was not doing its job properly.  God is our origin and only He can provide the correct answers to our healing and eternal life.

DLB

Good and Evil

Good and Evil

3/17/18

Most people are aware of this phrase and what it represents to our lives for it is a choice that we face then complete every day.  It is amazing just how many times we argue these points with others and do not even take the time to consider whether our points are valid according to God or not, but that is what our world teaches.  It is this phrase that defines our lives and how we live it and what we consider to be valued and from the looks of things our values have fallen tremendously without care or consideration.  God set a perfect standard before we were created and it is this standard that we have allowed to be dulled and until we revisit and then plant His Standard back into our routines our lives shall not become better but worse on all levels.

One of my author friends just shared a couple of pictures from the house that she had lived in for a few decades.  When she lived there the place both inside and outside was immaculate and it is obvious that she took great care in what was hers.  She decided to move to another location and ventured into the renter’s market as a means to justify supplement her income.  Real estate has always been a good investment venture for those who wish to pursue those grounds but as many also will attest some of the hazards can be horrifying and a further drain on the personal economy present, not to mention the personal anguish if something goes wrong with the house.  When we rented a long time ago we loved that little house and tried our best to keep it as neat, clean, and “healthy” as possible for we knew we would see the owners of the house around town and knew them on a very personal level as well.  We did not wish to harm that relationship in any way and to our knowledge, we did not and are still great friends today.

Trust is a keyword that homeowners place with renters and that they will take care of the property and have pride in where they are living even though their surroundings technically do not belong to them.  To be honest, it is this aspect of renting that my wife and I have not ventured into such a market and is content to have just one house that we call our own.  While sometimes our house looks like a hurricane went through it we keep it as neat as possible, especially when you have grandkids coming in and out almost every day.  My friend’s tenants decided to move out suddenly and it was this action that posed some questions in her head that made her a bit unnerved.  As soon as she had the opportunity to travel back down to her house her worst fears were confirmed for the people had just up and left that part was true but when they said to her over the phone that the house was in great shape, that blind statement was a complete lie.

The pictures of the house that she posted after the renters moved out were heartbreaking, for the people had totally demolished the house including the outside yard which had been in pristine condition upon their arrival.  It took my friend a couple of days to find out some facts but she was told that the people actually had pigs pinned up inside the house and from the looks of the pictures she posted that was a true statement.  We have heard the phrase living in a pig pen, well this was a real condition that she has found appalling but somehow needs to regroup and fix.  Once again, when asked the people said there was nothing wrong with the house and that everything was in good shape when they left, a deviant and varied truth about what they considered to be good and worthy of others living in the house in the near future.  Sadly, it is this deception of good and truth that gives us the perfect example of how good is overruled by evil through the connective word “and” which demonstrates how evil came to be a part of our lives.  It was the renters’ choice to demolish the condition of the house and while they may not have exactly believed that they did any harm the end result was that the house is uninhabitable until great amounts of repairs are completed, a complex project that we should all personally recognize when it comes to our lives as well.

All who live in the western societies and who have attended church at one point in their lives around this globe probably are familiar with the story of God’s Creation in the first two chapters of Genesis.  For as many who believe in this Book, there are just as many and with today’s standards of beliefs probably more that do not believe that what is written in the Book of Genesis is true.  There is only one entity to blame for that disbelief and he is the one who we now embrace as our leader which further deepens our need for God, another truth that we kick out with every breath we take.  It is amazing how we quickly dismiss what is written in Genesis as a myth or fake because while we take the time to read those words it is our creative minds that God gave us that initiates and then falls for the lies that our enemy plants.  But in these first two chapters of the Bible, we have the key elements of how our lives were made and what conditions we were created to live within and it is through these two chapters that we have our defining moments along with the direction that God lives, breathes, acts, and creates.

Genesis Chapter 1 is filled with what we consider to be the creation of our world and how He made everything in their perfect order.  The entire first chapter of Genesis gives us a beautiful view of how God operates and creates then makes mention of His Word with the completion of the respected day.  From many of the articles that God has shared with us over the past few years, we have found out that when God completes something it is always in a perfect and in order fashion which means that it is “good”.  God states this word after many of the creation days for when He looked at the work completed He knew that it was a good thing which meant that as He completed such deeds He was advancing His Kingdom.  If we take a closer look at this setting we will notice one detail that is present and one detail that is not there.  The detail that is present includes the word “good” and the detail that is not there is any imperfection, only one side of the creative process is around at this time.

To be honest and fair, God could have stopped at this point, brought His perfect tenure into play and just stuck with the opportunity of good being the only way possible for His new creations to exist.  God is God and He has never done anything that would slow or even stop His Kingdom from advancing so this is an absolute right that He would and could accomplish.  But we all should recognize that God is not of this one-sided venture and that He is always for and has always been for free will for He is not a slave master demanding His service or else.  It is the patterns of this type of creation that God intended for His children to live in at all times of their existence but while He established these perfect conditions He knew that when free will followed its creative pattern it had the possibility to change positions, a heartbreaking thought but one that had to be in place or God could not claim to be all-knowing.

Through this demonstration of God’s Divine way of creating the world, it should not have been too difficult for Adam and Eve to want to continue living in such arrangements.  They did not have to want anything for in Genesis Chapter 2 God gives us a small glimpse about how all of Adam and Eve’s needs were met all the way down to the food issue of their existence.  We can also conclude that the food that was provided to Adam and Eve was good for their lives and that it gave them the needed nutrients in order for their functioning for the day another baffling truth of God’s goodness that is hard for us to imagine being true.  But how many times have we had a good thing come into our lives just to have us throw it away at some point then regret our actions at another time?  Hence the phrase that God uses in Genesis 2:9 when He introduces Adam to the one off-limits tree for food, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

This phrase is the key to the point in which God wants us to understand in this article for it is the single word “and” that sets the stage and order for what became of God’s Kingdom and the defeated kingdom of His enemy and our enemy.  Every detailed word that is written in the Bible is of great importance and the order in which these words are placed has a significant definition of themselves.  This phrase “good and evil” states a great deal of information about who came first and the status of each kingdom at the same time.  The word “good” is mentioned first and it is here that God authorizes His presence as being first in every aspect of life and of everything that represents as good.  This fact also sets the tone for what type of conditions were and still are present in the realm of God for God Himself gives us nothing but good to refer to Him and His Ways, it is our selfish and limited ideologies that prohibit us from understanding this eternal goodness that God can only provide.

The next word in line is the word “and” and it is this word that engages our brains to know that there is another aspect that is present and should be understood.  Through the word “and” we know that God is good for if He wanted to control our every move He could have done so by defeating His enemy and placing him into his rightful separation way before God created mankind.  But through this word “and” alone God reiterates that He is not a controlling God at all and that He created us out of love and for a specific and holy purpose for it is through this word that He makes clear that there is another side that we will face.  It is this other side that God did not hide us from but warned us right from our beginning when He was handing out His single rule.  It is this word that ignites our minds to figure out that with all of the good that God showed Adam that His blessings and goodness should be noticed today as well.

How important is this word “and” being used in this phrase by God?  It is this word that tells us that these two words, one before and one after, are in constant motion against each other and if one is moved in one direction the other is moved in the opposite.  Since God spoke this phrase it means that both of the words plus the word “and” represent an eternal movement and as we know the object being fought over is us.  It is also this word that God sets into motion the ability for humans to choose which side of the word “and” we will believe in and move, a brilliant mechanism to advance His Kingdom through His own eternal Creations.

However, for many reasons, we would rather incorporate the third and last word of this phrase “evil” into our lives instead.  The word evil cannot have anything to do with good and by definition of both words they are the complete opposite of each other.  Through this phrase, both warring kingdoms are defined and by each individual definition of the words it cannot be denied that a battle is raging and since God spoke to Adam concerning these words that battle was for him and every future human creation that was to come.  It is impossible to think that Adam missed this point of grace by God or did he just take matters into his own hands and play around with God when it came to this inspective item of eternity?  There cannot be any question that God made Himself clear when He told Adam what he could do and what he could not do and to top measures off God even told Adam in clear language what would occur if he did break this single command.  God makes it clear that when He discusses and uses the term “evil” He means that there is an opponent out there that wants to see His Kingdom stopped and pushed backward.  The issue at hand here is our eternal setting and since God is the Creator of everything good that means that Satan is the representative of this word “evil” and should be taken seriously at all times.  It is this specific issue that God tried His best to get across to Adam when He was telling him how important it was not to eat from the tree.  It was not the tree itself but the act of obedience to God’s Word that was the issue and we see in a few verses down the line that God’s Word was already being used for selfish gain instead of God’s gain.

One last point to make is that when God speaks to Adam in this verse He wants Adam to understand that both the good kingdom and the evil kingdom already exist and are present in the world of Adam.  See, God gave Lucifer a choice and he made such choice some point in time long before God created Adam which confirms that this separation in Heaven had occurred before God created the Garden of Eden and mankind.  According to the order of the words, God used the good Kingdom came first and serves as the standard for which all others must follow to serve as measure.  Evil equals disobedience which is defined as sin and according to its order of wordage from God in this verse came after the perfect state in Heaven., thus implicating Adam to be aware of this condition if allowed into his existence.  It is through this verse that God gives humans the adequate supply of defending their existence from eternal death and through these keywords used by God provides them with the ability to know what is good (God’s Word) and what is not (words contrary to God’s Word).  Seems simple enough, right?

Before we proceed, I want to just to clarify a minor yet important detail about the word “good” that is used in these passages and to show how specific God’s Word is let’s take a look at the word “good” used here.  The word “good” that God uses to describe His work on each day of creation is the Hebrew word “towb” which means it comes from a perfect origin since God directly gives this word as a descriptive term about what He has completed.  Now, the exciting part about such word usage is that when we next see this word being used by God for a description is when He is directing Adam about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  For the word “good” that God uses here is the exact same word “towb” that is used when God is looking over His Creative days.  This is a confirmation that this tree is referring to kingdom principles and since God is saying them it also means that He is referring to eternal standards.

If one wants to place it into modern terms and thinking then the serpent was using the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as a progressive stance to a conservative notion of Adam and Eve’s existence.  Some people may not like such a comparison and others may accuse of bias through this statement but when you break down the meaning of those two words it is clearly correct.  Now, having stated that fact, we must consider that the opening for Satan to present himself to Adam and Eve was already present and thus had free grounds to do what he specifically did in Genesis 3:6.  While there is nothing wrong with human progression, it needs to be done in a manner in which the process follows God’s Ways so that its completion can be on a sure and solid foundation because if it isn’t then we are a guaranteed a huge fall.  Just think of it as this way, Lucifer fell because of his lust for greater power and status and if we seek after his ways and not obey God’s Ways then we are guaranteed to fall just as Lucifer did.

From what we are seeing unfolding in today’s societies it cannot be missed that we are headed for some certain disaster.  The Church should be licking her chops with anticipation of so many people wanting to flock to their services, yet this type of action is not occurring.  Instead, the Church is participating in such worldly activities and condoning the eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Yes, I said it because God told me to say it, the Church is playing the role of the serpent through her actions concerning the world and the acceptance thereof.  The Church has forgotten that these two kingdoms are on opposite ends of truth and within this truth lies the choice of our eternal position.  She has become complacent with the world and antagonistic to God’s Word which states her eyes are on the tree and lusting after its great qualities.  God established His prized creations to be first in everything not second as the choice of the world is, we need to change this pattern quickly or we shall partake of that forbidden fruit and regret those bites immediately.

It is time that we once again are a light unto the darkness by allowing God to enter into our lives and provide the eternal light that the dying world needs.  It is time that we leave the tree of the knowledge of good and evil alone and begin to obey the work command that God gave Adam to dress and keep the Garden of Eden.  I find it very conclusive that the command that God gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden is the exact same command that Jesus gave when He was on the earth to His disciples and to those who listened and understood His Words and that is to go and to teach the gospel of Christ, salvation, restoration, and eternal life.  In other words, which tree are your eyes fixated upon, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or on the cross?

DLB

God's Creative Creativity Imitated

God’s Creative Creativity Imitated

3/10/18

How important is the Bible in your life?  I know that we have heard this question posed to us many times over our lives, but have you really asked yourself this question before?  It is common knowledge and practice that if someone likes and believes in a subject that they will do everything in their power to understand and then exemplify that subject.  How much purer can one get when they have this goal in their hearts?  So, God asks you again, how important is His Word in your life and to what lengths will you go to obtain its entire content, do you even believe that the Bible is His eternal Word?  The beauty of the Bible is that whether you wish to or not many of us keep a portion of His Word’s truth in our lives, the authority to choose to believe in Him or not, the basics of our lives free will.  It is the authenticity of God’s Word that brings forth the creativity that God intends for us to use, but the question remains of which kingdom do we use our creativity for?

As each day passes it seems like the social standing of the world’s societies vies to see who can come up with the next bombshell news story.  It does not matter who might be involved or hurt by such a story but getting the “beef” on someone and then being the first to publish its content seems like the right thing to do.  I saw a cartoon the other day that stated that we should place all hope in humanity by ensuring that all guns be taken out of the hands of people and not allow any to resurface within private hands and homes.  The second frame asked if God was even going to be considered in this decision, the shirt of the person making this statement about guns also stated proudly that we had already taken God out of our society and lives.  It is this statement that proves to everyone that God is no longer an option in our lives and should not even be considered in topic.  It is this cartoon that sums up the reason why our lives are under constant threat from every direction for after God was taken out all hell was allowed to filter into our lives for that is what the only option left can produce.  I understand that this type of example is one that reflects modern humanity at its best but it also defines the resourcefulness of our creativity that many of us continually use yet at the same time fail to understand its origin in our lives.

When I was in high school and living in southeast Texas, one of my close friends there was a talented artist.  It was amazing to see how his mind could portray a setting, a scene, or a thought that was running through his mind all being etched down on a piece of paper or drawing paper.  While he had this talent within him and through word of mouth many people knew of this talent of his, the creativity of his gift remained hidden and silent because the enemy had convinced him that his ability to follow through with his gift was unworthy of being mentioned.  My friend was a bright and brilliant young man that had scholarship offers from schools that wanted to further develop the skills that had been given to him.  He turned down every offer and did not follow through with many others a short time later to remain in obscurity and hide the light that had been purely given to him.  It is this sadness that God sees each day from His people and it breaks His heart because He understands that through our complacency not only are we going to miss out on eternal life with Him but countless other people will miss His eternal resting place as well because we gave up on our creativity for the authenticity of God’s Word.

This brings up a huge issue that we are currently witnessing on a routine basis and that is the denial of the creative mind and how our enemy has stolen this gift of ours and is now using its skewed focus against us.  For as long as I can remember my eyes have watched many horrific events occur all across the world and when I was younger those events were given to us on a time-delayed status but even in that condition they had a profound effect on my life.  Today, we are provided with immediate results when these types of events occur and it does not really matter where around the globe they present.  Our reasoning is so focused on catchphrases or hot blame that we fail to recognize the exact origin of such disasters, thus creating an artificial pruning effect that that only allows for further ugliness to return. 

The creativity of the mind which was given to us when we were created by God served as the calming purpose for Adam and Eve while they went along and completed their work.  But somehow as time rolled along, Satan began a campaign against this holy creativity of life and turned its meaning around for a selfish gain instead of a holy advancement of God’s Kingdom.  The sad part about this truth is that he has continued this dulling of our hearts so much that he is once again being able to play on the superficial and outlying issues instead of us understanding where the origin of our problems lie.  When our minds and creativity aspects are worldly driven and focused we cannot help but serve our own selfish destinations and wants which can only result in one outcome, destruction.  This pattern began in the Garden of Eden and has continued and shall continue to flourish until we voluntarily turn our hearts back to God.

We will be returning to the Garden of Eden for our biblical reference for this topic and we will specifically be going to Genesis 2:15-17.  We have the picture that God has created man and is now giving him instructions on what to be done with the area that God has now placed him into, God gives Adam instructions in verse 15 when His Word states: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.  The area and job that God gave to Adam is pretty clear and simple here, a detail that we have been taught for some time now but what does this location and job say about Adam and God Himself? 

The answer lies in verse 16 & 17 when God gives specific guidelines of what Adam is allowed to eat and what will occur if he does not obey the simple one command from God.  But verse 16 contains a single word that describes how God wants Adam and eventually Eve to act, the verse states as follow: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:”.  It is the word “freely” that defines what God represents when it comes to freedom and creativity.  God placed no restraints on the creative abilities that He placed inside Adam when He commanded Adam to dress the garden, only that he needed to do what God said to do.  God uses the word freely here in order to put into motion the command that He gave to Adam, yes, God used this word to initiate the single law that God placed at that time.  In other words, freedom to fulfill God’s law was the law itself and to do it according to what God had placed inside of mankind.  See, creativity is a part of your specific and divine purpose for your life and when both are in full motion you cannot help but be an example of God’s Kingdom advancement agenda.  Isn’t that neat?

For those who have a narrow view of God or the belief that He had to create such a place or existence, which many of us do if we are completely honest, I understand how you would believe how boring a life of work in a garden could become, but it is not of that sort of nature that we must know and comprehend for God has put into our lives a pattern of creativity in order to continue the cycle of life and fun in everything we do.  As long as we are keeping what God has instructed us to do intact and complete and following the ways of His Word that means we are in tune with His Word and therefore believe in the authenticity of God’s Word.  What we see as life can become mundane if not injected with a certain type of enthusiasm on a regular basis, it is this creative processes that God intended for us to input into our lives on a daily basis, yet we figure out some way to destroy these creative mannerisms by enabling negativity to infiltrate our hearts.  God did not create robots to just follow idling positions but He made in such a way that we have the ability to complete His instructions not only according to His Ways but in an individual manner while we obey His instructions.  We have been told by our enemy for long enough that our lives are not worthy of life and with this status in hand neither is anything that we can do so why pursue anything that would promote redemption.

Would you consider such an act of instability to originate from God?  Why would He do such a thing and wouldn’t it be a dividing factor for His Kingdom if He did so?  How can he be or represent an authoritative and eternal Father if His Ways are flawed?  Is it an impossible task for us to strive for such a position and why do we have such a separation from Him in the first place?  This condition of ours must have originated from some other being that had a falling out with God and then provided an alternative method of living that caught the heart’s eyes well enough to pull them from looking on the eternal and perfect Father.  This must have been a creative illusion strong enough to override such pure teachings and one that was sleek enough to be covered over by a deep lie in order to pass as the truth.  Think about something for a moment, if a being cannot perform any task with imperfections establishes a fact and it can be demonstrated through you specifically why would you want to know any other way or position?  Yet, we accept these flawed creations as normal and strive for something far less than what our lives were created to complete.

It is hard to imagine how much loss Adam and eve had that fateful day in the Garden of Eden.  The choice they made to eat and then disobey cost them everything they had and thus had to be evicted not only from their home but from the direct presence of God as well.  While their lives themselves were still there their eternal presence and makeup were gone, changed forever into a new condition that they had never witnessed before.  All of these changes were addressed when God showed up and then began His holy purge of sin once again from His eternal and pure habitat.  The creativity that God gave to Adam, Eve and the rest of humanity is still present in our lives today and while this holy act is continuously alive it is still the goal of our enemy to destroy that creativity and selfishly confine it to a worldly standard.

I have often heard people state that they are bored with this life and wish not to remain in an active role, this can mean a vast array of things and all should be taken seriously.  It is at this point where the Church needs to loudly proclaim the truth about each person’s life and how important it is to God and that He has instilled a purpose for them.  This purpose is demonstrated by the curiosity and the creative aspects that are embedded within us and it is through those initiatives that give us the authority we need to understand the authenticity of God and His Word so that we may apply that Truth not only in our own lives but speak the Truth into other people’s lives as well.  Losing a person’s creativity means that an original idea or imaginative processes are gone and for the most part once that is lost it is very difficult to gain access to again, why do you think our enemy has used the technology of today to keep the eyes of the younger generation glued to a screen instead of what is going on around them?

God had never intended for us to live in such disarray or unholy conditions but He Divinely anticipated our downfall through the choice mechanism that He placed within our existence.  The choices we make demonstrate our creative skills that each one of us has and when we use such skills for others to see we are actually completing the will of God which furiously charges our enemy with other ways to squelch this gift of ours.  Each day we see these patterns of creativity being destroyed even though we proclaim that our ideas and “new beginnings” are of a pure and writ origin.  This belief is true; however, the origins from which these worldly behaviors are accepted do not come from God but from the ruler of the world instead.  We have pushed aside and then forgotten that if we do not apply our creative status according to God’s creative hand, it is a lie and will be used against us at some point in time in the future.

Sometimes the Church needs to teach on hard subjects and topics and leave the soft and cushy sermons at the door.  It is obvious that many church services teach these soft and feel good sermons on a routine basis for the congregants have become accustomed to sitting in the pews with their feet up eating cookies, doughnuts and sipping coffee instead of listening and taking notes from the pastor; however, it is really difficult to understand these sermons or any sermon for that matter when the pastor’s mouth is full of the same items as the congregants as they speak.  This type of ministering speaks volumes to both God and to Satan for it says that we have lost the edge of our creativity and ability to teach others how to rid ourselves to a sinful world through separation from that world and not to adapt to its fingers of lies.  Part of the creativity aspect of our lives includes the reasoning of how to tell people that God is alive and that He cares for each one of them and that He wants them to have a better life.  A person CANNOT and SHALL NOT have a better life while they are holding onto the world’s ideas and philosophies.  That is a short and sweet truth that we need to figure out and then execute from our hearts but we have no desire or intention to do such a truth towards others.

Church, this is another example of how we have become complacent with the truth and have decided to incorporate the world into our lives instead.  It is this same pattern that Adam and Eve followed when they had spent a good amount of time in the Garden of Eden and it was one of the principle open doors that Satan walked through in order to create their downfall.  We cannot afford to keep walking in Adam and Eve’s shoes we must shed those shoes and start taking the footsteps of Christ and He will lead us back into the path that we were created to do.  God is not a stagnate being and it is a definitive truth that He does not want any of His children to consider themselves stagnate either and when we allow the enemy to steal our creativity or to use it for his world instead of God’s Kingdom he has done just that.

A large portion of restoration is to grant our creativity back to us and to bring it alive again so that we may find and then develop ways to bring people to Christ.  This aspect of our existence is one that is heavily contested over for it is the key to how we will be effective in winning the lost and keeping our hearts on track towards a return to a holy life.  We cannot have life or restoration if our eyes are glued to physical settlements and we cannot guide our walk by our ears alone, we must put down all distractions before they become the death of us.  Open God’s Word and follow the healing and restorative words that it gives us, the Bible alone will guide us in all of our needs and decisions if we only seek God and His Word first.  We all know that Adam and Eve had a repentant heart after sin entered into their lives but it was at that point where only restoration was possible.

God loves restoration and He loves fulfilling His promise to His people who choose to walk in His Ways instead of living for the world’s moment.  God is heeding us to repent and to return to His ways Church and it is time that we hear such words and allow our hearts to be cleaned by the Word of God again.  We do not want what is coming to us nor do we wish to see the mighty hand of God strike in ways that will bring us to our knees.  Right now, right at this moment, we have the opportunity to change this course we are on but the path shall not change unless we (the Church) wake up and begin the awakening before a restorative revival needs to occur.  God loves you and so do I, He does not wish for any to perish in their sins and be eternally separated from Him and that is the exact reason He wants us to believe in the authenticity of His Word and in the gift of creativity.

It cannot be left out that our minds and hearts do the exact same imitation game and worldly creativity when we try and justify God’s Word and His Holy Authenticity for our own purposes.  The Bible is not here and was not given to us to justify doing or not doing something when it does or does not feel right.  God gave us His Word as an instruction plate so that we may follow His restoration plan for our lives and as long as we place God’s words of this eternal plan in our own mouths for our own pacification standards we fall into the worldly creativity status that many currently do not realize they are within.  Furthermore, we must include the Church in this category for she has turned to the world for general acceptance purposes and has left God’s Eternal Truth plan out of her examples thus creating a relatively “safe” or “sanctuary” zone for those who understand and apply God’s True Word in their lives.

This imitation game of creativity shall only create a false safe zone or sanctuary that will one day prove to be a lie.  An important detail we must remember about this creative imitation game that we play is that as long as we live in such a condition, we will our enemy to lie enough for us to believe that we are still free in God, but we are FAR from that.  Those senses of security will all be washed away and leave nothing but confusion and anger as our feet stand on the washed out shorelines of our land.  God and His Ways are the only way possible to see our lives turn around and cease its needless death sentences that are currently overwhelming our hearts.  Church, this turnaround, and repentance must be projected through our actions and by our witness but it seems like we have fallen into the same trap as countless generations before us.  Church we need to repent first and then allow God to change our hearts before He must demonstrate His own holy obedience.  God loves each and every one of us and it is His desire to heal our land but the only way for that to occur is to stop believing in and living through the imitation creativity that Satan is providing and return to the original creative minds and hearts that God placed into us when our existence began.

DLB

Christianity's Holiest Site

Christianity’s Holiest Site

3/4/18

I wonder what comes to a person’s mind when they see a statement that is identical or very similar to the title of this article.  I know what my mind thinks about but this question must be asked for I know many will have varying degrees of answers.  I understand all of the potential answers but I know that God probably has a different answer than most of us do.  It presents a process of which we need to examine ourselves and see exactly where our motivation and focus is located, for if we truly do not understand or recognize Christianity’s greatest and holiest site our eternal engraving might need to be changed.  God wants His children to know and especially those that do not know Him at all, that Christianity’s holiest site is not a relic from some old church but a perfectly designed temple that each one of us carries within ourselves.

I have to admit that for a long period of time in my life I would have probably found no reason to differ with many of the answers that you are thinking or speaking right at this moment, but about two decades ago God got a hold of my life while I was in Africa at a conference and He changed my life when He revealed to me about His Kingdom and how it was to operate in my life; since I was His Kingdom.  From that moment onwards, the road I chose was a rocky one for I really did not understand the meaning of what God’s revelation to me meant and for quite a while I struggled with such knowledge and I must admit for a short period of time I did not want anything to do with what God was showing me.  I ran pretty hard and tried my best to keep the truth from infiltrating my life and every second that I did this action my life was miserable.  Eventually, I stopped fighting and doing my own thing, and sat down and finally listened to God and He immediately revealed what the highest, holiest and most desired site was to Him. 

It is easy to try and place the word “site” into the context of a noun which legitimizes the word as a physical place or thing that the eyes and mind can recognize without difficulty.  But when it is applied to an active verb or abstract noun it can become a tinge more difficult to define especially when one is so used to placing it on the outward physical appearances.  I do not argue the fact that physical places represent a major indication that Christ was alive and probably at least walked in the path of some relics and places that we deem as holy sites today, but I do not agree with the fact that many places these relics and sites on pedestals and claim them to be the holiest sites in Christianity.  While I understand their importance I cannot condone this type of statute because they can become idols in the eyes of mankind and for some they already have.

I ran across this video the other day that projects Christian priests and bishops protesting the State of Israel and other local agencies concerning a few tax-related issues.  The protests included shutting down the doors and closing off the areas to these cherished sites that many deem to be the holiest to Christians and Christianity.  The news bleep contained a few visitors from around the world that were upset because they were not allowed to go inside and see for themselves these places deemed important.  As a person who has traveled to many other religious spots of interest, I understand that disappointment in not being able to see what was intended can be concerning but it should not be or represent a devastating loss.  It is not this place or any other place that God deems as the holiest site and while “good” money might be spent on arriving for such a site, our eyes and sight should not be focused on the places but on the true holy site that God wants and desires from our lives.  I do not doubt these priests’ sincerity on the issue but it comes across that their focus is on the building and the status of that building comes first before the importance of salvation and the mission of the Church to preach the Gospel of Christ.

As I stated above, I could have looked at these places and deemed them of great importance but once again I must take myself and you the reader back to a sermon that my father preached in the early 1980s.  He had just returned from a trip to the Holy Land that included Israel, Jordan, and Egypt along with a few other stops on the way.  I remember vividly one of the pictures that he took was of the tomb where Jesus was supposed to have been buried.  My dad said that the group was instructed that while many people believe that this tomb was the exact site where Jesus was buried others did not and that His burial occurred at another place.  What my dad stated next confirms my belief and what the Word of God states concerning the holiest site in Christianity.  He said that it did not matter which site people believed that Jesus was buried in, for both sites were empty.  Jesus did not come to die and be buried but He came to rise from the dead so that He and His blood can be represented as the covering for all men’s hearts.

Probably the most recited and well-recognized verse in the Bible is John 3:16 and it is this verse that contains the answer to what is the most treasured and holiest site in Christianity.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  It is this verse that confirms that the holiest site to Christians, Christianity, and more importantly to God is the human heart for it is the only thing possible that can make the choice to choose God or not.  God does not care for the physical items that this world has to offer, He only cares about having each and every one of His children next to Him and in His presence close to Him for eternity.  The heart is one noun that controls a person’s eternal destiny and it is this item of importance that God desires most for us to give Him.  It is okay that we visit these sites and marvel at what occurred in them, at them, or near them but it is the heart that we voluntarily give to God that counts the most.  I find where people give homage to sites that are decorated for God, I understand this but God does not want your heart to be focused on such earthly wonders, but the wonder of His Life that He gave for you.

Another portion of God’s Word that gives us details about how important it is to recognize that the heart is the most prized offering to God occurs in the book of Exodus when the children of Israel are in the desert.  When you look at the geography of the desert in which the Israelites walked through it is not that large in area.  Yes, it is a wide array of land that poses many challenges, but it really should not have taken forty years for the people to cross, so it means that there was another reason for this long-lasting journey.  The reason was that their hearts had become focused on the physical things that they had in life and how they needed to drop those things and give their hearts back to God, you know, the art of sacrifice in motion.

The children of Israel refused to do this and really did not understand that they needed to either.  It is obvious that this was the case for after a while they decided to build a golden calf and dance to its presence instead of waiting for God to reveal His laws to them.  The children of Israel had placed their focus on something manmade and that they could physically see instead of trusting what God was trying to show them through the spiritual communication lines of the heart.  It is the same dangers we face today when we place more emphasis on the physical world and its artifacts as it was when the children of Israel thought about and then made the golden calf.  It is the heart that is at stake and God really does not care about anything else on an eternal level.  God has never closed off the access to His heart yet we have done a fabulous job in completing such an act, ironically many times in the name of God.

When we place our focuses on things other than our hearts, our concept of life automatically dulls.  When the emphasis of life is placed on other objects around us we cannot help but feel left out or separated from relationships.  It is at this stage where we need to understand that it is the human heart that is the most important object not only in Christianity but life itself and that we cannot understand or know life without God being first in everything breath we take.  When life is doled off as second sister it becomes unstable and unreliable due to the confines that have been voluntarily chosen.  The world has perfected such atrocities for humanity and daily acquires new territory for its demeaning outposts.  I believe it is time we go back and reread the last sentence of the previous paragraph and then reread it again until we figure out what exactly is the most important site to God.

When the focus of what is true versus what is an outside source becomes an issue there is a problem within one’s system.  When that choice of outside influences becomes greater than the true heart a masking has occurred and the truth is no longer relevant, which means that one can no longer adjust to keep the truth intact but is forced to accept what the outside realm warrants.  If one takes a hard look at the children of Israel and their story while walking around in the desert you will find that this condition within their lives rang true.  Also, it is easy to find such an acknowledgment in today’s societies and behavior as well, a striking degradation of the truth and life itself and when publicly displayed sets the course of devastation just right around the corner.  This type of belief destroyed the very demeanor and hopes of the children of Israel and it is in its final stages of devastation in the present world today.  How far has this belief come?  Let us take a look at the spiritual conditions of both examples and see if they fall in line with what God deems as the holiest site in Christianity.

The children of Israel were waiting for Moses to return from the mountaintop where he had gone up some time ago.  Given human nature, the initial waiting game must have been an easy process for the hopes of a quick return had to be a constant theme but as time passed and no word from God or from Moses the ears became itchy and the hearts became restless.  By the time Moses returned the people had already succumbed to the physical aspects of their surroundings and threw God from their trusting position into second place.  The same has occurred in today’s societies as well, for the initial waiting period on God to show up and to keep in touch with His people was present but as time has passed the same type of presence has been felt by the general population.  In both groups, it has been forgotten as to why God revealed Himself in the manner that He did, and even though both groups are children of God He must have the hearts of the people understand their spiritual condition instead of just relying on the physical excitement.

In both examples, the people got their eyes on the physical and ignored the warnings that God was trying to give them before He had to step in and take matters into His own hands.  The deepening and hardening of the Israelites’ hearts was bad enough to allow them to wander in the desert for forty years so how bad will it have to be for our lives when God says it is time for us to have our hearts cleaned?  The Church has fallen into the same act as well, accepting the ways of the world and telling the people that it is okay to accept the practices of the world, that God will look past at the sins of the people because He loves them, and that His Word is interpretable and not authoritative in nature.  You know that these thoughts were present at the time of the Israelites, look at their activities and it is evident, so why are we any different?  We are not and if we do not turn our lives and hearts back to God and once again understand that this world cannot hold a light, any light, to the light that God has for our hearts.

That golden calf meant nothing but an idol to the people for temporary “relief” during hard times, and the ways of the modern societies serve up the exact same lie to countless of people today as well.  The topic and title of this article may seem like a gross representation of what is being taught here but God wants us to understand that times are about to change and it is extremely vital that we know, understand, and function with the truth about what is the holiest site of Christianity.  By the actions of the children of Israel during the Book of Exodus, through the actions of the majority of the people in the Early Church, and through the actions of many in the Modern Church, we have not understood what the holiest site is and just how important it is to God.  God wants our hearts more than anything else and until we figure out that our hearts are the most important thing to God our commitment to God will always be in question and subject to the tricks of Satan. 

One final example we have concerning this topic comes from all four of the Gospels when they talk about how Mary went to the tomb to be near Jesus but found that the stone had been rolled away.  An angel that was sitting on the top of the tomb was astonished that Mary was there and even asked her why she was looking for Jesus when it was a place for the dead.  Mary had her eyes fixed on the tomb and for whatever reason did not focus her heart on the real reason Jesus came to this earth, just as many of us do today when we place objects or places as the higher priority constituents.  God and Jesus did not fulfill the eternal Father’s Word for us to remember a rock or a building for those items will pass away but they wanted us to understand that the one most important item that they want is for our hearts to choose Life which means to choose God.

Church, God is calling us to wake up and to listen to His voice on this matter before it is too late.  For when the known institution is taken away how will we be able to function as we are created to do?  The exodus out of Egypt was not an easy process as the children of Israel thought it would be, nor will any correction method that God will perform in today’s societies and especially ours either.  If we cannot understand this truth while the getting is good, how will things be when the modernity standards of societies are not available?  We can avoid this if we only allow God to infiltrate our lives and hearts again and it starts you us Church, it starts with us.  No more golden calves in our lives and no more long endless journeys with darkness in our hearts.  Let us forget neon lies of the world and choose the consistency of Jesus and when we do choose Truth there will be no question about what we consider to be the holiest site in Christianity.  Lastly, through this choice and full commitment, our lives and land shall drastically improve as God has promised.

DLB

Get Behind Me

Get Behind Me

2/27/18

When we are told to drop something how many times do we continue to pick it back up?  When we do this act of defiance we actually create further and probably deeper issues that will only separate and invite additional turmoil into our lives.  When a subject has reached its terminal point or climax it is at this time that we understand and then follows a simple statement that Jesus used when He was on this earth, which turns out to be a great Kingdom principle that many of us forget we can use.  We have become so weakened by the world that we have walking in a false sense of truth and belief concerning our enemy when it comes to the authority we have over him.  God wants His children to walk and to live in complete authority and peace for it is in this ability that we were created to function and until we return to God and His Ways this power structure and authority will continue to erode away.

Many of you know that I have four lovely daughters and that each one of them is a joy to my life.  I wish I could say that all four of them know and follow after Jesus but that is not the case.  Anyway, my oldest is a precious gem that God has given us and she has always had a very determined outlook on life and as she progresses through this life of hers she makes no bones to anyone around her with each step she takes.  In completing this life of hers she has a very active mind and a mouth that follows behind her mind like a puppy dog following its master.  She is very vocal about issues and will let others know exactly how she feels about them whenever the opportunity arises.  One problem with this fact about her is that after she has said her piece she drops it and does not mention it again for a good fifteen seconds or so and then she picks it right back up and carries it to the next argument with the same issue down the road.  This is a habit and an issue that she is now starting to understand that she does not need and how her carrying it with her has harmed her in many ways.  When God says to drop things and let them go it is for a reason and that reason is to go forward and to leave it behind and don’t pick it up again.

Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing movement that tries to portray Jesus as more of a human being with fleshly desires than remembering where His true bloodline originated.  “The Last Temptation of Christ” was a movie that came out in 1988 and depicted Jesus as having an affair with Mary Magdalene, thus creating “evidence” that Jesus had physical relations not only with a woman but with a prostitute.  Furthermore, a few years down the road, a so-called article came out declaring that Jesus had a wife and had a few children around before He was crucified.  Many researchers and scholars are still pursuing this line of line of arguments which all have the direction of destroying the authority and purpose of why Jesus came to the earth.  Sadly, I must admit that many of these proclamations come from religious scholars and through their testimonial references define the reason that God cannot stand religion and only desires to have a relationship with each one of us.  It is a ploy and a direct lie for anyone to believe such nonsense for Jesus’ status and purpose was directly mentioned in Genesis 3:15 by God the Father and then once again specifically told by Jesus Himself in Matthew 16:21-23.

In Genesis Chapter 3 we find that Satan has gained the upper hand in the lives of humans and that through this admittance of sin into the lives of humans the home field advantage has switched and that Satan is now the ruler of the world.  God makes it perfectly clear to Satan what his future will be and who exactly will defeat him, an eternal checkmate at some point in the future.  When we open our hearts to such lies concerning the deity and purpose of Jesus’ life we will be subject to the words that Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:23 which state as follows: “But he, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense to me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that of men.”  Jesus is pretty clear here in what His mission is and what that mission has always been ever since the dawn of humanity.  This verse also represents and demonstrates a Kingdom principle as well and there is no greater gift from God when we understand that His own Son uses words in order to define Kingdom and its eternal ways.

Let’s take a closer look at this statement that Jesus makes to Peter for it is one that has a couple of directives in it, one to Peter and the other to Satan.  God is not saying that Peter is possessed on any level but what God is saying here is that we need to understand and to keep the entire Word of God available in our hearts and keep it first in our hearts at all times.  When Jesus spoke to the people His words were not just babbling or just whimsical, each word, phrase, sermon, prayer, and parable said serves as the purpose for why He was on this earth.  Way back when Adam and Eve sinned and long before that moment, God understood the importance of being clean and pure and God also understood what would occur if this purity was stained in any manner.  It is for this purpose alone that Jesus was placed on this earth and if Jesus had any wrongdoings and failed to keep His eternal Lamb status, Christianity and God Himself is one huge lie.  So, can you now understand why people want to discredit Jesus, God, and His Word?

We have an interesting view here that needs to be addressed and that did Peter know what Jesus’ mission was being on earth.  We can revert back to the Garden of Eden to answer this question for we know that every day God walked with Adam and Eve and had detailed talks with during this time they spent together.  God would have never allowed such nonsensical speeches be given by Him in order to pass the time away, God told them and warned them about the dangers surrounding them and how to take precautions against such problematic conditions.  Yet, as we all know, Adam and Eve still chose to go their own way and it is this type of thinking that Peter demonstrated in Matthew Chapter 16.  Jesus spoke with His disciples on a continual basis and while we do not have each detailed conversation during these meetings and sessions we do know that if Jesus was doing His Father’s work at the age of twelve in the Temple then we can be certain that He was still at it when Matthew Chapter 16 rolled around.  Remember, God is a consistent God and Jesus is God as the Son of God which means Jesus could not fail either.

When Jesus directly speaks to Satan in this verse it is solely done on a Kingdom level for Jesus directly addresses the goal of Satan and his kingdom, to get Jesus to fail and to not follow through with His Divine purpose.  It is easy for one to understand Peter’s position here for it is not every day that your teacher says that He came to the earth to live, die and then be resurrected at a later date.  The human side of Peter comes out here and I must admit that any one of us could have had the same reaction as Peter did for it is natural to live and to be full of life and not seem to dwell on the fact that death will be at another’s hand soon.  Peter understood this aspect about Jesus but with Jesus understanding what was ongoing around Him and hearing the voice of God speaking to Him, Jesus knew exactly what was about to transpire and that it was time for Him to be a bit more specific about the events coming to pass.  Just as the sacrificial lambs in the Old Testament time approached so was Jesus’ in the New Testament and it is this portion of Genesis Chapter 3 that Satan heard and knew about and wanted to try once again to convince Jesus that the time was not yet right.

Jesus mentions to Peter to get behind Him Satan, and those words would have a great deal of hurt in them if Peter did not understand what was going on at that moment.  Yet, this statement of Jesus is an instructional verse as well for it gives us a clue in which direction God’s Kingdom flows and which direction Satan’s kingdom flows.  Now, when Jesus says this to Peter it is readily assumed that it is a rebuke and in one way it is but in another way that is more important it is a phrase of instruction for when Jesus says for Satan to get behind Him that means that the idea is passed and literally behind Him.  Jesus was constantly advancing His Father’s Kingdom on all levels which means that the Kingdom of God can only flow in one direction and it shall never turn around for ANY reason.  Just the same, Satan’s kingdom flows in only one direction as well and it can never turn around and attack you from behind.  This is Jesus’ words here, not mine.  Read that Scripture verse again and it will become clear that when you pass the attacking lines of Satan’s kingdom it is behind you.

Remember the old hymn “Jesus Never Fails”?  That is one of the most famous Christian songs that has been written and it is one that many people have sang in numerous settings.  Long before Jesus walked this earth He never failed us, while He was on this earth He never failed us, and when He rose from the dead He proved to us once again that He never failed us.  So, if Jesus says to us that we have the authority to tell the enemy to get behind us that means that He cannot harm us from behind.  This is confirmed when we study about the Armor of God for this protection covers the front of our spiritual lives and deals nothing with the backs of our spiritual lives.  This is a confirmation that cannot be denied and that the only way that Satan can attack us in another direction is when we turn around and look back, you know, just like Lot’s wife did.  In other words, God’s Kingdom can only advance in one direction according to His eternal status and Satan can only advance his kingdom according to his eternal status, eternally in opposite directions but if you turn around and look back then you will be subject to that defeat again.

The glorious bit about this verse is that it states that God created us in a fabulous manner in which we have the opportunity to turn around and to choose God instead of the way of sin, then we do not have to continually fight against the world because we can let the issues of the world go and walk away from them.  We do not have to hold on to them nor do we have to carry them either all we must do is walk away from them in the other direction, the direction that God is advancing.  With the example of Lot’s wife used above, it must be recognized that when you decide to stop and pick up an item that you have previously given to God or that you have not given up in the first place, you subject yourself to attacks from Satan because you have turned from the Light and reentered into the darkness.  Remember, there is nothing more than Satan hates than a person who has known God and followed in His path.

Some leaders of denominations and many members of other denominations have taken a stance against the true obedience of God and have interjected the world policies as a popular substitute.  I thank God every day that Jesus did NOT do this practice and that He willingly and lovingly kept God first in His life and totally obeyed His Father while He was on earth.  Jesus understood what it took to be the eternal sacrificial lamb and He also knew the price it would place on those who follow Him in like manner.  The Israelites believed that it would be an easy process when God created their nation as did the Early Church when it was established by the early church founders.  If Jesus followed such patterns that reflected the Father’s Kingdom message and principles don’t you think that we should be learning, following and teaching these same Kingdom Principles to others?  Jesus was the prime example of being here on the earth but not being a part of the earth’s kingdom.

How do you shape up Church to this example of Christ?  When you take a deep and hard look at yourself, you cannot help but notice a prim and proper appearance, with all of the makeup done correctly, nails fake and polished accordingly, hair all in the right place, and dressed in fancy Jesus clothes so that you will be noticed as soon as you walk outside.  You are pathetic and an idolatrous entity that God cannot stand to look upon because you do not represent what He wants in a bride for His Son.  You have even perverted His Word to entice people into the buildings instead of winning their eternities for Christ.  You have “guaranteed” their “salvation” if you stand up for perverted and sinful lusts that you now represent yourself.  How can we truly believe and call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ or people that love God when we accept so much evil from the world into our hearts?

There is still time for us to turn our hearts back to God and to allow Him to keep His promises for this nation.  But in order for this to occur, we must drop every sinful issue that we are carrying and have accepted in our lives so that we can turn around and go in the direction of God.  The promise that we are talking about here is the one that says if we drop our issues and tell Satan to get behind you then those issues shall never have to be worried about again.  Satan’s kingdom advances in only one direction and unless we turn around and look back at what we have left behind He cannot touch us.  This is a HUGE deal Church and one that we need to understand to its fullest for it also states that if we do not drop the things of the world we will be open to anything that Satan desires to throw at us for we have voluntarily turned around to see what is behind us.  Do not play Lot’s wife and end up like her life, trust God and go with His mercies and restoration and then share this truth with those who need to drop worldly issues.  We should know better than to accept worldly issues back into our lives, but as Peter spoke those dreaded words to Jesus, we do need to be continually washed and cleaned by the blood of the Lamb and from a loving and eternal Father.

DLB

An Uncomfortable God

An Uncomfortable God

2/25/18

Have you ever explored the idea that God Himself can become uncomfortable?  It is easy for us to function in this type of mayhem and manner at times, but up until a few days ago, I had never understood that God can become uncomfortable as well.  Being uncomfortable creates in living beings a state that requires something to be done differently, and when God sees His children in a voluntary state of sin He must do something because it is this willingness to sin that forces God into this position.  Until we realize this truth about our hearts, God will continue to nudge us and provide chances to change our patterns so that we can understand our dependence on Him for our eternal salvation, for see, God loves each and every one of us with a love that our minds and hearts cannot fully understand and until we turn over our lives to Him completely this uncomfortable feeling of His will continually be present.

A little bit ago God shared with us an article concerning that we should be willing to change our patterns through listening to His voice.  God also shared with us that it is His voice of concern that gives us this information because He sees what it has done to our creativity and livelihood, He also guides us in these changes in order to protect us in future events and to help others when they are struggling as well.  The example that was given in that article was about how I should take another path when I went into my building for work, I did so and for as far as I could tell nothing happened to my physical body.  But when I was completing this task God gave the remaining information concerning that article and in a few days time He gave me another topic to write about which is the foundation of this article and it has to do with an action of mine as well.

Last week I was listening to one of the webcasts of a lady who God delivered from witchcraft and how God has been showing her avenues that have infiltrated her life enough to produce connection ties to others all around the world.  It is these connections that God wants to sever and when she began to do what God asked her to do she began to feel the actual release from the world, a tie, and condition that she had not even recognized in her before.  It is these ties and connections that set into motion the patterns of the world that God wants out of our lives and if we do not listen to what His voice is telling us to do AND THEN OBEY His command we will find ourselves in a heap of trouble in the very near future.  We must remember that when God addresses an issue that resides in our lives and we do not allow Him to weed it from our lives our enemy will take full advantage of the situation and further his grip on our lives.

I must admit that I will be telling on myself as I give this example to you for God pressed on me a few weeks ago to slow down on the social media aspect of my world and to give it a rest, not delete it or anything as such but to allow Him to lose its grip on my life.  So, I deleted the direct status bar content and took all of them off of my favorites menu as well.  This was in complete obedience to what God was saying to me and I really believed that I would be alright in doing such a thing.  As I look back at these few weeks I have come to the realization that I have not decreased my connection to these outlets even though I now have to directly type in their web addresses in order for me to access their content.  In fact, I probably am guilty of frequenting their sites more ever since I have taken them off my favorites list on the computer.  When I asked God to search me He did so and He chose this avenue of my life to reduce and even though I initially agreed to follow His request I have been lax in my attitudes towards this command of His and it is this example that I present to you as the sole reason God becomes uncomfortable, because He has given His children a command to clean up their act and we have said yes but have not followed through with our answer.

Over the past few years now I have heard many messages from God, been given over five hundred messages to write with countless more to complete, been awakened in the middle of the night numerous times to pray for something – most of the time not knowing anything at all just obeying – and yet I still wonder how many things I have missed from God because of my lazy heart and deaf spiritual ears.  This thought and worry of mine were reinforced the other day when it dawned on me that I was in direct disobedience to God concerning my lack of reduction in the social media outlets.  This thought gravely concerns me and it makes me uncomfortable because it makes me wonder if I have missed a direct message from God that someone needs to hear, that is not being a faithful servant at all but a selfish one and one that is still tightly engraved into the world.  I understand that my physical presence on this earth cannot change but I also understand that my spiritual presence needs to be in constant, direct, and clear contact with God in order for me to complete my purpose.

2 Timothy 2:16 defines why God would ask me to rid myself from the social media aspect, and yes, God’s Word does address this modern day dilemma way back during the Early Church era for it is this verse that defines such a media gossip outlet.  “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.”  I love these short verses that say so much in them and this verse is included in this truth.  My father preached on modern technology and its usages a short while ago and he did a fantastic job in telling God’s people how important it is to be on guard when dealing with such institutions.  There are so many aspects of infiltration that modern technology can bring but the most important issue is that of a person’s spiritual awareness and how it can be snatched from you quickly if you are not paying attention to the surroundings.

This verse does not mention specifics or even specific instances of what was occurring in and around the Early Church body but he does emphasize the importance of being aware enough about those specifics to stay away from them.  If you have studied Church History at all and have included the Early Church in your findings, you will know that the Gnostic movement concerning God and the Church was in full bloom during Timothy’s time period.  This teaching destroyed so many people’s lives, turned countless people away from God and opened many doors for worldly persecutions for those who were associated with the Church.  It was these divisions that caused so much pain and agony in the Church and served as a basis for what was to come in the lives of those precious people.  They became so divided that they could not even agree on how to conduct themselves at home and whose role was going to take the lead.  This painted picture is a sad setting but it is a setting that is also in full bloom and on display for all to witness again today.  In addition, we cannot forget that the kingdom of the world was alive and well back during the time of the Early Church and it is just as alive and well in our time as well, for if the Kingdom of God is alive then the opposite is true as well.  It is this forgetfulness of ours (mine) that defines God’s uncomfortable condition.

There are countless passages in God’s Word that tell us that God is a loving God and that it is His utmost desire for our lives to live in purity, peace, and holiness.  If this state is what God wants His children to exist within why is it that we fall short of this status?  This question is easily answered and when we find ourselves in such a manner it is important for us to recognize this sinful existence of ours, ask for forgiveness and to turn away and change paths.  God does not just sit on His holy throne, watch us make mistakes, and erase our names from His book of life.  God is not an angry God at our existence but one that understands if we allow sin to infiltrate and then reside in our lives that He cannot sit back and do nothing, He must act like a holy and eternal Father.  God also understands that there are many avenues that the ruler of the world will use in order to take hold of our lives and these avenues are specifically addressed in 2 Timothy 2:16. 

The answer to what lies within our lives is actually given first in the verse immediately before 2 Timothy 2:16.  2 Timothy 2:15 tells us that we need to continually ask God to show us our inner hearts and spirits and to expose each detailed sin that has been allowed to live and grow inside us.  This verse also gives us the understanding that when we really allow God to complete this study we will be able to see what is truth and what is a lie and anything that is not from God is automatically a lie.  It is not this process of cleaning out our hearts that makes God uncomfortable, in fact, God loves to clean our hearts because as soon as our hearts and spirits are clean He can fill us with His Spirit and restore our hearts to His Covenant status.  This cleaning process is a constant washing in motion, remember Satan’s kingdom is alive so when it is removed it recognizes the change and must try and compensate its loss, a constant battle indeed.

When we do not recognize what God is doing in our lives or wanting to do in our lives then He must try a different method in order to grab our attention.  On the morning that He showed me to go another route and I obeyed that was a great issue to God but that specific also served as a basis for me to wake up and to figure out that I was not in obedience to an earlier request from God.  It is the recognition of God’s requests that should spark the truth and furtherance of 2 Timothy 2:15 and it is through obedience that 2 Timothy 2:15 comes alive and wipes out the content of what 2 Timothy 2:16 is referring towards.  It is the content of 2 Timothy 2:16 that needs to be identified and weeded out by God and with all of the issues that face us today concerning social media and all other outlets of information around we have a bunch of infiltrated lies and ugliness that our spirits and hearts need to clean from.

As my father stated in his sermon a while back not all of the modern technology avenues serve as an addictive element in our lives, for we know that these types of communication tools are a valuable commodity to our presence.  But it is our responsibility to ensure that these modes of communication do not become ingrained into our lives so much that we feel the need to constantly have it running in our minds.  The physical distractions on this level are bad enough, just ask my brother and his wife who were rear-ended by a person looking at their phone instead of paying attention to what was going on around her, but the spiritual implications are far greater because it takes away our time from God.  We may not believe it is a problem or an issue but as I have found out over the past few weeks that it is a huge issue that many of us have ignored or have refused to address.

Now comes the touchy part of the topic that God wants us to understand what makes Him uncomfortable.  Each child of God who ignores His voice of repentance and restoration makes Him uncomfortable but it is when His children who know Him or have been taught about Him who do not live under His Ways or seek for His cleaning power that make Him most uneasy.  God recognizes that we have been exposed to the truth and for your information so does Satan – remember both kingdoms are alive, which means that the fight for embedded lies becomes intense.  The Church has become comfortable in the world and it is this lie that has been embedded into her that makes God uncomfortable for once a lie is planted it shall grow and if not exposed will continue its growth pattern until it becomes a policy or truth in the host.  Any lie that is present automatically creates a status of instability in the spiritual world and if not corrected by God will eventually protrude into the physical.  Do we have instability within the church congregations today?  THAT is an easy question to answer.

When God turned on the light in my heart concerning the social media issue, I recognized the instability that it had created and then when I did not allow God to clean it from me through my obedience the instability had grown and shook me even deeper.  But up until I figured this aspect out, I had no clue of what it was doing in my life for I had become dependent on it and it was rooted deep into my life all-the-while its roots were subtly hidden, an act of control and deceit from Satan that I had given him.  It is through this root that the increase of ungodliness that 2 Timothy 2:16 talks about occurs.  How often are we distracted or disturbed by what we see occurring around us?  How do we deal with these aspects?  Do we go on social media and spew our physical rants for everyone to see or do we get on our knees and seek God for true answers to what is encompassing us?  Why do you believe God inspired Timothy to write 2 Timothy 2:15-16?  There must be a reason why God showed Timothy what to write.  God also must have had specific reasons why He wrote all other verses in the Bible as well.  That purpose is for us to understand how important it is that we are always doing our best to live under Covenant conditions and that we are also doing our best to not make God feel uncomfortable when it comes to His children.

Which answer is it Church?  It is at this stage that we need to really allow God to examine our hearts and see what needs to be taken care of by Him.  We have become cold not only to the truth about the command of witnessing to the dying world but as well as to the separating ourselves from the world, both of which directly reflect on each other.  Our physical and spiritual lives have become so unstable that we are now trying to change physical characteristics of our lives instead of allowing God to change our spiritual aspects and characteristics.  This instability only fuels the world’s aggression against God and while we should expect an aggression against God it should not be fueled through sinful activities by the Church but by the correct standards of holiness and separation from the world.  It is this characteristic incorporation of the world that makes God uncomfortable for He continues to understand what it means to have His children lost for eternity, a detail that we now play around with and try to dismiss.  I understand that not everyone who is reading this article has issues with social media, however, I do understand that each one of us has issues of some detail that we need to allow God to rid ourselves of and it is this detail which God wants us to give to Him.

It is of the most importance that we study God’s Word every day and live by its wisdom every day.  It is also of the utmost of importance that we seek God in prayer for His wisdom and guidance and be continually open for Him to weed out every detailed sin in our hearts.  When we understand the fullness of God’s Word we can then understand WHAT needs to be taken from our hearts and we can know WHY it needs to be gone from our hearts as well.  If your life is living with a contradiction to God’s Word it needs to come out and to be corrected by God and if you choose to ignore what God wants to clean, your life will become unstable just as the world is unstable.  Church, repent and fall on your knees again so that God can fulfill 2 Timothy 2:15 and rid ourselves of the content of 2 Timothy 2:16.  It does not matter what your attraction or addiction to the world might be, just listen to God’s voice and follow through with His words of wisdom and healing.  God does not want to be uncomfortable in any way, shape or form yet He shall be until all of His children know and love Him.

DLB